BASEBALL HEADLINES FROM NEWSPAPERS ACROSS THE NATION




NEW YORK YANKEES TRADE ROGER CLEMENS TO LA DODGERS FOR $14M
“Roger Hasn’t Actually Been on the Team Since 2007,” Stated Yankee GM Brian Cashman, “But the New Dodger Ownership Insisted”

NOSTRADAMUS PREDICTED PITTSBURGH PIRATES WOULD FINISH ABOVE .500 IN 2012
Also Predicted Bigger Raisins Would Eventually Be Used In Popular Bran Cereal and that President Joe Biden Would Entangle US in Costly War With Canada

VIN SCULLY, 84, RETURNING TO DODGER BROADCAST BOOTH IN 2013
Will Only Do The 3rd Inning of Home Games Every Other Tuesday To Physically Prepare for Upcoming Marriage to Lindsay Lohan

BUD SELIG PLANNING TO MAKE 2013 ALL STAR GAME EVEN MORE EXCITING
Baseball Commissioner Says “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy To Be Screened On Scoreboard During Lengthy 7th Inning Stretch;  First Born Children of Losing Players to Be Moved to, Then Driven Out Of, Egypt;  “Find the Tainted Roast Turkey Sandwich” Stadium Promotion Will Keep Fans Focused
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Somewhere inside the ownership suite at Boston's famed Fenway Park it's very possible a remarkable scene took place yesterday. Red Sox Principal Owner John Henry, Chairman Tom Werner, President Larry Lucchino, and GM Ben Cherington likely raised glasses of Cristal champagne in grateful celebration of instantly erasing three of the worst contracts in the history of their franchise.
  
How on earth did the Red Sox front office pull that off? And what idiotic MLB franchise would consider taking on $274.6 million in contracts on underachieving players, several of whom also brought a virus of negativity into the Sox clubhouse?
 
Why, it was your 2012 Los Angeles Dodgers.

We knew the flashy new ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers was desperate to become instantly relevant and competitive, and itching to challenge the San Francisco Giants for the 2012 NL West title. What we didn't know is that they would take on the following player contracts from a Red Sox team equally desperate to reboot their brand and their direction:
 

To the Dodgers...	2012 (est.)	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	Total
1B Adrian Gonzalez	$4.4m	$21m	$21m	$21m	$21m	$21.5m	$21.5m	$131.4m
LF Carl Crawford	$4.1m	$20m	$20.25m	$20.5m	$20.75m	$21m	--	$106.6m
SP Josh Beckett	$3.3m	$15.75m	$15.75m	--	--	--	--	$34.8m
IF Nick Punto	$315,000	$1.5m	--	--	--	--	--	$1.82m

That's a total of $274.62 million. You can subtract the $12 million the Red Sox sent to LA as part of the deal. Payable at $2m a year over six years, it's probably close to the amount the Sox keep in their petty cash drawer.

But if you think that sounds like a steal for the Boston Red Sox just wait, there's more.

Boston also received the Dodgers' #2 rated minor league prospect, right-hander Allen Webster who is projected as a future #2 starter. In addition, the Sox got twenty-four year old LA minor league left fielder Jerry Sands (101 RBI, .911 OPS), 2B Ivan De Jesus Jr. (.295 AVG), and 23 year old righty Rubby De La Rosa.

The Dodgers also included under-performing first baseman James Loney as part of the deal. Loney has about $1.3 million left to pay on his $6.375m 2012 contract and is a free agent in October.

Two questions remain
First, will powerful first bagger Adrian Gonzalez help the Dodgers mount an attack on the National League West title? Absolutely. But this is already Gonzalez's fourth team and his reputation as a selfish player precedes him wherever he goes.

Second, is another bat what Los Angeles really needs most to compete and excel over the next several years? Absolutely not-- they need starting pitching, and plenty of it. This is a team with one certified ace and a dugout full of recycled starters waiting to fail.

The Dodgers haven't quite figured out just how to spend all the money in the world...  think New York Yankees in the early Steinbrenner years.

