When Jeff Weaver signed with the Los Angeles Angels as a free agent just before spring camp opened, he and brother Jered talked at length about how they would handle it if veteran Jeff's presence cost rookie Jered a spot in the rotation.

Who knew things eventually would turn out the other way?

Six months later, here the Angels are, designating struggling Jeff for assignment in order to make room for Jered in their rotation.

The fact that the Angels demoted Jered on June 17 was shocking in the first place, given his 4-0 record and miniscule 1.37 ERA in four starts for the club. But they didn't feel they had much choice, especially given that they were paying Jeff $8.25 million this season and he appeared -- however briefly -- as if he was reversing course and finding his groove.

Angels general manager Bill Stoneman aggressively shopped Jeff, according to another major league general manager, without success.

Now the Angels have 10 days to trade him and little leverage -- they almost certainly will have to agree to pick up most of the remaining $4 million on his salary before another club will deal.

Jeff Weaver, 29, signed a one-year deal with the Angels after spending the past two seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers because he wanted to stay and work in his native Southern California. There is a chance that the Dodgers, who are looking for pitching themselves, now could take him back -- with the Angels paying much of the freight.

As for Jered, he likely will start in Seattle early next week. And while he will be a welcome presence, he still doesn't solve the Angels' most pressing need: Another middle-of-the-lineup bat to help kick-start them into gear.

Likes: Day games in Wrigley Field -- either in person or, if you're at home, on the television. It's always better when the Cubs are home -- even if the Cubs stink.... Arizona manager Bob Melvin's fire.... The AL Central race. Can't wait to see what happens in August and September.... Watching kids like Justin Verlander, Francisco Liriano, Jon Papelbon and Dan Uggla burst onto the scene....

Dislikes: Guessing where the box scores are during interleague play. Every day, you log onto this site and look under "American League" or "National League", or you do the same on the newspaper pages. Then interleague play begins, and sometimes Boston, or Philadelphia, is listed under the AL and sometimes under the NL. Sometimes it takes two or three scans to locate what you're looking for.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"I went and walked around
"Somebody yelled, said 'Look who's in town--
"Mister diddie wa diddie
"Mister diddie wa diddie
"I wish somebody would tell me
"What diddie wa diddie means."

-- Blind Blake,
Diddie Wa Diddie

What do you think is going to happen first -- the National League winning another World Series, or the Houston Astros scoring a run for Roger Clemens?

It might be close. Though Clemens stared down umpire C.B Bucknor upon departing Tuesday night's game with a look so cold it could have frozen Popsicles, that's not the story. This is: The Astros have failed to score a run while Clemens was on the mound in either of the Rocket's two starts this season, which continues the trend.

Last season, the Astros failed to score while Clemens was on the mound in 12 of his starts. Incredibly, they wound up getting shut out in nine of those.

Since Clemens' return last Thursday, the Astros are going the wrong way. They're now three games under .500, and fourth in the NL Central. Milwaukee passed Houston the other day.

Everyone remembers Houston's magical turnaround a year ago, when they went from 15 games under .500 to the World Series. But the Astros -- and Cincinnati, and even Milwaukee -- need to make their move now, while St. Louis is slumping.

Albert Pujols was out, the Cardinals pitching has reached five-alarm fire stage ... St. Louis has lost eight of nine games -- and Tony La Russa's club has never been more vulnerable.

The Reds now have pulled to within half-a-game of St. Louis.

For Houston, it well may be now or never. And the Astros can start by actually scoring when Clemens next takes the mound, Monday against the Cubs.

Likes: That the leading NL vote-getter right now comes from ... Pittsburgh? Nice to see Jason Bay getting the support from his hometown -- and All-Star Game host -- fans.... Cold Powerade after a long run on a hot summer's day. Like drinking melted Popsicles.... Reading an appreciation of legendary television producer Aaron Spelling the other day and learning that one of Spelling's favorite things was In-N-Out burgers.... Houston manager Phil Garner very entertainingly throwing a chair out of the dugout in Detroit the other night.

Dislikes: Baseball's overzealous effort to punish players involved in bad behavior on the field. Yes, San Diego catcher Josh Bard deserved an ejection Sunday against Seattle, and maybe even a one-game suspension for the menacing way he waved his bat at plate umpire Paul Nauert, but he did not deserve both the suspension and a fine.... Not being the least bit surprised when it was revealed that former pitcher Steve Howe had methamphetamine in his system at the time of his fatal automobile accident.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"He was a hard-headed man, he was brutally handsome
"And she was terminally pretty."

