All's not well with Bagwell

If this is not the end of Jeff Bagwell's career, it's close enough that we can see it.

Bagwell, who turns 37 May 27, took himself out of the Astros' lineup May 3 after awakening with the worst pain he's felt yet in his arthritic right shoulder. Last week, the Astros placed him on the disabled list, and no one is predicting when he'll back. He was hitting .250 with 3 home runs and 15 RBIs, but as a man who has played the last four seasons in agony, even he may have reached the limits of his tolerance.

''Right now we're just hoping that shutting him down a week, two weeks, three weeks will give him some relief," said first-year general manager Tim Purpura, whose team has sunk to the bottom of the National League Central with an offense that hasn't survived the losses of free agents Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent and is now about to lose its most prolific slugger of the last 14 seasons. ''We're considering another cortisone injection, but understand, Jeff is calling all the shots on this. He has earned that respect, that right. In the last few years, he's consulted with many of the top orthopedic surgeons in the country, and our doctors have talked with them to see what his options may be."

Bagwell has been told that he will need shoulder replacement surgery when he is finished playing. Purpura acknowledged that has even been discussed as something Bagwell might do now to continue his career, although the GM called it a long shot.

''Some high-level tennis players on the club level have had shoulder replacement and are playing tennis again," Purpura said, ''but we've all seen what Bo Jackson went through with hip replacement, and the shoulder is a lot more complicated than the hip."

Bagwell had surgery following the 2001 season to remove bone spurs and reattach a torn labrum, and has played in pain ever since. Teammate Brad Ausmus said to imagine a drop of water striking you in the center of the forehead every day for almost four years; that's what Bagwell has had to endure.

''I can't fathom how he's been able to do what he's done with the shoulder he has," Purpura said of a player who managed to hit 39 home runs and knock in 100 runs in 2003, followed by 27 homers and 89 RBIs in 2004, when the shoulder deteriorated further.

''They talk about Roger Clemens being a warrior. Jeff has been every bit a warrior, with what he has had to deal with. He came to me on Opening Day and said, 'I don't know how much of this I can take. I don't want to embarrass myself or my club.' "

Bagwell, who will forever live in Red Sox lore as the prospect Lou Gorman traded for reliever Larry Andersen in 1990, is likely to finish his career with a batting average a hair under .300 (it is currently .297), but the man who formed one of the game's most enduring duos, with Craig Biggio, should face no questions about whether he is Cooperstown-worthy.

Bagwell had nine seasons of 30 or more homers, eight seasons of 100 or more RBIs, and an on-base average of .408, which was 10th-highest among active players after the 2004 season. The 1991 National League Rookie of the Year and 1994 NL MVP, Bagwell is a four-time All-Star, a Gold Glove winner, and is beloved in Houston. He may try to play again, but his legacy certainly doesn't demand it.

Lost Royals still looking for direction

You have to go back to Billy Gardner to find the last time the Royals hired a manager with previous big-league managing experience. That was in 1987. Since then, they have gone through John Wathan, Hal McRae, Bob Boone, Tony Muser, and now Tony Pena, who abruptly resigned last Tuesday after the Royals lost for the 16th time in 19 games, dropping their major league-worst record to 8-25.

General manager Allard Baird has said he would prefer that the next manager have experience, which would seem to rule out Bob Schaefer, the 60-year-old former Red Sox farm director who took over as interim manager after Pena quit. That would also appear to eliminate two other in-house candidates, Frank White, who is managing the team's Double A club in Wichita, and says he wants the job, and Mike Jirschele, the longtime organization man currently managing the Triple A Omaha Royals.

Larry Bowa, currently working as a TV analyst, has said he'd like the job, and among the experienced guys out there (Jim Fregosi, Art Howe, Grady Little, Gene Lamont, Jimy Williams), an intriguing name is Jim Leyland, who won a World Series with the Marlins and was a winner with the Pirates.

Pena's resignation was so unexpected that Glass found out about it from a reporter.

''I can't take it anymore," Pena told the Kansas City Star. ''We are not playing well. It's tough to go to the ballpark and lose game after game. I haven't been eating. I haven't been sleeping. I don't want to get sick."

A further complication was Pena's potential involvement in a divorce case in which lawyers wanted to question him about his relationship with a former neighbor. Pena denied that was a factor in his decision, but it was evident that a man who only two seasons ago was the American League's Manager of the Year was worn down by the losing. Last season, the Royals lost 104 games, most in franchise history.

''Tony was the right guy for us," said a Royals official. ''He developed the young kids, he had high energy, he bought into our plan, and he was very, very loyal. But you could see in his last three or four days that he was really getting beaten up on a daily basis."

Giant obstacles in San Francisco

The Giants are playing without arguably the best hitter in the history of the game, Barry Bonds. Their closer, Armando Benitez, tore a hamstring covering first base and is expected to miss three or four months. Now the staff ace, Jason Schmidt, is on the disabled list with a strained right shoulder.

