A few items of interest:

• ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield makes a compelling case for Freddy Garcia for AL Cy Young: Stroll through the Stats: Clemens vs. Garcia
• Tuffy Rhodes ties Sadahuru Oh’s Japanese single-season homer mark
• This past off-season, a current playoff contender signed two relievers for what generally was regarded as way too much money. Here’s what those two did last year:
  

  IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA
  68.1	74	35	7	17	43	4.61
  80.2	89	48	11	41	84	5.36
  149.0	163	83	18	58	127	5.01

  Fast foward to 2001:

  IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA
  50.1	46	22	4	17	36	3.93
  64.0	60	18	4	19	55	2.53
  114.1	106	40	8	36	91	3.15

  Who could have predicted this kind of performance from Rheal Cormier and especially Jose Mesa, who hadn’t done anything useful in a baseball uniform since 1997?

  As for the Phillies, who looked like anything but playoff contenders coming into the season, just imagine how well they’d be doing if they hadn’t given up this guy:

  IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA
  52.1	42	22	7	24	39	3.78

  to get these guys:

  IP	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA
  7.2	13	4	2	2	4	4.70
  15.2	21	13	4	12	15	7.47
  23.1	34	17	6	14	19	6.56

  The top line is what Bruce Chen has done since joining the Mets; the bottom two are those of Dennis Cook and Turk Wendell as members of the Phillies.

  Some of the best trades are the ones you don’t make…