Gurrier came into the eighth inning to face the heart of the Tigers order; Ordoñez, Cabrera, and Guillen, arguably one of the better 3-4-5 combinations in the majors over the past few years. Assuming that Guerrier sits these three down in order that would leave Nathan with the bottom of the Tigers order (6-7-8) to finish the game. Now, I understand that every out, especially when playing the Tigers is a tough out, but wouldn’t it make much more sense to pitch Nathan, the Twins best reliever, against Ordoñez, Cabrera, and Guillen and then let Guerrier face the bottom of the order consisting of Raburn, Inge, and Laird (a combined .248 batting average)? Doesn’t that just make sense?

In the NFL you match your best corner with the opposing team’s best receiver. But in baseball the best reliever is saved for the ninth inning—always. Now I know “the final three outs are different from the other twenty-four” and I think that there is some truth in that. But come on, tell me how your chances aren’t increased by allowing Nathan to face three of the better hitters in the American League over the past five years and have Guerrier face the still tough, but not as dangerous bottom of the order. And hey, you never know, Nathan may get three quick outs and have enough left in him to complete a two inning save. Somewhere I hope managers around the league are thinking the same. But I doubt it.

I’m not really going to get into the domestic violence portion of this story, because we all know that’s a no-go, so just assume I’ve already bashed him for that.

But what the hell was Cabrera doing going out and getting wasted before one of the Tigers’ most important games of the season? I understand that ballplayers have lives, and after games sometimes they go out and have some beers. That’s fine. But 5 a.m.? On a day when your team is in a near must-win situation? Cabrera had to be picked up at 7:30 a.m. at the police station by the Tigers GM, and just 12 hours later began a game in which he went 0-4. Had the Tigers won that game, they wouldn’t be facing a one-game playoff tonight in Minnesota, with reduced playoff odds down to 43.2 percent, which is terrible considering that on Friday they were up around the 95 percent mark.

Obviously, the Cabrera can’t be blamed for everything, the Tigers really collapsed, and are a much better team than the Twins. But this type of behavior should not be tolerated. Now I know this sort of thing isn’t going to happen, but Cabrera should be suspended by the Tigers. If I was a Tigers fan, no way would I want him not playing tonight so I can’t blam eJim Leyland for not doing anything, but as an objective observer, this shouldn’t be going on. And while I know a game in April is worth the same as a game in September, he knew the stakes of his games on Saturday and Sunday, and has a responsibility as a contracted player to be at his best for those games especially. Frankly, he should want to win bad enough that he wouldn’t want to go out the night before.

Even though I want the Twins to win anyway as the underdog (even though it would mean I would miss out on another prediction), Cabrera has only confirmed this feeling. Hopefully, Cabrera gets booed at the Mall of America Field at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome.

But are those suspensions equal? It’s easy to quantify the loss of Youkilis, his bat can’t be in the game, and instead the Red Sox will use just another combo of the Lowell/Varitek/V-Mart/Kotchman/Ortiz madness for those games. But nonetheless, the Red Sox lose arguably their best player for five games.

You could argue the same for Porcello. 5 games means he will miss his next start and the Tigers are going to have to find someone else to start that fifth game and then in another five days Porcello will make his next start. But is that what is going to happen? When a pitcher is suspended for five games, the idea is to miss his start given the 5-man rotation. In reality, teams often just push that player’s start back one day, and can almost always put in another starter on full rest in to replace them due to off-days. So it’s just not really fair.

In some ways the 5 and 5 suspension makes sense, because the idea is that a pitcher makes up a much higher percentage of the outcome of a game than a hitter. Maybe five hitter games equals one starting pitcher game, or thereabout. But in order to fully make this work the commissioner’s office should realize they should hand hitters five-game suspensions and pitchers a nine game suspension, to ensure the pitcher misses a full turn of the rotation. It’s only fair.

Buster Olney said that the focus for the M’s was Mauricio Robles, a left-handed pitcher in single A. Last year Robles had a 2.66 ERA in single A, this year has a 4.24 ERA between A and high A.

AOL FanHouse writer Jeff Fletcher writes via twitter that a source has confirmed that Orlando Cabrera has been traded to the Twins for minor league shortstop Tyler Ladendorf, who was a second-round draft choice last season.

On an unrelated note, the Marlins are getting closer to completing a deal with the Nationals for first basemen Nick Johnson, no word yet on what would be given in return.

The San Francisco Giants are far behind in their division race, but are tied for the NL Wild Card and appear to be looking for a a middle-of-the-lineup kind of guy. I think the Giants definitely are right in there, especially if they can add someone.

More problems on the Joe Girardi front. No one is really sure what went on with the A-Rod benching, but rumor has it that A-Rod and Girardi got into some sort of argument. Also, C.C. Sabathia made a reference to his high pitch totals being a factor towards his injury, which could indicate that he is unhappy with Girardi too. For the first time, I’m reading stories that have begun to question how safe Girardi is in his post. If the Yankees fail to make the playoffs again, you have to wonder if he will be the Yankee skipper for much longer…

This is the best story I read today. It’s analyzing whether David Ortiz’s recent “power surge” has really been him hitting better of just getting lucky. Ultimately the author finds that while Ortiz has had a few lucky home runs, he also has had a lot more unlucky fly balls than he was having in the beginning of the season, which is a good sign for Papi.