''Reminds me," said assistant general manager Ned Colletti, ''of Joaquin Andujar's great quote: 'The one thing you know about baseball is you never know.' "

Colletti cannot offer a timetable on when Bonds will be back, or even whether he will back, not after three knee surgeries. Ask Colletti about the Giants' left fielder, and he says: ''Pedro Feliz is playing great. He's probably one of the most valuable players in the league right now."

Manager Felipe Alou, who just celebrated his 70th birthday, is holding together the bullpen with baling wire, but Colletti said the Giants aren't likely to make a trade.

''In May, the price is outlandish," he said. ''We're going to have to figure this out from within."

Etc.

The short circuit
While Edgar Renteria slowly raises his offensive production toward respectable levels, former Red Sox fan darling Orlando Cabrera is mired in a brutal slump with the Angels. Cabrera began the weekend with just five hits in 33 May at-bats (.152) and was batting just .230 overall. He was hitting only .203 at home, .162 against lefties, .158 with runners in scoring position, and a minuscule .106 (5 for 47) with two strikes (Johnny Damon, by contrast, came into the weekend leading the majors in two-strike hitting with a phenomenal .393 average). With Nomar Garciaparra likely to miss most, if not all, of the season after undergoing groin and abdominal surgery, the early winner in last winter's shortstop merry-go-round would appear to be the Cardinals with David Eckstein. Eckstein, who was not tendered a contract by the Angels, was hitting .415 (22 for 53) this month and had a 13-game hitting streak snapped Friday night. He had an on-base percentage of .400 and was tied for 13th in the National League with a .323 average.

Dusty's trail
There is already speculation in Chicago that Grady Little, a special assistant to Cubs general manager Jim Hendry, is in line for the managing job if the team decides to make a move with the embattled Dusty Baker, who has watched his bullpen implode on a daily basis. The coup de grace came 10 days ago when LaTroy Hawkins gave up the tying and winning runs when he tried to double up Jose Offerman on a liner back to the box, and his throw struck Offerman in the helmet and bounced into the stands. Baker, who has a year left on his deal and was hailed as a savior when he left the Giants in 2003, received a vote of confidence from team president Andy MacPhail last week. ''Like everybody else, I am not wowed by the won-loss record," MacPhail told the Chicago Tribune. ''But the blame game is something that seems to be more prevalent today in our sports media than it was 10 or 15 years ago. What we are really focused on is trying to fix the problem, not assigning blame. You know, assigning blame is kind of a waste of energy."

Escape route
How to resolve the Jason Giambi mess in New York, where the likelihood of the slugger ever producing for the Yankees grows dimmer every day? So far, he has refused to go to the minors, which, as YES analyst Jim Kaat said, was an act of selfishness that belied his reputation as a team man. And the Yankees so far have resisted cutting him and eating the $81 million owed him. The suggestion here is for the Yankees to work out a deal that would return Giambi to Oakland, scene of his greatest glory and a team desperately in need of some offense. A's GM Billy Beane took flak for trading aces Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, but it's the offense that has abandoned him. The A's came into the weekend last in the majors in runs, last in slugging percentage, and (Holy Moneyball!) in the bottom fifth in on-base average. Like most people, they probably figure Giambi is done, but Oakland might be the one place where he finds a flicker of his former confidence. The Yankees have to get him out of the Bronx, and if they can salvage even a little (a few bucks, a low-grade prospect), there would seem to be little risk for the A's.

He just can't win
Former Sox reliever Terry Adams, now with the Phillies, received his World Series ring, but that's where his 2005 highlights begin and end. Adams has appeared in 11 games for the Phillies, and they've lost all of them. His record is 0-2 with a 13.03 ERA; in two appearances this month, both losses, he has worked two-thirds of an inning and given up eight runs on six hits and two walks. Opposing batters are hitting .413 against him. Adams, who came to the Sox from the Blue Jays last season in a trade for minor league infielder John Hattig, had a similar run of misfortune just before that July 24 deal: In his last 16 appearances for the Blue Jays, Adams pitched fine (2.51 ERA), but the club was 1-15.

Early reports were good
Astros scout Mike Maggart, on why he lobbied Houston to sign Wade Miller: ''He only threw 87-89, but he had the makings of a good breaking ball and I liked his confidence and presence. He wanted to be there. He added about 7 miles an hour to his fastball over his career. He'll touch 97 if he's healthy. He just improved by leaps and bounds. He's a heck of a competitor. If he's healthy, the Red Sox have one of the top 10 pitchers in baseball."

Bottom-heavy lineup
Rick Vaughn's crack staff in Tampa Bay notes that the Devil Rays' No. 9 hitters came into the weekend batting .382 (49 for 128), making that the hottest lineup spot in the majors. Eight players have batted in the No. 9 hole for the D-Rays, and they have hit 10 home runs. Meanwhile, Tampa Bay's cleanup hitters -- Lou Piniella has used nine players in the four-hole -- had yet to hit a home run in 135 combined at-bats entering the weekend. The Devil Rays have played 37 games, and this is the latest a team has gone into a season without a cleanup home run since the '03 Pirates went 44 games.

Material from personal interviews, wire services, other beat writers, and league and team sources was used in this report.