-- The Eagles, Life in the Fast Lane

San Diego moved back into first place in the NL West on Tuesday night as emerging star Chris Young and four relievers combined to whitewash Oakland, and what's noteworthy about the Padres this year is their improved defense.

Almost as soon as they moved into Petco Park in 2004, general manager Kevin Towers saw that a vast outfield would require athletic players. He finally acquired center fielder Mike Cameron over the winter and that, along with rookie second baseman Josh Barfield, has really helped solidify San Diego's defense.

The Padres' 35 errors are the fewest in the National League. In the American League, only Boston (23) and Seattle (34) and have fewer.

"To have as few errors as we do, while making spectacular plays, is pretty exciting," Padres closer Trevor Hoffman says. It's a long season and fatigue is going to set in sometime, but the skipper (Bruce Bochy) does a great job of mixing guys in.

"It's definitely the strong part of our team."

The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped into second place with a second consecutive loss in Minnesota -- and good luck to them, facing Francisco Liriano on Tuesday with Johan Santana up Wednesday -- but the day wasn't a total loss.

In acquiring pitcher Mark Hendrickson and catcher Toby Hall from Tampa Bay for pitcher Jae Seo and catcher Dioner Navarro, the Dodgers added a couple of pieces that make them deeper.

One scout who watched them recently offered this evaluation: They're not going to win with their present pitching staff. The Dodgers need help now because Bret Tomko is hurting (strained left side) and might have to be disabled, and rookie Chad Billingsley is still getting his feet wet. Derek Lowe, Brad Penny and Aaron Sele? And a bullpen that ranks 11th in the NL with a 4.56 ERA.

Hendrickson's 4-8 record doesn't mean much -- he was pitching for Tampa Bay -- but his 3.81 ERA shows that he should be serviceable. And Hall could add some power off the bench.

You can be sure that Dodgers GM Ned Colletti isn't finished making moves. We got a glimpse of how aggressive he is when he re-shaped the Dodgers in quick fashion over the winter, and that he's fired the first shot as the July 31 trade deadline approaches isn't surprising.

Likes: Game-time on these warm and light summer nights. It doesn't get much better than sitting outside somewhere at 7:05 p.m., first pitch seconds away, the heat of the day fading a bit and the sky still light.... Oakland outfielder Nick Swisher, who never appears to be in a bad mood.... Newsman Jim Lehrer and legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee discussing the journalism business on a PBS show entitled Free Speech the other night. Highly entertaining ...

Dislikes: There are few bad days at the ballpark, but Tuesday was as close as you can get with news that the legendary Peter Gammons suffered a brain aneurysm. Forget, for a moment, the baseball writer part (and that's impossible right there) -- Gammons is one of the most unique people you'll ever meet. Baseball fanatic, music lover, history buff -- he's a Renaissance Man and, the best part is, he doesn't big-time anybody. If you love baseball, you're a friend of Peter's. I've met few people with more energy, passion and zest for life than Peter, and that's an enviable combination right there. Here's a prayer that the surgery is successful, Gammons makes a full recovery and we see him back at the ballpark as soon as possible.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"America is beautiful "But she has an ugly side "We're lookin' for a leader "In this country far and wide."

-- Neil Young, Looking for a Leader

One of the many areas where the National League doesn't stack up against the American League: Catching.

Try picking an NL catcher who deserves to start the All-Star Game. There's not a Kenji Johjima, Joe Mauer, Victor Martinez, Ramon Hernandez or Jorge Posada in the bunch.

There's ... there's ... well, there's....

Cincinnati's David Ross, at .326, 10 homers and 25 RBI makes as strong a case as anybody. Old standby Mike Piazza, now hitting .254 with 10 homers and 29 RBI, is right there. And Atlanta's Brian McCann, at .352 with five homers and 22 RBI. And Arizona's Johnny Estrada, at .309, six homers and 41 RBI.

Otherwise ... Paul LoDuca of the New York Mets, at .280, three homers and 22 RBI? Houston's Brad Ausmus, at .264, one homer, 17 RBI? Pittsburgh's Ronny Paulino, at .309, two homers and 17 RBI?

Los Angeles' Russell Martin is solid but is playing from behind, having started only 41 games.

"I'm hoping Mike goes," San Diego manager Bruce Bochy says of Piazza. "He's got 10 home runs, the game's in Pittsburgh (Piazza is a Pennsylvania native), he's going to go into the Hall of Fame. And this might be his last year, you don't know. I think Mike is having as good a year as anybody.

"Ten home runs for a catcher is pretty good. And he has a lot to do with where our club is. He's doing most of the catching."

The All-Star break arrives in two weeks. We're still taking nominations.

