Rick Ankiel

Although the Atlanta Braves have been leading the NL East for some time now, they made a number of trades to try and strengthen their team for the stretch run.

With the Phillies getting key players back in their lineup seemingly every day, the Braves were looking for guys like Rick Ankiel, Derek Lee, and Kyle Farnsworth to fill in some holes that the team had.

For Jesse Chavez, Gregor Blanco, and Tim Collins, the Braves acquired the now infamous converted-pitcher Rick Ankiel and an old friend (save the 2005 NLDS) in Kyle Farnsworth (as well as come cash from the Royals).

That's a right-handed reliever with a straight fastball, a AAAA outfielder (as much as we loved him in Atlanta), and a 5'7" lefty with a huge ceiling and awesome stuff (308 Ks in 202.2 career MiLB innings) for two more-than-serviceable Major Leaguers.

The Kansas City Royals got off to a very good start in 2009. After 46 games last season, they had a record of 23-23, placing them second in the ultra-competitive American League Central.

That success quickly came to an end, and the Royals went 42-74 the rest of the way to finish 65-97, tied for last in the division with the Indians.

Despite a horrible finish, the Royals were able to hang their hat on Zack Greinke. Greinke won the AL Cy Young Award going 16-8 with a 2.16 ERA. He struck out 242 hitters and walked only 51 in 229.1 innings pitched.

The Boston Red Sox are reportedly  interested in four different free agents who are represented by Scott Boras.

Two of them, Matt Holliday and Mike Gonzalez, have been rumored to go to the Red Sox numerous times. The other two, Adrian Beltre and Rick Ankiel, have never before been even thought as potential acquisitions.

John Lackey. Matt Holliday. Jose Valverde. In a weak free-agent class for 2009-2010, those men stand out as the leaders of the mediocre pack, and well deserve the publicity they have already received and will receive throughout the next month.

As all students of the game know, however, there are always unknowns, always surprises. Each season, there are players who unexpectedly make an impact in a comeback capacity or after having been dispatched into baseball abyss due to injury or ineffectiveness.

When the baseball starts back up tomorrow, there are going to be all kinds of storylines to follow.

Can Albert Pujols win the first Triple Crown since 1967?

Will the trading of Roy Halladay change the landscape of the National League pennant race?

It seems like a simple concept, bordering on cliche: as Albert Pujols goes, so go the St. Louis Cardinals.

The past week has made this as clear as it has ever been. 

Entering the week, Pujols was riding a slump, at one point going 15 straight at-bats without a base hit. After breaking the hitless streak with an opposite way single in Florida against the Marlins, Cardinals' color commentator Al Hrabosky made a prediction that Pujols would get into a hot streak.

The story of the past week for St. Louis Cardinals fans was twofold: the continued success of the starting pitching and the return of Rick Ankiel and Ryan Ludwick.

The week began with a Sunday finale against the in-state rival Kansas City Royals. Joel Pineiro was solid in his seven innings, giving up just three runs. The Cardinal offense could not produce, however, as the Royals' three runs proved to be enough for the victory.

Rick Ankiel has done a lot of things over the course of his MLB career.

But never this. He's never been boring.

As a young pitcher fresh out of his teen years, Ankiel electrified and then horrified. Before he melted down in the playoffs against Atlanta, Ankiel had one of the top strikeout per nine innings ratios in all of baseball. His fastball was Randy Johnson-esque, his curveball was Zito-esque.

When I first heard about this series, I loved the idea—almost all sports fans are, more or less, homers for the underdog.  Rarely do we sit down for an important match/game and root for the favorite unless the favorite happens to be OUR team.

Otherwise, we're usually rooting for the little guy to pull an upset—the more memorable the better.

Every now and then, the meek delivers.