The St. Louis Cardinals have finally found slugger Albert Pujols some protection in the lineup, as the Red Birds traded three minor league prospects to the A’s in exchange for outfielder Matt Holliday according to ESPN.com.

One of those three minor leaguers was Brett Wallace, who was Baseball America’s 40th-best prospect entering the season, while the other two were 24-year old right-hander Clayton Mortensen and outfielder Shane Peterson, who was a second rounder in 2008. Apparently Oakland will also chip in $1.5 million to help pay for some of the $6 million still left on Holliday’s contract.

After a slow start, Holliday is now hitting .286 with 11 home runs and 54 RBI. He instantly makes the Cardinals the favorites to win the NL Central and challenge the Dodgers and Phillies for the NL Pennant by adding much-needed protection behind Pujols in the lineup. His presence in the order should also make players like Mark DeRosa and Ryan Ludwick better as well.

Billy Beane once again did well in a trade. The Oakland GM wanted to get Holliday’s contract off the books (or as much of it as he could), but he also didn’t want to just stick a for sale sign in Holliday’s forehead and give him away for free after trading multiple players to acquire him from Colorado last winter. With Holliday set to become a free agent at the end of the season, Beane did well to not only shed salary, but also get one of the Cards’ best prospects in Wallace.

What will be interesting to keep an eye on over the next two weeks as the trade deadline approaches, is whether or not the Cubs or Brewers will make a big move to counter this trade. Chicago doesn’t have much to offer in its farm system, but Milwaukee, as usual, is stacked and could look to add a pitcher. Although it would require giving up a haul, it’ll be interesting to see if the Brew Crew makes a run at Roy Halladay or the Tribe’s Cliff Lee.

The second half of the 2009 MLB season has kicked off and with that, I’m going to make some predictions that are sure to be proved wrong in a couple months.

Feel free to whip out your crystal ball in the comments section but before you do, please do everyone a favor and take off your favorite team prescribed glasses and be objective for once in your life, will ya?

1. The Blue Jays will trade Halladay…to the Phillies.
Toronto GM J.P. Ricciardi is reminding everyone who will listen that he doesn’t absolutely need to trade Roy Halladay – which he doesn’t. But the bottom line is that he’ll probably get more in return for the “Doc” this season than he would next when Halladay is set to become a free agent after the 2010 season. And despite Ricciardi stating that he’s open to trading Halladay within the division, he’s not stupid. He’s not going to trade Halladay to the Red Sox or Yankees and risk becoming public enemy No. 1 in the eyes of Jays fans for not only getting rid of their best and most popular player, but also trading him to a division rival in the process. In the end, I think Ricciardi will trade Halladay to an NL team and my guess is that it will be Philadelphia that will eventually puts a package together to acquire him. Although they might balk at the $7 million that’s remaining on Halladay’s contract, the Phillies are built to win now and need more starting pitching to make another run at a World Series. They also have enough appealing prospects to entice Ricciardi to make a deal.

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- Anthony Riber of Newsday writes that if the Yankees really want ace Roy Halladay, they might have to take Vernon Wells too, who could fill their potential void in left field…

…however, Ken Davidoff of Newsday essentially contradicts his co-worker by writing that GM Brian Cashman prefers to improve his roster this year without taking a dive into the trade market. So in essence, the Bombers might be fine with staying pat around the trade deadline.

- Speaking of Halladay, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes that the Brewers could have the ace in their sites, as GM Doug Melvin has already had a conversation with the Blue Jays regarding the “Doc.”

- The Giants are still in search of bats, but it’s unclear if GM Brian Sabean wants to pull the trigger or not on a bat like Matt Holliday or Jermaine Dye. Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News threw out Blue Jays third baseman Scott Rolen as a possibility for San Fran as well.

- Bill Ladson of MLB.com is reporting that there isn’t much of a market for Nationals outfielder Austin Kearns, who has been delegated to back up duty in Washington.

Following the Brewers’ 8-2 loss to the punch less Cubs on Sunday, Milwaukee outfielder Ryan Braun called out his pitching staff and said that he hoped the club would make a move to acquire more help.

“Their starting pitching is a lot better than ours,” Braun said after the Brewers were beaten 8-2 Sunday. “They threw the ball a lot better than our starters did. They certainly swung the bats better than we did. Clearly they were the better team. It’s nice to get the one win but they clearly outplayed us and outperformed us all series.”

