The other night, St. Louis Cardinals OF Rick Ankiel put his incredible arm on display, recording two outfield assists. Ignore the really fruity statement by Stat Boy if outfielders who “put out” don’t interest you… Seriously, bring back Max Kellerman. I don’t care if he devoted his life to a sport more rigged than the WWE.

I do not like hearing sportscasters, or anyone for that matter, knocking Ankiel for hosing base runners from the warning track but not throwing strikes from 60 feet 6 inches. Anyone who has ever pitched knows that this is a dumb statement because the two are way different. Pitching is mental while airing it out from center field is something you do not even think about. Anyone with a strong arm can throw a ball really far, but it takes a pitcher with the right mindset to put a ball in a small, invisible box. There is also way less pressure in the outfield because honestly, who is expecting their outfielder to throw guys out from the warning track?

Ankiel is having a pretty good season out in center field and is contending for an all-star appearance. Center field in the NL is not as strong as usual with Andruw Jones and Jim Edmonds struggling, so this helps his chances. Ankiel is batting .279 with six homers. He gets on base a good amount with a .371 OBP. He has been a key part of this Cardinals team that is still atop the NL Central. If you accurately predicted this, you are lying.

LHP Doug Davis’s body is now cancer-free, according to his doctor. Davis was forced to miss some starts with a cancerous thyroid gland. He won his last start before his surgery and will now make a couple rehab starts before he gets back to the bigs. Davis was 1-1 with a 3.72 ERA with the Arizona Diamondbacks before his surgery to remove the gland. Pretty good numbers for someone who knew coming into the season that he had cancer. Doug Davis deserves respect because he only needed the 15-day DL to beat cancer.

Doctor pronounces D’Backs’ Davis cancer-free (SI.com)

Finally. Julio Franco retired from baseball on Saturday at the age of 49. Franco spent parts of 23 years in the major leagues, and last appeared in MLB with the New York Mets in 2007. Franco also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, and Atlanta Braves. Franco had long said he wanted to play until 50, but realized that being a 49 year old playing baseball in Mexico wasn’t what he wanted to be doing. Can you blame him? Franco offered the following in an interview by Mexican sports daily Record:

“I understand that my time has passed and the great men and athletes know when to say enough.”

That’s classy, Julio. Franco had a nice career, and will mainly be known for his longevity. It’s pretty incredible for a guy to maintain the physical condition, let alone the skills the way Franco did for so long. Sure, he was never a perennial all-star player or team MVP. But Franco embodied what every ballplayer had as a little kid: he loved the game. I mean, the guy was playing in Mexico at the age of 49. He also spent time playing ball in Japan and South Korea. It’s quite admirable of Franco to step aside and let the Hiram Bocachica’s of the world take his place on the Angelopolis Tigers in the Mexican leagues.

Ok, to be fair to Hiram Bocachica and Hiram Bocachica fans everywhere, I haven’t the slightest clue where he’s playing now. Probably the minor leagues somewhere. Sorry, Hiram. Franco has yet to announce his plans to start up a nursing home league after his retirement. Stay tuned for details to come in the future.

The first month of the season has come to a close, so let’s hand out some hardware.

Note: These are for the baseball played since the first series in Japan in late March, through the end of April. Some of these acknowledgments will be completely irrelevant in May (if they are even relevant now)…

Best Team: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

The Angels are tied with Oakland for the best record in the AL. However, I give the edge to the Angels because the A’s will fizzle. LA just has more star power. Their pitching staff, led by Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana, both have ERAs under 3 and Jered Weaver pitched like an ace the other day against the potent Detroit offense. Santana is stepping it up while Jon Garland is sucking and Kelvim Escobar’s career could be over. K-Rod is 11 for 12 in save opportunities.

The offense is really clicking this season for the Angels. They have scored 140 runs so far with their strong lineup. Casey Kotchman is off to a great start batting .344/.406/.594. Chone Figgins is having an all-star season so far batting .313 with 8 steals. Offseason acquistion Torii Hunter is fitting in very nicely with his new squad and Vladimir Guerrero is batting .271, which is good, but will most likely rise because he is very dangerous. SS Erick Aybar is a young guy to keep an eye on batting .318 so far. He also plays a good shortstop.