The Plan
The hope of Magic Johnson and the ownership group that just took over the Dodger franchise is that Gonzalez goes nuts in the next five weeks and single-handedly makes a difference in the race to grab a slot in the National League post season. But to get a potential bump from one $131 million star player they had to take on an additional $143 million in salary from three marginal players.

Crawford's +$20 million per year paydays stretch out through 2017, and he is a serial under achiever with a long history of physical problems (he is about to undergo season-ending elbow surgery this week). Beckett (5-11, 5.23 ERA) was apparently a nightmare in the Red Sox clubhouse and Punto is a utility infielder.

The Result
The Dodgers came into the 2012 season with a payroll at $90+ million. There were a lot of potential roster upgrades the new owners could have considered over the next year; instead they made the stunning decision to purchase a dumpster full of garbage the Red Sox had been accumulating the last several years.

Just when the Sox were wondering what the hell they were going to do with all those deadly and expensive contracts, the Los Angeles Dodgers raised their hands and said "Pick us!".

My bet is the Boston Red Sox braintrust popped open another bottle of Cristal just thinking about it.
 

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The arms race to win the 2012 war between the Giants and Dodgers just went into fifth gear: please secure your food trays to their upright positions and see if you can climb into your overhead luggage compartment. As Bette Davis once said after watching Tommy Lasorda eat his weight in clam linguine, "It's going to be a bumpy night...".

The San Francisco Giants were a half game back in second place when they went to Chavez Ravine for a three game set with the NL West leading Dodgers. LA had just won eight of their last eleven games and looked like they finally found momentum for a big six week push to take the Division title.

And while the Giants weren't exactly reeling from Melky Cabrera's "use by" date expiring two months early, there were doubts, concerns and a clear need to find an outfield bat. Pronto. The unspoken hope was that the Giants could take one or two games and get out of Dodgertown relatively intact.

Giant pitchers had a different idea (so did Giant hitters) as San Francisco swept the Dodgers 2-1, 4-1, and 8-4. In each game the starting pitchers got the win and the loss-- Madison Bumgarner over Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum over Joe Blanton, and Matt Cain over Chris Capuano. On full display was the critical pitching edge San Francisco holds over virtually every other team in baseball.

Now the race between the Giants and Dodgers to bring another bat or starting arm to their rosters gets serious with just over a week to go before the waiver trade deadline hits on August 31st at 1:00PM PST. Any player traded after that date is not eligible for the post-season roster, so that loud noise you hear is the trade clock ticking.

As reported in MLBTradeRumors.com this week, LA Times columnist Dylan Hernandez noted the Dodgers actually won the waiver claim on Phillies starter Cliff Lee (and the $95 million owed Lee through his 2016 option year buyout) only to have Philadelphia quickly yank him back. Speculation on a new Dodger target now shifts to Boston first baseman Adrian Gonzalez who just cleared waivers along with the $135+ million still owed him through 2018.

LA appears to be stumbling all over the map in their attempts to improve either their starting pitching or run production in time to fight for a spot in the 2012 post-season. Apparently the only thing that doesn't make the new Dodger ownership blink is paying untold millions of dollars to get that done.

So which team will pull the trigger on a trade that could very well make all the difference in September?

I'm betting both teams will pull a deal off, with the Dodgers almost a lock to go with a starting pitching upgrade. They may not trot out a fearsome line-up each night (LA is 12th out of 16 NL teams runs scored with 497), but Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, and Hanley Ramirez provide a legitimate offensive core. To eat at the adult table in October the Dodgers need another starting arm. 

San Francisco merely wants to get a good-to-very-good power bat in left field to add some jump to the everyday line-up. With the promotion of Francisco Peguero from Triple A Fresno on Thursday to replace the injured Justin Christian, the Giants have a chance to fill that need in-house with one of the most promising prospects in their minor league system.

If Peguero can find his focus in the next several weeks, this could develop into one of the biggest stories of the year for the Giants. 

Either way, GM Brian Sabean should feel he's provided the pieces needed to solve the post-season puzzle.

Everyone in baseball seems to agree that the San Francisco Giants dodged a big bullet when the agents representing suspended hitting star Melky Cabrera turned down the Giant's overtures for a mid-season contract extension last July. CBSSports.com reported the Giants were poking around the 3 year $27 million range.

