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R.A. Dickey went 1-1 with a 4.62 ERA in 64 innings as a long reliever and mop-up man for Minnesota last season, giving the 35-year-old knuckleballer a 5.22 ERA in 481 career innings. Let go by the Twins after previously being cut loose by the Rangers and Mariners, he signed a minor-league contract with the…

Stephen Strasburg is overshadowing every young pitcher in baseball right now, but as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution notes 23-year-old Braves right-hander Tommy Hanson deserves some attention for what he’s done through 35 career starts. After basically one full season in Atlanta’s rotation Hanson is 18-7 with a 3.08 ERA, .231 opponents’ batting…

They initially turned to Jayson Nix and Omar Vizquel at third base following Mark Teahen’s broken finger, but the White Sox designated Nix for assignment yesterday and called up Dayan Viciedo from Triple-A. His stock has declined since signing out of Cuba for $10 million, but Viciedo hit .288/.328/.515 with 13 homers and 14 doubles…

Mike Stanton’s arrival pushed Cameron Maybin to the bench and after not playing him for a single inning in 10 days the Marlins finally demoted him to Triple-A, where he can at least play regularly again. Maybin has been a big disappointment, hitting .246/.311/.376 with an ugly 136/37 K/BB ratio and just 16 steals in…

Rafael Furcal left the Dodgers and has returned home to the Dominican Republic to be with a sick family member. He’s been placed on the bereavement list, which means Furcal will miss at least three games. Tony Jackson of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports that Furcal called Joe Torre at around one o’clock this morning and the manager…

Ubaldo Jimenez wasn’t at his most overpowering this afternoon against the Twins, giving up eight hits and two walks while recording just four strikeouts, but held Minnesota to one run in eight innings to improve to 13-1 with a 1.15 ERA. Francisco Liriano giving up three runs in the first inning took much of the…

Following in Mark Mulder’s footsteps, Darin Erstad has made official what everyone assumed by telling a reporter in his native North Dakota that he’s “done.” I couldn’t be much happier. I got to live a dream playing baseball for 14 years, now I’m getting to live the other side and it’s a blast. I had…

I’m a big Adam Carolla fan and he often talks about how people who’re drunk or high inevitably claim to not be drunk or high when questioned about their bad behavior. His point is that they might as well admit to being under the influence of something, because otherwise that just means they have no…

Some notes on Twins right-hander Scott Baker racking up a career-high 12 strikeouts over seven shutout, two-hit innings against the Rockies last night … • Bert Blyleven had 12 or more strikeouts 22 times, including 15 for the Twins. Johan Santana had 14 such games for the Twins and Camilo Pascual had 10. No one…

Braves right-hander Kenshin Kawakami is providing this season’s best example of why wins and losses for individual pitchers are so often misleading (or worse). He lost to the Rays yesterday, falling to 0-9 despite a decent 4.42 ERA, six Quality Starts in 13 tries, and zero outings with more than five runs allowed. To put…

Dustin Pedroia went into a major slump while playing through a knee injury suffered in mid-May, going 16-for-94 (.170) with zero homers over the next 23 games, but the former MVP is 10-for-20 (.500) with four doubles since deciding to wear a knee brace and seems optimistic that the problems are behind him: I thought…

A.J. Hinch finally stripped Chad Qualls of closer duties yesterday, saying that Aaron Heilman will now get most of the save chances. However, the manager added that he may still use Heilman some in the seventh and eighth innings, so the closer-by-committee could come into play. Hinch showed amazing patience with Qualls, letting him blow…

Dustin McGowan has suffered yet another setback on his long road back from shoulder surgery, with manager Cito Gaston saying that “it doesn’t look good” for the 28-year-old right-hander. McGowan took the mound Monday at extended spring training to face live hitters for the first time since being shut down in the middle of spring…

He’s not willing to recall Alex Gordon from the minors despite the former No. 2 overall pick’s great numbers at Triple-A, but Royals general manager Dayton Moore told Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star that he’ll be looking to trade veterans between now and the July 31 deadline. David DeJesus figures to be the…

Reports yesterday had the Rangers pursuing Conor Jackson but this afternoon the Diamondbacks traded him to a different AL West team, sending Jackson to the A’s for right-handed reliever prospect Sam Demel. Jackson missed most of last season with valley fever and has struggled to bounce back this year, hitting just .238 with one homer…

Erick Aybar was in obvious pain and had to be helped off the field last night after suffering what appeared to be a significant leg injury as a result of Casey McGehee sliding into him while trying to break up a double play. MLB.com has video of the play, which includes the announcers saying they…

Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports that the Rangers are looking for a right-handed bat, but “are not simply waiting on a trade for” Mike Lowell, who they nearly acquired during the offseason before thumb surgery nixed the deal. According to Rosenthal the Rangers “are exploring deals for a number of right-handed hitting corner players, including…

Francisco Liriano has reemerged as an elite pitcher this year and his latest masterpiece came Friday night against the Braves, with 11 strikeouts and zero walks in eight innings of one-run ball. His gem versus Atlanta marked the second straight start in which Liriano has allowed just one run while racking up double-digit strikeouts, and…

Alex Gordon has been destroying Triple-A pitching since his demotion last month, hitting .359 with 10 homers and a 1.128 OPS in 38 games. He ranks second among Pacific Coast League hitters in batting average (.359), on-base percentage (.486), slugging percentage (.641), and OPS (1.128). Meanwhile, the Royals are 27-37 and rank 12th in the…

Jeff Weaver and Jered Weaver have faced each other before on the mound, but yesterday one brother stepped into the batter’s box against the other brother for the first time. Jeff entered the game in the top of the third inning in relief of Dodgers starter Carlos Monasterios and then led off the bottom of…

Lou Piniella going off on Steve Stone last week was obviously a long time in the making, but it was pushed to the surfaced because of comments Stone made recently criticizing Piniella for not playing rookie Tyler Colvin enough. Piniella blasted Stone for having the gall to criticize him, basically said he has no idea…