Brandon Webb goes for what would be a major league leading nine wins tonight at home against the Colorado Rockies. First of all, nine wins on May 15 would be absolutely insane. As it stands today though, regardless of the outcome, he is on pace for a 30+ win season. Obviously that's not possible.

Well, actually, it's possible. But it is certainly unlikely. Vegas Watch did the math on the possibility that Webb gets 30 wins this season. Bear in mind that is something that was done a lot back in the day (147 times before 1920). However, it's only been pulled off three times since 1920, the latest by Denny McLain, with 31 wins in 1968.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Texas Rangers (19-21) vs. Seattle Mariners (15-25) - 8:05PM Est.

Let's start today's On Deck by taking a trip in the FanHouse Time Machine. We're going to go all the way back to May 8th, 2008. The world was a different place back then. Ok, so the world was really any different as all, as it was just five days ago, but it was sort of exciting!

That was the day when Richie Sexson threw his helmet and charged Kason Gabbard after taking exception to a pitch. Sexson thought that Gabbard's eye-high fastball was meant for his face even though it was over the heart of the plate, and he took umbrage. Of course, had Felix Hernandez not plunked Ian Kinsler earlier in the game after Kinsler homered, none of this would have happened.

Now, here we are five days later, and Gabbard and Hernandez are set to face each other one more time. Will we have an encore?

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

St. Louis Cardinals (23-15) at Milwaukee Brewers (17-19) - 2:05 PM ET

Milwaukee, already known for its consumption of beer and brats, has been the Tums capital of America this weekend. First, Jason Isringhausen blew a save on Friday after having the Brewers at two outs and nobody on in the ninth inning ... which led to Jason being demoted from the closers role. Then the very next day, there was Eric Gagne blowing yet another save, which was Gagne's ... oh I've lost count this season, how many blown saves is that? Gotta be between 50 and 80 (actually, he only blew a tie game in the ninth, but Gagne did get the loss). And that led Gagne to muse that maybe he should go the same path as Isringhausen. So can anybody here close today's game? Hey, at least extra innings will be fun.

This is just a great story: Doug Davis, who underwent surgery on April 10 after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, has been declared cancer-free after a CT scan on Thursday revealed that the disease had not spread.

In fact, he's feeling so good right now that he's expected to make a minor league rehab start with Triple-A Tucson on Saturday. After that, he'll probably need just one more start in the minors before coming off the disabled list and returning to the majors.

It should come as no surprise that he's making such a quick recovery; this is the same guy who kept it together mentally after learning of his diagnosis to get through spring training without skipping a beat, and then visited his teammates in the clubhouse to show off his scar just days after the operation. They just don't get much tougher than this.

(via Bugs & Cranks)

When you have the (arguably) best pitcher in baseball, sitting at 7-0, and winning even when he doesn't have his best stuff, you want to lock him up for as long as you can. Well, actually, you want extend him until about his mid to early 30's at a decent price. Which is what the Diamondbacks are trying to do with Brandon Webb.

Webb is currently signed through 2009 and the Diamondbacks hold the option for 2010, but keeping him locked up through, say, 2012 will save the club some money in the long run. And keep their ace pitcher from leaving over the next four to five years.They tried to tack on three more years during the offseason, but Webb wasn't biting on any lowballs. Apparently, the Snakes are making friendlier offers this time around.

'Yeah, some progress has been made,' Webb said. 'We've been talking a little bit more. We've made some headway. We'll see where it goes.'

Webb did not want to comment beyond that, declining to go into specifics.

Similarly, Diamondbacks General Manager Josh Byrnes and Webb's agent, Jonathan Maurer, declined comment.

It's hard to imagine that Webb would want to go anywhere other than Arizona, given all the talent they should/will have through at least 2012 as they continue to develop the farm system and lock up the younger players. Not to mention, they're willing to compensate him well.

On the other hand though, they will probably have to make sure that he receives at least as much money as Jake Peavy in order to lock him up. Peavy is Webb's main competition for best pitcher, certainly in the NL West, and maybe in the majors. He also makes just about $17.3 million a year. Webb made only $4.5 last season. In other words, the Diamondbacks better be prepared to fork over some cheddar.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Arizona Diamondbacks (22-12) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (20-15) - 3:40PM Est.

If I were a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, I'd probably just skip the trip to Chase Field and go straight to the airport to catch my flight to San Francisco. I mean, Brandon Webb is starting for the Diamondbacks this afternoon, so you already know you're going to lose, why waste your time?