With the mega-offensive season Cabrera was putting up, I didn't imagine Cabrera's handlers would give a hometown discount to the Giants. It would have been irrestible to take Cabrera into free agency, where he would likely get something more along the lines of four years at $48 million.

At this point, the chances the Giants might activate Cabrera after his 50 game suspension are about equal to Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin getting invited to a Mensa meeting. But what if...

What if the Giants had signed Melky Cabrera to an extended contract in July? They would have been essentially "forced" to activate and play him the day after his suspension ended. Which would mean the Giants not only made the 2012 playoffs, but they would be moving up to the League Championship Series with Cabrera's bat back in the line-up.

Sure, the critics would still have slammed Cabrera and the Giants, but once he had done his time there would be little question about the legitimacy of San Francisco reactivating a player they just inked to a three year contract. You can make a strong argument that the Giants would actually be a lot better off if they had signed Cabrera before the PED use news broke.

What bad luck-- they would be "stuck" with a player who was batting .346.

Of course it's all academic: first, Cabrera was headed to free agency. Second, who knows how much the testosterone he was applying to his skin helped him get to that .346 batting average. Most importantly for the Giants' brand, the front office might rather pass on having Cabrera's bat back if it also meant they would avoid three years of relentless negative PR.

What About Left Field?
The Giants are reportedly aggressively looking for help in left field before the waiver trade deadline hits at the end of August. Gregor Blanco (.234 BA/.329 OBP/.668 OPS) and Justin Christian (.133/.188/.343) will not be nearly enough to fill the empty milk bottle left on the porch by Melky Cabrera.

The August trade deadline is all about getting a player who will be eligible for the post season, but it's also one last opportunity for teams looking to dump salary to do so before the season ends. So an impact bat or two should be available at a reasonable price.

The Giants do not want to give up any of their top-tiered minor league prospects (think OF Francisco Peguero, CF Gary Brown, RP Heath Hembree, 2B Joe Panik, and 3B Chris Dominguez), but they have the ability to expand payroll to accommodate a sizable salary dump. You can start with the $1.6m the team is saving as part of Cabrera's suspension.

Possible names would include the Mets' LF Scott Hairston (.274 AVG/.522 SLG) who will be a free agent in October and is pulling down a paltry $1.1m in salary. Another October free agent is former-Giant outfielder Cody Ross (60 RBI, 18HR, .854 OPS) of the Red Sox, who has an accommodating $3m salary and an uncertain future with the Sox.

In-house solutions are available but they could be disruptive to the team's structure, which seems to have finally stabilized despite the loss of Cabrera. One such solution would be moving Brandon Belt from first base to left field, putting Pablo Sandoval at first and moving Marco Scutaro to third. Messing with Belt should be a non-starter-- he is a defensive whiz at first base and his offensive numbers are climbing just when the team needs them most.

Promoting Francisco Peguero (103 games, .274 BA, 68 RBI) from Triple A Fresno could bring some electricity to the line-up and excitement among the fans, but GM Brian Sabean and Manager Bruce Bochy rarely look beyond veteran talent in times of need. And who can blame them since the Giants are in for the fight of their lives down the September stretch. Hopefully Peguero will be a September 1st call-up so the team can see what he brings to the show.

Whatever the front office is going to do they need to get it done in the next ten days. Will one more bat make a difference? You can bet your milk money on it.
 

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San Francisco Giants left fielder Melky Cabrera was suspended for 50 games without pay today by Major League Baseball for testing positive for testosterone, a banned performance enhancing drug in baseball's labor agreement. Cabrera apparently already appealed the ruling and issued an apology to his teammates, the Giants organization, and Giant fans saying, "I am deeply sorry for my mistake."

The MLB investigation into Cabrera's drug use apparently started in early July and due to the careful procedures now in place for testing MLB players the process took over a month before Cabrera was finally suspended.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the suspension will cost Cabrera about $1.6 million in salary for the rest of the season.

