- Dice-K's next start in jeopardy: Daisuke Matsuzaka left for Boston Wednesday to get an MRI on his fatigued pitching shoulder. Manager Terry Francona has not ruled him out for Monday's start at Baltimore. There's a day off in there, so the Red Sox could juggle the rotation a bit, according to The Boston Globe. Tim Wakefield could start Monday, and Justin Masterson had his debut at Triple-A Pawtucket moved up from Saturday to Thursday, which would put him in line to start Tuesday against the Rays.
- Pedro could return next week: Pedro Martinez threw six solid innings in a Class A rehab start for Port St. Lucie on Wednesday. The hamstring injury is behind him and he's just building up strength at this point. He gave up two runs on four hits (82 pitches), with six strikeouts and no walks.
- Pedro who!?!?!? David Price outpitches Mets' superstar: The Rays' No. 1 overall pick from 2007 threw six scoreless innings for Class A Vero Beach against Pedro Martinez's Port St. Lucie team. Price has now thrown 11 consecutive shutout innings to start his pro career. He allowed two hits and one walk -- and nine strikeouts. "I want (Pedro) to go home and one day tell his grandchildren about me," Price said. You have to like that!
- Celtics win again at home, Rip questionable for Game 6: The Celtics went up 3-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals after Ray Allen dropped 29 on the Pistons. And now Richard Hamilton has an elbow injury that puts his start back in Detroit in question. Kevin McHale is still counting the bolts in Boston.
Crosby scores first two goals of Cup career, Penguins win: The Pens do their best to make this Stanley Cup Finals interesting, and they finally score a goal against G Chris Osgood (6-1 in Finals history). Sidney Crosby scores his first goals to get his Stanley Cup career going. Pittsburgh is 9-0 at home, but the Red Wings are now 14-2 in their past 16 Finals games.- Johan Franzen scores 13th goal of postseason: The Wings center leads all scorers in the playoffs. My question is, where does the 28-year-old Swede get drafted in Fantasy play next season? He'll be entering his fourth season in the NHL, coming off a career year (27 G, 11 A, 14 PPG). Going into this past season, he was the 44th center drafted on average and he ended the season owned on only 44 percent of Fantasy Hockey leagues. From March 2 to the end of the regular season, he has 20 points (15 G, 5 A, 7 PPG). Only Alex Ovechkin scored more goals than him in that span, and only six players had more points. Franzen could be a sleeper pick that could drop to the third round of a 12-team draft.
- Royals suck and blow: The former is for their 10th consecutive loss Wednesday, and the latter is for blowing a five-run lead with two outs in the ninth inning. Then they make sure they keep Joel Peralta in -- after he gave up the tying homer to Craig Monroe in the ninth -- so he can give up the go-ahead homer to Morneau on the first pitch of the 10th.
- Fernando Tatis hits game-winning double for Mets: Tatis hit a two-run double in the bottom of the 12th to beat the Marlins. He has been out of baseball for two seasons and he's already stealing headlines from the high-paid disappointments in the field. If you recall, Tatis hit 34 homers for the Cardinals in '99 before taking a step back in '00. Then the Cardinals traded him in the spring of 2001 to Montreal to make room at third base for a prospect named Albert Pujols.
- Michael Cuddyer interview this afternoon: Things I plan on asking the Twins RF for today's podcast: 1. After a breakout '06, along with MVP Morneau and batting champ Mauer, he fell off in '07. What's tougher: establishing himself or maintaining? 2. He went to the same high school as the Upton brothers, who he's still friends with -- which one will have the better career? 3. He was drafted in a great OF class of '97 (Berkman, J.D. Drew, V. Wells), but he was drafted as a shortstop. When can we get five games played there for Fantasy eligibility?
- Cody Ross wins Fantasy POD for Wednesday: Thought about giving it to Jose Reyes for his 2-for-5, HR, SB evening, but Ross likely helped his owners more, with two homers and four RBI against Reyes' Mets. Ross has a fireplug body, with a scary Xavier from X-Men head. He now has nine homers -- just four away from the career high 13 he hit two seasons ago, but the .202 batting average (and just 18 RBI) in part-time work hurts his value. Although, he's only owned in three percent of leagues -- which I'm going to guess is the lowest number of any player with nine home runs in the majors.
The interview with Cuddyer went very well -- super knowledgeable guy that understands why Fantasy owners would listen to an interview with him. But from now on, in the office, he's known as Michael Cuddeeay.