Top News:
Joe Strauss / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Trade of Rasmus to Blue Jays near — The Cardinals are on the verge of trading center fielder Colby Rasmus to the Toronto Blue Jays for a multi-player package including starting pitcher Edwin Jackson and relievers Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Discussion:
MLB Daily Dish and MLB.com's On the Beat
RELATED:
Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Blue Jays Acquire Jackson, Teahen For Frasor, Stewart — The Blue Jays acquired starter Edwin Jackson and third baseman Mark Teahen from the White Sox for reliever Jason Frasor and starter Zach Stewart, announced the teams. Contrary to an earlier report, no cash will change hands in the deal.
Discussion:
DRaysBay, CloserNews, Full Count and Baseball Nation
Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Jays Acquire Jackson; Rasmus Involved? — 10:44am: Money appears to be the only holdup in a trade that would send Jackson to the Cardinals and Rasmus to the Blue Jays, tweets Rosenthal. An exchange of more than $1MM awaits approval, and of course the Cards will get more than just Jackson for Rasmus.
Discussion:
Yahoo! Sports, HardballTalk, Bluebird Banter, The Big Lead, Baseball Nation and Rays Index
Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Eight-Player Deal Sending Rasmus To Jays For Jackson Imminent — 12:08pm: The Cardinals will send Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet, and P.J. Walters to the Blue Jays for Jackson, Rzepczynski, Dotel, and Corey Patterson, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney. Olney adds that Miller is then expected to be traded to the White Sox.
Discussion:
HardballTalk, Baseball Nation and Al's Ramblings
Jeff Passan / Yahoo! Sports:
MLB needs to wake up and expand replay — Everyone was tired. It was a few minutes before 2 a.m. ET on Wednesday. A rookie catcher named Mike McKenry barely could summon enough oomph to toss the ball back to the mound. Daniel McCutchen(notes), a reliever, was throwing his sixth inning.
Discussion:
Surviving Grady
RELATED:
Robneyer / Baseball Nation:
Jerry Meals Might Have Been Right — Yes, the throw beat Julio Lugo and it sure looked like Michael McKenry tagged Lugo. But isn't it possible that umpire Jerry Meals saw something the rest of us didn't? — Call me a sensationalist or an iconoclast if you like, but I just gotta say something this morning ...
Discussion:
HardballTalk, SportsGrid, Joe Posnanski, Bowman's Blog, Bucs Dugout, Talking Chop and Sports Illustrated
Mark Bowman / MLB.com:
Umpire Meals: Call ‘might have’ been wrong — Pirates, Braves weigh in on controversial ruling in 19th inning — ATLANTA — Veteran umpire Jerry Meals felt he was right with the call he made that ended the 4-3, 19-inning win the Braves claimed over the Pirates at Turner Field on Tuesday night.
Discussion:
Baseball Prospectus, HardballTalk, Bats, Halos Heaven, Brew Crew Ball and Baseball Nation
Associated Press:
Braves win on blown call in 19th — ATLANTA (AP) — Julio Lugo said he was safe, and after 19 innings and almost 7 hours, he wasn't sticking around for extended conversation on the subject. — Lugo scored from third base on a contested play at the plate, giving the Atlanta Braves a 4-3 win …
Discussion:
Talking Chop and Associated Press
Fox Sports:
Notes: Fearless Amaro GM to watch — Where have all the wheeler-dealers gone? — The original gunslinger, Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers, is looking mostly at middle-inning relievers. Several of the other ultra-aggressive GMs - the White Sox's Ken Williams …
Discussion:
Full Count and MLB Rumors
RELATED:
Mark Sheldon / MLB.com:
Reds trade Gomes to Nats, promote Alonso
Discussion:
Blog Red Machine and Red Hot Mama
Ben Nicholson-Smith / MLB Rumors:
Nationals Acquire Jonny Gomes
Discussion:
Red Reporter, Baseball America, MLB Daily Dish and Yahoo! Sports
Tim Dierkes / MLB Rumors:
Giants To Acquire Carlos Beltran? — It looks like Carlos Beltran is indeed going to the Giants, tweets Yahoo's Tim Brown, with logistics being worked out. Specifically, Brown's source says that there's “good likelihood” of Beltran going to the Giants. Just minor details remain, tweets SI's Jon Heyman.
Discussion:
HardballTalk
RELATED:
Andy Martino / NY Daily News:
Mets again defeat Reds, 8-6, source says team not backing down from demands for Carlos Beltran
Discussion:
NorthJersey.com, Patrick Flood, New York Times and ESPN
Peter Gammons / MLB.com:
Trade picture will become clear for Rays, others — When you are the Tampa Bay Rays, this is your reality: you have the sixth-best record in the American League, you have the smallest payroll, and you are in third place in the East, eight games in the loss column behind the Yankees.
Discussion:
MLB Rumors, DRaysBay, Athletics Nation, MLB.com's On the Beat and Mets Fever
RELATED:
Matthew Cerrone / MetsBlog.com:
The Mets shot down trading Jose Reyes for Erick Aybar
Discussion:
Mets Merized Online
Associated Press:
Vance Worley 3-hits Giants for Phillies — PHILADELPHIA - Rookie right-hander Vance Worley threw a three-hitter and Chase Utley hit an inside-the-park homer to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 7-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday night in a matchup of the NL's top teams.
Discussion:
Blogging Baseball, Phillies Nation and The Good Phight
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Pujols' homer lifts Cards over Astros — ST. LOUIS — Albert Pujols got the St. Louis Cardinals off to a quick start with a two-run first inning homer, and starter Jake Westbrook made it hold up with six innings of one-run ball as the Cardinals defeated the slumping Houston Astros 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Discussion:
The Crawfish Boxes
RELATED:
Aaron Gleeman / HardballTalk:
Astros fall down a lot in loss to Cardinals, blame U2 and Bono
Discussion:
St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Baseball Nation
MLB.com:
La Russa: Rasmus doesn't listen to coaches — ST. LOUIS — Continuing an ongoing saga, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa told a St. Louis television station on Tuesday that outfielder Colby Rasmus “doesn't listen” to the team's coaches. It's the latest development in a lengthy series …
Discussion:
HardballTalk, The Big Lead and MLB Rumors
Tommy Bennett / Baseball Prospectus:
The Mystery of Jered Weaver — On July 21, Jered Weaver recorded his 13th win of the season. His box score recorded his seven innings, two walks, and six strikeouts to go with his zero runs and seven hits. His box score even recorded his 122 pitches—the sixth time this year he has thrown 120 pitches or more.
