I thought about many corny headlines I could have given to this story. One was : Jose Offerman offs a man…sad really. Remember Jose Offerman? He was a journeyman infielder with a high OBP, last playing with the Mets in 2005. Well, he’s playing in the Atlantic League with the Long Island Ducks and was hit by a pitch last night.

Offerman redefined charging the mound. He took his bat with him and attacked the offending pitcher Matt Beech of the Bridgeport Bluefish. Shame, shame, shame. The Bridgeport Po-Po arrested Offerman after he was ejected from the game.

To read Yahoo! Sports’ coverage of the incident, click here.

Rich Elliott of the Connecticut Post has a story on the incident. He also has photos.

If you’re true baseball fan, oftentimes you may find yourself looking for general baseball news and not just news about your team. Sometimes it may be news on a guy who played for your favorite team who was traded or left via free agency. Many people say that you’re a fan of the team first, and a fan of the players second. But sometimes it’s hard to hate on guys who left because of all the memories they bring back with either key hits or misses (no pun intended). So first I’ll look at what the Beat Reporters are talking about around baseball, based on what the fans ask. First up, the National League East:

Mets beat reporter Marty Noble answered a lot of questions about Tommy Glavine. Glavine won his 300th game so I think it was a great column to have for (insert Mets joke here). Anyway, it’s a good read. Question: If the Mets win the World Series this year (big if) then which team will Glavine represent in the HOF? Sometimes an obvious question isn’t so obvious.

Phillies beat reporter Ken Mandel mostly covers Phillies pitching in his article with an element of DL candidates this year, including position players like Utley. Everyone always thinks that certain GM’s are Gods (like my thoughts on John Schuerholz) but a lot of credit should go to the Phillies for signing JC Romero and Jose Mesa. While this year they proved to be washed up relievers with their former teams, the Red Sox and Tigers respectively, the Phillies have done well to get a little bit more life out of them. Romero is still a good pitcher, but his K/BB ratio is abysmal.

Braves beat reporter Mark Bowman looks at the Braves in general. But looking at the questions he selected, I think the theme was Braves roster moves, both past, present and future.

Marlins beat reporter, Joe Frisaro looks at key roster moves via trades and signings that the Marlins have made to acquire contributors this year. As I said before, a lot of GM’s make good moves. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be doing their job. The same holds true for the Marlins. They’ve had good closers four years running: Armando Benitez, Todd Jones, Joe Borowski and now Kevin Gregg. Compare that success rate to the Braves, who until recently with Wickman were looking for a closer at every turn since Smoltz returned to starting. Another good read.

Nationals beat reporter Bill Ladson looks at who’s coming and who’s going for the Nats. The Nats can’t go anywhere but up, even though I’m surprised that they have a lot more wins than I expected at this point of the season.

Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Cubs and White Sox deal involving Scott Podsednik appears to be dead. The Cubs claimed Podsednik off waivers from the White Sox but it looks as though the two sides can’t agree on anything.

George King of the New York Post has a few words about the Padres waiver claim on Kei Igawa. Really..it’s only a few words. King says that Igawa won’t be dealt unless the Padres pony-up prospects.

I highly doubt that is going to happen, so my guess is that Igawa stays put.

A few minor league notes:

• Shea Hillenbrand just can’t keep a job can he? He’s been with three different teams this year, but was released from two…well technically the Angels waived him but you get the picture. After the Angels released him, the Padres signed him to a minor-league deal on July 27. I wrote about that and the bigger picture of the trade deadline which you can see here. The Padres Portland affiliate released him on August 8 and he signed a minor-league deal with the Dodgers on August 10. At least Hillenbrand has a deal; the Padres released Jose Cruz Jr. on August 1.

• Atlanta Braves infielder Willy Aybar, rejoined the team’s minor league system after a stint in rehab for substance abuse. Addiction is never a good thing and I’m glad for Aybar. He was AWOL for most of the year before rejoining and was placed on the 60 day disabled list, initially for a sprained right hand. Hope we see him up in the Majors soon.

• The Twins signed former Giants and Nationals player Jerome Williams to a minor league deal. Why? I don’t know.

• Oakland signed Jeff DaVanon to a minor league deal.  DaVanon is  a fourth outfielder at best. His best years came when he was  with the  Angels.

• The Pirates signed Victor Zambrano to a minor league contract. Hard to believe that the  Mets traded Scott Kazmir for this guy.

The Diamonbacks acquired Joe Kennedy off waivers on August 4. It was a really minor move, but according to Jack Macgruder of the East Valley Tribune Kennedy has something to say to the A’s.

If it’s true, then it’s a dirty move by the Athletics. Kennedy agreed to what the reporter was asking which was the reason for the A’s moving him from the rotation. If the A’s made that move for financial reasons then it is disgusting…but that’s just my point of view. To remove him from the rotation because of his incentives is the same as making a promise in bad faith. If the A’s knew they wouldn’t be able to afford that then why did they bother agreeing to the contract?

