Today is one of the more interesting days of the baseball season. Today is the day that the poker players have to reveal their hands. Today is the day that Toronto, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and Los Angeles will share their pitching wealth with the rest of the league. Today is the trade deadline, after today you will need to pass a player by your opponents before moving him to another club and that won’t be easy.

So, the White Sox will be buyers, the Braves will add somebody, and the Yankees won’t be able to resist adding another reliever. The A’s should add a reliever and another outfielder if they can find a willing partner.

It will be interesting watching the sports news this morning.

Jason Schmidt allayed the Giants fears Wednesday with a gem in Wrigley Field. Schmidt is my leader in the clubhouse for the NL’s Cy Young Award this season. He should finish around 18-6, and even if Russ Ortiz wins 20, Schmidt is the best pitcher in the league.

The A’s will add Jose Guillen to their lineup in time for this afternoon’s game against Jake Westbrook and the Indians. Too bad for Westbrook. Guillen should hit third, Durazo fourth, Tejada fifth, and Chavez sixth. Guillen hardly walks, swings like he means it and is hitting .337 this season. His enthusiasm at the plate will undoubtedly rub off on the other three who have been looking for someone to take the heat since day one of this season.

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The Diamondbacks picked up Raul Mondesi hoping that the former big time slugger can recapture his finer big league moments in the Arizona heat.

Mondesi has not been a high average hitter, either in his last years with Tornoto or in New York. The Yankees gave him every opportunity to play, but he never quite lived up to their expectations.

He’s not Richie Sexson and that is who the Diamondbacks need.

Meanwhile today you will see two of the premier matchups in the NL this season. Dontrelle Willis pitches against Randy Johnson in Miami (perhaps more than 10,000 will show up), and Jason Schmidt goes against Kerry Wood in Chicago.

I told Ken Macha back in November when we talked over an iced tea in Oakland that as long as he could write the names Mulder, Hudson, and Zito on his lineup card he would have no trouble this season.

I didn’t realize how prophetic those words would be. The big three are carrying this ball club along with Keith Foulke.

The rotation is set up for the weekend against NY (the A’s pitchers handle the Yankees), Ted Lilly, another lefty today against the Indians, plus Rich Harden on Thursday should make for some happy times around the Coliseum until the A’s head back on the road next week.

How about Bill Mueller? How about Marcus Giles?

Who says the pitchers aren’t getting tired? Mueller, three homers with two grand slams against the Rangers, Giles with nine straight hits going into today’s contest with the Astros.

Click below and let’s talk trades.

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The battle for the AL Central takes place in Kansas City tonight. The White Sox throw Mark Buehrle against the Royals Darrell May.

Both teams have hit lefthanders very well lately, both will employ lefties in this game.

Buehrle has been a big part of the Chicago resurgence. May has been a godsend to this team. He has pitched a team high 121 innings and generally gives a superior effort every time out. KC bolstered its bull pen last night by picking up lefty Graeme Lloyd from the Mets. I have always liked Lloyd and he will definitely help the Royals.

KC started the season by sweeping the Sox , May didn’t make his first start of the year until April 13th, the Royals were well on their opening season roll by then and he stepped right into the rotation which at that time included Miguel Asencio (whatever happened to his minor elbow problem).

The Sox trail the Royals by 4 and have Esteban Loiaza ready to go in this series too.

The A’s got great pitching from Barry Zito but little else losing to Anaheim 2-1. The good news is that they have only 28 road games to go as opposed to 29 home games where they are vastly superior.

By the way, Chad Bradford is known around the club as a terrible fielder, he often gets in the way, he got in the way last night trying to catch a ball that Mark Ellis would have easily gotten to, Bradford deflected the ball, the Angels scored and that’s all she wrote.

Good last at bat by Erubiel Durazo who took Troy Percival’s 97 MPH heater deep to right center for a homer in the ninth.

The A’s face Brian Anderson tonight who unbelievably took a no hitter into the seventh inning against them his last time facing Oakland in Cleveland on May 18th before the A’s rallied to win 8-5.

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Eulogy by Bill Gould

Eulogy by Rabbi Janet Marder

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With the trading deadline still a few days away, the wild card contenders continue to keep their pennant hopes alive.

Florida and Arizona are only two games behind Philadelphia with the Expos, Dodgers, Cubs, Cards, and (as Iowa Cubs broadcaster Dave Raymond pointed out to me last night) even the Rockies are not out of it as well.

In the AL, Boston is clinging to a two game lead over Oakland with Toronto still hanging on too.

This means that there will be many willing buyers in the market for the few healthy arms that are sure to change teams by the deadline.

