The Astros (51–105) have not played particularly meaningful baseball since May, yet their fans have had much to talk about over the past 24 hours:

• Play-by-play announcer Milo Hamilton called his last game. Hamilton, 85, has been in a MLB booth for 59 seasons (the last 28 in Houston), a feat surpassed only by Vin Scully.
• Houston won their final home game as a member of the National League, a 2–0 shoutout over the Cardinals. Next season, the Astros, who played their first game in 1962, join the American League West. (Might a 120-loss season be in reach?)
• Current Nationals third-base coach Bo Porter is set to head south to take the managerial reins for 2013, according to FoxSports.com.

More here, here, and here.

Good morning!

With a mere nine days left in the regular season, here are several go-to links to make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Congratulations to the Reds and Giants on capturing the National League Central and Western Division crowns respectively. Christina Kahrl of Sweet Spot looks at what, more than anything, got Cincinnati to this point: quality starts from their pitchers.
• The White Sox got swept in Anaheim over the weekend and are clinging to a one-game lead in the AL Central. Here’s one silver lining: Leadoff hitter Alejandro De Aza has not grounded into a double play all season. As Big League Stew’s Kevin Kaduk points out, if De Aza keeps that drought going through the final 10 games, “he’ll become just the fifth batting-title qualified player since 1942 to go an entire season without a GIDP on his ledger.”
• On Thursday morning, Ken Davidoff of the New York Post argued that Melky Cabrera, who is still sitting out a 50-game, performance-enhancing drugs suspension, should not have to relinquish his claim to the batting title:

First of all, I didn’t realize people still cared about the batting title. I thought we all had agreed that batting average is a laughably antiquated statistic?

Second of all, of course Cabrera is eligible. If we’re going to start legislating he record books based on the notion of statistical integrity…holy cow, what a train wreck that would be. What do you do about Barry Bonds and Hank Aaron, the two leaders in all-time home runs – one of whom is highly suspected of using illgal PEDs and the other of whom confessed to doing so?

Even if we limited such legislation to people who have failed drug tests since 2005…how do we do this? Do you take away hits from Melky? Do you therefore adust the records of the pitchers who surrendered hits to Melky? And if we’re just taking away the “title” of batting champion…what is that accomplishing? Does the batting champion actually get anything? A free bowl of soup?

• On Friday afternoon, Cabrera, his union, and Major League Baseball agreed to a “one-time amendment” whereby the player would no longer be considered eligible for the title. Agreeing with Davidoff, Sport Illustrated’s Jay Jaffe wrote that the decision might have set a troubling precedent:

The move is an odd and unsettling one. Again, the batting title isn’t a subjective honor voted on by the media or uniformed personnel, it’s simple mathematics, a statistical record of what actually happened, and to make an exception to precedent opens up a can of worms that is destined to spill everywhere. We don’t have any real idea what impact PEDs have on player performance; despite the home run records that fell at the feet of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds in the late 1990s and early 2000s, dozens upon dozens of other alleged users appear to have seen little to no performance gain, and even the gains of the tainted players may be distorted by the era of rapid change that included expansion, new ballparks, rule changes, and changes in the baseball itself that took home run rates to unprecedented highs.

• Via Hardball Talk’s Craig Calcaterra: Yunel Escobar recently wore eye black emblazoned with a Spanish-language gay slur that the shortstop later claimed was merely a joke. In response, the Jays handed the shortstop a three-game suspension.
• In a column entitled “Today in Poorly Formed Thoughts,” Dustin Parkes of theScore takes aim at the argument that, in determining who should be the American League Most Valuable Player, the offensive statistics embedded in the Triple Crown — home runs, runs batted in, and batting average – should be weighted far more than wins above replacement, which encompasses both offense and defense.

• The trailer for 42, the upcoming feature film starring Chadwick Boseman as Jackie Robinson and directed by Brian Helgeland, went online last Thursday.
• One month ago, Pirates fans saw a postseason appearance as a 50–50 proposition. Two weeks ago, they were confident of their first .500 season since 1992. This morning, they get to read Fangraphs’ Alex Remington explain why the Pirates are so prone to second-half fades.    
• Glenn DuPaul of the Hardball Times attempts to determine how best to determine a starting pitcher’s second-half earned-run average based on his performance in the first half. Interestingly, DuPaul discovers that strikeouts minus walks divided by innings pitched ((K – BB) / IP) is more accurate than more complex formulae.

