Odds and Ends: Alvarez, Kotsay, Street Oakland Athletics vs Seattle Mariners, Time.nd up today's links. Pirates president Frank Coonelly expressed frustration with the Pedro Alvarez negotiations, in the first public comments on those talks. Dejan Kovacevic's source says the Pirates aren't requiring two prospects for Xavier Nady or Damaso Marte. One elite prospect would work. Mark Kotsay wonders if he'll be traded this year. As with Mark Teixeira, it'll depend heavily on the next week. Richard Justice takes Drayton McLane to task. DRays Bay relays a Peter Gammons .

Stealing Signals: Battling In The East Mets 6, Phillies 3 - A 3-run homer from Mets SS Jose Reyes in the sixth provides the margin of victory, and this time Billy Wagner is around to help keep the bullpen from completely blowing the lead. Angels 14, Indians 11 - The Angels aren't known for outsluggin.g teams, but catcher Jeff Mathis led the Halos with four hits and six RBI (including a grand slam) and 1B Casey Kotchman had a career high five hits. Starters John Lackey and Aaron Laffey gave up six and eight runs, respectively. Brew. Tickets.

MLB Odds & Free MLB Baseball Picks for July 24th Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Mets u9.5 (-120) MLB Odds - Thu July 24 ?08 12:10p Oliver Perez of the New York Mets has simply owned the Philadelphia Phillies recently while the ageless Jamie Moyer has turned back the clock and is in excellent form. Expect both offenses to struggle in this very early matinee. Perez has faced the Phillies three times this season, and incredibly, he has yet to allow a run against them, tossing 18.1 scoreless innings while.allowing just 11 hits and recording. MLB tickets.

Hey Twins. Hey A's. Thanks for nothing Seriously. You are trying to stay in contention as a tough and scrappy team? You'd never know it as you went a combined 1-5 against the Rays and Yankees. Seriously, thanks for the help. And good job second basemen Alexi Casilla forgetting how many outs there were. No really. It's good to give the Yankees extra outs. Oakland Athletics vs Seattle Mariners tickets.

Heyman on the Trade Market: Nady, Sherrill, Teixeira baseball, Jon Heyman provides us with some information and little tidbits about the evolving trade market as we approach the deadline: Apparently, the Pirates are slowly lowering their demands for outfielder Xavier Nady. It was initially thought that the Pirates were asking for teams? two ?best prospects? but other GMs were probably hanging up the phone as soon as they heard that. With Jason Bay and Nate McClouth (as well as Andrew McCutchen at AAA), the Pirates have outfield depth and would like.

Mike Lowell under the radar, on pace for over 100 RBI Oakland Athletics vs Seattle Mariners ticket broker, Mike Lowell was the talk of the town last year and netted the World Series MVP award. He was also bestowed with the most famous award of all time, the 2008 Fire Brand of the Year Award. And yet, he's not engendering the same amount of chatter this year. He may not be having as good a year as he did last year, but did you realize he's having a better year than two years ago, his first in a Sox uniform? Manning the hot corner this year, Lowell's hitting for a more than respectable .282/.344/.481.

As Good As It Gets We have seen three consecutive terrible pitching performances by Angel starters. Each was unique and each was awful. Wednesday afternoon John Lackey gave up 6 ER with a tight strike zone, a hostile home plate umpire and a sapping first inning that saw nearly 30 pitches thrown. Tuesday saw Jered Weaver throw almost 80 pitches in 3 innings and leave with a knot in his back. Monday saw Ervin Santana pitch better than Weaver or Lackey ? 4 ER in 7 IP - and get bad-lucked by absolutely nothing with. MLB.

Zobrist's down with helping Rays major league baseball tickets, Ben Zobrist homered and drove in two runs to support a strong outing by James Shields, and the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3, yesterday in.

Zobrist's down with helping Rays Ben Zobrist homered and drove in two runs to support a strong outing by James Shields, and the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-3, yesterday in. tickets for Oakland Athletics vs Seattle Mariners.

By PETE DONOHUE Straphangers would be hit with a fare hike next year . baseball tickets.