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.
It hasn't been the greatest week for Cubs manager Lou Piniella. Not only is he feeling the heat of the Chicago media with the Cubs scuffling, but he's also gotten into an argument with Milton Bradley in which he called his right fielder a "piece of [expletive]." Regardless of whether the exchange should have ever left the clubhouse or not, it's not exactly the type of thing you want the world to know about.
All of this was done after a recent poll by Sports Illustrated in which Major League players were asked anonymously which manager in baseball they would least like to play for, and which one they'd most like to play for. Guess which one Sweet Lou emerged "victorious" in.
The White Sox and Cubs finished up their three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field on Sunday with a 6-0 White Sox victory that came complete with another Carlos Zambrano meltdown to put the finishing touches on a very ugly weekend for the Cubs. Of course, never wanting to actually talk about what the real problems are with the team, when talking about the team's lackluster play as of late manager ,Lou Piniella started talking about how the Cubs are helping the economy.
He talked of the team playing in front of three sellout crowds during the week in Detroit and how they helped fill all the seats on the South Side of Chicago over the weekend. Well, you can't expect Lou to make a subtle dig at the White Sox attendance numbers without Ozzie Guillen getting in a response, can you?
Each year the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox play six times. Six. Out of 162 total games. Those games aren't any more relevant than six games between the Twins and Cubs or Brewers and White Sox. Of course, there are millions of misguided fans who believe there's a rivalry between the two teams, a notion that is only perpetuated when our President talks about how the White Sox play "real baseball." FanHouse's resident Cubs fan (Matt Snyder) and resident White Sox fan (Tom Fornelli) got together to discuss the aura surrounding what shouldn't be a rivalry.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Milton Bradley has often been called a five-tool player. Guess one of those tools isn't math.
The Cubs outfielder had a bad day. He caught a one-out fly ball in the eighth inning and then flipped the ball into the stands as a runner scored from third on a sacrifice fly. Bradley probably had no play at the plate, so the error was more strange than costly.
"I wasn't embarrassed," Bradley said. "I've done a whole lot of things to be embarrassed about. That's water under the bridge. The run was going to score, the fan got a souvenir. Worst case scenario."
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.
We had to break the trend. Sure, the Dodgers might have a better record than everyone else -- but competition has to count for something, doesn't it? The Dodgers have mutilated the mediocre-at-best NL West to the tune of 26-9. This means they are 14-11 against everyone else. Is that a top-two team in baseball? Hardly, I'll take the heated-rivals: Yankees (who have overcome a slow start to go 19-7 since May 12) and Red Sox (18-8 against the best division in baseball) as the top two.
After the White Sox dropped the first game of a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers on Monday afternoon Ozzie Guillen laid into his team. It was Guillen's first real outburst of the season, and during his tirade he said that changes would be coming pretty soon. Well, some of those changes came earlier than Guillen figured, because in the nightcap Jose Contreras turned into a major league pitcher and Scott Podsednik broke out the big boy bat with a home run and the Sox actually won a game.
Of course those weren't the changes Guillen was talking about. The amateur draft is tonight and it seems the Sox want to promote their latest first round picks. After the Sox called up their first-round pick from last year, Gordon Beckham, last week, they went ahead and called up their first-round pick from 2007. Aaron Poreda will be joining the team in time for Tuesday's game.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Florida's Sean West is now within 299 wins of Randy Johnson on the all-time career list.
West, 22, out-dueled Johnson on Monday in the latter's first start after reaching the 300-win milestone, taking a no-hitter into the seventh against San Francisco. It was the fourth career start for West, and his first victory.
A tall left-hander, he naturally idolized Johnson growing up.
Going up against Johnson was an even greater thrill.
"It was so surreal seeing him out there [Monday]," West said. "It was like a dream."
So far, West – who at 6-foot-8 gives up two inches to Johnson – has a 2.22 ERA with just 14 hits allowed in 24 1/3 innings.
There was some doubt that Peavy will accept the deal because of possible apprehension about either playing for Ozzie Guillen, playing in the American League, or pitching in US Cellular Field. The San Diego Union Tribune's Tom Krasovic originally reported the deal, and now according to Krasovic, it's "unlikely' this trade is going to go through.
It hasn't been the greatest week for Cubs manager 
The White Sox and Cubs finished up their three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field on Sunday with a 6-0 White Sox victory that came complete with another 
Starting Five
After the 
Have you heard? The White Sox and Padres have agreed to a deal that would send 
