DOWN THE LINE

Pleading for help

On Monday, the Milwaukee Brewers traded for CC Sabathia. On Tuesday, the Chicago Cubs traded for Rich Harden.

On Wednesday, managers from two NL rivals all but demanded their general managers do something big too.

“We need a blue-chip pitcher,” Philadelphia Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said. “We need a top-of-the-order, proven, big winner.”

Good luck with that. The Mariners just put Erik Bedard on the disabled list, the Blue Jays’ A.J. Burnett has a 5.23 earned-run average and the Astros do not appear inclined to ask Roy Oswalt whether he would waive his no-trade clause. Oswalt has a bum hip anyway.

“Guys like ours, they’ve been busting it for three months,” Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “They probably need the boost more than another club.

“We still needed help when we started. Were we worthy of getting it? Maybe not, because it was a rebuilding year. Well, on July 1, we’re one of the best records in the National League.”

Draft daze

The Cleveland Indians traded Sabathia for four prospects rather than let him leave as a free agent and collect two high draft picks.

The Indians would have gotten the first or second pick of the team that signed Sabathia -- no higher than No. 16 overall, and perhaps as low as No. 60 -- and a bonus pick between the first and second rounds, probably at No. 31.

The term “first-round draft pick” conjures up visions of stardom, but Cleveland General Manager Mark Shapiro said his team’s studies indicated the chances of drafting an everyday major leaguer “decrease exponentially after the seventh or eighth pick.” Matt LaPorta, the top prospect the Indians got for Sabathia, was the seventh overall pick last year.

At No. 31, Shapiro said the chance of getting an everyday major leaguer is about one in 10. “Although it doesn’t feel that way emotionally around the time of the draft, your odds are not very good,” Shapiro said.

Not done yet

When the San Diego Padres released center fielder Jim Edmonds in May, he was batting .178, with one home run in 90 at-bats. The Cubs signed him, and he’s batting .271 for them, with nine home runs in 131 at-bats.

The Cubs lead their division with Edmonds, who turned 38 last month. The Padres are last in theirs.

“What do you expect a 37-year-old guy to do when he didn’t go to spring training and started off the season not in shape? I know they have a business to run, but being in shape is huge,” said his former Angels teammate, Garret Anderson.

“People underestimate spring training. It’s there for a reason. He had a calf injury. How can you hit when you don’t have your legs? And he had, what, two rehab games? I missed most of spring training in 2004 and 2006, and I was feeling for it.

“Until you get your legs under you, it’s tough. I’m glad the Cubs gave him an opportunity to play.”

Butt out

The Dodgers’ Hiroki Kuroda had a perfect game and a 3-0 lead through seven innings on Monday, but Manager Joe Torre made no defensive substitutions. Kuroda gave up a double in the eighth inning, but he did not give up a run, and then Torre made two defensive substitutions for the ninth.

Call him superstitious. In his days as the Yankees’ manager, he said, he replaced the left fielder when David Wells had a perfect game going. Wells gave up a single to center field, then grumbled to Torre after the inning.

“He said, ‘What did you change the outfield for?’ ” Torre said. “And then he head-butted me. Out of love.”