Rant One: JV No More
Over the past few years many, including myself, have tabbed the AL Central Division as the league's junior varsity. After all, Minnesota has easily captured the division crown the past three seasons by winning around 90 games, while the White Sox have been slotted in second place with a record just a hair over .500. Cleveland, Kansas City and Detroit, meanwhile, have been mediocre to awful.

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This year however, the landscape is entirely different. The White Sox have dominated the AL and have the game’s best record. The Twins are now in a distant second, but are in the thick of the Wild Card hunt. Cleveland and Detroit finally have winning records and look to be positioning themselves for second-half runs at the postseason. As for Kansas City, there's always that 20th anniversary celebration of the franchise’s 1985 World Series victory to fall back on.

Rant Two: True Blue Brew Crew Part II?
Wisconsin sports fans have a tendency to live in the past and after watching the Brewers for the past decade, who can blame them? They way they talk about the Yount, Molitor and Gantner days, you'd think the Brewers actually won the World Series in 1982 (they lost in seven games to the Cardinals). Now, however, a new trio of talented youngsters is breathing new life into the morbid franchise.

With the recent call-ups of first baseman Prince Fielder and second baseman Rickey Weeks, along with shortstop J.J. Hardy, who’s been with the team all year, the Milwaukee faithful has hope that a new age of Beertown glory may be on the horizon (keeping in mind, of course, that their original "glory days" included just two postseason berths and no titles). The sub 23-year-old trio is already making waves: Weeks' promotion led to Junior Spivey's trade to Washington, which netted solid starter Tomo Ohka. Fielder's rise, meanwhile, could hasten the departure of Lyle Overbay, which would further add to Milwaukee’s growing arsenal.

Rant Three: No Guarantees
In baseball, being a high draft pick offers no guarantees. Take the case of Adam Johnson, the second overall pick by Minnesota just five years ago. After five disappointing years in the Twins system, including two brief and disastrous stints in the big leagues, Johnson was released following last season. He went to spring training with the Diamondbacks, but didn’t make the cut and next made a short stop in Mexico. Today, the right-hander is desperately trying to revive his career with the San Diego Surf Dawgs of the independent Golden Baseball League. He can take solace in the fact that he has a future Hall of Famer -- Rickey Henderson -- as a teammate. Go Dawgs!