Gary Huckabay takes a look at the first day of road trips to see if road teams’ performance declines in that situation, compared to other road games.
The Diamondbacks resurrect Ricky Bottalico. The Red Sox take a flyer on Gabe Kapler. The Expos lose their best reliever in Luis Ayala thanks to the latest in a long line of Expo shoulder injuries. The Yankees add Karim Garcia and Dan Miceli for no apparent reason. Chris Kahrl has these and other news and notes in the latest edition of Transaction Analysis.
The injury to Mike Sweeney has a number of subplots (“Mr. Ken Harvey, where were you when Sweeney was injured?”). The news from Brian Jordan’s MRI was good laced with a bit of bad. Matt Morris is having obvious problems with his shoulder. And the Indians are close to calling up Cliff Lee. Will Carroll cycles through the latest injuries in Under The Knife.
The Royals have reclaimed first place in the NL Central. Dontrelle Willis still hasn’t faced his first good-hitting opponent. Lew Ford would make a better trade target than most of the veteran flotsam out there. Barry Bonds is still the best player in the league, even in an off year. Joe Sheehan runs through his notebook for these and other thoughts in Prospectus Today.
Milton Bradley is flourishing in obscurity; the Dodgers offense is bad–and we mean bad; and manager Bob Melvin is not getting the most out of Arthur Rhodes. All this and much more from Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Seattle in your Friday edition of Prospectus Triple Play.