Kuzul

With all of the trades of veteran players the Astros engaged in this season, it is a deal in 2010 that is about to pay off dividends.

Lance Berkman was as good a Houston Astros player that put on the uniform in the past decade. Maybe he was not on the same level as Craig Biggio or Jeff Bagwell.

But in his 12 years with Houston, starting with the 1999 NL Central Champs, he put up all-star numbers. He led the league in RBI in 2002 and finished in the top ten for the MVP vote five times.

He called the Astrodome home and later helped lead the Astros to their only pennant, crushing a key grandslam in the 2005 Division Series against Atlanta.

But when Berkman’s skills were diminishing along with the Astros pennant hopes, Houston sent him packing to the defending World Champion Yankees in 2010. He would not win a World Series in New York but in 2011 as a member of the Cardinals, he kept St. Louis’ hopes alive by tying Game Six of the 2011 World Series with two outs and two strikes on him in the bottom of the 10th.

He would get his ring as a Cardinal, the same team he fought so hard against in the 2004 and 2005 NLCS.

According to NBCSports.com, Berkman is probably going to retire after this season.

Meanwhile the Astros compensation of Berkman is on his way to the majors.

Jimmy Paredes has been recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City. The 23-year-old Domincan was a third baseman for most of his minor league career before making a switch to the outfield this year. He played 46 games in the majors last season and batted a respectable .286 with an OPS of .713 in Houston.

This year he has excelled in Triple-A. He batted .318 with 13 homers and 37 stolen bases as he made the Pacific Coast League All Stars. The switch hitter is second in the league for total bases and brings power and speed to his game.

According to Astros.com, Houston General Manager Jeff Luhnow believes Paredes will be a top of the order hitter. “Our plan right now” he said, “is to play him in right field and get him accustomed to Minute Maid Park.”

Of course right field was where Lance Berkman started 233 times as a member of the Astros.

So as Berkman and a great part of the Astros past goes into the night, his legacy could go on with each Paredes stolen base and gap shot.

Additionally, the other part of the Lance Berkman compensation was reliever Mark Melancon, who is currently having a subpar year in Boston.

But the Astros flipped him for infielder Jed Lowrie, who was having a nice season with 14 homers before an ankle injury sidelined him.

If Lowrie comes back next year at age 29, the Astros could have two contributors from the Berkman deal. Not a bad first few steps into the future.

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There are two ways the Giants can face recent adversity. And if they stay focused, they can turn this season into a triumph.

The news of Melky Cabrera‘s suspension for PED use stunned the San Francisco Giants. According to The Sporting News, Giants GM Brian Sabean described it as “deflating.” They lost the game to the Nationals the day the suspension was announced.

Then they had an off day. The off day could have been spent reading the volumes of columns about Cabrera, including Yahoo! Sports’ Steve Henson’s column bringing up the Giants’ history of turning a blind eye to PED use.

Or they could have spent the off day focused on the game ahead.

They came back on Friday night and obliterated the Padres. Each run scored by the Giants seemed to scream “Melky who?” Each out recorded by Matt Cain reminded everyone this team is favored for the arms, not their bats.

The eight-run explosion in the third inning almost seemed cathartic. It was a baseball equivalent to a primal scream.

Around the time they were pounding San Diego, the Dodgers coughed up a late lead and would lose to Atlanta in extra innings.

So now with all of the hand-wringing and worrying and thousand yard stares from the Giants after Cabrera’s suspension, they hold their destiny in their own hands.

The Giants’ magic number is 43. Between now and the end of the season, any combination of wins and Dodgers losses equaling 43 would clinch the National League West for the Giants.

They have two more games against San Diego and then they go off to Los Angeles. Each win in Chavez Ravine cuts two off the magic number.

If the Giants used that off day to get mad and then take it out on the National League, then the Cabrera suspension could be a rallying point. It could be the moment the team came together and forced their way into October even without their All-Star outfielder.

The Giants have a chance to feast on some of the losing teams over the next few weeks. Besides the three games against the Dodgers and four against Atlanta this week, the Giants will have a steady diet of games against the Padres, Astros and Cubs through the beginning of September.

