More on the Minnesota stadium situation: Keith Law looks at a committee report from a group called Minnesotans for Major League Baseball, which was partially funded by (surprise!) the Twins. (Baseball Prospectus)

Deion Sanders' year-to-date batting average chart has been brought to you by the letter L. (ESPN)

Art Martone on the noise at Yankee Stadium: "I had one ear cocked toward the P.A. system all night and was shocked when I realized there's never a quiet moment; the Yankees have something blasting after every pitch, without fail...[T]the Yankees apparently feel the game itself isn't enough to keep the average fan in the stands engaged for any appreciable length of time." (Providence Journal)

Paul Lukas and Billy Altman with some Mets tidbits (down below the Devils article). You know the Mets are in trouble when Darren Bragg is seen as a godsend. (Village Voice)

Bubbly Cubs on Cloud 9. What a strange season in Chicago. I thought they'd be down with the Pirates this year. They have a good front three in Tapani, Wood and Lieber (if they're all healthy), plus the underrated Sammy Sosa. But they're weak at too many positions, and they're the Cubs. Hot start? A fluke. Eight-game losing streak? Same old Cubs. But now they've won 9 in a row. (Chicago Sun-Times)

Keith J. Scherer looks at the Mariners' and Astros' farm systems. (Baseball Prospectus)

King Kaufman on the ongoing problems with MLB.com's Internet broadcast service. "Strange, it worked fine in spring training when it was free." (Salon.com)

Chris Kahrl: "It might sound tough to accept on the heels of the inflated expectations of spring training, but the Rangers are still extremely well-positioned to build something good if Tom Hicks can take a deep breath and ride it out." (Transaction Analysis, Baseball Prospectus)

Cris Enestvedt on the new-stadium situation in Minnesota. (Baseball Prospectus)

Joe Sheehan argues that the Padres have been an even bigger surprise than the Twins or the Mariners. (Baseball Prospectus)

Rob Neyer on the dangers of sitting close at Fenway. (SportsJones)

Don Malcolm remembers Mark Fidrych. (Baseball Primer)

Thomas Boswell: "For 30 years, Washington fans have begged to get the Senators back. Now we finally have them. They're called the Orioles." (Washington Post)

Gary Huckabay: "The Twins fans shouldn't be showering Knoblauch with loose change and cheap meat; they should be sending Godiva chocolates and Dom Perignon to his friggin' hotel room." The Twins got Eric Milton and Cristian Guzman for Knoblauch; obviously they don't regret the trade. (Baseball Prospectus)

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis. (Baseball Prospectus)

Next scheduled post: May 29.

Boston Sports Guy on the past, present and future of his site. It's been getting more and more popular, thanks to the exposure generated by his ESPN.com guest columns, plugs from people like Peter Gammons, and at least one Boston TV appearance. (I like to think I've sent a few people to his site. Five? Ten? I don't even know if I have ten readers, but maybe it's like that shampoo commercial: They'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on…) Anyway, Digital City is going in the predictable direction (less content, more restaurant listings), and the future of the BSG site is up in the air. Do yourself a favor, even if you're not a Boston fan: Go to the site, surf around, browse the archives, print out some promising articles and start reading. If you like what you see (I'd say the probability is about 90%), bookmark the site and tell Digital City what you think.

Rob Neyer: "In the years since the [KC] Star has been on the Internet, have you ever known one of [its baseball writers] to comment, even once, on the Royals' inability to draw walks?" (Rob and Rany on the Royals, May 8)

Joe Posnanski on the Royals' inability to draw walks. (KC Star, May 10)

The Ethernaut gives a good (brief) review to Baseball Primer.

Baseball Cards 1887-1914. From the Library of Congress: Images of over 2000 cards. Way cool.

New weblog on Baseball Primer: Al's Baseball Tidbits. Worth checking out.

