The weekend started positively for the Los Angeles Dodgers with the announcement that the trio of Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra and Andruw Jones were scheduled to report to Triple-A Las Vegas to begin their rehab assignments. On Saturday, both Hiroki Kuroda and Brad Penny tossed bullpen sessions with signs of good progress. Even Jason Schmidt took a step in the right direction with a 45-pitch outing for Triple-A Las Vegas on Saturday.
Then, the bad news came on Sunday when Juan Pierre injured his left knee sliding into second base in the sixth inning and speculation was that Pierre would be headed to the disabled list for the fist time in his Major League career. The medical exam on Monday revealed a sprained MCL in the 30-year-old outfielder's left knee and the Dodgers immediately placed Pierre on the 15-day disabled list. The injury to Pierre's knee is expected to sideline him for four to six weeks.
Pierre's role increased with the injuries to Jones and Furcal which thrust Pierre into every day duty and into the lead-off spot. Pierre is hitting .277 with 35 runs scored in 73 games and is second in the Majors in steals with 35 -- just one behind Colorado's Willy Taveras.
To fill the void left by Pierre's first trip to the DL, the Dodgers recalled outfielder Jason Repko from Las Vegas. The 1999 Draft pick hit .277 with six homers, 29 RBI, 15 steals and 16 doubles in 74 games. Repko logged 198 games with the Dodgers in 2005-2006 before missing all of 2007 with a torn right hamstring.
Washington Nationals reliever Chad Cordero is expected to miss at least a year after right shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the 2008 and some of the 2009 season. Cordero has a torn right labrum and is not able to rehab the injury without surgery.
In 305 career games in the Washington/Montreal organization, Cordero is 20-14 with 128 saves and a 2.78 ERA but played just six games this season before heading to the 15-day disabled list. At some point in the near future, Cordero will move to the 60-day disabled list and have surgery in California.
The Baltimore Orioles want to snap their 12-game losing streak on Sunday so badly that they have turned to an interesting promotion called "We Win, You Win." Beginning this Sunday against the Texas Rangers, the Orioles will give one free ticket to every fan in attendance on Sunday if the Orioles beat the Rangers.
The free ticket will only be available for non-prime games which includes games in upcoming series against the Tigers, Blue Jays, Angels, Rangers and White Sox. Tickets are still available for Sunday's game and the Orioles are prepared to keep the box office open after Sunday's game should the Orioles end their Sunday losing streak. Through Sunday's action, the Orioles are 1-12 on Sunday and 40-27 on Monday through Saturday.
The Houston Astros released pitcher Shawn Chacon without pay after he cleared waivers following the off-the-field incident between him and Astros general manager Ed Wade last Wednesday. As expected, the players' union announced they will file a grievance on behalf of Chacon which means the Astros and Chacon will be headed to grievance arbitration.
In unrelated news, pitcher Roy Oswalt left Monday's game with the Los Angeles Dodgers after throwing warm-up pitches before the start of the seventh inning. Oswalt -- the winning pitcher in their 4-1 win over the Dodgers -- hurt his hip on the last pitch of the sixth inning and tried to go in the seventh but was not physically able to continue.
After the game Oswalt said he never felt an injury like this before and manager Cecil Cooper stated Oswalt was "day-to-day."
The Tigers suffered yet another injury during Monday night's contest with the Minnesota Twins. In beating the Twins 5-4, the Detroit Tigers saw Miguel Cabrera leave with a tight left hip flexor after just two innings.
Cabrera was pinch-hit for in the third inning by Clete Thomas who took over for Marcus Thames in left field and Thames moved to first base for Cabrera. Monday was the 81st game Cabrera appeared in for the 42-40 Tigers surpassing Magglio Ordonez -- who went on the 15-day disabled list over the weekend -- for the team lead in games played.
Cabrera is listed as day-to-day.
Cleveland Indians reliever Scott Elarton asked for a leave of absence from the team due to undisclosed personal reasons on Monday and was placed on the restricted list. While Elarton -- the team's long reliever -- is tending to personal matters, the Indians recalled Tom Mastny from Triple-A Buffalo to temporarily fill the void left by Elarton's sudden departure.
Mastny was 0-1 with a 21.00 ERA in three games with the team earlier this season. The 27-year-old Mastny is 7-4 with a 5.49 ERA in 69 career games over the past three seasons with the Indians.
Let the Freddy Garcia sweepstakes preview show begin! His agent, Peter Greenberg, leaked to the press that Garcia will throw for scouts between July 20 to 24 and is expecting Garcia to be at 100% strength.
The 33-year-old Garcia is drawing interest from more than a dozen teams including the Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays and his former team, the Chicago White Sox. Garcia missed most of 2007 after shoulder surgery sidelined him. In his only year with the Phillies, Garcia went 1-5 with a 5.90 ERA following his last season with the White Sox in 2006 where he went 17-9.
One of the selling points of Garcia is his 5-2 postseason record with a 3.11 ERA in nine starts. The Tigers and White Sox both have connections to Garcia who is close with White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and Tigers shortstop Carlos Guillen.