US Cities

Last night, Arizona Diamondbacks’ second baseman Kelly Johnson became the third player this year to hit for the cycle. Johnson went 4-for-4 with three RBI along with a hit by pitch in the Diamondbacks 7-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

While this is a great feat for Johnson, I am a tad annoyed this happened. I am annoyed this happened because I had Johnson on my bench last night for my fantasy team. My logic? I went off sample size.

Several sources (Fox’s Ken Rosenthal and the Chicago Sun Times’ Joe Cowley) say the White Sox are working hard to pry Adam Dunn away from the Washington Nationals, but aren’t having much success due to the Nationals’ exorbitant asking price.  Reportedly, the Nats want Carlos Quentin or Gordon Beckham, both of whom the ChiSox are understandably reluctant to trade away.

However, the White Sox have apparently offered up just about anyone else in their farm system, including 1B/3B Dayan Viciedo and RHP Daniel Hudson.

It was just announced the Giants signed lefty Dontrelle Willis to play for their AAA team, the Fresno Grizzlies.  While the adult in me thinks Dontrelle’s arm is shot, the kid in me loves this move.

I’ve always been a big fan of Dontrelle.  He’s from Oakland, just across the Bay from San Fran, and I just liked everything about him as a player.

With the All-Star break finally upon us, fantasy owners have time to take a breath and determine exactly where they are and what they can do to improve over the final few months of the season. Now is usually the time that stock can be taken.

It’s now official: Left-handed ace Cliff Lee, along with injured right-handed reliever Mark Lowe and $2.5 million to pay much of Lee’s remaining 2010 salary, are headed to the Rangers, while the Mariners will receive first baseman Justin Smoak and three minor league prospects (Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke and Matt Lawson) in return.

Freddy Garcia has been the most consistent Chicago White Sox starters in 2010 with a 9-3 record and has only lost once since April 15th.  He has won nine of his last 10 decisions and has been a big part of the White Sox turning their season around, helping them to move into second place in AL Central as of last night.

The Chicago White Sox were 24-33 a month ago today on June 8th. On that date, they were nine games under .500, nine and a half games behind the first place Twins in the AL Central, and six games behind the Tigers.

Here is what I wrote about the Texas Rangers’ catching situation back in January…

“You know what’s funny? At the end of the 2008 season, the Rangers had Saltalamacchia, Taylor Teagarden, and Gerald Laird on the roster, and everyone, including the Rangers, thought they had a surplus of catching.

About a month ago, the Chicago White Sox looked as if they were going to be sellers at the trading deadline. Now, after a three game sweep of the Atlanta Braves, the White Sox now have a record of 37-34 and are only 2.5 games behind the first place Minnesota Twins in the AL Central. Once again, it looks like the White Sox will be buyers are the trade deadline.

Let’s see what is going on with the Pale Hose…

The White Sox announced the signing of their first round pick LHP Chris Sale for $1.656 million. 

Sale was rated the top college left-hander after Drew Pomerantz in most of the mock drafts shown, but he fell to the White Sox with the 13th pick, probably because he went to a second-tier school, Florida Gulf Coast University.

Florida Gulf Coast did indeed play mostly second-tier schools. When they played top-tier schools, they generally got pounded, unless Sale was pitching.  He beat Wichita State 7-2 on March 5, 2010 and Clemson 4-2 on May 1, 2010.

The Detroit Tigers sent down Rick Porcello to Triple-A on Sunday and are hoping to get the same results from this move that they got from sending down Max Scherzer earlier in the year.

Earlier this year, the Tigers sent down Scherzer and his 7.29 ERA and 5.6 K’s/9 to Triple-A. Since Scherzer has returned, the 25-year-old righty has a 3.48 ERA and has struck out 11.9 batters per nine IP. That is impressive.

Those are the results the Tigers are hoping to get from Porcello.