Baseball

Nothing too much here, just a brief look towards Autumn and the 2009 MLB Playoffs. Also included are the projected final standings, and playoff predictions.

American League

1. Boston Red Sox

2. Los Angeles Angels

3. Minnesota Twins(yes, I said the Twins)

4. New York Yankees

5. Tampa Bay Rays

6. Texas Rangers

7. Detroit Tigers

8. Toronto Blue Jays

9. Chicago White Sox

10. Seattle Mariners

11. Oakland Athletics

12. Baltimore Orioles

13. Kansas City Royals

So my mother, in all her infinite wisdom, was having a garage sale today at our home. Besides the hours of heavy lifting and listening to old people as they asked me to read off prices of various items, a few interesting things happened.

A creepy old guy hit on my sister, a old man told us, "he was looking for that one thing," and some young kid asked me about trading cards.

"Trading cards? Yeah I got some"

So far this season, the Tampa Bay Rays' pitching staff has looked more like a M.A.S.H unit. Even though there are still pitchers on the disabled list, there are reasons for hope in St. Petersburg. Here are some reasons why the Rays' pitchers will help the Rays contend during the second half of the season:

1. Scott Kazmir's return from the D.L.

There was a welcome sight at US Cellular Field on Friday, and it wasn't just Lou standing up to Milton Bradley's temper. Aramis Ramirez was taking batting practice again. Lou described this as the final stretch in getting the motor of the Cubs offence back.

He will go out on a three or four game rehab assignment, and should be back a week before the all star game. So while that is fantastic news, that I'm sure will be covered in great detail here at BR by other writers, it got me thinking about another aspect of the Cubs line-up.

Team of the Week: Tampa Bay Rays (pictured above), for the second time in three weeks

Bust of the Week: Philadelphia Phillies, for the second straight week

As the MLB and its 29...err, 30...teams (sorry, Nats fans) approach the middle of the season, it's all about how well they can perform with the title races tightening and the summer sun heating up.

To say the least, Koji Uehara has had a very up-and-down rookie season with the Baltimore Orioles. In 12 starts, he is 2-4 with a 4.05 ERA, has walked just 12 in 66 and two thirds innings, and has yet to hit batter. While he's done a good job for a rookie, he's had his share of downs.

O's fans have come to notice he doesn't have much to work with after the fifth inning. He has pitched seven innings just once, an Apr. 19 start against the Boston Red Sox in which he allowed two runs in a loss.

$200-plus million is a lot of money. And yes, there is a point to this rather obvious statement.

The transfer fees agreed to by Real Madrid last week for Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka were stunners, even by the inflated standards of world football. 

Real's approach for much of the past decade has been the signing of veritable dream teams of world-renowned talents, known as "galacticos."  Names like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Raul, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham, and now Kaka and Cristiano.

Circle the wagons, grab your money, buy the seats, because the Cleveland Indians we expected are ready to return. Travis Hafner shows signs of the player of years gone by and Grady Sizemore has returned. Asdrubal Cabrera should return to shortstop next week. Aaron Laffey is slated to return to the starting rotation.

Now its time for Wedge to make the Great Experiment: a set lineup.

Several years ago my ex-girlfriend (who at that time wasn’t sporting the “ex” prefix) asked me who I thought was the greatest ballplayer of all time.

Every time I hear that Ozzie Guillen has said something, nothing seems to surprise me. His moments of childhood seem to be full to the brim, especially know as we still look back onto his Wrigley Field comments.

Ozzie is still a kid, and very probably will always be. His childhood-like mentality in the clubhouse has somehow worked though, he won the Chicago White Sox a championship in the 2006 season. They also made the playoffs last year, winning the AL Central division.