Got Milk?

Kenny9 was kind enough to send over a couple of items he found on the net that we consider blog-worthy. We appreciate all contributions, because sometimes it’s hard to come up with new and refreshing ideas. Speaking of refreshing…

A batboy who took a dare to chug a gallon of milk has been suspended six games by the Marlins. The batboy drank the milk in the alotted time frame (an hour), but couldn’t hold it down. Brad Penny, the instigator in this dare is not happy with the suspension, and has a good point. “It’s kind of ridiculous that you get a 10-game suspension for steroids and a six-game suspension for milk,” Penny said.

Meanwhile, the about to be DL’d Milton Bradley had some comments on Barry Bonds’ favorite former teammate, Jeff Kent. Lance Berkman’s take on the Milton Bradley-Jeff Kent racial feud provided what is possibly the baseball quote of the year:

“I think (for Bradley) to make it a race issue is ridiculous,” Berkman said. “J.K. doesn’t
discriminate against anybody. He ignores Latinos, blacks and whites equally.”

The Colonel has a Jeff Kent story that bears out the conventional thinking on Jeff Kent’s racial sensitivity which ends with the quote “We’ve got enough of those on the team.” That’s enough to put into print here.

And here are a couple of useful notes from my daily service:

According to the Arizona Republic, "Chad Tracy fell down trying to catch a fly ball in right field." Thank God we got rid of him just in time, too.

According to the Newsday, "Mike Piazza was feeling so good about the healing pisiform bone in his left hand that he doesn't anticipate a problem coming off the disabled list when he is eligible on Wednesday." He probably has lost his starting job to Ramon Castro this week, though.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, "Reliever Tyler Walker, on the disabled list because of inflammation in his right shoulder, said he has noticed improvement. ``You can tell when you're moving it around,'' he said. ``It doesn't hurt as much putting my seat belt on anymore. It's starting to calm down.'' I'm sure we all can't wait to get him back.

According to the Washington Post, "Reliever Luis Ayala has tendinitis in his right elbow, and an MRI confirmed the there was no further damage. He is listed as day-to-day." Ayala has 7 wins for the Leaguers since they traded an open spot for him. That open spot was used to retain Jim Brower, if you don't remember.

According to the Newsday, "Doug Mientkiewicz went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and played five innings at first base last night in a rehab start for Class-A St. Lucie." The Pecklers can't wait for him to come back and give us those stats.

I hope nobody was counting on Garciaparra to bring them to the promise land. The Cubs will make a decision tomorrow on whether or not to shelve Nomar with a bad back. A once Hall of Fame type career has taken a Griffey Jr. like turn for the worse. That trade by Any 9 seemed like a good idea at the time.

According to the St Louis Post-Dispatch, "Rick Ankiel had a solo homer and a two-run double for Class AA Springfield Tuesday in an 8-2 win over Tulsa." Bums should have kept him. I wonder if he'll be called up after September 1?

Here is the standings at the end of Wednesday’s games. There wasn’t too much movement yesterday:

Pecklers 66.5 (E)
Cappers 65.0 (-1.0)
Any 9 65.0 (E)
300 Pounders 64.0 (+.5)
Busch Leaguers 62.0 (-.5)
Bats 61.0 (E)
Lickers 60.0 (E)

As the week goes on, it’s harder to identify what specific categories changed. I do know that the Pecklers lost another half point in wins, but picked up a half point in RBI’s. Furthermore, we moved closer in BA to Any 9 (this could be a critical point), and closer to the Cappers in ERA and WHIP.

The Pounders took a half point from the Leaguers in saves yesterday. This saves category, as I have been writing, is going to be a key in the race, as both the Pounders and the Leaguers have a lot of upside there. Meanwhile the Pecklers picked up saves from Wagner and Farnsworth to extend our lead to 3 saves, and 8 over the Pounders and 9 over the Leaguers. This probably makes Farnsworth tradable for a starting pitcher to shore up the wins. And yes, we’re logged in on that.

My next analysis will be to look at the pitching strategies for the 7 contenders this weekend. In the end, it looks like the pitching categories will determine the final standings (ignoring the effects of injuries during the stretch). It’s a tough thing to predict, but I’ll give it my best.