- Orioles closer George Sherril may be switching his address sometime this month. Baltimore is considering trading him and the Florida Marlins have shown a lot of interest, but the O's don't really have a replacement for him, so if they do trade him, it won't be cheap. As a Sherril owner, you would like to see him on a better team, so he can get more save opportunities, but on the other hand, he's been picking up a good amount of saves so far, so a trade wouldn't really impact his value too much. Unless he was traded to a team that wanted to use him as a setup guy.
(Photo by AP)
- Great news for Josh Hamilton owners. I know, that almost sounds like an oxymoron this year. He's hoping to rejoin the Rangers tomorrow. This will give a lot of teams a much needed boost heading into the All Star break.
- Brandon Webb will not have surgery on his right shoulder, however he isn't expected to be back in the rotation until September at best. This looks like a lost season for the DBacks ace, but he should be healed and well rested for the 2010 season.
- Former Pirates outfielder, the X-Man, Xavier Nady will not be back this season despite his best efforts in trying to get back on the field. He underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this week and won't be back till the end of next year. A crushing blow to Nady as he's a UFA at the end of this season and probably won't be signed while he's in rehab. Bad luck for a good guy.
- CJ Wilson will no longer hold the closer role in Texas. Manager Ron Washington has re-installed Frank Francisco as the full time closer and Wilson will close out games here and there. For Wilson owners, it was a good ride while it lasted.
- Cole Hamels looked as though he might have turned the corner and got his season back on track, but Wednesday night he was destroyed by the Atlanta Braves, pushing his ERA back up to 4.98. Not what you want to see from a guy that you're probably counting on to be your ace. In addition to getting touched up, he's not striking out anyone either. Aside from his 10 K performance against the Orioles, he hasn't had more than 6 K's in a game for over a month.
- The Braves have a new second baseman to replace the slumping Kelly Johnson, Martin Prado. Prado batted .359 last month and was a sleeper coming into the season. It was only a matter of time before his bat got into the lineup and it looks as though it may be there for good.
- The best pitcher that no one is hearing anything about is the A's Dallas Braden. He owns a 6-7 record, but it has everything to do with the lack of run support than his pitching. Braden has given up 2 runs or less in each of his last 7 starts. Plus, except for one bad game in Detroit, he's never given up more than 3 runs in a game this season.
Posted
Jul 03 2009, 07:00 AM
by
Nick Fruscello