The Rocket Has Landed – The Astros on Wednesday announced that they have signed future HOFer Roger Clemens to a 1-year deal, prorated to pay him around $13 million over the season’s final four months.  The lure of playing at home, and possibly with his son Koby, was too much for the Rocket, who turned down offers from the Rangers, Red Sox and Yankees in deciding to come back to Houston for his 23rd major league season.  The plan is for Clemens to make three minor league starts before returning to the Astros on June 22 to face the Minnesota Twins at Minute Maid Field.  Clemens, who will turn 44 years old on August 4, has 341 career wins, one win behind Tim Keefe for 8^th all-time.

 

Significant Changes - Nearly a month after owner David Glass promised fans in Kansas City “significant changes,” the Royals on Wednesday finally hired Atlanta’s assistant G.M., Dayton Moore, to be their next general manager.  Moore replaces Allard Baird, who had mysteriously been in that position since July of 2000, despite losing over 100 games in 3 of the last 4 seasons.  The Royals currently are 13-38 and on pace to beat the ’62 Mets’ record for futility with 121 losses.  Moore is a protégé of Atlanta GM John Schuerholz, who was the general manager of the ’85 Royals that won the World Series. 

 

The Amazing Mystery of Jose Cruz Jr. – Starting Outfielder

 

Here at DN&N, it amazes us that teams continue to view Jose Cruz Jr. as a starting outfielder despite his obvious inability to hit left handed.  As a switch hitter, Cruz bats far more often from the left side of the plate where he is a lifetime .239 hitter in 3,213 at bats.  Conversely, from the right side Cruz is a .280 career hitter in 1,121 AB.  

 

This season, Cruz is batting just .198 against right handers (101 AB) while hitting .342 (38 AB) against left handers, continuing a trend that we’ve been noticing for years. 

 

Jose Cruz Jr.	AB	H	AVE	OBP	SLG
2005
Right Handed	80	26	.325	.426	.525
Left Handed	290	67	.231	.347	.459
2004
Right Handed	159	42	.264	.364	.465
Left Handed	386	90	.227	.316	.375
2003
Right Handed	135	41	.304	.405	.519
Left Handed	404	94	.234	.345	.407

 

Now we’re all for good glove work, and Cruz is among the better defensive OF’s in the game.   We just wonder how much longer it’ll be until teams realize that Cruz is best suited to a platoon/late inning defensive substitution situation.

 

The Longest Streak Pt I – The Yankees took their third straight from the Tigers in Detroit on Wednesday, and extended their ML best winning streak to 5 games.  Mike Mussina was dominant, as he allowed just one unearned run to raise his record to 7-1.  Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez both had three hits.  Andy Phillips had two hits and now has 10 in his last 25 (.400) at bats to raise his average from .135 to .242. 

The Longest Streak Pt II – Carl Crawford had two hits, including a home run and 3 RBI, and is now 17 for his last 39 (.436) with 4 HR and 8 RBI.  However, it was not enough to keep Tampa Bay from losing its 6^th straight game, 6-5 in 11 innings to Baltimore.  Coupled with the Mariners’ 14-5 win over Texas, the D’Rays now claim the longest current losing streak in the majors.

 

Notable

 

Gary Sheffield’s troublesome left wrist may force the Yankee OF back to the DL for the second time this season after he was scratched from the lineup on Tuesday.  He was held out of the lineup on Wednesday and is not expected to play on Thursday either.  He is just 6 for 25 (.240) since returning from the DL on May 23.

 

Jason Kendall homered on Wednesday in the A’s 7-0 win over the Royals.  It was Kendall’s first home run in 961 at bats covering 247 games.

 

The Cubs acquired Phil Nevin from Texas in an attempt to add some pop to their lineup.  Nevin was batting .216 with 9 HR for Texas and had just 2 hits in his last 30 at bats (both home runs).  After hitting .278 in April, Nevin slumped to just .139 in May.  Jerry Hairston, batting just .207 for the year and 0 for his last 21, goes to Texas in the deal.

 

The Nationals on Wednesday placed reliever Joey Eischen on the disabled list with a muscle tear in his rotator cuff.  Eischen becomes the 7^th Nationals player (and the 6^th pitcher) on the 60-day DL and the 11^th player overall to visit the infirmary.  Eischen will miss the rest of the year.  Washington recalled highly touted prospect Bill Bray to fill out the roster.

