A FEW QUICK COMMENTS

***THAMES, AGAIN***
I don't think that A-Rod is going to get many votes for MVP this year. The award is for the Most VALUABLE Player and the Yanks are 22-3 without him this year. A lot of the credit goes to Marcus Thames, who has been belting clutch home runs for about two weeks now. The bullpen has also been outstanding.
Vasquez was up to his old tricks today. No fastball and not even close to having command. Cervelli would give a target down and away and Vasquez would throw a pitch belt high inside. Somehow, the Blue Jays would swing and miss and Javier almost got through the fifth. After letting in the tieing runs, the bullpen went into lights-out mode again.

It looks like Cashman did okay with his trade deadline pickups. Kearns won't keep you from going to the beer stand when he's up, but he's a decent fill-in. Berkman appears to still have something left in the tank and Kerry Woods has been very effective.

***MANNY APOLOGIZES***
This will shock you: he says the Boston fiasco was all his fault. Well Manny, no one was blaming the public address announcer. We've yet to hear whose fault the Dodger fiasco was. I haven't seen any pictures of his "haircut" yet. Manny says he's going to comply fully. Anyone here believe that? I didn't think so.

***A YANKEE-RED SOX TRADE?***
I couldn't believe this when I read it. The deal died an early death, but what was discussed was a three-way trade with the Yanks getting Mike Lowell. No word on any other players or even who the third team was. Lowell has a "no-Yankee trade" clause built in to his contract, so that would have been another stumbling block.

***A-ROD FIRES SCOTT BORAS***
It is true, but this one is far from over. It seems A-Rod still owes Boras over $11 million over the next 7 years. There isn't going to be any more baseball contracts in A-Rods' future, so I don't think Boras is losing any sleep...or money. If you're wondering why this all happened, there is one possibility. A-Rod has some advisers that he's been dealing with for a couple of years and apparently they can provide Alex with something Boras couldn't: dates with Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz and possibly more. I think there's a word that describes that kind of activity.

***QUICK NATIONAL LEAGUE UPDATE***
The Cardinals have won only 2 of their last eight, the Padres have lost 9 straight and Atlanta has set a blistering pace, going 5-5. The 5th place Cubs are 7-3, increasing their lead over 6th place Pittsburgh to 13 games.

Note: Pat Venditte, the Yankees switch-arm pitcher has been promoted to Double-A. Word is he has gotten his fastball up to 86mph, up from 85. ...but only when throwing right-handed. The left-hand is still at 80 mph.

CP-