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Mark Buehrle, Adam Dunn, Jermaine Dye, Ken Griffey Jr., Andruw Jones and Mark Teixeira. That’s the list of most attractive and available players on the market this trading season, which runs from now until July 31.

Odds are most of those guys stay put for a number of reasons. Specifically Griffey, who can veto any trade would have a very short list of teams he’d consider a trade to (which probably includes Atlanta, Seattle and the Chicago Cubs), will be impossible to move and to get fair value in return because of his contract. He’s due $20 million the following two years.

And Dunn won’t land the Cincinnati Reds much in return, either. If traded, he can become a free agent this offseason, so a team isn’t going to be willing to give up a top prospect for a three-month rental. And even if he were signed to an extension or his option next year was picked up, teams value prospects — especially young, cheap pitchers — too much to trade one for a guy who strikes out 180 times a year. His trade value will be much better this offseason if the Reds pick up his option.

Jones probably will stay in Atlanta because the Braves are going to contend the rest of the way and his season-long slump limits his value.

Buehrle and Dye are different stories. They have an aggressive GM, the Chicago White Sox’s Kenny Williams, who won’t lose them to free agency for nothing. And as soon as Teixeira gets healthy and has one good week the Rangers are going to dump him for whatever they can get.

So, what trades should we anticipate?

The MFY are going to make a hard push for Teixeira, but the best guess is they aren’t willing to give up a major prospect to land him. And a team like the Angels of Anaheim can probably afford to because of their deep farm system and will pull the trigger. If that happens, it might actually work out swimmingly for the Reds. No, they still probably can’t move Dunn for fair value, but it might mean they can unload Scott Hatteberg on the MFY for something/anything/nothing in order to make room for Triple-A stud Joey Votto.

Dye carries a major inury flag, but the Mets, Cubs, Braves and Twins could all use his right-handed bat. My bet would be on the Mets or Cubs with the Cubs most aggressive. They’d like to unload Jacque Jones, but he would net practically nothing. Williams will demand a prospect for Dye.

And Williams will demand two — if not three - prospects for Buehrle. Yes, Buehrle is just a rental, but pitchers actually maintain their value at midseason while hitters don’t net as much return as in the offseason. Teams desparate for an arm can be held hostage by a team squandering away its season like the White Sox.

Plus, there will be many suitors. The Red Sox, MFY, Mets, Braves and Marlins have already been rumored to show interest. The team that needs Buehrle the most is Philadelphia with John Leiber out for the season and Bret Myers and Tom Gordon still on the shelf.

It’d be shocking if the Red Sox traded for him, although injuries to Curt Schilling and Julian Tavarez have taken a hit on starting pitching depth. But Jon Lester and Clay Bucholtz are competent stopgaps until those two return rather than trading one of their futures for three months of up-and-down Buehrle.

Of course the MFY will make a run, but Buehrle isn’t much better than what they already have. If they get him it will mearly be to give the appearance of improving to The Boss. Beurhle won’t make the MFY MF-better.

So, Buehrle seems destined for the NL East. The Mets seem the most likely destination given their need and their aggressiveness. But the Braves never go quietly, and the Phillies may finally feel the fan pressure to make a move. They’ve always started slow and come on after the break when it was too late. This year, they started slow but flipped the switch early enough to be in the race at the All-Star Break.

No, Liverpool’s defeat to AC Milan in the Champions League Final hasn’t crushed Allenby For Heisman’s will to type. Buying a house and moving, however, certainly did. But that’s sorted, and we’re back.

Where to start after a month away? With the CONCACAF Gold Cup, of course. The tournament wrapped up on Sunday with the United States beating Mexico, 2-1, in Chicago. But A4H! isn’t here to offer stale match analysis, we’re here to point out that the TV ratings for the event were a success (this news is also a bit stale, admittedly).

Yahoo! Sports, via the Associated Press, reported on Tuesday that Spanish channel Univision’s coverage of the Gold Cup Final attracted 41% more viewers than NBC’s coverage of the decisive game five of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The United States’ 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Mexico on Sunday received a 2.5 fast national rating on Univision, the network said Tuesday. That translates to 2.83 million households, nearly double the 1.48 million homes that watched the 2005 Gold Cup final between the United States and Panama.

This year’s English-language telecast was on the Fox Soccer Channel, which is available in about 30 million homes and is not rated.

