It was a pretty tough choice this week. On one hand you have Shea Hillenbrand of the Blue Jays demanding to be traded after an altercation with members of the team and for comments he made about the front office. Next, you have Chris Spiers of the Cubs, who was arrested for DUI early Wednesday morning.

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Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune
The Cubs coaching staff, already in turmoil over job futures, underwent a shakeup after third-base coach Chris Speier was charged with driving under the influence early Wednesday. No one was saying how long Triple-A manager Mike Quade would fulfill Speier’s duties, although general manager Jim Hendry said, “we expect [Speier] back in the near future.”

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After much diliberation, Chris Spiers wins the award of Tool of the Week. Not only is your team in bloody shambles, but know your third base coach gets arrested for DUI. I’m just not sure if things can get any worse for the Cubs this season. I think it was a pretty bad decesion on Spier’s part. Are things this bad that you need to restort to drinking?

I’m almost getting to the point where they should just hang it…

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You really can’t blame for what the National League did in the ninth. They bring in Trevor Hoffman to close out the game like he’s done 400 some odd times in the past. Unfortunately, the American League got to Hoffman, and enough for the win.

As I saw on Baseball Tonight, they were talking about hos the National League did nothing wrong, Hoffman is probably the best and most consistant closer that they had. His changeup is just devistating. The only problem was the NL had hard thrower after hard thrower, Hoffman’s stuff didn’t really seem as bad, thus more hittable. I totally agree with that. Brad Penny was really bringing it last night. He hit 99 quite a few times, and his fast ball was just overpowering. Next they switched to Oswalt, to also throws pretty hard. Next came Brandon Webb, who’s got the best hard sinker in the league.

I’m just really happy that it wasn’t a total blowout like in years pasted. I kind of expected it to be a well pitched game, which it turned out to be. I’d really wished that Zambrano and Liriano would have gotten into the game though, but you have to keep a…

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That’s right folks, Mr. Juicer himself, Jose Canseco is back in the world of professional baseball. It’s not the Major League or anything, but he’s paid to play, therefore making it professional. Canseco is playing for the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League (link).

He’s not actually doing that horrible for not playing for quite a few years. He did strike out his first 11 of 13 at-bats, but now he’s got a couple of taters, and seven RBIs.

The really funny thing is though he got traded from the Surf Dawgs to the Armada after only one game. The trade was due family circumstances and not his string of strikeouts. I just got a good little snicker about it.

Actually Canseco was named to the All-Star team, and was slated to pitch an inning. Unfortunately, he was only able to get one out.

I’m pretty sure this is just a gimmick to get more people to watch the GBL’s games. I never forsee Canseco back to majors.

keep telling myself that the Cubs won’t be having a fire sale, but unless they win about 15 or so out of their next 20, I think they will be unloading some players gearing up for a big offseason.

Players most likely on their way out
Juan Pierre - He’s going to want Furcal type money, and he hasn’t proven that he’s really worth that much.
Todd Walker - He does have some worth left. The Cubs could probably get a few prospects out of him.
Greg Maddux - As much as I’d like him to finish off the year as a Cub, I think the chances are slim to none now. He’s a free agent at the end of the season, and I’m sure he won’t be resigned. The 9 million or so he make could bring in a much better pitcher, like Barry Zito.
Scott Williamson - He’s said that he wants to close again. With Dempster entrenched, like it or not, for the next two seasons, Williamson won’t have a chance at closing. Heck, with Eyre and Howry, he’s not even the setup man.
Kerry Wood - He’s been living off his potential ever since his rookie year…

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Wow! Talk about a total meltdown from the Cubs last night. How in the heck do you give up 11 runs in one inning, let alone two grand slams?! I really thought the Cubs were turning around their season after winning their first three of four since the All-Star break.

Carlos Zambrano is the only consistant starter that the Cubs have.

The Cubs hitting is starting to comeback though. Juan Pierre’s average is up to .271 from a horrid start. Jones continues to be the only consistant power in the lineup. Derrek Lee’s power still isn’t back, but pitchers still have to throw around him. Barett continues to be hot as well.

The pitching on the other hand has just been horrible. Marmol has been streaky, Marshall has been more bad then good lately, Maddux is Maddux, but not as dominating as he use to be. Then it’s hard to say is going to be pitching in the other spots. Wood is most likely done for the year. Prior keeps crying that he’s hurt. All Rusch does is give up homeruns. Jerome Williams is still in AAA.

