He'll be fine until it gets really hot out, then he'll bomb something fierce. Enjoy it while it lasts, Pirates.

Ryan Dempster finally figures out how to win.... don't allow a run ever.

Cubs get Soler? 9 yrs $30 million?
have any of these bid for players paid off? I don't remember how Ichiro happened.
Seems like a big risk for a team trying to build "the old-fashioned way"


Dempster and or Garza gone within 2 weeks. book it.

Matt Cain is perfect through 7-1/3rd against Houston. I've been saying for years he'll end up having a better career than Lincecum will.

R.A. Dickey for Cy Young?

edit - oh yeah, Jon Miller is doing TV tonight for the Giants (he's usually just the radio guy). A real treat. You'd think ESPN could have found a way to can Joe Morgan while keeping him. I guess they were a package deal though by that time.

Cain had made it through 8 innings now.

He did it!

I wonder if pitching perfect games against Seattle and Houston deserve to have asterics by them though. ;)

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop with Dickey and it never has. Best move the Mets have made over the past 5 years or so it would seem.

Congrats to Matt Cain....always been a fan, and Houston isn't that inept this season.

The Rockies pitchers are soooo bad this year its become comical. I

Yeah, Houston has had quite a few bright spots offensively at least this season. Tough to say where they end up, but they're certainly not the 100 loss team most people penciled them in before the season started. When I was down there for Opening Day, EVERYONE was resigned to them having a shitty season. Like the one they had last year, or even worse.

And I told you about Colorado way back when! When I saw that Jamie Moyer was their #2 at the start of the season, I was like "uh-oh". That was one of the most telegraphed tells in recent times, as far as a being a predictor of where that team would end up at the by of the year.

Glad it was Cain. He deserved more than any other pitcher, at least Giants pitcher, IMO, for the lack of run support he's had for years. Made it even sweeter.

Another injury due to post game celebration as Aubrey Huff hurt himself jumping the dugout railing to celebrate Matt Cain's perfect game.

Quietly, Ryan Braun is having himself a nice season following his failed PED test controversy.

Monitored the Cain game while I was watching Lance Lynn mow down the White Sox...hats off to the tremendous crop of young pitchers, but equally undisciplined hitters are making their jobs easier...I remember having the 2-strike hitting approach (choke up, protect the plate, etc.) hammered into my skull from middle school until my final college game, yet I see fewer and fewer players using it...shit tons of swinging off back heels, despite 0-2 and 1-2 counts...young hitters could learn a lot from watching video of Pujols, Helton, Utley and Abreu - to name a few - hitting with two strikes in their primes...it's not a lost art, but it seems to have taken a back seat with young hitters in recent years.

Here, here. The guy should have probably around another 30 wins under his belt at this point.

A's release Manny.

Trevor Plouffe is all sorts of ridiculous. Nabbed him in Red's league and its paid off big time. Another 2 homers tonight, ridiculous.

If there was no such thing as bad luck, the Blue Jays pitching staff would have no luck at all. Just lost another SP to injury after Hutchinson heard a pop in his elbow tonight.

Tulo re-agravated his hammy the other day and will be flying to Philly to meet with a doctor known for his treatment with sports hernias. Hoping for the best but he has been prone to injuries throughout his career so there's concern.

Also concern for Jorge De La Rosa who just had his second set back and will be meeting with the doctor who performed his TJ surgery to see what might be up.

Rockies just might lose 100 games this season. While far from shocked to see them not contend this year still a little surprised at just how bad they are. I wouldn't have expect 100 loss potential in them. 70-92 I could have seen.

And just when Jason Bay comes back from one injury he goes out with another. Concussion too, with his history this could be lengthy. In a sad piece of commentary, the Mets might be better off without their $66 million man.

jason bay doesnt deserve to play on that team anyways. they will be just fine without him. i hope the mets finish .500. they are a fun team to watch. ike davis is starting to make contact and take walks again. if he can turn his season around and finish like he started before he got hurt last year then the mets will be in good shape. dickey is a legit #1 starter and who knew?

3rd straight amazing start by Dempster (all since i saw him pitch, and totally changed his luck)

22 inning shutout streak. If he's still a cub by next friday, i'll be shocked.
Of the few pro athletes I've met, he might be the nicest.
He has been the consummate professional the entire time here as basically a reclamation project, through middle relief, as a closer, and as a starter. Through the Dusty and Lou nonsense.
He recently mentioned in an interview that he'd like to get a shot at the playoffs, and I hope he gets that chance.

Ive heard the Dodgers as a possible destination, and the Cubs have been known to trade with the Dodgers & Ned Colletti pretty frequently.
A rotation of Kershaw, Billingsley, Capuano, Harang & Dempster would be a very solid rotation.
of course that would leave Lilly out in the cold when he comes back, and he's been great.
Maybe the dodgers won't be the destination?