Kennedy’s answer to the question was “Do the math.” I did the math, Joe and as it turns out, the A’s had a valid reason for moving you from the rotation. You kinda stink. This year Kennedy has more BB’s than Ks. Guys like Macay McBride are allowed to have horrible ratios like that. McBride is still young. Kennedy’s a veteran. That’s inexcusable.

I am with Kennedy on the whole salary thing, but up to a point.

I’m a big fan of Chipper. I’m a really big fan…but just because he’s staying relatively healthy this year doesn’t mean his name should be in the media so much. First it was the spat with Smoltz, now it’s the New York media.

Chipper’s been in the game a while now. He bashes the Mets brains and he’s overly familiar with the Mets ballpark, but not their media? Did Chipper really think the reporters FROM New York would have something good to say about his comments the next day.

Dave O’Brien of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution has a story on Chipper’s latest fallout. Why couldn’t Chipper say “No comment” or “I’m not here to talk about anything other than the win today and the Braves” when asked about other players aka Bonds and A-Rod? That wouldn’t have gotten him into the situation he’s in.

If he used the “No Comment” line I could imagine that the worst it could have been was:
CHIPPER ON A-ROD: NO COMMENT
CHIPPER REFUSES TO TALK ABOUT A-ROD

If you read newspapers, you would have bought that newspaper with the headlines above, but you’d be pretty disappointed to realise there is no real story if Chipper really didn’t comment on A-Rod and the like.

But what’s done is done.  I always wondered what Chipper would be like if he played in New York or a place like Boston. There would be stories galore. But he’s a Brave and I’m glad for that. He needs to do one thing though: be quiet.

The Yankees are cleaning house…of the useless players. I shouldn’t say useless, because Mike Myers is a respectable reliever. What I don’t get is that the Yankees designate Myers for assignment and call up Jim Brower who in his limited 1.1 innings of work managed to give up 3 hits, a walk and an earned run. But he’s supposed to be better than Myers? Yikes!

Other players designated for assignment around baseball:

Miguel Cairo- New York Yankees…thank goodness. This guy blows and sucks simultaneously

Brian Dopirak- Chicago Cubs: this guy never played a day in MLB…according to Yahoo! Sports stats

Released Players:

Royce Clayton- Toronto Blue Jays

Scott Williamson- New York Yankees. Williamson played with the Orioles this year. He signed a one-year $900,000 deal in the offseason. Somebody should take a chance on him. He has 55 career saves, and two of his best years came with the Reds. They should look into signing him. It could be worthwhile.

Just sharing a little bit of post record-breaking analysis…good ol’ Ken Rosenthal and Kevin Hench have articles up regarding the ever lovable Barry Bonds.

Ken Rosenthal’s article looks at Barry’s legacy and puts the celebrations in perspective. From Hammerin’ Hank’s video tribute to the President’s phone call…yes…George Bush.

Kevin Hench’s article looks at Bonds’ place in history and compares him to some Hall of Famers. It’s an interesting point that Hench puts forward, regardless of the reader’s opinion. The comments are also…interesting. Some are a bit harsh, but a writer shouldn’t expect otherwise.

This is an old bit of news, but Eric Byrnes signed a 3-year $30 million contract extension with the Diamondbacks on Tuesday. ESPN has the story inclusive of contract details. The deal calls for a $2 million signing bonus payable in two installments next year and salaries of $6 million in 2008 and $11 million in 2009 and 2010.

I think it’s a good deal for the Diamondbacks. Byrnes has always had a lot of potential and he’s an interesting character on the field. That’s not a bad combination. He’s easily having a career year with a .301 average, .364 OBP and .493 slugging %. To be honest, he’s making a case for the MVP award, Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard not withstanding. Remember MVP is Most Valuable Player, not Guy with the Best Stats.

In the NL the award means something; it’s not like the AL where the guy with the most homers or RBIs gets it. He’s helping the Dbacks tremendously and it’s not mystery why they are in first place right now.

UPDATE: I guess you can say you heard it here first. ESPN has a story saying that Wells will be designated for assignment so clear a roster spot for Chris Young who will be activated from the DL. The article states that the Padres GM, basically out of respect, gave Wells some options which will lead to the latter either retiring or joining another team. I’m hoping that the Braves pick him up, but that is wishful thinking. I still think Wells has something left in the tank, but he probably doesn’t think he owes it to anybody to dig deep and find it.

David Wells is abysmal this year. He’s never really struck me as a great player. Sure he threw a perfect game, but a perfect game and a no-hitter both have elements luck…and in Boomer’s case maybe his involved hitting the bottle.

Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune postulates (there’s a word for ya) that Wells maybe headed out the door by being designated for assignment/fired/released. Boomer is a controversial character so few teams may want him. In the past, he expressed an interest in playing on the West Coast. His salary is manageable this year as he is paid per start. His 5-8 record and his 5.54 ERA are far from what the Padres expect of him. Perhaps they’ll place him on waivers to see what they may get for him.

His postseason record makes up for any attitude problems. He’s 10-5 in the postseason with a 3.17 ERA, although he’s 0-3 in his last 3 postseason starts.