• Ichiro Suzuki shows how to beat out a comebacker: Simply smack a one-hopper deep into opposing pitcher Jarrod Parker’s jersey.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Drew Storen’s strikeout of Hanley Ramirez last night was historic. Not only did the game-ending K clinch a playoff berth for the Nationals, but the city of Washington will have a baseball team in the postseason for the first time since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first year in the White House.

This is no time to get cocky, however. In 1933, a trip to the postseason meant a World Series appearance. Until 1969, there was no championship series. Until 1995, there was no division series or wildcard. Until this season, there was no wildcard play-in game, which serves to highlight the importance of winning the division.

As skipper Davey Johnson explained following the 4–1 win over the Dodgers:

“It’s not what I had my eye on,” Johnson said of the playoff clincher, “It’s a nice step to get here, but every manager that’s leading the division, that’s the only thing that matters. Winning your division. The playoff format, with the one-game playoff . . . the old style, when you’re in as the Wild Card, that was okay. But I don’t want this.”

And while the National League East crown is nearly in the Nats’ hands — the magic number for clinching this morning stands at only eight, with twelve regular-season games remaining — the race for the top seed in the NL (i.e., home-field advantage) is neck-and-neck. The Central Division–leading Reds, who had clinched a playoff spot earlier in the afternoon, are only one-half game back of the Nats.

Whatever happens from this point on, Nats fans, smile and be proud of your team. Just don’t pop any corks until Davey tells you it’s safe to do so.

Another baseball once-in-a-lifetime moment: The ump reverses his call twice and is right all three times.

In the bottom of the eighth in the first game of yesterday’s Jays–Yanks doubleheader, Andruw Jones pops out to Omar Vizquel at first. Vizquel snags the ball just fair. First-base umpire Toby Basner signals out.

But, as Vizquel falls to the ground from his knees, the ball pops out of his glove. Basner signals safe.

But then Vizquel kicks the bag while still prone, and since Jones never bothered to run (Michael Kay whines that Jones thought the ball was foul — as if that’s an excuse), Basner immediately signals out.

The camera cuts to Jones, dumbstruck, still standing at the plate. Girardi, of course, puts in an appearance, but Basner explains the play to his satisfaction. (While this was going on, YES ran several replays clearly showing that Basner was right.) Maybe that’s why Joe Girardi finally decided to bench Jones and play Ichiro against lefties, which produced happy results for the Yanks in the second game.

Team Israel debuted in the World Baseball Classic qualifier last night in Jupiter, Fla., with a 7–3 triumph over the South African team. Padres minor-leaguer Nate Freiman (.298/.370/.502 in Double-A) was the offensive star of the game with two home runs.

Israel will face the winner of this evening’s Spain–France contest on Friday afternoon. To follow the squad inning by inning, check out New Jersey Jewish News’s Kaplan’s Korner.

Last night, Vernon Wells’s brain elected at the last minute not to try for a leaping catch of this long fly off the bat of Ian Kinsler. Unfortunately for the Halos’ left fielder, only his arms got the message.

Wells appeared to emerge from the stands unscathed. His Angels won the game, 11–3.

Good morning!

With only 16 days left in the regular season, here are several go-to links to make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Jack Moore of Fangraphs points out that the second-place Orioles can win in Yankee Stadium, Tropicana Field, Fenway Park, and the Rogers Centre, but not in the Vegas sportsbooks.
• Also from Fangraphs, Jeff Sullivan has a great post detailing the “fifth-weakest dinger of the year,” an Adrian Beltre swing that happened to take place in one of the toughest venues to hit a home run, Petco Park.

• May we gather from the fan and player reactions in Miller Park that a single paper dive bomber hurled from the upper deck is a more fun addition to the game than the Wave?
• Bill Chuck of Baseball Analytics takes note of CC Sabathia’s sub-optimal performance on Friday evening. Looking at pitch-heat maps, Chuck finds that it actually fits a season-long pattern:

Now I’m a tad color blind, but even I can see the scarcity of blue here as red has become the predominant color. You can also see by the location of the red in pitches down the middle, that Sabathia has not been effective in fooling or overwhelming batters in the heart of the strike zone. This season, batters are hitting .301 against the fastball that is now averaging 92.4 MPH. That’s a jump of 53 points since the 2009 season on a fastball that is slowing down. He’s allowed six gophers among the 74 hits, but he’s also allowed 12 doubles as batters are slugging .488. He has 31 strikeouts on his fastball.

