Cardinals unlikely to deal

The St. Louis Cardinals recently placed righthander Jake Westbrook on the disabled list, but they do not seem inclined to make a deal before Saturday’s waiver deal deadline. 

“I think we are who we’re going to be,” GM John Mozeliak tells Joe Strauss of the Post-Dispatch. Dan Haren of the Washington Nationals reportedly has cleared waivers and is being shopped, but Derrick Goold of the Post-Dispatch hears the Nationals want a group of prospects.

Earlier this month, FoxSports.com reported that former Cardinal Kyle Lohse was placed on waivers by the Brewers, but was called back. Another possibility could be the Astros’ Erik Bedard, but the Cards have no intention of overpaying.

MRI on Rockies' Betancourt reveals tear in elbow

DENVER (AP) -- Colorado Rockies right-hander Rafael Betancourt has suffered a torn elbow ligament, the closer said Monday night.

Betancourt said he will opt to have platelet-rich plasma therapy instead of Tommy John surgery in the hope of returning sooner.

Betancourt suffered the tear Thursday in Philadelphia. He had an MRI done on his right elbow, which revealed a partial tear, and will not pitch again this season.

Betancourt has served as the Rockies' closer for the past two seasons. He has been on the disabled list three times this year with a groin strain and after an emergency appendectomy.

He has 16 saves in 19 opportunities this season.

The Houston Astros are the worst team in baseball, but they’re making the most money … EVER

By now, we all know the ballad of the 2013 Houston Astros: Save money, lose, save more money, keep on losing, point toward the future and hope.

Houston's 43-86 record is the worst in baseball and mathematic proof that the Astros are twice as bad as they are good. The team's .333 winning percentage is more than 50 points lower than even its partners in major league misery, the Miami Marlins.

Turns out, though, the Astros are No. 1 in something — making money. According toForbes, who knows a thing or two about the almighty dollar, the 2013 Astros, owners of baseball's lowest payroll, are also the most profitable team in MLB. Not just this season, but in baseball history.

The Astros, under the watch of owner Jim Crane — a Texas businessman who has a background in insurance, gas, energy and freight — are on pace for $99 million in profits this season, Crane's second as owner. Writes Forbes' Dan Alexander:

That is nearly as much as the estimated operating income of the previous six World Series championship teams — combined ... Of the 270 Major League Baseball teams who have taken the field since 2005, none have finished with a worse winning percentage than Houston’s.

They have become so profitable thanks to slashed payroll expenses and soaring television revenues. Since becoming the Astros’ owner in 2011, Crane has gutted the team of its most expensive players while building up the farm system. Over the course of this season, the team will pay its players an estimated $21 million in salary and bonuses. That is down $56 million from 2011, when Crane bought the team.

And that $21 million is couch-cushion money compared to some of baseball's most bloated payrolls. Consider this: The Yankees have nine players who make more than the Astros entire roster makes. Alex Rodriguez, baseball's highest-paid player, is supposed to make $28 million this season. The highest paid Astro? That's Eric Bedard, who is making $1.15 million.

A big chunk of the Astros' profits come from their TV deal, booming sources of income for pro sports teams these days. The Astros' deal pays them $80 million this season. Combine that with the very low payroll and an attendance that's not the absolute worst in baseball, and you've got a formula to count money.

Astros attendance averages 19,905, which is 28th out of 30 teams, but it's better than the Tampa Bay Rays, who have 31 more wins than the Astros but the worst average attendance in the league, 18,927.

All this cost-cutting in Houston comes with the promise of better days ahead. Crane and his Astros braintrust have been building up the farm system — including the last two No. 1 overall picks, shortstop Carlos Correa and pitcher Mark Appel — and have said they'll spend money when the time is right. Of course, promises can only quiet a fan base for so long, especially one that sees the profits rising and the losses mounting just as high.

Crane's has clung to his rebuilding strategy, even saying this preseason that fans could "write a check for 10 million bucks" if they wanted a better team on the field. In that same interview, Crane told the Wall Street Journal:

"I didn't make $100 million by making a lot of dumb mistakes. We're not going to get everything right, but we're going to get a lot right."

