Most people have realized by now that the Marlins have one of the best offenses in the National League – an offense which has kept them in the NL East race all year long.  The Marlins also have a pretty nifty bullpen, led by closer Kevin Gregg (23 SV, 2.47 ERA), which has posted the 4th best ERA in the National League, at 3.74.

But everyone has been assuming that the Marlins will eventually fade from the playoff picture, thanks to an abominable starting rotation.  After all, this is the same Marlins team who tabbed Mark Hendrickson of all people to be their opening day starter.  The Mark Hendrickson who has gone on to post a 6.09 ERA this season.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the consensus narrative that the Marlins shoddy rotation would be the downfall of an otherwise solid team.  Some new guys emerged, some old guys stepped up, some crap guys pitched their way into the bullpen, and some hurt guys came back from injury.

And suddenly, the Marlins rotation became awesome.  Now the starting five is led by de facto ace Ricky Nolasco (10-6, 3.94 ERA), backed by the continuing-to-surprise-the-naysayers Scott Olson (6-6, 4.04 ERA), and the out-of-nowhere rookie sensation Chris Volstad (2-1, 2.38 ERA in four games).

And now with the return from the DL of two top young hurlers, Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez, the Marlins rotation has gone from completely suspect to rock solid 1 through 5.

All of these five guys are good, and guys like Johnson, Sanchez, and Volstad have the potential to be truly great on any given night.

And with that offense, these guys don’t necessarily have to be great every night anyway.  With that offense, they just have to be decent enough, and that seems like an assignment they can handle.  Which should be a scary thought for the Mets and the Phillies.

These Marlins probably aren’t going to go away anytime soon.

Has anyone noticed that Jim Edmonds has quietly hit 13 home runs since he was acquired the Cubs in May, and has surreptitiously resurrected his career?

Talk about moves that paid off! Jim Hendry’s astute mid-season acquisitions Reed Johnson and Edmonds are exhibit A that sometimes lefty-righty platoons actually do work.

Playing exclusively against right-handed pitchers, Edmonds is batting .275 with the aforementioned 13 dingers and a .936 OPS since he came over to the Cubs.  Edmonds has also put to rest fears that he can no longer play centerfield, playing at least passible defense and even making the occasional spectacular play in center for the Cubbies while avoiding injury so far (perhaps the extra days off when lefties pitch helps).

Meanwhile, Reed Johnson, who now only plays against left-handers, is batting .318 with a .410 on-base percentage and an .865 OPS when batting against lefties.

Put that together and you have some truly impressive offensive production out of the centerfield spot, cobbled together from other teams’ scrap heaps.

Cal Ripken, Jr.

Here’s a tidbit from Philadelphia Inquirer baseball writer Todd Zolecki that will put Cal Ripken’s consecutive games played streak in perspective:

Ryan Howard has played in 222 consecutive games, which is the longest current streak in the majors. Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau is second at 192 consecutive games. Howard’s streak began May 25, 2007, after he came off the disabled list.

That’s right, the active player with the most consecutive games played started his streak last season. Ripken, on the other hand, played in a record 2,632 straight games spanning sixteen seasons, from May 30, 1982 to September 20, 1998. Moreover, From June 5, 1982 to September 14, 1987, Ripken played 8,243 consecutive innings, which is believed to be a record. I don’t know how many consecutive innings Howard has played, but I know he wasn’t in the starting lineup when I went to see the Phils play the D-Backs two months ago. So it can’t be that many.

Will anybody ever break Ripken’s record? Maybe. But it won’t be anytime soon.

The initial reaction in my noggin’ upon hearing that Ken Griffey Jr. was headed to the White Sox was one of some surprise. Although he is certainly no longer the player he was just a few years ago, Griffey can still swing a bat decently enough and potentially help a team looking for an offensive boost in the outfield. But regardless of his potential offensive performance, the question needs to be asked: Where would he play?

