Top News:
Jeff Passan / Yahoo! Sports:
Finally, relief for a Royal pain — For the first time in my years of eBay bidding, I lost an auction and was legitimately bummed. A man's loyalty was for sale, and I wanted it. — Chad Carroll is 34 years old. He lives in Maryland. He is a computer tech with the Air Force.
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Associated Press:
Change in the works — Angry Royals owner promises adjustments — KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An angry David Glass vowed Friday that "significant changes" are coming soon to the woeful Kansas City Royals. — "I'm not willing for us to sit and wait to see if it gets better," the Royals owner told The Associated Press on Friday.
Joe Posnanski / Kansas City Star:At the end of their ropes — Even the eternally hopeful have a breaking point
Discussion:
Bucs Dugout
Adam Rubin / NY Daily News:
Glavine enjoys smooth sailing — Sinks Pirates for win No. 279 — Don't get Tom Glavine wrong. He appreciated the run support, even if he did quip: "It would've been nice the first couple of innings." — Glavine retired the first 12 Pirates he faced last night and nursed a one-run lead until …
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Gil Lebreton / Dallas Star-Telegram:
Left-hander is a fantasy come true — ARLINGTON - When the Rangers acquired pitcher John Koronka on the eve of the 2006 season, my high-dollar fantasy baseball service described him as "a soft-tossing lefty destined, at best, for the Cubs' bullpen." — I'm thinking about canceling that service.
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Amanda Branam / MLB.com:
Banged up Dodgers continue to struggle — Navarro and Mueller injured as skid reaches five games — LOS ANGELES — Thursday's game marked the Dodgers' fifth straight loss, but they may have lost much more than that in the process of being shut out, 3-0. — The game was hardly underway …
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ESPN:
Power Rankings: Reds, Tigers finally getting their due — Ranking all 30 teams since the beginning of the season, we admit that preseason reputations have hurt some teams and helped others along the way. But now that we're nearly 30 games into the 2006 season, reputations are starting to carry much less weight.
San Diego Union-Tribune:
Angels 7, Tigers 2 — DETROIT - Vladimir Guerrero, Mike Napoli and Casey Kotchman homered, and the Los Angeles Angels stopped their longest losing streak since 2002 at six games with a 7-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday. — Napoli, a 24-year-old catcher brought up from Triple …
Discussion:
Can't Stop The Bleeding
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Associated Press:
Nationals SS Guzman to have season-ending surgery — WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Nationals shortstop Cristian Guzman will miss the entire season after the team decided Friday his right shoulder needs surgery. — Guzman has been out since early in spring training.
Jon Heyman / Newsday:
Amazin's are best team in town — Almost every other day it seems, the Mets break out in song. — Tonight, we'll hear for the first time a jazzed-up version of that old standard, "Meet the Mets." There's also that funky new tune they play at Shea, "Our Team, Our Time." (Or is it "Our Time, Our Team"?)
Discussion:
Hot Foot
Richard / SportsJustice:
$20 million for the Rocket? — • I'm told the Astros made a stunning opening offer to Roger Clemens: around $20 million for five months. Meanwhile the Hendricks Brothers aren't tipping their hand. — • People have been so nice to defend me on this blog. I appreciate it beyond words.
Discussion:
New York Times
Will Carroll / Baseball Prospectus:
Under The Knife — In My Backyard — Imagine my surprise when I found out that my travel plans for the 2009 Winter Meetings were already taken care of. Bud Selig and MLB saw fit to give me a little gift yesterday, dropping the Meetings right in my backyard a few years from now.
Deadspin:
Jose Guillen, Money Manager — We've got to consider it, at this point, very possible that the reason Nationals outfielder Jose Guillen never received any lessons in financial management is because they were scared at him. — Because it's clear he never received any lessons in financial management.
Jim Baumbach / Newsday:
No second thoughts about Cano decision — ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of Robinson Cano's major-league debut, and the schedule-makers gave him the treat of returning to the stadium where he began his career. — So, standing in the Tropicana Field …
Troy E. Renck / Denver Post:
Shealy on the mend — Sky Sox first baseman biding his time in Triple-A … Is there any news on Ryan Shealy's possible return from the DL? — Phil - I talked with Ryan Shealy on Tuesday night in Colorado Springs. He looked great, clearly maintaining the conditioning program he adopted over the winter.
Discussion:
Purple Row
Bill Conlin / Philly.com:
Hamels vs. Bonds would be ESPN classic — IT WAS a sunwashed early September afternoon in the middle of the last century. I can't tell you why I was in the rightfield bleachers of the Polo Grounds for a doubleheader between the New York Giants and the Phillies.
Marty Noble / MLB.com:
Trachsel to take another shot at Braves — Atlanta (12-16) at New York Mets (19-9), 7:10 p.m. ET — The Mets' push to win the first game of each series continues Friday night at Shea Stadium when they face the Braves for seventh time in 19 days and play a "first" game for the third time in five days.