Los Angeles is doing just fine without stud pitchers John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar. Though Escobar won’t be back, Lackey should be around soon, and he will only help the Angels pull ahead of Oakland for what looks to be another championship season.

Most Valuable Player: LF Carlos Quentin-Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox are atop the AL Central and Carlos Quentin is having an excellent/breakthrough season. He was a second round pick of the Diamondbacks a few years back but was sidetracked by Tommy John surgery. Quentin came over from Arizona where he had little success. He is presently leading the league in OPS at 1.052. He has shown some power with 6 homers and has scored 21 runs. He does not bat high in the order, but he keeps things going from the lower spots in the lineup for the powerful Chicago offense. Carlos, you won’t win the AL MVP this season, but your gift certificate to Chili’s is in the mail!

Honorable Mention: OF Josh Hamilton TEX, OF Manny Ramirez BOS, 1B/3B Carlos Guillen DET, OF Nick Markakis BAL

AL Cy Young: LHP Cliff Lee-Cleveland Indians

Cliff Lee has come a long way since tipping his hat to a crowd of boo’s back at the Jake (or Prog?) last season. Lee has always been talented, but completely fell off last season. He seems to have rectified his problems this season, as he has been phenomenal so far. Lee is leading the AL, and MLB for that matter, with a microscopic 0.96 ERA. He is 5-0 and pitching like an ace. The Tribe might be disappointing people so far, but it won’t last long. C.C. Sabathia is back on track and Rafael Betancourt has filled in nicely at closer for the injured Joe Borowski. Lee will be essential to Cleveland climbing through the ranks of the AL Central. Resident homer Ben has some praise for Cliff Lee…

Honorable Mention: Zack Greinke KAN, Felix Hernandez SEA, Brian Bannister KAN, Chien-Ming Wang NYY

Biggest Disappointments-Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians, Carlos Pena, David Oritz

The AL Central was supposed to be a great division this year. So far, it isn’t pretty. Detroit and Cleveland are tied for last right now. While both are turning it around, they have allowed Chicago and Kansas City to get off to good starts this season. Cleveland has stacked the deck against their chances of defending their AL Central crown. For the sake of competitive baseball, both teams need to get their acts together. Detroit really needs to win because $138 million is a lot of money to field a loser.

Boston’s David Ortiz is off to one of the worst starts I have ever seen out of a franchise player. He is batting .184 and has an OBP of less than .300. His knee is obviously hampering his efforts at the plate. Luckily for the Red Sox, their lineup is stacked with guys like Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis and a rotation featuring Josh Beckett and Dice-K, so it may not be a huge issue for them. But obviously, Red Sox Nation would like Ortiz’s clutch bat back to its old form.

Carlos Pena of the Rays was the Comeback Player of the Year in 2007, but right now he is batting a measly .200. At least he finally got over the Mendoza Line. He is among the AL leaders with 6 homers and he gets walks. The walks put his OBP up to .327 which is respectable. However, he just signed a new contract with the Rays and should be putting up much better numbers. I think he’ll be fine though because he has shown throughout his career that he can be a great hitter. If Pena keeps improving, we could see the Rays remain above .500 this season.

Worthy of Recognition-Josh Hamilton, Kansas City’s Top Two

Josh Hamilton of the Rangers is listed earlier as an honorable mention for April MVP. Unfortunately, he plays for the Rangers and they are stuck at the bottom of the AL West. Hamilton is batting .336 and leads the American League with 28 RBI. He is 4th in OPS for the AL and is definitely on his way to his first all-star appearance. It’d be nice if we could take Hamilton, Michael Young, Hank Blalock, and Ian Kinsler, and put them onto contenders because they don’t get much play as members of the worst team in baseball. There have a lot of talent for a team who sucks.

Kansas City is actually decent right now. They may be a couple games below .500, but they have two excellent young guns in their rotation in Zack Greinke and Brian Bannister. Greinke has put it all together this year and among the AL leaders in ERA at 1.25 and is 3-0. Bannister is not far behind with a 2.48 ERA (now 4.04 but he was pitching well) and a 3-2 record.

