On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Oakland Athletics (23-19) at Atlanta Braves (20-20) - 7:10 PM ET

It's probably safe to say that out of the former "Big Three" in Oakland, Tim Hudson has been the most successful of the bunch since leaving the nest after the 2004 season. Four seasons later, Hudson faces his former club for the first time (the two teams played a three game set in '05 but Hudson did not make an appearance). A lot of Hudson's old teammates from his last season in Oakland are gone, but his mound opponent for today, Rich Harden, is still around. And Harden was hoping he'd match up against him. Harden is probably also hoping that he makes it through the game intact.

It took a lot longer than expected, but it's starting to look like order has finally been restored to the AL Central. After the first month and a half of the season saw the Twins and White Sox splitting time as division leaders, the two teams who were supposed to win the division, Cleveland and Detroit, were spending their time at the bottom of the division with Kansas City.

Well, although Detroit is still struggling at the bottom, the Indians have finally climbed over everybody and reached first place. Let me say, it's about damn time. Going into today's game against the Oakland Athletics, the Indians had posted four consecutive shutouts, and have won seven of their last eight.

Now the shutout streak isn't going to last forever (and in fact, it's already ended as the Indians currently lead Oakland 3-1), but it's a very good sign for the Indians. While the offense has struggled to score runs, and is currently hitting a league worst .235, the Indians strength is not their lineup. It's the pitching.

Cliff Lee has been the dominant starter for Cleveland all year, but now it appears that C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona are starting to come around, and along with Paul Byrd and the return of a healthy Jake Westbrook, the Indians are poised to have the best rotation in the AL Central.

I also feel that the offense is going to come around at some point, it's too talented not too, and even though today is just their first day back on top of the division, don't be surprised if the Indians hold onto it for the rest of the season.

You saw a glimpse of it earlier, thanks to Will's posting of Asdrubal Cabrera's unassisted triple-play on Monday, but that's not the only play Cabrera has made for the Indians in the field this season. His defense, be it at second base or at shortstop, has been hard not to notice. Particularly the last few days when Asdrubal filled in for the struggling Jhonny Peralta at short.

The difference between Cabrera and Peralta in the field is hard to miss. Asdrubal has more range to his left and right, and this was evident on quite a few plays over the weekend, and he's also garnered comparisons to former Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel. As a result, some people are wondering how much longer Jhonny has as the Indians shortstop.

"Asdrubal has a knack for getting big hits late in games, and his defense at short was outstanding," manager Eric Wedge said.

Wedge said the decision to play Cabrera a second consecutive game at short was due more to the Indians playing a doubleheader than to anything else.

Of course, when Wedge was flat out asked if Cabrera would be getting more time at shortstop, he only said that he'll continue to "mix him in."

Peralta's defense isn't the only thing hurting him, because it wasn't exactly his defense that the Indians originally fell in love with, it was his bat. A bat that has been hitting .208/.267/.383 this season, and just .130 in May. Peralta is also failing to drive in runs, as he's only hitting .143 with runners in scoring posiiton.

I don't expect Peralta to lose his job yet, as I'm not sure the Indians are ready to make Jamey Carroll their everyday second baseman. Still, after this season, who knows?

The unassisted triple play has only happened 14 times in the history of baseball (after last night), so whenever it does, people always praise its beauty, etc. But there are a lot of lucky circumstances that have to happen for someone to pull it off. Like the batter hitting a line drive with runners on first and second and the hit and run on. Which is what happened with Lyle Overbay at bat last night in the Toronto - Cleveland game. Here's the result, courtesy of Asdrubal Cabrera.

For a pitcher with 37 innings under his belt, Joba Chamberlain's generated a lot of controversy. There were the "Joba Rules," the way he dealt with the bugs in Cleveland and the feud between his team's owner and general manager. Those all seem temporal, though there's one talking point that won't seem to leave him alone.

Chamberlain struck out David Dellucci to end the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium yesterday and then unlelashed his now-familiar fist pump and yell. That Dellucci beat Chamberlain and the Yankees on Tuesday night with a three-run homer in the same spot couldn't have been far from his mind, not that he needs much goading. Chamberlain caught flak for doing the same thing against Frank Thomas in April though the Big Hurt wasn't the one giving it to him. This time around Dellucci wasn't so kind.

"If he wants to yell and scream after a strikeout and dance around the mound, that's what gets him going. My home run was in a much bigger situation, a much more key part of the game, but I didn't dance around and scream."

