from the inquirer:
Oh, my arm
Cole Hamels is a movie buff, so the Phillies lefthander might know he has something in common with Al Czervik, Rodney Dangerfield’s character in Caddyshack: Neither has a broken arm. A rumor swirled yesterday that Hamels had been pitching with a small fracture in his left elbow, which was false.
“Do you know how much it would hurt to pitch with a broken arm?” Hamels said.

Lohse could be one of the better names out there, though he’s better served in the NL. The Cardinals certainly won’t be sellers – they’re just percentage points behind the Brewers for the wild card.

I guess the Cards figure they will not be able to re-sign him. I know we won’t go after him because he already spurned us this past off season, he is a Scott Boras client, and I doubt we would want to pay the Cards’ asking price. Also, dave Duncan is not our pitching coach, so he’d probably go back to his former self with us. I just thought it was interesting.

Regarding Cole Hamels and the supposed fracture
in his pitching elbow, I guess Eskin was reporting that he heard it from a scout, so it’s hardly reliable information.

Manny to Marlins – I’m not so sure it does hurt the Sox since the Pirates would be involved in a three way. My assumption is they’d get Bay in return with Hermida and prospects to the Buccos. That’s all just my own conjecture though, don’t know any actual details.

- I thought the same thing when I saw this deal. I hope Rodriguez had a limited no trade clause or something. If not. I’m not happy at all that we couldn’t land him.

- Could this just be the Marlins throwing their name into the Manny mix for the sole purpose of either messing with a division rival’s (us?) chances of landing him or increasing the cost of the deal?

- After Gillick’s announcement, Utley said he did not know what anyone was talking about regarding a hip injury, right?

- Pudge Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth? Is there anyone we could have offered? I mean Farnsworth isn’t all that good. Pudge would have been awesome for us.

- Manny to the Marlins? I don’t get this deal for either team if it happens. The Red Sox get worse THIS season(when’s the last time a WS contender has gotten worse on purpose) and the Marlins trade away several good prospects for a 2-month rental when they don’t nearly have the talent of their other 2 WS runs.

- Pat Gillick announces Utley has been hurt. Utley responds by hitting HRs in back-to-back games. Coincidence?

I was over on the Zo Zone earlier today trying to ferret out whether this was only a one time thing or if Myers may have actually started to turn himself around. I was told that his strike/ball ratio was 2/1 and that he looked pretty good on the mound, body language wise. One guy reported that he had a few pitches wild and out of the strike zone and a few others that were mistakes over the plate but that overall had more movement on his fastball and he was better.

This brings me to an interesting question. I actually did catch the bottom of the 7th on the radio on my way home. At that time Larry Andersen was talking about the difference in Myers between when he throws his 4-seamer and his 2-seamer. He said that since the 4-seamer is a straight pitch, Myers feels like he needs to throw it as hard as he can. He loads up, flies open, and over throws it. (I’m guessing those are the ones that are missing badly.) Andersen went on to say that Myers knows that in order to make his 2-seamer move, he can’t throw it as hard.

From what I was able to gather, it seems as though Myers’ success last night was due in large part to his increasing reliance on the 2-seamer. If that is the case, maybe last night is actually the beginning of a meaningful turnaround for Myers.

Having not seen it for myself, I did not want to put up any sort of evaluation. Anybody feel free to correct me if I am wrong or to provide additional information if you heard any of the announcers on tv or radio go into greater detail about this. Sunday against the Cardinals will be a much truer test as to whether or not Myers has found something that works for him.

ONE LAST THING: A guy over on the Zo Zone is saying it is all over 610 that Cole Hamels has a small fracture in his pitching elbow. Someone please get to the bottom of this ASAP!!!