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.

There would be no reason for Nunez to be removed from the game. This was a mental error on the part of Fredi Gonzalez, but nothing that requires the entire move to be appealed. Say, Hermida had come in at the beginning of the inning, and everything else had remained the same, that would have sufficiently satiated Girardi’s desire for fair play, I assume. So then why is it that after one meaningless pitch (it was a strike looking to Jeter), is Girardi hellbent on protesting this to league offices? I feel as though Girardi is working the league in such a way that when he really needs a call, he can reference events like the one that transpired on Sunday as an example of when he didn’t get his way.

Let me mention, further, that at this point in the game, the Yankees were down 6-3, so they got a further two runs after the incident. If there had been a situation where Coghlan had made a miraculous catch on that 0-0 pitch, I would have understood Girardi’s position, but right now he is coming off as petulant and wasteful. Joe, how about you take a look at why your team is 4-6 in its last ten, and all of a sudden 4 games back of the streaking Red Sox. This as opposed to making jokes like “But I’d like to keep the two runs I got in the ninth,”. Haha Joe, haha…

Friday, a day after the sweep, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi apparently requested that Brad Penny be suspended for an intentional ball thrown at Alex Rodriguez. Despite the fact that there were no more hit batters for the rest of the game, Girardi felt that they the pitch by Penny was intentional and was worthy of a suspension. Be sure to take note of the fact that the Yankees have hit nine Red Sox batters this season, as opposed to the Sox hitting only three Yankees.

Girardi should have really learned his lesson by now. The 2009 Baseball Prospectus said of Girardi last season, “Good at organizing a bullpen, bad at dealing with the press.” Clearly, he is continuing that trend. How bad does it look that after being completely embarassed by your hated rival, that you call up the Commissioner and whine about how their big, bad pitcher took a shot at your prized A-Rod? To be honest, it has to be demoralizing to the players. They want to just forget about the series and move on, and not deal with the press constantly bringing up the Red Sox. On top of this, I don’t know why Girardi was calling up complaining regardless of the opponent or outcome of the series, that sort of thing is up the commissioner’s office.

On the flip side, John Henry, Principal Owner of the Boston Red Sox, updated his twitter using the phrase, “the MT [Mark Teixeira] Curse?” Firstly, Henry, why you are using Twitter I have no idea. But secondly, this just reflects badly on the team. Probably not as bad as what Girardi did, but it looks like you’re still sour for missing on the Teixeira sweepstakes. Just let the Sox’ performance speak for itself. Teixeira, for his part, said, “There is no reason for me to get into any war of words with some 70-something-year-old man. It doesn’t make sense.” While that really is an insult, particularly since Henry is only 59, credit Teixeira for not responding with something that will cause the boys on PTI to be talking for days. Odd that it’s the players that are now the responsible ones.