Summer is here and the pennant races are far from settled. We probably can pick a couple of teams headed for the playoffs, but other than Atlanta and Seattle, and only if they don’t have siginificant injuries to about 6 players, the rest of the spots are still up for grabs.

How do the Cardinals stay in contention with all their pitching miseries? Simple. Albert Pujols, Edgar Renteria, Scott Rolen, and Jim “Do you have to slide on every catch” Edmonds, crush the ball every night. Now, add rookie secondbaseman Bo Hart, 7-12 in his first weekend and you can see why the Cardinals hang around with substandard pitching.

Randy Wolf and Pedro Martinez pitched excellent games Saturday.

When the two pitchers exited the game the score was 2-1 Boston. The game ended 6-5 Phillies in 13 innings, who says this isn’t a game of bullpens? Boston’s will stay a disaster until Byung Hyun Kim is moved to the ninth inning role.

The best hitter on the team is supposed to hit third. This explains the A’s hitting woes as Miguel Tejada is hitting .230.

Someone tell me why Pedro Feliz doesn’t see more playing time for the Giants? I don’t care if he is a free swinger, the guy can play the outfield, third, or first and does hit the ball hard as he did Saturday night off Tim Hudson.

Hudson did not throw his usual array of pitches down in the strike zone and Feliz made him pay, the first homer he hit was just smoked to centerfield.

Click below for more thoughts this summer morning.

The A’s-Giants game Saturday night took on a deja vu feeling, harkening back to game six of the world series in Anaheim. Felix Rodriguez once again fell apart in the seventh inning trying to hold a big lead. Rodriguez has zippo command and it was obvious to the crowd last night. Joe Nathan got the big out of the game, getting Miguel Tejada to pop out weakly to first with the bags loaded on a 1-0 pitch, A’s down 6-4 and the place going crazy. No Hollywood ending for the 2002 AL MVP.

Jerry Manuel looks a little better this weekend as the White Sox have won the first two against the Cubs and have pulled to within 4 1/2 of the reeling Twins who lost again to the Brewers. Today, Bartolo Colon tries to justify his ace status for Chicago against the other Chicago team and Carlos Zambrano.

Who’s clubhouse is it on the Southside of Chicago? Paul Konerko tried to wrest it from Frank Thomas last year causing dissension on the team. This year Thomas is playing like the all star he used to be and Konerko has yet to see a .200 batting average. I have a feeling that Konerko is now the one on his way out and not the Big Skirt as Frank is referred to.

So, what is up with the Twins? They looked unbeatable two weeks ago. When your bullpen is tired, your starters are getting rocked, and you stop playing good defense, the other teams smell blood and your lead shrinks alarmingly fast.

Seattle has the AL MVP so far, the question is who is it, Ichiro or Bret Boone?

The A’s have stopped Ichiro recently, I’ll tell you more about who I think the MVP should be after Seattle and the A’s play four times starting one week from Monday. The last time these two teams met, the first week in April, the A’s looked like the vastly superior team.

Arizona is over .500 for the first time all season. The Diamondbacks have gotten back to the magic mark without Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. If the Dodgers have the same lineup in September, don’t rule out Arizona once the big two are healthy. By the way, what’s the big rush to trade Schilling this year, he is already signed for next season, meaning no free agency blackmail until 2004.

Cliff Politte, one of my favorite set up guys, had his sixth blown save of the year yesterday aginst the Expos. Politte, now the Toronto closer because Kelvim Escobar is in the rotation, needs to go back to the eighth inning pronto.

Nomar 6-6 Saturday, Tejada 0-4, A Rod 0-3 and Jeter rained out. Who would you take if you had the first pick of shortstops in the AL?

Who ever Rodrigo Rosario is, he appeared in the Astros rotation at the right time replacing the injured Roy Oswalt. Of course, the disinterested Rangers did all they could do to make his debut a happy one.

Did Rudy Seanez really get the call to save the Boston game in the 13th inning Saturday. The game winning homer he gave up to Todd Pratt (yes, that Todd Pratt) was crushed.

Dontrelle Willis, Josh Beckett, Mark Redman, Brad Penny, and Carl Pavano, yes it can happen in Miami if they don’t do anything stupid.

Wild Card AL

Oakland….

Boston 1

Toronto 1

Kansas City 4 1/2

Anaheim 7

White Sox 8

NL

Dodgers Giants…..

Montreal 3 1/2

Chicago 5

Cards 5

Phillies 5

Arizona 7

Colorado 7 1/2

Reds 8

and here come the Marlins at 8 1/2

We’ll see today, how bad Kevin Brown’s groin strain really is.

David Eckstein is hitting .232, believe it or not, the little guy is killing the Angels offense right now.

Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez is quietly having a very strong season. It is not a coincidence that Arizona is playing better without Matt Williams around, he became a clubhouse pain in the butt the last year.

Anyone doubt why interleague play is here, just check the attendance figures Saturday, well above normal.

Colorado’s Jay Payotn can play and would look good in Oakland’s outfield or as their righthanded DH. The A’s are counting on Olmedo Saenz coming back next month.

If Jermaine Dye doesn’t break lose soon, the A’s are going to see nothing but lefties the second half of the season.

Joel Pineiro and Ryan Franklin are having excellent first halves and are giving Seattle quality outings quite often. With Freddy Garcia looking better than ever, the pressure is off Gil Meche and Jamie Moyer to carry the staff.

Javier Vasquez hasn’t pitched deep into a game for awhile or at least since Frank Robinson overworked him in Puerto Rico three weeks ago.

Rocky Biddle an all star, why not ?

I hate to recommend this, but Carl Everett can help a contender, he can play when he wants to, it’s just a risk taking him.

The Orioles were around .500 before interleague play started, now they are 32-39, what happened?

Ryan Vogelsong and Armando Rios for Jason Schmidt and John Vander Waal, what a trade, the Pirates actually did this, well, Vogelsong pitches today after missing two years because he blew out his elbow in his first start after the trade.

Jasom Schmidt may be the best righty this side of Kevin Brown in the NL right now.

Headcase Milton Bradley can be had from the Indians for a song, but not a Vogelsong.

Summertime and the livin is easy, that is unless you are trying to get into the playoffs, then it gets complicated.

But, in baseball, complicated is good.