Anaheim’s series-ending 6-2 victory over Ottawa in the Stanley Cup on June 6 received a 1.8 rating on NBC, which comes to 2,005,000 households.

SoccerAmerica also reported Tuesday that Univision’s coverage of Mexico’s Gold Cup semifinal victory of Guadeloupe was Thursday’s most-watched program.

Last Thursday’s Mexico-Guadeloupe in the Gold Cup semifinals was viewed by 4,024,000 persons age 2+ on TeleFutura, making the most-viewed program of any kind on that network.

Amazingly, TeleFutura captured the No. 1 rank for the Thursday 10-11pm time slot, outdelivering all other broadcast networks, English or Spanish, among adults 18-34 (1,600,000), adults 18-49 (2,800,000), men 18-34 (1,000,000), men 18-49 (1,900,000) and men 25-54 (1,800,000). TeleFutura also outdelivered the combined prime-time audiences for the entire night of CBS and ABC among men 18-34 (554,000).

We’re not here to slag off hockey. (Trust us, as soccer fans, we know what it’s like to constantly have our favorite sport denigrated.) Or to claim some watershed moment for the growth of United States soccer. (After all, common sense tells us that most of the viewers watching on Univision were primarily interested in Mexico.)

We just want to point out that this is another example of soccer’s potential as a spectator sport in the United States. We’re not daft enough to think that many of those watching Team Mexico on Univision will tune in to, say, ESPN2’s Primetime Thursday coverage of Major League Soccer. But at least MLS is doing more to attract a Latino audience with its inception of the SuperLiga and its TV deals with Fox Sports en Español and the Univision family of networks.

Onward and upward!

There have already been plenty of early-season Major League call-ups through just three months, most notably Houston’s Hunter Pence, San Fran’s Tim Lincecum, Cincinnati’s Homer Bailey and Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun. All four are future All-Stars.

There’s also been several rookies who have so far flamed — San Diego’s Kevin Kouzmanoff, MFY pitcher Philip Hughes, Tampa Bay’s Delmon Young and Chicago White Sox OF Ryan Sweeney — after slow starts or injuries.

But this season has really enjoyed a great crop of rookies already — Baltimore’s Jeremy Guthrie, Boston’s Dustin Pedroia, Atlanta’s Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Arizona’s Chris Young, the MFY’s Tyler Clippard and Atlanta’s Yunel Escobar, to name a few more — but more often than not the top young call-ups come after the midway point of the season. The ones that make the biggest immediate impact often have a few more months of seasoning in the minors to ease them into an everyday role at the major league level.

A few recent examples are David Wright, who was an instant success with the Mets in 2004 with 14 home runs in just 69 games, Ryan Howard and Justin Morneau. Morneau and Howard both had a couple cups of coffee with mixed results before finally breaking in big the last two seasons.

There’s always the freak of nature who excels from Day 1 — Albert Pujols, most notably — but it always benefits a team to give its prospects as much development time down on the farm as possible. That’s why the timing of the Reds’ promotion of Bailey is perfect. They need him, but they needed him last summer, too. Kudos to GM Wayne Krivsky for not rushing him.

But there are several more minor leaguers who are going to blossom in the second half with call-ups. Another Reds farmhand, Joey Votto, is one. The first baseman can rake, and he’s ready to make the move northward on I-71. All that’s standing in the way is a trade of Scott Hatteberg, which will probably happen in the next month, most likely to the the MFY.

Votto is hitting .314 at Triple-A Louisville, and along with Bailey and OF Jay Bruce will infuse some life into the lowly Reds.

Most midseason call-ups are going to come from teams at the bottom of the standings with little to risk until Septemeber when rosters expand. Pennant-contending teams are less likely to rest their playoff hopes on a first-timer.

The Royals should also call up OF Billy Butler to join a developing nucleus of young players that includes 3B Alex Gordon (who would have benefited from a couple extra months in Triple-A as opposed to being the Opening Day starter), CF David DeJesus, 1B Ryan Shealy and C John Buck. Butler is a defensively liability. He is best-suited to DH, but the Royals really don’t have much to lose with him in the field either. But Butler can really help with the bat.

