FanHouse Harold Baines

As a whole, the baseball season in Chicago has been a disappointment. The Cubs were expected to contend for a World Series title only to be thrown off track by injuries and Milton Bradley, while on the other side of town the White Sox have failed to exceed expectations. As is usually the case when this happens to large-market teams, wholesale changes are made.

The White Sox parted ways with Jim Thome and 2005 World Series hero Jose Contreras, and it's likely other players such as Jermaine Dye, Bobby Jenks and Paul Konerko could be following them out of town this winter. Still, that doesn't mean everybody in the White Sox organization is leaving.

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.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

The 2009 Hall of Fame ballot was released Monday, and with it is certain to come heated debate right up until and after the voting results are revealed on Jan. 12, 2009. This year's class of candidates is similar to last year's, in that it's a shallow group.

There is only one sure-fire Hall of Famer among the 23 candidates, which means this is a critical vote for the borderline players who have been up for election on multiple occasions. Now is the time for those borderline guys to get over the top or make a big push to lay the groundwork for election in future years.

After the jump is a breakdown of the ballot, complete with what I think will happen and what should happen with this year's class of Cooperstown contenders.

Do you have what it takes to hit a home run? It's easier than you think, provided you're in the right spot at the right time. A batboy for the White Sox almost found that out on Wednesday. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

After hitting a three-run home run in the first inning against Milwaukee, Eduardo Perez pulled up lame going around first base with what later was called a strained right calf.

Paul Konerko motioned for the batboy to run for Perez, but as he took off down the first-base line, Sox first-base coach Harold Baines road-blocked the youngster. Finally, [shortstop Andy] Gonzalez came in and ran for Perez, getting credit for the run scored.

''I saw that,'' Perez said of the batboy. ''I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me. He's going to get credit for the home run.'''

Okay, so the batboy didn't technically hit the home run, but Perez is correct in noting that he would have been credited as such in the box score in he ran the bases -- you can't hit a home run without collecting a run scored, can you?

I'm sure some of you are wondering why Konerko even thought the batboy would be allowed to run, so it's worth noting this was a "B" game -- one of those fun quirks of spring training in which teams play games where normal rules don't necessarily apply. Need a guy to get extra at-bats? Let him lead-off every inning. Trying to protect a pitcher's arm? End the inning with a pitch count instead of waiting for three outs. And people wonder why no one takes spring training stats seriously ...

In any case, I feel bad for the batboy -- that home run belonged to him just as much as it did any else aside from Perez, so why not give him a moment in the sun? That's something he'd be telling his buddies for the rest of his life, but Baines had to be a hard-ass about it. Thanks for nothing, Harold.