Throughout his career, we’ve grown accustomed to thinking of Griffey as that center fielder who makes everything look so damned easy. But in case you haven’t been paying attention, Griffey’s been playing right field for the past two seasons due to injury concerns and diminished range. Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox have arguably the best offensive corner outfield duo in the league this year with Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye (both have a 143 adjusted OPS) and are the two best hitters the team has. And although Quentin is a below average left fielder, the team can’t move him to DH since that spot is occupied by their third most effective hitter, Jim Thome (132 adjusted OPS). Assuming that none of these three guys will have playing time taken away, there’s really only two potential scenarios.

For one, Griffey plays center again. This is certainly plausible, but I think that most would advise against it. Back when Griffey was still a center fielder in 2006, out of the 21 players who played at least 850 innings in center, Griffey had the worst fielding percentage among them at .979. Moreover, his revised zone rating was .832 which was also the worst. And this year in RF, his revised zone rating is .826. And yes, this is the worst among qualifying RFers who have logged at least 590 innings.

If this scenario plays out, it would also mean that Nick Swisher gets booted out of center field or out of the lineup altogether. Swish was the crown jewel of Chicago’s off-season. But to call his performance thus far a disappointment might be an understatement to some. He is posting career lows in batting average (.230) as well as in slugging percentage (.404). His OBP is near a career-low as well (.348). Despite this, Swish still isn’t the biggest disappointment in the Sox lineup this year, as that title has to go to first baseman Paul Konerko. If you blinked, you missed Konerko’s decline. From 2004-2006, Konerko was one of the most effective hitters in the game, posting adjusted OPS figures of 127, 136, and 134 respectively. Last year, that figure dropped to 116. This year, it’s 74. And he has a negative 7.7 VORP to boot. Swisher has spent a good chunk of his time over his career playing first, so if Griffey goes into center field, then I’m assuming that Swisher’s moving to first. Which would leave Konerko, the team captain, out in the cold.

Alternatively, Griffey becomes a 4th outfielder. Again, plausible. But as a 10 and 5 player, Griffey had the right to block any trade. Would he have approved it knowing that he would be riding pine? Would the desire to play in the postseason trump a starting job? And since Griffey still has a $16.5MM club option next season that the Sox did not have to pick up as a condition to the trade, the guy is still potentially playing for his next contract, unless he retires before that happens.

Of course, the White Sox wouldn’t dare consider just putting Griffey at first base – a position where he has played for two whopping innings in his entire career (once in ‘93, other in ‘98) – during a tight race for the division championship… Would they? Or do they have another trade up their sleeve that makes this all a moot point?

Well, this is shaping up to be one of the quieter trade deadlines in recent memory.  Nevertheless, as I have done every year on this blog, I’ll be here all afternoon to give you hasty reactions to each trade as they happen.  Newest trades will be on top

* * *

Boston dumps Manny Ramirez, cash on the Dodgers for Pirates OF Jason Bay.  Pirates receive Andy LaRoche, Bryan Morris, Craig Hansen, and Brandon Moss

Sigh. Yet more confirmation of Ned Colletti’s severe case of big-name-itis and Frank McCourt’s mad quest to acquire as many members of the 2004 Boston Red Sox as he possibly can.  The Dodgers are weakening their defense terribly.  Manny is the worst defensive left fielder in all of baseball by virtually every measure there is.  And it is not even all that close.  The short left field in Fenway was just about the only park in the majors where he was even serviceble. Now the Dodgers have huge defensive holes at third, short, second, and left.  Not to mention the huge logjam in the Dodgers outfield being made even worse.  If the Dodgers play anything other than Manny-Kemp-Ethier most of the time, this deal doesn’t really even help anything.  But you know that Torre is going to be sorely tempted to run Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre out there as much as he possibly can.

As for Boston, this is an insanely good deal.  It is ridiculous that they got JASON BAY, who is locked up through 2009 for just Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss (and Manny).  Those are two guys they didn’t even want!

