After an April that saw them go 17-6 with a +56 run differential, many fans (myself included) expected the Texas Rangers to roll through the American League like it was nothing. Since that hot April, the Rangers are 16-19 and have just a +8 run differential. Their 33-25 record is still the best in the AL, but the White Sox, Rays, and Orioles are all just a half game behind Texas as 32-25, and the Yankees are a game back at 31-25. Even the nine game lead that the Rangers had on the Angels in the AL West has been slashed, by more than half down to just four games. What does this tell you? The season is 162 games and six months long. Don't call the season over 23 games and one month in.

Game of the Night: Pirates 5, Reds 4 (10 innings). Pittsburgh held a 4-3 lead going into the ninth, and handed the ball to closer Joel Hanrahan. The first pitch Hanrahan threw ended up in the left center field upper deck, courtesy of Ryan Ludwick. It was Ludwick's second smash into the second deck of the game, and tied the game at four. Cincinnati brought in untouchable reliever Aroldis Chapman for the tenth, and something funny happened: he was hittable. Much maligned Pirates shortstop Clint Barmes led the inning off against Chapman with a double, and Michael McKenry followed with a double of his own to score Barmes, the first run that Chapman had allowed all season. Chapman didn't allow any more damage in the inning, and Pittsburgh turned to Chris Resop to shut the Reds' bats down. Joey Votto led the inning off with a double, and couldn't advance on a Brandon Phillips groundout to short. Jay Bruce was intentionally walked, and Resop got Todd Frazier to strike out for the second out of the inning. That brought up Ludwick with a chance to win the game. On the seventh pitch of the at bat, a Resop fastball on the outside corner froze Ludwick for strike three to end the game, and gave the Pirates a shocking series win in Cincinnati, just a week after winning their series against the Reds in Pittsburgh.

A year ago at this time, the hype machine had already far surpassed overdrive for Bryce Harper and Mike Trout.  They were causing a full-scale meltdown of the metaphorical hype machine.  Bryce Harper wasn't an 18 year old boy amongst 20-something year old men in A Ball, rather an 18 year old man against 20-something year old boys (comparatively) in A Ball.  Mike Trout was the same as a 19 year old in AA, simply dominating the competition.  The most popular question among prospect analysts was "Who do you like better, Trout or Harper?"  Fast forward a year, and they aren't prospects anymore, but superstars and the question still remains (though not posed at prospect analysts but baseball's brightest minds), which player is better?  Regardless of opinion, both have taking the league by storm in a manner which hasn't been done by a pair their age in a VERY long time.  But their paths to this promised land of major league success, fame and fortune were quite different.

The Phillies lost to the Dodgers 6-5 last night, their fifth straight defeat. They're now six out in the NL East, two games under .500 with a +4 run differential and and 18.8% playoff chance, worst in the NL East. If it's any consolation to Phillies fans, four of their losses during this losing streak were by just one run. But on the other side of the coin, tonight concludes a seven game homestand for the Fightins, and they're looking to leave Citizens Bank Park with more than one win over the last week. Friday, they begin a nine game road trip with visits to tough AL East teams Baltimore and Toronto sandwiched around a visit to Minnesota. It's definitely conceivable for the Phillies to be five games under .500 on my birthday (June 19th, for those wanting to shower me with gifts) -- or worse.

Game of the Night: Giants 6, Padres 5. This game wins by default, because nothing was very exciting overall. The Giants picked up three runs in the first inning off of Padres starter Clayton Richard, who finished his day one no walks and one strikeout over 5 2/3 innings. Anyway, the Padres answered San Francisco's first inning with a pair in the bottom of the first off of Madison Bumgarner. Scoring remained dormant until the fifth, when each team traded a solo homer. Two runs scored on a Logan Forsythe error in the sixth to make it 6-3 in favor of the Giants, and the Padres picked up a run each in the sixth and seventh innings on RBI groundouts. But Giants closer Sergio Romo was perfect in the ninth, and that was curtains for the Padres.

Perhaps hoping to benefit from what little post-Moneyball afterglow remains, the Oakland Athletics announced that they will have former player, and key figure in the Moneyball book and movie, Scott Hatteberg replace long-time color commentator Ray Fosse on TV broadcasts for a 20-game stretch starting June 15th according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser.

You're not going to believe this, but the player who famously was asked to start at first base for Oakland with no experience at the position also has no experience broadcasting.  In fact, based on Hatteberg's description of how this came about, it is eerily similar to the scene in the movie when Billy Beane comes to his house to offer him the first base job:

Hatteberg, reached by phone, said, "I'm excited to do it. I've never done it before, though, so I'm not sure how well I'll do."