Now here he is, his team close to making $100 million this season. Whether the Astros are getting things right in the long-term, well, that remains to be seen.

Matt Harvey's injury an inevitability for today's pitchers

There is one truth about the pitching arm, and it is the most unsatisfactory sort: nobody fully understands it. Not the most brilliant doctors. Not the brightest biomechanists. Not the best pitching coaches, the keenest scouts, the crème de la crème of pitchers. The arm is like the human genome. We've got a map in place. We just can't navigate it with any confidence yet.

There are people devoting their lives to figure it out, many smart people who analyze it, track it and study it through every avenue imaginable. All of the above, plus athletic trainers, economists, astrophysicists, amateur charlatans and more, each of whom wants so badly to solve it, even if the possibility exists that they're chasing a unicorn.

None could figure it out in time to save Matt Harvey. The breakout star of 2013 is broken, the ulnar collateral ligament that holds together his right elbow partially torn. He will be fixed, whether through rehabilitation or surgery. The New York Mets didn't indicate how severe the tear is, so it's impossible to assess the likelihood of his return without Tommy John surgery. History says the best-case scenario is that Harvey pitches a few years before it fully blows out. The best example of a rehab case was Adam Wainwright, who got six full seasons following a partial-tear diagnosis.

Outside of a few others – notably Ervin Santana, Takashi Saito, Scott Atchison, J.J. Putz and Danny Duffy, who later blew out – rehab of any sort of tear does not work. Among those who tried it only to end up under the knife: Chad Billingsley, Cory Luebke, Dylan Bundy, Carl Crawford, Rafael Furcal, Neftali Feliz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Arodys Vizcaino and Jamie Moyer. And plenty more, from Jordan Zimmermann to Kris Medlen to Junichi Tazawa, went for surgery despite their UCLs not being fully torn. While trying to rehab is the responsible thing, it usually just delays the start of an arduous process: the physical rebuilding of an arm and the mental rebuilding of a man who must re-teach himself how to use it.

It is devastating not just for Harvey and the poor, poor Mets but all of baseball. No sport loses as many players to the same catastrophic injury as baseball does the elbow. Among pitchers, there is almost an inevitability to their elbow blowing out, to the point of engaging in gallows humor when it does. Said one person close to Harvey: "The rite of passage with big arms. Thankful no shoulder issues."

If Harvey can take solace in anything, it's the relative success of Tommy John surgery, in which doctors will take a tendon from one of three places – the palmaris longus in his wrist, the gracilis in his thigh or the semitendinosus from a cadaver – and tie his humerus and ulna back together. The wicked truth about the arm is that we have a far better idea of how to fix it than how it breaks.

Arm injuries always have existed, dating back to the late 1800s when pitchers started throwing overhand. The theories on their prevalence today range from bad mechanics to overuse to excessive velocity. Delivery doctors get paid big bucks to teach kids how to throw properly. (The general consensus on Harvey was that he had a clean delivery, though some amateur biomechanists believe his arm came through a fraction of a second late, placing additional force on his UCL.) Coaches from Little League to college are castigated for high pitch counts. (Harvey once threw 157 pitches in a game at the University of North Carolina and regularly went above the standard ceiling these days, 120.) Whether it's Stephen Strasburg, Jason Motte, Feliz or high schooler Lucas Giolito, the correlation of a triple-digit fastball and Tommy John remains a fascinating topic to researchers, who wish the sample size were larger. (Harvey hit 100 twice this season and threw harder than any starter in the major leagues.)

Currently, everything is a guess. The strongest studies show there is something to overuse, despite the protestations of those who wish for the good ol' days, and that baseball's proactivity in adopting limits for pitchers is a prudent move. Still, that does nothing for Harvey, nor do some of the recent results of Tommy John surgeries. Ryan Madson's setbacks have ended his 2013 season after the surgery did the same for 2012. Scott Baker had surgery in April 2012 and isn't back. Luebke's was a month later, and he won't return until 2014.

