Weekend Wrap-Up

- Cliff Lee continues to amaze. Now 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA while allowing 24 hits and striking out 39 in 40 innings since coming to the Phillies. Dominant.

- Cole Hamels, not so much. You can make a pretty decent case that Hamels is the Phillies fourth best starter right now, after Lee, Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ.

- Three fairly entertaining games between the Yankees and Red Sox over the weekend, which Tom Verducci wrote a nice bit about. I especially agree with his take on A.J. Burnett, who might well hold the keys to the Yankee puzzle in his right hand.

- Burnett as the Yanks game two starter in a playoff series should be a little unsettling to Yankee fans. C.C. Sabathia's career playoff ERA? 7.92. And that's with a two runs in six inning performance for the Tribe as a 20 year old eight years ago. Take that game against the Mariners out, and C.C.'s playoff ERA in all other appearances rises to 9.47.

- One point Verducci makes in his article is about the decline in numbers for the Sox players while the Yankees have all gone up. Well, Jorge Posada (up seven homers and 98 points), Mark Teixeira (seven homers and 39 points) and Johnny Damon (up eight homers and 25 points) all seem to be enjoying a little home cooking in hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium. Posada especially. Come on dude, 98 points!

- Verducci's note about Jason Varitek's declining production is telling.

- I think in the improbably of all improbabilities, Derek Jeter is actually flying a bit under the radar this season. Whatever, .330 is .330, and the only shortstop as old as Jeter to hit .330 in a season was Honus Wagner. That's heady company.

- Billy Wagner, sorry that in Philadelphia we expected you to do your job, and weren't too happy when you didn't, which seemed to happen too often in your most important appearances here. Paging Craig Biggio...

- One of the runners who scored ahead of Biggio on that home run was one Eric Bruntlett. You may have heard, Bruntlett turned an unassisted triple play to end Sunday's game with the Mets, only the second game-ending unassisted triple play in major league history. Just wow.

- The Rockies signed Jason Giambi. He's probably done, but a good low risk move. Why not?

- The Rays roughed up Roy Halladay on Monday night, dealing him his worst outing in two years. The Rays got to Halladay for seven earned runs and 12 hits in six innings. Sporting a 2.68 ERA on July 31st, Halladay has had an ERA of 4.50 during the month of August, and in his starts he's given up 12 hits, nine, and eight three times. I'm sure getting dangled for a month but not moved has nothing to do with it, J.P. Ricciardi.

- Speaking of embattled GMs, Omar Minaya looks like he'll be back for 2010. Philadelphia and Atlanta rejoice.

- Johan Santana on the shelf for the rest of the year. Hey, K-Rod, are you the team to beat? Apparently so, because everyone is.

- You can also revisit some 'expert' predictions for the 2009 baseball season. (SI.com... espn.com) In case you're keeping track at home, that was 17 out of 21 espn.com writers and 13 out of 13 SI.com writers who selected the Mets to make the playoffs this year.

- I love when the Mets fall apart. Objective journalism and opinion on this topic? Not even close.