When I was a kid I was a batboy for the pirates double a team. I met a lot of players back then. Tony Womack was the coolest. I got along with Jason Kendall although most people thought he was an asshole. Jermaine dye was really cool too. The guy that I recall was the biggest jerk was Jason varitek. To this day I can not stand Jason varitek. I asked him a straight up legit question about playing ball at Georgia tech and he said "fuck off kid". To a fucking batboy. The same batboy who's job is was to bring his equiptment on the field. Dude was a total douche. Jason Kendall Was a bigger douche to everyone else. He was cool to me though. The coolest was Barry bonds though. They has this deal where the pirates came in and played a game against the aa team. Barry bonds, Bobby bonnilla, Andy van slyke. Doug drabek, and don slaught. I met all of those guys

Speaking of meeting people, I met Brandon Belt and his wife at Pacific Place mall today. Really good guy and invited me and my family down to the Giants dugout before tonights game. Pretty cool and really random that I met him of all people. He was really surprised that we have the same name. He could have thought I was some weird stalker dude, but I was pretty chill about the whole encounter.

Well, that was awesome. He was super nice and cordial to my folks (the "family" I was referring to) and gave me his super-secret personal contact info because we did figure out that we're related to each other. Great Father's Day gift to Dad (I paid for his ticket up, no idea I'd meet the dude the afternoon of the game).

I'm sure I've mentioned this in year's past, but I guess my claim to knowing some what "famous" was that I used to intern for Jayson Stark. I used to help him research those crazy stats that he produces for his column for ESPN and formerly the Philadelphia Inquirer. I met him through my work. While a senior at Temple in the early 2000's I was a manager for a Supermarket. He would stop in everyday to buy the New York newspapers. Everyone from employees to customers would bombard him with questions about the Phillies, but I never did. I could tell it bothered him to answer the same thing all day so I brought up a conversation about Kevin Brown to him. He immediately took a liking to me since I discussed baseball outside of the Phillies. From that day he would always come in to talk baseball with me and pretty much blew everyone else off. Eventually he offered me an unpaid internship. Did that for a year until he stopped talking to me because I mentioned that I didn't like Buck Martinez's monotone delivery on tv. After I said that he stopped taking my phone calls, emails, etc in addition to ignoring me when he stopped into my work at that time.

Another story that correlated to the post above is that one of the employees that worked for me at that time was a bat boy for the Phillies. The kid worked for minimum wage, but made a killing in tips. There were time he would go to a cheesesteak place for the guys and they would give him $100 for 5 steak sandwiches which would end up costing about $30 at most. He'd keep the change for a easy $70. At the end of every season the players would tip him generously. He would sometimes get their bats, cleats, gloves, etc. If I recall the biggest tip he got was $1,500 from Thome. This kid would easily make between $10,000-15,000 a season in tips alone. Every year the bat boys would go on one trip with the team. This one year he went on the trip to Milwaukee and St. Louis. A few weeks prior Scott Rolen was traded. So, when this kid went to St. Louis Rolen presented him with a check for $500 which was super cool. However, the best story involving this kid was the following year when he went to the Montreal and Mets road trip. They were in Montreal and Jose Mesa and Placido Polanco found out that he was a virgin, so, they paid for a stripper to have sex with him. The kid brought back pictures of the stripper, and he was an honest kid so I took his word for it. He was a bat boy for the Phillies for about 4 years so he had some great stories, but that was probably the best one.

Batboys have it made. I did ok as a minor league batboy. One year was the year that jordan was in AA. Our team was sponsored by powerade so he sent me along with another batboy to te store to get him Gatorade. He gave us both $100 and and autographed baseball bat. I have at least 50 pieces of jermaine dye memorabilia. The coolest was Kendall giving me his catchers gear at the end of the season

Nice, dude... Did he kick down some VIP seats for the game too? Killer father's day gift either way.

Not sure what's crazier, finding out you're actually related to Belt or that two people in the sam family have the same name. Sounds like a cool guy and time.

Sounds like Jayson Stark has a stick up his ass. And I never realized bat boys got paid, that's pretty cool. Imagine all the valuable collectibles you could have had, Demon, had you been born like 10 years prior and been able to be a bat boy when Bary Bonds was around.

arod was the big draft pick back then so i have all kinds of arod swag. collectors would hand me a stack of cards. theyd say get dye to sign these and we will you arod and griffey stuff. i have a bat that bonds gave me but i was a little start struck to ask much from him. my dads garage is full of memorbilia

No, I only met him probably an hour or two before he had to be at the park. I wasn't in an infringing mode either, just because I was stoked he asked to meet my parents. It wasn't until we all got talking that we realized we were related. Probably a LONG ways back, to Civil War or even colonial times. We had no idea Belts were in Texas and he had no idea Belts were in Oregon. It is random we have the same first name, but his middle name is Kyle and mine is William.

My dad was really happy. We're baseball family with a lot of good athletes, but we're really short. I'm probably the tallest man at 5'10", but I wasn't worth a shit at actually playing. My dad was good though. Brandon said all his height came from his Mom's side of his family.

Roger Clemens found not guilty. Not a surprise as his lawyers seemed to be doing a great job defending him and making Mcnamee look like an unreliable weasel.

I still think he juiced and would have loved to have seen him go down for being a pompous as, but don't think juicing should be a crime. Perjury...seemed vindictive on the governments part too.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse for the Rockies, Jim Tracy decided to blow minds and go with 4 man rotation, each SP on a 75 pitch count.

Then the next day, this.