A funny pie chart on the Cleveland Indians, and if you go to the home page of this website you will find many more clever but also very informative infographs

Also, here’s a note on how the Rangers and Tigers upgraded their defense and why it paid off. It seems the move of Michael Young to third base to make way for Elvis Andrus was an excellent one, despite the fact that it ruffled some feathers in the Young camp.

Lastly, I think it’s cool that Pedroia and Kinsler are battling out the second-base spot at the All-Star Game. The two of them were teammates at Arizona State, and Kinsler eventually transferred because Pedroia took his starting spot, but here they are.

While Dontrelle has struggled significantly since joining the Tigers, he even spent time in class A ball last year to work on his mechanics, he still thinks that its a small problem that just needs some tinkering. This could just be ‘glass half full’ Dontrelle, but either way, there are more significant problems that need to be clarified. But the Tigers’ decision to put him on the DL in this fashion has made me wonder. They do not want to send him down to the minors, as they could risk losing him altogether, and they can’t have him on their 25-man roster, as he clearly is not in a position where he can perform. So they put him on the DL with “anxiety disorder that he’s had since spring training” according to Tigers Trainer Kevin Rand. Curious, I must say.. If Willis, has been experiencing this for so long, why didn’t you look into it sooner? Everyone knows that if a pitcher’s head isn’t right, there is a legitimate possibility of him getting shelled.

Willis also seemed rather perplexed at this announcement stating “I’ve talked to everybody and I don’t feel like I have any nervousness out there, I’ve got so many moving parts that if one’s out of whack from time to time it happens.” Again, this seems like a very optimistic pitcher, but, then again, you have to be optimistic when your career is on the line. Bottom line is that the Tigers want their potential number-two starter to figure things out, to improve their ballclub in the longterm, even if it means lying about his mental stability. The Tigers should have made sure they had the D-Train on board before making this public.

AL East

Current Leader: New York Yankees

Division Winner: Tampa Bay

The Rays are still my pick to win the AL East despite being back 5 games at the moment. Mariano Rivera’s age will stop the Yankees from winning a few games, which will be costly in the long run. The Rays need to pick someone up to enhance their bullpen, but David Price is only going to get better and better and so will the rest of the rotation. Jeff Niemann has proved fairly reliable and if Kazmir can recover from his injury and remember how to pitch well they will have an excellent rotation. I see Boston beating out New York for the wild card after they make a couple moves to get a better defensive shortstop (Jack Wilson?) and a hitter to replace Ortiz. Toronto will fall out of it. Their rookie pitchers will be good soon, but not yet, the flashes of brilliance we saw in the beginning were exactly that, flashes. Aaron Hill is for real though.

AL Central

Current Leader: Detroit

Division Winner: Detroit

Detroit is going to win this division by default. The Royals semi-hot start has dropped off, and probably won’t be reinvigorated until next season. The White Sox would have been contenders had they completed the deal for Peavy, but they didn’t, and I can’t see them recovering. The Twins are the only team that has a shot here I think, and it rests on Francisco Liriano’s left arm. If Liriano can be as great as he was a couple years ago, the Twins can challenge, though I still don’t know if they would catch the Tigers. Cleveland will do nothing except deal Carl Pavano to a team that will almost certainly regret it.

AL West

Current Leader: Texas

Division Winner: Los Angeles Angels

Yeah I know, I would rather have Texas win too, it would be nice to get some new blood into the playoffs. But unfortunately, the Angels are still a dangerous club. Kelvim Escobar just came back from injury and had a good first start. Not to mention the team was hurting without Vladimir Guerrero and John Lackey. Once they get back their A-game, which they will, the Angels will pull away a little bit. Oakland’s young pitchers won’t be good enough, and the Mariners just aren’t good enough, even with Erik Bedard having a very good year.

NL East

Current Leader: Philadelphia

Division Winner: New York Mets

I really wanted to give it to Atlanta actually, and could see it happening too, but they will need luck on their side. The Nate McLouth trade definitely helps their cause though. The Mets just have too much talent, despite history working against them. The Phillies need to figure out their closer situation, and fast, because Brad Lidge is self-destructing and its getting ugly. I like the Fish and I think they have a lot of potential. I am going to make an early prediction that they win this division next year with Josh Johnson, Anibal Sanchez, Andrew Miller and Ricky Nolasco leading the way.

NL Central

Current Leader: Milwaukee

Division Winner: St. Louis

I actually already wrote about this division in a more in-depth post very recently, you can see it here.

NL West

Current Leader: Los Angeles Dodgers

Division Winner: Los Angeles Dodgers

Really a no-brainer here. The Dodgers are playing great baseball, even without Manny Ramirez. Billingsley is pitching great and Juan Pierre is filling in very well, which means the Dodgers can use him in an upgraded role even when Ramirez returns. The rest of the division is floundering. Arizona is missing Webb, the Padres and Rockies don’t have the talent, and the Giants are recovering from last year, but it won’t be enough.