Pedro Martinez, a 37-year-old in the twilight of his career, is still searching for big league work this season. The three-time Cy Young Award winner and eight time All-Star has been spending his time pitching for the Dominican Republic. Thanks to a rousing upset at the hands of the Netherlands, though, the Dominican is done playing.
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.
Meet the ... Eventual landing spot for Manny Ramirez. Seriously, it's going to happen sooner or later, so we'll just assume it's already happened for the purposes of this post. Obviously, if he either signs elsewhere (unlikely) or sits out this season (as unlikely as the holier than thou media embracing A-Rod), we'll have to re-fantasy-spin the entire offense. He's that important to the lineup.
Every kid's been told by his parents, probably more than once, that life isn't fair. Nelson Figueroa would probably agree with that sentiment. He worked his tail off after a 2004 stint with the Pirates, traveled anywhere they'd let him pitch and made it back to the big leagues with the Mets this season. He made a couple of decent starts but quickly dropped below the standards of a major league starter culminating with last night's poor performance against Washington.
If he reads an account of his reaction to the Nats razzing of him from the dugout, he mocked their lowly position in the standings by saying "they are who they are," it must be particularly painful. The Nationals may be bad but they're major leaguers, something Figueroa isn't anymore. Also painful is that the razzing was led by Elijah Dukes.
Dukes has talent that Figueroa can only dream about, but he's done everything in his power to squander it without making an impact on anything but police blotters. That talent, though, gives him chance after chance while Figueroa has to go to Taiwan and back for a few weeks in the bigs. Like I said, life isn't fair.
It might be easier to list what's right with Orlando Hernandez than to list what's wrong with him. "El Duque" was due to come off the disabled list on Sunday from his bunion discomfort, but rather than just have a flare up of that existing injury, Hernandez has come up with a brand new injury, as a strained tendon in his right foot will put him on the shelf for at least another month.
This from the same guy who missed the 2006 playoffs because he hurt his calf while jogging in the outfield, and the same guy who had the following spring training hampered by arthritis in his neck. Add to that the fact that nobody really knows how old he is, it's possible that we may never see Hernandez in a major league uniform again at this rate.
The Mets, who probably took well over a year too long to stop depending on the health of El Duque, are looking at signing Claudio Vargas to help out their rotation. Just six months ago, Hernandez was being counted on to throw in the front end of the Mets rotation, before a previous flare-up with tendinitis started to convince the Mets that Hernandez just isn't very durable anymore ... just really, really old.
If there was any doubt left in what the Brewers' rotation was going to look like today, they took care of it by cutting Claudio Vargas and ensuring spots for Manny Parra and Carlos Villanueva. It's a fairly surprising move given Vargas's strong spring (3-1, 3.86 ERA) and decent year last year both out of the pen and in the rotation.
I suppose Milwaukee's rationale here is that when Yovani Gallardo comes back in the early part of the season, either Villaneuva or Parra goes back to AAA and becomes the de facto sixth starter. Still, with guys like Jeff Suppan and Ben Sheets, who either suck or will probably get hurt, and young guys like Parra and Villaneuva, having one more arm like Vargas in the 'pen can't hurt, especially when someone like Guillermo Mota could easily be replaced by Vargas in the bullpen
Of course, it may simply have come down to a math equation for the Brewers. They're going to save almost $3 million by cutting Vargas and $3 million is an expensive insurance policy to stow away in the pen or keep in in the minors. Doug Melvin says money isn't the reason he did it and I believe he would've kept Vargas if he thought he was best starter, but once he decided Vargas wasn't in the top five, money always plays a part for small market teams.
The NL Central has already seen two of its six teams can their managers this year with two more (Jim Tracy, who's working for a new GM and Tony La Russa, who seems sick of St. Louis) likely to go at season's end. And apparently, Ned Yost would like to join them.
Facing a 2.5 deficit in the Central with little more than a week remaining, Yost was forced to choose a starter today when it became clear that Ben Sheets would be unable to go today with his gimpy hamstring. His choices? Claudio Vargas or Chris Capuano. True, Vargas has been shaky this year, but he pitched well in his last outing when Sheets went down. He's also not Chris Capuano. The Brewers have lost the last 20 games that Capuano has appeared in! He's lost his last 12 decisions. He's got an ERA of over 6.00 since mid-May. Let me say this, with emphasis: YOU ARE IN A GD PENNANT RACE! YOU ARE 2.5 GAMES BACK WITH TEN GAMES LEFT! YOU CANNOT MAKE CHOICES THAT WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY LOSE YOU A GAME AT THIS POINT IN THE YEAR!