Worst was what happened to Daniel Hudson and Brandon Beachy, whose Tommy John surgeries in summer 2012 came within a week of one another. In his first rehab start back this year, Hudson re-tore his and underwent a second surgery. And after leaving his most recent start with elbow pain, it is strongly believed that Beachy will require a second surgery, something that could be confirmed as soon as Tuesday.

Understand: What Harvey will face at some point in the near future is not, as Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez put it in spring training, "almost like a root canal." Harvey is a very bright man, educated well by agent Scott Boras, whose interest in pitchers' health spearheaded the Nationals' handling of Strasburg after his blowout. He was glum on Monday because he knows what his future holds, even if it was too difficult for him to say it.

For his whole life, Harvey has wanted to throw a baseball, and unless he is an outlier like Wainwright – unless he's the absolute exception to a rule that's rather hard and fast – he is going to spend a year doing everything but that. He is going to sit around with his arm immobilized for a month, and then he's going to do activities to strengthen his shoulder, and then he's going to spend too much time shoving his hand into a bucket of rice and learning to grab again, and then he's going to toss a ball 10 feet and feel like it's 10,000, and then he's going to agonize over remembering what it's like to do what always came so naturally to him.

He's going to have setbacks, because everyone does, and he's going to fall asleep at night scared as hell that it's going to happen again, because he's human and no matter how positive a person wants to be, only so much optimism exists when there's a scar smiling along your elbow.

Harvey's return will be a great day for the Mets and the sport, even better if in February 2014 following successful rehab instead of February 2015 following successful surgery. Such is the gift and curse of the arm. It can give us days when Matt Harvey throws 100 mph with the best slider in the game and an undeniable swagger atop the mound. And it can give us days like this, when you wish he didn't throw as hard or pared back on the pitches or didn't pronate his arm quite as early, when the map led to another dead end.

MLB to expand instant replay in 2014

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- Calling it a historic moment, Commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday that Major League Baseball plans to expand its video review process next season, giving managers a tool they've never had in an effort to dramatically reduce the number of incorrect calls made in games.

Selig made the announcement after two days of meetings with representatives of the 30 teams. The proposal is to be voted on by the owners in November.

''I'm proud of them,'' Selig said about the replay committee. ''It's worked out remarkably well. It's historic. There's no question about it.''

A 75 percent vote by the owners is needed for approval, and the players' association and umpires would have to agree to any changes to the current system. But the announcement was met with mostly praise at ballparks across the country.

''This is the time. It's time to make the right decision,'' Rays manager Joe Maddon said. ''It was not available several years ago. So, just live with it, understand it. It makes things better. It makes things more accurate, so what's wrong with that.''

MLB executive vice president Joe Torre gave the replay presentation to representatives from all 30 teams Wednesday and it was discussed Thursday morning.

Atlanta Braves President John Schuerholz, a member of the replay committee along with Torre and former manager Tony La Russa, said the umpires were receptive to the change. Schuerholz said 89 percent of incorrect calls made in the past will be reviewable, but he did not provide a list.

Umpires have come under increased scrutiny following several missed calls this season.

''We believe this will be very impactful and very, very meaningful and useful for all sides,'' Schuerholz said. ''Managers will have a new tool that they'll have to learn how to use.''

Managers will be allowed one challenge over the first six innings of a game and two from the seventh inning until the completion of the game. Calls that are challenged will be reviewed by a crew in MLB headquarters in New York City, which will make a final ruling.

A manager who sees a call he feels is incorrect can file a challenge with the crew chief or home plate umpire. Only reviewable plays can be challenged. Non-reviewable plays can still be argued by managers, who can request that the umpires discuss it to see if another member of the crew saw the play differently. Reviewable plays cannot be argued by the manager.

Challenges not used in the first six innings will not carry over, and a manager who wins a challenge will retain it.

The home run replay rules currently in use will be grandfathered in to the new system, Schuerholz said.

MLB expects to use the new system in the 2014 playoffs, and the system could be enhanced in the postseason. Training sessions for umpires will start in the Arizona Fall League this winter and continue into spring training.