I'm all for emotion in sports. A pump of the fist, a yell, a little excitement about what you've done is cool by me. It's nothing that gets noticed in any sport but baseball, hell even golfers get away with it, and that doesn't make much sense.

If you ever wonder why Steve Phillips has never gotten another job as a big league GM after the Mets sent him packing, and I doubt that you do, you need look no further than today's column at ESPN the Magazine the Web Site.
He's got his trading cap on and he's coming up with ways for the Reds to improve their roster.

All of his ideas are pretty laughable but a proposed deal he dreams up with the Yankees takes the cake.


I'm not sure you could even pull this trade off in MLB '08 without your XBox exploding. Lil' Stein may flap his gums from time to time but he's not certifiably insane. Also, why would Phillips, in an article devoted to giving Walt Jocketty advice, would propose a deal that doesn't circumvents the general managers? Makes you wonder if his tenure with the Mets was like Costanza's with the Yankees, they only woke him for the important meetings.

Ichiro Suzuki made headlines last season when he said he would "punch myself in the face" if he ever saw himself saying that he was excited about going to Cleveland. How that would actually work aside, not an entirely unfair statement. (Kidding, Cleveland. You totally rock.)

Ichiro has now somewhat changed that opinion. Or at least he realized how to give a backhanded compliment, as evidenced by his latest statement about the Land of Pronk to some local mag named Punch.

'As you know, we came to Cleveland many more times than were expected,' said Ichiro through his interpreter - after they shared a long, animated discussion in Japanese. 'To come all the way from Seattle, as you can imagine, is a headache. That's what I meant by the statement. But the way the fans understood it, they became angry. I think all the booing and the screaming was entertaining for the fans, so I don't think it was a bad thing. And, if I was a fan, I'd boo me too.'

But, we pressed, what do you think of Cleveland?

'Looking back on it, in the four days I spent here, I found a really cool pair of sneakers. So for that, I like Cleveland.'

See, in comparison to wanting to slug oneself in the grille, that comes off like a really nice thing to say, no? But anytime you spend four freaking days somewhere and the best thing you can say about that place is that you "found a really cool pair of sneaker", you hate the place. And you are insulting it. But in a crafty manner.

Unfortunately for Cleveland, I'm sorry. You're going to deal with Ichiro not liking you. The quotes are too enjoyable for the rest of us.

Previously on FanHouse:
Ichiro Is Not a Big Fan of Cleveland
Ichiro Suzuki's Soul Yearns for Daisuke Matsuzaka
Ichiro:"Once I Turn 40, I Can Become A Pitcher."
Ichiro Versus
Baseball Is Snowblind

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Pittsburgh Pirates (13-19) vs. San Francisco Giants (14-19) - 7:05PM Est.

The Giants tried Barry Zito as a starting pitcher for a little over a year, but it didn't work out.

The Giants tried Barry Zito as a relief pitcher, but after only eight days in the bullpen, that wasn't quite working out either.

The Giants wanted to try Barry Zito as a corpse at the bottom of McCovey Cove, but the law doesn't look highly upon such actions, so with no other alternatives, they've decided to try him as a starter one more time.

Tonight baseball's worst contract will return to the mound as a starter, bringing with him that 0-6 record, the 7.53 ERA, and that 1.95 WHIP of his.

Remember a few weeks ago when I wrote that want ad for the Cleveland Indians, who were looking to fill a position out in left field? Well, stop sending in your applications because apparently the Indians found someone to take the job. As a result, Jason Michaels is about to be designated for assignment.

Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro held a conference call on the team's day off Monday to announce officially what had been rumored for a few days: The team will designate veteran outfielder Jason Michaels for assignment and recall rookie Ben Francisco from Triple-A Buffalo today.

''(Francisco) is an outfielder that we felt potentially could give our club a spark. (He's) obviously got more power and has the ability to not necessarily be a platoon guy,'' Shapiro said. ''He has been a guy who has hit left- and right-handed pitching, so he gives [Indians manager] Eric [Wedge] the ability to both keep [left fielder] David Dellucci strong and healthy and also protect [right fielder] Franklin Gutierrez some as well.''

This move is one that had to be made, because while Dellucci has been giving the Tribe some production, Michaels has been terrible. In 21 games he's hit .207/.258/.276, which just doesn't cut it unless you're some kind of defensive superhero, which Michaels isn't.

Ben Francisco hasn't really done much better down in Buffalo, hitting .228/.308/.315, but he did go 2-for-6 in a brief four-game stint with the Indians a few weeks ago.