Starters' ailments thorn in O's side  —  Oblique strain ends season for Bedard, likely Guthrie, too  —  The Orioles yesterday officially shut down pitching ace Erik Bedard for the rest of the season, ending his breakout campaign and sending a patchwork starting rotation into more flux.

METS HIRE PEDRO'S TRAINER  —  Pedro Martinez's personal trainer is now officially a member of the Mets.  —  The Mets have hired Chris Correnti, who has been with Martinez during his rehab and has helped to oversee it, as a consultant for the remainder of the season.

Baseball needs to lead this battle  —  LIKE THIS STORY?  —  There is only one solution, and trust me, it's not coming from the Mitchell report.  —  It's not coming from all those players who would have us suddenly believe that they are growth-hormone deficient.

Mets to launch online charity auction of authentic game-worn autographed 9/11 tribute caps  —  Auction on Mets.com to run through Nov. 1; Mets Foundation to distribute funds to benefit area charities  —  FLUSHING, N.Y. — The New York Mets, in conjunction with Mets-Steiner Collectibles …

Under The Knife  —  Glausgate  —  When Troy Glaus signed with the D'backs for four years and $45 million, he was actually taking a one-year pay cut.  He'd made $9 million in the last year of his deal with the Angels that had bought out his arbitration years, and although he'd been an All-Star …

Blogger Beat: Chop-n-Change  —  This season, at the beginning of each series, MetsBlog will attempt to get the perspective of the opposition and their fans.  From this, we hope to be better educated on the opposition going into a series.  It also gives us a fine opportunity to highlight some of our favorite team blogs.

New York: The Hottest Corner in Baseball  —  Weekend News: Alex Rodriguez hit his 52nd home run of the season on Sunday, extending his consecutive games streak of going yard to five.  ARod has slugged seven homers during this span.  —  David Wright hit his 27th home run during Saturday's game, matching his career best in 2005.

Brawny arguments for top NL rookies  —  Brewers third baseman's season could net him hardware  —  The Milwaukee Brewers had a difficult second half until recently, but no one could blame Ryan Braun.  —  The 23-year-old third baseman is enjoying the kind of rookie campaign …

Duncan's season may be over  —  PHOENIX — Left fielder Chris Duncan's availability for the remainder of the season is in question after the Cardinals' lefthanded slugger on Saturday aggravated what the club described as a sports hernia.  —  Manager Tony La Russa ruled out Duncan …

Notes: Wright not used to time off  —  Entering Sunday, third baseman had started 139 of 141 games  —  NEW YORK — It was a good day to be off, someone told David Wright in the Mets clubhouse late Sunday morning.  Lots of relaxing.  Perhaps monitoring an NFL game or two?  —  Probably not, he said.

BasketballProspectus.com Launches in October  —  Good early morning, all.  —  I am pleased to announce that we will be launching BasketballProspectus.com in the first half of October.  BasketballProspectus.com's initial focus will be on men's college basketball.

Best and Worst MLB Splits, 1957-2006  —  There are some great water cooler conversations out there in baseball land: What are the best infields of all time?  Which squads did their best in clutch situations?  Which teams in baseball history improved the most as the season wore on?

Tigers likely to shut down Bonderman  —  Leyland unsure about righty's season as troubles continue  —  DETROIT — The question has been lingering for a while now: Is Jeremy Bonderman completely healthy?  —  The answer came with a resounding "no" after a disastrous 1 1/3 innings in Sunday's 14-7 loss to the Mariners.