''We know we have to prepare people for this,'' Schuerholz said. ''Everyone is embracing it. We believe managers will in time.''

Schuerholz said after the first year MLB will look at what worked and what didn't and make adjustments for 2015. ''It's going to take some time,'' he said.

One of Selig's major concerns was the possible slowing of games. Schuerholz said with a direct line of communication between the central office and the ballparks the expectation is that replays under the new system will take 1 minute, 15 seconds. Current replays average just over 3 minutes.

''We want to prevent stalling,'' Schuerholz said. ''If it's a reviewable play, he (the manager) has to tell the umpires he's going to review it.''

In other matters, Selig said baseball's investigation of Biogenesis, the now-closed Florida anti-aging clinic accused of distributing banned performance-enhancing drugs, has been completed.

Alex Rodriguez was suspended through 2014 and All-Stars Nelson Cruz, Jhonny Peralta and Everth Cabrera were banned 50 games apiece on Aug. 5 when Major League Baseball disciplined 13 players for their relationship to Biogenesis. Rodriguez has appealed his suspension.

Selig also called the Tampa Bay Rays stadium situation ''very, very discouraging.''

''Baseball needs a resolution to this problem,'' Selig said with Stuart Sternberg, principal owner of the Rays, in the room listening. ''I find it a very, very troubling situation. We were optimistic this was moving in a very positive direction. Unfortunately, it's stalled.''

Selig said the situation was serious enough that he was giving ''very strong consideration to assigning someone from MLB to intervene in this process, find out exactly what the hell is going on.''

''They've been a model organization, extraordinarily capable,'' Selig said. ''They've done everything in their power to make their ballpark situation work. Years have ticked by now with no tangible progress.''

The team is obligated to play at outdated Tropicana Field through 2027 and is averaging just over 13,000 fans a game this season. The low attendance figures have led to the Rays receiving millions of dollars in revenue sharing.

''Without that, we wouldn't be able to compete,'' Sternberg said. ''The other owners are looking at it. How many years is this going to be? How much money is it going to be? We should be able to get to the point where the revenue sharing dollars we would receive don't need to be so significant year in and year out.''

Relocating is not on the table, Sternberg said.

''Frankly, I haven't been able to get this (new stadium deal) done,'' Sternberg said. ''Something needs to be done and nothing's happening. We've got an enormous following, but something is clearly stopping people from coming through our doors. This isn't a one- or two-year thing. Even the economy has picked up a bit and our attendance has gone down.''

Feliz not feeling 100 percent

As reported by Todd Wills of ESPN Dallas, pitcher Neftali Feliz was shut down after feeling some discomfort while attempting to warm up on Sunday for Triple-A Round Rock. 

Although the Texas Rangers is calling Feliz day-to-day with mild triceps tendinitis, such a development at this stage of recovery from Tommy John surgery is par for the course and not wholly unexpected. It has been a little over a year since Feliz had the procedure, and the pitcher has been working hard in an effort to join the Rangers bullpen to assist in their September drive for the post-season.

This latest setback decreases the odds that Feliz will be able to pitch in the major leagues this season, but there's still a chance that a few days rest allow him to get back on track, and ultimately, into a few more rehab outings at the minor league level without further incident.

Will Youkilis return this season?

Kevin Youkilis had surgery to repair a herniated disc in his back seven-in-a-half weeks ago, but his chances of returning this season are no more certain today than they were back in June.

John Harper and Stephen Lorenzo of The New York Daily news report that Youkilis was back in the Yankees clubhouse on Sunday, but isn't any closer to the field and remains unsure whether he'll be able to return to the lineup this season.

“The thing about the back is, there’s no timetables -- the surgery, it’s different for everybody in different ways,” he said. “We hope we can play this year but you have to go through all the progressions first and that’s what I’m doing.”

For now, the Yankees have Alex Rodriguez back to man the hot corner and given the nature of Youkilis' injury one has to believe that the team will take a cautious approach before it even considers inserting him back in the lineup later this season. Youk is hitting just .219 with 2 home runs and 8 RBI in this, his first season in New York.