Others to watch out for are Cleveland RHP Adam Miller, Seattle’s Adam Jones and Tampa’s Jeff Niemann. Jones got called up last year and played admirably at age 20, but the acquisition of Jose Guillen in the offseason forced him back to Triple-A Tacoma. Think Mike Cameron but with more power potential.

If the Mets’ pitching staff continues to struggle, they may even give Philip Humber a shot. And when the White Sox trade Mark Buerhle, Gio Gonzalez — who was once traded to the Phillies for Jim Thome only to return to Chicago for Freddy Garcia — will likely take his spot in Ozzie Guillen’s pitching rotation. Also: Justin Maxwell, Brian Horwitz, Nolan Reimold and Daric Barton.

There are also several prospects who previously were on a timetable to play in the majors this season but have stumbled: Tampa’s Evan Longoria, St. Louis’ Colby Rasmus, Anaheim’s Brandon Wood and Dodger 3B Andy LaRoche.

Yesterday, former UK midfielder Michael D’Agostino was named to the Canada Under 20 World Cup Roster (Link).  D’Agostino is following in the footsteps of former Wildcat Riley O’Neill who played for the team.  O’Neill is currently playing for SV Wilhelmshaven where he managed to score a goal in his first start (Link).  Unfortunately the team finished 19th in the German third division and were relegated.

Former goalkeeper, Andy Gruenebaum is playing profesionaly for the Columbus Crew.  Gruenebaum started the first 10 games of the season for the team, recently however the Crew have went with Will Hesmer.

The New York Times recently reported that the NY Mets were interested in possibly bringing another MLS team to New York.  (Login Required Link)  In addition to the New York, Oakland A’s owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher purchased an option last year to bring a new team back to San Jose. (Link)  Currently the MLS contracts their team and League Web Sites to Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media.

So, the MFY are red-hot and trimmed six games off the Boston Red Sox’s American League East division lead to 8 1/2 games in less than 20 days going into Monday night.

MFY fans would like you to believe — as they’ve been saying for close to two months, “Wait ’til The Rocket is in pinstripes” — that the Bronx Bomers’ resurgence has everything to do with Roger Clemens’ return to MFY Stadium and that with Clemens on board they’ll now come from behind to claim their rightful (read: conceited, not conceded) place atop the AL East standings.

And it’s hard to argue that Clemens’ effect on the team hasn’t been positive. He’s just 1-1 with a 3.65 earned-run average in two starts, but since the date his first start was announced the MFY are 14-3. But in reality, Clemens has had little to do with the MFY resurgence. It’s all about the offense. Robinson Cano, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu are all finally hitting, and A-Rod, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada are still hitting. On May 28, the MFY were averaging 5.2 runs per game. Over the last 18 games they’ve averaged 6.8 runs per game.

But it shouldn’t be a surprise. Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon aren’t the same players they were just a couple years ago, but nearly every other batter in the MFY lineup is still as good as they’ve always been. Posada is probably on wrong side of his peak years, but he’s actually having his best year ever. And Jason Giambi’s injury may be the best thing that’s happened to the MFY — including Clemens’ return — this season. For one, he’s one-dimensional. Secondly, it’s allowed Melky Cabrera to play every day. And most importantly, it’s allowed manager Joe Torre to keep from playing Damon in center field every day by using him as a DH and playing the much better defender, Cabrera, in a pivotal defensive position.

And the MFY are 12-3 since Giambi went on the DL. But even if he was still playing the MFY should have been expected to close the gap with the Red Sox. For one, the Red Sox were 36-15 on May 30. That’s a .706 winning percentage. Only six teams since 1900 have won 70 percent of their games, and the last two — the MFY in 1998 and the Seattle Mariners in 2001 — are the only AL teams to accomplish the feat.

So, history would dictate that the Red Sox were going to slow a bit, and they have. They are 8-9 since May 29. That’s hardly a collapse, but it’s a minor slump. But to put it in perspective, the Red Sox could play .470 ball the rest of the season, which is what 8-9 is, and still win a total of 88 games and be in contention for the wild card. The MFY would need to play .557 the rest of the seaosn to win just as many games.

But this isn’t about debunking the theory that the MFY are going to come back and win the division. they are still very much in the division. A more likely scenario is that the MFY win about 60 percent of the rest of their games and finish with between 92 and 95 wins, while the Red Sox win about 55 percent of their remaining games and finish with between 95 and 100 wins. So, the division is very much up for grabs.

