It appears that the Giants are preparing to cut their losses. Paying Miguel Tejada $6.5 million to produce -0.9 WAR won’t rank among Brian Sabean’s career highlights, but at this point it appears wiser to write off the sunk cost than continue the experiment. When the team activates Pablo Sandoval from the disabled list later this week, chances are we’ll see the Giants release one of three worst regulars in the league.

Tejada, however, is not the worst hitter in the league. Two players have managed to outdo his .223 wOBA. One is Alcides Escobar, though he at least provides value with the glove. WIth a UZR of 6 he ranks seventh in the league, and fourth among infielders; his DRS also ranks near the top of the league. But not even Escobar’s .218 wOBA sits in the league’s cellar. That dishonor belongs to Chone Figgins, with a .207 wOBA. While his leash is understandably longer than Tejada’s, I do wonder exactly how far it extends.

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Kyle Drabek got his first all-important pitcher win since May 16 last night as the Blue Jays beat the Royals 8-5. Coming off of a disaster start against Cleveland last week, it came as a bit of a relief. However, Drabek (23) was hardly impressive. With three walks and no strikeouts, Drabek arguably pitched worse than Kansas City’s starter, the legendary Vin Mazzaro (three strikeouts, one walk, one home run, and laughable defensive plays by Melky Cabrera, Matt Treanor (Treanor!) and Jeff Francoeur). It’s been a rough season all around for a pitcher some were touting as a potential front-of-the-rotation starter. What should the Jays do about it?

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Look into the eyes of a Cubs fan.

This edition of One Night Only contains:

1. An experiment. Instead of selected previews, the author has briefly previewed every single game.

2. Also, per usual, Pitcher and Team NERD scores for every one of tonight’s games.

3. A pioneer’s spirit.

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Cardinals 7, Astros 4

Moving the Needle: Jake Westbrook helps his own cause with a three-RBI double, +.301 WPA. The Cardinals jumped out to an early 2-0 lead when Lance Berkman smacked a two-run homer, but the Astros got both back when Carlos Lee did the same in the bottom half. That takes us to the fourth, when Westbrook came up with the bases loaded. He laced one into the gap, and although it didn’t get to the wall it was still deep enough to bring around all three runners (there were two out), giving the Cards a 5-2 lead, which was just the cushion they needed.

Notables

Albert Pujols: 1 for 4, 1 HR. That’s four straight with a homer for Albert.

Also in this issue: Rays 4, Angels 1 | Reds 8, Cubs 2 | Orioles 4, A’s 0 | Braves 1, Marlins 0 | White Sox 5, Mariners 1 | Indians 1, Twins 0 | Mets 2, Brewers 1 | Blue Jays 8, Royals 5 | Dodgers 6, Phillies 2 | Red Sox 6, Yankees 4 | Pirates 8, Diamondbacks 5 | Tigers 8, Rangers 1 | Padres 2, Rockies 0 | Nationals 2, Giants 1

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Last year, offense declined so precipitously that we had to put up with a few million Year Of The Pitcher references. While run scoring had been trending down, the drop off was so significant – a .329 league wOBA in 2009 became a .321 league wOBA in 2010, the lowest mark since 1992 – that it was only reasonable to expect some kind of bounce-back. So, in April, we watched to see how much offense would return to baseball.  It Turns out, the answer was none.

The league average wOBA for the first month of the season was .316. The league average wOBA hasn’t been this low since 1989, which was back when Omar Vizquel was just a rookie breaking into the Majors. Most of the players drafted this week were not alive the last time the game was this heavily slanted in favor of the pitchers. But it was April, and an unseasonably cold April at that. Once the weather warmed up, we’d see some more offense.

In May, the league wOBA held steady at .316. But, the early part of May was still pretty cold in a lot of places, and we really needed to wait for summer to show up – then the ball would start to fly again.

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It has begun: the annual rite of teams all magically deciding at the same time that their top prospects have proven enough in the minor leagues and have earned a promotion to the big leagues. So far this week, we have already seen Dee Gordon get the call in Los Angeles, and reports are circulating that Team Joy Squad captain Charlie Blackmon is on his way to Denver at the same time the Padres are preparing to promote Anthony Rizzo. Injuries played a role in the first two call-ups, but no one had to get hurt in San Diego (besides the people trying to watch that team score runs, anyway) to inspire the Padres to give Rizzo a chance in the big leagues.

More promotions are almost certainly coming in the next week. Expect Dustin Ackley to get called up by the offensively challenged Mariners, Brett Lawrie to join the Blue Jays, and Jemile Weeks to find his way to Oakland (possibly as soon as today). All of these teams need help at the positions where these kids play, but that’s been true all season, so what has changed now?

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Since FanGraphs introduced sortable Major League Leaderboards that cover multiple positions and seasons, it’s been much easier to compare players who played in different eras. It’s also useful for settling debates, such as “who is the greatest _____ of all time.” All you have to do is look up the position and set the years, and you’ve won bragging rights over all your baseball friends. Well, if you’ve spent some time looking at the leaderboards lately, you may have noticed a significant change, particularly at third base. Very recently, Alex Rodriguez passed Mike Schmidt in career WAR; meaning you could make the argument that A-Rod is now the best third baseman of all time. Rodriguez is one of the more polarizing athletes in the sport, so let’s explore whether he deserves this title.

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With a salute to Lucas in the title.

We see it so often. It’s late in a close game, where one swing can make the difference. On the mound is a right-handed pitcher. His identity doesn’t much matter, really. He could have reverse platoon splits for all we know. But if a lefty is due up, you’ll see the manager stroll out of the dugout while pointing to his left arm. On the flip side, you might not see left-handed hitter in the game at all if the opposition has one of its southpaws on the mound.

Managers play the platoon splits constantly, but it seems to affect lefties more than righties. That is, there are a number of right-handed hitters on the vs. RHP splits leader boards. But there are very few lefties that rank among the best at hitting lefties. If you look at the vs. LHP splits from 2009 through 2011, you’ll see the usual list of right-handed hitters. Among them you’ll also see some unsurprising lefties. Chase Utley has fared better than any lefty against LHP in the past three years, and Joey Votto isn’t far behind him. What might surprise you is the name that sits in the 34th spot out of the 150 qualified hitters: Kelly Johnson.

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Back in April, we took a look at every pitcher who had thrown the slider more than 40% of the time during the past three years. The results weren’t pretty. The “Slider Group” was more likely to have major surgery on their arm or on their shoulder than the general pitching population. They also hit the DL more than average. To say the least, the pitch seems stressful.

Since the slider cutoff was so high, and the innings minimum non-existent, our 25-pitcher sample was made up entirely of relievers. Now with Brett Anderson reporting some general elbow soreness and a hefty slider percentage (41.1%), it seems like a natural time to ask the follow-up question: Do we see the same propensity for injury, both major and minor, among starters who favor the slidepiece? Did that pitch gobble up Anderson’s elbow ligaments like they were so many miniature hamburgers?

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