Derek Zumsteg shoots down the argument that Ichiro Suzuki should not be considered for the Rookie of the Year Award. (Baseball Prospectus)

Darren Rovell on deferred salaries. The Mets will be paying Bobby Bonilla until he's 72. (ESPN)

Sean McAdam on the Grieve/Damon/Hernandez trade. A 3-way bust, so far. (ESPN)

Jay Mariotti wishes the White Sox had a stadium as nice as Milwaukee's Miller Park. References to Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, "sausage breath", and other sour grapes. (Chicago Sun-Times)

Oakland victory almost unnoticed by distracted fans. Maybe this is why the Blue Jays have been drawing such meager crowds: The fans are preoccupied with the Maple Leafs and the Raptors. Or maybe they're afraid that another chunk of the SkyDome roof could come crashing down. Whatever. The Jays are in third place now, and they'll probably stay there. (National Post)

Kevin on Moises Alou's future, Jeff Bagwell's influence on the Astros' roster decisions, Rickey Henderson's continued presence in the majors, Luis Gonzalez's emergence as a power hitter since leaving the Astros, and the unsuitability of certain baseball markets. (AstrosConnection)

Arky Vaughan on Henderson's place in history. (AstrosConnection)

Jack Todd on the vultures circling the Expos. "It's the absence of a stadium like [Pac Bell] that is going to kill the Expos, not losing streaks or batting slumps." (Montreal Gazette)

Rob Neyer on Randy Johnson and other pitchers who are putting up great K/BB numbers. Rick Reed: 28 K, 1 BB. Curt Schilling: 61 K, 5 BB. (ESPN)

Michael Holley says the Red Sox should keep Shea Hillenbrand at 3B, even with John Valentin finally coming off the DL. He's right. (Boston Globe)

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis. "[T]he Brewers can thank their lucky stars for Kevin Malone, because they don't have [Marquis] Grissom to weigh them down. If it's May and the Cubs are in first, everyone has reason for hope in the NL Central. (Baseball Prospectus)

Paul Izzo suggests that Pedro Martinez could be a more effective pitcher if he racked up fewer strikeouts. (He'd throw fewer pitches per batter, and therefore fewer pitches per inning, and therefore he could pitch more innings.) (Springfield Union News)

Boston Sports Guy explains the Ewing Theory on ESPN's Page 2.

Joe Sheehan takes a look around the NL. "The Florida Marlins are a quality right fielder away from winning the NL East. If there's a GM that should be calling the Diamondbacks every single day about Erubiel Durazo, it's Dave Dombrowski." (Baseball Prospectus)

Boston Red Sox player contracts. Other teams, too. Good resource. (Credit to Boston Sports Guy for the link.)

Osuna out for year; Parque could be next. As if things weren't bad enough for the White Sox. They are having the kind of year the Astros had in 2000. (Sporting News)

Sinclair Rankin in defense of Albert Belle. (Village Voice)

Eckstein Plays His Way Into Starting Position. Bill Shaikin on the Angels' new starting shortstop, carelessly discarded by the Red Sox, who could sure use him now. Also, Jose Canseco claims the Angels "blackballed" him after they released him, telling other teams that he was physically damaged. (LA Times)

Joe Sheehan takes a look around the majors, and reports on the race between Shea Hillenbrand's walks drawn and Pedro Martinez's home runs allowed. The score to date: Hillenbrand 1, Martinez 0. (Baseball Prospectus)

Person's 2-hitter lifts Phils. It was only the third shutout, and second complete-game shutout, in Enron Field's 1.2-year history. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Rick Morrissey on the level-headed Cubs. (Chicago Tribune)

Greg Couch on the saga of Ernie Banks's 500th career home run ball. Which one is real? The one in the Hall of Fame, the one that was sold at an auction, or the one given to a soldier by a newspaper columnist? This kind of confusion would never happen today; Barry Bonds's 500th-homer ball is locked up in a fan's safe deposit box, and the Giants are negotiating for it. (Chicago Sun-Times)

Curse of the Bambino is a Red Sox fan's weblog that is definitely worth checking out.

ESPN goes for the max. For the third year in a row, the network is raising its "carriage rate" (the price it charges to cable operators) by 20 percent. Your cable bill won't increase or anything, though. Thanks to deregulation, cable rates are going down! (Yeah, right.) (Mediaweek)

Jesse Ventura has apologized to the Yankees for the Twins' fans' behavior last week, saying he was "embarrassed to say I was a Minnesotan." Supply your own punchline. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

Peter Gammons on the firing of Johnny Oates. (ESPN)

Peter Gammons' weekend notes. (ESPN)

Eric Enders on the retirement of his favorite player, Ramon Martinez. (Baseball Primer)

Rob Neyer on the Fenway experience. (SportsJones)

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis. If the A's have to give up on Jeremy Giambi, will brother Jason pack his bags? "It's just as likely that Jason might have to learn that good teams don't put family in front of talent, just as Cal Ripken had to accept when the Orioles ended the charade of carrying Billy around. Jeremy's no Billy Rip or Chris Gwynn, but he's also been extraordinarily disappointing." (Baseball Prospectus)

