MLB Al West

The Texas Rangers were a popular darkhorse pick to win the AL West this season, and for a time they were leading the division. Unfortunately over the last few weeks they've seen their lead on the Angels disappear and are a game back going into Friday night's action. In fact, if you were so inclined, you could say that the Rangers' division lead has gone in the red.

Which seems somewhat apropos at the moment because it's not just their division lead that the Rangers couldn't maintain. Apparently owner Tom Hicks couldn't meet last month's payroll and had to borrow $15 million from Major League Baseball to pay his team.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

This coming weekend, Major League Baseball will reveal its 2009 All-Star teams. So what better opportunity than this to run through a list of this season's "Anti-All-Stars." Anti-All-Stars is far too bland a name, though, so we decided to name the team in honor of Andruw Jones. After all, he was the poster child for guys not earning the lucrative contracts bestowed on them last season. We'll sort through each position and find the player who is least helping his team in comparison to expectations -- whether monetary or from management.

With the Cubs imploding and the Brewers still in desperate need of pitching, the road to a playoff return for the St. Louis Cardinals is looking more and more wide open. The Cardinals see this opportunity themselves.

As such, they have begun keeping tabs on A's slugger Matt Holliday should Oakland decide to move him before the trade deadline, a major league source told FanHouse's Jeff Fletcher. St. Louis is cautious because of the size of Holliday's paycheck -- $13.5 million this year -- and his sagging performance in his first season away from Coors Field, but the team is interested in getting perennial MVP candidate Albert Pujols some help in the middle of the order.

Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch also reported that the team is stepping up its efforts to bring Holliday back to the National League for a stretch run.

Earlier this season on Opening Day a fan named Brian Powers was killed at Angels Stadium when he got into a fight with one other fan, and a third person came and punched him in the head, knocking him over and causing him to crack his head on the concrete. I'm not exactly superstitious, nor do I put much faith in these types of things, but you have to admit that Powers' death certainly wasn't the greatest omen for Angels Stadium this season.

Powers' death was quickly followed by the tragic loss of Nick Adenhart in a car accident, and now there's been more violence at the stadium. On Wednesday night two men were shot in the parking lot by an off-duty police officer.

You might think that baseball players would stay as far away from Victor Conte as possible. The BALCO founder's name is synonymous with illegal drugs, see Barry Bonds and Marion Jones, but Marlon Byrd of the Texas Rangers isn't put off in the least. He openly admits that Conte advises him and is proudly featured as a client of Conte's new company, Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning, on their website.

There's no reason to believe that the supplements Byrd gets from Conte fall afoul of baseball's drug policy since he's never failed a drug test. Not that he bothered finding out what's in the pills and potions he gets from Conte.

While most people are aware of the struggles that Boston's David Ortiz has been suffering through this season, there's another Dominican slugger located on the other coast that's been scuffling himself. Vladimir Guerrero is hitting a respectable .273 this season for the Angels, but when you're a man with a career average of .322, it's somewhat worrisome.

More worrisome is the fact that Guerrero's power numbers leave a lot to be desired. He may have 393 career homers but only one of them has come this season, and Vlad's only driven in 10 runs to go along with that one homer. Now he did miss about five weeks of action this season, so that's definitely playing a factor in those numbers, but he's just not driving the ball like he used to. So at this point he's willing to do anything to shake out of this slump, and on Tuesday Guerrero said goodbye to his dreadlocks.

As Eric Milton eyes his return to the Dodgers' starting rotation, general manager Ned Colletti has been out watching some of their minor-league affiliates recently. It's no secret the Dodgers would like to upgrade starting pitching before the trade deadline, and reportedly Colletti is checking out which minor leaguers in the Dodgers' system can be used in a trade to acquire left-hander Jarrod Washburn from Seattle.

The Mariners are still hanging around in the AL West, though, so it's not exactly a sure thing they'd be willing to part with Washburn. He does make quite the hefty salary, but his contract is up at the conclusion of this season, so moving him wouldn't really save the Mariners much money.

Apparently, injuries to big-time starting pitchers come in threes. Friday, Jake Peavy went to the disabled list, Roy Halladay left with a groin injury and the Mariners announced Erik Bedard will miss his scheduled start Saturday. In his place, naturally, is the man who was a setup man ... then a closer ... then a starting pitcher ... then closer who will never start again ... then lost his closing duties ... and has now transitioned back to being a starting pitcher. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, it's Mr. Brandon Morrow!

Bedard, half of the Mariners' formidable 1-2 punch with Felix Hernandez, is 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA and 1.16 WHIP this season. He's also striking out nearly a batter per inning.

So far this season it seems like the Chicago White Sox have been trying to go back in time. After getting off to a bad start to the 2009 campaign, the Sox went out and signed Scott Podsednik to a minor-league deal -- even though most scouts would have told you he was done. Well, it's worked out pretty nicelyl for Chicago as Podsednik is back on top of their lineup and playing surprisingly well.

Then, this week the White Sox signed another player from their 2005 team who most people think is washed up: Freddy Garcia. It seems like the team thinks if they get as many players as they can from 2005 they'll win another World Series. Which is why it's too bad that the Rangers had to go and destroy Chicago's "brilliant" plan.

From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday.

Among the general population of sports fans, Scott Boras is a very unpopular individual. He's referred to as greedy, a snake, and "Bor-ass" (what a clever way to use his name in a derogatory fashion, huh?), among other things. Teams threaten to never deal with him again. Fans claim he's ruining baseball and is everything wrong with professional sports. And on and on -- just check out the reader comments on this Jeff Fletcher piece.

You know what I call him? The best agent in the history of sports.