-Dexter Sports
10:37 AM
Dexter-Sports Inbox

Holy Cow, Did enough teams sweep this last series? Man Alive, we saw the Braves beat up on the Mets, the Marlins man handle the Diamondbacks, the Red Sox took four from the Royals, and oh yeah, throw in the mauling of the Mariners by the paws of the Tigers. Did I miss anybody? Anyways, here is some news swirling around the league.

• Baseball America is reporting that 20 year old Clayton Kershaw was pulled after one inning in AA Jacksonville by management. Jacksonville Manager John Shoemaker got the call and said that the Dodgers organization has been very cautious of how many innings Kershaw has pitched per month. Like Baseball America, I believe it was because Kershaw will be called up soon to fill Chan Ho Park's spot in the rotation. This kid has been sensational, throwing 47 strike outs in 43 plus innings. The only thing eluding him is his curve ball. He has been known to hang it.

• Chicago Sun Times reporter Gordan Wittenmeyer has a piece on how the rookies have been important to this team and how well the Cubs have developed from the system. Though I agree to an extent, a lot of what keeps this team winning everyday is from the outside. The most struggling players are from within the system. Lets take a look at the best producers for the Cubs. Derek Lee and Alfonso Soriano are in the top two in homers and of the top four in RBIs, only Geovany Soto is home grown. Granted ace Carlos Zambrano is home grown with six wins and a 2.45 but the rest of the best are from the outside. Guys like Ryan Dempster and the Ted Lillys of last year are what have brought the Cubs a lot of success. Though former farm hand Carlos Marmol has turned into possibly the best set up man in the league, most of the production comes from outside the organization.

• Juan Rodriguez of the Florida Sun Sentinal wonders who will fill the void at the three hole now that Hanley Ramirez has moved back to the top of the order where he belongs. The Marlins have the second lowest OPS in the National League. Roriguez goes on to note that the combination of hitters that have hit in the three hole have struck out an NL leading 50 times. The other Florida team, the Rays hold the Major League lead with 57 from the 3 spot. Why not throw Dan Uggla there? He has 13 Homers already, and could be good protection for the rest of the Order. We will see if it happens. I doubt it.

• The Diamondback offense, earlier in the season was unstoppable. Now it seems to be falling apart slowly. Connor Jackson is slipping below .300 and Mark Reynolds has just not looked right since the beginning of the year. Solution? Why not give Chad Tracy some more time and call up Trot Nixon from AAA Tucson. The Diamondbacks are carrying three catchers and it wouldn't hurt to let one go for a few games to catch a spark from a hot bat. Nixon is hitting .303 with 6 HRs and 24 RBIs.

• One last note, Gordon Edes of the Boston Globe posted some great information on the grand slam, after J.D. Drew and Mike Lowell went grand salami on the royals. He notes that it is the 72nd time two have happened in a game. Ten of those have been for the Boston Red Sox. The last time it happened for the Red Sox was in 1995 when big Mo Vaughn and John Valentin went yard in grand slam fashion in Yankee Stadium.