Yankees' 4A 1B/OF/DH Shelly Duncan homered twice against the Devil Rays bringing his weekend total to three. While I enjoy seeing older minor leaguers demonstrate the biases of organizations against player on the wrong side of 25, I share the NY Post columnist Joel Sherman's reservations:
Following Marlins' pitcher Scott Olsen's (near?) bottoming out, rookie Dutchman Henricus Vanden Hurk had a second consecutive good start. With just three Ks, he had only 41 Ks versus 40 innings pitched. In case you missed, here is my write-up with stats for him.
With Dodgers' closer Takashi Saito sidelined with upper back are discomfort, Jonathan Broxton pitched a second day in a row and blew the save. While I still have confidence in Broxton to successfully close, this blown opportunity brings back his failures from earlier in the season when Saito was hurt.
Chasing Wins is a very risky strategy. One usually tries to add starting pitchers from play-off contending teams or starters with track records of winning. The latter would apply to Giants' $126MM Barry Zito. He blew-up for seven earned runs in 5.1 innings. Across the diamond, Brewers' starter Claudio Vargas picked-up his 8th win. With a 1.47 ERA, he also provides a look at the former type of chasing-wins starter.
USA Today's Steve Gardner and ESPN.com's Christopher Harris at 11AM
Baseball Prospectus' Kevin Goldstein at 2PM.