Red Sox bust J.D. Drew thinks he’s ready to break out of his funk.

Coming into last night’s game, Robinson Cano has had RBI in 8 of his last 9 games for the Yanks.

The trade front for the White Sox was quiet on Monday.

Rondell White played in his first game since April 7th for the Twins on Monday.

Mike Hessman got his first MLB hit on Monday night with the Tigers.

Scott Elarton will come off the DL to start for the Royals on Tuesday.

Robinson Tejada has struggled all season for the Rangers and was demoted to Triple-A on Monday

What will the Orioles do with Mr. Anna Benson next year?

Mark Lowe should be activated by the Mariners this week.

The Indians may be getting ready to call up one of their top pitching prospects.

The Devil Rays made numerous changes to their bullpen on Monday after the debacle in New York.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons knew Mike Coolbaugh’s family very well.

The A’s designated Bobby Kielty for assignment and activated Huston Street from the DL.

Chone Figgins is heating up at the plate for the Halos.

We at Sox and Dawgs decided to start taking a look at some current players to see if they could gain election to Hall of Fame. In this series, we’re going to look at players who are currently active who have reasonable consideration to be a Hall nominee. This isn’t a science and you may have others on your list that we left off. There are some fine young players who are just starting their careers who may have Hall potential but for arguments sake these are for guys who have been around a bit or those few outstanding younger players who just jump off the page at you.

In this series we’re going to look at the players by position as compared to Hall members of that position. The position is the primary position of the player through his career. If he played a significant amount of games in another position that will be listed next to his name. Some of the guys we will look at over time have endured position changes, but because the majority of their career was at one position over another we have chosen that as the position in which they are being considered.

The sixth category we will look at is third baseman.

The Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman we are going to use for comparison are:

Wade Boggs 18 years, 2439 G, 9180 AB, 1513 R, 3010 H, 578 2B, 61 3B, 118 HR, 1014 RBI, .328 BA, .415 OBP, .443 SLG, 12 All-star teams, 8 Silver Sluggers, 2 Gold Gloves, 5 Batting Titles, Hits leader 1x

George Brett 21 years, 2707 G, 10349 AB, 1583 R, 3154 H, 665 2B, 137 3B, 317 HR, 1595 RBI, .305 BA, .369 OBP, .487 SLG, 13 All-star teams, 1 MVP, 1 ALCS MVP, 1 Gold Gloves, 3 Silver Sluggers, 3 Batting Titles, Hits leader 3x

Brooks Robinson 23 years, 2896 G, 10654 AB, 1232 R, 2848 H, 482 2B, 68 3B, 268 HR, 1357 RBI, .267 BA, .322 OBP, .401 SLG, 18 All-star teams, 1 MVP, 1 All-Star game MVP, 1 World Series MVP, 16 Gold Gloves, RBI leader 1x

Mike Schmidt 18 years, 2404 G, 8352 AB, 1506 R, 2234 H, 408 2B, 59 3B, 548 HR, 1591 RBI, .267 BA, .380 OBP, .527 SLG, 12 All-star teams, 3 MVPs, 1 World Series MVP, 6 Silver Sluggers, 10 Gold Gloves, HR leader 8x, RBI leader 4x

We have two possible candidates for the Hall, with one having played significant games in other positions:

Their stats are current as of July 12, 2007.

Chipper Jones (LF) 14th year, 1835 G, 6668 AB, 1243 R, 2042 H, 403 2B, 32 3B, 373 HR, 1245 RBI, .306 BA, .403 OBP, .544 SLG, 5 All-star teams, 2 Silver Sluggers, 1 MVP,

Scott Rolen 12th year, 1472 G, 5381 AB, 936 R, 1526 H, 370 2B, 32 3B, 257 HR, 993 RBI, .284 BA, .373 OBP, .508 SLG, 5 All-star teams, ROY, 7 Gold Gloves, 1 Silver Slugger

The four Hall of Famers are some of the best players I have ever seen. Their numbers speak for themselves. Third base, the hot corner, is a position that has many different types of players over the years and those four Hall members probably represent those types of players.

Boggs was the hit machine, who improved defensively. Brett was the all out clutch guy who combined average and power. Robinson was the human vacuum cleaner, the gold standard for defensive corner infielders. And Schmidt had a mix of clutch, power, defense and leadership.