Detroit Tigers reliever Jason Grilli has a tee-shirt, and it is pretty lame, but a definite collectors’ item (if you’re a big Detroit middle relief fan). Being a Tiger fan, I am shocked that I had not stumbled upon this fashion gem until just now. I don’t know when this came about or why it was even developed to begin with, but he can’t be serious. Just a terrible play on words replacing the ‘Girls’ in ‘Girls Gone Wild’ with ‘Grilli’s.’ Also, his pitching arm is blurred out. So weak. But at least the Olde English D isn’t being disgraced as it was airbrushed from the design. Also available for purchase are the sunglasses with windshield wipers he wore during the 2006 ALCS celebration.

Pitifully cheesy merchandise aside, Jason Grilli has been rather good lately, following a terrible start to the 2008 season where he was booed every time he did something. His lowest point was giving up 3 ER on 3 pitches against the White Sox earlier on. However, he has gotten his ERA down to 3.29 and is working on a scoreless streak of 11.1 IP. The Tigers need him to continue pitching well because their starters have been one of the greatest disappointments in baseball this year. Tiger fans give him a lot of grief for some occasional catastrophic outings, but he’s still one of my favorites. I am a homer sometimes (but not as much as Phil) and I apologize.

UPDATE: Grilli has been traded to the Colorado Rockies. Just when he started pitching well.

This is a new monthly column by Phil that will chronicle Tuffy Rhodes’ endeavors in Nippon Pro Baseball in Japan. He is, and will always be one of our favorite players. From his three homer Opening Day in 1994 with the Chicago Cubs and many fantasy team owners getting angry later in the season when he did not produce, to tying 55 homers in 2001 with the immortal Sadaharu Oh, we will always love him.

Tuffy Rhodes is one of the few bright spots for the Orix Buffaloes (11-20) so far. Last year, mostly as a DH, he hit .291 with 42 home runs and 88 walks in one of his better seasons. With guys like Alex Ochoa, Tyrone Woods, Rick Short and Aaron Guiel leading in batting average in the Nippon Pro League, these American guys have a great chance do well. Guiel also leads the Japanese Central League in homers. This year so far, Tuffy has 10 home runs in 31 games already (out of 130 or so), leading the league. He is hitting .301/.434/.660, also among the leaders. 24 walks leads the league too. So far, another good season for Rhodes. Don’t expect him to keep up this pace, but this is good.

Other Japanese players and expatriates that I watch:

Hitoshi Tamura (Fukoka Softbank Hawks): .297/.343/.436, injured
Hiro Tanaka (Tokyo Yakult Swallows): .365/.435/.476
Ex-MLBer Lew Ford (Hanshin Tigers), off to a slow start: .180/.241/.292
AAA batting champ Rick Short (Tohoku Golden Eagles): .289/.329/.393

Pitchers

Yu Darvish (Nippon Ham Fighters): 0.69 ERA
Kaz Ishii (Seibu Lions): 2.16 ERA
Seth Gresinger (Youmiri Giants): 2.43 ERA

Expect less posts this week, we have final exams looming. Anyways.

El Guapo is back. And no, he’s not working at Old Country Buffet or delivering Domino’s Oreo desert pizzas to underprivileged children. He’s playing baseball in the Can-Am league, for the independent Nausha Pride. Of course I could make RICH GARCES EATS A LOT jokes all night, but I would rather post this picture.

I’m gonna drive to Nashua now.

Rich “El Guapo” Garces Returns (Oursportscentral)

Roger Clemens is not doing much to improve his Hall of Fame resume. It has been reported that Clemens had a “decade-long affair” with country singer and former hottie, Mindy McCready (my anti-drug; click the story and you’ll see an updated picture). Usually an athlete sleeping around is not a shocker, but this started when Clemens was married with two kids at 28, and McCready 15. Clemens denies the relationship was of a sexual nature, but what kind of affair would that be? Did you misremember getting it on?

Clemens’ Monster.com Hall of Fame Resume

• 354-184
• 3.12 ERA
• 4,672 Ks
• 2 World Series Rings
• 7 Cy Youngs
• Cameo in Kingpin (classic movie)
• PED allegations
• Possible affair with girl aged 15 (employers hate this)

I still say that Clemens belongs in the Hall of Fame. I view him as the best pitcher in baseball history. But he is definitely not rallying many votes from the writers for his enshrinement with those last two bullet points. Gaylord Perry threw a spitter and he’s in. Technology has just replaced the saliva with a syringe. I haven’t seen Perry on To Catch a Predator though.