As for the Pirates, this has to be a bit of a disappointment.  LaRoche has a chance to be good, but this is not anywhere near the return you would have expected for a year and a half of Jason Bay.

Reds ship Griffey Jr to the White Sox for P Nick Masset and 2B Danny Richar

This is a pretty baffling trade for the White Sox, one which smacks of big-name-itis and favorite player obsession.  Griffey can still hit a bit, and of course both 1B Paul Konerko and CF Nick Swisher are struggling at the plate this season, so playing Griffey in center can allow Ozzie Guillen to bench one or the other with Swisher either sliding over to 1B or riding the pine, but Griffey is not *that* much of an improvement over Swisher, and playing him in center is just asking for another groin pull or hamstring tear.  Not a bad deal for the Reds though, as they get out from under Griffey’s salary and buyout to an extent (splitting them with the Sox), and they also get Masset, who is a mediocre but usable swingman, and Richar, who is only 25 and was once heralded as the future 2B of the ChiSox, and may yet become at least a handy piece of the bench or something.

Mariners trade Arthur Rhodes to the Marlins for minor league P Gaby Hernandez

Meh. The Marlins already had a pretty decent bullpen (4th in the league in bullpen ERA), so this is just adding a tiny extra piece. Plus, Arthur Rhodes is old and has only pitched 22 innings this year, so he’s likely to wear down and pitch not quite as well down the stretch. But it does let them get the ball out of Taylor Tankersley’s hands and let him try to rebuild his shattered psyche down at AAA. Gaby Hernandez is a B-grade prospect, but that is not a bad return for a Mariners squad that is always in need of pitching and which was going nowhere this year.

We found Durham Bulls Athletic Park easily enough and were impressed right off the bat (so to speak). It’s a new, clean, spacious, very professional ballpark—you can really feel that third “A”—with no bumper boats or other pathetic gimmicks. Well, except for the large bull in left field, which will lash its tail, flash its eyes, and let smoke pour from its nostrils whenever the Bulls hit a home run. (Not sure why the bull looks so angry when the home team hits a dinger. Seems like it should be happy?) And yes, if you hit the bull, you win a steak. (Hit the grass on which the bull stands, and you win a salad.)

I was a bit confused as well by the left field wall, which is built to resemble the Green Monster at Fenway, but which is painted dark blue—with a pair of animalistic eyes glaring out—and covered with enormous light blue lettering that reads, “BLUE MONSTER.” Completing the Single White Female effect, they played Sweet Caroline in the 8^th inning. But either the Durham fans weren’t into the Neil Diamond singalong, or knew it was an import from up north, because it received a rather tepid reaction.

Nonetheless, let these not be construed as complaints—because it was an excellent place to watch a ballgame, and not just because 2008 marks the 20^th anniversary of the famous film. Now that the Bulls are the Triple A team of the Tampa Bay Rays, I was eager to get a look at next year’s crop of Evan Longorias.

I’d brought my Baseball America 2008 Prospect Handbook to the park, and we had a good time looking up the players in it as they came up to bat. I made some notes, which are now on a piece of paper somewhere in my car…so I’ll have to get back to you on that.

And apparently, Gary Gaetti is now Durham’s hitting/first base coach. That was pretty cool. We also got to see Morgan Ensberg and Tony Graffanino, both of whom were playing for the opposing team, the Buffalo Bisons.

As my gal pal pointed out, “Buffalo Bisons” is annoyingly ungrammatical (sort of like the Penascola Fishes, the Missoula Mouses, or the Des Moines Deers, all of which I just made up). She’s smart like that. For my part, it took me several seconds of pondering to figure out why the Buffalo team had chosen to call itself “the Bisons” at all. Go figure.

Alas, the Herd jumped out to an early lead, and held it, despite a late-game rally by the Bulls. This ended my streak of watching the home team win. I bought a couple of t-shirts in the gift shop, and we departed.