Before I get to Rolen and Jones I want to say that I did consider Alex Rodriguez in this spot. He has played third base for 4 seasons now in New York but personally I still think of him as a short stop and that’s the position where I will evaluate him.

The two contenders are guys who have had solid playing careers but I don’t think either guy will make it to 3,000 hits. Jones is nearly 1,000 shy and Rolen is just over half way there. Overall Chipper’s numbers are better offensively then Rolen’s and he’s only played two more seasons. Jones has 300 more runs scored, 500 more hits, 120 more HRs, 250 more RBI, his BA is 22 points higher and he has a better OBP and slugging percentage. Rolen though is much better defensively than Jones. Jones would be a better candidate and have numbers similar to Schmidt if he had the Gold Gloves.

These guys need to avoid major DL time in the next few years and rekindle their offensive numbers. They need to play several more seasons and get to 18-20 years played. Without that I just don’t see them making the Hall.

Former Major Leaguer and current Tulsa Drillers hitting coach, Mike Coolbaugh, passed away at the young age of 35 after being struck with a line drive while coaching 1st base in a game. Coolbaugh had just taken over the job on July 3. The Drillers are the Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies.

He was knocked unconscious by the line drive and had CPR adminstered to him on the field. He was still alive when they put him in the ambulance but as they were going to the hospital, he stopped breathing and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

Coolbaugh spent parts of two seasons in the big leagues. He played in 39 games for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2001 and 5 games for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2002. He retired after spending 2006 in the minor leagues with the Kansas City Royals. He had 256 career homeruns in the minor leagues.

He is survived by his wife and two children and has another on the way that is due in October. My thoughts and condolences go out to his family and the Drillers and Rockies organizations.

Red Sox slugger David Ortiz will be out until Wednesday at the earliest with his sore shoulder.

Even though he was arrested, Scott Olsen will make his next start for the Marlins.

Casey Janssen has pitched in almost half of the Blue Jays games this season.

The Braves won’t pitch around Barry Bonds unless the situation calls for it.

The Devil Rays bullpen suffered another blow when Jay Witasick’s elbow blew up after his appearance on Saturday.

Batting between Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran in the Mets lineup has it’s advantages.

Orioles 1B Kevin Millar isn’t fazed about trade rumors involving him.

The Nationals farm system is much improved from last year.

Phillies stud’s Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins were happy they witnessed Tony Gwynn’s ceremony before Saturday’s game.

I am sure that Mike Mussina isn’t happy about the Yankees releasing Wil Nieves.

The Red Sox got good news on Saturday when Big Papi’s MRI came back negative.

Garrett Anderson is getting healthy and starting to hit for the Angels.

Roy Oswalt will miss his next start for the Astros with a chest injury.

Huston Street will return to the A’s bullpen on Monday.

Curtis Thigpen will get a chance to prove himself with the Blue Jays for the rest of the season.

Braves GM John Schuerholz thinks this year’s trade deadline will be a busy one.

The Brewers sent Gabe Gross to Triple-A to get some regular playing time.

Injured Cardinals pitcher Mark Mulder is making progress towards a late season return.

Jacque Jones has gotten hot for the Cubs since the All-Star break.

Jason Hammel pitched game 1 of the Devil Rays doubleheader then was sent back to Triple-A after the game.

Injured Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson threw on the side and reported no discomfort.

Eric Stults will make his first start of the season for the Dodgers on Sunday.

Giants OF Dave Roberts is starting to finally come around after his June elbow surgery.

The Indians are very happy with the way Fausto Carmona is pitching.

Kenji Johjima will get some extra time off for the Mariners down the stretch run.

Marlins SS Hanley Ramirez is tied for the NL lead in hits.

Despite 14 errors for the Nationals, Ryan Zimmerman’s defense has been solid.

Orioles broadcaster and Hall of Famer Jim Palmer had some kind words about Erik Bedard’s outing on Friday night.

Saturday’s matchup of David Wells for the Padres and Jaime Moyer for the Phillies is the second oldest matchup in history.

The Phillies 1st round draft pick in 2006, Kyle Drabek will undergo Tommy John surgery.

John Van Benschoten hopes his side session results will keep in the Pirates rotation.

The Rangers hope the move of Ramon Vazquez to the leadoff spot will produce some hits.

