A lot of these may have been posted or discussed, but I figure with no game today, this will allow for us to digest everything that's happen in the last little bit. Plus, I need to clean out my RSS feeds which are back logged from last week.
- The Astros are sending Ortiz to the bullpen to allow for Paulino to come back into the rotation. I like this move just because I think that Paulino truly has a future as a starter and not so much as a reliever. At the season's outset, Arias was my dark horse guy for the rotation, but I also didn't think Paulino would be ready to jump into the competition for it either, so I guess Paulino will be our dark horse.
- Sean Berry had a successful surgery to remove his cancerous kidney, and at this time it's not known where the treatment will go from there. I wish him the speediest recovery and all the strength and perseverance needed as he moves forward in his battle.
- Lance Berkman has "a couple more days" until he's back on the field.
- While attendance is down MLB-wide, it's not that bad.
- To counter slumping attendance, MLB.com is crushing the ball—metaphorically speaking.
- Still turning your nose up at Twitter? Apparently it has some magnificent implications for Fantasy Baseball, should you be so inclined. If you go down this root, be sure to follow us at @crawfishboxes.
- Is Richard Justice becoming a wee bit more sensical? After this post of his, it seems like he is. And that's the most frightening realization I have ever come to.
- Miguel Tejada's power surge has the blog world trumpeting a potential trade deadline move involving our short stop.
- In terms of Win Probability Added (WPA), Wandy Rodriguez is the fourth best starting pitcher in baseball. Grienke, Santana and Haren are first through third. Nice company to keep, eh?
- Our defense has slipped to merely average, however. But take heart in the fact that Carlos Lee is no longer the worst defender in baseball.
- Padres skipper Bud Black is a bad manager. Or at least one person thinks so.
- MIchael Bourn leads the NL in stolen bases with 10. Carl Crawford has doubled that total, and then some. Here is an interesting article detailing how much (or little) the stolen base adds to a team's win total.
- Baseball Reference has a different way of determining "games behind". This blog entry deconstructs that method and offers some improvements on BRef's methods.
- Easiest job in baseball? No, it's not the pennant hanger at Wrigley Field. It's the GM of the New York Yankees, or so says one guy. Before reading, realize this writer is a Red Sox fan, and seems to miss the mark on a number of his points.
- For those who love food analogies, dig this. For those who hate food analogies..um, hate on that.
That's all we've got. HLP and I had to combine our two different link dump posts because we seem to always make the same post at the same time. It's kind of cute.