MLB

In his book, "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract," Bill James described Darrell Evans as "probably the most underrated player in baseball history."

James supported his argument by pointing out that while Evans had a low batting average (.248), he had a very high "secondary average," which is a statistic Bill James uses to measure, well, everything else.

Whatever.

Billy Butler had started 89 consecutive games for the Royals, but that all ended on Thursday night at Target Field in Minnesota.

Butler hasn't been swinging the bat well, hitting just .176 over the past nine games. In that same span he has only one extra-base hit and three runs batted in.

I am not going to even take credit for predicting this earlier in the week because the move was so blatantly obvious.

Jeff Suppan, who was recently released by the Milwaukee Brewers, signed with the St. Louis Cardinals Thursday.

The Yankees have gone 9-4 since opening a stretch of 16 games against mostly sub-.500 teams on May 28. Now, they have come to the end of Easy Street with three contests versus the Astros.

With tougher Interleague matchups coming up against the Phillies, Mets and Dodgers this month, New York will look to capitalize on its final easy series before it travels to Arizona from June 21-23.

Many of today's players do not hustle. Hanley Ramirez and Luke Scott are two players who recently demonstrated their values.

Are you a Red Sox or Rays fan who wants to ensure that your team will have the home field advantage if they make the World Series?

Do you want to see the National League go home empty-handed at the Midsummer Classic for the 14th year in a row?

Are you a sadistic sociopath who likes messing with people for the pure schadenfreude?

If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, you might want to reconsider how you fill out your All-Star ballot.

If you truly want to see the best players in baseball duke it out on July 13, then by all means vote for the superstars.

Can you believe the Big 12 Conference is going to break up? I never thought I would ever see that. I mean how can Nebraska be in the Big 10 and Oklahoma and Texas be in the Pac 10?

It just doesn’t seem right.

Alex Rodriguez didn’t even get an at-bat last night, when the Yankees pinch hit for him in the second inning with Ramiro Pena of all people. After the game, A-Rod said that he left because of his groin, that he injured last week, was stiff. There was no pain, but it was stiff.

Here is more from Chad Jennings :

There was a recent NY Post report by columnist George King which portrayed the New York Yankees as being interested in the services of left handed pitcher Cliff Lee of the Seattle Mariners.

Major League Baseball umpire Jim Joyce’s blown call on a play at first cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game. Joyce’s mistake, for which he apologized, opened the floodgates on the debate of expanding instant replay in MLB. Was it an honest mistake, or all part of an intricate conspiracy plotted by MLB? And, will these events lead to more instant replay in baseball?

“Honest mistake?” Baseball umpires don’t make those; baseball players do, in front of Congress.