If the Diamondbacks, currently one game over .500, slip under the mark, then the Giants will play teams with losing records 30 of their last 43 games including the final 19 games of the year.

If the Giants stay focused and win the games they are supposed to win and don’t feel sorry for themselves, they can turn the whole Cabrera fiasco into a mere footnote on the way to a division title rather than the moment that crashed the season.

43 is the number. Stay focused, Giants, on the number, not the suspension.

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Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox went into Kansas City tonight poised to add to his Cy Young bid. The White Sox are the leaders of the Division and the Royals have been out of contention for months. This seemed like an easy win for the South Siders.

Except it wasn’t. Royals pitcher Luis Mendoza shut down the White Sox—and the pitcher with the long flowing hair won his third game this month. Salvador Perez hit the go ahead double. Billy Butler and Lorenzo Cain contributed to the Royals cause. Greg Holland earned his five saves in six tries.

They are not household names or big stars, but perhaps that is the point. The Royals are using players that send even die hard fans to the Internet, wondering “who are these guys?”

Their August schedule is jam packed with contending teams hoping to pad their win total against Kansas City. Yet, since August 5th, the Royals have played the Rangers, White Sox, Orioles, A’s and White Sox again twelve times, and won eight times.

Four of those wins have been by two runs or fewer, making the contenders grind their teeth that they let one get away against the Royals.

If they win one of the next two games at home against the White Sox, they would have beaten them four out of six times this month. These are the games that can haunt a contending team in a tight pennant race like the White Sox are facing.

After the White Sox, the Royals can torment the Rays for three games, put the Red Sox out of their misery with four in Fenway and then take on the contending Tigers.

In fact the Royals play the Tigers or White Sox 15 times over their last 44 games. They can play a tremendous factor in deciding the American League Central Champion.

And if their performance in August is any indication, they are relishing the role of spoiler.

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One can not help but feel badly for Los Angeles Angels general manager Jerry DiPoto. He assembled a team that by all appearances looked like the squad that would win owner Arte Moreno’s first-ever pennant and bring the World Series back to Orange County.

Jered Weaver, locked up to a long-term deal, was having a Cy Young-caliber season. He brought in Albert Pujols who is heating up. C.J. Wilson made the All-Star team. Mike Trout has already sewn up the Rookie of the Year and has his sights set on the MVP. Torii Hunter’s bat was heating up.

He brought in Zack Greinke to slide into the rotation with Weaver, Wilson and Dan Haren. Reliever Ernesto Frieri was a steal from San Diego.

After the Greinke deal, the Angels looked poised and ready to run off with, at the very least, a wild-card spot and possibly zoom past the Rangers and claim the division.

That was 20 games ago. They’ve won only seven games since.

They are losing in every way possible. The bullpen has blown games and have an ERA over eight since the beginning of August. According to The Los Angeles Times, Scott Downs and Jordan Walden will be back soon. But will they be enough?

The starters have not helped matters. Greinke has been a bust in his first four starts, posting a staggering 5.54 ERA over 26 innings in Southern California. Dan Haren hasn’t been much better with a 5.04 ERA in the second half capped off by his miserable five runs in 3.2 innings drubbing by the Rays on Thursday night.

The Angels hit what they hope is rock bottom Friday night in Angel Stadium. Jered Weaver needed to give the team a quality outing especially on the heels of Haren’s poor start.

Instead, he suffered the worst loss of his career. Lasting only three innings, worse than Haren, he let up an eye-popping nine runs and saw his ERA jump 0.52 points in one night.

From the moment DiPoto looked like he put together the team of everyone’s dreams, they have become a prolonged nightmare. The third-best team in the American League the day Zack Greinke arrived is now fifth in the wild-card race.

If they make the playoffs, they would have to be considered a formidable foe. Weaver twice in a short series? Wilson going in Game 2? Trout and Pujols hitting in the big series? This team looks designed to win a short series.

