First big trade of the mad season has been made:

Edwin Jackson -> Cardinals -> Colby Rasmus -> Blue Jays -> Jason Frasor -> White Sox ->

(plus assorted odds and sods)

Solid, solid trade by A.A.

Let's hope we see Hughes today and not BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOghes.

That was a nice fastball to Megan's Law.

Nice 1st inning for Hughes.

Paul O'Neill with the fustigation!

Gah.

Straight steal, please.

3rd, 3rd, 3rd!!!

WHO RUN BANTERTOWN?!!?!?!?

CULT RUN BANTERTOWN!!!

Paulie with the Naked Gun reference!

C'mon Robbie, gotta capitalize on these chances.

Or not.

Meh.

This is the second straight game in which our pitcher does not throw a perfect game! And I'm getting sick of it.

Oh, gosh. Sorry. I didn't realize it was your private room today, cult. I should have knocked.

[12] =)

Phil looking better so far today ... though that might just be the "Mariner Effect" in action.

Jeez, a ten-pitch walk to that guy?

[15] It's always been Phil's problem. His pitches are too good for them to put into play, but not quite good enough to make them miss.

Nice to see that Cornflake has figured out his LH swing.

Swish has been a lot better recently, no?
I'm going to check that.

Well that threat ended quickly.

And yes, Swisher has been hot in the last week.

[18] he's been on a tear since June, and no one is talking about it. I think he started to turn it around on Memorial Day weekend when they were in Seattle and Guttierez robbed him of 2 homers

Do you hear that Phil???

You're pitching for the hearts of kids from Haiti ... don't fuck it up!

yeah, since June 1 Swish is .308/.412/.541 with 9 home runs and 36 RBI's. That's 46 games...April and May REALLY screwed his numbers up.

Looks like June was a scorcher for Cornflake 1.017 OPS, July has been down .780, but he's picked it back up the last week or so ...

So, I wonder if Mariners fans have complained about Ichiro (82 OPS+ in RF) this season as much as (many) Yankees fans have about Jeter.

Oh, and what's with the Kimberly Jones disco queen/Buck Rogers look today?

[21] Which isn't to make a joke out of it ... HOPE Week is a thousand kinds of awesome and GREAT on the Yankees for doing it.

[24] Bidi, bidi, bidi???

Ballgame?

[26] Awesome.

[24] I'm thinking Mariners fans (assuming there are such things) have had other things to complain about.

Martin and Jeter combined to screw up what should have been an easy CS, by the way. Bad throw, bad tag.

not gonna lie, it got a little dusty in here during that story about Mo and the kid from yesterday

Phil. Hughes. Does. Not. Work. Quickly.

[29] And he still might have been out, according to the super-duper replay.

oh great, a "CC was better than Felix last year" conversation

I still can't believe that the Mariners have wasted Felix Herandez by having him throw almost 200 innings as a 20 y.o. and not saving him for the seventh or eighth inning.

[33] oh great, a "pitching to the score" conversation

[34] I'm glad they're saving their closer for save situations, though.

Kay talks about the Mariners "all star closer" like he's Rollie Fingers.

Ah, sweet Rob.

Driven deep...yawn.

Brett would have scored on that.

Uh oh.

[40] You know what's scary? Desmond Jennings, who the Rays just called up, might just be faster than Gritner. He's stoopid fast.

red sox pounded felix the way the mariners are clobbering hughes.

I know it makes me a bad person and a "WHY IS MY BURRITO TAKING SO LONG" kind of fan, but I'm sort of done with the Phil Hughes Experiment.

Oh GGBG, I LOOOOOOOOOVE you!

[42] "Desmond Jennings" sounds like a fast guy.

Hey, Brett! Nice. Big play!

i would change hughes name and send him to a safe house before giving him the ball versus the red sox this year.

[45] I can't find video of it, but in his *1st* game up, he scored all the way from 1st on what was, essentially, a ground ball past the 2nd baseman into the outfield.

The throw home wasn't even close, he could have come in standing up and it wasn't like he was running on the pitch.

It was silly.

Hey, Russell, I've never seen anyone slide out of first base before!

I find it silly that they changed all those rules to make a no hitter mean something but you can still give up a run

Uh.
Why do Paul and Michael think they can see that play, when the ump is right there?

[44] I know I am being a reactionary fan, but I am increasingly convinced that the Phil Hughes experiment was fouled up when the team made him the EIGHTH INNING GUY in 2009 and basically stunted his development.

Okay, Michael admits that the ump probably had a better view.

