"Maybe next year." That's what the fellas in Brooklyn say whenever their beloved Dodgers fall short and that's what yours truly says now that his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers are out of the running for the World Series. As others in Los Angeles say to some effect, "At least Laker season starts soon" and yours truly says, "There's also plenty of Manchester United football to be played" and what a time to reflect on that thought just as United visit Anfield for a big clash against Liverpool.

que up your misguided Dusty Baker jokes.

As expected, Edinson Volquez underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery Monday as doctors discovered that the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow was almost completely torn. Typical recovery from Tommy John surgery involves about 12 months on the sidelines, so even if everything goes smoothly Volquez could end up missing all of next season.

Since coming to Cincinnati in the December of 2007 swap for Josh Hamilton he's gone 21-8 with a 3.44 ERA and 253 strikeouts in 245.2 innings to emerge as one of baseball's most promising young starters. Even missing all of 2010 would give Volquez time to make a full return at age 27 and because a great changeup has led to so much of his success losing a couple miles per hour may not ruin him.

Aaron Gleeman

There are not a ton of great match-ups today, but the Cardinals face off against Johan Santana today, so we will go with that. The Metropolitan's season may be a lost cause but St. Louis is certainly in the thick of it, thanks a bunch to Joel Pineiro.

Cardinals (58-50) @ Mets (50-55), 7:10pm
  STL: Joel Pineiro (30, RHP, 9-9, 2.84)
  NYM: Johan Santana (30, LHP, 12-8, 2.96)

Baseball-Reference.com

Ah nice. There in lies the difference between an annual pennant contender and an annual last place team. The Padres were saving Peavy for next season, because they could. Don't believe me? When was the last time you heard anything with regards to Chris Young? He was only supposed to miss a start or two, remember.

Peavy could face the Yankees if his timetable accelerates. The Sox visit New York on Aug. 28-30. ''That's the goal,'' manager Ozzie Guillen said. ''We look at the schedule and think that's the [series] we think he should be ready for. That's the biggest reason -- we have a tough schedule for the end of the season. Hopefully, he'll be there when we go there. I hope he'll be there before that, but that's what we're shooting for and that's what we should be doing when we go to Boston and New York.

''I've got a feeling he's going to be out on the field sooner than what we think. I don't know why, but the thing we have going on right now, I think he sees his teammates, the way we work here, how we have fun. In the meantime, when the game starts, everything is about the game. ''The good thing is it's not his arm. We have one of the best trainers [Herm Schneider] in the game. Our medical staff is very, very good, and that's one of the biggest reasons the organization took a shot at him. Hopefully, he'll be healthy as soon as possible.''

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

I snatched him up in a couple of leagues where I need 3B help. Ya never know, and the kid is still young. I for one am pulling for him.

What are we to make of Marte at this point? On the positive side, he’s hardly ancient at 25 years of age, was going postal on International League competition, and his 16.7 K% was rather low. On the other, he’s still not working the count all that well (6.8 BB%), and a .345 BABIP suggests that his batting average-driven line will come down some.

Prior to the 2009 season, CHONE was the most optimistic projection system regarding Marte’s future (.248/.316/.421). But that forecast does not take into consideration his resurgent hitting at AAA (per Minor League Splits, Marte’s Major League Equivalent line is .292/.326/.498). The truth probably lies somewhere in between those two lines. While it’s not a perfect comparison, Marte calls to mind a Joe Crede-type, with good pop and a slick glove helping to compensate for an aggressive, lower-OBP approach at the plate.

From a fantasy perspective, Marte is well worth a look in AL-only and deep mixed leagues. With Ryan Garko gone, Andy should get a decent amount of playing time at first base.

FanGraphs Fantasy Baseball

There are reportedly fifteen different teams talking with the San Diego Padres about acquiring Heath Bells late inning services. What this does for Heath Bells fantasy value remains to be seen, as he could easily end up being an 8th inning guy or a closer, depending upon where he lands. Thems the breaks. If I had to gamble on Heath Bell being moved in the next 24 hours, I would say the chances are greater than 75%. The Padres would be foolish to not sell high on the guy, as Bell is going to be 32 next season, and will be facing arbitration this winter, (bad words for the Padres front office). Heath Bells value will never be higher.