Understand that the diminishing speed of the Sabathia fastball also lessens the the impact of his other pitches as batters have a smaller differential and are less frequently fooled or can make adjustments.

• Via Sports on Earth’s Joe Posnanski: After last month’s housecleaning that sent three of its biggest stars to the Dodgers, the Red Sox are starting over, and that means a rebirth for 63-year old stats guru Bill James too.
• Speaking of the Dodgers, their summer acquisitions did not improve the team’s fortunes. To make matters worse, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports that Clayton Kershaw might miss the rest of the season with a hip injury.
• The San Francisco Chronicle’s Steve Kroner reports on Brandon McCarthy’s visit to see his teammates at O.Co Coliseum, a mere nine days after a batted ball struck him in the head and he underwent emergency surgery.

• The Astros have had little reason to cheer this season but, by taking three of four from the Phillies, including a 7–6 victory on Sunday, Houston crippled Philadelphia’s last-ditch effort to make the postseason.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week and, to those celebrating Rosh Hashanah, a good, sweet year!

Via Kevin Kaduk of Big League Stew: See what happens when your analysis of the slumping Yankees bores WFAN/YES afternoon talk-show host Mike Francesa:

At first, he appears to be dutifully reading something, perhaps notes that will help him engage, or even rebut, reporter Sweeny Murti. But then, it becomes obvious that his head is going lower for another reason:

Everybody knows the Yankees are fading, but it shouldn’t be affecting the media second-hand. This never would have happened if Chris Russo were still in the same studio.

In case you’re not familiar with Francesa, he’s the guy who never has heard of Tigers right-hander Al Alburquerque.

More here.

In recognition of Yom Kippur, the White Sox announced today that the September 25th home game against the Indians has been moved up from 7:10 p.m. CDT to 1:10, thereby accommodating its third baseman, Kevin Youkilis (.235/.340/.416), and observant fans.

“I guess that means I can play,” smiled Youkilis, who is Jewish. “I really didn’t know. I know there was talk that there was something about maybe changing it for the fans on that day. But it’s a good thing for the playoff stretch.”

Youkilis said he hasn’t played on Yom Kippur. “It’s one of those things where I played the night after,” Youkilis said. “But other than that, no.”

Youkilis said he will have no problem having enough strength to play on Sept. 26 after fasting from sundown to sundown in observance of the holiday.

“I’ll be fine,” Youkilis said. “I’ve done it before. I’ll be good to go.”

More here.

Thanks to Jessica Quiroli, proprietor of Heels on the Field, for sharing this inspiring story:

For many, baseball is an escape.

Tradition, generations coming together over time to share in America’s pastime, has brought fans back all their lives.

After the terrorist attacks on America eleven years ago, baseball was, again, an escape.

For New York City firefighters, it’s one they turn to both because of love for the game, but because it is directly connected to what they fought for, and many of their friends and colleagues died for, on this day in 2001.

In the early part of summer, at MCU Park, home of the Mets affiliated Brooklyn Cyclones, the FDNY and NYPD played to raise money and awareness of charities benefiting the families of those that died that day trying to save others.

Those games have also become tradition, a fun way for brave men to come together and remember, as much to take their minds off the stress of what they do everyday.

“I’ve played baseball my whole life,” said the team’s versatile outfielder Joe Walsh. “I played in high school and Little League. I loved going out there and just hitting the ball or fall down for a fly ball.” . . .

Walsh’s teammate, third baseman Joe Ginobbi, a five year veteran, got close enough to touch the dream.

“I played four years in college and played one year of pro,” he said of his time in the Frontier League in 2004. He’d been signed as an non-drafted free agent.

But he had bigger dreams and that calling was too important to ignore.

“In January 2005 I got called on to be a cop and I wanted to be a cop my whole life,” he said.

