Welcome to the baseball equivalent of purgatory. Or perhaps you prefer Schroedinger’s Cat (maybe we should call it Schroedinger’s Bat)? Is it a playoff team or not? How will we ever know if they don’t play the game?
Jake Peavy and Josh Fogg at Coors Field. Updates throughout the evening…

Not that this excuses Milton Bradley for his behavior in Sunday’s contest against the San Francisco Giants, but Mike Winters, the first-base umpire whom the Padres claimed provoked the incident, has been suspended by MLB for the remainder of the 2007 regular season. Bradley, whose tirade ended with his suffering a torn ACL after being tackled by his own manager, clearly has some anger issues; at the same time, it is — or should be — the responsibility of the umpires to keep situations from escalating.
According to San Diego first-base coach Bobby Meacham, hardly a hothead, Winters called Bradley a …read more

Introductions? We don’t need no stinkin’ introductions. Here are your games for a Friday:
American League

Mariners at Blue Jays, 4:07 p.m. PT — This is the only weekend series in the AL that features two winning teams. You’ve also got the whole “battle of ‘77 expansion teams” going in this one. Whatever happened to Leroy Stanton and Otto Velez, anyway?

National League

Mets at Braves, 4:35 p.m. PT — The Mets just got swept in Philadelphia and now lead the Phillies by a mere 2 games. The Braves, for their part, are only 4 1/2 back in the NL East. If the Mets …read more

The Oakland A’s have designated outfielder Milton Bradley for assignment. The public reason is a glut of outfield talent; that may well be the private reason as well, but with Bradley’s baggage, it’s impossible to know for sure.
Between the injuries (he’s played in more than 101 games just once in his 8-year career) and volatile personality, Bradley is a risky acquisition for any team considering him. That said, he’s also pretty darned productive when he plays. Since the start of the 2003 season, Bradley is hitting .287/.377/.459 over nearly 1600 at-bats. That and his ability to play center field could …read more