No one cares about MLB trade rumors right now

Ben K. at River Avenue Blues, with a particularly excellent explanation on why I mark all my baseball blogs read on Google Reader this time of year:

Over the last few years, folks in politics have had to adapt to a world in which the Internet exposes everything. Say something stupid in speech in California, and YouTube will have it available to the world within a few hours. Now baseball is suffering through the same problem. We have unfettered access to Minor League numbers and games. We have limitless access to everything but clubhouse insiders, and the response is overwhelmingly wrong-headed.

Instead of allowing for negotiating strategies — by saying you don’t want to go somewhere, you raise your asking price — instead of allowing for the struggles of youth, writers and bloggers write off General Managers while displaying a willful ignorance of the role a GM and his scouting staff plays. These same writers throw in the towel for 2009 before the free agent signing period even begins.

Right now, no one knows anything about the next few months. We know that the Yanks have a lot of money and a bunch of options on the table. We can speculate until the cows — or Eric Bruntlett — comes home, but in the end, it’s all meaningless. For now, we should just step back from the ledge, enjoy the World Series and worry about who’s signing where and what young kids will play a role next year in a few weeks. Anything else is just idle, uninformed speculation.

Alex Rodriguez is the least clutch player in baseball

Believe it or not, that's not hyperbole, according to Jeff Passan. A-Rod ranks dead last Major League Baseball in the Clutch sabermetric, and has historically been crap with that stat too (13 years is a large enough sample size by anyone's account). Finally, something stat nerds and old cranks can agree on. What's next, Murray Chass and Ken Tremendous singing "Kumbaya" with arms linked?

HuffPo Chicago reporting on local sports

Are they going to start with the weather now too? [Huffington Post]

Was Mark Prior's downfall the fault of Dusty Baker, or incompetent doctors?

As someone who has nervously watched Phil Hughes' young career slowly begin to mirror that of Mark Prior, a pitcher with similar mechanics who was also promoted too early, I was somewhat relieved to find this article on Cubs f/x blog on the startling revelations of Prior's shoulder surgery once he was in the hands of Padres doctors:

If that weren't enough to put an end to his bid to pitch this season, doctors also found a second injury -- one that isn't normally associated with baseball.

Prior's anterior capsule was torn away from the humerus, the bone in the upper arm. Team physicians Heinz Hoenecke and Jan Fronek performed the surgery and said the second injury is normally associated with traumatic events like a fall.

The Cubs f/x blog noted that Prior fell on his right shoulder after a collision with Marcus Giles on July 11, 2003. While Prior's downfall is generally blamed on being overused by Dusty Baker, a manager who wouldn't read Moneyball if it had magical insulation powers during winter, it seems that this may have been the problem of clueless doctors more than any baseball decision. The numbers may actually back up that theory. Here are Mark Prior's innings totals from 2000-2003, the years he was healthy and dominant:

2000: 129.0
2001: 138.0
2002: 167.2
2003: 211.1

While the jump of 43.2 IP from 02-03 is slightly over the usual 40 IP increase that has a history of resulting in arm injuries, it's not really all that drastic, especially considering how good Prior's mechanics were, and that his major injury problem in 2004 was an unrelated Achilles injury. It would, however, explain his poor performance even when he was conceivably healthy.

This makes me feel slightly better about the chances of Phil Franchise.

(H/t: Baseball Musings)

Bobby Abreu and Melky Cabrera confuse the warning track with a trampoline

The right side of the Yankees outfield has been truly embarassing today, turning what should be two doubles into two triples and two runs (one of those triples was turning into the equivavlent an inside the park home run. I love Abreu's bat, but can I just say I won't miss how he plays the wall next year one bit? Let's just be thankful they're not playing the Cubs in Wrigley for interleague this year. Heaven forbid they cut themselves on a thorn on the ivy. I know Wrigley's ivy doesn't have thorns, but I'm sure Bobby Abreu would find it.