It was a good day for old players. The Cubs picked up Kenny Lofton from the Pirates and the Yankees picked up 46 year old Jesse Orosco. Jesse is now one of two players who have played in four decades that was picked up this week by a contender. Rickey Henderson started his career in 1979, the same year as Orosco. How many teams can say they have a pitcher who started his career when Jimmy Carter was president and there were American hostages in Iran?

Orosco, who has pitched more games than any pitcher in history has appeared in more than fifty games a season an incredible nineteen times and he will do so again this year. To put that in perspective, in nineteen of his twenty-four big league season, Orosco has pitched in nearly one third of his team's games! His best year was 1983, a glorious year for Mets fans, and that was twenty years ago! But Orosco can still get left-handers out as they are only batting .223 against him. Score one for the old guys.

Lofton is a winner and the Cubs needed to fill the Corey Patterson hole. Lofton has also had a history of sparking a team when he first arrives. He almost always cools off soon afterwards, but he should give them a boost.


And now it's time for the Fan's weekly look at his favorite boxscore players:
- Luis Matos. Matos, the Orioles' outfielder is a new favorite and is batting .364 this year after 200 at bats! All he did his last seven games is bat .545 with six RBI and nine runs scored.

- Rocco Baldelli. Baldelli is still hanging around the .300 mark as he batted .292 for the week. But in an encouraging sign, he walked a couple of times and his OBP was higher than his batting average for the first time in a long while. He had four RBI for the week and five runs scored.

- Coco Crisp. Crisp was sharp (is that redundant?) this week as he batted an even .400 (he got two more hits tonight) as he went 10 for 25 for the week. Three of the hits were doubles. But to show you how much trouble the Indians are having scoring runs, Crisp only scored three times for the ten times he was on base. The swift Crisp was also thrown out two out of three times trying to steal.

- Hank Blalock. Hank had his first real bad week of the season as he only had four hits in twenty-one at bats (.190). His season average dropped to .314. I get a little concerned the way that Buck Showalter moves the lineup around every day. That can't help very much.

- Mark Teixeira. On the other hand, maybe I'm wrong because Mark had a great week, batting .320 to raise his average up to .261, its highest of the season.

- Michael Young. Young is still the hottest of the young Rangers and batted .333 last week (10 for 30) and had nine RBI from the leadoff spot.

- Pat Burrell. He's coming! For the first time in recent memory, Burrell batted over .200 for a week as he batted .238. Moreover, he had three extra base hits and four RBI and had more walks than strikeouts. Burrell has been averaging one strikeout per four at bats and this week improved that to one in five. He may get over the Mendoza line yet!

- Miguel Cabrera. The young Marlins player had more strikeouts than hits last week (five vs. three). His average is still hovering in the .216 level. Still rooting hard for him though.

- Jose Reyes. The Mets' young shortstop is holding his own in the big leagues. His week's average was the same as his year average (.260) and scored six runs and drove in three. Reyes also stole three bases without being thrown out.

- Bo Hart. Hart had a real tough week at the plate and only batted .160 (4 for 25), but he is still flashing a lot of leather and is still at .321 for the year.

- Albert Pujols. Pujols, on the triple crown watch, didn't hurt his cause as he batted .429 for the week with two homers and five RBI. He scored seven runs and had an incredible .538 OBP.

- Sean Burroughs. Oh no! Sean went one for seventeen last week, an .059 batting average. Ugh! Come on, Sean! I wonder how much of his playing time will be squeezed by the activation of Phil Neven?