MLB outlook, week of 6/27/10

 1. Gone Fishin’ » Safe to say Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria has developed a reputation. The man who presided over the demise of the Montreal Expos once won a championship by canning a manager midseason. That unfortunate soul was Jeff Torborg. Instead, Jack McKeon led the Marlins to the World Series in 2003. Joe Girardi — we think he’s proved himself elsewhere — won 78 games in his first season in 2006 and was fired thanks to a personality clash with Loria. The latest casualty? Fredi Gonzalez. He’s led Florida to two winning seasons, and while the Marlins struggled in 2010 they were still near .500. Not good enough for Loria, who is now on his fifth different manager during an eight-year reign — two more than the Pirates.

2. Cliff Lee’s next home » Baseball’s ultimate trade chip will probably find himself in a new location this summer. Lee was in Cleveland a year ago at this time, helped the Phillies to the World Series and as thanks was traded to Seattle in the offseason. After missing the first month of the season, though, the 31-year-old has been better than ever. In 11 starts, he has walked four batters. That’s 19 strikeouts for every walk in 2010. The next best starter with more than 40 innings? Roy Halladay averages 6.13 strikeouts-per-walk. Only the Orioles and Indians are worse than the Mariners in the American League and they are 13 games behind in the AL West. Lee could jumpstart the rebuilding process and — again — tip the balance in a pennant race.

3. Strasburg breaks strikeout record » There is no doubt that Washington Nationals rookie Stephen Strasburg has lived up to the hype that has been built up around him. With nine strikeouts against the Royals, Strasburg set a Major League record with 41 strikeouts in his first four starts. The previous record (40 strikeouts) was set in 1955 by Cleveland’s Herb Score. After debuting with 14 Ks against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the strikeouts have continued to come — fooling batters with his tricky curveball and blowing them away with his fastball. However, run support has plagued Strasburg with the Nats were shutout by Kansas City during the record-breaking performance. The rookie only gave up one run but was bested by Brian Bannister, 1-0.

SERIES TO WATCH
Rays at Red Sox, Tuesday-Wednesday
Only a two-game midweek series between these division foes, but a crucial matchup in the developing playoff race in the AL East. Both the Rays and the Red Sox trail the division-leading New York Yankees by two games. The teams converge at this point after getting off to opposite starts this season: Boston started slow and many began to have their doubts while the Rays reached 30 wins before any other team in baseball.

— Nabeel Ahmadieh contributed to this report