Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Center fielder Torii Hunter and left fielder/designated hitter Vladimir Guerrero were officially placed on the 15-day disabled list today.

Guerrero tweaked his hamstring and strained a muscled behind his left knee when he landed awkwardly after making a catch in Thursday night's game against the Rangers.

Hunter will be resting a a strained abductor muscle in his side that he's been nursing since slamming into the wall at Dodger Stadium on May 22.

Now, after the screaming dies down, pay attention. 

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Mike Scioscia said he had a sleepless night after the game in which the Angels had five baserunning blunders. Well, Mike, start looking for the sleeping pills.

Is it that hard to go 90 feet without screwing up? Seriously. Vladdy we know is a self destructive missile on the basepaths. He runs the bases the same way he swings: damn the torpedoes!

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Well, they're tied for first and their bats have come alive. A season that could have gone south…didn’t. And now a couple of all-stars.

A quick glance at the two who got in:

Tori Hunter. So often free agents bomb out in new cities. Too much pressure, too much change. Sometimes, quite frankly, they aren’t as good as they seemed to be. Maybe it was their home park, their comfort zone, their mind set.

No player has been more valuable to his team this year than Torii Hunter.

Hunter has always been a great player and a great leader; these are facts. This season, however, he has taken his game to the next level when his team desperately needed it.

NOTE: Stats and records updated thru Sunday afternoon, June 29.

1. Los Angeles Angels (40-32)

Out of the top five teams in the majors, (Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, Angels, Tigers), the Angels are the hottest team, no doubt.

They are the only team to have won seven of their last ten games, and are currently on a four-game winning streak. They just took over the AL West lead by a half-game over the slumping Texas Rangers.  

The Major League baseball season is a marathon, and usually the teams that end up playing in October are the ones who deal best with the adversity that’s encountered throughout the course of a long season.

Fortunately for the Angels, Manager Mike Scioscia is one of the best in the game at finding ways to win, regardless of the hand he's dealt.  

This weekend I attended my first Dodgers and Angels game. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, and the stadium was sold out.

Before this series started last week, I read an article about how Dodger fans couldn't care less about the Freeway Series. At the same time, I also thought it really wasn't a big deal to Angel fans either. The teams have never been in a postseason battle, and there really wasn't much of a rivalry.

But after leaving the stadium, I can, without a doubt, say that Dodger fans and Angel fans both care about the Freeway Series.

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Saturday will mark just the 21^st time in Major League history that brothers will face-off against each other as opposing starting pitchers.

32-year-old Jeff Weaver will start for Los Angeles in place of Eric Milton, who isn’t eligible to come off the DL until Sunday. Jeff’s Dodgers will face his little brother Jered and their cross-town counterparts, the Los Angeles Angels.

The Dodgers’ organization has actually seen brothers face each other twice before.

This weekend will see a renewal of a rivalry in Anaheim, as the first place Dodgers (by eight-and-a-half games as of this writing) take on the surging Angels.

It's been a bit one-sided this year, as the Angels took two-of-three at Dodger Stadium in May.

In fact, the Angels have always played their Chavez Ravine neighbors tough. I remember going to a Dodger-Angel game two years ago today where the Angels walloped the Dodgers 10-4, and it wasn't even that close.