I used to think that managers had a big final impact on whether a team was a winning team or a losing team. After a couple of years of really looking at it, it's become more and more clear to me that all managers really have to do is not screw things up. Maybe Capuano will go out and throw a gem against the Braves today, but as of right now there's no reason to think that he will, and that's what makes this an awful, awful move.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
Milwaukee Brewers (58-49) vs. New York Mets (59-47)-ESPN 8:05PM Est.
Since Tom Glavine isn't pitching tonight, we can return the focus to what this series is really about. Two teams atop their division who are spending a lot more time looking over their shoulder lately. The Brewers were able to cap a comeback win last night with Geoff Jenkins 2-run homer in the 13th inning, and today they look to win two straight games for the first time in two weeks. The Mets meanwhile are dealing with the pressure of a shrinking lead in the NL East as the Phillies and Braves keep adding players and getting closer to the top of the division. Claudio Vargas starts for Milwaukee, and there's nobody who likes pitching at Miller Park better than Vargas. He's made 10 starts there this season, and the Brewers are 10-0 in those starts. Hell, the Brewers are 15-3 in any start Vargas has made this season, and haven't lost a game in which he started since May 26th. Oliver Perez goes for the Mets, and he can't get any help from his team lately. Perez lost his last start despite the fact he didn't surrender an single earned run. Since the All-Star break Perez is 2-1 with a 1.40 ERA, but he should be 3-0.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing matchups
Minnesota Twins (51-46) vs. Los Angeles Angels (56-40)-2:10PM Est.
Things haven't been going too well for the Angels lately. They've lost five of their last six games and have seen what was once a healthy 8 game lead in the West shrink down to 1. A loss today would be the first time the Halos have been swept in Minnesota since 1996. Joe Saunders will be making his first start in place of the recently demoted Ervin Santana and he's 3-0 with a 2.97 ERA in spot duty so far this season. He'll be opposed by Matt Garza who in three starts this season, is yet to give up an earned run. Of course the real question is whether or not Joe Mauer will be able to hit an inside-the-park home run for the second straight game. Not an easy feat, I know, but never doubt the power of the sideburns.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
Milwaukee Brewers (52-40) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (49-45)-8:05PM Est.
All the talk in the NL Central seems to be about the Cubs lately, and living in Chicago, I sometimes get the impression the Cubs are already in first place. Don't tell that to the team in Milwaukee, where last I checked, the Brewers were still going strong. The Cubs have gotten to within 3.5 games in the division, but Milwaukee's held them at bay by winning their last three. Claudio Vargas starts for the Brewers tonight and is 6-2 with a 4.52 ERA, and the Brewers haven't lost a game at Miller Park in which Vargas has started. That's good news for Milwaukee, especially after the news they just got on Ben Sheets. The Diamondbacks are in the middle of a division race of their own. They're third in the NL West, but only trail the Dodgers by 4.5 and are 3.5 behind the Padres for the wild card. Yusmeiro Petit once again fills in for Randy Johnson, and I'm sure he'd appreciate more run support in this start. The Snakes have failed to score any runs in two of the three starts Petit has made..
The NL Central spent most of the first half of the season as a joke. At one point the division went almost a whole week without beating a team from out of the division. Things are different now. The Brewers have heated up and the Cubs have followed right behind them, closing the division gap to 4.5 games and creating a compelling race in the second half. So let's look at the competitors.
First things first, the BP Adjusted Standings, which account for lots of math-y things have the teams actually two games closer than their current four and a half. This doesn't mean a lot now, but it's an indication that the Brewers record may dip while the Cubs may raise without an actual change in level of play. But let's go beyond the sabermetric crowd to break this one down even further, after the jump.
Pedro Martinez, a 37-year-old in the twilight of his career, is still searching for big league work this season. The three-time Cy Young Award winner and eight time All-Star has been spending his time pitching for the Dominican Republic. Thanks to a rousing upset at the hands of the Netherlands, though, the Dominican is done playing. 
Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through 
Every kid's been told by his parents, probably more than once, that life isn't fair. 
It might be easier to list what's right with 
If there was any doubt left in what the Brewers' rotation was going to look like today, 
The NL Central has already seen two of its six teams can their managers this year with two more (
The NL Central spent most of the first half of the season as a joke. At one point the division went almost a whole week without beating a team from out of the division. Things are different now. The Brewers have heated up and the Cubs have followed right behind them, closing the division gap to 4.5 games and creating a compelling race in the second half. So let's look at the competitors. 
