[Willie Bee]

Who’s in first?
AL East: Red Sox (14-11)
AL Central: White Sox (17-7)
AL West: A’s/Rangers (12-12)
NL East: Mets (16-8)
NL Central: Reds/Cards (17-8)
NL West: Rockies (15-10)

Who’s in last?
AL East: Devil Rays (11-14)
AL Central: Royals (5-17)
AL West: Mariners (11-15)
NL East: Marlins (6-16)
NL Central: Pirates (7-19)
NL West: Padres (9-15)

Will he or won’t he?: Now that we’ve hit May, expect Roger Clemens to be in the news as several teams vie for the future Hall of Famer’s services.

After failing to offer Clemens, who will be 43 this August, arbitration this past winter, Houston was out of the bidding until May as baseball rules are written. Clemens makes his home in Houston and the Astros are expected to start pushing for his return after he pitched with them the past two years, winning his seventh Cy Young in 2004 and setting a personal best 1.87 ERA in 2005.

The Yankees, Red Sox and Rangers have also shown an interest in Clemens. But his agent, Randy Hendricks, said just because Houston can now join the fracas, his client is not about to make a quick decision.

“Roger is a long way from making a final decision on this year,” Hendricks told USA Today’s Mel Antonen.

This week’s dogs: The Twins got swept out of Motown over the weekend in embarrassing fashion as the Tigers outscored Minnesota 33-1 (9-0, 18-1 & 6-0). The losses left the Twins 9-15 on the season, losers of eight of their last 10, and 10 of their last 13 games.

Injury News: Making their returns from the DL this past week were Tampa Bay pitcher Mark Hendrickson, Baltimore pitcher Todd Williams, Cleveland pitcher Fernando Cabrera and Atlanta pitcher Macay McBride and third baseman Chipper Jones.

Heading to the DL this past week were Brian Wilson (SFG-oblique), Maicer Izturis (ANA-hamstring), Julio Santana (PHL-gastroenteritis), Ricardo Rincon (STL-shoulder), John Patterson (WAS-right forearm), Rich Harden (OAK-back), Brian Bannister (NYM-hamstring), Shane Costa (KCR-hamstring), Julio Mateo (SEA-shoulder), Ruben Sierra (MIN-left bicep), Jorge Cantu (TAM-foot), Brian Roberts (BAL-groin) and Ray Durham (SFG-hamstring).

Fantasy Studs & Duds: Texas outfielder Kevin Mench saw his home run binge come to an end at seven, but had a killer week nonetheless. Mench, currently on a 10-game hitting streak, was 10-for-23 (.434) in the week with four homers, and 10 RBI. With a run scored in the Rangers’ 8-4 win over Cleveland, Mench also has a 9-game streak crossing the plate.

Houston 1B Lance Berkman also had a fine week and continued his good start to the season. Berky batted .333 for the week with half of his eight hits sailing over the fence. After missing all of April last season recovering from offseason knee surgery, Berkman is off to a strong start this year with a .348 average, 10 HR and 29 RBI.

Yankees slugger Jason Giambi was 6-for-15 last week with 2 HR and 10 RBI. He also reached base another nine times via walks, giving him a .625 OB% … Yankees right-hander Mike Mussina won both of his starts last week, against Tampa and Toronto, allowing just two earned runs and a pair of walks against 14 Ks in his 12 innings of work … Chicago’s Carlos Zambrano has yet to put a tally in his win column on the season as he struggles with control issues. Milwaukee punched him out before retiring a batter in the fifth during the Brewers’ 9-0 win on Sunday. In just under 34 innings this year, Zambrano has issued 25 free passes … Kansas City’s Mike Sweeney took another 0-for-4 collar on Sunday to leave him with a .185 average so far in 2006. One third of Sweeney’s 12 hits this season came in a 4-for-5 performance against the Indians on Apr 21 … Minnesota’s team ERA through April is a whopping 6.28 … Cleveland and Toronto both batted over .300 in April, with the Yankees close behind at .299 ... The Indians scored 158 runs in the season’s first month to lead the majors. Cincinnati ranked second with 149 … The Tigers lead the bigs with a 3.22 staff ERA. The Mets rank second at 3.27 … A new stadium and ?? home games helped St. Louis take the early attendance lead with 644,528 games through the turnstiles, all but three of them wearing red, I believe … The two franchises in the Sunshine State drew about 320,000 combined in April.

Quote(s) of the Week: “I had fun.” --- Texas outfielder Kevin Mench about his 7-game homer streak that left him one game shy of the MLB mark shared by Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly and Dale Long.

“I have told all four teams that Roger will not play in May.” --- Clemens’ agent Randy Hendricks on his client and the four teams vying for his services: Houston, Boston, Texas and the New York Yankees.

On Deck: May opens with everyone playing a couple of 2-game series this week. All eyes are naturally on Beantown where the Yankees and Red Sox meet on Mon-Tue. Chien-Ming Wang squares off against Tim Wakefield in the series opener with Shawn Chacon facing Josh Beckett on Tuesday.

The NL Central’ co-leaders also meet to open the week with the Cardinals traveling to Cincinnati to face the hot Reds. St. Louis then scoots down to Houston on Wed-Thu in a rematch of the past two NLCS’. Jason Marquis and Roy Oswalt are slated for Wednesday’s game, followed by Chris Carpenter and Andy Pettitte.

The AL Central finds the White Sox in Cleveland to start the week with Mark Buehrle and CC Sabathia, fresh off the DL, set to perform a nice southpaw duel on Tuesday.

The best weekend series right now appears to be the Braves at the Mets. With New York starting to separate themselves from the rest of the AL East pack, Atlanta could be in an early ‘must win’ situation.

[bigboydan]

Twins are on a downward spiral these days. at least they play KC this weekend, so that should maybe get them out of there tail spin there in.

[Willie Bee]

I'll be at the St. Louis-Houston games this Wed-Thu. But don't tell my bosses at SBR because I told them I was attending my grandmother's funeral

[bigboydan]

that should be a good series willie. houston could sweep st.louis in that 2 game set IMO

[Illusion]

How long do you think the Reds will keep this good run up? I think they will eventually start to fade.

[Willie Bee]

I don't know, Ill. They've been just outslugging people, and doing that without Junior in the lineup. History says that a team with a 4.85 ERA won't find winning very easy, but they are scoring at just a hair under six runs per game. They lead the NL with 36 HR in 25 games, but they've also allowed the most (41).

One note here about early surprises. Neither the Reds nor the Rockies were supposed to contend. Hell, I really thought the Reds would be worse than the Pirates this year. But if you asked me right now which team has a better chance to win their division, I'd say the Rockies just because the NL West is so screwy. That young staff is pitching better than Cincy's is. If they can shore up the defense a little and get Helton back healthy and leading the team on offense at home, Colorado could be the real story in the NL races.

[Mudcat]

Quote(s) of the Week: “I had fun.” --- Texas outfielder Kevin Mench about his 7-game homer streak that left him one game shy of the MLB mark shared by Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly and Dale Long.

Glad to get my Kevin "Happy Feet" Mench update.

Meanwhile, don't tell Illusion I said this but, how 'bout them White Sox? The pressure to repeat does not seem to be getting to them so far.


Nice job Willie.

[Willie Bee]

I read somewhere in the last two days, can't recall exactly where, that Mench only wears a size 8 cap. He's got to go at least another half-size bigger than that.

[bigboydan]

How long do you think the Reds will keep this good run up? I think they will eventually start to fade.

there crushing the cardnails tonight. i'm thinking they will probly start to fade in june.