Melky Cabrera was picked up in an off-season deal with the Kansas City Royals for Giants pitcher Jonathan Sanchez, who is now with the Colorado Rockies. Cabrera's .346 batting average was second highest in the Majors, and he led all of baseball with 159 hits. His 2012 season projected to 220 hits; he had 201 hits in 2011 as a member of the Royals.

We heard the the news at AT&T Park as a half dozen seemingly simultaneous text messages pelted my cell phone about 30 minutes prior to today's game with the Washington Nationals. The immediate feeling of staff and fans in the area was one of devastation and disappointment. Several people said the news gave them same terrible feeling that Buster Posey's season-ending injury did in May 2011.

Melky Cabrera had been promoted and touted by the Giants organization, including appearances at home games of "the Melkmen", fans dressed in white milkmen uniforms cheering their hero on. The "Melkmen" were instrumental in generating All Star ballot votes for Cabrera, who was chosen as a starter and became the MVP of the 2012 All Star Game.

The persona Cabrera created in San Francisco this season was beloved by fans and media alike and the news of his positive drug test will hit the organization hard. Just a few years away from the performance drug controversies surrounding slugger Barry Bonds, Giants management had build a fan-friendly, media controlled universe seemingly secure from this level of scandal and negative news.

Now that has changed and San Francisco Giants ownership is once again faced with rehabiliating their brand in the face of a player cheating scandal. Earlier this season Giant reliever Guillermo Mota was suspended 100 games by Major League Baseball for his second positive drug test in seven years.

Game #117 of the 2012 Season Was Unique
Ironically the Giants played their first game of the year this week with their best batting line-up healthy and in place in a win over the Nationals. Trade deadline pick-ups right fielder Hunter Pence (from the Phillies) and infielder Marco Scutaro (from the Rockies) were joined by third baseman Pablo Sandoval, recently off the disabled list.  

Pre-season acquisitions Angel Pagan and Cabrera joined Sandoval and three other home-grown players to round out the reconstructed offense: Buster Posey (.951 OPS, .331 BA) who has been the dominant hitter in the game since the All Star break; Brandon Crawford, the team's fast-developing super shortstop; and 24 year old slugging first baseman Brandon Belt, who will have to pick up much of the slack created by Cabrera's departure.

This would have been the best offensive batting order the Giants put on the field since the 2002 World Series team of Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent.
 
On that 2002 team, LF Barry Bonds (1.381 OPS, 110 RBI, 117 R, 46 HR) and 2B Jeff Kent (.933 OPS, 108 RBI, 102 R, 37 HR) were backed up by RF Reggie Sanders (85 RBI, 23 HR), C Benito Santiago (74 RBI, 16 HR), and 3B David Bell (82 R, 20 HR).

It took 10 long years for the Giants to finally assemble a batting line-up with legitimate offensive punch 1 though 7 in the order. That finally happened Tuesday when the new-look San Francisco offense took on Washington Nationals' starter Jordan Zimmermann and his League-leading 2.35 ERA. The Giants won 6-1 on Madison Bumgarner's complete game victory.

The very next day San Francisco lost their best hitter for the rest of the 2012 season and the perfect line-up was gone in an instant. Now the drive to make the 2012 playoffs could disappear just as fast.

BASEBALL HEADLINES FROM NEWSPAPERS ACROSS THE NATION




WASHINGTON NATIONALS OWNERSHIP DECIDES TO SHUT DOWN GM MIKE RIZZO FOR THE YEAR
“We Feel Mike Has Pitched a Large Number of Deals for the Nationals in 2012 and We Need to Insure He Will be Rested and Ready for the 2013 Season,” Stated Nats Chief Operating Officer Andrew Feffer.


SF GIANTS NOW CLAIM TERRITORIAL RIGHTS EXTEND INTO CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
Giants President Larry Baer: “We Will Take Legal Action Against a Number of Professional Soccer and Bocci Teams Who Are Encroaching Into Territory Granted to the Giants by the Early Spanish Explorers.”