Reds utilty man Ryan Freel was pissed after Armando Benitez plunked him on Friday night.

The Rockies gave Brad Hawpe the day off on Saturday because he struggles against lefties.

Royals 2B Mark Grudzielanek is batting .415 since returning from the disabled list.

Sean Casey will play almost everyday for the Tigers with the injury to Marcus Thames.

Jason Kubel is starting to get hot for the Twins.

White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle is anxious about pitching at home on Monday.

Yankees reliever Mike Myers is having trouble finding his release point.

The Red Sox overcame a blown call by an umpire and rode the bats of a red-hot Julio Lugo and Coco Crisp plus the arm of Josh Beckett to a 10-3 win over the White Sox. Lugo was 3 for 4 with his 4 RBI coming on a grand slam in the 8th inning. Even though Crisp had only one hit, the one hit, a triple, gave the Red Sox the lead for good in the 5th inning. Beckett ended up throwing a lot of pitches in the game but he was good enough for his 13th win, tying him with C.C. Sabbathia for the MLB lead.

Beckett got himself into some trouble in the first inning but was able to work his way out of it. After he got the first two outs of the inning, he issued walks to Jim Thome and Paul Konerko, eerily reminiscent of last night’s game in the first inning. Beckett rebounded from his slight control issues to get A.J. Pierzynski to ground out to Eric Hinske at first.

The Boys from Beantown got a run on the board in their half of the 1st and really should have had 3 runs. White Sox starter Jose Contreras got Crip and Dustin Pedroia for the first two outs of the inning. He then issued a walk to David Ortiz and followed that with a plunking of Manny Ramirez. Then the controversy came about. J.D. Drew hit a ball off the Green Monster that appeared to be a homerun but was ruled a double. Big Papi scored on the play and Manny was thrown out trying to score. The ball looked like it had gotten over the wall and television replays showed that it did. Terry Francona came out to argue the call and after a meeting of the boys in blue, it was ruled a double and Manny was out at the plate. The call irked Tito and he was tossed for probably calling Tim McClelland “Lurch” (fiction) as McClelland looked about a foot taller than the rest of his crew.

(NESN screenshot from Extra Bases)

Beckett cruised through the 2nd inning as he struck out the side (Dye, Mackowiak, Fields) all swinging. He got himself into trouble in the 3rd inning as the wrong Sox took over the lead. Juan Uribe led off the inning with a single and went to third on a Jerry Owens single. As Tadahito Iguchi was striking out swinging for the first out, Owens stole second base. With a 3-2 count on Thome, Beckett left a fastball up in the zone that Thome planted into the seats in centerfield to give the Whites a 3-1 lead. Beckett settled in and got Konerko on a foul out and Pierzynski for his sixth strikeout of the night.

Beckett was solid in the 4th and 5th innings as he got three of the six outs via the strikeout. Contreras was equal to the task in the 3rd and 4th innings as he only allowed a single to Lugo.

The 5th inning was a weird inning but nonetheless a good inning for the local nine. Contreras walked Jason Varitek to lead off the 5th. For some strange reason, Ozzie Guillen put a shift on for Hinske and Hinske being a smart hitter, laid down a bunt that rolled down the third base line to the outfield. Tek moved over to second on the bunt single. Lugo then laid down a bunt of his own that he beat out and loaded the bases for Coco. Coco didn’t disappoint the 36,000+ at the Fens as he hit a bases-clearing triple to give the home team a 4-3 lead. With the infield drawn in, Pedroia couldn’t bring Crisp home as he grounded back to the pitcher. Big Papi came up with a clutch single that brought in Coco but he was thrown out at second base. The run gave the Sox a 5-3 lead. Contreras then got Manny to ground out for the third out of the inning. Big Papi ended up leaving the game with a strained shoulder and is day-to-day. He was replaced at DH by Alex Cora.

Beckett’s final inning would be the 6th inning. He got Thome to strikeout swinging for the first out and his 10th strikeout of the game. Konerko then popped out for the second out. Pierzynski followed that with a single but was thrown out at second base by an excellent throw from Coco. As they were coming off the field, you could see how pumped up Beckett was.

Beckett went 6 innings, giving up 2 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks and he had the 10 K’s on a 114 pitches.