Perhaps they are. But first they need to get into the postseason. Without the Angels in the playoffs, the Rangers would be the team to beat depending on the health of CC Sabathia for the Yankees.

The entire complexion of October could be different if the Angels make it. But if they keep pitching like this, they will be spending the fall on the golf course and leaving DiPoto scratching his head, wondering what else he could have done.

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For Boston Red Sox fans, this season just keeps getting worse. Every time it feels like the team has hit bottom, they find a way to dig their hole a little deeper.

In the past 48 hours, Red Sox icon and beloved link to the past Johnny Pesky died, and Yahoo! Sports has revealed a potential player mutiny against manager Bobby Valentine.,

Throw in the fact that the Red Sox are a sub-.500 team in mid-August, and there are fewer and fewer links to the championship season. Rooting for them has become a near impossible task.

The Red Sox have had losing seasons before, the last one coming in 1997. And the team has had dysfunction from the top down, like they did in 2001 when Dan Duquette and Jimy Williams butted heads and Red Sox Nation had both Carl Everett and Manny Ramirez in the same clubhouse.

But I’m hard pressed to remember a team this bad on the field, this tumultuous behind the scenes and this unlikable overall.

Bobby Valentine is, of course, a culprit. He is not the only factor that made the 2012 Sox unwatchable, but he is not a scapegoat. He is a major contributor to this disaster.

According to ESPN.com, Valentine’s hiring was hated by the players right away. Divisive from the start, he seemed to alienate everyone in an already fractured clubhouse in spring training.

Valentine made the Youkilis situation unbearable, got Pedroia angry and seemed to have the whole team hating to show up to the park. According to USA Today, many players were upset by how he let Jon Lester absorb a thrashing on July 22.

And now comes the revelation that angry texts to management and a private meeting occurred where players aired their complaints about Valentine. The most telling thing about the Yahoo! story is that nobody could possibly be surprised by it.

It is not all Valentine’s fault, of course. Larry Lucchino was the one who thought bringing Bobby Valentine into a fractured clubhouse was a bright idea. Of course, this was the same team that did not respond to Terry Francona’s hands-off approach in the great collapse of 2011, but bringing in Valentine was a panic move.

Lucchino was the chief culprit of throwing Francona under the proverbial bus after the 2011 season and created needless drama and tension leading to Boston’s 100th anniversary celebration of Fenway Park.

How much influence Lucchino has over new general manager Ben Cherington is unclear. What is obvious is that, in the short term, the trades for Andrew Bailey and Mark Melancon have been disastrous and that they got virtually nothing for Kevin Youkilis. And converting Daniel Bard has been the stupidest decision since the Yankees destroyed Joba Chamberlain‘s career.

The team has endured more injuries than any team could possibly absorb, but the players on the field could make an effort to be more likable.

From Josh Beckett’s golf game and indifference to Jon Lester getting bombed regularly to David Ortiz complaining and sitting out longer to help his free agency status, according to WEEI, the list goes on. To watch a player from the 2004 ALCS excel, Red Sox fans have to watch the Yankees and see Derek Lowe pitch out of the bullpen.

Even a season-ending surgery can not keep John Lackey and his beer pounding out of the clubhouse (according to USA Today) as a reminder of last year’s disaster.

Practically the only reason to watch this team was to see a potential glimpse of good things to come, but with Will Middlebrooks’ season ending, even those bright spots are dimming.

The Red Sox bandwagon, once flush with new fans in pink hats, has a lot of room now. Any claim the team makes of a sellout streak in Fenway Park can be questioned with images of empty seats throughout the ballpark.

What Red Sox Nation is witnessing is a perfect blend of rotten baseball, bad personalities and incompetent management.

And with Johnny Pesky’s death, more links to the past have ended.

Red Sox victories, even recent ones involving late rallies against the Yankees in the Bronx, are met with a polite golf clap. This is a team that is almost impossible to root for.

The only reason to cheer this team can be linked to Jerry Seinfeld’s observation. We root for clothes. Players are wearing Red Sox uniforms and we root for those uniforms.

