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Hot News for P Tom Layne

A night off for Torii Hunter means a night in the lineup for Avisail Garcia against a right-handed pitcher, Samuel Deduno. Don Kelly starts in center, with Garcia in right. Deduno has pitched effectively against the Tigers, and he has pitched colossally bad, like someone averse to the strike zone. The trouble for the Twins tonight is that their bullpen has logged a lot of innings lately. If the Tigers wait out Deduno and try to run up his pitch count, and he can’t throw strikes, it could put the Twins in a really bad spot, not just for tonight but for Saturday afternoon. As for the Tigers bullpen, the one guy on break tonight is Jose Valverde, who finished out the last three games. Joaquin Benoit will get the save opportunity if there is one. What happens against right-handed batters leading up to the ninth could be more interesting, with Leyland potentially mixing Jose Ortega and Luke Putkonen. It could also end up being a night when Anibal Sanchez gets a bigger pitch count. The one Tiger with good numbers off Deduno is leadoff man Andy Dirks. Still, it’s tough to go against Cabrera in MLB.com’s Beat the Streak game, even though you know his run will end for a night at some point. You can follow the game online via Gameday, watch online through MLB.TV or listen on MLB.com Gameday Audio. Locally, you can watch on Fox Sports Detroit and listen on 97.1 FM AM 1270. TIGERS Andy Dirks, LF (3-for-6 off Deduno) Omar Infante, 2B (1-for-4 off Deduno) Miguel Cabrera, 3B (1-for-5, walk, K off Deduno) Prince Fielder, 1B (1-for-3, 2 walks, K off Deduno) Victor Martinez, DH Jhonny Peralta, SS (1-for-3, 2 walks, K off Deduno) Alex Avila, C (1-for-4, walk, K off Deduno) Don Kelly, CF Avisail Garcia, RF P: Anibal Sanchez TWINS Jamey Carroll, 3B (3-for-9, 2 K’s off Sanchez) Joe Mauer, C (4-for-8, walk, K off Sanchez) Josh Willingham, DH (2-for-12, 8 walks, 5 K’s off Sanchez) Justin Morneau, 1B (3-for-10, walk off Sanchez) Oswaldo Arcia, LF (0-for-3, K off Sanchez) Chris Parmelee, RF (1-for-8, 3 K’s off Sanchez) Eduardo Escobar, SS Aaron Hicks, CF (0-for-4, walk, 2 K’s off Sanchez) Brian Dozier, 2B (0-for-5, 2 K’s off Sanchez) P: Samuel Deduno

Philadelphia Phillies (23-24) at Washington Nationals (24-23) Kyle Kendrick (4-2, 2.82) v. Jordan Zimmerman (7-2, 1.62) TIME: 7:05, Nationals Park TV: CSN Weather: 50′s, partly cloudy Media: Twitter and Facebook The Phillies are in Washington tonight for the start of a three game series with the Nationals. They will look to be reach the .500 mark for the first time since April 14. They’ll hand the ball to Kyle Kendrick, who is 4-2 with a 2.82 ERA this year. However, he is coming off a start where he gave up four runs over six innings. For the Nationals, Jordan Zimmerman gets the call, and with a win tonight, will become the NL’s first eight game winner. He’s 7-2 on the year with an amazing 1.62 ERA. He has struggled against the Phillies in the past, however, as he is 1-6 with a 5.04 ERA against the Phils. Tonight will be cold and cloudy, which makes for a low scoring game, especially when the two starting pitchers have been pretty good this year. But then again, I’ve been way off before. Lineup: Rollins SS, Revere CF, M. Young 3B, Howard 1B, Delmon RF, Dom LF, Galvis 2B, Kratz C, Kendrick P Your Gameday Beer – Hoegaarden On this Memorial Day weekend, good beer is a must. I’ve always like Hoegaarden, which can be enjoyed in small sips with good food. It flows smooth and tastes like citrus. Have some barbecue chicken with it. – By Tim GO PHILLIES!