Rob Neyer on how Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were perceived at the time they were playing. Arnold Hano: Mantle played ball almost under a shroud of depression, because he always thought he was going to die an early death. But Mays probably thinks he's going to live forever. Mantle acted like a man who was doomed. Mays never did, even though he played long beyond his ability. I talked to Willie after the 1973 World Series, in which he looked terrible. "I said, 'What were you doing out there, Willie?' 'Oh, I was having fun!' he told me." (ESPN)

Chat wrap with Rob Neyer. A reader named Kevin asks: "So, how lost is Ben Grieve in Tampa's lineup?" Rob answers: "I don't have any idea why Grieve would be lost in Tampa Bay's lineup more than in anybody else's lineup. And I do expect him to come around. But of course, if he doesn't, he'll go down as one of the biggest busts in history." (ESPN)

Peter Gammons answers his mail. Kevin Mullowney of Englewood, Colorado, asks: "How lost is Ben Grieve in Tampa Bay? I know he is an extremely slow starter, but this is bad even by his previous April standards." Peter answers: "No one knows, except to presume that he will get his groove back. One thing that troubles me is that the scouting trackers in the Oakland organization felt there was a pattern the last three years in narrowing the zone of fastballs he hit and the types of pitches he could drive. We'll see. He is young, very smart and can adjust."

The Baseball Prospectus guys answer their mail. No word from Kevin.

Another Kevin (Malone) denies challenging a fan to a fight. (ESPN)

Baseball Fans Shut Out Online. Subscribers to MLB's internet broadcast package are not always getting access to the games. This is completely unsurprising. (Wired News)

Devil Rays to Birmingham? Businessman Donald Watkins is interested in buying the team. (Yahoo!)

Profile of Jeff Heath, temperamental star outfielder for the Indians in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1941, the year of DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak and Williams' .406 BA, Heath had more hits than either of them. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Jeff Heath's page at baseball-reference.com.

The Twins are in first place and they're drawing good crowds. "Selig should be capitalizing on this to promote the game. That's what the nominal leader of the sport should do: help feed excitement over the product and help it be successful," says Joe Sheehan in the Daily Prospectus. Of course, Selig would rather ignore small-market success stories, and continue to moan about the state of the game.

Art Martone shoots down the notion that "Pedro hasn't been Pedro." (Providence Journal)

Tim Sullivan ponders whether Deion Sanders will abandon the Reds when football season starts. They may not care by that point; last night's game was amazing, but as speedy singles-hitting outfielders go, Sanders is a lot closer to Darren Lewis than to Ichiro Suzuki. (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Rany Jazayerli (ESPN.com by way of Baseball Prospectus) on the fortunes of teams that lose a prominent free agent. His top 10 free agent losses of all time: Strawberry, Ryan, Sutter, Sutton, Hunter, Vaughn, Belle, Maddux, Bonds/Drabek, Jackson/Grich/Garland. Six of the ten teams actually improved the following year. There's a name for this: The Ewing Theory, coined by a man named Dave Cirilli and explained by Boston Sports Guy here.

Another Transaction Analysis! (Baseball Prospectus)

Japanese fans are excited about tonight's showdown between Ichiro Suzuki and Hideo Nomo. Fun fact: Suzuki hit his first career home run off Nomo, back in 1993. (ESPN)

Chris Karhl's Transaction Analysis. (Baseball Prospectus)

SportsJones has started to publish excerpts from Rob Neyer's upcoming book Feeding the Green Monster. In today's installment, Rob fetches a foul ball and gives it to a little kid.

George Steinbrenner wants to start a Yankees cable channel, and wants to charge cable operators up to $2.00 per subscriber. If there's any justice, they'll have about as much success as Disney had with ESPN West, an Angels/Mighty Ducks station that cable operators simply didn't want. Of course, it may just be a negotiating ploy to get the Yankees a better deal from MSG Network. (Inside.com)

Predictatron 2001 update. Snuffy the Bartender (or maybe Scribbly Tate, or maybe Rob Neyer, or maybe they're all one person) sifts through the ballots and does some analysis. (robneyer.com)

Gerry Callahan: "When [Jimy Williams] allows Craig Grebeck to hit with the game on the line and Pedro Martinez on the mound - as he did last Wednesday - it might make Grebeck feel good, but it has to make Pedro scratch his head." Especially since they're on the same team. (Actually, this is a pretty good column.) (Boston Herald)