New York Mets

Francisco Rodriguez is a great closer, there's no question about that, but there are already a ton of miles on his shoulder, and some teams may be shying away from the guy because of that. At the minimum they would like to drop his value a tad before signing.

So the "drop in velocity" rumors have started making the rounds, so much so that his agent has had to come out and defend the guy, in arguably his greatest season yet.

The Mets are of course the heavy favorite for Rodriguez's services, and their was even a story from a Venezuelan newspaper yesterday, that Francisco Rodriguez wass on his way to New York for a physical exam, in advance of signing a contract with the Mets. But a person within the Mets organization tonight said "it's not true."

Give it a week or two. He will be a Met.

New York Times Blog The Book on Oliver Perez, by Scott Boras

Chapter Three is titled: “Perez Is One of Baseball’s Top 5 Left-Handed Starting Pitchers.” It puts Perez in a grouping with C.C. Sabathia, Cole Hamels, Ted Lilly and Johan Santana, who was Perez’s teammate on the Mets in 2007. Two charts are included to show that in each of the past two seasons on the Mets, Perez was the youngest left-handed pitcher in the majors to have an earned run average of less than 4.25 while accumulating at least 170 strikeouts and 10 victories.

If you own Ayala, it may be best to hang on to the guy, because the Mets don't sound too confident.

Cleveland Indians catcher Kelly Shoppach is 28 years old already. I find that some what shocking. I guess he has always had his career path blocked by two of the best in the game, Victor Martinez, and Jason Varitek, so I don't know if it is fair to say that Kelly Shoppach is a late bloomer or not, but it is sure a beautiful flower isn't it.

I snagged Shoppach up in two leagues when Victor Martinez went down. I'd even say that Shppoach is the reason for my rebound in the H2HWS. On that same Inglewood team, I also own Victor Martinez, who is currently residing on the DL with zero homeruns on the year. Martinez is going to have to show me a little something, once healthy, just to get a ride at utility. No way I am moving Shoppach. Eric Wedge could bench Kelly Shoppach, and I am not moving him.

I thought about going with the Dodger - Diamondbacks game, but I didn't like the match-up.

Plus I need the win from Ollie

I am actually thinking about decorating the whole page in blue and orange.

Someday, these game of the day posts will be a catch all for in game commentary type things. I didn't post a game of the day thread yesterday, and then later wanted to post a few comments about the Padres smacking around Brandon Webb, and I couldn't. I was denied.

Here's todays game.

Just a little Chatter today, simply because the last few times out, I sorta went on a bit of a vent, and I don't want this column to be that type of thing. Unless warranted of course. I realize that not a lot of people are actually reading this yet, but one day when I am King of California, my daily Chatter will be forced reading. Much in the way Los Dodger fans must read Bill Plaschke.

Torture?

call it what you will ..

As you may or may not have noticed by now, I am not the worlds most consistent blogger. I don't even consider myself to be a blogger to be quite honest.

But in the past I have tried to link everyone to the different things that i come across on a daily basis, through my "Chatters"