Upon joining the fire department, he was immediately interested in joining the baseball team. He did some digging, researching the team on the internet and liked what he saw. They’d been a championship team two years in a row. It gave him an opportunity to do something he loved, while also fulfilling his destiny as a firefighter.

“I just wanted to play a little longer,” he said.

There was also the draw of being part of the community and outreach that the FDNY and NYPD make a priority. The FDNY travels across the country, to places such as Florida and California, Arizona, and Ohio.

“Wherever we go, we’re honored for being from New York City,” Ginobbi said.

Joe Walsh, on the team for three years, and in the fire department for five, acknowledges the spirit of it. And that it’s about New York, and the two departments, coming together as family.

“We do this every year for the widows and families of those lost on 9/11. Both cops and firemen. It always feels good for us to pay back. Everybody’s so close and such a tight knit group of guys.” . . .

The fun of it, the meaning of it, is an escape, but the personal attachment is as much a part of it. They’re baseball fans, that had professional baseball aspirations, boys that became men and now risk their lives for others everyday.

Every summer they get to be those boys again.

More here.

Never forget.

. . . in case he ever has to throw out a first pitch again.

Good morning!

Here are several go-to links to make your Monday a bit more bearable:

• Beating a dead horse, Stephen Strasburg shutdown edition: Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports and Joe Posnanski of Sports on Earth offer differing takes on the controversial decision by Nats general manager Mike Rizzo.
• Is the Marlins’ new ballpark really so unfriendly to home runs? SB Nation’s Wendy Thurm points out that, among NL venues, AT&T and Petco Parks are actually more hostile. She suggests that the lack of round-trippers in Miami may be tied to the retractable roof’s being closed in all but a handful of games.

• In an 8–5 loss to the Yankees on Friday, Orioles left fielder Nate McLouth just missed robbing an opposing batter of a home run, but later did bring one back.
• Here was umpire Jerry Meals’s less than finest hour in 2011. Via Mark Townsend of Big League Stew: Here is umpire Jerry Meals’s less than finest hour in 2012, a game that ended in a 5–4 victory for the Orioles on Saturday.
• Colin Wyers of Baseball Prospectus responds to a challenge from Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal on the issue of the new-look Dodgers and whether a lack of “chemistry” accounts for the team’s mediocre showing since the blockbuster deal with the Red Sox went down:

The reason we’re uncertain about Rosenthal’s theory is because we lack good ways to test it. We should, of course, try to seek out those ways and actually do that. But until then, his theory is of very little utility. It doesn’t help us predict what the Dodgers will do. (And let’s face it, the rest of the season is not so long that a poor performance out of the Dodgers would do much in confirming it.) And because the theory seeks to explain previously observed behavior, it has the uncomfortable feeling of being a post hoc rationalization, rather than predicting something (as J. Wheatley-Schaller of Vegas Watch pointed out, the article would be much more compelling had it been written BEFORE the poor run of performance). So while Rosenthal is not necessarily wrong (saying again, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence), he’s not contributing a lot of substance to the discussion with his theory, either.

• As MLB.com’s Hal Bodley points out, Julianna Zobrist sang the national anthem before the Rangers–Rays game on Friday. Later that evening, her husband, Ben, hit an 11th-inning, walk-off home run.
• Speaking of the Rays and that Friday night game, Inside the Book’s MGL does not understand manager Joe Maddon’s decision to call for a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the ninth inning with a runner on first, no one out, and third baseman Adrian Beltre “breathing down the batter’s neck.”

• Brandon McCarthy remains in the critical-care unit of a Bay Area hospital after being stuck in the head with a line drive last Wednesday afternoon. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle points out that the condition of the A’s pitcher’s has improved somewhat and that he has been Tweeting since Friday evening. Nevertheless, everyone should keep McCarthy in their thoughts and prayers.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Good morning!

