Posts from the Al Central Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Consider Joe Borowski, he of the higher ERA than save total for the season (7.56 to six), the first shoe. Borowski has been designated for assignment by the highly disappointing Cleveland Indians, who have gone from A.L. Central Champions to the team most likely to dump their ace.

Borowski always had a high ERA ... it was over five last season. But when you add in 45 saves for a winning team, a high ERA from your closer is a little easier to take. But on this Cleveland team, there's almost no reason to have a guy like Borowski, especially if they want to look at younger guys (like Jensen Lewis and Brian Slocum, who were called up from Buffalo). Now the question is this: Is C.C. Sabathia the other shoe? And if so, where is he going?

Milwaukee seems to be a good bet.

Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Brewers are offering top prospect Matt LaPorta and shortstop Alcides Escobar for C.C. Sabathia.

Rosenthal has a lot of sources and quotes some of them anonymously as saying that LaPorta, a first-round draft pick last year now playing the outfield at Huntsville, and teammate Escobar are being offered for the big left-hander.

Considering how the Brewers blew a 5-0 lead against the Diamondbacks yesterday, the Brewers may want to look at Borowski too.

A few days ago, our Baseball is Boring Buddy Tom Fornelli (Dugout SN: StLunaticsRapFornelli) reported on Alberto Callaspo's collapse-o in Kansas City. It turns out he was busted for DUI and put on the disabled list for "evaluation and treatment of an undisclosed medical condition," the Major League Baseball equivalent of Hollywood's "severe exhaustion," which basically just means that he's an adult acting like a stupid idiot and is an eff-up. The worst thing is that it happens as the Royals climb out of the cellar for the first time since... well God, are any of us old enough to remember that?

What we bring you today is the police report of the DUI bust, which, as you may have guessed, did not go as planned. It didn't involve Alberto Callaspo going over to, say, Bono's house and getting busted for gay drug bongo sex and having his wife leave him for, oh, let's say Matthew Sweet or anything, but I mean I guess it's fairly interesting.

After the jump, the dark story behind Alberto's Last Gasp-o... and a look at the sinister forces that could be lurking in the shadows to keep the Royals down.

While the idea of the Cleveland Indians trading C.C. Sabathia before the trade deadline is far from a new one, it's probably a lot closer to becoming a reality today. The Indians were just swept by the White Sox, and have no fallen to last place in the AL Central, 12.5 games back at 37-48.

I think it's safe to say that the Indians are done in 2008. Maybe the doctor hasn't called the time of death yet, but he's at least in the waiting room letting the Tribe's family know that things aren't looking good. Which would mean that keeping Sabathia around in Cleveland for the rest of the season would be absolutely pointless.

He's not going to sign a long term deal with the Indians after the season, not because he doesn't enjoy playing there, but because somebody's going to drive up to his home with a trailer full of cash. So Indians general manager Mark Shapiro should probably be picking up the phone today to let other teams know that C.C. is officially available.

There have already been plenty of rumors and potential suitors like the Rays, Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, and Cubs to name a few, but for the most part, everything we've heard has come from an outside source. If Shapiro has been actively shopping Sabathia on his own, he's done a very good job of keeping it quiet.

Now, I'm not saying that Shapiro should be calling every team that's interested in his lefthander and trying to make a deal, I'm just saying he should let it be known he's willing to listen. All he has to do is sit back and wait for the phone to start ringing, and it will. A lot.

Then leak some info as to what's being offered and then watch everybody try to top each other. It should be fun!

Milton Bradley is crazy, but in a sympathetic way. Like, he just has a temper. Lots of us have tempers. Not all of us have to restrain ourselves because we do our jobs in front of thousands of people every night. Still, the fact remains: Milton Bradley is kind of crazy.

But even he scoffs at the ball of round mound of unbound (thank you!) that is Sidney Ponson (via BBTF):

Bradley was quoted last month as saying of Ponson: "Man, that dude has some issues." Bradley took issue with that yesterday, saying he'd said only that Ponson had issues while he was a Ranger and that the two said hello before Monday night's game at the Stadium.

Bradley sort of reversed that yesterday, saying he didn't think Ponson was a bad guy. Either way, the damage is done. If Milton Bradley thinks you need to figure some things out, something is seriously wrong.

While the Twins and Tigers are busy throwing fastballs at each other's heads this week, the White Sox are taking advantage of it by beating up on the lowly Cleveland Indians, and adding some cushion to their division lead in the AL Central. Still, even though the Sox have won six in a row, have the best ERA in baseball, and have crushed an American League-best 113 home runs, the team still has holes.

Considering that they're relying on two young pitchers without proven track records over an entire season in Gavin Floyd and John Danks, there's some speculation that Kenny Williams could be in the market for another starting pitcher. There's also the fact that the offense is too reliant on those home runs they hit, and could use some more speed on the basepaths.

None of this bothers Ozzie Guillen though, as he's perfectly content with taking his chances with his current roster.

"You have to crawl before you start running," Guillen said Tuesday while being careful not to declare the Sox a playoff-bound team. "This ballclub [can] compete and be in the playoffs, be alive in the pennant race. And if we get to the playoffs, I don't mind taking this ballclub to the World Series."

You know what today is, right? July 1st. That can only mean one thing ... the summer rumor season is about to begin. The biggest name on the market is probably going to be C.C. Sabathia, given the Indians current home in the basement of the AL Central. The leaders in the C.C. Derby? Buster Olney says it's the Brewers. Still, Doug Melvin isn't exactly ready to get Sabathia a locker at Miller Park. From the Journal Sentinel's Brewers Blog:

"Just the same old rumors," said Melvin.

