Beasts of the East. Could a group of Red Sox and Yankees outperfom an All-Star team drawn from the other 28 clubs? Dayn Perry takes a look. ... Transcript of Francona WFAN interview.

George King of the New York Post reports: "Brian Cashman approached the Rangers about a deal that would have brought Alex Rodriguez to the Yankees [and] the Rangers nixed the deal ..." Cashman said he was doing nothing more than floating a "weather balloon," figuring it never hurts to ask.

MLB has a Q&A with Rodriguez (no real mention of the Red Sox though):
Q: Standing just 60 feet from the pitcher doesn't leave you a lot of time to think, what goes through your head when the pitch is coming?
A: Well, I told you that you pray a lot on the baseball field. When you have Randy Johnson ... you wish that you could go straight to church."

Jim Souhan, Star Tribune: "Will steroid use and accusations of such taint the game, and the records set by massive sluggers such as Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire? In a word, no. ... Here's a short list of the problems baseball has survived: Pep pills. Corked bats. Spitballs. Segregation. Desegregation. Cocaine use. Night baseball. Interleague play. The DH. ... Expansion. Contraction. ... [T]he idea that Bonds' records will be tarnished is the product of overactive imaginations. Babe Ruth played in tiny ballparks, and never had to face a black pitcher or have a home run stolen by a black outfielder. Nobody questions his legitimacy."

Toronto manager Carlos Tosca, on his team's lack of an established closer: "I don't want to have a bullpen by committee or a closer by committee, but I wouldn't mind having a situation where we might go with one guy for two innings one night, then go with match-ups the next night." ... You moron, Tosca, that is exactly what a "bullpen by committee" or a "closer by committee" actually is. Go ask your GM about it sometime. Oh, and have fun fighting the Yankees for second place.