Likes: Saturday nights at home with Mexican food and the major league baseball Extra Innings package on television. ... The ability, thanks to XM satellite radio, to listen to a handful of Eastern time zone games on the car radio while driving to the ballpark on a Sunday morning. ... Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band on Conan O'Brien's show Friday night. If you didn't like that, you don't like music, period. It was fantastic. ... Pappa's barbecue in Houston. ... A strong cup of coffee with the baseball stats on a Sunday morning.

Dislikes: Summer flies by so quickly. June is nearly over already? Where did it go? ... The cat deciding to meow loudly and continually for who knows what reason at 3 a.m.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"I've lost count of the times I've given up on you
"But you make such a beautiful wreck, you do
"There's a tavern on the corner called the Milky Way
"And you look so at home there it makes me afraid
"And at the dark end of this bar
"What a beautiful wreck you are
"When you go too far, beautiful wreck you are.

-- Shawn Mullins, Beautiful Wreck

The All-Star Game is nearly three weeks off, but it's already off to a roaring start. National League manager Phil Garner naming former skipper Chuck Tanner as the NL's honorary captain was both classy and deserved.

Tanner managed Garner, Willie Stargell and the rest of the We Are Family Pirates to the 1979 World Series championship, which, aside from a couple of years under Jim Leyland around 1990, was the last time baseball meant anything in Pittsburgh.

The drought has lasted too long -- that's one reason commissioner Bud Selig awarded this game to Pittsburgh's PNC Park, to show off the new stadium and to attempt to keep baseball interest alive in Pittsburgh -- and Tanner's presence can't help but remind people that, even in the Steel City, a winning baseball team isn't an impossible dream.

"I'm really excited about that," Garner was saying the other day in Houston. "Chuck was my mentor. I credit Chuck with just about everything that's gone good for me in baseball. To be able to recognize him and honor him in Pittsburgh where he won a World Series, I'm just tickled to death.

"I hope he gets a lot of attention, because he certainly deserves it. I hope he gets a lot of credit, because he certainly deserves that."

Tanner, currently a scout for the Cleveland Indians, managed the Pirates from 1977 through 1985, and his 711 wins rank fourth on the club's all-time list. He will join Garner and the rest of the gang in the dugout during the game.

"One thing he always stressed (about managing) was to be yourself," Garner said. "If you try not to be yourself, they're going to see through that in a heartbeat.

"He also said get yourself a good No. 1 man and give him responsibility. This was before teams had bench coaches. Chief of Staff, is what he called it."

Likes: Watching Ichiro Suzuki bat ... Watching Roger Clemens pitch ... The plethora of young arms coming into the game, from Boston's Jonathan Papelbon to Detroit's Justin Verlander to Seattle's Felix Hernandez to Minnesota's Francisco Liriano and beyond ... Buddy Bell is a good baseball man despite his managerial record. What a sentence, to be stuck managing Detroit, Colorado and, now, this lame Kansas City team ... Thank You for Smoking, a smart and funny look at tobacco lobbying ... Warm summer nights ... Ben and Jerry's Brownie Batter ice cream ... Looking at the out-of-town scoreboard and seeing "WSH-BAL."

Dislikes: Ozzie Guillen going too far in Chicago ... Philadelphia starter Brett Myers going too far in Boston ... John Smoltz leaving in the second inning with a pulled groin.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"My baby ain't good looking and she don't dress fine
"My baby ain't good looking and she don't dress fine
"But she gives me money all of the time

"I lay in my bed, my baby brings me my meals
"I lay in my bed, my baby brings me my meals
"What good is a woman if she don't rob and steal

-- Gene Campbell, Robbing and Stealing Blues

That the major league players union will file a grievance over baseball suspending disgraced reliever Jason Grimsley for 50 games is a given. This is a precedent-setting move, and whether or not Grimsley deserves it is, to the union, beside the point.

If the union was to do the right thing, however, it would be this: Sit down with commissioner Bud Selig -- again -- and begin work toward closing the Texas-sized loophole that steers players looking for an extra edge toward Human Growth Hormone.

Players being players, they're going to play any extra angle they can. Clearly, in the wake of the Grimsley bombshell, HGH is the angle of choice. Despite baseball's serious new steroid testing rules, the only way to test for HGH is through blood work. HGH does not come through in urine tests.

Armed with knowledge of that, your average baseball player doesn't need a degree in chemistry -- heck, he doesn't even need a degree -- to figure out that HGH is a wide-open avenue.

So now, for the two solid steps of progress forward that baseball has made over the past two years, here's one giant step backward. If a journeyman reliever who has made a minimal mark on the game over the past decade is loading up on HGH, who knows how many others are?

