MLB Nl West

It's not often you hear of a contract extension to a manager who is 11 games under .500 and 16 1/2 games out of first place on July 3. The San Diego Padres, however, aren't in position to complain about the job done by Bud Black up to this point. Thus, the Padres are planning to extend his contract in the coming weeks, though there is no word for how long.

Heading into the season, expectations were at a probable all-time low in San Diego. Under new ownership, management has been ordered to trim payroll, which led the expectation that ace pitcher Jake Peavy would be traded. The team, notably the back-end of the pitching rotation, seemed to be a patchwork group.

Friday is the night that many a Dodgers fan has been waiting for. After serving his 50-game suspension, the home run-hitting, fertility drug-taking wonder that is Manny Ramirez will be back in the lineup as the Dodgers take on the Padres in San Diego. Now if you're wondering what to make of all this I invite you to give our latest BaseCast a listen as Prez and Fletch have already broken it down for you.

One question I have for tonight's game is how Manny will be treated by Padres fans. These are the same people who greeted Barry Bonds with giant syringes after all. Of course, while we know that Manny is bound to hear some boos while on the road, what kind of reaction will he get in Mannywood? Well, if Kevin Patra at the Los Angeles Times gets his way, Dodger fans will boo Ramirez.

We've heard of a rain delay in baseball. It happens occasionally -- in fact, it's happened frequently this season. Something you don't quite see so often is the non-traditional, but still quite crowd-pleasing, bee delay.

Thursday afternoon, the Astros entered the ninth inning leading the Padres 6-1. According to the Associated Press, Padres left fielder Kyle Blanks began moving toward the infield during Miguel Tejada's at-bat. After an umpire went out to see what the problem was, all players were pulled off of the field. Stadium security cleared out several sections of fans as well.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

This coming weekend, Major League Baseball will reveal its 2009 All-Star teams. So what better opportunity than this to run through a list of this season's "Anti-All-Stars." Anti-All-Stars is far too bland a name, though, so we decided to name the team in honor of Andruw Jones. After all, he was the poster child for guys not earning the lucrative contracts bestowed on them last season. We'll sort through each position and find the player who is least helping his team in comparison to expectations -- whether monetary or from management.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

Manny Ramirez was suspended without pay for 50 games for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy earlier this season. This isn't news. His 50 games will be concluded within the next two weeks. In the meantime, he's two games into a rehab assignment with Triple-A Albuquerque. Wait, what? A guy tested positive for a banned substance, is forced to miss 50 games, but he's allowed to play for a major league affiliated organization?

As Eric Milton eyes his return to the Dodgers' starting rotation, general manager Ned Colletti has been out watching some of their minor-league affiliates recently. It's no secret the Dodgers would like to upgrade starting pitching before the trade deadline, and reportedly Colletti is checking out which minor leaguers in the Dodgers' system can be used in a trade to acquire left-hander Jarrod Washburn from Seattle.

The Mariners are still hanging around in the AL West, though, so it's not exactly a sure thing they'd be willing to part with Washburn. He does make quite the hefty salary, but his contract is up at the conclusion of this season, so moving him wouldn't really save the Mariners much money.

As we near the halfway point of the 2009 season, the Arizona Diamondbacks desperately need something. Some expected them to contend in the NL West this year, but they're in dead last, 15 games behind the Dodgers and seven behind the Cardinals in the wild-card race. In fact, only the Nationals have a worse record in the National League right now.

They had hoped that that "something" that would kick start their season would be the return of Brandon Webb. Every team would miss a guy that's finished in the top two in NL Cy Young voting in each of the past three seasons. Unfortunately, Webb's Thursday bullpen session was canceled and he's left the team on their interleague trip to Kansas City to return to Phoenix.

Jake Peavy was in a nice little groove until he twisted his ankle while running the bases against the Cubs on May 22. Including that victory over Chicago, Peavy compiled a 1.50 ERA during a 5-start stretch, striking out 47 and walking only 10. Opponents were hitting only .144 off him during that stretch.

Though Peavy claims his ankle pain since then has been "managable," something was obviously different. Since it happened, he's had three starts. The results, other than somehow managing to go 2-1, were not pretty: a 6.28 ERA and 1.61 WHIP. Apparently, the ankle was bothering Peavy more than he cared to let on, because he's being placed on the 15-day disabled list -- and will miss at least a month.

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Manny Ramirez is in the news again for saying... well, I don't know. I haven't had a chance to make the news rounds yet, but I'm going to bet Manny spoke to reporters long enough to tell them that Jamie Hoffman or whoever has severe mental retardation and is therefore "not really a person," and how Manny should be starting in his place, suspension or no. Then two days later Manny apologizes, and we forgive him, because he is really, really good at baseball.

I find it a lot easier to forgive Manny Ramirez on the internet, where his sociological problems can be explained away as childlike innocence. Other things I enjoy doing on the Internet: making grown up millionaires talk like messed up babies, and posting today's Dugout, which is after the jump.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

Among the general population of sports fans, Scott Boras is a very unpopular individual. He's referred to as greedy, a snake, and "Bor-ass" (what a clever way to use his name in a derogatory fashion, huh?), among other things. Teams threaten to never deal with him again. Fans claim he's ruining baseball and is everything wrong with professional sports. And on and on -- just check out the reader comments on this Jeff Fletcher piece.

You know what I call him? The best agent in the history of sports.