Miguel Montero played in his third straight game for the Diamondbacks.

Angels SS Orlando Cabrera may take AROD’s spot on the AL All-Star team.

The Dodgers got some good news about Joe Beimel and Randy Wolf.

Kiko Calero threw a simulated game for the A’s and may return to the team soon.

Giants skipper Bruce Bochy thinks Barry Zito needs to relax.

The Mariners named Gary Thurman as their new first base coach.

Scott Linebrink is one of the main cogs in the Padres bullpen.

Akinori Otsuka will return to the Rangers bullpen after the All-Star break.

Rockies 2B Kaz Matsui took some time to answer questions at rockies.com.

The Astros’ Chris Burke is starting to get his swing back.

Indians reliever Rafael Betancourt isn’t going change his pitching style after being warned about taking too much time on the mound.

Yovani Gallardo is adjusting to life in the bullpen for the Brew Crew.

Scott Elarton struggled in his latest rehab start for the Royals.

Ryan Ludwick got his first start in center for the Cardinals.

Craig Monroe has gone just 9-for-70 during his last 19 ballgames for the Tigers.

Twins reliever Pat Neshek is getting help from some fans on YouTube in the final vote.

Koyie Hill made sure he voted for his Cubs teammate Carlos Zambrano in the final vote.

The White Sox aren’t sure if they are going to be buyers or sellers.

Struggling Pirates outfielder Jason Bay is looking for answers to his struggles.

Javier Valentin will see more regular playing time for the Reds.

Vote for OKIE!!!

Top Astros prospect Troy Patton got called up to Triple-A and might get a September call up.

John Smoltz isn’t clear when he will make his next start for the Braves.

Carlos Villanueva has been great out of the bullpen for the Brewers.

Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter got shelled in his first start.

Cubs skipper Lou Pinella and coach Gerald Perry are helping Jacque Jones and Felix Pie with their struggles at the plate.

Bob Melvin is trying to shake his Diamondbacks lineup by making some changes to it.

Jason Schmidt has a long road back to the Dodgers.

Barry Bonds has played in 74 of the 81 games the Giants have played.

Hanley Ramirez was supposed to miss Tuesday’s game with a hamstring injury but provided some late-inning heroics.

Pedro Martinez threw a simulated game for the Mets on Tuesday.

The Nationals signed one of their sandwich round picks, Michael Burgess and he will report to the Gulf Coast Nationals.

The Padres top pick Nick Schmidt threw a bullpen session at PETCO Park.

Ryan Freel returned from the DL for the Reds.

The Rockies lost Jason Hirsh to the DL with an ankle injury.

Curt Schilling took the first steps to returning to the Red Sox rotation on Tuesday.

The Angels lost Erick Aybar and Mike Napoli to the DL.

Justin Duchscherer’s season will be over for the A’s when he undergoes hip surgery in the coming weeks.

Blue Jays starter A.J. Burnett will miss at least a month with his latest injury.

Carlos Pena only has two homeruns against lefties for the Devil Rays this season.

Joe Borowski has been working a lot this season for Cleveland.

The Mariners are hoping to keep up their recent hot streak.

Melvin Mora is out of the Orioles lineup for a few days with a foot problem suffered in Sunday’s game.

Ian Kinsler will miss 2-6 weeks for the Rangers with a stress fracture in his foot.

The Royals should get Mike Sweeney and Mark Grudzielanek back on Friday.

The Tigers hope Comerica Park is nice to them before the All-Star break.

Twins slugger Justin Morneau wants to compete in the Homerun Derby on Monday night.

White Sox rookie Josh Fields is starting to get comfortable playing in the big leagues.

Luis Vizcaino hopes to take over Scott Proctor’s setup role with the Yankees.

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 third category we will look at is catchers.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has sixteen catchers enshrined we are going to use three for comparison. They are:

Johnny Bench 17 yrs, 2158 G, 7658 AB, 2048 H, 381 2B, 24 3B, 389 HR, 1376 RBI .267 BA, .342 OBP, .476 SLG, 14 All-Star teams, 1 ROY, 2 MVPs, 1 World Series MVP, 10 Gold Gloves, 2x HR leader, RBI leader 3x, 1742 GC

Bill Dickey 17 yrs, 1789 G, 6300 AB, 1969 H, 343 2B, 72 3B, 202 HR, 1209 RBI, .313 BA, .382 OBP, .486 SLG, 11 All-Star teams, 1708 GC

Roy Campanella 10 yrs, 1215 G, 4205 AB, 1161 H, 178 2B, 18 3B, 242 HR, 856 RBI, .276 BA, .360 OBP, .500 SLG, 8 All-Star teams, 3 MVPs, RBI leader 1x, 1183 GC

We have two possible candidates for the Hall:

Their stats are current as of June 30, 2007

Ivan Rodriguez 17th yr, 2088 G, 8017 AB, 2431 H, 492 2B, 43 3B, 285 HR, 1162 RBI, .303 BA, .341 OBP, .482 SLG, 14 All-Star teams, 1 MVP, 1 NLCS MVP, 12 Gold Gloves, 1998 GC

Mike Piazza 16th yr, 1855 G, 6705 AB, 2017 H, 334 2B, 7 3B, 420 HR,
1299 RBI, .309 BA, .379 OBP, .549 SLG, 12 All-Star teams, 1 ROY, 1 All-Star Game MVP, 1629 GC

Pudge and Piazza in my book are locks. The numbers when compared to current Hall members are really solid and they’re growing daily. Piazza gets in more for his offensive numbers in the position while Rodriguez, even those he has good offensive numbers, has held up the defensive standards set by guys like Johnny Bench.

