Mark Buehrle Is Perfect, Not Good Enough To Get Yahoo!'s Top Performer

C'mon Yahoo! Sports, gimme a break. Guy retires every batter and doesn't get top dog? I guess Josh Vitters Fields was due to get some sort of kudos for actually performing at the plate.

Mark Buehrle's Perfect Game [Yahoo! Sports Game Channel]

Mark Buehrle

PERFECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark Buehrle Is Perfect (No Homo)

27 up. 27 down. 1 "no homo" reference.

It's a good day to be a South Sider. More insight to come later.

Brewers need an ace in the hole

Without another starting pitcher, the rotation for the Milwaukee Brewers isn't good enough to win anything.

This is a team that NEEDS a Roy Halladay-type ace as current staff leader Yovanni Gallardo appears to be running on fumes.

And we won't even discuss how bad Jeff Suppan/Seth McClung and a host of other flunkies are.

The Brewers certainly are a team with a potent offense, even with guys like Corey Hart and J.J. Hardy having relatively down years.

They also have a loaded farm system in terms of position players.

With Brett Lawrie as the catcher of the future, Alicedes Escobar and Mat Gamel, the Crew has some of the top positional prospects in the game. And in the case of Escobar and Gamel, they don't have immediate places to play.

So what do you do if you're the general manager?

If I were I'd figure out by this weekend if I'm even a contender or not. While the St. Loyus Cardinals lead is only a game or two away, there are two other competitors in the division with the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros within striking distance of one and other.

If they are indeed going for it, the current team will not get the job done.

I would package either Escobar or Gamel but not both and call up one or the other to fill-in for a major league ready player that would already be part of a deal.

But if they really want to go all-in I'd package Gamel and Escobar along with Lawrie for Halladay and third baseman Scott Rolen. Rolen is among the league leaders in batting average and still plays will above average defense in the final year of his contract.

I would then package a couple of other minor leaguers for Zach Duke, a starting pitcher for the Pittsburg Pirates.

The Bucs always sell low on their players so buy now!

That gives you a formidable team with Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Scott Rolen, Corey Hart, Mike Cameron and J.J. Hardy pacing an offense that could be considered one of the league's elite.

Now add Doc Halladay to the staff and you have a decent 1-2-3 tandem of Halladay, Gallardo and Duke.

Sounds like a title contender to me.

If the Philladelphia Phillies weren't playing, they'd probably win the National League.

Jim Parque Comes Clean; He Was Dirty

When people think of the Steroid Era in baseball, they will likely think of bulky power hitters launching mammoth home run bombs even NASA struggled to track down. They will look at guys like Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and other (allegedly) juiced-up and souped-up sluggers and consider them to be the Mount Rushmore of PED pushers.

But other than Roger Clemens' (alleged) use of performance enhancing substances, pitchers are commonly overlooked when it comes to this era of infidelity. That is, until former White Sox pitcher Jim Parque confessed to his use of performance enhancing drugs in an exclusive first-person story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

In the piece, Parque said he first admitted to substance abuse in 2006 while talking to approximately 100 youngsters about its perils and the pressure that comes with it. I don't want to take awaay from the read, but I will leave you with this excerpt:

"HGH was not banned by Major League Baseball when I ordered it. It was controversial and unethical, but it was not banned."

There, my friends, fans, and fellow readers, is the big asterik when it comes to this era. HGH was frowned upon, but not punishable. Kind of like having several girlfriends, except Joey Greco isn't stalking you in an unmarked white van with black-clad, video-camera wielding nerds searching for answers.

Parque proves that it wasn't just the Incredible Hulk-like hitters beneffiting from this. When mediocre pitchers like Parque confess their wrong doing, one of those "what came first, chicken or the egg" scenarios pops into my head.

Was it pitchers juicing in an attempt to catch up to big, beefy batters or was it the hitters trying to get an edge over hopped-up hurlers? And while the world will never know, the only thing for certain is that the black cloud that looms over Bud Selig and the rest of baseball's collective heads is not going away any time soon.

If ever.

Ex-Sox Pitcher Jim Parque Confesses: Why I Juiced [Chicago Sun-Times]

TBDS Late Night: Hawks' Hossa Injured,Offseason Roller Coaster Continues

Well, I make my debut to the late night edition. I think I can handle it, but I do not know if Chicago Blackhawks' fans can handle any more ups and downs in their team's roller coaster of a summer. Chicago did reach the conference finals this past year, right? It is hard to remember that with all the commotion the franchise has caused the last month.

The next episode in this soap opera?...finding out today that prized free-agent acquisition Marian Hossa may miss the start of the season. The Blackhawks also report that surgery has not been ruled out to repair a shoulder injury. They apparently knew this when they signed him, and when you have this guy signed for 12 seasons, it should not be a big deal on the ice. Yet, off the ice, it is a different story.

Who was mainly responsible for signing Hossa? It could have been a mix of people, from former GM Dale Tallon to new GM Stan Bowman to president John McDonough. Each person has had issues thrown at them based around the demotion of Tallon. All these people knowing that Hossa suffered an injury during the postseason does not look good on their record, especially with all the other problems this offseason.

Again, there are more Blackhawks fans now than there were in the 60's maybe. This also means there are more out there to be upset with what the team does. The fact that Hossa can be injury-prone is not what fans want to hear. Doesn't that remind you of the last main right wing for the Hawks? Martin Havlat had trouble staying on the ice as well.

Also, more fans may be upset that Hossa came from the Red Wings. At first, they were happy because we stole someone from the arch-rival, but an injured Hossa coming from Detroit is not what Chicagoans had in mind.