The Giants are highly unlikely to win another World Series this year. That's not me talking, that's statistics and probability. The grilled salmon and avocado tacos I had for lunch are also talking, but never you mind. Whatever the eventual outcome, the season has been scrumptious so far, with the Dodgers' implosion like an extra gob of seared pork belly adorning the banana-leaf-wrapped sticky rice of the three-way-tie for first in the NL West. But I admit I've been thinking longer term this year. Whatever October has in store, the Giants will also have holes to fill this winter: two in the rotation and one, maybe two in the outfield, is my guess, and that's assuming there aren't major injury complications. (I'm also assuming Ryan Vogelsong comes back from his broken hand and pitches well enough for the team to pick up his super-reasonable $6.5 M option.) To fill holes in 2014, the homegrown guys might not cut it. Gary Brown is utterly lost in Fresno. Roger Kieschnick and Francisco Peguero have some skills and nice AAA numbers, but neither seems a good bet to be a league-average starter next year. Raise your hand if you want an Opening Day 2014 outfield of Kieschnick, Angel Pagan, and Frankie Pegs. Moundwise, we're likely to see one of the AAA pitching prospects get a big-league tryout while Vogelsong is on the shelf, but both Mike Kickham and Chris Heston would have to make big, fast leaps to become solid replacements for Lincecum and Zito in April 2014. (Wild card: Eric Surkamp, still recovering from Tommy John surgery.) So what to do? One trick is to fill a few holes by creating one, like the Padres did with Mat Latos. Out went Latos, in came four ready or near-ready major leaguers: Edinson Volquez (warm body for the rotation), Yasmani Grandal (catcher), Yonder Alonso (first base) and Brad Boxberger (bullpen). The Giant equivalent would be a trade of Madison Bumgarner, and yeah, just shut your pie-hole right now. Besides, rebuilding is not in Brian Sabean's vocabulary. It's not even in the Indo-Sabeanic language family. It's as if he were from a nomadic tribe that forever wandered the inner Sahara in circles, and "rebuilding" was a way to describe a tsunami. It's a giant wave, Brian, that rises out of the ocean... You know, uh, the ocean? Big salty water? The biggest veteran-for-prospect swap of the past five years has been Bengie Molina to Texas in 2010, and only because Buster Posey made him expendable. Also: Ray Durham for Darren Ford. Bold!Trade from the farm? I don't think the Giants either are willing to give up their top pitching talent, all still at High-A or Low-A, or can actually procure solid major-league talent in return for anyone else. Don't expect another Charlie Culberson-for-Marco Scutaro laugher again. That leaves free agency. There's occasional gold among the riverbed flakes of pyrite, and the Giants are as good as any team at finding it: Vogelsong, Gregor Blanco, Santiago Casilla, Pat Burrell. So far this year Chad Gaudin is making a case for himself, too. But if indeed Zito, Lincecum and Pence all walk this winter, and the left-field pop-gun platoon has worn itself thin, the Giants aren't going to leave all that uncertainty open to fulfillment by serendipity, plucky overachieving youth, and creative tradecraft. There's going to be some free-agent muscle flexing, and that, as we all know, is not the Giant front office's strong suit. They know it, and have largely stayed out of it the past few years until this past winter's flurry of getting-the-band-back-together. Until the resigning of Affeldt, Casilla, Pagan and Scutaro, all to contracts of three years or more, you have to go back to December 2007 to find a player signing a fresh contract longer than two years with the Giants. I don't think they'll be able to resist this winter. There will be cash to spend. There will be holes to fill. There will be Scott Podsednik jokes and AJ Burnett rumors and could-Rags-fix-Ubaldo-Jimenez ruminations,

Teixeira could return to Yankees lineup next week

My name is Neil Shelat, this is my first post on The Talking Chop. I hope to entertain the lovers and haters of the Atlanta Braves through my knowledge of sports history, statistics, and overall knowledge of America's pastime. As many of you all know, MLB.com has a fantasy game called, "Beat the Streak" where participants choose any one of the players in the lineup in their respective games. If the player predict gets hit in his game, you have one point and so on a so forth until the player you choose each day, doesn't get a hit. Yesterday, I chose Alex Gordon from the Kansas City Royals for Beat The Streak, a naturally good choice on my due to the fact that the left fielder is hitting .346 on the season. Well while my streak was at a whopping 5 last night, Gordon did not connect for a hit against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim bringing my record streak to zero. This afternoon at work, I decided to try something new. Instead of choosing players with high batting averages to get my streak going, why not place some faith in two of the worst hitters in the National League, statistically speaking that is. In honor of the Braves playing their division rival New York Mets, I chose B.J. Upton and went double or nothing with Ike Davis. As ridiculous as these two picks seem, there is some justification in my reasoning. While B.J.is hitting a dismal .155 with 55 strikeouts, he has shown success against New York Mets pitching. In 70 at-bats against a Metropolitan pitcher Upton is hitting, .257 and has 18 hits with 7 walks.Conversely, Ike Davis has faced Atlanta pitching in 61 at-bats and produced 15 hits with 17 walks for a .246 average. While the numbers aren't necessarily the best, I have full faith in what these two players are capable of doing just by having one good swing of the bat. Questions, Comments, or Concerns? Tweet me: @NeilShelat6 Email me: nshelat6@gmail.comMy name is Neil Shelat, this is my first post on The Talking Chop. I hope to entertain the lovers and haters of the Atlanta Braves through my knowledge of sports history, statistics, and overall knowledge of America's pastime. As many of you all know, MLB.com has a fantasy game called, "Beat the Streak" where participants choose any one of the players in the lineup in their respective games. If the player predict gets hit in his game, you have one point and so on a so forth until the player you choose each day, doesn't get a hit. Yesterday, I chose Alex Gordon from the Kansas City Royals for Beat The Streak, a naturally good choice on my due to the fact that the left fielder is hitting .346 on the season. Well while my streak was at a whopping 5 last night, Gordon did not connect for a hit against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim bringing my record streak to zero. This afternoon at work, I decided to try something new. Instead of choosing players with high batting averages to get my streak going, why not place some faith in two of the worst hitters in the National League, statistically speaking that is. In honor of the Braves playing their division rival New York Mets, I chose B.J. Upton and went double or nothing with Ike Davis. As ridiculous as these two picks seem, there is some justification in my reasoning. While B.J.is hitting a dismal .155 with 55 strikeouts, he has shown success against New York Mets pitching. In 70 at-bats against a Metropolitan pitcher Upton is hitting, .257 and has 18 hits with 7 walks.Conversely, Ike Davis has faced Atlanta pitching in 61 at-bats and produced 15 hits with 17 walks for a .246 average. While the numbers aren't necessarily the best, I have full faith in what these two players are capable of doing just by having one good swing of the bat. Questions, Comments, or Concerns? Tweet me: @NeilShelat6 Email me: nshelat6@gmail.com Poll Who will end the first half of the season on a better note? B.J. Upton - Atlanta Braves Ike Davis- New York Mets 0 v