MLB ADDS FORMAT CHANGES TO INCREASE FAN INTEREST IN 2012 WILD CARD GAMES
American and National League Wild Card Winners to Play One Five Inning Playoff Game, Players Allowed Limited Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs. Commissioner Bud Selig: “Our Goal is to Eventually Have All MLB Teams Make the Playoffs, Just Like They Do in That Arena Football.”


SCIENTISTS CONCERNED POSSIBLE PIRATES 2012 PLAYOFF APPEARANCE COULD TRIGGER WORLD-WIDE CHAOS, TSUNAMIS
"Pittsburgh finishing above .500 Would Be Contrary to Everything We Know About the Physics of the Universe and, Frankly, We Are Scared,” Warned United Nations Science Chief Randall Utami. Authorities Plan to Advise All MLB Fans to Shelter in Place If Pittsburgh Qualifies for the Post-Season.


NEW DODGERS' OWNERSHIP GROUP TO PURCHASE AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL DIVISION
“We Are Looking to Get Better and More Competitive,” Stated Dodgers Owner Earvin "Magic" Johnson, “And This is a Move We Believe Will Help Us Get There.”

The San Francisco Giants walked away from the 2012 non-waiver trade deadline in pretty good shape. With the extra-base power of Hunter Pence in the everyday line-up, and the solid-hitting Marco Scutaro in the infield mix, the Giants have assembled an offense that will challenge the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League West title.

The quality starting pitching a contending team needs to go deep into the post season has been in place at AT&T Park for several years.

But what didn't happen at the trade deadline, and what might have been, reveals much about the limitations that continue to hold the franchise back.

The Giants faced the non-waiver deadline with a very familiar shopping list: hitting, more hitting (and did I mention hitting?).

Sure, the bullpen was getting ragged around the edges thanks to the pre-season loss of closer Brian Wilson and 8th inning fastballer Santiago Casilla stumbling to fill Wilson's role, but the Giants were winning. And Manager Bruce Bochy came to Giants the from the San Diego Padres in 2007 with a reputation as master and commander of all things bullpen.

Then came an eight game nightmare from July 22nd through July 30th in which San Francisco went 2-6, including being swept by the Dodgers in a three game series at AT&T Park. The Giants were out-scored 40-26 in those games and all of a sudden getting additional hitting felt more like survival than simply improving the offense.

And what a rocky road that turned out to be. Giants' General Manager Brian Sabean suggested discussions with the Phillies about right fielder Hunter Pence started somewhere around the All Star break. As the deadline loomed, the two teams squabbled over which Giants player from the 25 man roster would be part of the deal. It finally got done with just hours to spare when the Phillies finally accepted Nate Schierholtz as part of the deal.

The Aging and Expensive Alfonso Soriano
San Francisco also talked to the Cubs about the aging and expensive Alfonso Soriano. Either Soriano rejected a proposed trade to the Giants or he simply told the Cubs not to bother taking Sabean's calls-- either way he was not about to play half his games in the Giants' hitter-unfriendly ballpark.

No doubt the $36m Soriano will be getting in 2013-14, and the $9m still owed him in 2012, must have been a major talking point between the two teams.

There's little doubt the Cubs were willing to put copious amounts of mustard on Soriano's contract and ingest a large portion of it, but they found no takers by the July 31st deadline. With the August 31st deadline fast approaching it will be fun to watch Alfonso Soriano get repackaged and sail through waivers faster than a Farmer John's hot dog through Vin Scully's digestive tract.

Then we'll see if Cubs President Theo Epstein has the magic to make Soriano disappear from the South Side and reappear... where?... LA?

The AT&T Park Effect
One thing stands out here. While we don't know exactly why Alfonso Soriano put the Giants in his "no fly" zone it's logical to speculate that The AT&T Park Effect cost the Giants yet another power hitter (and Soriano already rejected a trade to San Francisco last season). This is likely the latest example of the team's ongoing and largely unsuccessful battle to attract hitters to their China Basin location.

Simply put, many Major League hitters do not want to play in San Francisco because the ballpark is built for pitchers to succeed and hitters to fail. Agents and their hitting clients know that when it's time to renew a contract or enter free agency, The AT&T Effect will end up costing that hitter money.