Here are several go-to links to make your Monday Tuesday a bit more bearable:

• And down the stretch they come: The Yankees cling to a one-game lead over the Orioles in the AL East, the White Sox hold the top spot in the Central by one game over the Tigers, and the West features the Rangers up four over the surging A’s. Meanwhile, the Nationals lead the East by 6.5 over the Braves, the Reds are 8.5 games in front of the Cardinals in the Central, and the Giants are up by 4.5 over the Dodgers in the West. If the season ended today, Oakland, Baltimore, Atlanta, and St. Louis would grab the wildcard spots.
• On this date in 1928, the Boston Braves got swept in a doubleheader by the Brooklyn Robins, losing 3–2 and 9–2. To add insult to injury, the Braves’ next 16 games — played over a mere 10 days — were all part of doubleheaders, in which the club went 4–12.
• Jeff Sullivan of Fangraphs is enthralled with Rafael Betancourt’s pitch locations when facing left-handed batters:

Betancourt is not a one-pitch pitcher. Against lefties, he throws a fastball, a change, and a slider. But while Betancourt is able to mix up his pitches, he doesn’t exactly mix up his pitch locations. While he does vary height, everything — almost literally everything — is away. Nearly every single pitch he’s thrown to a lefty this year has been over or beyond the outer half. Some pitchers try to live on both the edges. Against lefties, Betancourt lives on just one of them. . . .

I haven’t checked, but I can’t imagine there are many pitchers who leave areas of the zone as unexplored as Betancourt does, if there are any of them. Strangely, Betancourt still shows absurdly large career platoon splits. Betancourt has held righties to a .243 wOBA, while he’s allowed a .313 wOBA to lefties. Against lefties, his strikeout rate has gone down and his walk rate has nearly tripled. But he’s also generated grounders and done just as good a job of limiting dingers, and maybe that’s the idea. Lefties have had success against Rafael Betancourt, but they haven’t had success knocking him out of the park.

• The Orioles are a pleasant surprise, writes SweetSpot’s David Schoenfield, but the “A’s have become [the] best story in baseball.”
• Although the Pirates endured another August train wreck, going 11–17 last month, Charlie Wilmoth of SB Nation thinks that it would be a mistake to write off this year’s club.

• On this foul ball in Minute Maid Park, Pablo Sandoval shows how hacky sack may be played using a third-baseman’s glove.
• The Astros hired Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus and ESPN to be the team’s pro scouting coordinator. In a good-bye piece, the prospect guru informs his readers:

I’m going to miss that, all of that, and I’m very sad about it. But this is the opportunity to go beyond just trying to analyze prospects and talking about their future. This is the opportunity to actually see if I’m right. It’s both terrifying and exhilarating and brings back weird and wonderful feelings in the back of my brain that haven’t been triggered since my technology days working for start-ups. I’m going to take some time off, recharge the batteries, and get going with Houston just in time for the offseason. I’m not going away, as I’ll still be reading Baseball Prospectus every day, and watching and learning from and laughing at all of your tweets. I’ll just be doing it silently while putting everything I have into this new and thrilling endeavor.

• Via “SCrebel10″ of Talking Chop: His earned-run scoreless streak came to an end yesterday after 34 1/3 innings, but Kris Medlen still put in a dominant performance, pitching a complete-game victory over the visiting Rockies.

• On Saturday, the game between the Rays and Jays ended in the visiting team’s favor on an out call at home plate. The night before, the game ended the same way, only with Elliot Johnson of the Rays being called out — and getting his face decorated in the process.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com has the details:

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told CBSSports.com’s Jon Heyman that he plans to have a scout watch Clemens pitch for the independent Sugar Land Skeeters on Sept. 7.

The strong speculation in baseball has been that if all goes reasonably well that night, Clemens will then pitch for the Astros five days later, on Sept. 12 against the Cubs.

As for why Clemens is attempting to return to the majors for a couple of starts, Knobler notes that many believe that the 50-year old is attempting to reset the five-year Hall of Fame wait because “his association with performance enhancing drugs would make his election unlikely.”

Hardball Talk’s Craig Calcaterra has an alternate take:

No, I think the real reason Clemens wants to pitch again is so that the final paragraph of his obituary — and the final image from any documentaries made of the man — ends with triumph as opposed to infamy.

Think about it: if Clemens were to die without having pitched again, the final chapter of his story will be ending the 2007 season injured, not coming back after being named in the Mitchell Report and then fighting prosecution — and winning an acquittal most people scoffed at anyway — for the last several years of his public life. The last image in that SportsCentury bio or whatever would be him in a suit, with a bad haircut, walking down a Washington D.C. sidewalk with his sleazy lawyer.

