Ray Hartmann on the fuzzy math behind the Cardinals' stadium deal. "Even if the numbers could be inflated and twisted -- as is custom -- to project economic utopia with certainty, the politicians would almost certainly be using 'casino economics' (my phrase), wherein it is assumed that all dollars spent in a new establishment are new dollars that don't come out of someone else's hide." (St. Louis Riverfront Times)

Joe Sheehan calls Hal McRae's handling of his bullpen Wednesday night "the most egregious example of a full managerial pout I have ever seen in my life." (Baseball Prospectus)

Art Martone has more examples of McRae's bullpen mishandling from other games in the same series. He also points out the Red Sox are lucky not to be riding a 7-game losing streak (actually 8, now, after last night's loss). (Providence Journal)

Phillip Lee interviews Jimmy Piersall, who showed great courage at a time when mental illness carried an even greater stigma than it does today. (ESPN Classic)

Tony Pente on the Orioles' acquisition of Tony Batista. "When [hitting coach Terry] Crowley was asked whether the Orioles should acquire Batista he reportedly said 'What number does he want, does he want mine?'" (Orioles Hangout)

Baseball Primer discussion of the Batista deal (24 comments so far).

Tony Pente interviews Orioles scouting director Tony DeMacio about the 2001 draft. (Orioles Hangout)

Edward de la Fuente on American players in Japan. "You are under a microscope the minute you step off the plane," says Chris Donnells, who's back in the USA with the Dodgers. "There are a lot of players who are willing to accept you as a teammate. But if you go over there and try to pull a big-league attitude - 'I'm a major-league player and I'm better than you guys' - then you'll find it very tough to fit in." (Arizona Daily Star)

Jay Jaffe on rumors that the Yankees will trade Chuck Knoblauch to the Mariners for Brett Tomko and Al Martin, and sign Gerald Williams. "While Tomko would be a decent addition to the pitching staff, the moves will leave the moribund Yankee offense with even worse prospects, and go against the tenet around which the Yankee dynamo has been built: get on base." (Futility Infielder)

Eddie Silva on James Giglio's new biography of Stan Musial. (Riverfront Times)

John Gonzalez on Rangers utilityman Frank Catalanotto, who may be too versatile for his own good. (Dallas Observer)

Greg Hall on the Royals' inability to attract African American fans. (Pitch Weekly)

Greg Hall on the Kansas City - St. Louis rivalry. (Pitch Weekly)

Art Martone has changed his mind about Red Sox farmhand Izzy Alcantara. "I can be stubborn, but I like to think I'm not I'm not stupid. My opinion: It's time to take Izzy out of the freezer and give him a shot. A real shot, too, and not 40 at-bats scattered across several weeks against tough left-handers."

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis for June 19-23. Winner of Jimenez deal? Padres. "The one position at which the Pads needed a good young player going into 2002 and beyond was shortstop, and Kevin Towers just procured one of the best shortstop prospects in the minor leagues for a reliever he'd gotten for Brian frickin' Meadows just last summer." Winner of Rocker deal? Braves. "Steve Karsay is arguably the best reliever in baseball today, and only a recurrence of his elbow problems would make this deal even remotely close." (Baseball Prospectus)

Baseball Travel Guide from baseball-reference.com. A great resource. For each major and minor league team, there is a page with information about its ballpark, a link to the team's website, directions, and "user comments" from people who've visited the park. Teams are indexed both by league and by state. Even if you're not planning a trip, the user comments are fun to read.

Rob Neyer tries to figure out why David Bell is leading the AL All-Star voting at third base. It's not because Mariners fans are stuffing the Claritin(tm) ballot boxes, or because Internet-savvy Seattleites are dominating the Radio Shack(tm) online voting. It probably has nothing to do with the Pepsi(tm) retail voting at Kroger(tm) stores. It's probably because of votes from Japan. Ichiro's coattails. (ESPN)

Tom Krasovic on Padres starter Adam Eaton. He threw a 3-hitter against the Dodgers on Sunday and is now 8-3. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Joe Sheehan on "hope and faith", which still exist for most teams. Seventeen teams are within 5 1/2 games of a playoff spot. (Baseball Prospectus)

Rob Neyer proves that Johnny Pesky never hit a home run off of "Pesky's Pole" (the right-field foul pole at Fenway.) (SportsJones)

Peter Gammons' weekend notes. Mike Flanagan on David Wells: "When Boomer goes into the woods, the bears all move their food up into the trees." (ESPN)

