Wallace Matthews  —  Despite sweep, Yanks hold dice  —  BOSTON — It was a night that could easily be seen as disastrous: As a team, the Yankees suffered a fate they hadn't seen in 17 years, and as an individual, their starting pitcher, Chase Wright, suffered an indignity not incurred on an American League pitcher since JFK was alive.

Under The Knife: No Excuses by Will Carroll  —  No Excuses  —  Injuries are never an excuse.  Yes, they're often used that way, whether it's a GM shrugging his shoulders and saying it's a "part of the game," or if it's the guy in your fantasy league saying he would have won …

Furious Halsey rips A's  —  Pitcher says team worried only about money, not players  —  (04-23) 04:00 PDT Arlington, Texas — Brad Halsey figured when he was held out of his start at Triple-A Sacramento on Saturday that he was coming up to start for Rich Harden on Tuesday.

Neshek is king of eBay and the mound  —  Pat Neshek is a hard-core collector of baseball and hockey cards, a huge fan of "The Simpsons" and one of the most entertaining bloggers around.  He also happens to be one of the most dominant relief pitchers in baseball.

BASEBALL DAILY DOSE (Apr 23)  —  Daily Dose discusses Rich Harden's latest setback and what the Cubs will do with their suddenly crowded outfield.  —  Future stars Ryan Braun, Tim Lincecum and Hunter Pence highlight the list of NL minor leaguers likely to help fantasy teams later this year.

Boyd hopes tour, league help out  —  It's one thing to talk about the dwindling number of African-American players on major league rosters, it's another thing to try to do something about it.  —  Count Dennis ''Oil Can'' Boyd, Marquis Grissom, and Delino DeShields among those taking …

Williams Says His Confidence Level Is Fine  —  In the wake of a six-inning performance in which he allowed 10 runs, Jerome Williams wants everyone to know about his confidence level.  —  "It's up," he said.  "Let's get that clear.  It's up.  My confidence is fine."

The Business Of Baseball  —  Three years ago, the 30 Major League Baseball teams posted an operating loss (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $57 million.  Last season they earned a record $496 million.  Despite its ongoing steroids scandal …

2008 Club Options  —  Instead of rehashing the usual Jacque Jones/Jose Capellan trade rumors, let's take a stab at predicting whether teams will exercise their 2008 options.  —  Ivan Rodriguez - $13MM with $3MM buyout.  Pudge will be 36 in 2008, but his defensive value and continued pop seem to justify the $10MM difference.

Aging in Baseball  —  Fellow economist Steve Walters pinch hits for Dave Berri at Wages of Wins Journal, where he discusses aging in baseball.  You may remember Steve from his Statscape column in Sporting News.  —  Steve discusses how our perceptions about aging in baseball may be incorrect.

Slumping Sheffield won't sulk  —  DETROIT — In perfect weather Sunday, Gary Sheffield waited for a storm to pass.  —  For the first time this season, Sheffield wasn't in the starting lineup — nor did he play in the Tigers 6-5, 12-inning victory over the White Sox.

The Strange Career of Wes Ferrell (SP Leverage, Part 4)  —  This is the fourth article in a never-ending series on starting pitcher leverage.  If you know the gist of these suckers, you can skip this paragraph .  For the rest of you, starting pitcher leverage refers to the once-common practice …

PROBABILISTIC MODEL OF RANGE ARCHIVES  —  Probabilistic Model of GDPs  —  A few days ago I introduced the idea of a probabilistic model of Ground into Double Plays (GDP).  The probabilistic model of range just measures the ability to turn a ball into an out.