Even though it’s as a replacement, Francisco Liriano is going to the All-Star game tonight. Jose Conteras bowed out because he pitched on Sunday and wouldn’t be able to pitch tonight anyway. It’s better than nothing, but I’m still a bit upset he didn’t make the team outright.

Now if Travis Hafner would have just made it, I would be a happy camper relatively speaking.

I’d look for the AL to still win the game tonight even though final two hitters in last night’s Homerun Derby were from the National League. It still should be a really close game, because the NL has really good balance in their lineup this year, but I don’t think their pitching is quite as strong as the ALs.

Who is going to win the MVP though, that is the true question. I’m not sure at this point. Typically it’s a hitter, and who hits the big homerun or drives in a few runs. If the American League wins, I think the MVP will be David Ortiz. If the National League wins, David Wright or Ryan Howard will bring home the award. There are too many good players to pick out of the bunch that will be slightly…

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onight is the big Homerun Derby to kick off the All-Start festivities. There have been quite a few people dropping out of the Homerun Derby and the game itself. I’ve noticed alot of people are doing this in the past few years. I’m since the game “means something” now, players (pitchers mainly) are not wanting to pitch, even an inning on a day or two rest.

Apparently quite of the pitchers in the All-Star game pitched Yesterday. This means that they will be pratically useless in the game Tomorrow on one full day rest.

It’s hard to say who’s going to win the derby. Last year I was thinking Andrew Jones would be shoe in with his home run count he had at the break last year. Who would have thought that Bobby Abreu would break the record. For that reason, I don’t think I’ll go with “Big Popi”. There are some new comers this season in the derby, namely Ryan Howard and David Wright. I’m pretty sure that Jermaine Dye, and Miguel Cabrera haven’t been in one either.

So this year, I’m going out on a limb and I’m gonna pick Miggy Cabrera. I personally don’t like the player, but he can…

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I’m really disappointed that A.J. Pierzynski got in the All-Star game as the final vote. He’s an arrogent jerk, plain and simple. I don’t like the guy. He’s got that jerk look to him. His numbers aren’t THAT great. Sure they’re good, but Liriano’s and Hafner’s numbers are so much better. Hafner gets the shaft again.

I’m just truely disappointed.

Man, I think I might have made my Tool of the Week entry one day too soon. Mr. A.J. Pierzynski had another similar run in with a player when the roles were flipped flopped from that of the Michael Barrett incident. The other difference that it wasn’t a collision.

Craig Monroe of the Detroit Tigers hit a grand slam that put them up by a score of 5-2. I’ve watched the video of it a couple of times, and it’s hard to say who was really at fault. I’ll look at the story from both directions.

First, I will view the “ordeal” from Pierzynski’s point of view. In a literal sense, he did nothing for once. He was standing in the catchers square with his hands on his hips before Monroe crossed the plate. He did not move when Monroe crossed the plate. Monroe did run into him, more specifically his elbow. Monroe reacted with a “WTF” look back at Pierzynski. Nothing more than a few words were exchanged and some dirty looks. I’m sure Pierzynski could have said “Oops sorry” right away to let him know that any contact was inadvertant. I suppose could have let the players have their celebration…

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It’s that time again, where I name my studs and duds of the month of June. I was too busy to get it done for may, but we’ll see if I can try to make this a monthy occurance. With out further ado here is the list.

STUDS
Hitters:

Carlos Beltran - .327 10 HR 27 RBI
David Wright - .327 10 HR 31 RBI
Jose Reyes - .373 27 R 14 SB
Justin Morneau - .384 10 HR 30 RBI
Joe Mauer - .474 19R 15 RBI

Pitchers:
Fransico Liriano - 5W 1.88 ERA 0.77 WHIP
Johan Santana - 4 W 1.03 ERA 0.77 WHIP
B.J. Ryan - 10 SV 0.0 ERA 0.57 WHIP
Bobby Jenks 11 SV 0.59 ERA 0.85 WHIP
Jeremy Bonderman 49K 1.99 ERA 1.11 WHIP

DUDS
Hitters:

Hanley Ramírez - .190 15 R 6 SB
Vladimir Guerrero - .236 3 HR 11 RBI
Luis Castillo - .196 17 R 3 SB
Kevin Mench - .205 1 HR 12 RBI
Ty Wigginton - .218 1 HR 5 RBI

Pitchers:
John Smoltz - 3 L 4.04 ERA 1.21 WHIP
Jake Peavy - 3 L 5.28 ERA 1.30 WHIP
Jorge Sosa - 4 L 1 BS 6.43 ERA
Ryan Dempster - 1 BS 10.80…

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