Paul Lukas on "alternate uniforms," which were not invented by Charlie Finley. The 1916 Giants had a tartan plaid uni, and the 1917 White Sox had one that was dark blue with white pinstripes. (No pictures, unfortunately.) (Village Voice)

Can Barry do it? Don Malcolm says yes, using the Year-End Projection System. (Baseball Primer)

Can the Cubs keep it going? Gary Huckabay says yes, but it would help if they traded for a hitter. (ESPN)

Chat wrap with Gary Huckabay. (ESPN)

Joe Sheehan on defensive metrics, Part 1. (Baseball Prospectus)

Part 2. (Baseball Prospectus)

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis for June 14-18. "Snagging Rob Bell is the sort of move the Rangers needed to make...Bell has a chance to be much more than a league-average starter, while Mateo is an injury-prone corner outfielder." (Baseball Prospectus)

Steve Gardner picks the best all-time players by uniform number. Number 8 looks pretty good: Ripken, Morgan, Stargell, Berra, Yaz. He stops at 50, but 51 would have held up well: Bernie Williams, Randy Johnson, Willie McGee, and now Ichiro. (USA Today)

Hal Bodley on Ripken's retirement and what it means to the Orioles. Syd Thrift: "We certainly won't disrupt this youth movement. The fans really like this team. At least that's what they tell me everywhere I go." (USA Today)

Rob Neyer: "Why on earth would the Pirates even consider moving Kendall to left field? Unless the new position somehow allowed him to become a significantly better hitter, he'd be a league-average LF, at best. Stupid, stupid, and stupid, not that I expect anything better from the Pirates." (Chat wrap, ESPN)

Rob and Rany discuss the Donnie Sadler trade in their June 20 entry. Rob: "So now we know how Allard Baird spends his days. He doesn't write memos to his minor-league managers and coaches, instructing them to stress to their young players the benefits of plate discipline. Rather, Baird sits behind his desk, rubbing his hands together like some mad super-villain, working the phone, devising a nefarious scheme that will, at long last, get Donnie Sadler -- one of the absolute worst players in the major leagues -- into a Royals uniform." (robneyer.com)

Reds notebook: Foli requires stitches after scuffle with Oester. "[T]he two exchanged heated words, and the situation escalated to the point that Oester had Foli in a headlock and Foli bit Oester on the leg." (Cincinnati Post)

Art Martone looks the offensive winning percentages and RC/27 numbers of the Red Sox' hitters. An all-Manny Ramirez linuep would go 139-23. Nine Dante Bichettes would go 111-51. Nine Scott Hattebergs? 22-140. (Providence Journal)

Canseco agrees to deal with White Sox. It's about time someone took a chance on him. His OPS since 1998: .836, .932, .821. (ESPN)

Canseco's career stats. (Baseball-Reference.com)

Lee's homer in eighth beats Royals. The White Sox are hot: 19-6 since May 24, improving from 14-29 to 33-35. They're still 8 games behind the Indians in the wild-card race, though. (ESPN)

Sean McAdam on GM-manager relationships. (ESPN)

Tigers continue mysterious mastery over Yanks with 5-2 win. And they're doing it all without Frank Lary. (Michigan Live)

Red Smith on the 1946 Dodgers. (SportsJones)

Allen Barra: "Is Barry Bonds about to have the greatest season in baseball history?" (Salon.com)

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis. "The Pirates, Devil Rays, and Rangers all get plenty of play for their awful rotations, but the Astros have been working their way down into that company in no small part because of Kent Bottenfield. While Jose Lima gets to be the poisoned apple of everybody's evil eye, Bottenfield has been tattooed often enough to hang with Allen Iverson." (Baseball Prospectus)

Rany Jazayerli on the Cubs' fireballing pitching staff. "With 594 strikeouts in 66 games, they're on pace to whiff 1,458 batters this season. That would shatter the old record by more than 200 strikeouts." (Baseball Prospectus)

Joe Sheehan: "Ripken's real legacy isn't the streak. No, his lasting impact is that he (and Earl Weaver) paved the way for the shortstops we enjoy today. Players like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Nomar Garciaparra would almost certainly have been moved to another position before 1980. Ripken showed that tall players could play shortstop, and play it well, while raising the bar for offensive performance at the position." (Baseball Prospectus)

