Marc Hulet at FanGraphs takes another look at the Erik Bedard trade and it’s disastrous effects.  This trade looks bad now, and stands to look worse as time goes on.  The Orioles are looking like they made out like bandits on the deal, and Marc is piling on M’s fans.  Ok by me.

According to FanGraphs Matt Cain is probably suffering from a national reputation deficit because of his W-L numbers.  Cain is the number two to Tim Lincecum’s number one in San Francisco, and has been the recipient of the bad luck to play for a team who’s leading HR guy has 12 (that’s right, 12) round trippers.  Cain has had his share of well pitched games go as losses or no decisions due to lack of run support.  For now, San Francisco has to feel pretty good about the front end of their rotation, and they have a few other good pieces to build around, such as Fred Lewis.  The question is whether they can build on that foundation before their pieces get dispersed across the rest of the league.

The Knuckle Curve blog reports the news that Ian Kinsler’s season may have been ended by a sports hernia.  This is bad news for us Ranger’s fans.  Kinsler has been having a great year, even to the point of working his way into the AL MVP conversation.

“Hey Manny, we’re playing nine innings tonight.”

Mark Sweeney of the Los Angeles Dodgers, after Ramirez decided the 9th inning was a safe time to use the restroom.

After much agonizing, I have decided that there is next to zero chance that my beloved Rangers are going to be in the post season this year.  The last two games, including this heartbreaker last night, have reinforced the fact that the pitching is just not strong enough for a stretch run.  No matter how good the bats are, you cannot win consistently when it takes 15 runs a game to overcome your pitching.  At this point in the season Vincente Padilla is the only strong starter that we have going, and even he is prone to collapses.  Our bullpen is also flaky, with only Eddie Guardado providing stability.  The pitching is too young and inconsistent to compete for that last spot.

While watching the roller coaster ride yesterday, I was thinking about the differences between the two team’s pitching staffs.  The Red Sox felt like they had to go out and acquire Paul Byrd after Tim Wakefield went down, but the Sox have three starters who would be a number one starter for the Rangers.  Tim Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Josh Becket would all be the instant ace of the Texas staff if dropped onto this roster.  When a team can send three starters against you in a series that are all better than your number one, it’s hard to compete.

So I’ll keep pulling for the Rangers to make it to the playoffs, but realism tells me that it’s not going to happen.

The Red Sox were down a starting pitcher after they placed Tim Wakefield on the DL, but have now acquired Indians starter Paul Byrd. This on MLB.com -

Boston is getting Byrd at his best. After a rough first half in which he seemingly couldn’t keep the ball in the park, Byrd changed his windup, rediscovered his curveball, curtailed the home runs and gone 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA in four starts since the All-Star break. He is 7-10 with a 4.53 ERA in 22 starts overall.

It looks like this gives us the possibility of seeing Byrd’s crazy 1920s style delivery for another playoff season, which was certainly not the case in Cleveland.

The deal is reported to be for either players to be named later or cash.

The MLB trade season continues, with the Arizona Diamondbacks aquiring Adam Dunn from the Cincinatti Reds.  The aquisition of Dunn gives the D-backs a big bat in the lineup.  Dunn brings his League leading 32 HRs and a not league leading .233 BA to Arizona.

This move probably negates the one that the Los Angeles Dodgers made to aquire Manny Ramirez.  The Dodgers had already moved somewhat laterally by opting to play the offensively inferior Juan Piere more than Andre Ethier.  The move might be the smart play, but it does minimize the offensive gains that Manny gives them.

There are also rumors that the Tampa Bay Rays are pursuing their own bat, possibly in the person of Gary Sheffield.

If you are dependent on Fox for a weekly fix of baseball and don’t have a market team playing on Saturday afternoon, you are pretty much guaranteed to see the Yankees, Red Sox, and occasionally the Cubs every week. What you won’t usually see is teams like the Marlins, Giants, or Rangers. I have decided to put together my list of the best players who most people don’t get to see very often. I have tried to stay away from teams that are in big markets, since a lot of people have seen the Dodgers, Angels, Phillies, etc. play occasionally. This is obviously difficult to determine what players people don’t really get to see very often, so I’m open to criticism and thoughts on this list.

Catcher

Joe Mauer – Minnesota Twins

Mauer is a pretty well known name and has been one of the top offensive catchers in the game for a while, but most people don’t get to see him play on a regular basis. If the Twins keep rolling like they have been recently, a lot more people will see Mauer in the AL Playoffs.

1st Base

Lance Berkman – Houston Astros

Berkman has been having a phenomenal season in Houston this year. He is currently batting .334 with 23 HRs and 79 RBI. He pads these numbers with 93 runs and 15 stolen bases. Berkman has quietly been putting up big numbers for a long time, and although his chances of winning the Triple Crown this year have all but disappeared, he is still one of the great hitters in baseball right now.

