From here in SBNation, we hear that there may be an offer out there for Cliff Lee from the Twins. According to Jeff Fletcher of AOL Fanhouse, the Twins may have offered the Mariners both catcher Wilson Ramos and outfielder Aaron Hicks. To me, if they were offered this, they need to get a move on and accept it. Ramos is considered to be a Major League ready catcher who would be up if not for Joe Mauer, and Aaron Hicks has been mentioned in overall top prospect lists for the last couple of seasons now. I'd be shocked if they were able to get more than that for the 1/2 season of Lee, and think that they'd be foolish to decline it.
Who is the real Jonathan Sanchez? Widely touted as a potential sleeper coming into the season, he started out extremely hot, but has since cooled off again. He got the win last night against the Brewers, and struck out 6 in just 5 innings. Unfortunately, the control issues that have plagued him popped up again, as he walked 6 batters in that time as well. I really don't know which Jonathan Sanchez to expect from start to start, but the upside is such that it is almost impossible to leave him on the waiver wire in any league.
Joey Votto continues to state his case for MVP emphatically, hitting 2 homeruns last night to raise his season total to a league leading 21. At some point, hopefully, he's going to be placed on the All-Star roster, because the numbers are ridiculous: .318/.418/.599 with 21 HR, 59 RBI, and 7 SB. A commenter asked who I wouldn't consider trading for Stephen Strasburg in a keeper league, and somehow I forgot about Votto. I think he could very well end up as a top-10 pick for 2011.
Javier Vazquez had another good start, this time victimizing the Athletics. He went 7 innings and only allowed 1 earned run, but interestingly only struck out 2 batters. It is the Athletics and their poor offense, but it is good to see him continue to pitch well.
Carlos Quentin homered twice and drove in 3 yesterday en route to the White Sox' victory over the Angels. I hadn't really noticed, but Quentin now has 15 homeruns and 53 runs batted in, on pace to a 30/100 season. He seems like he is fully healthy, and I think that he seems pretty likely to get to those numbers again.
Corey Patterson stole another base yesterday against the Tigers. Just saying, that's now 16 in limited time so far this season.
Roy Halladay threw his 7th complete game of the season yesterday, which now gives him more than all but 1 team in the Majors. I watched a major portion of the game yesterday, and it was vintage Halladay. He struck out 7 and only allowed a Chipper Jones homerun en route to the victory. Amazingly, he only threw 93 pitches in the game (68 strikes). We will be doing our starting pitcher rankings for the rest of the season, and he's on my short list for the top pitcher.