It is not all that difficult to figure out why the Astros look forward to a Roger reunion. Houston has the worst record in MLB (40—91) and rank 27th in attendance. A Clemens comeback would be an opportunity to boost gate receipts as the awful 2012 season winds down.

Prince Fielder is no moose caught in your car’s headlights. If the 268-pound behemoth jumps in your path, prudence dictates that you swerve out of his way — fast. If proof is needed, observe what happened earlier this evening to Mike Moustakas:

After the two shared a hug and good laugh, Moustakas and his Royals teammates held off Fielder and the Tigers, 1-0.

The Pirates gave Erik Bedard (5.01 ERA, 4.05 xFIP) his walking papers yesterday. The oft-injured southpaw somehow remained healthy this season but had slumped since June. In his article “Erik Bedard Walks the Plank,” Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan wonders if the Pirates should have held on to the 33-year old:

You hear that the Pirates released Erik Bedard and you raise your eyebrows. You associate Bedard with a lot of talent in your head, and a lot of that talent’s still in there, even after all the injuries. Bedard’s 2012 season numbers are just fine for a back-of-the-rotation starting pitcher, even with the limited stamina. Where this starts to make a little more sense is in considering what Bedard has done lately, and in considering that he hasn’t reached 130 innings since 2007. The Pirates strongly believe that the struggling Erik Bedard they saw lately was more like the real Erik Bedard than the effective Erik Bedard they saw early on. If that’s true, then [Kevin] Correia or [Jeff] Locke should do just fine as replacements, as Bedard wasn’t going to be much help. But if that isn’t true, and if this is simpler than it seems, then the Pirates just cut ties with a high-strikeout starter because he fell into a slump of results.

***

Only four MLB ballparks in 2012 have bullpens situated in foul territory along the baselines. David DeJesus (.269/.358/.405, .330 wOBA) learned on Monday evening what can happen in Wrigley Field when a warm-up toss from the Cubs pen is just a bit outside.

***

Dave Cameron is rather unimpressed with statistics showing team records in one-run games. Writing on Sunday in his U.S.S. Mariner blog, he pointed out:

It’s all going to be BS, and if you want proof, just look at the records of MLB teams in one run games this year. The two teams that met in the World Series last year are 13–21 (STL) and 16–16 (TEX) in one run games this year. Presumably, these two teams are veteran enough to know how to win and all that jazz, but in close games, they’ve lost more than they’ve won. The defending World Champions actually have the fourth worst record in one run games in all of baseball, coming in just ahead of the Blue Jays, the Cubs, and the Astros.

You know who’s been really good in one run games? The Orioles, who are 23–6, and not exactly a club loaded with veterans who have been through the wars. You know who else has been really good in one run games? The Indians (15–8), who are a legitimately bad baseball team and dumped their older players as the season went along.

The Yankees are one of the most veteran teams anyone has ever seen, as they have the oldest group of hitters and the second oldest group of pitchers in the AL. They are 15–18 in one run games.

Think a progressive manager makes a huge difference, and lets you squeeze out wins that an old school guy does not? Well, the Rays are 18–21 in one run games despite having Joe Maddon at the helm, so they don’t really support that theory very well.

The reality is that the results of one run games are mostly random, with the deciding factors often being something like two outfielders running into each other and knocking the ball loose so the winning run can score from second base. Okay, so that specific situation doesn’t happen all that often, but the idea is that things mostly out of a team’s control are often crucial factors in picking the winners of games decided by a single run.

***

The next time we will see Joey Bats swing a bat in anger will be in 2013. Via Dustin Parkes of theScore: Jose Bautista (.241/.358/.527, .376 wOBA) will undergo wrist surgery and miss the balance of this season.

***

Josh Harrison (.238/.284/.376, .284 wOBA) may be listed at a mere 5′8″, but he approaches home plate like Earl Campbell used to barrel toward the end zone. It took a fantastic play by Yadier Molina (.324/.374/.510, .381 wOBA) to absorb this vicious shoulder-to-head collision at home plate last night. Molina exited after that play for precautionary reasons and the Pirates blanked the Cards, 9–0.