Right now, I need some coffee, and then to get back on the road again. Later tonight, of course, there will be photos from the Bulls game and a rundown of last night’s adventure, the Harrisburg Senators game. I’m sorry I’m falling behind! But it’s hard to type and drive at the same time.

Hey there, team. I’m at some craptastic Econolodge in Nowheresville, PA, right off of 81. The wifi only works in the lobby, so I’m going to throw these pictures up and then go hide out in my strange-smelling room. (Is it a bad sign if the scent of the room sort of stings my eyeballs? I guess I should just take out my contacts and suck it up.)

Ernie Shore Field, in Winston-Salem:

Great stories about Ernie Shore, but since time is short, I’ll let Wikipedia tell you.

Read the rest of this entry »

ESPN’s Buster Olney is reporting that the New York Yankees have filled their vacant catcher’s spot by trading reliever Kyle Farnsworth to the Detroit Tigers for Pudge Rodriguez.

It’s fairly obvious why the Yankees would do this. Without the injured Jorge Posada for the rest of the season, the team would have been relying on Jose Molina to get way too many at-bats between now and October. Molina has an OPS of .586 and a negative offensive Win Share of -1.4 so far in 2008 and that just won’t do for anyone, let alone the vaunted Yankees.

Pudge is having a decent bounce back year after posting a horrid .294 OBP last season. While he won’t match the offensive output that a healthy Posada can achieve, the new Yank is a defensive upgrade and can still hold his own at the plate.

But my initial reaction was why Detroit would do this. Upon a bit more reflection, I’m thinking that this makes some sense. Make no mistake, the Tigers are not throwing in the towel and this is not a salary dump. GM Dave Dombrowski loves a good bullpen power arm, and with the uncertainty surrounding the health of flamethrowers Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney, coupled with the ineffectiveness of Todd Jones, Dombrowski pulled the trigger to bolster their troubled pen.

Farnsworth’s fastball regularly clocks in around 95-96 mph, and he also has a slider that he uses when he’s ahead of the count. His main problem this year has been the long ball, giving up 11 in just over 44 innings. Ouch. When it first opened in 2000, Comerica Park was known as a hard place to hit homeruns, but this has actually reversed itself over the past couple seasons. So we’ll have to see if Farnsworth will have better luck avoiding the dinger in Detroit. This does not, however, solve their problem of relying heavily on closer Todd Jones. The righty Farnsworth will probably take the innings that used to be thrown by Rodney, who sports a 5.40 ERA.

At this point this is merely speculation, but I’m assuming that Brandon Inge is going to take over regular catching duties for the Tigers unless there’s another trade up Detroit’s sleeve within the next day. Inge is a far better defensive player at third base than he is behind the plate, but he is serviceable. Offensively, he’s not that much worse than Pudge although he does strikeout a ton.  So the Tigers upgrade their bullpen, downgrade their backstop defense, and take a small step back offensively.

And who’s going to fill the set-up role that Farnsworth is vacating in the Bronx? Good question. Unless they call up a lefty from Scranton, I don’t think it’s going to be Damaso Marte who was acquired along with Xavier Nady just a few days ago because he’s currently the only southpaw in the Yankees pen. Perhaps it will be Edwar Ramirez or Jose Veras, both of whom have become big parts of the relief corps in 2008 despite their relative lack of experience at the big league level.

Both Farnsworth and Rodriguez are free agents at the end of the season as well, so although the Yankees take on the bigger contract (prorated), it’s nearly a wash financially considering the Yankees’ resources.

I like this deal more from the NY perspective than I do Detroit’s, but at least it’s something that makes sense for the Tigers as well.

Note: It’s been brought to my attention by a little thing called “research” that techincially, Jones was deposed as closer by Rodney a few days ago. This doesn’t affect the evaluation or anything, but just in case someone wants to cause an uproar over the error, I’m doing it for you.