AROUND THE LEAGUE

***TORRE UP TO HIS OLD TRICKS***
A few years ago, Torre pitched Scott Proctor so much, his right arm was 4 inches longer than his left. Now, it seems he's running roughshod over the Dodger bullpen. This from Buster Olney:

During Joe Torre's last seven seasons with the Yankees, he left in his wake a bunch of right-handed relievers who were broken down from pitching a whole lot of innings -- Steve Karsay, Paul Quantrill, Tom Gordon, Tanyon Sturtze, Scott Proctor, etc. The Dodgers have an enormous lead in the NL West, and that's a good thing, because L.A.'s middle relief corps is racking up huge numbers of innings and appearances.
Two of the top six leaders in innings pitched belong to the Dodgers, Ramon Troncoso and Ronald Belisario; combined, they are on pace to throw almost 200 innings. It will be interesting to see how the L.A. bullpen holds up down the stretch; GM Ned Colletti is said by others to be searching for pitching.

Their top four relievers are on a pace to average 86+ innings apiece. Should be interesting to see who begs to be traded first.

***PEDRO STILL IN THE NEWS***
A number of teams sent scouts to watch Pedro throw this week and all of them came away unimpressed. The consensus is that unless he's willing to sign for the minimum (with incentives built in) and go to the minors and work his way up, he's going to be walking around free for a while. In fact, some clubs are upset because Pedro's camp has been hinting that teams are "flocking" to see him pitch. Apparently it's been more like a side-show than a scouting expedition.

***A-ROD RESTING***
His doctor wasn't surprised at the way he's playing. He expected the A-rod would have had 5-8 games off by now. Hitting coach Long says his balance is off and he may be subconsciously favoring his hip. Everybody's got a theory. All I know is, we can't live with a clean-up hitter batting .214.

***RED SOX BEING INNOVATIVE***
They have been talking about having a 6-man rotation when Smoltz comes back, but that's out the window. Matsuzaka is obviously pitching hurt. Can you say WBC? I knew that you could.

Is there a sillier name for a ballpark than Land Shark Stadium? I keep thinking, "Chevy Chase"