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Minnesota Twins: Francisco Liriano is back up with the Twins and pitched 6 shutout innings yesterday to get the win and help the Twins move into first place over the struggling White Sox. It is great to see Liriano back up with the Twins and pitching well in his first start. The scary thing is that the Twins are in first place and have basically not even needed Liriano to get there.

It is truly amazing what the Twins have been able to accomplish this season without Johan Santana and I think it is a surprise to all that they are competing at such a high level so soon after the trade. I'm not sure if the Twins will be able to win the AL Central but the addition of Liriano certainly gives them as good of a chance as the White Sox or Tigers have.

The Twins offense has been decent this season posting the 5th most runs per game in the AL at 4.92 and they have a 101 OPS+, which gives them a slightly better than league average offense. On the flip side, their pitching has not been stellar posting only a 94 ERA+, which is below average. The addition of Liriano who will take the place of Livan Hernandez will certainly improve the Twins pitching staff and give them their best chance to win the division. Hernandez had been awful this season with a 10-8 record, 5.48 ERA, and a horrible 74 ERA+, which is way below average.

I think the Twins will be in the AL Central race until the end and right now they are playing the best baseball of the three contenders in that division. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues because the White Sox certainly have the talent to take control of that division and I also wonder if the Tigers will make a push for the division at some point.

Alex Rodriguez: A-Rod is having another monster season for the Yankees and is currently hitting .325 with 24 HR, 66 RBI, 15 SB, .407 OBP, .609 SLG, 1.016 OPS and 168 OPS+. He has been the second most productive batter in the AL this season behind only Milton Bradley, who has a 177 OPS+. Certainly A-Rod would have to be considered a strong MVP candidate in the AL with the numbers he is putting up.

However, it is well known that A-Rod gets judged on a different level then other players when it comes to how clutch he is. So how is A-Rod performing in the clutch this season? Well, with runners in scoring position this season A-Rod is hitting only .253 with 4 HR, 39 RBI, .412 OBP, .424 SLG, and a .826 OPS in 99 at bats. He also has 22 walks, 8 intentional walks, was hit by a pitch 7 times, and has struck out 30 times. As you can see, A-Rod's numbers are not that impressive with runners in scoring position and his OPS is almost 200 points lower than his season OPS.

If you look at the flip side of things, A-Rod has done most of his damage with nobody on base. In those situations, he is hitting .363 with 16 HR, 16 RBI, .417 OBP, .713 SLG, 1.130 OPS in 171 at bats. Sure the sample size is greater, so you would expect A-Rod to have more home runs in this situation but the batting average is a 200 point difference and the OPS is more than a 300 point difference.

So clearly A-Rod is doing most of his damage when nobody is on base. Sure this helps the team in some sense but what A-Rod is not doing is making other teams pay for putting runners in scoring position and when you are a great player, making other teams pay for their mistakes is what you need to do. A-Rod has come to the plate with 158 runners in scoring position and has only knocked in 39 of the runners, so he is only succeeding in these situations 25 % of the time. This also helps explain how A-Rod could be hitting so well but yet only have 66 RBI.

Tim Hudson: It looks like Braves starter Tim Hudson will need Tommy John surgery. Until this point, Hudson was one of the few pitchers that Billy Beane has traded from Oakland that has for the most part been able duplicate his success in Oakland and stay injury free. Others have not been able to duplicate their success in Oakland because they either had injury problems(Mark Mulder) or just flat out stunk (Barry Zito). I'm pretty sure the often injured Rich Harden will join that group at some point too. Tim Hudson will now have a long road back from Tommy John surgery and he may never be as effective as he once was. Great strides have been made over the years by pitchers recovering from this type of surgey though, so there is hope for Hudson. At the same time, it is no suprise that Hudson is now breaking down because he is of small stature at just 6'1 170 lbs. Hudson has often been compared to Pedro Martinez because they were of similar size or lack thereof and we have seen what has happened to Pedro's arm and body once he reached his 30's. Hopefully Hudson can return from his surgery and be effective, but much like Pedro this might just be the beginning of his decline physically.

Other MLB news:

- Rocco Baldelli has completed a 20 game rehab in the minors and could join the first place Tampa Bay Rays soon. Baldelli would certainly help the Rays offense if he is indeed healthy. With Baldelli back and the possibility of the Rays bringing up pitcher David Price, they could have two solid additions that would make up for the Rays not making any trade deadline deals to help their club.

- So far the additions of Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake have paid off for the Dodgers. Blake is hitting .364 with 1 HR and 2 RBI in 33 at-bats and Manny is hitting .615 with 2 HR and 5 RBI in 13 at-bats. For a team that currently has an 88 OPS+ and is 13th in the NL in runs scored, Blake and Manny are certainly welcome additions to the Dodgers offensively.

- The Rockies are considering acquiring pitcher Livan Hernandez, who was just recently waived by the Twins after getting tuned up for most of the season.

More: MLB & MLB Weekly