New Addition

Welcome to the clubhouse, Jose. That's your locker next to Buster's. Batting Practice at 4:30. See you in the dugout...

Jose Tabata was under the impression that, by marrying a woman 20 years his senior, he could bypass the years of twenty-something drama...

Wife of Pirates Outfielder Could Face Life in Prison for Kidnapping -- MLB FanHouse

Behind Razor Shines, Aaron Boone, the senior Griffey, Pedro Alvarez, and maybe Roger Maris...Jose Tabata is hands-down my favorite former Indianapolis Indian.

UPDATE: Answer to the question "Who is Jose Tabata?" becomes ever murkier: can we even be sure of his age?

As host, Torii has graciously offered to put on a pre-game backyard pig roast and cocktail hour...

Not Quite Jim Abbott

Sources are reporting that the White Sox have added Jeffrey Marquez from the Triple-A Charlotte Knights as bullpen depth in the wake of Jake Peavy's trip to the DL. No word yet on whether he's the league's first blind pitcher or just it's best Ray Charles impersonator.

The sweet spot

Admittedly a fantasy baseball novice, I submit that the best appointments for checking stats and scores fall on weeknights between 10 and 11PM. As the early games come to a close, the ever-sanguine fantasy manager can begin to draw conclusions about the day's results and settle in for Ed Farmer calling the first few innings of a West Coast nightcap...

Week 12 Progress Report

It's time to set Stephen Strasburg free. Especially when 15 more pitches could give NJTAS a comfortable lead in an otherwise tight contest over Quality Starts.

Let's try it this time without the fanfare, just the picture and a list. The unofficial Marauders of Time Power Rankings, based on the average overall rank of each team in all 12 scoring categories through Week 12:

1. BEASTS OF BURDEN
2. NJ Transit All-Stars
3. Hit by Pitch
4. béisbol
5. Waste Wildenstein
6. Impending Doom
7. Ladies Love Us
8. The Poppersteins
9. Stunna
10. Mendoza Manatees
11. The Wabash Mashers
12. PinYELLa
13. Hunters
14. Slippery Logicians

Notes: Somehow, béisbol is still climbing, but perhaps only on the strength of mid-week injuries to Impending Doom and Stunna. Chase Utley, Carl Crawford, and Jason Heyward all managed to get themselves into triage for at least a game, and Heyward probably should have been pulled a few days earlier. The injury bug didn't altogether miss the béisbol clubhouse, however: after giving manager Sam 3 dingers in a game at Colorado, Dustin Pedroia proceeded the very next day to foul a ball off his foot, and so stands to spend upwards of a month on the DL healing a broken bone. Though notoriously complacent, Sam has managed to find a trade partner and acquire the rights to a Rickey Henderson-lite type in Brewers 2B Rickie Weeks, but time will tell if a team already rattled by an injury to stud SS Troy Tulowitzki can brook the absence of another prominent middle infielder.

Other moves worth mentioning include the rise of Waste Wildenstein, whose recent performance seems to be backing up the team's record, as well as those of Ladies Love Us and the Poppersteins, who could be primed for climbs up the standings in the near future.