We sure aren’t rooting for the people wearing the uniforms or the organization running the team.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are, as of this writing, tied for first place in the National League West. They each have 49 games left and chances are neither will be one of the Wild Card teams, so this is a fight for one playoff spot.

As exciting as is the prospect of these old rivals racing to the end for a spot in the postseason, it is a little bit of an old hat. When the two teams played within the boroughs of New York City, they often battled for playoff positioning.

In fact, the 1951 tie-breaking playoff ending with Bobby Thomson’s home run is probably the greatest and most famous finale to a season ever.

And in California, the two bitter foes fought head to head and also played spoiler. Joe Morgan’s homer ended the Dodger’s hopes in 1982. The Dodgers blew out the Giants to end the dreams of a 1993 pennant. The Dodgers spoiled Barry Bonds’ 71st homer in 2001 by eliminating the Giants.

And of course Steve Finley crushed any hopes for the 2004 Giants by launching his walk-off, Division-clinching grand slam for the Dodgers on the last weekend of the season.

The next great chapter in their rivalry is a head-to-head postseason matchup. And the way both teams are developing, the potential of an electric new chapter of their rivalry is possible.

The Dodgers have a home grown MVP candidate in Matt Kemp, who exudes a superstar quality worthy of Hollywood and a flair for the dramatic. They have Clayton Kershaw, a Cy Young winner brought up through their own system. And with the new ownership led by Stan Kasten and having Magic Johnson front and center, they are willing to import stars and high caliber players into the fold.

The Giants have a fun-loving personality with great characters. Any team that gets All-Star performances from a guy named Buster Posey and another one known as the Kung Fu Panda (Pablo Sandoval) is fun to watch.

Add in their fabulously deep pitching staff led by perfect game hurler Matt Cain and they would have remarkable matchups with the Dodgers. If Tim Lincecum turns his career around, they will have the most marketable player in the game. If Bryan Wilson comes back, they will have the funniest.

To have these two rivals with these two casts in the NLCS would be the best thing for baseball in the current decade.

When the Wild Card playoff system was first played to completion in 1995, it brought about the attractive possibility of inter-division rivals playing for the pennant. And the when they happened, they were not disappointing.

The Yankees and Orioles met in 1996 and Jeffrey Maier became a celebrity.

The Marlins and Braves faced off in 1997 and Livan Hernandez struck out 15, aided by Eric Gregg’s wide zone.

The 1999 NLCS between the Braves and Mets was one of the wildest playoff series in history. It featured Robin Ventura’s walk-off grand slam single and Kenny Rogers walking the bases loaded for the pennant.

The Cardinals and Astros met in back-to-back NLCS in 2004 and 2005. It featured walk-off shots by Jeff Kent and Jim Edmonds, not to mention Albert Pujols series extending homer against Brad Lidge.

The Rockies and Diamondbacks were unlikely opponents in 2007 with Colorado streaking to the World Series. The Rays and Red Sox battled in a spectacular 2008 ALCS with a great Red Sox comeback cut short by David Price.

And last year the Cardinals and Brewers faced off in an unlikely rematch of the 1982 World Series.

But nothing could compare in terms of drama and tension to the Yankees and Red Sox meetings. The ancient rivals first met in the controversial 1999 ALCS where sloppy play and a few bad calls crushed the Red Sox hopes.

In 2003 and 2004, the two faced off for back-to-back, heart-stopping, historic seven game series. Between the Pedro Martinez and Don Zimmer brawl to Grady Little’s decision to Jorge Posada’s double and Aaron Boone’s homer, the 2003 series was monumental.

In 2004, the 3-0 hole and Dave Roberts’ steal, Bill Mueller’s hit, Keith Foulke’s clutch pitching, the bloody sock, the slapped glove and David Ortiz’s homer, the rivalry came to a mind-boggling climax.

All the while, clips of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Bucky Dent, Jim Rice, Ron Guidry and Reggie Jackson were shown to give the great games a historical context as well.

Since then, the Red Sox and Yankee games have seemed anti-climactic. There needs to be a new historic rivalry to play on the stage of a trip to the World Series.

