The idea behind playing Sunday night baseball in Texas is to keep teams from melting in the Sunday afternoon heat. The idea behind Sunday night baseball in Texas is NOT to play a 12-inning game and then continue an off-day free road trip on the West Coast. Given where the hits came from, it would have been a good night to trot out the “B” lineup. That’s also the kind of magnificent blogger’s hindsight that leads me to conclude that we should just pretend that Sunday’s night game didn’t happen and regroup for the three in Oakland and four in Anaheim.

That being said…

*I recommend you start your Monday baseball by reading Doogie Wolfson’s “Your Voices” blog post on Roy Halladay. Given Justin Morneau’s recent comments, the title chase and the ballpark move for 2010, putting together a package for a guy who would be a clear top-of-the-rotation starter and sell tickets makes all the sense in the world. When I was on MPR Friday, some people wanted to frame the acquisition of higher-priced talent by management as a “goodwill gesture” to supportive fans. Garbage. It would be a move to improve the team and put more people in the seats. That’s called good business.

*On the day the Twins picked up 39-year-old Mark Grudzielanek, who wrecked his ankle at the end of last season (just when he was considered trade bait by Kansas City) and hasn’t played since, Milwaukee solved its second base situation by getting Felipe Lopez from Arizona for two minor-leaguers. That’s the Felipe Lopez with the .364 onbase percentage, good defensive skills and a $3.5 million salary. In other words, the Brewers made a Luis CastilloCasilla-type deal (both coming and going for the Twins) that will help them today while the Twins are banking on hope. Grudzielanek is an interesting move — a solid and underappreciated second baseman over the years –  and the first few days of Casilla 3.0 haven’t given much reason for excitement.

*Speaking of trade bait, based on this article, it doesn’t look like a wise idea to substitute Dan Haren’s name for Halladay’s in trade hopes.

*And Aaron Gleeman explains why you should NOT say “Mark Grudzielanek” in the same breath with Bret BOOne, Tony Batista, Mike Lamb and some of the others who’ve come and gone.

*Here’s a Milwaukee take on the Lopez deal. The Brewers like Lopez for all the reasons the Twins could have liked him. The small consolation prize is that Lopez will be a free agent at the end of the season and the Brewers should have Richie Weeks returning from his season-ending wrist injury.

*Should you be worried about Joe Mauer? I think we should be feeling good that a guy can go 2-for-25 and still be batting .358 with a 1.027 OPS. Slumps happen. Teams know their best chance against Mauer is to work him inside and hope he grounds out to second. This too shall pass. It’s an easier strategy to talk about than to execute for a period of time. It is, however, all the more reason for the Twins to keep Jose Morales on the roster for the days when Mauer is DH.

*Yes, folks, FSN’s Wisconsin Dells weekend was cheesy and laughable and drew more than one “Lordy!” from Ms. Baseball and myself. But here seems to be the deal: Those infomercials were almost certainly an attempt to make up for some of the other ad revenue that isn’t coming in to FSN (and other media). As someone who makes his living in one of the “other media,” I see what was going on. If the choice comes down to FSN or no FSN, a weekend in the Dells is the price we pay. This one’s best greeted with laughter and understanding instead of outrage.

*West Coast baseball this week. Get your rest. And if you pretend that last night’s game never happened, Nick Punto still doesn’t have a home run.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 11:14 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.