So we have a pitcher on the 60 day DL with an "inflamed shoulder".  Whether the inflammation is in his shoulder or his ERA is almost beside the point now. The question is, what are they going to do with him? He's apparently not going for surgery. He's travelling with the team as far as I can tell, so he's not getting heavy physical therapy. He hasn't been sent for a rehab assignment. Is the plan to let him sit all this year and start fresh next spring? Taking essentially a year off doesn't seem likely to improve his pitching. Are the M's just done with him? If so, why not just release him and be done with it?

I realize this probably isn't the most burning question at this point in the season, but if anyone has any insight I'm really curious.

We need a bat, preferably one with some ability to play the outfield, if not on a regular basis. We have an overpriced, durable, underperforming pitcher (well, 3, but I'll only talk about 1), whom we can't give away

The White Sox need someone to plug into the back of the rotation. They have an overpriced, defensively challenged outfielder who still puts up a good OPS whom they can't give away.

Washburn is 10.5 million this year.

Jermaine Dye is 11.5 million this year.

As a hitter, Dye is a right-handed Abreu. Not ideal, but with this trade he would be essentially a freebie. His defense would probably still be better than Ibanez's and his hitting would a big help.

As a straight-up trade it looks interesting. And if they'd rather have Silva..Hey, no problem.

Just because I'm bored, and tired of the drama around the Jones-Bedard clusterf**k, I thought I'd look at cheap outfield options. And stir up memories a bit.

How about Doyle? He's cheap, maybe he's had enough time off for his knees to settle down a bit, and we know he can hit.

300 character question--superglue is used in surgery. Maybe we could inject extra glue into Doyle's knees?

What is it with the "fastball fascination."  Kenji gets ripped in the paper today.

"With catcher Rene Rivera trying hard to establish Hernandez's considerable fastball (one problem regular catcher Kenji Johjima has had is calling too many off-speed pitches), the youngster's first 16 pitches were all heaters."

And, IMAO, that was precisely his problem. Felix' fastball is a "show me" pitch. The dangerous parts of his arsenal are his curve and slider. He'd be a much more effective pitcher if they'd quit trying to "establish" that farking fastball.

"It's nice to be able to come in here and put some zeros up on the board and get some run support," Moyer said. "Compared to the situation I just left, there's a lot more fun involved with this."

That about says it all.                                                                                                                      

and 52 remaining (I'm very proud of my math skills).

If the M's can play .500 ball for the rest of the season they end up at 79-83. It could very easily the be the inverse of that, given the way they've played lately against everyone besides Oakland. Given the last two years, and the predictions at the beginning of the season, that really isn't too awful. Certainly it's a move in the right direction, and all in all I can't say I'm terribly disappointed with the season. The line-up and bullpen for next year are solid; which allows the off-season maneuvering to be focussed entirely on starting pitching.

As I'm sure you all read, Buck O'Neill was trotted out in the recent minor league All-Star game. The article I read stated;

   "The T-Bones signed O'Neil to a one-day contract, making him the oldest man ever to play professional baseball."

Now, the question is...does the five year waiting period for Hall of Fame eligibility restart because he was technically on a team for one day?