 

A day after slugging 3 home runs, Vernon Wells was out of the lineup against Boston due to a sore left shoulder.  He is day to day with inflammation in his AC joint but expects to be in the lineup on Friday against Tampa Bay.

 

Wednesday’s marquee game was no disappointment as the Mets and D’Backs battled through 12 scoreless innings before the Mets finally won 1-0 in the 13^th.  Endy Chavez played the hero with a walk-off single and Pedro Martinez was brilliant as he tossed 8 shutout innings, allowing just 5 hits and no walks while striking out 8.  In the loss, Brandon Webb pitched 7 shutout innings to run his scoreless innings streak to 25 and lower his NL best ERA to 2.01.

 

The Best and Worst of May

 

The Best and Worst – American League Pt I – Despite losing their last four in May, the Tigers were the top team for the month in the majors with a 19-9 record (.679).  The next best AL team was the Red Sox (17-9, .654), with the Yankees (18-10, .643) and the Blue Jays (17-12, .586) rounding out the top 4.  

 

The Best and Worst – American League Pt II – The worst team in the AL in May was once again Kansas City.  The Royals, who finished April with a 5-17 record, ended May with a slightly improved 8-21 record (.276).  The rest of the bottom four were the Devil Rays (10-18, .357), the Angels (11-17, .407) and both Seattle and Oakland who were 12-17 (.414) in May. 

 

The Best and Worst – National League Pt I – Not only the top team, but the top 3 teams in the NL for May reside in the rejuvenated NL West.  The division leading Diamondbacks finished the month with the best record in the NL at 18-9 (.667), followed closely by the Padres (19-10, .655) and the Dodgers (18-10, .643).  The Braves rebounded from their 10-14 April to post the 4^th best record for the month (18-11, .621).

 

The Best and Worst – National League Pt II – The worst team in the NL was the Chicago Cubs who stumbled their way to a major league worst 7-22 record in May (.241).  The Astros (11-19, .367) and Marlins (11-18, .379) are next with the Rockies, Reds and Brewers (12-16, .429) finishing out the bottom dwellers for the month in the NL.

 

The Best and Worst – By Division – The strongest division in baseball in May was the surprisingly tough NL West with a .574 winning percentage.  The weakest division was the supposedly tough NL Central which saw five out of six teams post losing records as the division put together a collective .418 percentage.

 

On Deck – Justin Verlander will take the mound on Thursday in Detroit trying to snap the Tigers four game skid and earn his 8^th win of the season.  Scott Kazmir will get the ball for Tampa Bay as they attempt to end their losing slide and get Kazmir his 8^th win of the year.  And in Cleveland, the majors’ ERA leader, Jose Contreras, will try for his 14^th consecutive win and try to salvage a split for Chicago in their four game set with the Indians.

 

 

Final May Standings

AL East	W	L	Pct.	NL East	W	L	Pct.
Boston Red Sox	17	9	0.654	Atlanta Braves	18	11	0.621
New York Yankees	18	10	0.643	Philadelphia Phillies	17	11	0.607
Toronto Blue Jays	17	12	0.586	New York Mets	16	12	0.571
Baltimore Orioles	12	15	0.444	Washington Nats	14	15	0.483
Tampa Bay D’Rays	10	18	0.357	Florida Marlins	11	18	0.379
	74	64	0.536		76	67	0.531
AL Central	W	L	Pct.	NL Central	W	L	Pct.
Detroit Tigers	19	9	0.679	St. Louis Cardinals	17	11	0.607
Chicago White Sox	16	12	0.571	Pittsburgh Pirates	12	15	0.444
Minnesota Twins	15	13	0.519	Milwaukee Brewers	12	16	0.429
Cleveland Indians	13	14	0.481	Cincinnati Reds	12	16	0.429
Kansas City Royals	8	21	0.276	Houston Astros	11	19	0.367
	71	69	0.507	Chicago Cubs	7	22	0.241
					71	99	0.418
AL West	W	L	Pct.	NL West	W	L	Pct.
Texas Rangers	15	13	0.536	Arizona D’Backs	18	9	0.667
Seattle Mariners	12	17	0.414	San Diego Padres	19	10	0.655
Oakland Athletics	12	17	0.414	L.A. Dodgers	18	10	0.643
Los Angeles Angels	11	17	0.407	S.F. Giants	14	15	0.483
	50	64	0.439	Colorado Rockies	12	16	0.429
					81	60	0.574