Meanwhile the Giants have done everything they can to downplay The Effect over the years in order to avoid a negative media image of AT&T Park. And the last thing the front office wants is for Giant fans to get all worked up about their beautiful ballpark costing the team quality players.

But if you saw the names of the top shelf MLB hitters who have crossed the Giants off their wish lists over the past 12 years it would melt your garlic fries.    

The Bullpen Wars
On deadline day MLBTV had the Giants and a mystery club arm wrestling over who would get closer Jonathan Broxton from Kansas City. The Cincinnati Reds turned out to be the surprise winner in the Broxton derby, and the Giants ended up going 0 for 2 in bullpen additions by also losing Seattle's Brandon League to the Dodgers.

Giants' skipper Bruce Bochy didn't miss a beat. He reconfigured his faltering bullpen, pulling Santiago Casilla from the closer role and creating a floating three way 8th/9th inning tag-team of Sergio Romo, Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez.

The addition of lefty Jose Mijares (2.56ERA/1.26 WHIP) on waivers from Kansas City allows the durable Affeldt to focus on the 9th inning.

Two potential problems may yet haunt the bullpen. Because of the physical and mental stress of trying to be the closer for the past three months, Casilla may not be ready to resume his role as a 7th/8th inning strikeout guy; and the Giants need him.

The other issue is much more familiar to Giant fans: newly acquired reliever Mijares is apparently a disciple of the Pablo Sandoval see-it/eat-it buffet diet and his conditioning and weight will have to be closely monitored.

The next 16 games will be a critical test of San Francisco's reformed offense and bullpen. There are six games with losing teams (3-Rockies, 3-Padres), and a whopping ten games with very good teams (3-Nationals, 3-Dodgers, 4-Braves).

The good news is that Buster Posey is putting on a hitting master class at the plate almost every day and Pablo Sandoval will rejoin the San Francisco line-up in the next week. This is a batting order that will score a large number of runs over the next seven weeks. Now only the bullpen poses a question mark.

The San Francisco Giants jumpstarted their faltering offense in the final hours of the 2012 non-waiver trade deadline Tuesday, going head-to-head with the Los Angeles Dodgers in an all out MLB arms race to win the National League West.

The Giants picked up right fielder Hunter Pence from the Philadelphia Phillies for Double A Richmond catcher Tommy Joseph, Single A San Jose right-handed pitcher Seth Rosin, and right fielder Nate Schierholtz.

Pence will be under team control through the 2013 season, his final year of arbitration eligibility prior to free agency.

The Giants were active bidders against several other teams to get Kansas City closer Jonathon Broxton, but Broxton was picked up at the last minute by the Cincinnati Reds.

With the acqusition of Pence, 29, and last week's addition of infielder Marco Scutaro, the Giants addressed two of the three main issues effecting team performance the first half of the season: lack of production in right field and finding a potent infield bat.

San Francisco was unable to fix their third big issue, reinforcing the bullpen following the loss of closer Brian Wilson and the inability of Santiago Casilla to consistenly fill the closer role. Any deal from this point on must go through a list of other MLB teams and clearing those waivers can be difficult to get done.

It is a testament to the creativity and experience of Giants' General Manager Brian Sabean that San Francisco was able to target its biggest needs so effectively without giving up any of their top four minor league prospects: center fielder Gary Brown, closer Heath Hembree, second baseman Joe Panik, and outfielder Francisco Peguero.

Seth Rosin may be the sleeper in the Hunter Pence deal. As I noted in the "Prospects" column to the right, Rosin was selected in the 4th round of the 2010 first year player draft after being selected but not signed in 28th round of the 2007 draft by the Minnesota Twins. Rosin is a 6'7" strike thrower who can hit 95 MPH with his fastball; he currently has 68 SO in 58.1 IP.

Including Nate Schierholtz in the Pence deal clears San Francisco's roster of a marginal player who was never a consistent run producer. Schierholtz, who was part of the Giants' 2010 World Championship team, goes from AT&T Park, a very tough ballpark for hitters, to the Phillies' Citizens Bank Park-- one of the best hitters' parks in the Majors. That should give Schierholtz an offensive statistical bump.           

