If you keep reading, I'll keep writing...

So we've had a couple of comments left on this blog, but I'm still not sure how many people (if anyone) is actually reading this. Now, I'll keep writing if only to try and outwit Teddy, but if you have any feedback, please leave us some comments, or email us at rivalryredux@gmail.com

Since I've already spent considerable time on the meat of this blog earlier tonight, I'd like to touch on the flotsam and jetsam from throughout baseball.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb has a nice little feature that lets you see expanded standings, including Wild Card standings. This is more significant in August and September than it is in May, but it's still fun to look at.

If the season ended today:
AL East - Red Sox
AL Central - Indians
AL West - Angels
Wild Card - Tigers

NL East - Mets
NL Central - Brewers
NL West - Dodgers
Wild Card - Braves

This seems about right - except for the absence of the Yankees' in the AL and the presence of the Brewers in the NL. The Indians appear to be emerging from Mark Shapiro's 7-year plan, and the Tigers aren't going anywhere. I think it will be a Boston/New York/Detroit scramble to claim two playoff spots.

The one team that is noticably absent from this discussion is the Oakland A's.

They're currently 4 games out of the West, and 5 games (behind the Tigers and the White Sox) out of the Wild Card.

Ranking behind the defending AL Champ Tigers is understandable, but considering that even Chicago GM Kenny Williams is ripping on the White Sox these days, any team that's serious about contending should not be lagging behind.

The A's do seem to be flailing - I mean, I won't argue with releasing "Hot Toddy" Walker, but the fact that they traded for Ryan Langerhans on 4/29 and flipped him to the Nats on 5/2 certainly doesn't present a portrait of stability.

The A's need stability in a corner outfield position, and the biggest story about them doing something about that is the possibility of signing Rickey Henderson to a 1-day contract in September so that he can retire as an Athletic.

If Billy Beane is serious about doing that, why doesn't he do that now? Rickey is only 4 months older than the current oldest player in the league - Julio Franco - and that's only if you actually believe Franco's birth certificate.

In Rickey's last seasons, '02 in Boston and '03 with the Dodgers, he batted .219/.357/.339 - not the numbers dreams are made of, but the Shannon Stewart's and Travis Buck's of the world aren't doing much better this season. I say, put Rickey in, Rickey's ready to play.

One of the tangents that faded into the ether in my phantom blog post touched on Clemens and my recurring theme of Hall of Fame plaques. I don't really care who Clemens goes in representing at this point, but now that he seems to be trying to make good on his promise to the Boss to go in as a Yankee, there's this to consider...

The groundwork to bring back Clemens was laid out this past offseason on two fronts. One was the triumphant return of Andy Pettite to the Bronx. The other was the dispatch of Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield. Both these moves are defensible in the practical sense - Johnson was ineffective and expensive in New York. Sheffield was redundant with Matsui and Abreu in the outfield corners and Giambi at DH. I suppose you could argue that Giambi could have played first and Sheff could have DH'd, but arguing that Giambi is an everyday first baseman is like arguing that Rosie O'Donnell could have played the lead in "Showgirls".

I have seen it pointed out that the Yankees needed to rid themselves of Johnson and Sheffield because they could not have gotten away with showing Clemens' the level of preferential treatment they're prepared to heap upon him with two other stars of the same age, experience, and Hall of Fame caliber in the same clubhouse.

(As an aside, those three plays feed into my earlier clunky-Hall-of-Fame-plaque post. If they retire after this year, their plaques will look as follows:

Clemens: BOS (AL) '84 - '96, TOR '97 - '98, NY (AL) '99 - '03, '07, HOU '04 - '06

Johnson: MTL '88 - '89, SEA '89 - '98, HOU '98, ARI '99 - '04, '07, NY (AL) '05 - '06

Sheffield: MIL (AL) '88 - '91, SD '92 - '93, FLA '93 - '98, LA '98 - '01, ATL '02 - '03, NY (AL) '04 - '06, DET '07)

In terms of the NL East, there's nothing to argue with - the Mets and the Braves are right where they're supposed to be. The only person who might disagree with this is Phillies' SS Jimmy Rollins, whose mouth is currently overflowing with black feathers.

I wills say that the Mets' and Braves' GMs are suspect - Omar Minaya made a series of bad deals in Montreal to move along the contraction attempts, and the conspiracy theorist in me believes that MLB rewarded him by giving him the Mets' job. Anybody can look that good with a $180 million+ payroll. As for John Schuerholz alleged genius in Atlanta, this is the same guy who once traded Jermaine Dye for Michael Tucker and also once traded Ryan Klesko and Bret Boone for Wally Joyner and Quilvio Veras.

(Disclaimer: the Red Sox just signed Michael Tucker to a minor league contract. To me, he's either a poor man's Reggie Sanders or a rich man's Todd Hollandsworth. Either way, you're short in right field. If J.D. Drew goes down I'd rather see a Hinske/Pena platoon in right and an attempt to bring Sweet Lou Merloni, the Framingham Kid, out of retirement)

In the NL Central, the question isn't whether the Brewers are for real, but if there's really any team there that can catch up to them. The Cardinals backed their way into a World Series Championship last year, but without Pujols, Edmonds, and Rolen hitting, they're a very normal team. And Chris Carpenter's injury shouldn't surprise anyone whose followed the AL East in the last decade - his frequent arm problems while with the Blue Jays is what made him available to the Cards in the first place.

The Astros would not have been significantly improved had the Rocket come back. Hell, if Babe Ruth came back to the Astros at the top of his game as both a pitcher and a hitter, it's hard to see them making the playoffs.

The Cubs are... well, I've heard really nice things about Wrigley. I wonder how high ticket prices have had to go to pay the contracts of Lee, Soriano, Ramirez, Marquis, and Lilly.

The Pirates and Reds are the National League versions of the Tigers - proud original members of the original 16 MLB teams that have fallen on hard times. I root especially hard for the Pirates (who have UMass Alum David Littlefield at the helm), but they are still a long way from respectability.

The Reds are a little more confusing. They've become the Island of Misfit Toys - last year resurrecting one-time blue-chipper Brandon Phillips, and this year doing the same for Josh Hamilton. Even Bronson Arroyo inexplicably became an All-Star in Cincy.

They've made some confusing decisions, though. The Kearns/Griffey/Dunn outfield was supposed to be the future of the franchise only a few years ago. Guys weren't able to stay healthy, so sluggers like Jose Guillen and Wily Mo Pena were worked into the mix.

When Kearns was shipped off to Washington for a couple of set-up men last year, it seemed like Jim Bowden was still the guy making bad decisions for the Reds, rather than the one fleecing them.

As for the NL West, the Dodgers are on top almost by default.

I've been a big fan of Padres' GM Kevin Towers for a number of years, but a closer examination reveals that he failed to capitalize on Phil Nevin and Ryan Klesko's brief flirtations with greatness, traded for Brian Giles too late (at the cost of Jason Bay) and struck out with alleged phenom third baseman Sean Burroughs, and is in the process of doing the same with Kevin Kouzmanoff.

The Diamondbacks, with their young talent, will be next year's Brewers.

As for the Giants... well, whoever replaces Brian Sabean will be cursing the Barry Zito contract.

There's still three-quarters of the baseball season to go, so there are a lot more games to be played and deals to be made - the complexion of the season will likely look different in a few months, but this is where we are right now.