Zen Dayley: Under Gibby, this team Costes

Jayson Werth hit his third homer and his second one hadn't even landed ...

• Baseball Digest Daily lays out the cases for firing J.P. Ricciardi and for a Vernon Wells-for-Adam Dunn and Ryan Freel trade.
• Cool Standings would have you believe that the Tampa Bay Rays are for real.
• Phillies catcher Chris Coste, who's not exactly a fondly remembered former Ottawa Lynx, got zinged pretty good by Mike Wilner on The FAN 590 last night: "Chris Coste is like 36 years old, played 150 years in the minor leagues before he got his shot in the bigs two years ago with the Phillies and has no idea how to run the bases."
• One book recommendation: It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over: The Baseball Prospectus Pennant Race Book (only $15.30 with a Chapters card). It's practically worth reading for the chapter on the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Dick Williams comes across like the the anti-John Gibbons.
  
  

  "There was method to Williams's madness. 'He did things to make you angry,' recalled center fielder Reggie Smith, a 1967 rookie who had hit .320 for Williams in Toronto the year before. 'He helped us develop a kind of mental toughness that you need to play the game.' "

  One has to acknowledge that Williams' style wouldn't work in 2008, of course.
• Last but not least, if the Souljah Boy wasn't dead, the baseball team at Lynchburg College definitely killed it. They also cover Sweet Caroline, so someone please send this to Sportsnet's Jamie Campbell, who mentions the Fenway Park every time the Blue Jays play in Boston.
  
  
  
  (We kid, because we love. Clip from Brian Foley's The College Baseball Blog.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.