So who will be closing games in San Diego for that one win a week, once Bell moves on?

I sold off a year to early on the guy, but in some small way, I feel justified, relieved, vindicated, what ever you want to call it.

I'm sorry, but when the wait exceeds the payoff, I have to put my foot down. And speaking in terms of the six-month baseball calendar, the wait has exceeded the payoff, whether he missed part of that period with injury or not. Even if Hamilton hits eight home runs tomorrow, leading into the greatest two-month stretch of offensive firepower the world has ever seen, that's two months of goodness after four months of garbage.

In other words, for all the talent Hamilton has, for all we know he can do, he's running out of time to flip the switch and actually do it. Back in May, maybe I could afford to cross my fingers and hope he wakes up tomorrow, but not now. Now, I actually have to win. So you can keep running out Hamilton over guys like Andre Ethier, Juan L. Rivera and Ryan Ludwick if you want, but not me. I just can't take that leap of faith anymore.

Does that mean I'd cut Hamilton? Does that mean I'm calling him the worst player in Fantasy from now until the end of all eternity? No and no. I'm just saying I can't start him anymore, not until his actual performance justifies it. And if someone in my league was still willing to pay a relatively high price for him, I'd invite the discussion.

CBSSports.com

Also in the present, Huntington strongly suggested last night that recently acquired outfielder Lastings Milledge will make his Pirates debut tomorrow, coincidentally against his former Washington team.

Milledge has batted .337 in 17 games with Class AAA Indianapolis and, by all accounts, has been a model worker and citizen off the field, a main stressing point given some of Milledge's past turmoil. "We're very happy with what Lastings has done," Huntington said.

His recall is certain to mean a demotion for outfielder Jeff Salazar. That would leave Milledge, Brandon Moss and Garrett Jones rotating around center fielder Andrew McCutchen.

Post Gazette

Patiently awaiting the response from this whiny little beatch. Other than the hypocrisy that will be flowing from his lips, I could care.

Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, the sluggers who propelled the Boston Red Sox to end an 86-year World Series championship drought and to capture another title three years later, were among the roughly 100 Major League Baseball players to test positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the results.

NYTimes.com

We have a light schedule today, with most of the American League teams taking the day off. There really is not a ton of great match-ups on the docket today, even though Johan Santana takes to the mound. The best of the bunch appears to be Javy Vazquez, the most underrated pitcher in fantasy circles ever, taking the mound against the Norwegian, Rick VandenHurk.

Braves (51-50) @ Marlins (53-48), 7:10pm
  ATL: Javier Vazquez (32, RHP, 8-7, 2.98)
  FLA: Rick VandenHurk (24, RHP, 1-0, 2.45)

Baseball-Reference.com

Is the end of the line for the Unit?

Randy Johnson was in a chipper mood for a 45-year-old pitcher who just learned he has a slight rotator-cuff tear in his left shoulder and will not pitch until September. Johnson was placed on the 60-day disabled list Tuesday to clear a 40-man spot for Ryan Garko, which means he will not be able to return before Sept. 4.

"The first thing I thought of was I won't be able to do my instructional hitting video. That will be on the backburner for a while," Johnson said, before getting serious and adding, "I've overcome three back surgeries, there or four knee surgeries. I've been on the DL and rehabbed and know what that's all about. It's one more speed bump in the road of my career."

sf chron

An absolutely great read on Everth Cabrera. Dare I say, a must read ..

“He reminds me so much of Omar (Vizquel),” says Padres coach Jim Lefebvre. “He has more range, more of an arm, more speed and he's more advanced physically than Omar was at his age. With that said, Omar became probably the greatest shortstop who ever played. This kid's a great find who could be around a long, long time.”

Cabrera's batting average (.259) and on-base percentage (.342) leave some room for improvement, and he's clearly a work in progress after just 42 big league games. In the opener of the Padres' current series at Cincinnati, Cabrera smoked a line drive left-handed for his first major league home run, then hit a triple right-handed with a bit of bravura on the basepaths. He added three hits Tuesday night, including a pair of doubles.

