Baseball Notes - July 5th, 2006

Let me begin by saying that there's nothing worse than having a head cold when the weather is 90 degrees and humid. Thanks to Nyquil and Throat Coat tea, I'm feeling much better, but am still not 100%.

We're inching closer and closer to football season. Draft picks are starting to ink their contracts, and though none of the major Seattle newspapers have a story on it, Seattle did sign their 7th round draft pick, punter Ryan Plackemeier, to a 4-year contract. ESPN has the scoop here.

The Seahawks selection of Plackemeier was one of the few I actually predicted in my 7-round mock draft back in April. Seattle had let go of Chris Kluwe, who enjoyed a good season punting in Minnesota. Plackemeier offers the team a booming leg, both on punts and kickoffs. While Josh Brown is an accurate placekicker, and ice water is beginning to be discovered in his veins, he's not real consistent with his kickoffs. Bob Casullo certainly hopes that Plackemeier can help in that area.

Manny to Skip All-Star Game

Manny Ramirez's knee won't allow him to participate in the All-Star festivities in Pittsburgh next Tuesday. Though no announcement has been made by Major League Baseball, his replacement is going to be Detroit Tigers OF, Magglio Ordonez. You can base this off comments made by AL manager, Ozzie Guillen.

Buster Olney already has an issue with Ramirez appearing on the ballot in 2007.

It's clear that the All-Star team selection process is seriously flawed, but the problem isn't with players not participating due to injuries. Sure, Ramirez has backed out before, but that's no reason to exclude him from being on the ballot in the first place.

The way I see it, a bigger problem is seeing players like Travis Hafner, Jim Thome, Jason Giambi and David Ortiz on the ballot as "First Basemen", when they've barely played games at that position this year. That's ridiculous. Paul Konerko is having a fantastic season, and he actually plays the position. Nowhere in the debate among All-Star snubs did one hear the name Kevin Youkilis, who has been invaluable to the first half of the Red Sox season, playing 1B, 3B, occasionally in LF while getting on-base at a clip above .400.

But you haven't heard Youkilis' name mentioned as an All-Star 1B, because the best DH's in the AL occasionally play 1B in inter-league games played in NL ballparks.

How "fair" is that to guys like Youkilis, Justin Morneau, Lyle Overbay or Chris Shelton?

A Glance at the Standings

The 19-1 drubbing the Yankees took was eased by the Red Sox inability to beat a left-handed pitcher in Tropicana Field. The Sox still have a 4-game lead on the Yankees and Toronto, who rode another stellar outing by Roy Halladay to move into a 2nd place tie with the Bronx Bombers.

Detroit is still clinging to a 1.5 game lead on the White Sox, and the Twins have managed to climb 9 games back of the Tigers. Cleveland's 19-1 pounding of the Yankees last night was fun to watch, but has me wondering where all that offense (and pitching) was from April-June.

The Mariners got to within a game of the A's, but then they came home to Safeco. They've now lost 3 straight, and find themselves 3 back in the division, with a red-hot Angels team nipping at their heels.

The Mets probably don't have much to worry about in the NL East, but if Pedro's hip injury is serious, and the pitching continues to falter, the Phillies could make that an interesting division race.

St. Louis holds a 2-game lead over the Reds, and a 4-game lead over the 3rd place Astros, who finally gave Clemens some run support the other night.

In the NL West, Los Angeles, Colorado and San Diego are all deadlocked atop the division, with the Giants only a half game out. Arizona's HGH tailspin has them 3.5 games out.

Dusty Baker-era Over in Chicago?

Cubs GM Jim Hendry is at least thinking about Dusty's future in Chicago, which I guess is a good start. How Baker has managed to hold onto this job, or any job, has long been a mystery to me. He was very successful in San Francisco, where he was a 3-time, NL Manager of the Year. But his stay in Chicago has been marred by underachieving teams (2004, 2005) and him co-writing the "How to Blow a Playoff Series" manual with Grady Little.

Oh, I know. It was Steve Bartman's fault. Yeah, sure...