Well, he probably will not be hurt for 12 seasons, so I am sure Hossa will do enough on the ice to be liked. For now, though, there are more problems in this wild offseason. I bet more blogs will be coming about the Blackhawks because they sure are giving people a lot to talk about.

LeBron (More Like LeFraud!) James Exposed

Alright, well, TMZ has got the infamous LeBron James getting dunked on video and you don't even have to wait 'til their show comes on TV. It's already online for you.

Allow me to set the scene for you.

• Xavier's Jordan Crawford drives the lane.
• LeBron is too slow (lazy?) in shifting his feet.
• Crawford dunks on James.

Sounds almost as exciting as watching paint dry. The most over-hyped throwing down of the hammer in basketball injury. Even Jamaal Tatum thinks that dunk is weak!

Let's hear it for LeFraud James, everyone.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!

The day Cardinal Nation never thought would come has finally arrived; Chris Duncan is no longer a member of the St. Louis organization

Duncan, who is hitting a measly .227 on the season with five home runs and 32 rbis, has been the ire of Cardinal fans for the last three seasons.

The Cardinals traded Duncan, along with a player to be named later, to Boston for Julio Lugo and cash considerations, aka all of Lugo's contract.

I would have given up Duncan for a bag of baseballs, so this is fantastic news that we actually got something for him.

The only reason Duncan lasted as long as he did in the Bigs was because his pops, Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, is with the organization. If he had any other last name, he would be playing independent baseball somewhere by now.

But the man who couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag, and who's defense in left field makes his hitting look good, is finally gone from where he never belonged, St. Louis.

It's just ridiculous that having your father as a member of the organization can get you as far as it did Chris Duncan. This man was NOT a good baseball player, yet he somehow managed to play at the Major League level for four seasons.

Reports have said that Duncan will head to Boston Triple-A affiliate Pawtuckett, but if they're smart he will never play in historic Fenway Park.

Lugo will provide a solid glove as a utility infielder and a decent bat against left handed pitching. Hopefully, his arrival in St. Louis will mean the end of Joe Thurston's time with the Birds.

It also doesn't hurt that the Cardinals won't be paying a dime of his enormous salary.

If The Cubs Can Be Buyers At The Deadline, Can Roy Halladay Be In The Shopping Cart?

Roy Halladay is clearly better than Jake Peavy, but why aren't the Cubs after him?

Jim Hendry and the Chicago Cubs were almost willing to throw the kitchen sink at Kevin Towers and the San Diego Padres in exchange for starting pitcher Jake Peavy.

But when the name Roy Halladay gets dropped you hear about the usual suspects (Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, Phillies) and those lying in the weeds (Brewers, Cardinals) but you don't hear about the Cubs. Once upon a time, the Cubs had enough pieces to offer for Peavy ... why can't those same pieces be used for Halladay?

In fact, making a play for Halladay makes more sense than trying to land Peavy ever did. The Cubs would be getting a better pitcher, who would not only be leaving the American League, but would also be leaving the heavy-hitting AL East. Also, they wouldn't be trading their prized prospects to a National League team, which could eventually burn them in a pennant race.

And if the remaining cost of Peavy's contract was an issue, it would be easy to take note that Halladay's contract expires at the end of next season. "Doc" will make $15.75 million next year, but is done after that. Peavy makes $15 million next year and up to $55 million if he plays out his entire deal.

And if money is an issue, take note that the Cubs have $13.92 million worth of pitchers contracts coming off the books when Kevin Gregg, Aaron Heilman, Neal Cotts and Rich Harden hit the free agency market. Also take note that Halladay averages 231 innings pitched and has 20 complete games since the start of the 2007 campaign.

Makes me wonder who needs a bullpen beyond Carlos Marmol and Angel Guzman if Halladay, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly can eat up at least 200 innings apiece.

My hope is that Hendry & The Powers That Be learned a very valuable lesson from this winter's transgressions. The Cubs were so tightly linked to the Peavy Sweepstakes, it was meant to either be a boom or bust scenario. And it busted when the Cubs played chicken with Towers, who took his ball and went home when he finally realized he was getting knocked around by the Braves and Cubs.

Everyone pegged Towers and the Padres as the group with its collective backs agaisnt the wall because they had put their butts in the line of fire. But Hendry did the same thing as he lost negotiating power as he helped make the hunt to get Peavy a public affair.

Either the Cubs are playing possum or they truly have no interest in upgrading a starting rotation that currently boasts the likes of an injured Ryan Dempster and Randy Wells, who has been hit hard in his last two starts ... including his most recent start against the frickin' Washington Nationals.

Upon further review, both line's of thought run along the same line of Tribune Co. thinking. Looks like the Cubs are stuck with B.J. Ryan

Are You Sure The Cubs Didn't Sign Marian Hossa?

Marian Hossa is expected to make his next start despite an apparent shoulder injury.

Marian Hossa has a lot more in common with Kerry Wood and Mark Prior than you might think. Let The Trib take it away:

"The Blackhawks confirmed Wednesday that winger Marian Hossa, who signed a 12-year, $62.8 million free-agent contract with the team July 1, is rehabilitating an injured shoulder that he sustained during the Stanley Cup playoffs. The extent of the injury and whether Hossa will have to undergo surgery to repair it are not yet known. Reportedly, the Hawks knew about the injury before they signed the 30-year-old."

In more breaking news, Hossa is expected to start Friday's game against Dusty Baker's Cincinnati Reds. How fitting?

Blackhawks' Hossa rehabbing shoulder [Chicago Tribune]