Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The Red Sox don't worry about individual awards. They don't even like to talk about them out of fear that it might distract them from the task at hand, winning a third World Series in five years. That's probably part of the reason why they've been baseball's most successful franchise in the past decade.

If Kevin Youkilis finishes with a bang, they might have to start.

The player once dubbed "a fat third baseman, who couldn't run, throw or field," in Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" is having quite the season. He entered play Thursday with 24 home runs, 88 RBI and a .321 batting average. He ranks in the top 10 in those categories as well as on-base percentage, slugging average, OPS, total bases, doubles, triples and walks.

He might not look like an MVP. He certainly doesn't act like one, grinding hard in every at-bat and taking every out personally in a manner ex-Yankee Paul O'Neill would be proud of, but like it or not, he's a serious contender for the award with under six weeks to go in the season.

"It's been fun to watch," says Dustin Pedroia of Youkilis' season. "He's been the biggest part of our offense."

"He's growing into his power," says Jason Varitek. "He's always been a really good hitter."

So the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Yankees are in the news today. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?

Wait a minute. This is an ANGELS Dugout? The hell is an Angels Dugout?

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of California By Way of the Western Coast of the United States of America a Country Via Great Britain of Europe are on top of the world, but in the world of sports you've got to have something other than your ridiculously long name to complain about, so here it is: Francisco Rodriguez should probably not be pitching as much as he is. But it's Mike Scioscia's job to coach the team, and coach he must. If there's a late inning save situation, who ELSE do you want in there to pitch? Ah, there's the rub.

Tonight's Dugout is after the jump. And after every other jump this week (just in case).

Things are going really well with the Angels right now. They have the best record in baseball, and a hefty 15 game lead over the Rangers in the AL West. Basically, the last six weeks of the season will be nothing but preparation for the postseason.

The only thing the team really has left to accomplish is Francisco Rodriguez's bid to break Bobby Thigpen's mark for most saves (57) in a season. Since everything is going so smoothly for the Halos, it doesn't give their fans much to complain about, and as we all know, fans always need something to complain about. It makes us feel important. So that's why some Angels fans are grumbling over Mike Scioscia's use of K-Rod, and saying that he's trying to pump up his save stats when he isn't needed.

"I find that to be questioning our integrity," Scioscia said, a hint of ire in his voice. "Everything we do is what's best for the team. If the closer is available, why wouldn't you use him if the situation dictates the game needs to be closed out? Why wouldn't you?

"If there's a save situation and Frankie is available, he's going to get the ball."

On the surface, you'd have to think that Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez is loving life right now. He's already got 43 saves in 46 chances this season, leaving him only 14 shy of tying Bobby Thigpen's record for saves in a season of 57. Then there's the fact that he's playing for a team that's 10.5 games up on it's division, and doesn't look like it's going to get a serious challenge from anybody.

Oh, and he's having this record shattering season of his in his walk year. Yep, he's a free agent this winter, and K-Rod is going to get paid. So everything is perfect, right? No, actually, there is one thing that Francisco's doing a lot of this year that's really bothering him.

But the right-hander has already walked 28, seven shy of his career high, set in 2003. He has struck out only 48, well off the pace of his 99-strikeout average in his first five full seasons. Opponents have reached base at a career-high .302 clip against Rodriguez.

"The walks are kind of high -- that's the only thing that irritates me," said Rodriguez, who is on pace for 67 saves. "I have to give credit to the hitters. They're not chasing pitches as much as they used to. They're working counts.

In my last post about Jose Contreras' trip to the disabled list, I marveled at the fact White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen was able to string together 75 consecutive words without swearing. I'm pretty sure that's a career high for the Sox skipper. Though it also worries me because that's not the Ozzie Guillen we've all come to know and love.

Thankfully, even though Ozzie's cleaned up his language a bit, he has yet to stop holding grudges. Particularly against Texas Rangers, as Rangers closer C.J. Wilson joins a group that includes Buck Showalter and Vicente Padilla before him as somebody who just ticks Ozzie off.

A week ago today, in the last game before the All-Star break, Wilson came on to close a game in which the Rangers had a four-run lead. Well, after allowing three-runs to score, Wilson finally got the third out of the inning with the bases loaded and proceeded to celebrate as though he'd just won the World Series. Ozzie didn't like it and said something then, and now a week later with the Rangers set to come to Chicago, Ozzie would like C.J. to know he still hasn't forgotten it.

"You can be cocky, be yourself or have your own showtime," Guillen told Chicago reporters Friday. "But when you don't respect the opposition and do what he did, that's not professional. That's the reason I was screaming to him. When you're nobody and show people up like that. ... Wait till you're somebody in baseball, and then do whatever you want to do.

The Los Angeles Angels have to be loving what's going on up in Oakland. For the first half of the season, the upstart Athletics had the Angels looking over their shoulders a bit more than they would have liked, but with the recent trades that have sent Rich Harden and Joe Blanton to the National League, the Angels have just about clinched the AL West.

They've got an eight game lead on the A's now, and a 9.5 game lead on the Rangers, and at this point it doesn't look like either of those two teams is going to pose a real threat. So the Angels GM Tony Reagins is at that point where he knows he doesn't have to make any moves, as he told ESPN's Buster Olney yesterday.

"We're comfortable with our club at this point," Reagins said. "We're confident. At this point, I don't see us making any drastic moves. ... As of today, I don't see us changing the makeup of the club in a major way."