But the real news here is that by making Tommy Joseph the centerpiece of the Hunter Pence trade the San Francisco Giants delt from their biggest organizational strength: the franchise's deepest assets are at the catcher position. With Buster Posey and Hector Sanchez at the big league level and Andrew Susac at Single A San Jose, the loss of Joseph shouldn't impact the Giants' future.

Both the Giants and the Dodgers (with new pick-ups IF Hanley Ramirez, OF Shane Victorino, and RP Brandon League) are armed and recharged for the upcoming battles of August and September. The traditional difference-makers are starting pitching and bullpen strength-- both areas in which the Giants still have a distinct edge.

In a smart move that will definitely help the Giants in the 2012 campaign, San Francisco traded for Colorado Rockies' veteran infielder Marco Scutaro.

Scutaro will give Manager Bruce Bochy another offensive chess piece to work with for the next two months as the team tries to increase their runs per game average.

The Giants sent Triple A Fresno second baseman Charlie Culberson to the Rockies for Scutaro, which will have zero impact on San Francisco's minor league factory. When he was brought up in mid-May of this year Culberson looked totally lost at the plate (.136/.136./.136) and shaky defensively.

But the reality here is that super prospect Joe Panik is likely the Giants' second baseman of the future and Culberson was just marking time in the organization.

The amazing thing is the typical response from fans calling into local sportstalk radio after Hanley Ramirez and the Dodgers demonstrated what a bold trade can do for a team in a tight Division race. Many callers were upset that Charlie Culberson was traded for Scutaro; for some unknown reason they thought Culberson was a promising prospect.

I love fan loyalty and sticking up for home players, but fans shouldn't ignore the objective assessment that statistics provide as a way to quantify talent and production. I've seen it with other players traded by the Giants in past years: fans went nuts when John Bowker was traded to Pittsburgh in 2010 for reliever Javier Lopez-- you would have thought Babe Ruth was just traded to the Yankees. Bowker's career ended last year after he hit .133 in 31 games for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

We see the same thing with current Giants outfielder Nate Schierholtz-- a locally raised guy with a great right field glove and occasional power. But a six year career and 501 games with 1,200 at bats also counts for something: it demonstrates that Schierholtz is not an everyday player and is likely at best a 5th outfielder.

And even Schierholtz can mess up in the field. In last night's loss against the Dodgers, Schierholtz misplayed a ball in right field with two outs that led to two runs scoring. No one wants a player on their team to do poorly, but that's no excuse for not being analytical and recognizing a player's actual production.           

On another note, have you ever listened, I mean really listened, to San Francisco Giants General Manager Brian Sabean doing a sports radio or TV interview?

Brian Sabean always plays his cards tight around the annual non-waiver trade deadline. He puts out such a deliberate and detached casual attitude about potential trades when he's talking with the local media that he appears to be only vaguely aware that there is some kind of baseball trade deadline in late July.

Meanwhile he's quietly packaging a six player deal to get Hunter Pence from the Phillies (or some other impact deal).

In order to figure Sabean out, I'm working on a series of translations of his recent comments and phrases so we can all better understand what he's really saying. Eventually I'll put them in handy booklet that can be whipped out quickly whenever you hear Sabean giving an interview.

So far, I have three translations completed:

Sabean: "We doing our due diligence in exploring ways to fill our current needs, but we don't expect any big names to be involved."

Translation: "I've done everything I can to get Houston Street from Padres GM Josh Byrnes including an offer of domestic partnership and a commitment to wash his damn Lexus every morning".

Sabean: "We like our team make-up as is, but you always think you can tweak your roster here and there for the better."

Translation: "We can't f--king pick up the damn ball and our closer has one pitch in his repertory. You try tweaking that motherf--ker into a winning season."

Sabean: "As far as the team payroll, at the end of the day we do have some flexibility."

Translation: "Luckily the fans are still buying that 'small market' bulls--t. At this point, ownership is printing money and if we wanted to we could afford to have Ted Williams dug up, reanimated, and starting in left field by next week."

