• ShysterBall's here in Cleveland at the SABR convention. Or so he says. The Daily Fungo's Mike McClary is here, too. And Mike caught me making a rash prediction yesterday: The Tigers will win the Central.
• Score one for the scouts. As David Pinto points out, Cuban defector/refugee
Alexei Ramirez has really
picked his game up since April.
•
Oh, the humanity! Update: American League 124, National League 84. Last night was another NL wipeout; it probably would have been 9-1 for the AL if not for the
rain in Pittsburgh.
• I agree with Joe Sheehan's
every word & except I think the A's still have a legitimate shot at the playoffs, and shouldn't start selling off parts & unless somebody blows them away with an offer for
Rich Harden or
Joe Blanton.
• Did you know that George Carlin was a
big Dodgers fan way back in the 1940s? I didn't.
• Courtesy of Home Run Derby, the
Jheri Curl All-Stars.
• The Rangers are
calling up their No. 1 prospect, first baseman Chris Davis. This guy's gone from fifth-round draft choice to the majors in just slightly over two calendar years, which is pretty impressive. Still only 22, he's already hit 23 home runs this season: 13 in Double-A, 10 in Triple-A. The Rangers say first base is
Hank Blalock's when he's healthy enough to play. But I suspect Davis is better than Blalock right now. And the Rangers are too close to first place to play inferior players.
• Joe Posnanski thinks
the Royals should sign Barry Bonds. Seriously. The point? Joe thinks Bonds would give the Royals a legitimate shot at winning the AL Central. I disagree. Joe thinks Bonds would turn the franchise into a circus. I agree. And I think the Royals could use a circus. I'm just not sure this would be a good circus. I'm afraid it might become the sort of circus where monkeys hurl excrement and there's a good reason to fear the clowns.
• Fascinating stuff from David Gassko on the financial value of
winning a World Series game.
• It's long been said that in 1941 the St. Louis Browns were poised to move to Los Angeles in 1942, but those plans were dashed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. I've repeated the story a few times over the years. Well, at this moment I'm sitting in a ballroom in a big hotel in Cleveland, listening to researcher Norman Macht heap a healthy dollop of doubt upon this long-accepted story. Which is exactly the sort of thing that brings me to the SABR convention ever summer; there's just no better place in the world for a guy like me to geek out.
Rob Neyer