Dayton Moore wants Royals fans to be patient. We've crossed the line to incompetence, though.

I'm being a tad lazy right now but here are series of tweets from the beat writers in regards to Mark Teixeira's impending return. I'll give you a hint, he could be back by the end of next week just in time for the series against the Red Sox. Exciting, right? (Tweets after the jump on the main page i.e. click on view full post)

Sutton: Because that’s where the defaced money is. The outspoken Sutton—who came up with the Dodgers in 1966 and pitched with them for 16 of his 23 seasons—has his own opinion about everything. He said in an interview last week that he hates pitch counts. “I say it with a laugh in my voice when I broadcast: ‘That’s 100 pitches. On the next one, he’s going to turn into a troll.’ At 101, you just disappear. Poof, you’re gone,” Sutton said. ...MLB.com: Did you cheat? Sutton: No, I never got caught cheating. MLB.com: About the Hall of Fame vote, what do you think about it as we move forward? Do you think that after a period of time some of these guys [who played in the “Steroid Era”] should get in? Or if you played in that era, it’s going to be hard to get in. Sutton: I think it’s going to be hard to get in. I think you’re going to be hit with fallout and I think you’re going to be guilty by association. It’s going to be interesting to see the opinion of some of your younger peers, who have not been so actively involved in it, how their opinion changes. But when you get down to it, what I think is irrelevant. It’s like talking about clouds. I can do nothing to influence.

One, two big schools All the worlds are Colliding all around you I was going to write something today for SI.com re Votto. Specifically, that Votto represented one of the clearest cases of Old-v-New schools of thought, re hitting production. The idea was discussed when The Technician was sitting on 4 HR/20 BI. Now, he’s up to 7 and 22. Both #s are subpar for him and, in fact, for a No. 3 hitter. The obvious question being, can a guy who ranks 11th among NL 1Bs in BI be seen as having a typically good year? Obviously, his new-school metrics are through the roof… OB, OPS, WAR, FBI, CIA, REM, DEA etc. He leads this world — and quite possibly, others — in walks. He’s top three last I checked, in runs. Before he drove in 2 yesterday, he ranked 87th in MLB in that category. I’m not sure why, exactly, some savants consider RBI to be somewhat irrelevant these days. But, whatever. The question remains, and it’s getting weaker every day: Do Votto’s new-age numbers so highly overshadow his old-school shortcomings as to make the SI piece irrelevant? I’m guessing you’ll say yes indeedy, OG. Thumbs up or down? * INTERESTING HOW SAVANTS also so easily dismiss BP as team MVP after six weeks. They live in the world of numbers. What number measures the runs he saves? The hits he takes away, practically nightly? The outs he creates? Is there a SABRE-fact for that? What’s the number for his versatility as a hitter? We know he’s money in the clutch. There is a number for that. What about his ability to bat anywhere in the top six in the lineup? Would Choo be Choo if he had to hit cleanup? Maybe. We don’t know. He hasnt been asked. Phillips has. He has aaved this team’s rear, the way he has hit. He has us asking Ryan Who? If you’re going to laud the ability of Choo and Votto to score runs and get on base, why no love for BP’s ability to drive them in? Votto’s had as many chances to drive in Choo as Phillips has. More, in fact, given that he hits ahead of Phillips. Doesnt BP’s RBI prowess make Votto and Choo look good, same as their ability to get aboard makes BP’s RBI total look impressive? Riddle me that, Statman.