The Los Angeles Angels gave their starting rotation a boost on Friday night, acquiring Tampa Bay Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir for third baseman Matt Sweeney, left-hander Alex Torres and a player to be named later.

While Kazmir has been solid in his last three starts, his velocity is down and he’s always an injury risk. Still, this move gives the Halos much-needed depth in their starting rotation and they also net a pitcher who has plenty of experience against the Yankees and Red Sox. (Two teams the Angels could face in the postseason.)

For the Rays, Kazmir never panned out to be the ace the club thought he would become when they acquired him from the Mets earlier this decade. Injuries have limited his effectiveness, although he still owns a career ERA of 3.92. He’s also the club’s career leader in wins, strikeouts and innings pitched.

Overall, Tampa gets significant salary reliever in the trade by shedding most of the three-year, $28.5 million extension Kazmir signed in May of last year.

They also get a solid strikeout prospect in Torres, who can pitch for the groundout and has been largely overlooked in the Halos’ organization. Sweeney has 25-30 home run potential, but an ankle injury cost him virtually his entire ’08 season and he’ll have to work his way up from High-A ball.

Pennant races this season are not quite as exciting as last season, but that doesn’t mean we won’t have a few good races in September. The power rankings this week have not changed much, but the Rockies and Rangers swapped places. The Rays, who were on the cusp of cracking the Top 10, traded Scott Kazmir to the Angels yesterday, making us all scratch our heads and wonder if they are conceding the race.

1. New York Yankees (80-48)—The first team to 80 victories is officially in cruise control. The question is, can they carry it over into the postseason? Because we all know how you-know-who performs in October.

2. Los Angeles Angels (76-51)—If newly acquired Scott Kazmir stays healthy, this scrappy Angels team could be wearing new jewelry. Then again, October has been none to kind to them recently as well.

3. St. Louis Cardinals (75-55)—The Cardinals now have a 9 game lead on the woe-as-me Cubs. The good franchises always add the right parts when they are in a pennant race, and Matt Holliday and John Smoltz are those guys for the Redbirds.

4. Philadelphia Phillies (74-52)—The Phils may have given the slightest ray of hope to the Marlins and Braves, but then they remembered that they were the world champs.

5. Los Angeles Dodgers (76-53)—Their lead over the Rockies shrunk to 2 games this past week. It’s now back to 4, but this NL West race is not going to be a landslide as everyone thought. In fact, it’s now a 3-team race.

6. Boston Red Sox (74-54)—Don’t think the Sox can’t still catch the Yankees. If not, they should be able to hang on to the wild card, and adding Billy Wagner certainly doesn’t hurt their chances.

7. Colorado Rockies (72-57)—The wild card is not what these Rockies have in mind, and they just keep right on winning and closing the gap.

8. Texas Rangers (71-56)—Slipping in the power rankings and slipping in their quest for a wild card berth.

9. San Francisco Giants (70-59)—Got a big lift from Lincecum last night against the Rockies, but Giants need to sweep this weekend if they want to remain in contention.

10. Detroit Tigers (68-59)—T-men hanging tough, but watch out for the surging Twins, is all I’m sayin’.

- ESPN’s Buster Olney is reporting that the Angels have interest in Rays’ starter Scott Kazmir, although its unclear at this point if this could be a precursor to a trade for Tampa, who apparently has their eyes on Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee.

- Sticking with the Angels theme, owner Arte Moreno tells the L.A. Times that he remains interested in landing one of the top arms on the market, which includes Halladay and Lee. Apparently he’s also willing to pay a hefty price to acquire one of the big names.

- Speaking of Lee, ESPN’s Jayson Stark says he is available, but it appears that the Indians would have to be overwhelmed by a deal. Stark is also reporting that the Reds will listen to offers for starter Bronson Arroyo.

- According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Twins are interested in Oakland shortstop Orlando Cabrera and reliever Michael Wuertz.

- The Padres are making Heath Bell available.

- SI.com’s Jon Heyman is reporting that the Rays are kicking the tires on possibly acquiring Cleveland catcher Victor Martinez.

- Brian Anderson has asked the White Sox to trade him according to MLB.com.

According to a report by Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports.com, the Indians are apparently considering trading ace Cliff Lee to the Rays for a couple of minor league prospects. Who those prospects are, however, seem to be the sticking point in Tampa pulling the trigger.

The article reports that Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro is asking for multiple high-end prospects in return for Lee, and that Shapiro specifically has his eyes set on Class AAA Durham pitcher Wade Davis. But the Rays value Davis, who is 8-6 with a 3.22 ERA in the minors this season and has a fastball that reaches 95 mph.

Along with Davis, we’re also hearing rumblings that the Tribe want 22-year-old outfield prospect Desmond Jennings as part of the package for Lee. Much like some of the other outfielders (i.e. Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton) that have come up through Tampa’s farm system, Jennings is big, strong and incredibly fast, but he’s raw and he would need some more polishing in the minors before eventually making his major league debut.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Rays and Indians can come together on a trade for Lee and what the eventual compensation would be. Considering Scott Kazmir’s performance/injury troubles this season, Lee would be a tremendous addition to their rotation and could help close the gap between them and the Yankees and Red Sox.

