ARod-to-Boston Rumors Persist. Multiple sources confirm that Texas GM John Hart has approached the Red Sox and Yankees about Rodriguez. Gordon Edes says the Red Sox have discussed various scenarios in which they could acquire A-Rod. An NL source told Newsday the Red Sox were talking about a three-way deal with the Rangers and Angels; Texas would send A-Rod to Boston, the Red Sox would send Nomar to Anaheim, and the Angels would send Eckstein and prospects to Texas. Theo Epstein called the rumors are "baseless" and completely media-created.

Curt Schilling will talk with the Yankees, although he indicated recently he'd probably not want to pitch in the Bronx. The Red Sox want to meet with Schilling, as well; they also have a strong interest in Montreal RHP Javier Vazquez. ... Bud Black believes Joe Maddon (interviewed in Arizona today) is the man for the manager's job. ... Ouch: George Steinbrenner and I agree on something. He uses the exact same arguments I did in criticizing two writers who refused to consider Matsui for AL RoY. One of the writers -- Jim Souhan -- answers back.

After looking at my Cy Young comments, Franco, a poster I know from Your Turn, wrote to tell me about 'Rhoids Game State Victories: "Using a metric that seems fairly thoughtful ... they find that Halladay contributed slightly more to his team than Pedro (though on a rate basis, Pedro crushed him, of course)." I haven't seen the site before and look forward to exploring it later (excessive Tapas and sangria last night has caused brain fog today). Franco also wondered why I didn't mention Halladay's and Martinez's distribution of runs allowed in games in which they gave up fewer than 4 runs. Here we go (earned runs; and with Loaiza thrown in):

ER Allowed   0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10

Halladay     5  5  9  6  3  6  1  1  0  0   0 - 36

Martinez    10 10  3  2  1  2  0  0  0  0   1 - 29

Loaiza       4 12  5  7  2  3  0  1  0  0   0 - 34

* One of Pedro's 10 starts in which he allowed zero runs lasted only 3 innings (start returning from DL).

Ian Browne notes five potential victories that turned into no-decisions for Martinez:

1. March 31, Tampa Bay: Martinez (7 IP) left with a 4-1 lead; the bullpen blew the game in the 9th.
2. April 27, Anaheim: Martinez (7 IP, 10 K) left with 4-2 lead; the bullpen melted down again; Boston won in 14.
3. June 16, Chicago: Martinez (5 IP) left with a 2-1 lead; Rupe quickly gave it back.
4. June 21, Philadelphia: Martinez (7 IP, 4 H, 1 R) pitched well; Timlin allowed a game-tying HR to Thome.
5. July 12, Detroit: Martinez put up a 7-4-1 line again; Embree couldn't hold the lead.

In those five games, Martinez was 0-0 with a 1.36 ERA in 33 innings.

Retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner identifies 50 "stories of strategic influence" that were allegedly manufactured by the White House to "market" the war on Iraq. ... Medact estimates that between 21,700 and 55,000 Iraqi people have died between as a direct result of the US invasion. ... Importing American democracy? US troops arrested a man for "making anti-coalition statements." ... More For The Liberal Media To Ignore: "Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, [Ret. Army General Wesley] Clark said, he visited the Pentagon, where an old colleague, a three-star general, confided to him that the civilian authorities running the Pentagon -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his team -- planned to use the September 11th attacks as a pretext for going to war against Iraq. 'They made the decision to attack Iraq sometime soon after 9/11,' Clark said. 'So, rather than searching for a solution to a problem, they had the solution, and their difficulty was to make it appear as though it were in response to a problem.'"