The triple was Cabrera's fourth of the season, equaling the most by any Padres hitter all last year. His speed and fearlessness made Cabrera professional baseball's stolen-base leader in 2008. He's tops on the Padres with 13 thefts in 14 tries – and that's after missing no fewer than 60 games with a fractured hamate bone in his left hand suffered April 19.

SDUT

Whats more impressive, 45 batters retired in a row, or 59 innings without run scored? It's close I think, but I'll go with the Bulldog.

Over three games Mark Buehrle was perfect through 15 innings. Starting on July 18, when Nick Markakis flied out to center in the 8th, through Thursday’s perfect game and ending in the sixth inning of last night’s game not one batter reached base. As a result Buehrle set the major league record with 45 straight batters retired. Coincidentally the previous record holder Bobby Jenks, tied with Jim Barr for 41 batters, was sitting in the bullpen watching as it happened.

Over those 45 batters Buehrle got nine strikeouts, 22 ground outs, eight fly outs, two line outs and four pop outs. A truly amazing performance. I wanted to partially analyze partially commemorate the streak by looking at the location of Buehrle’s pitches. The image is a little messy, but there are some striking trends.

FanGraphs Baseball

The trades are coming fast and furious today ...

The Philadelphia Phillies seriously bolstered their chances of repeating as World Series champions by outbidding several teams for reigning American League Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians, according to baseball sources.

The Phillies also received left fielder Ben Francisco and in return, the Indians netted a strong group of prospects: Class A right-handed pitcher Jason Knapp, Class AAA right-handed pitcher Carlos Carrasco, shortstop Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson.

Yahoo! Sports

Jeff Passan is on his failed prospect kick this week it seems. He has two pieces up today covering the subject, and here is an excellent breakdown of one of my fav's ...

Brandon Wood is on plenty of lips again, as the Angels try to back into the Roy Halladay(notes) and Cliff Lee(notes) sweepstakes. Only it’s different this time. He isn’t the headliner. Wood is the complementary piece, the extra guy, the one who is certainly replaceable, the antithesis of what he once was: untouchable. He’s a prime example of a player a team held onto for too long because an honest evaluation of his ability was clouded by excess hype.

“Teams love their prospects,” Wood said. “But I realized very quickly that being a prospect doesn’t make you a major leaguer. A lot of prospects don’t pan out. A prospect is a label for a talented minor leaguer who hasn’t proven a thing in the big leagues.”

Wood is halfway right. Teams do love their prospects. But it’s not a normal sort of love. It is irrational. It is tainted. It is downright incestuous. Executives who pride themselves on objective analysis lose their wits because of homegrown prospects. The team drafted the player. It developed him. It watched him grow. He is the team’s kid, and he should wear their uniform, no matter what, right?

Yahoo! Sports

This is one of the many reasons I cannot stand the Boston Red Sox. IMHO, it's one of the most despicable organizations in all of sports. Sorry fans of the Nation, it's not personal, I promise.

A day after Dice-K declared the Red Sox' training methods as the reason for his injuries, the team is striking back. And, as is the custom in Boston, they're doing it through the media. First, Tony Massarotti hits him, relaying that the team is "downright angry" at him, and that "the truth is that the Red Sox were tired of Matsuzaka's high-maintenance act a long time ago, but they kept their mouths shut and put up with it because Matsuzaka won games."

Then Dan Shaughnessy, who has long been a trusted messenger for the Sox, says "the Sox are steamed. Matsuzaka talked out of turn, infuriated his bosses and his teammates, and unwittingly took the focus away from Hall of Famer Jim Rice on the night the slugger's number was retired . . . It is reasonable to wonder if Matsuzaka will pitch again for the Sox this season. Or ever."

Craig Calcaterra

A couple of decent match-ups today, like say, Zach Duke versus Matt Cain, but I am going to dip back into the Dodgers at Cardinals well.

Dodgers (62-38) @ Cardinals (55-48), 8:15pm
  LAD: Clayton Kershaw (21, LHP, 8-5, 2.96)
  STL: Joel Pineiro (30, RHP, 9-9, 2.95)

Baseball-Reference.com