I lift my glass to the Awful Truth
Which you can't reveal to the ears of youth
Except to say it isn't worth a damn
Just thought I'd provide a little Canadian content today...
The Yankees made it official yesterday, designating Paul Quantrill and Mike Stanton for assignment. Stanton will certainly find work elsewhere. But still no Colter Bean - the Yanks summoned outfielder Bubba Crosby and LH Wayne Franklin. Yeah, that's what I said - Wayne who?
San Diego signed Pedro Astacio to a minor league deal - oh, big deal, right? But Astacio will certainly find Petco a day at the beach after working in Coors Field and the Ballpark in Arlington. The Padres have had to disable three starting pitchers already this season, and the back end of their rotation currently features Darrell May and rookie Tim Stauffer. Astacio may have finally picked a good situation for himself.
Josh Beckett came off the DL for the Marlins last night, pitched six shutout innigs in the Marlins win over the Braves, and was removed from the game. The trainer came out for a visit, but so far the Marlins are denying that the blister that put him on the DL had flared up again.
Texas walloped 8 homers yesterday - matching the team record set just a month earlier - as they broke off the Angels winning streak at 8.
Oakland now has won 7 straight, which is the longest active streak in the majors. The A's went 19-8 in June, and have closed to within 2 games of .500 and are now 9 games back of the division lead, and are 5.5 back of the Wild Card. Tonight they begin a three game set with the guys who have the best record in the majors. This could be very, very interesting.
Some good pitching matchups on the schedule today, especially in Chicago (Hernandez-Prior) and Detroit (Johnson-Bonderman):
AL
Toronto (Lilly 5-8, 6.24) at Boston (Clement 9-1, 3.33) 7:05
New York (Johnson 7-5, 3.86) at Detroit (Bonderman 9-5, 4.30) 7:05
Cleveland (Sabathia 5-4, 4.60) at Baltimore (Lopez 7-3, 4.47) 7:35
Los Angeles (Byrd 7-5, 3.87) at Kansas City (Hernandez 5-8, 4.64) 8:10
Tampa Bay (Fossum 3-6, 4.15) at Minnesota (Santana 7-4, 3.78) 8:10
Chicago (Contreras 3-4, 4.15) at Oakland (Harden 4-3, 2.37) 10:05
Texas (Park 7-2, 5.75) at Seattle (Sele 6-6, 4.40) 10:05
NL
Washington (Hernandez 11-2, 3.32) at Chicago (Prior 5-1, 2.66) 2:20
Atlanta (Smoltz 8-5, 2.74) at Philadelphia (Padilla 3-7, 6.79) 7:05
Houston (Pettitte 4-7, 3.25) at Cincinnati (Hudson 1-2, 8.35) 7:10
Florida (Burnett 5-5, 3.14) at New York (Glavine 5-7, 4.93) 7:10
Pittsburgh (Redman (4-6, 3.42) at Milwaukee (Ohka 5-4, 3.50) 8:05
Colorado (Kennedy 4-7, 6.92) at St.Louis (Carpenter (11-4, 2.77) 8:10
San Francisco (Tomko (5-10) at San Diego (Peavy 7-2, 2.88) 10:05
Arizona (Vazquez 7-6, 4.53) at Los Angeles (Penny 3-5, 3.83) 10:40
Finally, here is Julio Franco's line for the just-concluded month of June:
AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB HBP SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS 37 7 14 1 1 4 16 6 0 9 3 0 .378 .455 .784 1.238
And so, our Question of the Day:
Do you believe this guy?
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050630184406869