I feel pretty good after last night's victory.  Especially since Casey McGehee is on my BC Fantasy Baseball team.  Almost half way through the season and I'm still leading.  Oh for the love of auto-draft.

 Big League News:

The Mets media isn't too concerned about how good the Brewers are.  Their coverage basically says that their guys aren't very good.  And the truth is, they're not especially when they field a AAA team.  I don't think I've ever seen a starting line up so marred by injury in my life.  Last night's game probably goes a little differently for them if they had Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran out there.  But they don't and this Mets blogger is screaming, 'Sell, sell, sell!'.  What do they have to sell?  If I had to guess the only guys teams would be interested in and the Mets would be willing to part with are Luis Castillo, Gary Sheffield and John Maine.  However, Maine is on the DL, Sheffield is getting cortisone shots behind his knee and Luis Castillo won't garner much in trade.  This team is set up to fail right now.

 Apparently the Brewers are setting the standard for small market teams.  I thought the the Minnesota Twins were doing it well before the Brewers, but I guess their current success merits the label.  In this piece by Bob Wolfley of the JS, we hear some whining, praise and well thought out business plans from Pirates GM, Frank Coonelly.  Pittsburgh has struggled to get out of a hole for the last 15 years or so while the Brewers have pulled themselves out of their own hole within the last five years.  He claims that the Brewers have benefited from parking revenue and an increased attendance, while the Pirates don't get any parking revenue and have had a stagnant attendance for quite a long time despite the new stadium.  A big television contract negates the parking revenue and perhaps a better team would nullify the latter.  The Pirates are on their way to that point just like the Reds, but are still a few years out.

Mike Burns is getting a second shot in the rotation tonight, though he'll have to beat Johan Santana for it to be successful.  Macha is reluctant about making any more changes in the rotation, but I think Burns is the right choice.  He'll have his best opportunity to be successful tonight considering the line up.  Moreover, he'll probably get one more look before Macha decides who will stay when Dave Bush returns.

 After the game on Sunday afternoon Ryan Braun indicated they didn't have much information on Giants rookie Ryan Sadowski, and really blamed this lack of info for the problem with the offense.  Ken Macha to the rescue of the scouting department.  What Ryan should have said was, "We have all the information on his pitches and his tendencies, but until you see it, you really don't know."  I'm sure Braunie didn't mean much by it, but he needs to pay a little more attention to what he says about his organization.

 The Bucky Channel wants to know why 149,288 people voted Bill Hall an All-Star this week.  He says take the extra seven seconds and vote for Casey McGehee.  I completely agree.  I know Hall went 2 for 2 and tacked on some insurance runs last night, but did he hit a grand slam?  That's what I thought.

Minor League News:

Between the Green Pillars Prospect of the Week is Cameron Garfield, the high school catcher drafted in the second round of this year's First Year Player Draft.  Garfield doesn't really have the size to have any power, but he has some nevertheless.  I'm not sure how well he'll pan out in the end because he's so young, but the tools are there.  Truthfully, it's more surprising that no one talked about Joshua Prince's six stolen base game.

Seven Huntsville Stars players were selected for the Southern League North Division all-star team.  The only one who won't be seeing the game is Drew Anderson who was recently promoted to Triple-A Nashville on Sunday.  The other six, Shane Justis, Adam Stern, Jonathan Lucroy, Donovan Hand, Casey Baron and Robert Hinton, should all see playing time.  Will any of these guys be promoted by the end of the season?  I wouldn't be surprised to see Hand and Justis get promoted.  For Justis to get moved, however, Hernan Iribarren will need to be traded.

Speaking of the Anderson roster move, the Brewers demoted Michael Garciaparra to make room for him.  Taylor Green was also placed on the 7-day disabled list because of a rib problem.

Other Big League News:

The Mets received another blow last night.  Carlos Beltran's season could be over if his surgeon feels that microfracture knee surgery is needed.  But it's not just the season the Mets should be worried about, it could be his career as well.  That just improved the Phillies division hopes that much better.  Can the Mets stay afloat while they wait for Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado to return from the disabled list in mid July?  Probably not.

Good for Yorvit Torrealba.  The Rockie catcher finished his rehab assignment yesterday and is set to return to the Rockies after dealing with the kidnapping of his son in Venezuela.  I know this isn't big news, but how rarely do these situations end well?

Tom Haudricourt said the Brewers may have been better off facing Tim Linceucum after Sadowski shut them out.  Maybe not.  Lincecum threw a two hit shut out against the Cardinals last night.  Better them than us.

Umm... welcome to Cleveland Chris Perez.  This is just scary.

Oakland A's rookie right hander Josh Outman was transferred to the 60-day disabled list and is undergoing elbow surgery this week.  They won't say it, but it's Tommy John.  I picked the guy up in fantasy for two days and he needs TJ.  Talk  about ruining a career.

Big news for the Cubbies.  Aramis Ramirez is headed to his rehab assignment on Thursday if he has no setbacks.  A while ago I read an article at Disabled Informer which stated that Ramirez will be prone to reaggravate the injury because its type.  Keep an eye on this situation because the Cubs' season will officially be over if he misses more time.