Wednesday Morning Miscellany

[TBL normally blogs during her breaks at work, but the advent of a new and time-sensitive project have made those breaks few and far between. Blogging in the next week or two may frequently be brief and occasionally nonexistent. Blogging from home will happen when time permits.]

Going into the 20th game of the season, let's see who's coming out of the gate quickly, and who hasn't figured out where the gate is yet:

Who's Hot
Position Players
Player	AB	Avg	OBP	OPS	HR	RBI	Err
Jones	56	.393	.500	1.196	3	13	0
LeCroy	47	.319	.418	.886	2	9	0
Hunter	70	.257	.338	.823	4	16	1
Pitchers
Player	IP	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	HR
Nathan	8.1	1-0	0.00	0.48	11	0	0
Santana	33.0	4-0	3.55	0.94	45	3	3
Rincon	9.0	2-1	2.00	1.33	12	4	0
Who's Not
Position Players
Player	AB	Avg	OBP	OPS	HR	RBI	Err
Rivas	40	.200	.250	.450	0	1	0
Cuddyer	62	.194	.265	.523	1	3	5
Bartlett	52	.250	.291	.656	1	5	1
Pitchers
Player	IP	W-L	ERA	WHIP	K	BB	HR
Lohse	17.2	1-2	6.62	1.36	10	2	6
Mulholland	9.0	0-1	6.00	1.33	2	2	3
Radke	33.2	1-3	5.08	1.19	18	1	7

minimum 35 AB or 8 IP
red text = team leader
green text = worst on team


And the strangest headline I've seen all year:

Exploding Toads Puzzle German Scientists
More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said Wednesday.

Both the pond's water and body parts of the toads have been tested, but scientists have been unable to find a bacteria or virus that would cause the toads to swell up and pop, said Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg-based Institute for Hygiene and the Environment.

'It's absolutely strange,' she said. 'We have a really unique story here in Hamburg. This phenomenon really doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere before.'

The toads at a pond in the upscale neighborhood of Altona have been blowing up since the beginning of the month, filling up like balloons until their stomachs suddenly burst.