“No matter who is in there, we have to find a way to throw the ball better for us to have success,” said Braun. “I think when you’re constantly behind in games, it’s not easy and it’s not fun. Their starting pitcher was clearly better than ours this series.”

The Brewers host St. Louis for a three-game series beginning on Tuesday and Braun is hoping Brewers general manager Doug Melvin makes a move soon to improve the Brewers.
“I wish I got to make decisions like that. But I know he’s trying to make our ballclub better,” Braun said. “I know he understands the significance of making a move and making it soon.”

Considering Braun is hitting .326 with 16 home runs and 58 RBI, he’s certainly doing his part to help the Brew Crew win. He’s also entitled to vent his frustrations after Milwaukee’s pitching staff gave up 21 runs in four games to a Chicago team that couldn’t itself out of a wet paper bag the past couple of weeks.

Braun’s right – the pitching staff has been brutal lately, but him calling out his teammates is a slippery slope. As long as his ‘mates respect Braun as a leader (which is totally different than respecting him as a player), then his comments will probably inspire. But if they view him as a star shooting off his mouth, then the backlash isn’t going to help the Brewers in the long run.

Who knows, maybe Braun’s comments are exactly what the pitching staff needed to hear to get their act together. We’ll see if what he said has a positive or negative (or neutral) affect on the club.

Last week we picked apart the American League all-star voting. Well, this week we will look at the National League, and after last night the starters have all been selected (aside from pitchers). You ready?

First base
Leader: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
Mike’s pick: Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals. Well, this one is a no-brainer. Is it possible that Albert gets better with age? Yes, and his numbers border on staggering. 81 games in, he’s batting .336 with 31 homers and 82 RBI and a slugging percentage of .748. That projects to 62 homers and 164 runs batted in. What’s more, dude has a .993 fielding percentage. There is little doubt Pujols is the best player in the game, and he gets to flaunt it in front of his hometown crowd a week from Tuesday.

Second base
Leader: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies
Mike’s pick: Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies. This one is also a no-brainer that the voters got correct, though as a Mets fan it pains me to say that. Utley has 17 homers, 54 RBI, he’s batting .303 with 16 doubles and a .980 OPS—all unbelievable numbers for a second baseman. This guy is a gamer.

Shortstop
Leader: Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins
Mike’s pick: Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins. This is getting to be a trend, but the numbers in the National League don’t seem to lie, do they? Hanley is batting .344 with 13 homers and 58 RBI, 26 doubles, 12 stolen bases and a .972 OPS. By comparison, he is hitting 119 points higher than JJ Hardy and 132 points higher than the slumping Jimmy Rollins. Case closed.

Third base
Leader: David Wright, New York Mets
Mike’s pick: Mark Reynolds, Arizona Diamondbacks. Wright was leading the league in batting for quite a while, and he’s currently hitting .333 but with just 5 homers and 42 RBI. By comparison, Reynolds has clubbed 22 home runs with 57 RBI while batting a respectable .271. At a power position, I’m giving the nod to the guy barely anyone gets to see play.

Catcher:
Leader: Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
Mike’s pick: Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves. This is close, because Yadier’s brother Bengie has 10 homers and 46 RBI for the Giants, but McCann is batting .311 with 8 home runs and 33 driven in, with 15 doubles and a respectable .988 fielding percentage.

Outfield
Leaders: Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia Phillies
Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
Carlos Beltran, New York Mets
Mike’s picks: Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia Phillies
Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
Brad Hawpe, Colorado RockiesIbanez is having a career season, batting .312 with 22 homers and 59 RBI, and Braun just continues to rake, with 16 home runs, 58 driven in and a .326 average. But Beltran, while he plays in the biggest media market and makes mega-bucks, is not going to get my all-star nod over Brad Hawpe. Beltran is hitting .336, but has just 8 homers and 40 RBI. Hawpe is hitting .328 with 13 homers and 56 runs batted in, 25 doubles and a stunning .993 OPS. If Manny Ramirez was playing most of the season, he’d probably be on this list, but I can’t consider a guy who’s only played 28 games, regardless of why he missed all that time.