Jeff Gordon and Bernie Miklasz on the Cardinals' stadium deal. Gordon says the taxpayers got fleeced, but it could have been worse. Miklasz says it was plenty bad anyway. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Art Martone on the resurgence of Tim Wakefield. "Is he back? Is the Tim Wakefield who blazed through the summer sky in 1995 about to re-enter the atmosphere? We've been waiting six years for that Tim Wakefield -- the unhittable Tim Wakefield, the Cy Young-like Tim Wakefield, the Tim Wakefield capable of heading the rotation in nearly Pedro-esque fashion -- to return, and most of us probably felt we were waiting in vain." After last night, maybe not. (Providence Journal)

Rob Neyer on Astros pitching prospect Tim Redding. Rob thinks the Astros produce more than their share of hard-throwing young pitchers because they're not afraid of short right-handers. (ESPN)

Bruce Markusen looks back at Charlie Finley's 1976 fire sale, in which he sold Rollie Fingers and Joe Rudi to the Red Sox and Vida Blue to the Yankees. (Baseball Primer)

Don Malcolm on the best 80-game starts and 80-game streaks in baseball history. The Mariners now stand at 52-16. (Baseball Primer)

Boone: 'I'm not pleased with the ballclub.' "I don't think (owner) Carl Lindner should be expected to pay at a professional level if he's not getting a professional result," said the Reds manager (as he tore up his paycheck). (ESPN)

MLB Standings sorted by league (not division). I like this view because it gives a clearer picture of the races. In the AL, 4 teams (Min, Bos, Cle, NY) are in a tight race for the three non-Seattle playoff spots. In the NL, teams 4 (SF) through 11 (Mil) are separated by only 2.5 games. (ESPN)

Better or worse, players defying numbers. Greg Spira of Baseball Prospectus does a guest column for ESPN.com.

Orioles could make a play for Phillies' Rolen. In 2012, when he's 37. (Baltimore Sun)

Ritchie's four-hitter lifts Pirates to sweep of Indians. Interleague standings since I gloated about the AL's superiority: NL 27, AL 15. Overall: AL 64, NL 62. (ESPN)

Peter Gammons' weekend notes. (ESPN)

Apolitical Blues from Gammons. (ESPN)

Peter Gammons answers his mail. He doesn't think the Braves will spend big in the free agent market this winter. Pick to click: American Hi-Fi. (ESPN)

Pujols among nine Cardinals burglarized in K.C. The last time the Cardinals were robbed in Kansas City? Game 6 of the 1985 World Series. (ESPN)

Allen Barra stands up for George Steinbrenner. "[N]o team should ever be allowed to get by without its best effort and I'm happy Steinbrenner has spoken up for the paying customers who are not getting their money's worth. He has every right -- every obligation -- to speak up, and as long as this team continues to play like it has, I hope he continues to do so." (Salon.com)

All Bell would like is a second chance. "Lots of people have written me off after 110 at bats. All of a sudden I'm the worst signing in major-league baseball." Sure. All of a sudden. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

The Baseball Crank (a Mets fan) on the demise of the Bobby Valentine-era Mets. (Boston Sports Guy)

Rays Sweep Away Phils. The American League rules! (Interleague standings: AL 49, NL 35.) (Miami Herald)

Chris Kahrl quotes a They Might Be Giants song in his latest Transaction Analysis. More evidence that the Prospectus guys have cooler taste in music than Peter Gammons. (Derek Zumsteg likes Sleater-Kinney.) (Baseball Prospectus)

Nickname discussion at Baseball Primer. More fun to read than ESPN's lame list, which actually includes Ken "Junior" Griffey.

Boston Sports Guy announces that his site will close this week, after one final column on Friday. He'll continue to write for ESPN's Page 2. I'll miss his site; I wish I'd discovered it sooner.

Joe Sheehan on the media's coverage of Barry Bonds's great season: "It's not about the writers at all, and yet this attitude filters into all the coverage about Bonds: how he treated the writer, as if the writer was part of the story. He's not." (Baseball Prospectus)

Rob Neyer on the Citgo sign near Fenway Park. "I still couldn’t help but think that it’s something less than a landmark that deserves protection. I mean, a good number of Sox fans are ready and willing to blow up Fenway Park, but they can’t stand the idea of losing an energy-gulping advertisement?" Absolutely. (SportsJones)

Steinbrenner lashes out at Yankees. "I don't blame the pitching. I blame the hitting. I can't control what goes on there. I can't hit for those guys." Time to make a trade or two. Time to dangle Alfonso Soriano in front of some gullible GM who thinks he'll turn out to be a good player. (USA Today)

Bob Klapisch on Joe Torre's rotation juggling. Clemens supposedly isn't starting against the Mets on Sunday because Torre is mad at ESPN. If that's the real reason, it's dumb. But it's probably just an excuse to keep Clemens out of the batter's box against the Mets. (Bergen Record)

Time Asia on the Orix Blue Wave in their first year without Ichiro. They've gone from fourth to first (another example of the Ewing Theory), but attendance is down 30%. (Credit to SurfJones for the link.)