I expect there will eventually be a language course at UC Berkeley devoted to understanding Sabeanese. Maybe "Sabeanese 1A-- the Art of Speaking in Tao".

I have some serious decisions to make in my two MLB draft leagues. Several players, it turns out, have not performed up to draft day expectations and need to be replaced.

One league is held at historic McNally's Irish Pub in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood. The other is out of the equally historic Kingfish Pub and Cafe also on the north side of Oakland. Luckily, both leagues have a trade deadline of August 30th, so there's plenty of time to ponder whether I should jettison the Rangers' Neftali Feliz or see if he comes back in early August and tears up the American League.

For Major League baseball teams, however, the non-waiver trade deadline clock is running out a lot quicker. The final alarm goes off on Tuesday July 31st at 1:00PM Pacific, 4:00PM Eastern Standard time.

General managers have four days left to pull the trigger on the moves that might put their franchises into the post season, where, as Yogi Berra might have put it, even the losers are big winners.

In the past week trade jockeying in the National League played like a series of outtakes from "The Matrix". Some teams have stumbled into a spectacular muti-dimensional free-fall while others have started strapping on rocket-launchers and putting black on their faces in preparation for all out war.

Slipping on a series of extra large banana peels in the first half of the season are the Florida Marlins who appear to have strapped "for sale" signs on the backs of every player except Giancarlo Stanton. Just-emptied lockers in Miami's new baseball stadium include those of SP Anibal Sanchez and IF Omar Infante who joined the contending Detriot Tigers, and IF Hanley Ramirez and RP Randy Choate who are now LA Dodgers.

It was quaint the way Marlins' General Manager Michael Hill and owner Jeffrey Loria insisted to the media that overpriced underachieving free agents Jose Reyes (.741 OPS, 48 RS @ $106m) and Mark Buehele (9-9 @ $58m) are "untouchable". And once again the Houston Astros are denied the final two pieces that would have put them over the top.

Pitcher Josh Johnson looks to be the next Marlin tossed out of the boat, except Florida is asking for Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in return. Take a quick photo of Carlos Lee, Ricky Nolasco, and Carlos Zambrano in their Marlin jerseys before they're put in cement and deep sixed.

I'm thinking it's just a matter of time before Marlin's Manager Ozzie Guillen calls another press conference to discuss Cuban politics and what's right with Fidel Castro.   

There was no indication the San Francisco Giants made a move on Hanley Ramirez and that's understandable. By all accounts Ramirez is a spoiled child with an ego the size of New Jersey. He could melt amid the temporal temptations of Hollywoodland. But I must admit that Ramirez does start to make the Dodger line-up look potentially scary. And that's scary.

It appears the new Dodger ownership has only started opening up their collective wallets. LA has expressed interest in a half dozen starting pitchers and any number of hitters, including OF Alfonso Soriano of the Cubs who is still owed $36m in 2013-14.

Apparently Chicago is so desperate to dump Soriano they are offering to pay virtually his entire remaining salary to any team willing to take him off their hands. The Cubs will also pack his suitcase, provide a limo to take him from Wrigley Field directly to his new team's stadium, and throw in a lifetime supply of sunflower seeds. If the Dodgers get Soriano along with Hanley Ramirez, and somehow entice Manny Ramirez out of retirement, I would pay cash money to see that nightmare on Sunset Boulevard.

The Houston Astros have given up going through the motions and at this point are simply refusing to come out of the team hotel until they have officially been moved to the American League West. And the once feared Philadelphia Phillies have absolutely no clue what they're doing. Half the time the Phils are saying they're open to trading anyone who can hold a baseball, half the time they're definitely standing pat.

The Milwaukee Brewers, who won the NL Central with 96 wins last season, have shipped top National League pitcher Zack Greinke to the Angels. Funny what a 44-54 record will make you do on July 27th.

Word is the Brewers' loveable mascot Billy Brewer will be quietly put to sleep this weekend in a salary savings move by ownership.  

The Colorado Rockies are 17.5 games out of 1st place in the NL West and falling. Unofficial reports are that team owners have asked Commissioner Bud Selig if they could also please go to the American League just like the Astros. Selig has promised to set up a commission to study the request.