• Barry Bonds. His stories pretty much write themselves.
• Miguel Cabrera. Anyone who gets scolded by Ozzie Guillen for being too fat is okay in my book.
• Fausto Carmona. One of the biggest surprises of 2007.
• Daisuke Matsuzaka. Not as good as the hype, but still pretty good.
• Gil Meche. Irresponsible spending almost got the Royals out of last place.
• Jake Peavy. Bounced back from poor (by his standards) ‘06 season.
• Carlos Pena. Where did that come from?
• Alex Rodriguez. Takes abuse from everyone, but still great.
• C.C. Sabathia. Out-Santana’d Santana.
• Barry Zito. Hey, at least the Giants only have 6 years left on his deal.

Stay tuned for Jamie’s full list…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

• Chicago White Sox – These guys won the World Series in 2005 and 90 games last year; now they’ve fallen behind perennial cellar dweller Kansas City in the AL Central and are fighting the Devil Rays for worst record in all of baseball. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has taken to critiquing Miguel Cabrera’s physique (Cabrera, it should be noted, doesn’t play for Guillen’s team) and accusing his players of mass murder. Really, who could have seen this coming?
• Houston Astros – This is the team that lost to the White Sox in the ‘05 World Series. At least Guillen and his boss, Kenny Williams, have survived the season. Phil Garner and Tim Purpura weren’t so lucky. The Astros won just 82 games last year, so their fall hasn’t been quite as precipitous as that of the White Sox, but still, this is a franchise that has grown accustomed to winning. I’m not sure that anyone expected Houston to be a serious playoff contender, but I’m also not sure they expected to see the Astros struggling to stay ahead of Pittsburgh in the NL Central.
• Washington Nationals – Yeah, they’re on pace to lose 89 games, but several experts thought the Nats would threaten the ‘62 New York Mets all-time record of 120 losses in a season. The team is unbelievably anonymous outside of Ryan Zimmerman and maybe Chad Cordero. But Manny Acta has gotten a terrific performance from a resurgent Dmitri Young, and his young pitching staff has shown improvement in the second half of the season. I don’t think most pundits had this team coming anywhere near 70 wins; that a team with such a lack of identifiable talent should remain reasonably competitive into September (or at least as competitive as a certain team from San Francisco that shelled out $126 million for a mid-rotation starter) is enough to get Acta consideration for Manager of the Year in my book.
• Magglio Ordonez – He’s having a career year at age 33. After a brilliant run from 2000 to 2003, Ordonez saw his game deteriorate due to injuries. He signed a big contract with Detroit that smelled “like summer armpits” and got into just 82 games in his first season with the Tigers. Last year Ordonez remained healthy but didn’t perform at his previous levels. No surprise, really; the guy was 32 years old and coming off two injury-marred seasons. So the natural next step is, what, MVP candidate? Go figure.
• Carlos Pena – We’ve already talked about him. Pena is up to 37 homers with 22 games remaining. He has an outside shot to finish the season with more home runs than he hit in the big leagues from 2004 to 2006 combined (46). I would say that Pena just needed the opportunity, but he’d had plenty of ‘em and done nothing to suggest that this was possible.
• Jack Cust – Fun story. The former first-round pick had sipped cups of coffee in Arizona, Colorado, Baltimore, and San Diego before finding himself in Oakland. Again. Cust actually spent the 2005 season playing for Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate but at age 26, never reached the big leagues that year. This season, when Mike Piazza landed on the DL, the A’s needed a guy with Cust’s skills — the ability to mash a baseball — and acquired him from the Padres for next to nothing. Cust, whose defensive shortcomings make him a liability in the National League, responded to the opportunity and became Oakland’s most productive player.
• Fausto Carmona – Nothing says “Cy Young candidate” like a 1-10 record and 5.42 ERA. That’s what Carmona did in 2006 at age 22, and now he is one of the best starting pitchers in the American League. His strikeout totals are a tad low, but with the number of ground balls he serves up, it may not matter.
• Josh Hamilton – Taken as a Rule V pick this winter despite having played just 15 games over the previous three seasons, Hamilton stuck with the big club in Cincinnati and is hitting .288/.367/.547 for the Reds in just over 300 plate appearances. The kid still has work to do, but given where he’s been and how far the former #1 pick overall has come to get back to this point in his career, I have a feeling that won’t be a problem.
• Rick Ankiel – Brian Gunn has written a nice article about Ankiel’s success over at Hardball Times (disclosure: I contribute to THT). The Ankiel story truly is amazing. As Brian wrote when Ankiel converted to the outfield, “It’s best to consider Rick Ankiel retired from baseball.” It was very difficult, at the time, to imagine any other outcome. Unless, of course, you were Ankiel, in which case you went out and did the impossible.

That’s the great thing about baseball. No matter what you might have seen, you can be sure you haven’t seen it all…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

American League

• Mariners at Yankees, 4:05 p.m. PT — I’m contractually obligated to pimp the Yankees game, because no-one else will. Philip Hughes gets the start for New York. He’s coughed up five runs in each of his past three starts, but whatever. Outfielder Wladimir Balentien is up for Seattle. In addition to the great name, Balentien has some of the sickest power I’ve seen in the minors. Dude hit some serious shots when he was in the California League. Big kid.
• Orioles at Devil Rays, 4:10 p.m. PT — Dude, don’t actually watch this one. I just couldn’t resist including Radhames Liz and Andy Sonnanstine in this post. And now that I think of it, B.J. Upton is worth watching, as is the inexplicably resurgent Carlos Pena.

National League

• Dodgers at Cubs, 5:05 p.m. PT — Eric Stults takes the mound for LA. I loved him in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (some jokes never get old, they’re just lame to begin with). On the other side, Ted Lilly gets the call against his former employer. Lilly never made it to the big club, but he was drafted by the Dodgers back in ‘96. Lilly also was part of a July 2002 trade that included the aforementioned Pena. The Tigers ended up with Pena and Jeremy Bonderman, the A’s got Lilly, and the Yankees drew the short straw, er, I mean Jeff Weaver.
• Pirates at Cardinals, 5:10 p.m. PT — Mark Mulder makes his 2007 debut for St. Louis, bringing new meaning to the term “fashionably late.” As was the case in ‘06, the Cardinals find themselves in the thick of a pennant race despite being a .500 ballclub. Yippee for them. Rick Ankiel continues to defy logic by being a productive everyday outfielder. He’s even destroying lefties. It’s a small sample, but how could would that be if Ankiel ends up having a decent big-league career after all? Russell Branyan also somehow has found his way to St. Louis. Elvis is everywhere? No, Russell is everywhere.
• Padres at Diamondbacks, 6:40 p.m. PT — Jake Peavy, Livan Hernandez, battle for supremacy in the NL West, etc.

One game? As usual, I’m partial to San Diego/Arizona. Happy watching!

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Pena, in case you missed it, ranks second in the American League with 33 homers through September 1. This is a guy who hit 23 home runs all last year at Triple-A (plus one with the Red Sox). Hot prospect? Well, yeah, like in 2000 and 2001. Pena had his shot with the Tigers, did okay before fading away, and now has come back with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Somewhere along the line, Pena turned into an unstoppable power source. That’s not supposed to happen at age 29. Not without at least some indication that it’s coming, anyway…

Post from: Knuckle Curve