DID YOU NOTICE...?

## The Yanks scored 14 runs last night. No, that's not a typo, it really was 14 runs. It's not really a big deal; they've scored 14 runs before. In fact, they just did it in their last 4 games...total. Is it possible that some of the swagger has come back to their lineup? They had two 4-run innings last night. That's a far cry from when they thought a rally was a walk, a sacrifice, a stolen base and a sac fly. Now they have three legitimate home run threats in their lineup. Four, if your define "legitimate" loosely and include A-Rod.
Just for the record, the Yanks are 4-4 since A-Rod's return.

## Scott Boras wrote an article for ESPN in which he outlined his suggestions to greatly improve the free-agency and draft systems currently used by MLB. He says the current system is flawed and cited a few examples of the inequities involved. Of course, all the examples were of his clients and all his solutions involved getting them more money. Gee, never thought of that, Scott.

## Nine of the Yanks last twelve games of the season are against the Giants, Toronto and Houston. They have a combined record of  144-211 (.406). Of course, the probability is that those games will be meaningless.
There are currently 6 teams with a legitimate shot at the two wild card spots. The Yanks are last, 5.5 games behind the leader. There's a chance, but they'll have to climb over 5 teams to get there.

## What's the best race in baseball today? It's the NL Central, with Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Cincinnati all within 3.5 games of each other. It's very likely that all three will be in the postseason, so they're really fighting to finish first and avoid the dreaded wild-card game.

## AJ Mass wrote an article suggesting that the Tigers should trade Miguel Cabrera at the end of the season because that's when his value will be the highest in his career. Yeah, why not trade a guy who is basically having back-to-back Triple Crown seasons? Who is this Mass fellow and what is he thinking? So, I looked him up. He is the ESPN analyst for Fantasy Baseball. Now, I get it.

## Manny Acta , Jim Bowden and Keith Law wrote about which players have the best "tools."  When they discussed speed, they used the home-to-first time to rate them. Mike Trout, Ichiro Suzuki and Norichika Aoki were the fastest at 4.0 seconds. Brett Gardner is second at 4.1 seconds. Impressive, but I seem to recall Mickey Mantle being timed at 3.2 seconds, home-to-first while batting left-handed. I'm just saying.

## Best record in baseball is Atlanta at .608 ((potential 99 wins). The worst is Houston at .322 (potential 110 losses)

***THEY SAID IT*** 
"PGA Champion Jason Dufner’s final round scorecard will be sent to The World Golf Hall of Fame, but not until Johnny Manziel co-signs it"  -- TC Chong
"Mike Trout said anyone caught using PEDs should be banned from baseball for life. Which means either that he’s not using, or he doesn’t think he’ll get caught."  -- Janice Hough
 "Anyone see the viral video of that muscle bound guy unable to get a cap off a water bottle? It makes my wife feel better when she can't open my beer."  -- RJ Currie
 "Bob Gibson was the luckiest pitcher I ever saw. He always pitches when the other team doesn't score any runs."  -- Tim McCarver
 "Breaking news: Johnny Manziel was disqualified from a golf tournament when he refused to sign the scorecard unless he was paid $7,000."  -- Brad Dickson
"He looks like a greyhound, but he runs like the bus."  -- George Brett on third baseman Jamie Quirk "The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until the ball stops rolling and then to pick it up."  -- Bob Uecker

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