Red Reposter: HDMI, Talkin' Ed Volquez Blues

Your Humpday Malevolent Index for the week of July 4, 2001:

12.38 Edinson Volquez's 1st-inning ERA

12.91 Edinson Volquez's 6th-inning ERA

.400/.880/.600 Slash line against Volquez with a 3-1 count (25 PAs)

.000/.941/.000 Slash line against Volquez with a 3-0 count (17 PAs)

27th Where Drew Stubbs ranks in wOBA, among 38 NL OFers over the last 30 days

38th Where Jay Bruce ranks

1st, 2nd Where Johnny Cueto ranks in ERA and WHIP among NL starting pitchers (75 IP minimum)

Buyers What FanGraphs thinks the Pirates should be at the deadline

Mark Sheldon gets the reax on last night's below .500 plunge
Dusty put it concisely: "Nothing went right tonight. Bad night. Terrible, actually."  The team hasn't posted a losing record since May 3. Sheldon mentions that Janish committed his 9th error of the night, which was followed by Holliday's three-run blast, will give fodder for the Cozart Campaign. Have to put the usual "errors don't take into account range and so on and so forth" boilerplate out there. But, I hate to say it, there are few straight-faced excuses left for Janish. The best you can say is that he hit a double last night. And he's been trending away from a .500 OPS since the end of June.

Brandon Phillips sez "It’s unacceptable"
I like that Brandon Phillips gives credence to fan frustrations. But the only effective salve will be better play. Even Phillips, who was hot entering July, has been quiet the past few games.

Hall o' Famer Hal joins the chorus calling for some change
Any change. Before you ask, no, Hal has not be beggared and forced to panhandle around downtown Dayton.

BostonHerald.com looks at the history of July 4 division leaders
Not surprisingly, they win the division a lot. 29 of 48 NL division winners held the lead on Independence Day. Shame on you, Boston, for giving up on irrational hope and hoping stock in cold, lifeless statistics.

Cardinals activate Pujols off DL
This is old news by now, but just in case any of youse traitors couldn't resist taking him with the first pick of your fantasy draft: St. Louis Cardinals activated Albert Pujols off the 15-day disabled list Tuesday, a month ahead of schedule.

Willis stays on standby
Willis' callup, as the Peacock puts it, was a "false alarm." But now that we know, depending on how the rotations line up in Cincinnati and Louisville, that Willis could be the next SP up, I wouldn't Bat an eyelash at seeing him replace Volquez.