Report: Clemens had relationship with country star (Fox Sports)

According to this piece here, water is not allowed in the U.S. Cellular Field dugout now, due to Gatorade being the official sports drink of Major League Baseball, meaning no water, no Vitaminwater, no Red Bull, no other drinks in the dugout other than Gatorade, and certainly, no tobacco juice from Nick Swisher. I wonder if the rest of Major League Baseball is following this unhealthy attitude for sports marketing.

I wonder what Bobby Boucher thinks of that. He’s gonna open a whole case of whoop-ass pretty shortly on Selig here..

Don’t drink the water! (nj.com)

As some of our most diehard readers (no, not ourselves) may have noticed, I have not written an entry for a few weeks now. Conspicuous by my absence during the last few weeks of intensified school work, there has been a lack of entries related to the Cleveland Indians (with the exception of Joe Blow Borowski’s DL stint). In the interest of journalistic integrity, I told myself that my next entry would pertain to something else entirely unconnected to the Indians. Being a student of cultural politics, this week’s celebration of Jackie Robinson was one topic I wanted to write about. However, while I’ve been away jail-raping end of the semester exams, Cliff Lee has been jail-raping American League hitters. The numbers are staggering: 4-0, 0.28 ERA. In 31 2/3 innings, Lee has allowed 11 hits, struck out 29, walked 2, and put up a ridiculous WHIP of 0.411. Last night, Cliff Lee allowed 3 hits and struck out 9 batters in a complete game shut out of the Royals.

Last year, Cliff Lee hit rock bottom and just never was able to command his fastball. The Indians relied on Aaron Laffey down the stretch as Lee rotted away for the rest of the year in AAA Buffalo. He was called up in September, but not put on the postseason roster after being identified as a core member of Indians organization by the brain trust of Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti just one year earlier. Lee had an altercation with all star catcher and team leader Victor Martinez, which resulted in a players-only meeting following the game. For most Indians fans, the most symbolic indication of Lee’s demise came in his last start before being optioned to AAA, where Lee left the game after 4 innings to a chorus of ‘boos’, and proceeded to sarcastically tip his cap to the fans. Lee appeared apathetic, and his altercation with Victor Martinez wasn’t helping fan perception.

All off-season, it seemed inevitable that Lee was going to be traded. But as is often the case, GM Mark Shapiro refused to make a trade simply for the sake of making a trade. So Lee remained, fixed his mechanics in spring, and earned a spot in the starting rotation. The difference in Lee is clear. He has gotten back to commanding the fastball and getting ahead of counts. He’s aggressive in going after hitters, something that helped him win 18 games in 2005 and 14 in 2006, earning him a 3 year contract extension through the 2009 season. Instead of apathy, Lee is back to exuding a quiet confidence in his abilities. He’s a guy who doesn’t always wear his emotion on his sleeve, but wants to win as badly as anybody else. Just watch how the guy attacks hitters inside. Lee isn’t particularly blessed with any exceptional stuff, but does feature a 4-seam fastball, a cut fastball, a circle change, slider, and a big curveball. While his 88-91 mph range is by no means overwhelming, Lee possesses a great ability to command ALL of his pitches and use his off speed stuff to work off of the fastball. Like any pitcher, when you do that, you can succeed.

Lee’s surprising start has come at a great time, as reigning Cy Young winner C.C. Sabathia has been slow out of the gate, but appears to be turning the corner after a dominating start against Kansas City. Fausto Carmona has been able to overcome control issues by being a human ground-ball machine. Right now, Lee is pitching like an all star, and there’s no reason why he can’t continue to be very good. No, I’m not predicting a 0.28 ERA and 0.411 WHIP at the end of the year for Cliff Lee. But, he can certainly give the Indians a chance to win every time out. With Cliff Lee pitching like this, a trio of Sabathia, Carmona, and Lee has the Indians primed for a hot streak in the coming weeks, and gives them a chance to be right in the thick of things in the American League once again.