Kuzul

A full week has passed since I last updated my American League Cy Young rankings. It's time to update them again.This time last week, Los Angeles Angels ace Jered Weaver was the clear favorite for the AL Cy Young. The Texas Rangers then proceeded to absolutely destroy him on Sunday.Weaver's claim to the Cy Young was weakened as a result. Fortunately for him, several other notable AL Cy Young pursuers have also gone through some struggles recently.All except one. Justin Verlander has been pitching quite well recently, and it's looking now like he may actually be the man to beat in the American League.That's a question that will be answered within. Here are my updated rankings for the top-five AL Cy Young contenders.Begin Slideshow

Last week, I dove deep into the annals of Baseball-Reference.com and came up with a list of the top 10 all-time pitching performances by position players.It was a fun list, but I got the feeling afterwards that there was more to say about position-player pitching performances. They're few and far between and they're rarely pretty, but they're also quite awesome in their own way.So I went back to the records. This time, my goal was to uncover the most memorable position-player pitching performances of all time.I'm going with a pretty loose definition of the word "memorable" here. Some of the performances I came up with are memorable because of the player who was doing the pitching. A few others are memorable because they were so incredibly bad. It's a mixed bag, but definitely a fun one as well. Let's take a look.Note: Baseball-Reference.com has a complete list of pitching stats for ...

When Major League Baseball finalized its decision to incorporate a second wild card berth into the league's postseason format, everyone realized that things were going to be very different going forward.The second wild card is already starting to make its presence felt. We're still many weeks away from seeing teams lock up postseason berths, but we're really not that far off from MLB's trade deadline. The existence of the second wild card is going to make things even crazier than usual as we get closer to July 31.On the surface, the situation is pretty straightforward. With one more postseason berth up for grabs, there are more teams vying to make the playoffs than usual. Simple as that.Naturally, things get slightly more complicated once you go digging beneath the surface. Here's a look at five ways the extra wild card is shaking up the MLB trade market. Begin Slideshow

It's been a struggle for Los Angeles Angels ace Dan Haren this year. His fastball velocity is down, and his ERA is up. He just hasn't looked like himself all season.It doesn't help that the Angels have had a hard time scoring runs with Haren on the mound this season. In fact, they've been shut out in each of his last three starts, and they've scored three runs or fewer for him in seven of his eight starts.It's May 15th, and the Angels are in last place in the AL West with a record of 15-21. They're eight games behind the Texas Rangers.Common sense says the Angels aren't going to be this bad all season, but what if they are?If the Angels keep struggling, they're going to have some decisions to make at the deadline, and Haren is a guy who could emerge as a trade candidate. He's a tried ...

Okay, Josh Hamilton's 2012 season is officially getting scary.In case you missed what happened in Baltimore on Tuesday night, Hamilton helped his Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles by going 5-for-5 with four home runs and eight RBI.Yes, four home runs. MLB.com has the video evidence. Hamilton is the first player since Carlos Delgado in 2003 to slug four dingers in a single game, and he's just the 16th player in Major League Baseball history to accomplish the feat.There have been more perfect games than four-homer games. For the season, Hamilton is now batting .406 with 14 home runs and 36 RBI. At the moment I'm writing this, he leads the American League in all three categories. The next-closest guys in each category really aren't all that close.I didn't think it was possible before the start of the season, but Hamilton is looking much, much better this season than he did back ...

This time last week, Los Angeles Angels ace Jered Weaver was in the American League Cy Young discussion, but not quite at the top of it.He must have sensed our doubts. Weaver's last two starts consist of a no-hitter and a gem on the road against the Minnesota Twins. He's now seven starts into his 2012 campaign, and he has video-game numbers that make baseball geeks like you and I drool uncontrollably.But does this mean he's the new No. 1 in the race for the AL Cy Young award?Well, it's that time of the week when we get to find out. Here's my weekly look at the top five contenders for the AL Cy Young in the 2012 season.Begin Slideshow

On Sunday, Albert Pujols hit a home run, and there was much rejoicing.There was much rejoicing, of course, because it was Prince Albert's first home run in a Los Angeles Angels uniform. It's been that kind of season for the former St. Louis Cardinals superstar, and it hasn't been fun to watch.Pujols' track record and simple common sense suggest that he's not going to struggle all year long. He's going to get in a groove eventually, and he's going to stay in that groove all season wrong.But before Pujols can get into a groove, he has to get out of the rut he's been in since the start of the season, and that's a whole 'nother headache.For the sake of all of us getting on the same page, below is a complete breakdown of all the things that have gone wrong for Pujols this season.Warning: It's not pretty. By the NumbersPujols' ...

It's been a rough year for closers so far. A lot of closers have gotten hurt, including the seemingly indestructible Mariano Rivera. A few others, such as Heath Bell, have struggled mightily.Given the circumstances, now is as good a time as any to take stock of the closer role in Major League Baseball. It's a position that has been the subject of debates for some time now, with some people insisting that having a good closer is vital to a team's success and others insisting that closers are the most overrated and overvalued players in baseball.This season's storylines support the latter notion. With so many closers hurt and/or struggling this season, what we're getting this season is a sneak peak at changes that can be made to the definition of the term "closer."Here's a look at some reasons why the closer role is on the verge of an evolution.Begin Slideshow

Carlos Zambrano has been a lot better than the Miami Marlins probably dared to hope when they acquired him from the Chicago Cubs for a bucket of baseballs and Chris Volstad.Better yet, the Marlins can lean back and smile knowing that the Cubs are paying a huge chunk of Zambrano's salary.I hate to be the one to rain on Miami's parade, but there's simply no way Zambrano is going to be able to maintain his hot start all season long. He's going to come back down to earth eventually.While we're on the topic, Zambrano isn't the only hot starter who is going to come careening back down to the surface of the planet in the weeks to come. In all, here are 10 hot starts that I'm not buying.Begin Slideshow

The first month of the 2012 Major League Baseball season is over, so let us all sit back and entertain various "If the season ended today..." scenarios.For example, who would win the American League Cy Young if the season ended today?Good question. Jake Peavy is an outstanding candidate, and at this point we have to recognize Yu Darvish as a legit Cy Young contender. Very quietly, Felix Hernandez has looked a lot like the pitcher who won the AL Cy Young back in 2010.Okay, we've established that there are several candidates for the award. Now all we have to do is rank them.And away we go...Begin Slideshow