[49] ?

Ooooh, that's the kind of break we might just need today.

Yeah, I stayed up to watch that Pirates/Braves game last night and wow! that was quite a call to end it.

C'mon Jeter, prove my gut wrong.

I feel bad about this, but: I'm slightly disappointed that Brett walked and it's now up to Jeter.

Also, three out of those four pitches were in the strike zone. Jeez.

[55] Just an awful call.

That'll do

Okay, acceptable!

Now Brett can swipe second and Teix can single, and we take the lead...

Selfless.

Oh, Granderson, not Teix. I got confused.

I'll take it. Plus, much more satisfying than a home run, don't you think?

Goddam it!
I was expecting more. I was drooling inside. (Much less messy that way.)

[51] You know? I just don't know. I think that hammy injury in Texas is a bigger factor, since, by his own admission, Hughes changed his curveball grip.

Putting Hughes in the bully may have pushed back development on his secondary stuff, but he did seem to recover the velocity he hadn't shown since the injury AND it seemed to give him confidence he hadn't shown since either.

Maybe the question is about his innings. Maybe the bullpen stint cost him innings and the jump he had as a starter last year is what is causing his struggles this year, but Hell, they moved him to the bullpen because the stuff wasn't showing up in starts.

But now? I mean, he doesn't have a plus pitch, doesn't have plus command, can't keep his velocity past a couple of innings ...

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I'm getting to the point that I don't think the ML rotation is the place to find it. I see no signs he's anything more than a number 4/5 right now, at the most, and frankly, if he's struggling like this, we've got better options for his spot.

Huuuuuuuuuughes!

did i mention that the red sox just obliterated felix last week?

Looks like the Mets are sending Beltran to the Giants.

[68] Good fit.

[68] Supposedly they're getting Wheeler (Giants #2 prospect) in return, which is a good snag for them.

Oh, come on. Let's get serious here.
Joe, that was not exactly Wade's fault!

Oh, silly me. Boone in to walk face the lefty.

[65] I think the inning are a big part of the problem. He's been in the bigs for parts of five seasons and he still has yet to pitch unfettered---no limits on innings, pitches, etc. I also imagine that throwing ball to the walls in the BP interfered with any development of secondary pitches. Anyway, that's my unscientific gut feeling.

Oh for fuck's sake.

[71][72] Mysterious are his ways.

Hm.
Which team looks like an 0-fer-17 team today?

WTF was that.

Heh. Buster Olney tweets the Cubs are "trying to nudge the Yankees into taking Carlos Zambrano, offering up money to offset his salary"

[75] ... aber boshaft ist er nicht.

Oh, Boone decided to walk a righty instead. Interesting approach.

Adam Kennedy ... even MORE pathetic than Boone Logan!

Yay!

Sigh.

And that's all she wrote, folks.

But, honestly, not Boone's fault.

Go crazy, Seattle!!!!!

I mean, if ever a team was due for a break...

Yankees could score 6 runs in 3 innings.

It's not likely, but it wouldn't exactly constitute a miracle.

Well, this game is fucked.

Wow, I do work for an inning and it gets out of hand.

Too bad we can't get a solid MR/spot starter like that guy the Sox have... Aceves?

Can we cut Boone Logan? I don't even care if its his fault.

two games back just seems so much closer than three games back.

i'm not buying this "the streak" had to end talk either. it could have ended in boston, but it didn't, did it?

[55] [58] Not a good call, but not as terrible as it is being made out to be either. The catcher needs to make sure he gets the tag down in that situation.

In any case, the best part of the replays for me is watching Scott Proctor (and his arm) doing a superman into a face plant right out of the box.

You just knew the Yankees were going to find a way to fuck this up.

[91] He called him safe before he touched the plate.

[93] This.

Bad job by just about everyone. Seventeen hits by the Mariners? Really?

Usually taking two out of three is good enough, but not the way Boston's playing.

[95] And not the way Seattle is playing.

something tells me Hank Steinbrenner has just urgently advised Brian Cashman to upgrade his offer for Jimenez. 'Give them Scranton, Trenton, and Tampa for all I give a shit!'

[97] 'Meah, but whatever you do, don't trade Igawa. Remember? Meah.'

[98] 'Cash, it's Hank again. If something comes back right away, I'm having a steak at the bar - so you know where to find me. Meah.'

[99] 'Cash, Hear anything about Jimenez yet? I'm having a smoke out at the Monuments if you're looking for me... meah, keep me posted. Meah, It's Hank. Meah.'