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To create room on the roster for new closer Matt Capps the Twins have demoted Nick Blackburn to Triple-A. Minnesota misguidedly gave Blackburn a four-year, $14 million contract this offseason instead of simply going year-to-year with a player they controlled through 2013 anyway. Blackburn succeeded for two seasons despite a horrible strikeout rate and mediocre…

As expected, the Mets have placed Jason Bay on the disabled list after the outfielder experienced headaches and other post-concussion symptoms following his face-first collision with the left field wall at Dodger Stadium last week. Bay was able to play in the next two games, but then had headaches on the team flight out of…

After trading Roy Oswalt yesterday and getting a potential long-term first baseman back in Brett Wallace, finding a taker for Lance Berkman seems like the next logical step for the Astros. Berkman has the ability to block a trade, but has indicated he’d be open to a move to a contender and Joel Sherman of…

Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times took a break from his hilarious and ongoing quasi-feud with Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle long enough to report that the “Astros wanted Chad Billingsley in return for Roy Oswalt.” He adds that the Dodgers predictably refused, offered “four prospects” instead, and were apparently shot down.…

According to Buster Olney of ESPN.com the Indians are “getting significant hits on Jake Westbrook.” Olney speculates that the Cardinals could be a good fit and Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch quickly chimed in to agree that St. Louis makes sense as a destination for the veteran right-hander. Westbrook missed all of…

UPDATE: Amalie Benjamin of the Boston Globe updates Lowell’s status, saying he will not be activated from the DL tonight. === Mike Lowell is finished rehabbing in the minors after going 11-for-22 (.500) with four homers, four doubles, and 10 RBIs in five games at Triple-A, and Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports that…

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the “Moneyball” movie has started filming in Oakland with scenes from the A’s record-setting 20th straight win in 2002. Scott Hatteberg delivered the game-winning homer in real life and actor Chris Pratt (who plays Andy in the super-awesome “Parks and Recreation” on NBC) is portraying him…

Miguel Batista made headlines for replacing Stephen Strasburg at the last minute earlier this week, but now that Strasburg has been put on the disabled list the Nationals are turning to John Lannan as his actual rotation replacement. Back before the world’s greatest pitching prospect arrived on the scene Lannan was the Opening Day starter…

A’s closer Andrew Bailey is finally over the back spasms that kept him out of action for the past nine days, but the AL’s reigning Rookie of the Year is now sidelined by a strained ribcage muscle. According to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle “it’s almost a sure thing he’ll go on the…

Who will be Washington’s closer now that Matt Capps is in Minnesota? According to Bill Ladson of MLB.com the Nationals “will split the closer’s duties between Sean Burnett, Tyler Clippard, and Drew Storen.” In theory, at least. The odds of manager Jim Riggleman truly going with a closer-by-committee approach for the rest of the season…

The good news is that a second opinion from Dr. Lewis Yocum has confirmed that Jamie Moyer does not need surgery to repair a sprained ulnar collateral ligament and strained tendon in his left elbow. The bad news is that for a 47-year-old pitcher an arm injury obviously doesn’t need to require surgery in order…

Fresh off being sued for $900,000 over a business deal gone wrong, Orlando Hernandez began his comeback last night by throwing one inning in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Signed to a minor-league contract by the Nationals three weeks ago, the 44-year-old Hernandez allowed one run on two hits in what was his first game…

Miguel Batista, on what he hopes will happen tonight when he meets nemesis/new friend Katherine Connors (aka Miss Iowa) at Nationals Park: Hopefully she says, “Oh, he was a cool. He looked like a low-budget Vin Diesel, but he was nice.” I can kind of see the resemblance. And if Batista turns this whole thing…

It seems like a good time to point out that two months ago former Mets general manager, former ESPN analyst, and current AOL Fanhouse contributor Steve Phillips said during a radio interview that he’d trade Stephen Strasburg for Roy Oswalt if he were running the Astros. And then he shot a video “defending himself and…

R.A. Dickey came out of nowhere to begin his Mets career 6-0 and then lost four straight decisions, but he hardly pitched poorly during the losing streak with a 2.82 ERA in 38.1 innings and got back in the win column this afternoon by shutting out the Cardinals for 8.1 frames. Dickey now has a…

Craig and I have written approximately five million words about Roy Oswalt and Miss Iowa so far today, but I just realized that our two favorite subjects will both be pitching at Nationals Park tomorrow night. Oswalt is scheduled to make his Phillies debut against the Nationals in Washington and Katherine Connors will be throwing…

Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com reports that the Red Sox “asked about” the availability of Trevor Hoffman, but are one of five teams on his no-trade list. Rosenthal notes that general manager Theo Epstein knows Hoffman from their days together with the Padres, but that was an awfully long time ago and I can’t imagine the…

Akinori Iwamura was playing his way back to the majors after being designated for assignment and passed through waivers unclaimed last month, hitting .299 with a .450 on-base percentage in 27 games at Triple-A. Unfortunately now he’s sidelined indefinitely after being hospitalized following a collision on the bases Wednesday. Iwamura has been diagnosed with a…

For the past few weeks Baltimore has been said to be on the verge of hiring Buck Showalter as manager and according to Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.com they’re finally ready to make things official. Kurkjian reports that Showalter’s first game at the helm will be next Tuesday against the Angels, which is the first game…

It’s not often you hear about a journeyman middle reliever asking to be traded, but Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports that D.J. Carrasco met with Pirates general manager Neal Huntington last week “to express his openness to being traded to a contender.” Kovacevic makes it clear that he “neither demanded a trade…

Three weeks ago Tigers prospect Wilkin Ramirez was playing in the Futures Game for the second time in three years. Today the 24-year-old outfielder was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for Jhonny Peralta. At first glance that series of events makes it seems as though the Tigers just dumped a…