Rockies trade Ubaldo Jimenez to Indians for four prospects including Drew Pomeranz

The Colorado Rockies have traded starter Ubaldo Jimenez to the Cleveland Indians for four prospects: pitchers Drew Pomeranz, Alex White and Joe Gardner and first baseman Matt McBride.

All three pitchers rank in the top six of the Indians prospects by MLB.com with Pomeranz, the fifth overall pick in 2010, ranked second behind third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall.

Technically, Pomeranz can't be traded until August 15th.

Jimenez, who was rocked last night (four walks and four earned runs in one inning), has a reasonable salary over the next couple of seasons: $2.8 million (2011), $4.2 million (2012) and $5.7 million (2013). There is a club option for $14 million in 2014, but Jimenez can void that due to the trade.

But ESPN's Keith Law thinks that the Indians made a bad move for two reasons. First, the Indians have struggled (23-36) since their surprising start (30-15), which came against relatively easier competition. Second, it's unclear which Ubaldo Jimenez the Indians will get.

Last year, Jimenez was 15-1 with a 2.20 ERA heading into the All-Star Break. Since then, Jimenez has a 10-16 record with an ERA of 4.19.

"He's been a little beat up this year," closer Chris Perez said of Jimenez (via Paul Hoynsie of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer), "but Colorado isn't the easiest place to pitch. His road numbers are much better and he's on a club-friendly contract.

"I think we gave up a lot of talent, but you have to give talent to get talent. Pomeranz has a lot of talent, but at the same time he's never pitched up here. In five years we might be kicking ourselves."

As of last night's game, the Indians are 53-51 and 1.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers (56-51).

Alex Rodriguez to have knee surgery Monday, out 4-6 weeks

New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez will have surgery on Monday to repair his torn meniscus, per Peter Botte of the NY Daily News.

Rodriguez will miss the next 4-to-6 weeks while recovering from the surgery.

Although he considered playing through the injury, which initially occurred on June 19th, it makes more sense to get it taken care of now.

"Absolutely. That's what I would say, if you're going to have the surgery, let's get it done as soon as possible so some of the off-days you're having are during the (All-Star) break," [manager Joe] Girardi said. "If he decided not to have the surgery, we've seen how it's kind of affected him up to this point."

This means Rodriguez will have landed on the disabled list in four consecutive seasons.

A-Rod hasn't hit a home run in his past 85 at-bats, which is the longest drought of his career.

On the season, Rodriguez is hitting .295 with 13 home runs and 52 runs batted in.

Derek Jeter homers for 3,000th hit

Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter homered for his 3,000th career (regular-season) hit off Rays starting pitcher David Price.

Jeter, who is the 28th player to reach the milestone, became only the second player to homer for his 3,000th hit. As noted by SI's Joe Posnanski, Wade Boggs was the other player.

In addition, Jeter becomes the first player in franchise history to reach the milestone while collecting all 3,000 hits as a Yankee.

Here are the other 27 players to have reached the milestone in Major League Baseball history:

1. Pete Rose (4,256)
2. Ty Cobb (4,189)
3. Hank Aaron (3,771)
4. Stan Musial (3,630)
5. Tris Speaker (3,514)
6. Cap Anson (3,435)
7. Honus Wagner (3,420)
8. Carl Yastrzemski (3,419)
9. Paul Molitor (3,319)
10. Eddie Collins (3,315)
11. Willie Mays (3,283)
12. Eddie Murray (3,255)
13. Nap Lajoie (3,242)
14. Cal Ripken (3,184)
15. George Brett (3,154)
16. Paul Waner (3,152)
17. Robin Yount (3,142)
18. Tony Gwynn (3,141)
19. Dave Winfield (3,110)
20. Craig Biggio (3,060)
21. Rickey Henderson (3,055)
22. Rod Carew (3,053)
23. Lou Brock (3,023)
24. Rafael Palmeiro (3,020)
25. Wade Boggs (3,010)
26. Al Kaline (3,007)
27. Roberto Clemente (3,000)

The next closest active player to reach 3,000 hits is Nationals catcher Ivan Rodriguez, who has 2,842 hits as of yesterday.

When it's all said and done, how high will Jeter finish on this list (vote on our poll here)?

Ryan Braun's MRI shows inflammation but no structural damage

Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun missed a fourth consecutive game on Wednesday. And although he won't play in the series opener against the Reds on Thursday, he could return as early as Friday, per MLB.com's Adam McCalvey.

Braun had an MRI today and the results showed inflammation in a tendon behind the knee -- but no structural damage.

"I think it was the best-case result," Braun said, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "They said the only thing that could have been better was if it was more in the muscle. It's kind of more hamstring than calf. It's in a tendon behind my knee that's in between the calf and the hamstring. It doesn't get as much blood flow as a muscle does.

"I'm not in pain or anything like that. It's just that, unfortunately, I'm not able to do baseball activities. The goal is to minimize the time missed. It's more beneficial to miss a little time now than a long time down the road."

If Braun doesn't play this weekend, he said he won't play in the All-Star Game next week.

On the season, Braun is hitting .320 with 16 home runs, 62 runs batted in and 19 stolen bases. Along with Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp, Braun is one of two players in baseball that is hitting at least .300 with 15-plus homers and 15-plus steals.