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L:I’m here with one of the legends of broadcasting, and that is Keith Jackson.  Keith is working the game tonight.  What do you think of this, coming back, how ESPN has brought some of the great voices back to the game?

J:I don’t know if I agree with it (laughs).  But I think it’s fun probably for old-timers, anyway.  I haven’t done a baseball game since 1986, and I haven’t been to any, either.  The last game I did was the Houston-New York Mets, that 16-inning thing in the dome.  But it’ll be fun.  I haven’t been here in a good long time, either, and it’s pretty fancy trappings now that they finally got it fixed.  But we were doing games when they had the hammer throwers here, and Reggie and all those guys, the Joe Rudi’s and what have you, and we live in British Columbia now in the summertime, so we watch the Mariners quite a bit up there.  They’re entertaining.  These are two of the most entertaining teams in baseball. [Read more →]

Marty, The times, they are a-changin, as the poet says. And few places more than in the way the game is played today. Let’s look at the Giants, by way of example. The team’s present roster, which has a way of changing from day to day, with players being shuttled in and out of Fresno as the perceived need arises, consists of 13 pitchers and three outfielders. Of the thirteen pitchers, five are starters, the traditional number these days in a rotation, and the remaining eight are in the bulllpen. The makeup of these pitchers is interesting. [Read more →]

The Red Sox are living right. Not only does Jeremy Giambi (.195) get a hit to start their winning rally in the ninth inning, but the slowest man on the field also steals second for his first career stolen base.

Maybe Giambi’s karma is turning around for him. Giambi who is infamous for not sliding in a close play at home in the 2001 division series, angering every A’s fan in the world, got the call as the replay showed he was out at second on his steal attempt.

The Red Sox should just let Byung Hyun Kim rest during the Yankee series. Not only did he figure in virtually every world series decision between the Diamondbacks and the Bombers in 2001, but he has been the hill for every crucial pitch between the Sox and the Yankees since coming to Boston. Yesterday he barely came out on top over much maligned set up man, righty Armando Benitez for NY.

More of the same on tap today with Derek Lowe against Jeff Weaver.

I don’t care what anyone says the Yankees rotation doesn’t scare me, all right maybe Andy Pettitte, but the rest can be beaten. Just watch tonight.

Kevin Millar has not only given the Red sox good at bats, but he is a lively presence in the clubhouse, a trait which is unknown by club outsiders.

The most impressive thing about Rich Harden is the stuff he throws when he is behind in the count, which is very often. Once Harden gets it together in the majors, he will be very difficult to beat.

I hate to say it, but Harden’s ascent means that Billy Beane now can pull the trigger on a deal trading one of the big three, if necessary.

My prediction is Tim Hudson is the one to go if it happens.

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Newly added Audio Interviews:

Steve McCatty

Buck O’Neill

Larry Doby

Joe Falls

Ernie Harwell

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What a night of baseball.

The Yankees and the Red Sox battled in a classic match up in Fenway Park, won once again by New York 4-3.

Pedro Martinez whose team is 8-13 against the Yanks in the games he has started, battled through 128 pitches to no avail.

It took a single off Mariano Rivera by Jason Varitek in the eighth to get Pedro off the short end of a 3-2 score.

Jesse Orosco came in for the Yankees in the sixth and fanned Johnny Damon with the bases loaded to end the inning. Next frame he got Todd Walker leading off the inning, ending the 45 year old lefties night on the mound.

Some debut for the Yankees newest member of their retooled bullpen.

Byung Hyun Kim who has endured world series nightmares facing the Yankees, came on only to lose the game again in the ninth. Enrique Wilson singled, stole second, went to third on a grounder to the right side by Alfonso Soriano, then came home with the leading run on a sac fly by Derek Jeter.

Small ball at its best.

With two on in the ninth, Rivera got Jeremy Giambi on a soft liner to second to end the game.

Pedro pitched a great game, argued with the umpire Dana Demuth and completely entertained the crowd with a tremendous outing. David Wellses back acted up as he walked five in less than six innings, one less than he had walked all year.

Today John Burkett, who the Yankees own, faces Mike Mussina in another wonderful summer afternoon in Boston.

The Marlins rallied against one of the best bullpens in the NL by scoring eight runs in the eighth inning to beat the Phillies 11-5, thus reducing their deficit to 4 games in the NL Wild Card.

Dontrelle Willis did his thing for six innings, leaving with a 3-1 lead before Placido Palanco hit a three run home roff of Ugueth Urbina in the seventh, which gave the Phillies a short lived lead.

Today the Marlins, who are 7-4 against the Phillies this season, throw youngster Josh Beckett who last threw seven shut out innings against Montreal on Monday against Brandon Duckworth who hasn’t won since May 17th.

And then there was Ted Lilly against the Angels!

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