With all the wheelin' and dealin' the past few weeks, you wonder why Major League Baseball even pretends there's a trading deadline.
Billy Wagner is the real deal. While he will be a situational lefty for the Sox, his career numbers show that he's even better against righties, holding them to a .186 batting average, compared to .202 for lefties. He's pitched three innings at Fenway, giving up four runs.
A few weeks ago, it was rumored that the Sox had sought David Eckstein to fill the spot that Alex Gonzalez eventually filled at short. I would have loved it if the Sox had gotten him just so that I could actually see how much taller Dustin Pedroia is than the 5-foot-6 Eckstein. Pedie is generously listed at 5-foot-9.
I loved what happened in the bottom of the ninth at Citi Field between the Mets and Phils. To review, Ryan Howard committed an error (wrong No. 1) and then Eric Bruntlett committed one of his own (wrong No. 2). Next, an infield single. Then, a line drive that Bruntlett converted into an unassisted triple play. Which proves, as I've long believed, that two wrongs do make a right.
David Ortiz has six career homers against Roy Halladay, the most home runs he's hit against any pitcher, and the most Halladay has allowed to any one batter.
The longest consecutive-game hitting streaks for Mickey Mantle and Carl Yastrzemski are both 16 games. Yaz turned 70 this past week.
Jacoby Ellsbury is having quite the season for a guy with 54 stolen bases. Ellsbury is hitting .295, giving him the seventh highest average for someone with 54 steals. Carl Crawford, who also has 54 this season, has the highest at .316.
Mariano Rivera has allowed four career walkoff homers to four relatively unlikely candidates: Bill Selby (11 career homers), Bill Mueller (85 homers), Vernon Wells (189 homers) and Marco Scutaro (48 homers).
Jon Lester is 20-5 lifetime against the AL East.
August is a good month for Jason Bay. Over his career, he has averaged .291 with five-plus homers and 18.5 RBIs. Last year he hit .315 with four homers and 29 RBIs. This August he's hitting .295 with seven homers and 14 RBIs.
Adam Dunn has four consecutive seasons of 40 homers and is on pace again with 33 so far this year. Dunn has five consecutive seasons with 40-plus homers and 100-plus walks. His nickname is Big Donkey. He'll be a free agent following the 2010 season.
CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee and now John Smoltz? Why would any pitcher prefer to pitch in the American League?
What time should I be over for dinner?
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Bill Chuck is the creator of Billy-Ball.com and, with Jim Kaplan, is the author of, Walk-Offs, Last Licks, and Final Outs – Baseball's Grand (and not so Grand) Finales, with a foreword by Jon Miller, published by ACTA Sports. He can be reached at Bill@Billy-Ball.com
