A few days ago, the Diamondbacks added a little bit of bullpen help when they signed Bob Wickman.

We remember that the Braves designated Wickman for assignment because of his attitude. It’s a strange signing for the Dbacks though, because Wickman doesn’t like to pitch on days when it’s not a save situation. Well, for Arizona he isn’t even the closer so why did he sign?

Wickman probably just wants to pitch. A lot of people around baseball thought he was going to retire but apparently Wickman decided against that.  For the Dbacks, you really can’t have too much pitching can you?

The Astros ownership has finally come to it’s senses. Ken Rosenthal reports that the Astros’ manager and GM were both fired last Monday.

The manager, Phil Garner never impressed me and after looking at his career record as a manager, I can see why. Garner’s record is 985-1,054. That’s more losses than wins. That’s not good for a manager. Granted most of Garner’s losses were accumulated during stints with really bad teams a la the 90’s Brewers and the early 2000 Tigers.

Purpura, the GM on the other hand, made some good and questionable moves during his tenure- just like any GM would. Sometimes being a GM is a crapshoot, but if you’re a GM for a team with a big payroll, it’s a better crapshoot than the rest. Purpura engineered the Clemens and Pettitte signings. More recently, he convinced Carlos Lee to become an Astro.

The bad signings and acquisitions? High up on that list would be the Woody Williams signing and the Jason Jennings acquisition. The Jennings trade leaves a bad taste in the mouths of Astros fans, particularly because a lot was given up for a guy who posted decent numbers in Coors Field. It just goes to show that numbers lie sometimes. Another bad move? Preston Wilson. That’s all I can think of right now.

The Astros are a good team. It’s just that they are in dire need of some starting pitching. They have a decent offense that’s headed by Berkman, Lee and the rookie Pence. They just need to push harder and get some pitching.

In a bit of old news, the Braves designated Bob Wickman for assignment on August 24. This is obviously tied to Wickman’s alleged attitude problems.

Mark Bowman, the Braves beat reporter had the story. I believe that Schuerholz was thinking way ahead in his trade deadline moves when he acquired Octavio Dotel. I think he got Dotel in the event that Wickman would be released or traded because of his unwillingness to take one for the team in non-save situations.

The Cubs acquired outfielder Craig Monroe from the Detroit Tigers for the cliché PTBNL and cash considerations yesterday. It doesn’t hurt to add him especially since the Cubs have the payroll. Detroit designated Monroe for assignment last week and I have a story up about that.

Monroe’s designation by the Tigers was just one of a string of moves they made in order to boost the team. The Cubs add another outfielder but they’ll have a backlog when Alfonso Soriano returns from the DL.

To view Monroe’s Yahoo! Sports MLB stats, click here.

I really didn’t want to report this, but Zambrano signed a 5-year $91.5 million contract extension with the Cubs on August 17. Everyone thinks he’s the ace of the Cubs staff, but I beg to differ. An ace doesn’t walk 100 guys in a season. Sorry. It’s a fact. An ace isn’t supposed to issue so many free passes in a season.

Scott Kazmir could get away with walking 100 guys in a season, but he’s spent about the equivalent of 3 years worth of starts. Zambrano is in his 7th year in the bigs. Last year he walked 115 guys. This year he’s on track to walk 97 in 33 starts. Sure he strikes out guys, but walking about 100 guys and striking out about 200 isn’t becoming of an ace.

Zambrano gets wins. I can’t doubt that. In fact, he’s good. But I think he can be even better. A team shouldn’t fork out $91 million in the hope that a guy gets better. They pay for the real deal. Zambrano will never win a Cy Young if he continues to issue 100 walks or around that mark. He could win 25 games, but if he walks a lot of guys it’ll be hard for the baseball public to say he’s great. ESPN has the story up.

Zambrano’s deal includes an option in 2013 which could make the deal a 6-year $110.75 million. Big Z gets a full no trade clause and a $5 million signing bonus. But Big Z still said “Not everything is about money, you know.” Really now.

To view Zambrano’s Yahoo! Sports MLB stats, click here.

According to ESPN, the White Sox signed right fielder Jermaine Dye to a two-year contract extension today. The contract is for 2-years and $22 million with a mutual option for a third year. The contract calls for salaries of $9.5 million in 2008, $11.5 million in 2009 and $12 million in 2010 option year. The converse of the option being picked up is a buyout for $1 million.

While Dye has a team-high 24 Homers for the Sox this year, I think it’s a bad deal, but not that bad. It sure beats a 6-year commitment that top tier outfielders would demand and it helps to bridge the gap between Sox prospects getting seasoned in the majors. Dye is hitting .245 with a .309 OBP and .490 slugging %. That has him on the brink of the decent standard for outfielders OPS which stands at .800; compare that with Dye and he’s .799 this year but .823 for his career

I think the best part of the deal is the number of years or the lack thereof. I’ve never understood the infatuation with Dye. But he produces when he needs to show his value.