That’s where the Dodgers and Giants fit in. These teams and their personalities and their histories on display in the League Championship Series could be the fresh rivalry that could come to a boiling head this decade.

Clips of the past could be shown. Old heroes would arrive at the stadium. And a great rivalry that spans decades and a continent could have its Aaron Boone homer or Dave Roberts steal.

And for people tired of the Red Sox and Yankees hype, they can have a whole new rivalry to be engrossed by.

Giants and Dodgers for the pennant. It could feel like 1951 all over again.

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The Oakland Athletics recalled their surprise phenom Daniel Straily in time to start last night’s game. I wrote in a previous article that the element of surprise might benefit Oakland. The borderline prospect suddenly became a strikeout machine against Toronto.

It was smart to bring him to the majors to record punchouts before any scouting report caught up with him.

What Straily experienced in his debut against Toronto was a microcosm of the 2012 Oakland season.

Straily contributed his share to meeting Oakland’s expectations. He is a young pitcher who virtually nobody has heard of, and who contributed on the big league stage ahead of schedule. He fits in perfectly with Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone and A.J. Griffin.

The 23-year-old right-hander was excellent in his debut last night against Toronto. He pitched six innings, let up a single earned run and five hits. He also struck out five batters while walking only one. And with the A’s cruising to a 4-1 ninth-inning lead, it was clear that Straily was the story.

Then Jeff Mathis homered with two outs and two strikes in the ninth inning to tie the game. No doubt, a great number of sports writers were hitting “delete” on columns that were almost finished in the ninth.

The story was no longer Straily—now it was about a typical night in Oakland.

Runners were picked off by Oakland relievers. Ancient Omar Vizquel was thrown out at the plate. Each team put runners on. Oakland’s talented bullpen kept Toronto from scoring. The A’s left the bases loaded one inning.

Then Jemile Weeks tripled and Coco Crisp drove him home with a sacrifice fly. The A’s were walk-off winners again, keeping pace with Texas.

For the 13th time, the Athletics ended a game at home with the winning run crossing the plate. Thirteen out of 55 games there has been a reason to play “Celebration.” Twenty-three-and-a-half percent of all home games end with a walk-off hit.

I truly hope Straily stayed until the end. He would see 2012 A’s baseball perfectly laid out. The only thing predictable about this year in Oakland is that the hero of the game will never be who you are expecting.

Welcome to the club, Daniel Straily.

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Right now, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim appear to have one of the best squads to contend for a World Series title. They have three solid starters in Jared Weaver, Zack Greinke and Dan Haren. They have a reliable bullpen. And any lineup where Albert Pujols is the third biggest threat cannot be trifled with.

They have depth, experience and the energy that feeding off young stars can bring. They also have Mike Scioscia at the helm. The Angels skipper is one of the most reliable in the game. And with the 2002 World Series title and five other Division Championships to his credit, he is assembling a Hall of Fame-caliber resume.

In any short series against any team, the Angels would be given at the very worst a fighting chance if they didn’t come in as favorites.

And yet as of this writing, they are in third place in the American League West. The Texas Rangers, on the strength of their hot start, remain in first. The Oakland Athletics, riding their amazing July, are in second place.

In any previous year, the Angels would need to find their inner resolve to pass at least one of those two teams for a wild-card spot or leapfrog both for the Division Title.

That could still very well happen.

However, if the season were to end today, the Angels would play Oakland in the Wild Card Game. 

When the Wild Card Round was first played to its completion in 1995, many baseball purists wrung their hands worrying what would happen to their sport if a second-place team won the World Series.

Bob Costas trashed the Wild Card system before broadcasting the 1997 World Series, the first ever Fall Classic featuring a second-place team. The wild-card Marlins would go on to win it all.

Since then, the 2002 Anaheim Angels, the 2003 Florida Marlins, the 2004 Boston Red Sox and the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals all won the World Series as second place clubs. The 2000 New York Mets, 2002 San Francisco Giants, 2005 Houston Astros, 2006 Detroit Tigers and 2007 Colorado Rockies all won the pennant as a wild-card entry.

