FanHouse ARamis Ramirez

After sitting out Sunday's game against the Rockies, Aramis Ramirez told reporters that his shoulder is still sore and that he may need a cortisone shot before the season is over. Either way, he doesn't appear likely to play Monday night and he's still not ruling out offseason surgery to repair the shoulder he dislocated in May.

When Ramirez first returned from the injury on July 6, the Cubs were 40-39, 2 1/2 games out of first in the NL Central and three games back in the wild-card chase. They're 15-10 with Ramirez in the lineup, and while they're not appreciably closer in either race (they're two games back of the Cardinals, Rockies, and Giants for the Central and wild card right now), they haven't fallen out of either yet.

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

The second half of the season is in full swing and lo and behold if capitalism hasn't reared it's ugly head once again. Billy Beane was spun off Matt Holliday (as expected of course) and the eleventy billion dollar payroll machine that is the New York Yankees are in first place in the AL East. (Of course, that can't explain why the Mets are horrible but that's a whole other thing.)

Will the Yankees' surge be enough to propel them into the critically important No. 1 slot of the FanHouse MLB Power Rankings? Find out after the jump.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

With the non-waiver trade deadline looming just eight days away, it seemed like the perfect time to warn teams about the dangers of a deadline deal. There are plenty of good trades on the books. Then again, it's the swaps that blow up in the face of a team that seem to stick with us. That's nothing new. We know the famous, ill-fated John Smoltz and Jeff Bagwell deals, but for now let's look at recent history by ranking the 10 worst deadline deals of the 2000s.

As has been covered ad nauseum, the Cubs fell colossally short of expectations in 2009's first half. Since the All-Star break, the Cubs have won four straight games and begun to resemble last year's bunch in several ways. The biggest sign of positivity was Alfonso Soriano hitting home runs in consecutive games, but there was more. Mike Fontenot looked like the '08 version instead of the slapper we've seen for the past six weeks. Aramis Ramirez hit his first home run since returning from a season-altering shoulder injury. Kevin Gregg continued to outperform Kerry Wood -- whom he replaced as closer. Rich Harden looked unhittable.

Of course, we have to throw a gigantic asterisk next to the above paragraph. The Cubs were playing the Washington Nationals -- a team on pace to go 46-116.

WASHINGTON -- Maybe the Cubs just needed a break. Maybe they needed to get third baseman Aramis Ramirez healthy and Derrek Lee rolling. Or maybe they just really needed a trip to the nation's capital to face everyone's favorite doormat, the 26-62 Nationals.

Chicago is lucky to be where it is, in fourth place in the NL Central, but only 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Cardinals, and on the first day after the All-Star break the Cubs looked like they had every intention of taking advantage of their good fortune.

"Do I feel this team will be able to make a run? How about a fast walk," manager Lou Piniella cracked when asked to assess his team's chances heading into the second half of the season.

MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.

Well, I'll tell you one thing: baseball ain't boring, folks. At least if you're in the middle class anyway; the upper crust is (somewhat) starting to establish itself across MLB's ranks and the bottom portion of the league is certainly holding steady. But in the middle, well, goodness. We have a lot of would-be title contenders. How's your semi-crappy team faring in the all-important MLB FanHouse Power Rankings this week? Find out after the jump.

Celebrities routinely enjoy special treatment at Wrigley Field, often times having the privilege of staining our collective eardrums by singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch. Afterward, an interview occurs with the announcers. Erik Estrada, of CHiPS fame, was the celebrity at the Cubs game last night. Things did not go well.

"Well" would have included a lively discussion about baseball. Or anything other than what he talked about. Which just happened to be a brief discussion of Ron Jeremy's, ahem, junk, and child pornography (although it's extremely important to note that it relates to his doing real police work and that the execution was just horrible). So, yeah, he should be a regular guest at Wrigley.

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

I had no idea I had these kinds of powers. Just one day after I made Johnny Cueto one of the headliners for All-Star Game snubs, he took the ball against the Philadelphia Phillies. The result was an absolute massacre, the likes of which we rarely -- if ever -- see from a starting pitcher. This outing so was horrifying it scared the hell out of Ugly.

The line? 49 pitches, 5 hits, 3 walks, 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 9 earned runs ... all with just two recorded outs. Two.

When Aramis Ramirez takes the field Monday night in Wrigley Field, the Cubs will see themselves in the exact same position as the day he fell injured. They are 2 1/2 games out of first place, just like when their best offensive player badly injured his shoulder diving for a liner in Milwaukee.

The reality of the situation, though, is that you can attribute the Cubs' ability to hang in the race more to the futility of their division foes than to the Cubs playing well. They haven't played well at all, yet they sit right in the thick of the race. Adding Ramirez is almost akin to a huge trade here in early July. But, the interesting wrinkle in the whole situation is the roster shakeup which will accompany Ramirez's triumphant return.

Earlier this week, I joined up with Andrew Johnson and Will Brinson on the inaugural BaseCast to discuss the Cubs' unbelievably disappointing start to the 2009 season. To conclude the segment, I was asked if the Cubs can get things straightened out and win the division. I said that was an easy answer because of the word choice. Of course they can. Had the question been "will they?" I would have said no.

Just two days later, there are plenty of reasons on the horizon to believe they can head into the All-Star break not only in thick of things in the NL Central, but atop it. Wouldn't that be a weird sight -- seeing the Cubs in first place after such a disastrous first half.