[...]

"I'm motivated to listen and do our due diligence," said Melvin. "Now that July is rolling around, we've got to be on top of things.

"At the same time, we're not going to do anything stupid. I don't think any one guy can make a difference. The team still has to play well. But the addition of one player can make a team better.

I love general manager doublespeak. One guy can't make a difference, but he can make a team better. The Brewers missed the playoffs by two games last year in a season where Ben Sheets missed nine or ten starts. They're likely going to be linked in another tough playoff battle this year with the Cardinals for the Wild Card or the Cubs and Cards for the NL Central. It's a good thing that Melvin's "motivated to listen."

Just when you think things are starting to go right in Detroit, the Tigers take another big blow. Sure, the Kitties are two games over .500 now, have won their last six, and are only five games out of first place, but as I told you yesterday: not all is well in Tigerland.

Detroit had to place Magglio Ordonez on the disabled list on Sunday, and now 48 hours later, they may have to do the same thing with Miguel Cabrera.

Cabrera left in the third inning with a "tight left hip flexor," an injury that may or may not knock Cabrera from manager Jim Leyland's lineup. Cabrera had to leave the game after wobbling through some defensive maneuvers at first that appeared awkward and included one of Detroit's three errors.

"He's had this before," Leyland said of Cabrera, who was limping on and off the field in the early innings. The Tigers won't know until today if Cabrera will join Magglio Ordonez (disabled list, strained oblique muscle) as the latest middle-of-the-order bat to vacate the order.

Needless to say, if Cabrera has to join Maggs on the disabled list, it's probably going to temper any talk of the Tigers making a run at the White Sox for a while. The two of them have combined to hit 23 homers and drive in 98 runs in the first half of the season.

The Royals are playing their best baseball of the season right now, as they feasted on National League competition, and had won 11 of 12 before dropping their last two games against the Cardinals. So there's plenty of reason to celebrate in Kansas City right now, because for the first time in years, Royals fans have been able to watch a team that actually resembles a Major League team.

Unfortunately, the celebration made it's way to members of the team this last weekend when second baseman Alberto Callaspo was busted for a DUI on Friday night after the Royals sixth straight win. On Saturday, Callaspo was placed on the disabled list for undisclosed reasons.

"Alberto is going on the disabled list for evaluation and treatment of an undisclosed medical condition," manager Trey Hillman said. He declined to elaborate.

"I've already given the statement," he said.

Yeah, I can't read minds or anything, but I'd be willing to wager that the undisclosed medical condition that Hillman was referring to was Alberto's DUI. In the interest of being purely speculative, maybe this incident isn't anything new for Callaspo, it's just the first time he's been caught and the Royals want to help him out.

I mean, there have been plenty of baseball players and managers (Hello, Mr. LaRussa!) who have been pulled over for DUI's, yet I don't know many of them who've been placed on the disabled list.

Of course, it's also entirely possible that this is an isolated occurrence for Callaspo and the Royals are just sending a message to the rest of the team to keep this from happening. We don't need any more Josh Hancock incidents. Whatever it is, this is the right move by the Royals, and one that other teams could learn from.

The Chicago White Sox exacted some revenge on the Cubs this weekend by handing their crosstown rivals three straight losses at U.S. Cellular Field, to even the score for what the Cubs did at Wrigley just a week before. Still, much like the Tigers with Magglio Ordonez, some of the celebration has been quelled by the fact that Paul Konerko suffered a setback in his rehab from a strained oblique muscle.

Konerko had been scheduled to join the the Sox Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte to begin a rehab assignment on Sunday before re-joining the team by next week. Then he took a live batting practice session on Saturday, and there he was on Sunday night with the rest of his team in the dugout. It looks like he's going to be out another week.

''Definitely some soreness, a little bit during and then after I hit [Saturday],'' Konerko said. ''The plan was to leave [Sunday], but the bottom line is there was a little too much soreness to get on a plane and get ready to go [Monday].

''As far as a timeline, I don't know now. The worst thing to do is to make a timeline like I had [Saturday]. Now, just wait and see.''

Still, this isn't as big of a blow for the White Sox as losing Ordonez is for the Tigers, as the Sox have gone 8-4 without him in the lineup. Konerko has been in a "slump" for a season and a half now, and has primarily been hitting out of the sixth spot in the lineup lately. Not that he even deserves to hit that high with his batting line of .215/.322/.368.

If there is any team that's incredibly sad to see interleague play end in 2008, it would be the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers feasted on their senior circuit competition, going 13-5, and have now won 17 of their last 21 games. They're finally over .500 for the first time this year at 41-40, and are within five games of the White Sox in the AL Central.

Of course, before catching the White Sox the Tigers will have to pass the Twins, and it so happens that they're starting a three game set in the Twinkiedome tonight, and play Minnesota four more times next week. It's the perfect chance to climb in to second place. If only they had Magglio Ordonez to help them out.

The Detroit Tigers placed right fielder Magglio Ordonez on the 15-day disabled list with a pulled muscle in his right side on Sunday.

Ordonez pulled his oblique muscle in the third inning of a 7-6 win over the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night.

That's got to be a kick in the teeth for Tigers fans who were just starting to get excited about this team.

Ordonez had his worst month of the season in June, hitting .266/.343/.403 with three homers and 15 RBI, but now that the Tigers are starting a stretch where 19 of their next 27 games are against division opponents, this isn't exactly the best timing. The team has called up Matt Joyce to replace Ordonez on the roster, but it's doubtful he can replace his production.