MLB

"Grow the arms and buy the bats."

That's the philosophy Andy MacPhail said he was going to try to rebuild the once great Baltimore franchise with.

So here we are, three years later. The arms have been grown: Brian Matusz, the fourth overall pick in the 2008 draft; Chris Tillman, stolen from the Seattle Mariners in the one-sided Erik Bedard trade; Jake Arrieta, Triple-A superstar, and on the verge of joining the big league rotation any week now; and, Zach Britton, one of the more promising, underrated arms in the minors.

Now, how 'bout those bats?

Armando Galarraga was robbed of a perfect game, but won. Harvey Haddix pitched a perfect game, but lost.

Baseball is a funny game, Joe Garagiola liked to say, and he even wrote a book with that as its title.

Tigers pitcher Galarraga has been nothing but smiles since umpire Jim Joyce fleeced him in front of some 18,000-plus witnesses at Comerica Park Wednesday night, taking a perfect game from him in the biggest miscarriage of justice since Conan O’Brien got sodomized by Jay Leno and NBC.

Lets face it, this season, Mark Teixeira has clearly not been the same hitter he was last season.

With his staggering batting average now down to .215, and his on base percentage at a lowly .328, he might be best suited for a couple of days on the bench.

His struggles were brought back into the spotlight today after an atrocious game against the Blue Jays, where he put up a goose egg in six at bats, which included five strikeouts and four men left on base.

I think we can all agree when I say that adding depth to your lineup is a key factor to a winning team. Actually, several people overlook the fact that having a good bench is almost mandatory in a sports team where injuries frequently occur, and players go through slumps from time to time. Finally, a team that is in the National League, where pinch hitting is almost automatic and the double switch is seen a lot more often, needs to rely on someone with a good bat (and maybe some decent speed from time to time).

The San Diego Padres and Philadelphia Phillies face off this weekend in a match-up featuring a bewildering assortment of player related in some way to other players, including Will Venable, Tony Gwynn Jr., Jayson Werth, Scott and Jerry Hairston, and Padres coach Glenn Hoffman.

Nevertheless, with Ken Griffey Jr., announcing his retirement on Wednesday, the era of Major League sons truly comes to a close.

NEW YORK: Don't worry about the Mets when they play at Citi Field, that's not their problem. The Mets continued their home dominance on Saturday, beating the Marlins 6-1 to improve to an MLB best 21-9 at home.

The man who had been slumping for a while, Ike Davis, led the charge with his first career four-hit game, including two doubles, an RBI, and three runs scored.

The effort was in support of 23-year-old left-hander Jon Niese, who was coming back from a hamstring injury against these Marlins on May 16.

Remember the days when you rounded up as many kids in the neighborhood as possible in order to play a baseball game at the park?

Tennis balls, wooden bats, and short orange cones were usually the equipment of choice, as you didn’t need a glove to play outfield and even the kid with Velcro tightened sneakers, tube socks, and a smothering mom could hit a tennis ball 400 feet.

Of course, the act of organizing and playing out a full game was rarely possible.

Okay so I'm a little late with Part II of my season-long look into the lost art of the stolen base. You can read part I here as a template for what future articles in this series will look like (if you are a new reader of mine). For those that aren't, yes it's the same format.

Armando Galarraga could have been made an immortal Wednesday night.

But instead he becomes just another pitcher who flirted with a perfect game.

While it was clear to anyone who understands the game of baseball that Galarraga beat the Indians' Jason Donald to the first best bag; the man in blue didn't see it that way.

Yes Jim Joyce clearly blew the call. You can look at the play from any angle you wish and you still wouldn't convince myself and several others that Donald was safe.

After failing in his first attempt in the rotation in 2008, Phil Hughes spent most of last season in the bullpen before he got another chance. Well, Hughes certainly learned a thing or two while he was there.

We always knew that Hughes had a good fastball, but before last year he never threw a cutter. He must have had Mariano Rivera help him with it because the pitch has flown past Hughes’ curve as his second best pitch.