The Milwaukee Brewers have done some house cleaning.  They have designated utilityman/former 35 home run slugger Bill Hall for assignment, sent down shortstop J.J. Hardy to AAA Nashville and fired pitching coach Bill Castro.  Replacing them respectively are Jason Bourgeois, Alcides Escobar and Chris Bosio.

Jordan Bastian from bluejays.com twitters that Randy Ruiz has been called up from AAA Las Vegas to replace the released Alex Rios.  Give the Jays credit for calling up a player whose last name begins with "R" and also has four letters.  You'll know the team is in real cost-cutting mode if he wears #15 because the "R" is in already in place and they can recycle the "I" by moving it over.  They'll have to shell out for a "U" and "Z".  I hope it doesn't kill the team's budget.  Actually, he was wearing #3 in Spring Training so that may be the number he'll wind up with.

Update 08/11/2009 @ 7:00 pm:  Ruiz will indeed be wearing #3.  I'm sure Rogers is happy it's only one number to sew on the jersey.

Numerous reports say that Alex Rios has been sent to the Chicago White Sox for no return.  JP is saying this gives the team more flexibility and the money will be re-invested.  We'll see.  

More to come.

The Yankees called up pitcher Josh Towers from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and optioned reliever Mark Melancon. Towers was 4-6 with a 3.42 ERA.

Never give up on a dream, kids.

UPDATED!

It seems like the Cleveland Indians are giving the Pittsburgh Pirates a run for the Biggest Fire Sale of 2009.  They have traded Carl Pavano to Minnesota for a player to be named later.  Pavano joins Victor Martinez ,Cliff Lee, Ben Francisco, Ryan Garko, Rafael Betancourt and Mark DeRosa among those who have been traded away from the Tribe this season.  Their website slogan, "Are You In The Tribe?", should be changed to "The Tribe Has Spoken!".

After waiving his no-trade clause, Scott Rolen was dealt to the Reds for Edwin Encarnacion and minor league pitchers Josh Roenicke and Zach Stewart.

ChiSox ace Mark Buehrle threw just the 17th regular-season perfect game in MLB history today. He's also just the 24th pitcher in MLB history to toss multiple no-hitters, as this is his second.

Thanks to Bauxite Forkball for the heads up.

Former Jays closer B.J. Ryan has signed a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs.  He'll look to join former Toronto teammates Ted Lilly, Reed Johnson and Randy Wells in the Windy City.  He's to report to the Cubs rookie-level club in Mesa, Arizona on Sunday.

Roy Halladay, recently named the American League's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game tomorrow, shared his thoughts recently on the possibility of being traded.

Fresh on his return from the minor leagues, Jonathan Sanchez tossed a no-hitter for the Giants as they hosted the Padres tonight; the home team won 8-0.

Too bad nobody had Sanchez in the official Batter's Box "Who Will Toss the 2009 Season's First No-No" pool. The cash award, after factoring in the odds, would have been approximately four hundred billion dollars (Canadian).