Rob Neyer on the Pirates' ousted GM: "Cam Bonifay made many, many mistakes, but they boil down to this ... Bonifay utterly failed to understand that teams with limited financial means have absolutely no business signing average or below-average veterans to long-term contracts." (ESPN)

From ESPN.com's "Page 2 Staff" (Was Boston Sports Guy part of this?), the best baseball nicknames of all time. I have to disagree with #1; "Splendid Splinter" is one of the worst nicknames of all time. "Teddy Ballgame" was a great nickname.

More great nicknames can be found in the Astrosconnection.com Site Glossary. Examples:

Demolition Man, The: ex-Astros and current Boston OF Carl Everett, because of the threat he poses to opposing pitchers and baserunners, but especially for the fact that he thinks most of the cribs in the NL should be blown to bits.

Donut Truck: San Diego OF Ryan Klesko, for his resemblance to a square, unwieldly vehicle when running the bases or chasing down a ball in left field.

Iron Nag, The: Baltimore IF Cal Ripken, Jr., whose freakish resiliance and immunity to the DL has kept him in the Orioles starting lineup for some 47 years now.

Mexican Mullet, The: Astros 3B Vinny Castilla, for gleaming, streamlined and outdated mane that somehow reminds us of IROC Camaros, Budweiser and REO Speedwagon.

Pig-Pen: Astros' 2B Craig Biggio, for resemblance to dirty "Peanuts" character, because of disheveled, filthy uniform after only one inning of play, especially the now-famous pine-tar spattered helmet that he refuses to replace or have cleaned.

Peter Gammons reports a rumor that the Angels could fold and the A's could move to Anaheim. He quotes a management source: "The core economic problems of this system are still in need of an overhaul. The Twins and Phillies are like the White Sox and A's last year. One-year deals." (ESPN)
Gammons didn't challenge this, so I'll try:
(1) The A's contended in 1999, and they've recovered from this year's bad start, so they're at least a three-year deal.
(2) The White Sox' problems this year have little to do with economics (And if they fail to build on last year's success, it ain't because Chicago is a 'small market').
(3) It's way too early to assert that the Twins and Phillies are one-year wonders. (And if the Phillies fail to build on this year's success, it ain't because Philadelphia is a 'small market.')
(4) I still don't understand, after reading dozens of quotes from "management sources" over the last couple of years, how eliminating two or four franchises would do anything to address baseball's economic woes.

Diamond Notes from Gammons: "I have to admit that the computerees were right about Deion Sanders. Mea culpa." No, he didn't really say that, but he did acknowledge that Alfonso Soriano's lack of plate discipline is worrying the Yankees. (ESPN)

I don't mean to pick on Gammons too much; he's definitely worth reading, as long as you keep some grains of salt handy.

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis. "If something goes wrong--and to paraphrase Helmuth von Moltke, something always goes wrong--you can pretty much count on the Indians to jump the wrong way." (Baseball Prospectus)

George Bova with a good column on White Sox fans' grudge against the Cubs and the Cub-loving Chicago media. (White Sox Interactive)

Jim Raup with a thorough, interesting analysis of baserunning, from a coach's point of view. "Intelligent baserunning can help a team compensate for a lack of speed and can complement a strong hitting team rather than detract from it. Unfortunately, the 2001 Astros apparently do not believe this." (AstrosConnection)

Braves top Expos in 11th for sixth straight victory. Uh-oh, here they come. (ESPN)

From 1946: Red Smith takes his first look at Jackie Robinson. (SportsJones)

A's fan Gary Huckabay ("I don't just hate the Giants. I hate the f---ing Giants.") takes in a game at Pac Bell. (Baseball Prospectus)

Joe Sheehan names his NL All-Stars. "I'm a little amazed at the gap between the two leagues right now. I think if you put together a list of the top 50 players in the game, some inordinate percentage of them would be in the NL." (Baseball Prospectus)

Joe Sheehan names his AL All-Stars. "Bret Boone is having a great two months, two months that follow four years of mediocre play. Alomar is merely putting up his typical great performance (.334/.402/.502). There's going to be a clamor to make Boone an All-Star, but there's simply no way he deserves it over a future Hall of Famer having a good season." (Baseball Prospectus)

Boston Sports Guy evaluates the Red Sox at the one-third mark. This week, pitchers; next week, position players. "I'm still waiting for the Scooby Doo ending where they pull Schourek's mask off to reveal that he's really Vaughn Eshelman."