Starting pitcher
As you all know, pitchers are chosen by the managers and will be announced this Sunday.
Mike’s pick: Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants. Last year’s NL Cy Young winner got off to a slow start, but has been mowing hitters down lately, to the tune of 8-2 with a 2.37 ERA and league-leading 132 strikeouts with just 28 walks in 114 innings. Arizona’s Dan Haren is a close runner-up, with a 7-5 record for a crappy D-Backs’ team, and a league low 2.19 ERA with 113 K’s and 0.81 WHIP.

Relief pitcher
Mike’s pick: Heath Bell, San Diego Padres. When this former Met helped christen Citi Field by mowing down his ex-teammates in April, I thought it was just a phase. But dude leads the NL in saves with 22, and is 3-1 with a 1.34 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 33 innings of work. And here’s the best stat of all—Bell has saved or won 74% of his team’s wins. If he keeps that up, Bell will contend for the NL Cy Young and even garner some MVP votes.

With the 2009 MLB Draft set to kickoff at 6:00 ET tonight on the MLB Network, SI.com did a cool feature in which they rated how each club has fared over the past 10 years when it comes to the draft.

The Brewers were rated number one and it’s hard to argue with the ranking after looking at the names Milwaukee has drafted over the years: Prince Fielder, Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, Manny Parra, Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun and Yovani Gallardo. Amazingly, this club also drafted Hunter Pence (Astros), but couldn’t sign him.

The Red Sox were rated No. 2, with Kevin Youkilis, Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, Jon Lester and Manny Delcarmen leading the way, but the site left off a glaring omission: Jacoby Ellsbury. The Rays actually drafted Ellsbury in the 2002 draft, but never signed him. The Sox then nabbed him with the 23rd overall pick in 2005 and he’s currently their starting centerfielder.

Speaking of the Rays, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Tampa ranked higher than No. 4 in the next couple of years. Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, B.J. Upton, James Shields, Andy Sonnanstine and David Price are just some of the names they’ve drafted in the past 10 years. Don’t forget that they were the team that also drafted Josh Hamilton before he got injured and then became the poster child of what not to do when you’re an inspiring ballplayer with loads of free time on your hands.

You look at a club like the Nationals ranked No. 8 and you wonder why they’ve been so awful over the years despite drafting so well. Then you realized they dealt Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips all in the same trade for Bartolo Colon and it all starts to make sense.

If you’re wondering whom SI had ranked last, it was the Astros; only Hunter Pence was worth noting of the players Houston drafted the past 10 years. The White Sox were second to last, although if Josh Fields, Chris Getz, Clayton Richard and Gordon Beckham develop like the club hopes, I highly doubt Chicago will be ranked that low again if SI does another ranking like this in the next couple of years.

According to FOX Sports Ken Rosenthal, pitcher Tom Glavine is considering filing a formal grievance against the Atlanta Braves for his release from the team last Wednesday.

Glavine feels his release was done for financial reasons and not to clear a spot in the rotation for hot prospect Tommy Hanson, who is making his major league debut today against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Rosenthal asked Braves general manager Frank Wren for his reaction:

Wren said the decision was made for performance reasons, not business reasons. The team promoted top prospect Hanson rather than activate Glavine.

According to the MLB collective-bargaining agreement, no player can be released from a team because of financial reasons. Glavine would have received a $1 million bonus if he had been activated from the disabled list for Sunday’s start.

Last season, the Brewers pulled off the biggest trade of the year in sending top prospect Matt LaPorta to the Indians in exchange for ace CC Sabathia. The trade catapulted Milwaukee into the postseason, even though it eventually led to them being bounced by the Phillies in the NLDS.

Fast forward to this season where the Brewers are currently in a first place tie with the Cardinals and at least one Milwaukee columnist thinks that the Brew Crew could once again swing a deal for a stud pitcher to lead them back into the postseason.

Whether the Brewers could come up with the players it would take to do such a deal is debatable. General manager Doug Melvin has said he has no inclination to trade his top two prospects, third baseman Mat Gamel and shortstop Alcides Escobar.

But keep in mind this regime has shown it will think out of the box. The Brewers did so when they traded top prospect Matt LaPorta and others for Sabathia, shocking the rest of the baseball world.
This is a team that fired manager Ned Yost with 12 games to go last season over fears he was making the team too tight and a team that offered Sabathia $100 million to stay before the Yankees blew that offer out of the water.

After watching the bench struggle for more than a month this season, a series of moves was made, signing veteran Frank Catalanotto to a minor-league deal, summoning Gamel to the majors and trading for San Diego outfielder Jody Gerut. More proactive moves from a proactive regime.