The Sox put the 2-run game away in the 8th inning. Manny led off with a single and went to third on a Drew double. Lowell then drew a walk from Contreras to load up the bases for Tek. Tek brought in the 6th Red Sox run of the night with a sacrifice fly scoring Manny. Kevin Youkilis came into pinch-hit for Hinske and was plunked in the hand by Contreras reloading the bases up, this time for Lugo. Lugo continued to be en fuego as he crushed a ball off of the Sports Authority sign above the Green Monster for his third career grand slam and making it 10-3 good guys. Ehren Wassermann came in for Contreras. Wassmermann, making his MLB debut, got the wrong Sox out of the inning with a strikeout of Coco and a ground out by Pedroia.

The Boston bullpen was solid for the final three innings, as Mike Timlin, Hideki Okajima, and Joel Piñero combined on 3 hitless innings. The trio didn’t allow a runner and struck out one in holding Beckett’s 13th win of the season.

Kason Gabbard takes the ball for the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon and he will be opposed by John Danks. Gametime is 3:55 PM and the game will be broadcast nationally on FOX.

Continue reading →

Brian Fuentes won’t come off the DL for the Rockies until Monday at the earliest.

The Rangers finally placed Akinori Otsuka on the DL with forearm tendinitis.

Padres pitcher Justin Germano has no hard feelings against the Phillies.

J.J Putz is a key part of the Mariner’s resurgence.

The Giants sent Patrick Mitsch back to Triple-A Fresno to make room for Jonathan Sanchez.

The A’s ownership group was awarded an MLS franchise and will revive the old San Jose Earthquakes nickname.

Dodgers pitcher Chad Billingsley doesn’t mind throwing a lot of pitches.

Angels starter Bartolo Colon told Ervin Santana to use his demotion as fuel to get himself back to Anaheim.

The Diamondbacks and Eric Byrnes ended their contract negotiations.

Reds OF Ken Griffey, Jr. had his 2,500th hit on Wednesday afternoon.

White Sox DH Jim Thome hopes to talk to his former teammate Manny Ramirez while in Boston.

Jason Bay hopes to get out of his six week slump for the Pirates.

Twins pitcher Matt Garza has been more effective because of his changeup.

Jason Kendall had a rough first game for the Cubs.

Macay McBride has made the most of his chances with the Tigers.

Scott Rolen flew back to St. Louis to have his shoulder examined.

The Royals made their 10th player move in 5 days before Wednesday’s game.

The Brewers’ Tony Graffanino made his first start in the outfield since 2001.

Jeremy Sowers is struggling down in Triple-A for the Indians.

Astros 1B Lance Berkman got hit in the eye with a groundball during batting practice.

Jason Varitek and J.D. Drew returned to the Red Sox lineup on Monday night.

Hideki Matsui is heating up for the Yankees.

White Sox rookie Jerry Owens might face more lefties after his success on Monday night.

Twins reliever Juan Rincon is looking for more consistency from himself.

Tigers OF Magglio Ordoñez wants to win the batting title this year.

Leo Nunez will take John Thomson’s start against the Red Sox today due to Thomson being placed on the DL.

The Rangers are optimistic that Akinori Otsuka won’t have to go on the DL.

Adam Loewen met up with his Orioles teammates before Monday’s game in Seattle.

Ichiro returned to the Mariners lineup one day after leaving Sunday’s game.

The Indians’ players were happy that manager Eric Wedge had his contract extended.

The Devil Rays have found their shortstop in Brendan Harris.

The Blue Jays put the past incident with AROD behind them in Monday’s game.

Kurt Suzuki will be the primary catcher with the trade of Jason Kendall by the A’s.

The Angels will be taking on an old friend on Tuesday in Joe Maddon.

Red Sox captain Jason Varitek had Sunday off after taking a few foul balls off his body on Saturday.

The Marlins have two players contending for the batting title.

The Blue Jays activated Brandon League from the DL before Sunday’s game.

The Braves are expecting John Smoltz back from the DL on Wednesday.

Devil Rays OF Carl Crawford has been riding a roller coaster at the plate.

Ruben Gotay has been excelling for the Mets as an everyday player.

The Orioles are undecided as to who will be their 5th starter right now.

Ronnie Belliard has been an invaluable member of the Nationals this season.

Melky Cabrera returned to the Yankees lineup one day after not starting due to flu-like symptoms.

Tom Gordon will be returning to the Phillies bullpen in a few days.