Mets part ways with Franco  —  The Mets are expected to remove Julio Franco from their roster today to make room for Lastings Milledge, Newsday has learned.  An announcement will be made before today's game.  —  It's not clear whether Franco, who turns 48 next month, will retire …

Simple truth: Big Papi's mortality showing  —  Say the words "David Ortiz [stats]" and "knee surgery," and it's enough to make you feel about as robust and October-optimistic as a Tampa Bay Devil Rays fan.  —  Say those words and you are suddenly filled with dread, worried that this long …

Boras says A-Rod assured to reach $30M annually  —  After the New York Yankees on Wednesday indicated they would break from tradition and negotiate during the season with Alex Rodriguez on a contract extension, his agent moved in quickly to define what it would take to keep the superstar third baseman playing in New York.

Club's course of action generates plenty of interest  —  A number of the top team officials in the major leagues convening for the All-Star festivities in San Francisco privately wondered whether the Astros would make any changes at the All-Star break or heading into the July 31 trading deadline.

MILLEDGE IS SLATED FOR MAJOR RETURN  —  Lastings Milledge is expected to be promoted today and return to the Mets for the first time in three months.  —  Milledge, who had three at-bats with the Mets in April before being demoted, has been playing minor-league

Boy Blunder  —  Is baseball's youngest general manager man enough to rebuild the Rangers?  —  The Texas Rangers stink and, fittingly, general manager Jon Daniels feels like raw fish.  —  "I put our name on the list," Daniels says as I arrive for lunch at Las Colinas' Blue Fish restaurant.

Schrodinger`s Bat: Dropping One Down by Dan Fox  —  Dropping One Down … Willy Taveras, commenting on his bunt single against the Yankees' Roger Clemens on June 20th.  —  There are times when the fan in you simply has to marvel at what you see on the field.

Reds' possible game plan: Let's make a deal  —  While the team may be looking to dump salaries, GM Krivsky says there's a 'lot of misinformation' out there.  —  CINCINNATI — As one member of the Cincinnati Reds traveling party likes to say every night after a defeat, "Tomorrow is the first game of the rest of the season."

Some starry pieces  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Picked-up pieces from All-Star week in the postcard-perfect Bay Area:  —  If we can agree that Fenway is the best old ballpark, can we make a case for AT&T Park as the best of the newbies?  The setting is spectacular.  It's an easy walk from anywhere downtown.

Five and Fly: Apocalypse prediction  —  That was quite a rant by Florida Marlins president David Samson, who enlivened the apparently imminent Ichiro Suzuki extension by calling it, "the end of the world as we know it," on Dan Le Batard's radio show yesterday.

Did Buehrle get overpaid?  —  Usually, it's pretty easy to tell a good signing from a bad one.  Now sure, there will be some disagreement—after all, for a deal to get done, some general manager, who, no matter what criticisms we level against him, does know quite a bit about baseball …

Can't catch — a break?  —  Piazza's injury might induce A's to let him go  —  Mike Piazza's catching days probably are over now, at least with the A's.  —  His time remaining in Oakland might be short, too.  —  A's general manager Billy Beane said Wednesday that he'd spoken to Piazza's agent …

Blogger Beat: Moises and Pedro  —  On this special midseason edition of Blogger Beat, I rounded up a veritable All-Star team of Mets bloggers to discuss how the second half may shake out, and what this team needs to get back to October.  —  D.J. Short of MetsBlog writes:

Angels quietly dominating AL West  —  Despite potential weaknesses, Halos manage to click  —  Major League Baseball, like life, is defined by checks and balances and decisions to live with.  Teams are forever juggling strengths and deficiencies, especially in this big-ticket era.