I just linked to the first article I could find. I personally think this is a travesty. The only reason Bud Selig deserves a statue is so that birds can poop on it.

I’ve also lost a lot of respect for Hank Aaron who said the following: “Bud Selig is my hero. He has taken baseball to a far better place than where he found it…”

I am of the strong belief that game of baseball is worse off because of Bud Selig. News is currently breaking of teams like the Pirates that have intentionally put together losing teams in order to make more money.

Many Braves fans will remember the game that was not televised earlier this year because Fox decided they wanted to change the time they broad-casted that day, and their clause prohibits others from airing games at the same time, even if Fox has no interest in broadcasting it themselves. Two upcoming games here in Atlanta have been rescheduled because Fox has decided they don’t want to air the games. Due to its large television market, the Braves had to reschedule, but this is an inconvenience for anyone that already had tickets.

Baseball should have never signed such deals, and they were signed under the watch of Bud Selig. As for steroids and other performance enhancing drugs, regardless of your views on them, you have to admit that it was handled poorly by major league baseball. Congress is involved now (which I don’t agree with) and one reason for their involvement is MLBs refusal to take any real action.

I will, however, give you a brief overview of what happened and a few of my thoughts.

Gregor Blanco: I’ve always liked Blanco, but he was never going to be a starter in Atlanta. He didn’t have much power, and that pretty much was going to never allow him to rise above the level of a 4th or 5th outfielder, mainly being used as a pinch runner or late inning defensive replacement.

Jesse  Chavez: I’ve never been candid with my dislike of Chavez. I feel that the good outings he’s had this season were flukes. I’m was only partially joking earlier today when I asked whether we could have got more out of the deal if we hadn’t included Chavez.

Tim Collins: A drink made of 2 parts gin, 1 part lemon juice, sugar, and soda water. No, wait, that’s a Tom Collins. He’s one of the main characters in Rent, first played by Jesse L. Martin. No, wait, that’s also Tom Collins. Tim Collins is a left handed minor league pitcher that was aquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in the Yunel Escobar trade. Reports were that he was a pretty solid pithcer, but as always, the Braves have a bevy of pitching prospects and giving up one like Collins isn’t a big loss at all.

Kyle Farnsworth: A hard throwing right handed reliever that pitched in Atlanta back in 2005. Farnsworth is a solid reliever that will help avoid the need to overwork Moylan and Venters down the stretch. He’ll fit in nice as a 6th or 7th inning guy, and has the experience necessary that he could taken on 8th or 9th inning responsibilities if needed. His numbers this season are pretty good, and they were excellent during his last tour in Atlanta. I saw where one scout had that this year he was “throwing the crap out of the ball,” which is good, because if there is one thing I can’t stand, its balls with crap in them.

Rick Ankiel: A solid outfielder with some power, Ankiel had been on the DL for close ~2.5 months before being recently activated. Since then he has been playing well and will definitely not be a downgrade for the Braves in center field. The Braves also play into his career history, and I’ll be blogging about that later (I was actually including it in this post, but it was getting long enough to where it deserved it’s own post.)

Cash: bread, cabbage, currency, dead presidents, dough, funds, green stuff, money, etc.

While this trade wont go down in history as a blockbuster, I think it was a solid move. We added depth to an already solid bullpen as well as power to out lineup. Ankiel might not be the bat some were hoping for, but he is an upgrade to to the mediocre performance we’ve been getting out of center field for most of the season. Personally I’d like to see Ankiel playing everyday in center field for the Braves while Diaz gets the majority of the playing time in left field. This allows us to give Hinske some starts at first so that Glaus can get badly needed rest. Such a scheme also allows for what I consider to be a very important key to winning the pennant: minimizing the amount of time Melky Cabrera is actually on the field.

One player some thought had a shot but not selected was Troy Glaus. Albert Pujols will be starting at 1st base, while Ryan Howard and Adrian Gonzalez were selected as his back-ups. Below is a comparison of the all stars and Troy Glaus:

Player	BA	HR	RBI	OBP	SLG
Albert Pujols	.305	20	60	.413	.567
Ryan Howard	.293	15	59	.349	.502
Adrian Gonzalez	.294	16	51	.389	.522
Troy Glaus	.260	14	56	.364	.458

In my opinion, the right guys were picked. I think there were two things that went against Glaus. First of all, his stats are low because of a slow start. Second, every team has to have at least 1 player, and Gonzalez is that guy for San Diego. I’m curious what everyone else thinks though.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I’ve re-tweeted the AJC article, so make sure you check that out. Per Dave O’Brien: “When Frank Wren called Omar Infante at 8:30 a.m. this morning to tell him he was an All-Star, Infante at first thought he’d been traded.”

In other news, the latest results in the all star voting are out, and Heyward, McCann, and Prado are all in 2nd place at their respective positions.

As for Saito, David O’Brien at the AJC had this to say:

It was a potentially costly win for the Braves, who watched reliever Takashi Saito hobble off the field in the ninth inning with a left-hamstring injury. The 40-year-old setup man hopes to avoid the disabled list, but if he’s not doing better in a few days the Braves would probably DL  him. [source]

On a better note, congratulations to Troy Glaus on being named the NL Player of the Month for May, and to Jason Heyward for winning NL Rookie of the Month for the second time (the first time since Ryan Braun in 2007 that the same player has won it in back to back months).

Lastly, one of the game’s greats, Ken Griffey Jr., announced his retirement on Wednesday. In his recent column, Griffey always played the right way, Mike Bauman sums up my thoughts better that I could do myself.

In other baseball news, congratulations to Roy Halladay for pitching the 20th perfect game in MLB history. I wish he would have done it for another team though.

“It could be anywhere between the [late May] timetable I discussed and a lot longer,” said Smoltz, 41, who reported discomfort following his Thursday and Saturday bullpen sessions. He said he doesn’t know yet whether he can pitch in games until the situation improves — or when it will improve.

You can read the full article here.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

On another note I thought I would test out the ability to embed a video. Below is the unassisted triple play turned by Asdrubal Cabrera back on May 12th. I wanted to post a video of when Sid Slid, but I can’t find one. Any one know where one exists?