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

Chicago Cubs (52-35) at St. Louis Cardinals (49-39) - 3:55 PM ET

It's sad to see a friendship go south as apparently the one between Tony La Russa and Jim Edmonds has now that Edmonds is with the Cubs and La Russa is playing ultra-sensitive. But in reality, La Russa and Edmonds are mere players in the larger war that is Cubs vs. Cardinals, with first place on the line and growing ever so further away from the Cardinals. Today, Kyle Lohse is going to have to continue his 2008 magic (remember when nobody wanted Lohse? Yeah, well now he's 10-2) against Ted Lilly.

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

L.A. Angels of Anaheim (48-33) at L.A. Dodgers of L.A. (38-42) - 4:10 PM ET

The final day of interleague play, or as ESPN has needlessly re-branded it: "AL/NL SHOWDOWN!" (like it's a western gunfight or something) will feature a good pitching matchup between John Lackey (5-1, 1.65) and Derek Lowe (5-7, 4.05). Of course, it can't be better than the one between Chad Billingsley and Jered Weaver last night, where Weaver combined with Jose Arredondo for eight innings of no-hit baseball, but lost. After coming back from an early season injury, Lackey really hasn't had a bad outing all season. So if anyone can continue the no-hit parade for the Dodgers, it's Lackey.

Remember when Tom Gorzelanny was a burgeoning fantasy stud last year? He worked over 200 innings, garnering 14 wins for a sorry Pirates squad and compiling an ERA of 3.88. He only walked 68 batters. This year he's already walked 50, in only 71 innings. The ERA is particularly gross at 6.59. His three starts of less than three innings probably didn't help matters, but he's been consistently bad. Well, this week he gets to screw you over twice in fantasyland ... against the Yankees and Rays no less. Don't let that happen. He's last in my two-start rankings, behind Eric Hurley. Who? Exactly ...

Other notes:

- Gotta love Sean Marshall's chance for a great outing against the O's at home, but he will likely have trouble on the South Side of town for his second start.

- Aaron Laffey gets two lackluster teams at home this week, so he's a quality option.
- Good sleeper for the week: Joe Blanton. He's been struggling all season, but he gets the Phillies (2-7 against the AL) and Giants at home. It's now or never for salvaging a quality campaign.

Pitcher	Team	First Start	Second Start
Jake Peavy	SD	MIN	SEA
Johan Santana	NYM	SEA	NYY
Josh Beckett	BOS	ARI	at HOU
John Lackey	LAA	at WAS	at LAD

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

Los Angeles Angels (42-29) vs. New York Mets (34-35) - 10:05PM Est.

Now that Willie Randolph has finally be freed by the evil, classless, New York Mets, his replacement Jerry Manuel gets his first shot at pissing off Mets fans everywhere tonight. Will Jerry make it through 7AM Wednesday morning, or will he be dispatched in the middle of the night?

I mean, the Mets actually won last night, and they still fired Willie in the middle of the night. What would have happened had they lost? Would he have been publicly flogged in Times Square?

Besides, is Jerry Manuel really going to be any better? I had the "honor" of watching him manage my White Sox for five years, and although he won the manager of the year award in 2000, the rest of his tenure was basically known for being extremely boring. Though, maybe that's what Omar Minaya wants.

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

Los Angeles Angels (40-26) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (38-27) - 3:35PM Est.

Looking around today's schedule there just isn't a better matchup than the one in Los Angeles this afternoon, whether you're looking at it based on the strength of the two teams playing, or at the starting pitching matchups. The Angels and Rays will finish their three-game set in Anaheim with the rubber game this afternoon.

Neither of today's starters were available to their team to start the season, but ever since John Lackey and Scott Kazmir have rejoined their teams rotations they've both been the dominant aces their squads need to contend.

Today they square off against each other for the first time.

When the Angels placed Chone Figgins on the disabled list with a strained right hamstring earlier this month, they did so about a full month after Figgins originally hurt it. Instead, Figgins tried to play through it, but even though he was able to contribute a little it became clear it wasn't going to get any better without rest.

So Chone did his time on the shelf, and patiently waited for the hamstring to heal before the Angels activated him last week. Then, in his first game back Figgins re-aggravated the injury and hasn't played in a game for the last five days. All of which means that the Angels may be putting their third baseman/outfielder/hot dog vendor right back on the disabled list.

"We're going to have to make a decision in the next couple days," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "He's making progress, but we're into day five now, so he'd have to make some significant progress in the next couple days."