Red Sox SS Julio Lugo expressed remorse for his ill-advised steal attempt on Saturday night.

Braves 3B Chipper Jones blames his injury woes on his move to the outfield 2 ½ years ago.

A.J. Burnett was placed on the DL for the Blue Jays and will be sent to see Dr. Andrews.

The Marlins are liking their rookie manager Fredi Gonzalez.

Devil Rays rookie Delmon Young is big on fundamentals.

Jorge Sosa went on the Mets DL with a hamstring injury.

Orioles skipper Dave Trembley is giving Chris Ray some mental time off.

Manny Acta is pleased with the Nationals play so far but wants more offense out of the team.

Yankees reliever Scott Proctor feels his woes are gone after his recent bonfire.

The Phillies have some serious speed in the outfield with Shane Victorino and Michael Bourn.

Here is your look at the players for the 2007 MLB All-Star teams for the American & National League.

*Will not participate.

Smoltz has been replaced by Roy Oswalt of the Astros.

Fuentes has been replaced by Brandon Webb of the Diamondbacks.

The following players will have to be voted in by the fans to make the All-Star team.

Roy Oswalt, Carlos Zambrano, Chris Young, Brandon Webb, Tom Gorzelanny in the National League.

Jeremy Bonderman, Kelvim Escobar, Roy Halladay, Hideki Okajima, Pat Neshek in the American League.

Okajima and Young won the final vote.

After getting shelled again, Yankees reliever set fire to his belongings after the game.

Joel Piñero wasn’t happy that the Red Sox placed him on the 15 day DL.

White Sox OF Jermaine Dye doesn’t want to discuss his contract situation.

Justin Morneau might play first base for the Twins on Sunday.

Brandon Inge is out for the Tigers right now with back spasms.

Ryan Shealy’s bum hamstring has put him on the Royals 15 day DL.

The Rockies have taken Brian Fuentes out of the closer role after 4 straight blown saves.

Mike Stanton is close to returning to the Reds.

Ian Kinsler may end up on the Rangers DL.

Zach Duke will miss his next start for the Pirates with tendinitis in his elbow.

The Phillies sent Geoff Geary to Triple-A to work out his flaws in his delivery.

Michael Barrett is adjusting to the pitchers on the Padres.

Steve Trachsel’s strained ass muscle landed him on the Orioles DL.

Nationals pitcher John Patterson is going to Canada for treatment on his elbow.

Odalis Perez will miss his start today for the Mets with a tight lower back.

Taylor Tankersley’s struggles made the Marlins send him down to Triple-A.

Mariners pitcher Mark Lowe will make 3 rehab appearances before returning to the team.

Cleveland has won 12 games when trailing after seven innings.

Giants slugger Barry Bonds has called for increased security for all players and not just himself in the wake of last night’s incident.

Nomar Garciaparra moved to third base for the Dodgers to get James Loney’s bat in the lineup.

The Diamondbacks had no regrets about keeping Livian Hernandez in the game on Friday night.

The Devil Rays have a paltry .205 in the month of June.

The Cubbies called up Rocky Cherry so they could have a fresh arm in the bullpen.

David Eckstein needs to get his game legs back before the Cardinals activate him from the DL.

Yovani Gallardo is waiting to see what the Brewers will do with him.

Braves OF Jeff Francoeur is a more complete player this year.

Reed Johnson will return from the DL for the Blue Jays after the All-Star break.

Mark Kotsay isn’t worried about the recent struggles of the A’s.

Brad Lidge is close to returning from the DL for the Astros.

Chone Figgins had an Angels record of 53 hits for the month of June.

With the security around Barry Bonds as he gets closer to breaking Hank Aaron’s record, last night’s episode of a fan coming on the field to greet Bonds just shows you that the security isn’t as tight as it should be.

A 24-year-old North Dakota man, Andrew Clapp, was able to get onto the field and just walk up to Bonds and shake his hand. It ended without incident as Bonds was able to get Clapp to walk off the field with him.

“He just wanted to shake my hand. I told him to come with me so he didn’t get into any more trouble.”

The incident happened in the 7th inning and then in the 8th inning, Bonds hit his 750th homerun, moving him 5 away from tying Aaron and 6 away from breaking. The Giants ended up losing the game in 10 innings.

What does this say about the security? If a guy who only wanted to shake Bonds hand is able to get on the field, what about the crazies who might be planning something when Bonds hits the record tying and record breaker? MLB and the San Francisco Giants better get their collective acts together before something serious happens.

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A handicapped Rockies draftee had his dreams answered on Thursday.

Brandon McCarthy will return to the Rangers rotation on Monday.

Derek Lowe leads the Dodgers in quality losses this season.

The Angels pitchers have some really strange pregame music playing in the clubhouse.

The Padres signed their top draft pick Nick Schmidt.

Justin Duchscherer will be the closer for the A’s when he returns from the DL.

The D-backs prospect Edward Easley won the Johnny Bench Award on Wednesday for being the nation’s best college catcher.

The Mariners hosted a golf tournament to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis.

The Giants announced the stars that will play in the All-Star Softball Game.