homer

Trent Clark has been activated for the T-rats. Alan Sharkey placed on DL.

Cubs selling their soul. Guess that "character" talk was just that.

I'd get best players available regardless of position.

I dunno - going 36 for 47 on stolen base attempts sort of mitigates that to a degree.

To truly compares Ichiro to his peers you should compare them from age 27 onward. Obviously he's a hall of famer and more than likely would be mentioned with Carew and Gwynn, etc. had he played his whole career in the states.

Right but if you look at the chart June, July and August are consistently higher (for the most part) than any other month within that same year. Maybe you don't consider an 8% jump significant but it is.

And Daniel Missaki...the forgotten third player acquired in the Adam Lind trade.

Ghelfi is 3 for 4. This is insane. He's hitting like .500 in July

Erceg gets a single in his first A ball AB

The thing is, Fielder and Weeks were NEVER going to be good defenders in the infield as proven by their track record there in the majors even after several seasons. And as for Braun he would have been 30 by the time he was serviceable at third base.The problem with the old regime was not knowing when to cut bait on a guy making it at a particular position.

I've never really stopped and considered just how incredible this guy is and what kind of a career he's had. He speaks English but doesn't do it very often and I think that's one reason his game hasn't resonated with me is because I don't have a sound byte to go along with the accomplishments. He's a great player no doubt but he's also a deep and introspective person. I wonder how long he'll play? He's 42 but he's still raking hitting a cool .343 this year. Maybe that's a fluke since his last couple of years were not that great but who knows? Maybe he was fighting injuries. One wonders what he could have accomplished had he played his whole career in the states. If you have the time, I highly recommend this article: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/17105389/miami-marlins-ichiro-suzuki-approaches-3000th-major-league-hit A few of my fave stories: When he played in Seattle, Ken Griffey Jr. started tickling him before every game. Ichiro hates to be tickled. But then Griffey stopped and Ichiro went into a slump. So he told Griffey to start tickling him again, even though it meant that every game he ran onto the field soaked in sweat. Ichiro lives at the intersection of zen, superstition and obsession He loved going to Kansas City to talk with Buck O'Neil, the former Negro Leagues player who became the first black coach in the majors. O'Neil would hang around the batting cage before games. Ichiro enjoyed his style -- O'Neil always dressed beautifully -- and soaked up his stories. O'Neil had also helped establish the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and Ichiro stopped in for a tour. When O'Neil died in 2006, Ichiro sent a giant wreath to the memorial service. A year later, on a road trip to Kansas City, he asked to meet some of the museum's staff. Museum president Bob Kendrick showed Ichiro a rare program from a barnstorming tour of Japan that a Negro League team called the Philadelphia Royal Giants made in 1927. Ichiro held the fragile paper in his hands, read from the Japanese on the cover. Then he got around to why he had come. He pulled out his checkbook. Kendrick won't say how much Ichiro donated to the museum, but he says it was the biggest donation from any active player.

Giants scouting Smith and Jeffress

Chris Carpenter has got a lot of explaining to do.

Mitch Ghelfi was hitting .239 when he went to bed on June 15th. He's now hitting .322

This post made me drool. It also made me do other things I can't mention on this board.

Little Trout is my favorite, but the landing is dangerous to your property sometimes...won't get too deep into that. Lake Tomahawk is my other. Nice golf course there too.

I doubt that Davis batting righthanded was much of a factor in trading him. Instead it was 1. His defensive issues. Davis is better suited for the AL where he can DH. 2. His erratic walk rates. By now it seems pretty clear that he's roughly a .250 hitter with great power, but his above average walk rate in the minors hasn't translated to the majors for whatever reason. Last year with the Brewers he took 44 walks in 440 at bats, but this year for Oakland he's back to drawing walks at a poor rate. 3. As important as anything, i think Stearns really wanted to open a starting position at corner OF for Santana, but unfortunately he's been hurt most of the season. It wasn't because he was right-handed it was because he wasn't versatile. He could only play left field and he could only bat from one side of the plate.

Anyone got a read on Ghelfi? He's on fire right now but nearly every hit is a single. Is he getting lucky? Would seem to me if he was really squaring the ball up he'd have a bunch more doubles at least.

In retrospect it's kind of obvious that Davis was not a Stearns guy just because he can only play left field and only bat right handed. If he was a switch hitter or had the arm to play right he might still be on the team.

Man Diaz has such a nice swing. Looks like Cano to me.

Apparently someone was playing in a holocaust museum. Maybe I should put this in the "what's bugging you" thread.

Ghelfi has been on a tear recently

Maker with 18/18 today.

Gatewood has four walks in his last four games. Progress!

The fact that they got players in return for Hill is amazing. I figured he'd be in one of those "cash consideration" type of trades.