So Wily Mo Pena’s career as a Red Sox player has mercifully come to an end, according to Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe.

The Sox needed to clear a roster spot and Pena effectively got his pink slip. The Nationals acquired him from the Sox and in return the Sox will receive cash considerations and a PTBNL…ah…the infamous PTBNL. This is a useful loophole in the waiver trade deadline because guys who are on the active roster and are to be traded, must clear waivers I think. So this just allows the Nationals to keep their roster, as punchless as it is.

I think Pena will do well in RFK. It’s a low pressure situation and he still has some power in his bat. It’s up to the Nats hitting coach to harness Pena’s chi…or something.

To view Pena’s Yahoo! Sports MLB stats, click here.

According to ESPN, the Tigers designated left-fielder Craig Monroe today. It’s a so-so deal. Monroe was coming off a career year in 2006 in HRs and RBI’s. His strikeout rate and OBP are abysmal. The Tigers get rid of a few hundred thousand dollars here.

In tandem with designating Monroe, the Tigers optioned infielder Omar Infante to their Triple-A affiliate while recalling an infielder: Ramon Santiago. They also promoted top prospect Cameron Maybin.

The “deal” looks like this:

Out: Craig Monroe, Omar Infante

In: Ramon Santiago, Cameron Maybin

The Braves inquired on Monroe a few years ago but nothing ever came of it. It would have been hard to imagine Andruw Jones and Craig Monroe on the same team offensively. They probably would have had 275-300 K’s between them. Monroe is a free agent this year so it’ll be interesting to see who makes a move for him for 1.5 months left in the season.

To view Monroe’s Yahoo! Sports MLB stats, click here.

With just over a month left in the regular season, I thought I’d take a look at contenders for the NL Cy Young award. A few criteria should be set out.

• The eventual Cy Young winner needs to have wins; not necessarily lots of them, but equal to or more than the other guys. Case in point: last year’s winner Brandon Webb. He won the award with a 16-8 record. Aaron Harang of the Reds was pretty good last year, but I think his losses and ERA cost him a few votes.
• Low ERA. Even if the wins aren’t there, a low ERA helps a lot. Maddux won the award one year with a 16-6 record, but his ERA was:1.56; A stat I like to look at is ERA/WHIP differential. Maddux’s was .66 that year he won when he had 16 games. Did I mention that he also had 10 complete games?
• Strikeouts; WHIP; Walks and HR allowed are all important stats, but they aren’t as critical as Wins and ERA.

So the front-line contenders are: Tim Hudson, Carlos Zambrano, Cole Hamels, Jake Peavy, Brad Penny, Brandon Webb

Outside chance: Aaron Harang, Chris Young, John Maine, John Smoltz

• Based on wins, Young and Smoltz gotta go. Webb is on thin ice regarding wins, but his scoreless streak more than compensates for the difference in wins. While Young leads in quite a few categories like WHIP, ERA and batting average against (BAA), it’s hard to include a guy who has 5 fewer wins than the leader. Young missed a couple starts when he was on the DL, but it still won’t bring him that close to the leader. Smoltz…no wins.

• Low ERA…who doesn’t have it? Zambrano, Hamels, Maine and Harang. (In fact, Zambrano would have been eliminated anyway because he gives up too many walks…way too many. And for those who say it’s only one category, well Russ Ortiz had 21 wins for the Braves in 2oo3 but he gave up 102 walks. In fact Ortiz finished 4th that year in the voting. ) So wins and ERA are important. Can’t have one without the other…well you can but it’s stiff competition this year. Maine and Hamels have given up 18 and 25 HRs respectively. No chance.

Based on stats, the order of the remaining contenders:

1. Jake Peavy- San Diego Padres
2. Brad Penny- Los Angeles Dodgers
3. Tim Hudson- Atlanta Braves
4. Brandon Webb- Arizona Diamondbacks

Note that 3 of the 4 contenders based on stats are based in the punchless NL West. I pick Peavy to win because he has quite a few things working in his favor, especially Petco Park and the fact that Penny normally has a second-half meltdown. Hudson has been great and is resembling the pitcher the Braves traded for when he was in Oakland. Webb is the odd man out. He’s putting together some great peripheral stats, like the scoreless streak, complete games and shutouts. Where it really counts though, he’s behind the other three, and his losses are starting to mount up.

It’s an interesting race for the Cy Young. Let’s see what happens.

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.