While the Angels haven't lost a hold of first place in the AL West without Chone at their disposal, it's not like his absence hasn't been felt. The Angels were the highest scoring team in the American League in the month of April, but during May, which their lead-off hitter has spent the vast majority of the time unavailable, they've fallen to eighth in the American League.

Thankfully they have a pitching staff that includes two guys who are pitching out of their minds in Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders, along with the recently returned John Lackey. They don't need to score runs.

Last Sunday I told you about White Sox outfielder Carlos Quentin, and how he's just about been carrying the White Sox offense all by himself this season. For those baseball fans across the country that don't get to see the White Sox play very often, they had a chance to see a perfect example of this on Sunday night.

In front of a national television audience on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, Carlos showed the country exactly what he's been doing all season long. With John Lackey absolutely dominating White Sox hitters all night, Carlos got the scoring started for the White Sox with a two-run blast off of Lackey in the third inning, and finished the night off by hitting a walk-off against Lackey in the ninth inning to give the Sox a 3-2 win.

Yes, Carlos was responsible for driving in all three White Sox runs on Sunday, and he also accounted for half of the team's hits on the night as well. Quentin now leads the American League with 14 home runs and is second in the league with 43 RBI.

He's having a breakout season that has been worthy of MVP-type consideration (though it's waaaaay too early to start talking MVP), and should definitely be garnering Carlos some attention for a possible All-Star selection. There's just one problem: Quentin is not on the American League ballot amongst outfielders.

The Sox have started a write-in campaign at U.S. Cellular Field to make sure fans remember to write Carlos' name on the ballot, and now I bring the campaign to you, the FanHouse readers. When filling in your All-Star ballots make sure you leave room to write in the name Carlos Quentin. He deserves it, and remember, this is a Chicago outfielder we're talking about so write in early, and write in often.

John Lackey, SP, LAA -- The would-be Cy Young candidate returned for the first time this season on Wednesday, throwing 99 pitches over seven innings, while allowing six hits, one earned run and one walk. He also struck out four. Good luck getting your hands on him if you don't have him already. He's a legit fantasy ace though, so if you can somehow still get him cheaper than normal market value, it's best to hustle up and do so.

Justin Duchscherer, SP/RP, OAK -- He only qualifies as a starter for fantasy purposes, and with the way he's pitched in the role, it is hard to imagine him going back to the pen. He hasn't allowed more than three runs in any game this year or walked more than two in one game. He's really just been a victim of no offense behind him. A very nice buy when you look at his 2.67 ERA, 1.19 WHIP and his 26:9 K:BB ratio against his 3-3 record.

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

Los Angeles Angels (24-17) vs. Chicago White Sox (18-20) - 10:05PM Est.

While most of the world knows John Lackey as our very own Pat Lackey's older, harder-throwing, better-smelling, and much smarter estranged brother, he's better known in southern California as the ace of the Angels pitching staff (Pat , on the other hand, was turned down by the Angels when he applied to become the new rally monkey).

Lackey won 19 games for the Angels last season, and helped lead them to another AL West division crown, but he hasn't been available to the team at all this season. Of course, his absence hasn't done much to keep the Angels out of first place out west.

Now, with his return today, the Angels have become even stronger.

With the White Sox starting a four-game series against the Angels in Anaheim tonight, it marks the first time that Angels pitcher Jon Garland will have a chance to face his former team. Garland is scheduled to start against the Sox on Thursday (a day after John Lackey makes his first start of the season), but instead of asking Jon about that, all anybody really wanted to know was how he felt about playing for Ozzie Guillen.

Garland probably had the best approach of anyone in the White Sox clubhouse. Ignore him.

"I'm not surprised by [Guillen's latest antics]," Garland said. "He goes off on something every year. He knows what he's doing. He feeds it."

"For me as a pitcher, it was easy to just tune it out. I didn't deal with him. I worked with Coop (White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper). I knew what was going on.

"I knew there was always something getting stirred up. But I just went about my business and worked with Coop."

It's not exactly a shock that one of Guillen's former players probably wasn't his biggest fan, as even though he never came out and said it, it was somewhat obvious that Garland was never a big fan of Ozzie while he was in Chicago. They once got into it in the dugout when Garland failed to plunk a batter after Ozzie gave him the order too, and Jon's laid-back attitude and approach to life just doesn't mesh well with the manic Guillen.

Still, that being said, Garland still supported Ozzie and the White Sox when asked about the whole blow-up doll incident. Garland feels that whatever happens in the clubhouse should stay in the clubhouse, and that "if you don't like what you see, you don't need to be in here."