Baseball seemed to have adapted, thrived and moved on.

Now a third-place team could win it. Are the purists OK with that? Do they see that a team that runs the gauntlet like last year’s Cardinals should actually be praised? Or are they still clinging to the notion that nobody but a first-place team should be playing in October?

Either way, this Angels team could test that sentiment this year.

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When the Angels made their trade for Zack Greinke the other day, they somehow managed to keep outfielder Peter Bourjos in the system.

The Angels parted with highly regarded shortstop prospect Jean Segura and pitchers Ariel Pena and Johnny Hellweg. Baseball America considers all three to be among the top ten prospects in the Angels system, so clearly the Brewers feel that they got more in this deal than if they let Greinke walk via free agency.

It is odd that they did not insist on Bourjos in the deal. The outfielder who has speed and great defense also has two and a half years of big league experience at age 25. He pushed Torii Hunter to right field while leading the league in triples last season.

With the Angels outfield crowded with two MVP candidates in Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo along side a hot Torii Hunter, Bourjos is a wonderful luxury for the team. A pinch-running, defensive replacement fourth outfielder giving the team remarkable depth.

But Vernon Wells and his albatross of a contract are now off of the disabled list. He has accepted, according to the Orange County Register, a smaller role with the team. However, Bourjos’ role on the team will be diminished even more.

How often will the Angels need a defensive replacement?

In the trade rumors before the Greinke deal, Bourjos’ name would come up. According to MLB Trade Rumors, Bourjos was a key component in a potential James Shields trade. And according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com, the Angels were willing to part with Bourjos for a solid reliever.

There is a lot on the line this year with the Angels. They have set their goal to win it all this October. Beyond that, they know that Albert Pujols helping to deliver a title to Orange County would help pay for his massive deal through marketing and merchandising. And the new stars of Trout and Trumbo could keep the Angels relevant for years to come in the wake of a title.

They patched a hole in their rotation and now they need bullpen depth. And they still have a huge chip. A team with a veteran reliever could do worse than solving their center field position for the foreseeable future with a player of Peter Bourjos’ caliber.

Keep an eye on the Angles. They are not done yet.

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The Oakland Athletics are not considered to be a big draw in baseball these days. They rank 12th out of 14 teams in American League attendance and the top decks of The Coliseum (or whatever it is called this week) remain tarped off.

Their park is probably the ugliest one in baseball not located in Tampa Bay, and the team does not have the cool quality of the division-leading neighbors across the bay, the San Francisco Giants.

But A’s fans who do show for games up are getting a great show. Oakland has won 12 of 14 games this July. With a payroll low for even Billy Beane’s standards, they have a winning record, are in the wild-card hunt and are holding their own against the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees.

Last night’s 3-2 win over the Yankees, capped with a game-ending single by Brandon Moss, showed why a game in Oakland can be the best show in baseball.

If the point of going to a baseball game is to see your team win, then the A’s have a winning record at home. If simply witnessing an exciting game is the goal, then Oakland is the place to be.

The Athletics have played 48 games at home this year. As of this writing, the fans have gone home happy with a win 27 times. Of those wins, 10 have ended on walk-off hits.

So going to an A’s game means having a 20.8 percent chance of seeing the winning run crossing the plate to end the game and the public address system blasting Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration.”

And the anonymity of the current Oakland team makes it almost impossible to predict who will end the game with the big hit.

Kila Ka’aihue could end it in the 14th inning one day, and Derek Norris could launch a walk-off shot another day. Coveted slugger Yoennis Cespedes has hit a walk-off homer. So has career .100 hitter Brandon Hicks, whose first career homer was the least likely walk-off shot you will ever see.

And the stadium is usually empty enough that a fan’s chances of catching a walk-off shot is greatly increased.

So imagine a great day at the park in the East Bay. When the ninth inning rolls around, an A’s fan can think “I don’t know who this player is, but who knows? He could end it with a swing of the bat.”

There is more than a one-in-five chance the game will end that way.

That is well worth the price of admission.

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