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Well Carlos Delgado will have surgery and be out until around the All-Star break. Possible replacements that may possibly arrise via trade are Aubrey Huff/Orioles; Nick Johnson/Nationals; Victor Martinez/Indians; and maybe even Jorge Cantu/Florida if any of these guys are or become available. I can see all these teams saying they need 2 of the Mets top  prospects, and I honeslty don’t think any of them except Victor Martinez warrant them, however, I would be willing to trade both if we can also land a SP in the deal ala Cliff Lee or Fausto Carmona (even though he hasn’t been great) from Cleveland; and Jeremy Guthrie (even though he hasn’t been great) from Baltimore. I doubt the Indians are willing to trade Victor Martinez and or Cliff Lee/Fausto Carmona so soon, but if so I would be willing to trade Fernando Martinez(of), Jon Niese(sp), Reese Havens or Wilmer Flores(ss) for BOTH Victor Martinez and Fausto Carmona or Aubrey Huff and Jeremy Guthrie, potentially. I think at catcher and 1b, Victor Martinez would be a dream fit, but Huff/Johnson would be less attractive becasue then what do we do when Delgado is back? I guess Huff could play LF again which moves Murphy to RF and then Church and Sheffield become unhappy or Murphy loses playing time which I would thoroughly disagree with. I guess Nick Johnson/Washington can come quite cheap since they also have Adam Dunn and a sundry of outfielders. I just strongly want to emphasize if we trade for a 1b then we should attempt to land a SP along with them if we rid of our top prospect(s). Agreed?

Some other random suggestions/potential candidates:

Russel Branyan/1b, Jose Lopez/2b, Erik Bedard/sp – Mariners… I think something could work here

Adrian Gonzalez/1b, Jake Peavy/sp – Padres… I wish something could work here

Jermaine Dye/of – White Sox (Move Murphy to 1b)…He’s solid but we really need a SP also

Matt Holliday/of – Athletics (Move Murphy to 1b)…May require way too much for thus far subpar performance

Helton/Atkins/1b – Rockies… Hmm, maybe Helton Could come cheap other than money cost?

All these guys are probably tradable minus Adrian Gonzalez, but they have a top notch 1b prospect.

Hey Tin Man, what are you looking at?

I think it is time for people to acknowledge how overrated Mr. Ripken is in the sense of humanity as well as athleticism.

Being a product of the commonly perceived pre-steroid era, Ripken’s performance has slipped under the radar while his impeccable durability ultimately suggests the assistance from PEDs.

Ripken is known for his reserved nature with the likelihood for skipping autograph sessions and now this?  http://bases.newsvine.com/_news/2009/05/15/2821077-cal-ripken-takes-the-money-and-runs?category=spor  Simply absurd.

The former Orioles slugger is pompous and self-righteous in his actions to write and sell a text referencing the human condition.  Maybe he should stick to a Johnny Damon-like novel/theme, such as ”Idiot”.

Case closed.

“Bloop”

I’m starting to lose track of how often that word is thrown around by those few fortunate commentators of the Rangers opposition who undoubtedly bear a mile-wide grin upon the utterance of the word. Naturally, this is followed by the excited roar of an away crowd or the all-too-often heard cry in disbelief from the home cats.

Today the Rangers were looking to avoid falling victim of a sweep to the Tigers, “looking” being the key word. What they found was another well executed exercise in what are blatantly their two most glaring weaknesses: pitching, and defense.

Kevin Milwood started for the Rangers, he faced Edwin Jackson. I’m not going to lie; I don’t really know anything about Jackson so I won’t go into too much depth on him. Comerica Park would see a classic Milwood performance on the mound; all said and done he would throw 112 pitches, 70 of which were strikes. Seven innings of shutout baseball, in addition to a productive early offense primarily provided by Ian Kinsler, Michael Young, Elvis Andrus, and Josh Hamilton; each scoring a run in the first three innings. Both Hamilton and Kinsler would knock two-run homers over the fence.

Apart from the chilly 49 degree weather, not much seemed to be able to faze the Rangers, who played pretty well most of the game (at least the part of the game with Milwood in it). Of course, inevitably a single pitcher can’t carry a whole game on his back, so it was time for some relief on the Ranger mound. That relief came in the form of CJ Wilson who in just 24 pitches allowed 6 runs. Yeah, you heard me right: six runs in twenty-four pitches. I know; I couldn’t believe it either! If it weren’t for an easily avoidable error by the rookie Andrus the blow might have been softened, but then speculation never really ends in anything productive. The fact is; the guy on the mound just didn’t perform. Warner Madrigal was called in to try to get the Rangers out of the inning, which he did successfully in twelve pitches, but the damage had been done.

The Rangers would see their last three at bats, but they couldn’t seem to break through the embarrassment they rightly bore on their shoulders. It seemed they had given up.

It’s going to be a long trip back to Arlington, but there’s no rest for the mediocre. Tomorrow is another day, another game, another opponent: the Orioles of Baltimore.

There were three things that made me happy today. The first was the progress Lowell is making in returning from his hip injury. The second was Clay Bucholz’s three perfect innings. The third one was Tim Thomas having to play with Manny Fernandez’s mask for a few minutes of the Bruins game, but that one was more a comedic thrill than anything.

Lowell DHed in the game, going 1 for 3 with a single in his last at-bat. Bucholz threw three innings without allowing a base runner while striking out two. Papelbon threw a scoreless fourth inning. The Orioles struck for runs late in the game, topping the Red Sox 5-1.

The Red Sox’ spring struggles continue, but with so many players out with either injury or playing in the WBC, this shouldn’t be a sign of things to come.

The Red Sox have a day off on Wednesday then they play the Cardinals at 1:05 on Thursday. Josh Beckett will be on the mound for the Sox.