AL Central

By now, Cleveland Indians fans have grown accustomed to watching their favorite players being shipped out of town around the trade deadline.

Casey Blake, Paul Byrd, Mark DeRosa, Ben Francisco, Ryan Garko, Cliff Lee, Victor Martinez, Carl Pavano, and C.C. Sabathia have all been shipped off between late June and early August the last couple years—and that doesn’t count winter exports Franklin Gutierrez and Kelly Shoppach.

The injuries just keep on coming for the Minnesota Twins.

In March, the club lost All-Star closer Joe Nathan for the year after he underwent Tommy John surgery.

Last week, reigning American League MVP Joe Mauer sat out with a heel injury that threatened to land him on the disabled list.

After reading through the article "Inglorious Relievers" by Peter Douglas, one fact is agonizingly clear to me. I think the list is entirely too dependent on the very small sample size of the first month of the 2010 season. 

In order to create a complete list of the top set-up men in baseball, there has to be at least some consideration given to past success and failure.

No, no, not his overall play, for a literal single play.

According to the Kansas City Star , the Royals have fined Betancourt, the team's shortstop, following a dropped fly ball in Friday's loss to the Texas Rangers.

The ball was hit to the grass just past the infield, where Betancourt attempted to make a flashy one-handed catch at shoulder level. Unfortunately, he dropped it, allowing a run to score and to give Texas an early 2-0 lead.

It only took two rehab appearances for the Cleveland Indians to feel Kerry Wood is healthy and ready to help the team. Wood, who has been out all year because of a strained right latissimus dorsi muscle was activated from the 15-Day DL yesterday.

Wood was roughed up in his first rehab appearance giving up six runs in two-thirds of an inning, but settled down in his second appearance to pitch a scoreless inning of work. Wood felt he was ready after his second appearance and if a 6′5″, 220 lb Texan says he is ready, I’ll take his word for it.

Friday, May 7 marked the first weather delay in Target Field history, as well as the first time in 30 years a Twins home game was delayed due to the elements.

This gives everyone who was in the retractable roof camp a reason to crow again for the first time since the stadium opened.

There was much hand-wringing when the final plans for the park were announced, and a roof was not part of the equation.

I didn’t have high hopes for the Cleveland Indians this season.

I understood that this year was about seasoning our young core of prospects and sorting out our jumbled rotation. I even opposed the few veteran signings we made out of fear that their presence would jeopardize our rookies’ playing time.

It is the spring of 1976, before Mark Fidrych’s mercurial career took off, when “the bird” still meant something not so nice.

My friend Kris Donker and I are loitering in the expensive box seats next to the Tigers dugout at Tiger Stadium, prior to a weekend afternoon game. We take in the majesty of the ballpark, with Chicago White Sox players taking batting practice before us.

Unbeknownst to us, we are blocking the access to a swinging gate/door that leads directly to the field.

“Excuse me, fellas!”

"Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball."—Ernie Harwell in his Induction Day Speech (August 2, 1981)

Quotes from Ernie Harwell

"Baseball is a lot like life. It's a day-to-day existence, full of ups and downs. You make the most of your opportunities in baseball as you do in life."

Attention mediocre American League pitchers and hitters.

If you'd like to build Hall of Fame numbers, it would be in your best interest to transfer to the National League as soon as possible.

We see pitchers like Brad Penny, Carlos Silva, and Jose Contreras, recent transfers to or back to the National League, as examples of the most recent hilarities the National League has produced.