2nd Base

Ian Kinsler – Texas Rangers

Regular readers of this blog know I’m an admitted Rangers homer and a big fan of Kinsler’s. Kinsler has started to gain more attention this year, but is still somewhat in the shadow of Boston’s Dustin Pedroia. Texas has also gotten more attention this year as the season has gone on, but it is quite likely that most people have still never seen Kinsler play. Kinsler is among the AL leaders in batting average, runs, doubles, and extra base hits. Honorable mention goes to Florida’s Dan Uggla, who unfortunately most people’s only exposure to is his horrendous All Star appearance.

3rd Base

Evan Longoria – Tampa Bay Rays

Longoria has been putting together a great rookie campaign and is largely responsible for Tampa’s meteoric rise into an AL power this year. He is good with a bat and a glove and figures to be star in the league for the long term.

Short Stop

Hanley Ramirez – Florida Marlins

Ramirez has been getting some MVP consideration, and with good reason. Ramirez is one of the most exciting young players in the game, and has continued to toil away in the relative anonymity of Florida.

Outfield

Nate McClouth – Pittsburgh Pirates

McClouth has really broken out this year, hitting 22 HRs and racking up 87 Runs and 74 RBI. And it doesn’t get much less visible than playing for the Pirates.

Nick Markakis – Baltimore Orioles

Markakis is batting .297 with 17 HRs and playing a great outfield for the O’s. He is part of a pretty decent nucleus of young players that Baltimore has right now.

Ryan Braun – Milwaukee Brewers

Braun is another well known young player who plays for a small market team. Milwaukee has been playing well, especially since the addition of CC Sabathia, and has a good chance of making the playoffs as a Wild Card. If that happens Braun will get some more national broadcast time. Braun’s 30 HRs put him among the league leaders in the NL.

Pitcher

Tim Lincecum – San Francisco Giants

Although the Giants may not be a real small market team, you still won’t see many of their games on TV. The Giants are definitely in rebuilding mode, and Lincecum appears to be the centerpiece of that process. He is a dominating hurler, despite his diminutive frame. Somehow he has put up a 12-3 record on an awful Giants club. He stands to be in the discussion for the NL Cy Young this year.

Jamey Newberg reports that this is a huge week for the Rangers. Following their series with Boston, the Rangers could be between 3 and 10 games behind the Red Sox for the Wild Card spot in the AL. They also have until Friday to sign their draft picks from this year.

I caught a couple of the games of the Rangers weekend series against the Orioles. The offense was shut down in the first two games of the series before coming alive in the third game. Newberg points out exactly what I was thinking as I was watching the Rangers struggle to get runs while their pitching staff bled them.

For the Wild Card chase to continue to include Texas, the pitching has to be better, because the offense – even if it were completely healthy, which it’s not – can’t be counted on to outscore an opponent putting seven runs up each night.

Ian Kinsler appeared to break out of his post All-Star Game slump, going 5/6 with a HR, 3 RBIs, and 3 runs.  He played a big role in the Rangers 15-7 victory Sunday.

There have been several writers/baseball pundits, including Peter Gammons who have commented that they felt that Manny holding the Red Sox hostage by slacking off in order to force a trade was as bad or worse than players who used steroids. Gammons-

Someday, when we really understand the whole 1980-2005 steroids era of which one admitted user says, “The only guys who didn’t do them after 1994 were either stupid or scared,” we might ask the question: Was it worse to take performance-enhancing drugs to perform better and win, or to decline to play and steal money?

The point that I have seen argued several times is that a steroid user is at least trying to win, although they are doing so in a illegal manner, whereas Manny was purposefully trying to damage his team in order to gain personal profit. I think that there is an interesting parallel to the actions of the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” players who threw the World Series and those of Manny. Granted, Manny wasn’t in the World Series, but I think the Red Sox post season chances were certainly viewed as little more than leverage by Ramirez. In both cases, the players involved sabotaged their teams in order to line their own pockets. The primary difference is that the White Sox ownership was mistreating and underpaying players, which helped prompt the fix, while Manny has been consistently coddled and enabled by his employers.

Are the actions of Ramirez comparable to steroid users or gamblers who throw games? I don’t know, but I do know that Ramirez has made a mockery of the integrity of the game. He stabbed his team in the back and he and his slimeball agent, Scott Boras, have gotten away with it. I would love to see the league punish Manny, but I know that’s not going to happen. Manny will continue to be Manny, and the game will be the worse for it.

See this article for a great rundown of Manny news.