But as Olney goes on in today's blog entry, that doesn't mean they won't be making any "minor" moves. They're not going to be looking to add a bat--even though Gary Matthews Jr. has a torn ACL--but there may be some interest in Orioles All-Star George Sherrill. According to Olney, the Orioles are quietly letting teams outside the AL East know that Sherrill is available, and George does make a lot of sense for Los Angeles.

He can be that lefty specialist they've needed for a while, and he provides some insurance should K-Rod sign elsewhere this winter.

Back in February, Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez let it be known that the 2008 season would more than likely be his last spent donning an Angels uniform. Neither he or the Angels could work out a long-term deal over the winter, and K-Rod went into the season with every expectation of testing the free agent market after the season.

Well, with every day that passes and every save Rodriguez racks up (38 at the break!), there's a little cha-ching that goes off inside his head. Still, he wouldn't have the chance to get so many saves if he didn't play for a good team, so maybe he's reconsidering leaving the Angels after this season and will take less money to stay there?

Um, no. No he's not.

"I'm going to go out there and explore the market," Rodriguez told the Los Angeles Times. "They had six years. They didn't get anything done with me.

"If I wait six years, why not wait another two and a half months?"

Yeah, even though the Angels are a good team, adding Rodriguez to the back of your bullpen can make a lot of average teams good. So it's kind of hard to argue with his decision to test the market, because he is going to be rich. Considering that he's probably going to obliterate Bobby Thigpen's record of 56 saves in a season, you have to figure he'll break the bank this winter and surpass Mariano Rivera's $15 million a season.

Maybe the All-Star Game is a meaningless to the players and just an excuse for Bud Selig to admire himself for a week. That doesn't mean that the selections should be stupid. Today, the MLB 'Haus gives you All-Star Grievances.

Grievance: John Lackey deserved a spot. While the Angels pitching staff is very well represented with Francisco Rodriguez, Joe Saunders, and Ervin Santana all making the team, John Lackey is probably deserving of a spot as well. I know he missed about a quarter of the season thanks to an injury, but in the ten starts he has made since coming back, he's been damn near untouchable. His record is only 6-2, but his 1.96 ERA and WHIP of 0.92 are better than his three teammates that did make the squad.

Grievance: Ian Kinsler should be starting. While Ian Kinsler did make the All Star team, the fact he did so only as a reserve is insulting. While Boston fans stuffed the ballots for their man Dustin Pedroia (don't get me wrong, it's their right to do so) Kinsler was busy being the best second baseman in baseball. Pedroia deserves to be on the team, but he should be the man on the bench. He's hitting .313 with an OPS of .815 with nine homers and 41 RBI, but Ian checks in at .332 with an OPS of freaking .936 with 14 homers and 53 RBI. Tell me, who deserves the starting spot more?

Grievance: Ichiro making the team. Ichiro Suzuki is one of my favorite players in the game today, for reasons that have to do with his playing ability and the things he says, but he shouldn't be on the team this season. His starting spot should probably go to Jermaine Dye (who didn't make the team), Grady Sizemore, Carlos Quentin, J.D. Drew, or Milton Bradley. I know that each team has to have a representative, so Ichiro is Seattle's, but when a team has absolutely no chance of making the playoffs they really shouldn't have any say in who gets homefield advantage during the World Series.

One of the biggest fears for a player that's playing in his first season with a new team after signing a big contract is winning over the new home fans. There's enough pressure on your shoulders as it is to perform with such a large price tag attached to you, but getting off to a slow start does nothing but make it even worse.

I don't think Torii Hunter needs to worry about it too much after the performance he gave in front of Angels fans on Monday. Not only did Hunter give the Angels a 2-1 lead in the 8th inning with a solo home run, he also saved the day in the 9th. After K-Rod gave up three runs to the Indians to blow his first save of the season, Torii came to the rescue with a walk-off grand slam in the 9th.

"All those fans who left, they're like, 'Man, I missed it!' " Hunter said. "That was awesome. That celebration was nice. That's how chemistry is started. These are my new teammates . . . when I came in, they doused me with beer."

Did you drink any of it? I mean, that seems like a waste of precious alcohol to me. Wasn't there any Gatorade around?

Anyway, after tearing the cover off the ball all spring, Hunter has brought his hot bat along with him into the regular season, already leading the American League with 4 home runs. He's also hitting .333 and has now driven in 8 runs.

Needless to say, if Torii keeps hitting like this throughout the season, he'll become just as popular in Los Angeles as he was in Minnesota.

The "what's on Jake Peavy's hand?" mini-controversy didn't really spill over into the work week, meaning a lot of baseball fans unplugged from the internet from Friday evening through Monday morning didn't even realize it happened. And that's fine, because really, this was much ado about nothing.

Of course, Major League Baseball had to do something about the half-hearted allegations made by Joe Torre and the Dodgers, so on Monday Bob Watson called Padres GM Kevin Towers and told him umpires will pay special attention to Peavy's throwing hand in future starts but stopped far short of launching an actual investigation. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

The commissioner's office is aware of a photograph showing a dark substance on the forefinger, middle finger and thumb of Peavy's pitching hand, shortly after Peavy threw a two-hitter against the Dodgers on Saturday. The phone call from Watson, according to a major league official, didn't reflect anything "untoward" on Peavy's part but was a "general reinforcement" of rules forbidding a pitcher's use of substances such as pine tar.

In hindsight, I find the timing of this whole non-story to be a little funny: it was almost a year to the day after Francisco Rodriguez faced similar accusations last year after he was spotted by a blogger going to his hat early and often. The problem then, just like now, is that no one raised any objections until after the fact, so it's all just a bunch of finger-pointing and he-said/she-said without actual proof anyone was doing anything against the rules.