Webb has won his first seven starts of the season, which makes him 7-0, and has an ERA of 2.49 while doing so. Now he's looking to get off to the fastest start ever by an Arizona pitcher, as he's already tied Randy Johnson's mark with his first seven starts. The Big Unit accomplished his feat in 2000, and then went on to win the second of the four straight Cy Youngs he won for the DBacks.

The crazy thing is, if Webb does win today and move to 8-0, it may set a team record for the quickest to eight wins, but it won't even be the first time in Brandon's career he's started a season 8-0. He did it in 2006, though it took him eleven starts, and went on to win his own Cy Young award.

My favorite rule in baseball? The dropped third strike. Even if you completely swing and miss at a horrible pitch -- or maybe a good pitch -- there's still a chance for redemption. Hey ook: I struck out but I'm still on first base! (A.J. Pierzynski remembers this well.)

But, as the above clip between Shane Victorino and Conor Jackson shows, sometimes the angle of a throw from the catcher ends up causing a bit of a ruckus at first base. Victorino stayed in the game and ended up scoring that inning. Jackson wasn't feeling too pretty after the game.

But yeah: ouch.

HT: The 700 Level.

Nick Pierco and the AZ Republic got Inside Edge to pass along a scouting report from Max Scherzer's horrific start against the Philadelphia Phillies, and well, it's pretty freaking telling, in terms of figuring out why he struggled so badly. As Pierco points out (and I wholeheartedly agree) it was the lack of any offspeed stuff that really killed Scherzer's ability to dominate.

You can scope the report card here for yourself, but he's right -- the biggest factor out of everything you see on here is that 71% of his fastballs were thrown for strikes while only 39% of the offspeed stuff crossed the plate. Which means that the Phillies did a pretty outstanding job of scouting him. It doesn't mean that Scherzer can't be dominant, but it does prove the point that no one is going to get big league hitters out with just a fastball.

The other interesting thing is that 71% (an A+) of his 2-0, 2-1 and 3-0 counts ended in an out. That would seem to be good, until you realize that the Philadelphia hitters were more or less under strict order to not touch anything that wasn't a fastball, leading to Scherzer getting behind in counts. Which led to fastballs when he was behind. Which led to contact. Some of them (just a shade under 3/4, in fact) ended up as outs.

What it basically boils down to is that Scherzer has to develop better off speed stuff; you better believe there are plenty of major league teams who got an eyefull of what the Phillies did to him.

Fantasy Spin: I'm still starting him for his next start, because of my stupid weekly lineups. It's against the Cubs who have been raking and while he could pile up K's, he could also punish your ratios. H2H leagues should keep an eye out heading into the weekend to make the call.

Even though the Phillies are a potent offensive team, there was the general expectation among baseball fans that Max Scherzer, he of the four no-hit innings relief debut, would be able to hold them down and rack up some strikeouts. Not the case, as Scherzer got rim-rocked last night over four innings for seven hits, two earned (might become five) runs, two walks, one hit batsman. He did strike out five batters tough.

But Nick Piecoro makes a fantastic point in his AZ Republic blog today about a young flamethrower's ability to dominate, if he doesn't have his best stuff.

It looked to me like his fastball command wasn't quite as good as the other night and his off-speed stuff didn't have the same bite. I missed a few pitches, but from my count he threw about 20 off-speed pitches out of 92 total pitches, and elicited only a handful of swings.

It looked to me like he wasn't throwing the off-speed stuff for strikes and the Phillies were taking it and sitting on the fastball. And basically, no matter how good someone's fastball is, major league hitters can catch up to it.

And that's just a straight-up baseball truth. You can throw a 100 mph fastball all day, but unless you have another pitch that can give hitters trouble, it's just going to be leaving the park that much faster.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Kansas City Royals (14-16) vs. Los Angeles Angels (20-13) - 8:10PM Est.

Who the hell needs John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar? It's a question that many Angels fans have probably been asking themselves a bit the last few weeks. I mean, those two were only the two best starters on the Angels staff last year, winning a combined 37 games.

Who needs those 37 wins when you have Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana? Those two have pitched back-to-back all season long, and neither have bothered to try losing a game yet. Yesterday Saunders improved to 6-0 on the year with a win over the Orioles, and today Ervin will try to join his teammate at 6-0.