"It wasn't my idea," he said. "I haven't pursued it. But they asked if I'd have interest, and I'd like to try it. We'll see."

No word on whether or not Ron Washington was there to tell him that "it is incredibly hard."

What makes this whole situation uncomfortable though is the fashion in which Hatteberg is making his debut.  Ray Fosse has no personal or health reasons for taking 20 games off, which basically means that he is being asked to take a break so that someone else can try and steal his job from him.  That's not exactly the kind of way you'd expect a man with 27 years on the job to be treated, especially since Fosse is widely considered to be one of the better color guys in the game.

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Pregnancy can be a very stressful time for expecting parents.  If you are a father or mother, you know this all too well, especially during the time when you were about to become a parent for the very first time.  In between the moments of joy and anticipation, you are racked by worry and concern that you somehow won't be able to provide for your soon-to-born child.  I know when my wife was pregnant with my daughter, I had nightmares about getting fired from my job, and I had an insane amount of job security at the time.

What does this have to do with baseball?  Well, Oakland A's 1B/DH Kila Ka'aihue is living my nightmare having been designated for assignment (a nice way of saying he's been fired) on Wednesday.

Oh, did I mention that his wife is pregnant?  With twins!!!!

Baseball is a business and like any business, they can't really concern themselves too much with what their employees have going on in their personal lives, but still, what terrible timing.

It isn't as if Ka'aihue will be forced to the unemployment line here either, he was DFA'd so he could be claimed off waivers by another team, though that seems unlikely.  If he doesn't, he will surely wind up in Triple-A for the Athletics or some other organization, meaning he will still be drawing a paycheck, although nothing like the kind of paycheck he was getting in the majors, plus he might have to move his pregnant wife at this inopportune time.  That's just no fun for anyone involved.

Ka'aihue will land on his feet, but I certainly don't envy the kind of upheaval his life is going through during what should be a time for celebration.

(h/t Casey Pratt at CSN)

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Jamie Moyer's career isn't over, at least yet. The 49 year-old has signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles, and will start for AAA Norfolk on Saturday. Moyer spent time with the Orioles from 1993 to 1995, which was 17 years ago. That's right, he's going to a team he spent time with before many high school kids were born. This is surreal.

Moyer struggled this year for the Rockies, pitching to a 5.70 ERA in ten starts, striking out 36 and walking 18. This move seems strictly like a depth thing for the Orioles, who are going with a largely young and homegrown rotation, but what if he actually gets starts for them?

Baltimore has four starters of varying success, from the excellent Jason Hammel, to the unlucky Jake Arrieta (59% strand rate - ouch), to mildly successful import Wei-Yin Chen and rebounding youngster Brian Matusz. The fifth spot in the rotation was held by Tommy Hunter, who was terrible. Hunter's last start was on May 28th, and with a plethora of offdays over the next couple of weeks, the Orioles don't need a fifth starter until this Saturday against the Phillies. This is when Moyer is scheduled to start in Norfolk, so it doesn't appear that he'll be taking Hunter's spot in the rotation...yet.

The long-term option for the final spot in Baltimore's rotation is Zach Britton, currently rehabbing in Norfolk after a solid rookie season in Baltimore last year. Britton has made three rehab starts, and his last one came yesterday, when he went six innings and allowed four runs, striking out two and walking two. After the start, Britton was activated from the DL and will stay in Norfolk for now to regain strength in his arm.

At any rate, I don't see any way in which Moyer will be able to contribute to the Orioles positively this year. Do the Orioles brass realize that this team plays in the AL East, which has three of the top ten offenses in baseball? Moyer's 78 moh fastball will get torched against these offenses, if he even is able to make it to the majors.

Signing Moyer, just like Baltimore's signing of Miguel Tejada a couple of weeks ago, just seems like an ill-advised move for a team trying to compete for a division title this year. They've done it with mostly their young talent, so why bring in a washed up veteran under the guise of improving the team when the veterans can't add anything?

Photo courtesy of Daylife.com

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The topic of this is a little silly. Of course Cliff Lee will win a game this year. But the lack of support given to him by the Phillies offense has been comical. Last night, Lee threw the team onto his back, shutting out the Dodgers for seven innings  while allowing just three baserunners, and striking out 12 hitters. Of course, the eighth inning comes along and Lee allows four hits and two runs...and that's enough for a loss, since the Phillies offense could only manage one run and one extra base hit against the Dodgers pitchers led by Chad Billingsley. 2-1 losses aren't a good way for a pitcher to live. Lee has seven quality starts in nine outings, is striking out a batter per inning, has a 6:1 strikeout to walk ratio...and has been given a total of 30 runs in those nine starts, with 21 of those runs coming in three starts. This isn't a "Cliff Lee" problem, this is a "Phillies offense" problem.

