Kuzul

The Los Angeles Angels are a mess. Their 29-38 record is the second-worst mark in the American League, and the Texas Rangers and Oakland A's are miles ahead of them in the AL West.But the Angels aren't just any mess. They're the kind of mess that invites rubbernecking. It's impossible not to see them, slow down and say, "Man, how did that happen?"It wasn't supposed to be this way. The last couple years have seen the Angels spend roughly $450 million on big-name free agents with the sole purpose in mind to do great things. And after nearly making the playoffs in 2012, they were supposed to get in and go to the World Series this year. The 2013 season was supposed to see them do anything but fall apart at the seams like they have.How it's all gone downhill is probably already a book-length subject. But since all I've got ...

If we were to re-imagine Major League Baseball divisions as historically significant times and places, the AL East would have to be Ancient Rome, right?Yeah, sounds about right. Ancient Rome was characterized by prosperity and power, and that's pretty much the AL East in a nutshell.But look there! A power is rising, and it's in the vicinity of the NL Central!Three of the six best records in baseball belong to NL Central clubs: the St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates. They've been terrific, and they've done it without a heaping helping of games against the Houston Astros to boot.So is the AL East still the Ancient Rome of baseball, or is the torch being passed to the NL Central? We certainly must have an answer to this question, and that calls for immediate discussion.There's one thing the AL East has tended to have throughout the last decade and still ...

Before the season even began, Miami Marlins right-hander Ricky Nolasco stood out as a virtual lock to be traded.Here we are a couple of months into 2013, and the word "virtual" no longer applies. We can go ahead and say that Nolasco is a lock to be traded.Last week, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com reported that the Marlins were open to trading Nolasco, a free-agent-to-be whose $11.5 million salary is by far the biggest on the club's payroll. Now we're starting to hear about potential suitors.ESPN's Jayson Stark says the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees have their eyes on Nolasco. Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com says that the San Francisco Giants are looking at Nolasco as a potential elixir for their uncharacteristic starting pitching woes.With the buzz building, here's a primer on all the trade-y goodness surrounding Nolasco. Trade Value: Better Than You Probably ThinkThere are sexier pitchers on the baseball landscape ...

You know, it sure would be cool to see another 25-game winner.I know, I know...pitcher wins are bogus. They're much too dependent on things like run support and luck dragons, and they're particularly out of place in a day and age where managers are more willing than ever to put the fate of a game in the hands of their relievers.Yet still I hope to see a 25-game winner someday, if for no other reason than to revel in the sheer rareness of it.Per Baseball-Reference.com, there have only been three 25-game winners since 1978. The most recent was Bob Welch in 1990, a year in which there were still only two Die Hard movies and the respective home run records of Roger Maris and Hank Aaron looked as safe as could be.It seems now like we could go forever without seeing another 25-game winner, but you'll also recall that it very recently ...

Make it 250 for Andy Pettitte.The New York Yankees left-hander finally got the 250th win of his career on Saturday, pitching 7.1 innings of one-run ball against the Seattle Mariners to lead the Bombers to a 3-1 victory.He can put that career milestone in the bag. While he's at it, the rest of us now have an excuse to discuss whether Pettitte's career will ultimately be given the most coveted validation baseball has to offer: a ticket to Cooperstown.It's not the simplest of discussions. Pettitte is more a borderline Hall of Fame candidate than a slam-dunk candidate, and I know I didn't have him pegged as a future Cooperstown alum when he initially retired back in 2010.I suppose it pleases me to report that I've come around since then. If I had a Hall of Fame vote, Pettitte would get it. And either way, my best guess is that Pettitte will get ...

Major League Baseball is ready to launch an offensive.The target: players with ties to the now-defunct Miami anti-aging clinic "Biogenesis."Launch date: soon....Or at least, that's the plan.There's a shocker of a report out on Tuesday from T.J. Quinn, Pedro Gomez and Mike Fish of ESPN's Outside the Lines. The word is that MLB has secured the cooperation of Biogenesis founder Tony Bosch in its investigation into the PED scandal surrounding the clinic, and that the league is poised to seek suspensions of close to 20 players.The list of players would include New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez and Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun, who MLB failed to suspend for a positive testosterone test in 2011.There's a lot in the report to digest, so let's go through it all nice and slow.Begin Slideshow

From the sound of things, the Milwaukee Brewers are going to hold a yard sale and one of the items up for grabs on the front lawn will be Yovani Gallardo.If it comes to that, the Brewers aren't going to be looking to just give him away. But given the season Gallardo is having, that may be their only real option.Entering Tuesday's action, the Brew Crew is 21-35 and in last place in an NL Central division that features three of the four best teams in the National League. The Brewers have some quality players, but they don't have much hope of making a spectacular comeback with their starting pitching (single word description: "bleh").Hence the inevitable yard sale. Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told Michael Hunt of the Journal-Sentinel that the club will have the future in mind if and when it makes trades this year, and notables like Ken Rosenthal ...

The No. 1 overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft has a checkered past. It has yielded some good ones. Alex Rodriguez went No. 1 way back when, as did Ken Griffey Jr., Chipper Jones, Darryl Strawberry and, more recently, Adrian Gonzalez, Joe Mauer, David Price, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper.But yeah, there have been busts: Guys like Steve Chilcott, Brien Taylor, Matt Bush, Shawn Abner, Al Chambers, Danny Goodwin, Matt Anderson, Bryan Bullington and Luke Hochevar. It's hard to think of them without making a sad face.Avoiding a bust with the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB draft is never going to be easy, but teams can start by A) praying to the baseball gods for good fortune and B) learning a few lessons from the history of No. 1 picks.Such as... Bats Are Better than ArmsIf a team is in a position to choose between a stud position player ...

The 2013 Major League Baseball season is into June now. We’ve had two whole months to come to grips with what’s happening around the league. A lot of it makes perfect sense. Some of it, however, is still liable to make one scratch his or her head down to the bone. A New York Yankees team that was supposed to be old and helpless being old and, well, not helpless? The Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels, both offseason champions, not even close to becoming regular-season champions? A longtime draft bust turning into the best closer in baseball? B/R Pop Culture Lead Writer Gabe Zaldivar and I just didn’t see such things coming, and we got together recently to talk about it. As they usually are, our ramblings were caught on video. Leave your comments below if you have any, and you’re also welcome to follow Gabe and I on Twitter. ...

It looks like CC Sabathia is back.And this time, it might actually be for real. No funny stuff.Sabathia turned in his best start in weeks on Friday night against a Boston Red Sox club that gave him fits back on Opening Day. The New York Yankees' high-priced southpaw went seven and one-third inning and allowed one run on six hits. He struck out 10 and walked none, leading the Bombers to a 4-1 win.The timing couldn't have been any better. The Yankees sorely needed both a win and a gem from their ace after dropping four straight to the New York Mets and five overall. Some downtrodden Yankees fan must have knelt down in front of an R2 unit and recorded a message imploring Sabathia to help, because he was the Yanks' only hope.If so, well, he got it.The usual caveats apply: just one start, small sample size and all ...