AL Central

Alas, Carlos Guillen's 36-year-old body could take no more. After three disappointing seasons riddled with injury along the stretch of a 14-year MLB career, the former Tiger has announced his retirement.

Fox News and USA Today confirmed Guillen's retirement.

The Chicago White Sox went all in in 2011.

They busted.

When that happens, those who had losing hands are supposed to walk away from the table. Of the people principally responsible for the collapse, though, only two—manager Ozzie Guillen, hitting coach Greg Walker and pitcher Mark Buehrle—actually exited.

The Chicago White Sox have most of their usual suspects returning to the everyday lineup in 2012. Manager Robin Ventura is charged with the task of putting together a regular batting order on his lineup card. One area in which Ventura is considering a change is the second spot in the order.

Ventura is making a case for catcher A.J. Pierzynski to inhabit that spot. Pierzynski did not bat in the second slot all season in 2011, though he did spend most of the 2008 season there.

Brett Lawrie, 2B Toronto Blue Jays (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 22.7 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 2/4, 1 RBI

Brett Lawrie has finally arrived! He tore up AAA pitching this season going .353/64/18/61/13. In my opinion, the call-up should have happened much earlier—but it didn't. Then Lawrie suffered a hand injury on May 31st which kept him out of the game for a while. Now that it is completely healed, expect him to rake for the Blue jays.

For years under the direction of Tom Kelly, we constantly heard that the baseball season was a marathon and not a sprint.

"Take it one game at a time" was the mantra constantly repeated to the players, media and fans during Kelly's tenure as manager from 1986 to 2001.

Michael Cuddyer will not leave the Minnesota Twins before the end of the season via trade, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

He may walk when his contract expires at the end of the season, and if the team's announced intention to re-sign him falls through.

The Twins looked like they were going to escape Friday's game with a 1-0 win.

Nick Blackburn pitched seven solid innings.

"I think today everything was just down," said Blackburn, who had struggled earlier this month, "and that hasn’t been the case for probably the last four or five starts."

Joe Nathan took care of business in the eighth.

"He threw the ball very well," said manager Ron Gardenhire after the game. "He’s throwing the ball good."

Some of baseball's greatest players are enshrined in the Hall of Fame. However, certain great players have not gotten in for some crazy reason. 

Usually the reason why these players never get in is simply because there were other players who out shined them. Hopefully, these men will finally get the credit they deserve. 

This slideshow will list the 10 players that deserve a one-way trip to Cooperstown.

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The Detroit Tigers have a glaring hole at second base this season. 

Will Rhymes, Scott Sizemore, and Ryan Raburn haven't fared well in their time at second.  The Tigers' front office suggests that they will address the position internally (likely with the return of Carlos Guillen from the DL) rather than with a trade. 

It’s never easy to predict when a professional athlete will break down physically. Chalk it up to genetics perhaps. Some players are freaks of nature. Who can explain how Brett Favre played one of the most physically punishing positions in sports with Lou Gehrig-like durability?

Why is it that the quarterback Favre played 19 seasons and never missed a start, while basketball player Greg Oden is like a man made of salt left out in the rain?