Game of the Night: Nationals 7, Mets 6 (11 innings). This was a crazy, back and forth game that saw the Mets blow THREE leads in the eighth inning or later. The Nationals led 3-0 after five, but back to back homers in the sixth by Jordany Valdespin and David Wright made it a one run game. A two run double in the eighth by Andres Torres gave the Mets a 4-3 lead, but Ian Desmond tied it with an RBI single to send it into extras. Scott Hairston scored in the tenth on a Henry Rodriguez wild pitch, but Desmond struck again, grounding a surefire game-ending double play ball to Valdespin that he mishandled, allowing a run to score. Hairston struck again in the 12th, hitting a solo homer to give the Mets the lead. Then, Desmond delivered once AGAIN, doubling in Michael Morse to tie the game. The Nationals loaded the bases with two outs for Bryce Harper, who lofted a floater into left field that fell just in front of Vinny Rottino for his first career walkoff hit, and a big win for the Nationals.

The defending NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks are off to a rough start this year.  They currently sit five games under .500 and nine games out of the division lead.  As you might imagine, frustrations in the desert have been mounting.  Today though, those frustrations all came to the surface, or at least they did for Arizona managing general partner Ken Kendrick who went on a George Steinbrenner-esque rant during a radio interview today.

He started things off by taking injured shortstop Stephen Drew to task for what he perceives to be an unacceptably slow recovery from the grotesque ankle injury Drew suffered last season:

You know, I’m going to be real direct about Stephen. I think Stephen should have been out there playing before now. And, frankly, I for one am disappointed.

I’m going to be real candid and say I think Stephen and his representatives are more focused on where Stephen is going to be a year from now than going out and supporting the team that’s paying his salary.

All you can do is hope that the player is treating the situation with integrity, and, frankly, we have our concerns.

Before this year, the MLB Amateur Draft was a free for all. There were slot recommendations, but that's all they were: recommendations. If you exceeded slot, your only punishment would be a stern talking to by the commissioner's office. Many teams threw the recommendations to the wind, and drafted the best players where they deserved to be taken instead of going with "signable" picks just to make the commissioner's office happy. Remember back in a rather non-descript 2002 draft, when the Pirates took Bryan Bullington #1 overall, and BJ Upton went #2 to the Rays? Bullington got a $4 million bonus while Upton got $4.6 million. Bullington never threw a pitch in the majors, while Upton is a solid starter on the Rays. In a more recent example, the Pirates went with catcher Tony Sanchez fourth overall in 2009, because Sanchez signed for just $2.5 million, a quarter million under slot. Four players taken after Sanchez got higher bonuses, including Shelby Miller of the Cardinals at #19 overall, the top prospect in the organization. Sanchez ranked seventh in the Pirates organization, behind Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, and Josh Bell, all of whom got at least twice the bonus of Sanchez.

But now, the MLB is going away from slot "recommendations" and is strictly enforcing caps on draft spending. Each pick a team has in the first ten rounds is given a value, and the teams cannot exceed that contract value for all of the picks in the first ten rounds it signs. If you don't sign a pick, you lose that value from your pool. Here's a list of each team's budget for the draft. We'll go back to our example of the Pirates, who drafted Stanford pitcher Mark Appel yesterday, one of the top names in the draft.

The slot for the eighth overall pick, which is where Appel, was drafted is $2.9 million. The Pirates don't have to give Appel $2.9 million. Hell, they have $6.56 million available to play with in the first ten rounds. But if they give Appel a $5 million bonus (which seems about right, given his status), they'd have just $1.56 million to sign their other ten picks over the first ten rounds, including #45 overall Barrett Barnes, whose slot recommendation is $1.136 million. Keep in mind, this is even below what Appel is looking for, as he turned down $6 million from the Astros before the draft. Do you see the problem here? If a great player falls out of the first couple of picks (as happened with Appel or Lucas Giolito, drafted by the Nationals at #16 overall), the team who took them has to either A) lowball them to stay in slot and draft appropriately the rest of the way, or B) give them a solid money offer, and essentially waste the rest of their draft picks on guys who would be considered overdrafts.