That’s what Joel Sherman of the New York Post claims in today’s column:

Looking both short term in trying to win the NL West and long term in restoring the Dodgers’ brand, Los Angeles officials refused to wait for a free-agent class they anticipate being uninspiring. Instead, they began calling their counterparts in earnest in July with this message: We not only are unafraid of your big contracts, we are interested in them.

The Dodgers recognized this would put them in a unique position:

1. Few teams had much wiggle room to add even a bit of salary for 2012, much less take on huge money for multiple players both now and into the future.

2. Many teams were looking to jettison their bad deals.

That is how the Dodgers were able to get Hanley Ramirez from the Marlins, who went from avid buyers in the offseason to July sell-off mode. And it is how they obtained Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and roughly a quarter of a billion dollars of future contracts from a Red Sox team anxious to cleanse its payroll and clubhouse.

But it also is what led to a phone conversation with the Yankees about Sabathia (four years at $99 million left after this season) and Teixeira (four years, $90 million left after this season). The Yanks told Dodgers executives they had no interest in moving either.

Sherman then proceeds to veer off the road by asserting — seemingly with a straight face — that the free-spending Dodgers (69–60) should have asked about 37-year old Alex Rodriguez (.276/.358/.449) instead:  “Still, he remains a productive player, a massive star and could conceivably play third while Ramirez retains short.”

“Massive star?” As in Hollywood celebrity? Well, attendance at Dodger Stadium has jumped more than 5,000 fans per game from last season, so I doubt new part-owner Magic Johnson is in dire need of company.

As for the on-field talent, A-Rod indeed “remains a productive player,” but that’s hardly synonymous with “massive star.” And the trend line is distinctly unfavorable: His slugging percentage has dropped in each of the past six years. He is currently on the disabled list with a hand injury and played in only 99 games last season. In order to conserve what he has left in the tank, the Yankees have occasionally played him in the designated-hitter role, which of course is not an option in NL games. 

Meanwhile, A-Rod is owed a staggering $114 million salary over the next five seasons, which does not even include several performance-based incentives. An eventual turnaround is not out of the question, but his contract is clearly an unacceptabale risk at that sky-high price.

Compare with the star player the Dodgers ultimately received from Boston: 30-year old Adrian Gonzalez (.298/.344/.470), who has played in at least 156 games a season since 2006. Sure, his less than stellar 2012 might be less a mere hiccup and more a harbinger of a gradual decline, but in contrast with A-Rod, those numbers are far less likely to fall off a cliff anytime soon. Keep in mind that Gonzalez, who will receive $127 million from 2012 through 2018, will be younger at the end of his contract than Rodriguez is today.

Additionally, Los Angeles made clear that, having acquired Hanley Ramirez (.254/.326/.445) last month to play third base long-term, then inquiring about Teix and ultimately trading for A-Gon, they needed a first baseman, not another body to man the hot corner.

(That is not to say that Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti’s haul was a slam-dunk winner: Obtaining A-Gon became reality only when he agreed to take on two other very expensive and underperforming contracts in Josh Beckett [5.21 ERA, 4.39 xFIP] and Carl Crawford [.282/.306/.479] and to send the Red Sox [62–67] decent prospects from a farm system that, even before last Friday, was not exactly flush with big-league-ready talent.)

Finally, the Yankees (74–54) are in first place but only 3.5 games out in front of the second-place Orioles and four ahead of the Rays. Manager Joe Girardi’s club has compiled a pedestrian 16–16 record since A-Rod got injured on July 24. There was no way in someplace kind of warm that he was going anywhere.

Sherman’s idea is so far-fetched that even the starry-eyed Yankee fans who call into WFAN with loopy trade proposals (e.g., Verlander for Gardner and Nova) must be shaking their heads in disbelief.

Some of you know that I am a Mets fanboy. Nine times out of ten I wear a blue-and-orange hat, jersey, and/or t-shirt to Nationals Park, never mind that the Amazins are not listed on that day’s marquee.

During my formulative years, I rooted for Seaver, Koosman, Grote, Mazzilli, Hernandez, Gooden, and Carter. When the team went through a way-too-long, seven seasons of suckitude, I still managed to get hoarse cheering on names like Espinosa, Stearns, Henderson, and Kobel.

