Horsehide Chronicles

A full week has passed since I last updated my American League Cy Young rankings. It's time to update them again.

This time last week, Los Angeles Angels ace Jered Weaver was the clear favorite for the AL Cy Young. The Texas Rangers then proceeded to absolutely destroy him on Sunday.

Last week, I dove deep into the annals of Baseball-Reference.com and came up with a list of the top 10 all-time pitching performances by position players.

To channel Tim Kurkjian, one of the reasons we love watching baseball is because the game doesn't always turn out the way you expect.

When Major League Baseball finalized its decision to incorporate a second wild card berth into the league's postseason format, everyone realized that things were going to be very different going forward.

The second wild card is already starting to make its presence felt. We're still many weeks away from seeing teams lock up postseason berths, but we're really not that far off from MLB's trade deadline. The existence of the second wild card is going to make things even crazier than usual as we get closer to July 31.

It's been a struggle for Los Angeles Angels ace Dan Haren this year. His fastball velocity is down, and his ERA is up. He just hasn't looked like himself all season.

It doesn't help that the Angels have had a hard time scoring runs with Haren on the mound this season. In fact, they've been shut out in each of his last three starts, and they've scored three runs or fewer for him in seven of his eight starts.

Okay, Josh Hamilton's 2012 season is officially getting scary.

In case you missed what happened in Baltimore on Tuesday night, Hamilton helped his Texas Rangers beat the Baltimore Orioles by going 5-for-5 with four home runs and eight RBI.

This time last week, Los Angeles Angels ace Jered Weaver was in the American League Cy Young discussion, but not quite at the top of it.

He must have sensed our doubts. Weaver's last two starts consist of a no-hitter and a gem on the road against the Minnesota Twins. He's now seven starts into his 2012 campaign, and he has video-game numbers that make baseball geeks like you and I drool uncontrollably.

On Sunday, Albert Pujols hit a home run, and there was much rejoicing.

There was much rejoicing, of course, because it was Prince Albert's first home run in a Los Angeles Angels uniform. It's been that kind of season for the former St. Louis Cardinals superstar, and it hasn't been fun to watch.

It's been a rough year for closers so far. A lot of closers have gotten hurt, including the seemingly indestructible Mariano Rivera. A few others, such as Heath Bell, have struggled mightily.

Given the circumstances, now is as good a time as any to take stock of the closer role in Major League Baseball. It's a position that has been the subject of debates for some time now, with some people insisting that having a good closer is vital to a team's success and others insisting that closers are the most overrated and overvalued players in baseball.

Yesterday, the daily chatter got kind of serious around baseball as many of us debated Cole Hamels throwing a pitch at Bryce Harper in Sunday night's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals.