Weekend in Review: Fish insist Juan isn't too far gone

That, combined with his four different elbow surgeries, gave pessimists free rein last winter when Atlanta general manager John Schuerholz acquired closer Danny Kolb from Milwaukee and announced plans to immediately move Smoltz back into the rotation.

Five months later, Smoltz is making a genius out of Schuerholz -- and building his legendary reputation even higher. Hudson (6-5, 3.78) is on the DL with a strained left oblique muscle -- his third side injury in the past three seasons. Thomson is out with a finger injury and Hampton has a strained forearm.

Smoltz, meanwhile, rolls on. With 100 1/3 innings pitched, he ranks behind only Toronto's Roy Halladay (108) and Washington's Livan Hernandez (105) in all of baseball. He's won three of his past four starts, he's pitched eight or more innings in each of his past three starts and he hasn't walked a batter in 26 1/3 innings.

Any more questions regarding Smoltz's capability?

Squeeze plays

• On April 26 against San Diego, San Francisco right-hander Jason Schmidt threw 131 pitches. Six days later, he threw 121. What's notable about that is that Schmidt, notorious for not being able to handle such a heavy workload, has not been the same since. Schmidt made one more start after the 121-pitch outing, on May 7, before landing on the disabled list. He's made four starts since coming back from the DL and, until Friday's eight shutout innings in Detroit, the results have been alarming. The velocity on his fastball is significantly down and his ERA was 10.23 over his five starts previous to Friday's. Shame on San Francisco manager Felipe Alou for allowing Schmidt to throw 252 pitches over a six-day span and failing to anticipate the aftermath.

• Clubs looking for outfield help may want to turn toward Boston, where the Red Sox are amenable toward dealing unhappy outfielder Jay Payton, currently working as a caddy to Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon and Trot Nixon.

• The Phillies had better be guessing right on their core players, because they're going to stuck with many of them for the next several years. When Philadelphia signed shortstop Jimmy Rollins for $40 million over five years, it marked the 11th player to whom the team has made a significant commitment. The Phillies have guaranteed $78.25 million for 2006 alone to Rollins, outfielder Bobby Abreu, third baseman David Bell, outfielder Pat Burrell, first baseman Jim Thome, catcher Mike Lieberthal, infielder Tomas Perez and pitchers Jon Lieber, Cory Lidle, Randy Wolf and Rheal Cormier.

• Rollins came out just fine, as his goal was to make similar money to the Angels' Orlando Cabrera (four years, $32 million) and Boston's Edgar Renteria (four years, $40 million).

• Not so for Texas shortstop Michael Young, one of the game's underrated great players. Young signed a four-year, $10 million extension before the 2004 season. Whoops. "I have no regrets," Young told T.R. Sullivan of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I did what was best for me and my family at that time, which was to get us some security, even if that meant signing below market value. I was happy to do that, and give the Rangers a discount -- once."

• The Milwaukee Brewers, 6-10 since CBS.SportsLine.com wrote a glowing feature on them in early June, were admonished by manager Ned Yost in a team meeting last Tuesday. Yost's point: Don't rest on a good two months. Find a way to get the job done. Among other things, Yost thought the Brewers were relying too much on cleanup hitter Carlos Lee, who leads the NL in RBI.

• The Rangers sent a strong message by dumping two-fifths of their rotation in recent days, releasing Ryan Drese (claimed off of waivers by Washington) and Pedro Astacio (2-8, 6.04 ERA after 12 starts). They are looking to acquire a starting pitcher between now and the July 31 trade deadline.

• During their last homestand, the Washington Nationals blew past the 1 million mark in attendance. They've attracted 1,056,632 customers through 33 home games, and the significance in that is that they've already drawn more folks than the old Senators ever drew during their 71 years of existence. Oh yeah, the Nationals also own the best home record in the majors at 24-9.

Weekend Hot List

The weekend buzz while you were toasting your father:

1. Angels-Nationals suspensions: Washington manager Frank Robinson is still furious. Now he says Angels manager Mike Scioscia could have at least popped in a couple of Tic Tacs before screaming at him from such close quarters.

2. Lou Piniella says he will honor his Tampa Bay contract: But Piniella plans to manage the rest of the year with the word "Slave" stenciled across his cheek.

3. Yankees sweep Cubs: Carlos Zambrano on Friday became the first Cub to throw a pitch to a Yankees lineup since Dizzy Dean. And the amazing thing is, Zambrano was talking after the game about how Todd Walker "slud" into second base in the fourth inning.

4. Here comes Cleveland: Indians' winning streak reaches nine, elevating new hitting coach ol' what's-his-name into cult status.

5. Kenny Rogers wins ninth consecutive decision: If you think this is a more unlikely story than a Yankees team with a $200 million payroll staggering along in third place ... you're right.

6. Cardinals activate Scott Rolen: But only after proving they can run away with the NL Central title without him.

7. Derek Jeter grand slam: He walloped it Saturday, snapping a major league-high 5,770 career at-bats without a grand slam. Funny thing is, most folks upon hearing the phrase "Derek Jeter grand slam" just assumed it had something to do with the shortstop's Saturday night dating plans.

8. Mariners drop Pedro on Saturday: It was the great Pedro Martinez's first career loss to Seattle after 14 victories. It was so Hollywood. A prequel, like Batman Begins.

9. Arizona's wild ride: Diamondbacks allow 10-run innings in consecutive games Friday and Saturday. In case you hadn't noticed something about the NL West, we'll clue you in: It stinks.

10. Roberto Clemente auction: When the family threatened a lawsuit, the auction house pulled debris from the plane crash that killed Clemente. You were thinking that good taste would actually come without a price in these sorry days of Britney, Paris and the Runaway Bride signing a deal with a representation company?