David Wright

Ryan Howard

Josh Hamilton

Derek Jeter

What an odd feeling — to be at the ballpark when you’re angry at your team.

The Boston Red Sox have been a frustrating blend of arrogance, pushy salesmanship, and mediocrity since September of last year. They have driven me to a state of disappointed apathy. My interest in the season was pretty much gone by mid-May. It’s not the losing that got to me. It’s just a very unlikeable group. I have spent the past three months shaking my head at the litany of sorry antics.

Notable shenanigans include:

players texting ownership about firing the manager

a return to clubhouse drinking and double-fisting

a manager who answers questions like a vaudevillian and claims to have invented the wrap sandwich

two “aces” with a record this season of 13–21

a $20-million-a-year player missing almost two full seasons with injuries

another $20-million-a-year player openly wondering why the fans are unhappy with the Sox’s performance

The front office has been too busy trying to milk every last promotion and are truly shameless marketers. It seems not to have occurred to anyone on Yawkey Way to turn down the hucksterism when the team dropped below .500. Less than one day after trading Kevin Youkilis, the Red Sox sent out an e-mail inviting fans to buy tickets to see him when he returned with his new team, the White Sox. At one point this season, the Red Sox partnered with L. L. Bean and attempted to sell me a tote bag made from last season’s discarded field tarp. Perhaps the team thought it was assuaging an angry fan base when they reduced the price of Fenway commemorative bricks to $75 from $100. To be sure, the crass marketing is the norm for this franchise. It’s just so much easier to overlook when the team is winning.

#more#My bemusement turned to anger last week when only four members of the squad managed to attend the funeral of Sox legend Johnny Pesky, on an off-day no less. Pesky joined the Red Sox in 1942, before heading off to the service to fight in the Second World War. He was affiliated with the Sox for over 60 years, actively participating in team events until his death. He even managed the team at one point. His life as a member of the Sox was documented by David Halberstam in The Teammates, and his own biography was titled Mr. Red Sox. The right-field foul pole in Fenway is named the Pesky Pole. And yet a Gatsby-like four players attended his funeral. Somehow, they all made it to a bowling party that night.

Three days later, the Red Sox blew it all up, somehow convincing the Dodgers to acquire almost $250 million in contracts for Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, backup infielder Nick Punto, and Carl Crawford, who likely can’t play until next season because of impending Tommy John surgery. Saturday morning almost half of the projected Saturday-night starting nine boarded a private jet to California. They tweeted a picture of themselves on the jet, and they looked pretty damned happy, too. Beckett needed to go, but I hope (and doubt) that there’s a plan in the front office to replace Gonzalez. A Gold Glove player who perpetually bats .325 seems to me to be the type of centerpiece to build a team around.

Needless to say, between the disappointed bemusement and the recent anger, I hadn’t made it to Fenway this season . . . until Saturday night, mere hours after the colossal trade.

Why? My six-year old Princess has been clamoring to go to “a real baseball game.” My love for her overwhelmed my disdain for the 2012 Red Sox. Saturday night, we shlepped to Fenway.

What an odd, unhappy trip for me. I suppose being mad at your team is a lot like being mad at your wife. Every little thing you would normally let slide now rankles. I’ve been to Fenway a fair amount over the past few years. This time, every little thing bothered me: the 1912-sized seats, the crappy food, the bumbling manager, the lousy pitchers. The manager pulled the spot starter after six innings, though he still looked strong, with a 9–3 lead. The bullpen then crapped out, going through three pitchers to get three outs. After six and a half innings, it was 9–9. The Sox lost.

Meanwhile, Adrian Gonzalez hit a home run in his first at-bat for LA. I suspect that Beckett will thrive in his new setting. I believe in my heart that the Dodgers will win the World Series and that it will drive me crazy.

But my daughter, she loved it. She loved the big green park and all of the cheering fans. She loved the pizza and popcorn. She loved singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch and “Sweet Caroline” as the sides changed in the eighth. She loved doing the Wave and watching the mascot, Wally, dance. She loved seeing her first home run and a blimp high over the park. She loved the concession guy throwing peanuts and collecting later. She had a great experience.

As a fan, I was miserable. But, as I may have mentioned, my love for my daughter is stronger than my disdain for the 2012 Red Sox. As a father, I had a pretty good night.