Whether it’s that reliever that always seems to blow tight games in late innings, that batter that leaves runners on the bases, or that starter that walks seven batters an inning, every team has at least one player that as a fan, you’d rather set your eyelids on fire than watch trot onto the field for just one more inning.

I’ve compiled a list of 10 infuriating, punch-a-hole-through-your-wall MLB players to watch. Granted, this list is by no means all-inclusive (and I implore you the reader to list the guys that drive you nuts in the comments section). But these are the 10 that seem to make my blood boil on a consistent basis, whether they’re playing for my favorite team or not.

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1. The defending champs needed that one…
Staring 0-3 in the face, the Phillies rallied from a 10-3 deficit in the seventh inning to beat the Braves 12-11 on Wednesday. Raul Ibanez homered and drove in three runs as Philly went on to score eight runs in the seventh inning. While 1-2 isn’t the start the defending champs would have liked, maybe now their offense has awaken from their slump and they can use this game as a confidence builder.

2. And I was like, Emilio!
I know, I know – it’s only one sweep of the Nationals (and at home no less). But the Marlins’ 3-0 start (they beat Washington 6-4 on Wednesday) should raise some eyebrows because this team is loaded with bright, young talent. Granted, Emilio Bonifacio isn’t going to hit .571 the rest of the way, but he gives the Fish a strong table setter at the top of the lineup and catcher John Baker has been a nice surprise so far in the two-hole. If the young starting pitching can hold up and five-tool 22-year old outfielder Cameron Maybin can grow up in a hurry, the Mets, Phillies and Braves will definitely have competition this year in NL East.

3. The Tigers might not have a good year, but Miggie will.
For all intents and purposes, it looks like the Tigers are due for another down year, although outside of Justin Verlander, the starting pitching has looked good the past two nights. But one thing that won’t hold Detroit back this year is Miguel Cabrera, who hit two dingers and drove in four runs in the Tigs’ 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays on Wednesday. It’s early, but Cabrera looks like he’ll be a favorite for the AL MVP all season.

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Offseason Movement: One of the busier teams this offseason, the Orioles acquired OF Felix Pie and LHP Rich Hill from the Cubs, while also adding free agents Ty Wigginton, Mark Hendrickson, Cesar Izturis, Gregg Zaun, Ryan Freel, John Parrish, David Pauley, Chris Gomez, Chad Moeller and Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara.

Top Prospect: Matt Wieters, C
Wieters isn’t only the best prospect in Baltimore – he’s the best prospect in baseball. He can flat out rake and once he gets some experience under his belt, he could be a .300 hitter who produces 12-15 home runs a year. Unfortunately, Baltimore fans that were hoping to see him play early this season will have to wait. Wieters is expected to start the first two months in the International League, but could be called up before the All-Star Break with the O’s not expected to be in contention. Some have compared Wieters to Joe Mauer and Mike Piazza.

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With their 8-7 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 of the ALCS, the Boston Red Sox overcame the second largest deficit in postseason history and saved their season for at least the time being.

Lets put the Red Sox historic comeback on ice for a moment and talk about the complete collapse by the Rays, who took a 7-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning but managed to squander it in the final three frames.

The game was over…the series was finished…Fenway vendors were hanging up their beer carriers for the final time…fans started pulling out their New England Patriots 2008 Team Handbook to learn more about Matt Cassel…Dice-K looked like crap…Scott Kazmir looked like Cy Young…see-ya Boston – thanks for coming out.

As is usually the case with most defeats, this wasn’t a complete team loss by Tampa. No, the Rays’ bullpen just flat out blew it. When you build a 7-0 lead and your starter goes six strong while only allowing two hits and no runs, you win the game. Period. But hey, give Boston credit. This is what veteran teams do – they don’t give up. They got their ass kicked for three straight games but found a way to win when everything was on the line. This is a huge momentum swing and one that maybe a young Rays team won’t be ready to bounce back from.

The good news for Tampa is that they get to head home and they get two cracks at trying to win one game. If someone told them that they would take 2 of 3 in Boston before the series started, I’m sure they would have gladly accepted. But to lose this way is crushing and if they don’t win Game 6, it’s going to be awfully hard to top a veteran club like the Red Sox in the most pressure-packed situation. (Especially considering Boston was in a similar scenario last year when they beat Cleveland after falling behind 3-1 in the series.)

“Momentum is always as strong as your starting pitcher is the next day.â€�
- Joe Maddon

Leave it to the well-read Rays manger to come up with such a profound statement. Chances are this saying is nailed up in his teams’ clubhouse alongside others from the likes of Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre. Maddon’s right, and he’s used this pitching-first philosophy to propel his team into the ALCS.

If there’s one quality that ties each of the remaining four teams together, it’s that each of them can hit. They each have at least two big bats, lead-off men that can hit for average, and a bottom of the order that can consistently do some damage. When teams are this evenly matched at the plate, it’s often a single blunder on the part of a pitcher that can decide a game. As we’ve seen in the Division Series between the Angels and Red Sox, it comes down to the pitching. Both teams boasted fabulous rotations and excellent hitting, but it was the Red Sox middle relief and closer that really won the games.