Touch 'Em All: More sour Melky - web of deceit alleged

Before he was suspended for illegal use of testosterone, disgraced Giants slugger Melky Cabrera and his people engaged in trickery - specifically, creating a fake website to establish his innocence - to avoid punishment, according to the New York Daily News.

The ruse, the Daily News reported Sunday, was quickly uncovered in July by Major League Baseball, and has drawn the attention of federal investigators.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy would not discuss the allegations, but he didn't defend his player's actions, either.

"We can't follow guys 24/7, and it comes down to choices. [Cabrera] is a grown man, he's a veteran," Bochy said.

Cabrera, who had been having a career season, was suspended Wednesday for 50 games.

The allegations in the newspaper article focus on Juan Nunez, who has been described by Cabrera's agents, Seth and Sam Levinson, as a "paid consultant" of their firm but not an "employee."

Nunez is alleged to have paid $10,000 for a website that he later stuffed with phony product information about a supplement illegally spiked with testosterone. The aim was to present Cabrera as having been duped by the website.

"If you create a new website, you would know when the website was created," a baseball official familiar with the probe said Sunday. "At least they were smart enough to buy an existing website."

Cabrera's associates and his entourage, including trainers, handlers and agents, have now drawn the focus of investigator Jeff Novitzky, along with agents from MLB's Department of Investigation, according to the news report.

Novitzky is the Food and Drug Administration special agent who, in his prior job as an IRS special agent, ran the investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco). That probe led to the seizure of the baseball drug list and the indictment of the Giants' Barry Bonds.

After spending all summer dumping players - and compiling a miserable 39-82 record along the way - the Astros didn't stop there.

They fired manager Brad Mills and two coaches late Saturday night, a move they announced in an e-mail almost two hours after the Diamondbacks trounced the Astros, 12-4.

The players weren't immediately told about the dismissals of Mills, hitting coach Mike Barnett, and first base coach Bobby Meacham, and some of them complained about having learned about the changes on Twitter.

To their credit, the Astros announced before Sunday's game that Tony DeFrancesco (skipper of Houston's triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City) had been appointed interim manager.

It didn't help the Astros, who lost to Arizona, 8-1, to fall to 39-83.