Isn't the draft anti-climactic? Especially for those of us who follow the rumors and mock drafts and all of that. It finally happens, and then...nothing. Matt LaPorta's season is done (as is the season of most of our college draftees), but I don't know how quickly he'll sign. It's one of the lesser-known disadvantages of signing a Boras client: Scott has a lot of high-profile post-draft negotiations (not to mention a few MLB clients!) and I doubt that getting LaPorta in a Manatee uniform is number one on his to-do list.
That said, I hope we get some news about high draft picks getting signed this week, and perhaps even a teaser or two of the LaPorta talks. Since he is just about as close to a win-now hitting selection as can be made, I'd like to, well, sign him now.
Speaking of winning now, I missed the game last night, and I'm kind of glad. Great that we won, of course, but I don't know how much more of this I can take. The AL may be stronger than the NL, and the Rangers may (emphasis on may) be better than their record, but they're just not a very good team. I don't worry so much about getting lots of hits and no runs--that's bad luck as much as anything--but it's certainly painful to sit and watch.
I think the best sign from last night's game is Claudio Vargas's clean relief inning. As all of our starting five has stayed healthy so far (knock on wood), it's looking more and more likely that Bush or Vargas will be pushed to the pen to make room for Yovani Gallardo. I really like Ned's move to keep the rotation on schedule, especially if it's a precursor to a more permanent move for Claudio.
Finally, our daily check in with the postseason odds report: the Brewers are back up above 60%, and the Cubs (with Dempster's blown save last night) are below 40%. The rest of the division barely counts, as the chance that the wild card comes out of the central is about 8%. (That seems optimistic, given that West and East teams will probably reload at the deadline more than the Central teams will.) One thing to keep in mind with the Odds Report: it's only based on stats to this point on the season, which are necessarily based on guys on the major league roster. We've got reinforcements that no Central team can match, namely Braun and Gallardo. Things can--and probably will--go wrong, but it's important to keep in mind as teams like the Cubs scramble to field a competent pitching staff.