This is actually about debunking the notion that Clemens has anything to do with that possibility. For one, he’s only going to play between 20 and 25 games, if he remains healthy. At that, he’s never going to pitch more than seven innings in any single game. At best, he’s going to help the MFY win five or six more games than they might have with any number of decent Triple-A pitchers in Scranton-Wilkes Barre. And it could be argued that if the MFY batters hit like they have the last 20 days that just about any pitcher who gives them five innings and five runs (a 9.00 ERA) would suffice.

And the proof is in Bill James’ Pythagorean W-L formula. It’s foundation is the same as the old Pythagorean Theorum from high school Algebra I: A(squared) + B(squared) = C(squared). James’ theory is that a team’s record should reflect its scoring differential. Teams that score more than they allow should have winning records, and the greater the difference the greater the winning percentage.

Well, on May 29 — when the MFY were 14.5 games back and tied for last place with the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays — they had scored 258 runs and allowed just 239. (Comparatively, with the same record the Devil Rays had scored just 232 and allowed 308.) Based on James’ equation (and we’ll use his original factor of 2) the MFY should have had a winning percentage of .519, so instead of 21-29 the MFY should have been 26-24. Conversely, the Red Sox’s expected W/L was 30-21 rather than their 36-15 record. THe differences are essentially reflected by their different successes/failures in close ballgames.

Fast-forward two weeks, and both teams are playing much more like their expected W/L records. The MFY are 35-32 with an ExW/L of 37-30. The Red Sox are 44-24 compared to an ExW/L of 39-29.

Are the Red Sox better? Slightly, but we should have expected the AL East race to get closer. And you can’t rule the MFY out until they trail by double digits in the loss column with less than two months to play.

After much urging by this site’s moderators combined with my future change of employment, I’ve finally joined the Loge Level. The hope is there will be periodic Major League Baseball perspective and mostly fantasy baseball input and minor league/draft prospect updates. Not that I’m an expert, but I’ve been told the site is lacking in hardball tidbits.

So, I’ll dedicate this blog to the Splendid Splinter, the greatest hitter ever even if fantasy baseball was still decades away from its creation while Teddy Ballgame was in his heyday. More importantly, there may have never been a greater endorsement sales pitch than The Kid’s order: “Drink Moxie,” because Ted Williams said so. Nevermind what Moxie is or, more appropriately, was.

Hopefully we can provide analysis on the importance of OPS, the relative declines or immergences of particular players. In the coming days, I’ll discuss the possibility of the New York Yankees (or MFY as they’ll be referred to from here on out) catching the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. The MFY have trimmed seven games off the divisional lead in less than three weeks, and the crux of the evaluation will be Bill James’ Pythagorean Winning Percentage, which is essentially the expected Win/Loss record for a team based on its runs scored vs. runs allowed.

But I’ll try to keep the Red Sox-MFY hysteria to a minimum. This won’t be a lovefest for Moxie Legion’s favorite team or a grinding axe of its most hated rival. Instead, it will be a broad scope of both the Senior and Junior Circuits. When it’s appropriate, there’ll be no hesitation to delve into some other interests: Kentucky basketball, recruiting, The Office, horse racing and Cincinnati-style chili. 

I’ll try and leave the footballer analysis to A4H and Status Quo.

Nelly Furtado sported a DC United jersey at a Friday night show in Washington. 

Image via Information Leafblower (Link)

From the Lexington Herald Leader (Link)

The flying Chinese horse statue next to Chase Bank on East Main Street is no longer flying.

Yesterday, the rear leg on which the horse was balanced cracked, causing the statue to tip forward as if it is leaping off the pedestal.

Metal fatigue caused the 3-ton bronze horse to shift. In equine terms, “a stress fracture,” said Brad Connell, of Tuska Studio, a fine art foundry.

This was always one of my favorite episodes of the Simpsons.  Hard to believe it has been 15 years. 

Here was the Starting line-up on Monty Burns’ Team

1 Steve Sax         2B
2 Wade Boggs        3B
3 Darryl Strawberry RF
4 Jose Canseco      LF
5 Don Mattingly     1B
6 Ken Griffey, Jr.  CF
7 Mike Scioscia     C 
8 Ozzie Smith       SS
9 Roger Clemens     P

Read the Sports Illustrated article about the episode after the jump. (more…)