Rest assured that internal discussions about Peavy already have been held in the Brewers’ offices. You can bet closer Trevor Hoffman has told his former teammate about the close-knit clubhouse. Word has it that Ryan Braun and Peavy even exchange e-mails.

Perhaps the Brewers’ biggest competition for Peavy (presuming of course that Milwaukee is seriously interested in the San Diego starter) will be the Cubs, who were hot after Peavy this offseason before eventually walking away from negotiations. Rich Harden was just placed on the disabled list with back problems and ace Carlos Zambrano has already paid a visit to the DL once this year.

But the problem with assuming the Cubs are still interested in Peavy is that they desperately need a bat more than another arm. This is a club marred in a seven game losing streak in which they’ve averaged less than 1.5 runs per game in that span. Plus, truth be told, the Cubs’ pitching staff has been pretty good as is, getting quality outings from Ted Lilly (who has been their most reliable starter so far), Ryan Dempster and even Randy Wells, who has been solid filling in for injured starters. Would the Cubs be more inclined to deal for another pitcher rather than a much-needed bat? It’s possible, but unlikely.

That said, the Brewers could have a clear path to Peavy if they could put a decent trade package together on their end. With their lineup, Peavy could possibly give Milwaukee a significant edge over the Cards and Cubs in the NL Central.

We’re approaching Memorial Day and are already about a quarter of the way through the baseball regular season. Some players historically take a while to get going, and some start off blazing hot and then cool off. Here we take a look at five pleasant surprises, and five busts through the first 40 or so games of the 2009 season.

Top 5 Suprises

1. Zack Greinke, SP, Kansas City Royals—One of the reasons the Royals are off to a great start is that Greinke has found his rhythm, to the tune of 7-1 with a 0.82 ERA, as well as 73 strikeouts and 12 walks in just 66 innings. Greinke has given up a microscopic six earned runs so far. Six! It’s not like the kid wasn’t talented, but his career record before 2009 was 34-45 and his ERA 3.96.

2. Jason Bartlett, SS, Tampa Bay Rays—Before this season, Bartlett was a career .285 hitter with 16 career home runs. So far this season, he’s off to a wicked start–.376 batting average, 6 homers, 23 RBI, 9 doubles, 12 stolen bases and an OPS of 1.004.

3. Raul Ibanez, OF, Philadelphia Phillies—This is looking like the free agent signing of the off-season. Or maybe coming over to the world champs from soggy Seattle was a good move. Ibanez was a respectable .288 hitter and was averaging 22 homers and 95 RBI, but so far in 2009 he’s hit 15 home runs and driven in 40 runs, while hitting .349 with 10 doubles, 4 stolen bases and a .724 slugging percentage. You think the Mets should have made a run at the guy instead of wasting all that money on P Ollie Perez?

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“Gentlemen, start your engines.”

These four words begin one of the grandest traditions in auto racing, as the 93rd Indianapolis 500 will take place this weekend. The Old Brickyard has been home to some memorable finishes and characters that make this one of the marquee events on the racing season.

The NBA Conference Finals are really heating up. Arguably, the four best players (LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard) in the league are fighting tooth and nail for a title. All four have shown the determination and drive needed to win a NBA crown.

All times ET…

NBA Playoffs
Fri, 8:30 PM: Orlando Magic @ Cleveland Cavaliers (TNT)
Sat, 8:30 PM: Los Angeles Lakers @ Denver Nuggets (ABC)
Sun, 8:30 PM: Cleveland Cavaliers @ Orlando Magic (TNT)

NHL Playoffs
Fri, 8 PM: Detroit Red Wings @ Chicago Blackhawks (Versus)
Sat, 7:30 PM: Pittsburgh Penguins @ Carolina Hurricanes (Versus)
Sun, 3 PM: Detroit Red Wings @ Chicago Blackhawks (NBC)

MLB
Sat, 4:10 PM: Philadelphia Phillies @ New York Yankees (FOX)
Sun., 1:30 PM: New York Mets @ Boston Red Sox (TBS)
Sun., 8 PM: Milwaukee Brewers @ Minnesota Twins (ESPN)

Auto Racing
Sun, 1 PM: The 93rd Indianapolis 500 @ Indianapolis Motor Speedway (ABC)

Tennis
Sun, 5 AM: The French Open (ESPN2)