So now baseball must move toward closing this loophole in the testing. And it can only happen if the players union, again, agrees to another in-progress adjustment.

At the very least, baseball's urine samples should be stored in a freezer for the next several years, for that day when scientists eventually devise a urine test that will show HGH use.

Best-case scenario is that the union consents to blood testing.

It's Don Fehr's move.

Likes: Angel Stadium. One of the most beautiful places to watch a game -- they really did one terrific job when they remodeled the old behemoth that once doubled as home for the NFL's Rams.... Buddy Bell. What a sentence, to be stuck managing Detroit, Colorado and, now, this lame Kansas City team.... Thank You for Smoking, a smart and funny look at tobacco lobbying.... Warm summer nights.... Ben and Jerry's Brownie Batter ice cream.... Scott Kazmir vs. Justin Verlander.

Dislikes: The Royals revoking credentials of two radio reporters for daring to ask tough questions of owner David Glass and his son, team president Dan, at last Thursday's news conference introducing new general manager Dayton Moore. David and Dan Glass look more and more like buffoons every day.... No more Sopranos or Grey's Anatomy for awhile, and no more West Wing for good.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"My baby ain't good looking and she don't dress fine
"My baby ain't good looking and she don't dress fine
"But she gives me money all of the time

"I lay in my bed, my baby brings me my meals
"I lay in my bed, my baby brings me my meals
"What good is a woman if she don't rob and steal

-- Gene Campbell, Robbing and Stealing Blues

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to avoid it, you just can't help putting the ol' whammy down.

So, for those of you who follow the Colorado Rockies, consider this me accepting responsibility.

After virtually ignoring the Rockies all spring, I finally mustered up the nerve to write some glowing things about them in last week's Insider.

So what happens? Of course -- from the moment the column was posted until now, the Rockies have gone 2-4, including getting swept in Coors Field by Florida over the weekend. During this time, the Rockies have dropped like a stone into last place in the NL West.

Nice.

Likes: Cincinnati rolling again ... Phenoms like Jered Weaver, Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander ... XM radio in addition to the satellite television package ... White Sox-Tigers meaning something in June ... Dave Niehaus on Seattle Mariners broadcasts. Thoroughly enjoyable ... Summer hours -- longer daylight hours, perfect for spending time with the backyard grill.

Dislikes: Being caught in the grip of the steroids/HGH story and never being unable to escape. This is going to be with us for a long, long time.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"Racism lives in the U.S.A.
"Better get hip to what Martin Luther King had to say
"I don't want my kids being brought up this way
"Hatred to each other is not okay
"Well I'm not a preacher just a singer son
"I can see there's more work to be done
"It's what you do and not what you say
"If you're not part of the future then get out of the way"

-- John Mellencamp, Peaceful World

Did you see video clips of rookie New York Mets outfielder Lastings Milledge slapping high fives with fans down the right-field line following his first major league homer Sunday?

Of course you did. You have to be living on the moon, or at least in the middle of Montana, to have missed it.

Interesting thing is, Milledge says he doesn't regret one single moment from the impromptu reception line -- which tells us that this kid, the Mets' best prospect since David Wright, could turn into one major attitude problem in the not-too-distant future.

It doesn't matter whether Milledge was overcome with joy or whether he simply decided to, as he said a day later, "show the fans some love."

It was a bush league move.

Had the Mets won the game and Milledge was celebrating post-game by slapping a few palms, it would have looked a lot better.

But it was just the game-tying homer, and not long after the high-five ceremony, the Mets wound up losing to the San Francisco Giants.

There's certainly no sense condemning a man for one action.

An acknowledgement that perhaps he overreached, though, would have been nice.

Likes: The MLB Extra Innings television package. Makes those nights at home awfully interesting, what with nearly every game on television.... Ken Griffey Jr.'s game-winning homers. The man can still swing it.... Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions..... George Packer's The Assassin's Gate, one terrific read on our current predicament in Iraq.

Dislikes: The movie The Wild. Complete rip-off of Madagascar..... The rapid descent for former umpire Eric Gregg in the last six or seven years of his life. Rest in peace, big fella.

Rock and Roll lyric of the day:

"I've got a song, I ain't got no melody
"I'm a gonna sing it to my friends
"I've got a song, I ain't got no melody
"I'm a gonna sing it to my friends
"Will it go round in circles
"Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky
"Will it go round in circles
"Will it fly high like a bird up in the sky
"I've got a story, ain't got no moral
"Let the bad guy win every once in awhile
"I've got a story, ain't got no moral
"Let the bad guy win every once in awhile

-- Billy Preston, Will It Go Round in Circles