Rob Neyer isn't completely sold on the Cubs. (ESPN)

Rob Neyer isn't completely sold on the Phillies. (ESPN)

John Sickels analyzes the amateur draft. (ESPN)

Joe Sheehan argues that the Red Sox should keep Jimy Williams and forget Felipe Alou. "Why would you replace a manager who has established a 90-win level with the talent on his roster, and replace him with a manager who hasn't sniffed success since 1996 with the talent on his?" (ESPN)

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis. Thumbs down on the Marlins' hiring of Tony Perez ("I'd like to see what a Davey Johnson or even a Jack McKeon would do with this team, but instead we'll get another low-priced manager who commands respect through his pedigree instead of through his performance"), and the Expos' hiring of Jeff Torborg ("one of the game's great form-over-substance talking heads"). (Baseball Prospectus)

Mariners get Garciaparra. (Michael Garciaparra.) (Seattle Times)

Al Shank analyzes the 1969-1971 Orioles. (Baseball Primer)

Rob Neyer compares the spaciousness of Safeco Field to the coziness of Fenway Park. (SportsJones)

Rested Mussina Is Weary After Beating. Why didn't the Orioles hit like this when he pitched for them? (Newsday)

Jay Greenberg compares Mussina to Kenny Rogers (ouch!) and Ed Whitson (ouch!) (New York Post)

Another view of the Yankees' rotation juggling, from a Mets fan. (The Other Side)

Jeff Fletcher on Mark Mulder, who's been the A's' best pitcher this year. He owes it all to golf. (The Press Democrat)

Gary Huckabay makes instant projections by multiplying today's stats by three. Barry Bonds is on pace to hit 87 homers (and 33 singles). Ichiro Suzuki? 267 hits in 750 at-bats. (Baseball Prospectus)

My apologies for the recent problems with this blog. Blogger and Blogspot have been experiencing technical difficulties.

Jim Furtado has compiled a list of the "unwritten rules of baseball." He has 65 so far, and readers are invited to contribute more. (Baseball Primer)

Edward Cossette defends the Red Sox' decision to pull Pedro Martinez after 6 innings last night. "[Y]ou can argue ad infinitum that they would have [won] had Pedro stayed in, but I'm not so sure. Like Kerrigan, I'm willing to gamble this one loss in June in favor of a strong and healthy Pedro in September and October." (Curse of the Bambino)

Terry Pluto on Charles Nagy's gutsy start against the Yankees on Sunday. (Akron Beacon Journal)

Bud Shaw warns the Indians to take the Twins seriously. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Rob Neyer compares the 2001 Mariners to other teams that started hot. (ESPN)

Derek Zumsteg praises Brian Cashman for his deals. (ESPN)

Chat wrap with Joe Sheehan, who gives high praise to Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Barry Bonds. (ESPN)

Gary Huckabay: "[Pete] Rose is an inveterate liar and despicable character who has already befouled the game of baseball more than any thousand drug addicts ever could." (Baseball Prospectus)

Boston Sports Guy on why Red Sox fans will never stop hating Roger Clemens. "Sometimes relationships pass a point where they can be salvaged, as Ike & Tina, Nicole & OJ and Sam & Diane all proved over the years." (ESPN)

Art Martone writes that Dan Duquette should either give Jimy Williams a vote of confidence, or let him go. "There's absolutely no advantage, to anybody, of having Felipe Alou sitting in Montreal, or at his home in the Dominican Republic, as the Red Sox' Manager In Waiting." (Providence Journal)

Glenn Dickey: "The Giants will never be the Yankees, but rooting for the Yankees would be boring, knowing that Steinbrenner can always go out and buy the players he need. Wherever they play, the Giants are never boring." (SF Chronicle)

Jeff Gordon tells Cardinals fans not to worry: "The Cubs are still the Cubs. Unless they add some significant offensive weaponry as the also-rans begin holding fire sales, they will fall painfully short. Again." Fightin' words. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)