FanHouse Jeff Bailey

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.

It's a funny thing, sometimes, to see how Power Rankings shape up over the course of the season. Just like when we started the year, there are a number of teams from one particular division sitting atop the rankings. Of course, there are plenty of surprises -- WHERE DID THE FREAKING GIANTS AND ROCKIES COME FROM?? -- and some other interesting stuff, like the fact that the Mets and Cubs just haven't been that good, which we discussed on the inaugural BaseCast recently.

Complaining of stiffness and limited to only nine at-bats over the last week, Mike Lowell saw team doctors on Monday.

In the midst of injecting Mike Lowell with Synvisc to coat the joint in his surgically repaired hip yesterday, the Red Sox [team stats] medical staff also drained 15 ccs of fluid from the area.

While this procedure could have lended to Lowell playing by the weekend, the Red Sox decided instead to have Jeff Bailey join the team in Baltimore, and place Lowell on the 15-day disabled list.

Bailey has been slotted into the ninth spot in the batting order and will play first base Tuesday night, with Kevin Youkilis moving over the third base.

In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot October topic.

With a rather sizable assist from Mike Scioscia's hubris-fueled devotion to smallball, the Red Sox are headed back to the ALCS for the fourth time in six years. If recent history tells us anything, Boston might fall behind early -- as it did against New York in 2004 (3-0) and Cleveland in 2007 (3-1) -- but it will find a way to win the series.

These are, after all, the Red Sox. They've been there before. They're Major League Baseball's model franchise. They have dominant starting pitching, a lights-out closer and a mix of experienced veterans and budding youngsters.

But while Boston basks in another winning playoff series, let's take a moment to consider how many problems it is facing as it tries to win another World Series and establish baseball's first dynasty since the Yankees of the late 1990s.

There is a veritable laundry list of concerns: