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Which major league players act with their own best interests in mind, rather than thinking about their teammates or the organizations that employ them?

Whether it’s their behavior on the field—for instance, refusing to switch positions—or off the field by blocking a trade or getting busted for PED use, a handful of players have demonstrated some selfish behavior over the past few months.

Bleacher Report’s MLB Lead Writer Ian Casselberry and Pop Culture Lead Writer Gabe Zaldivar name a few players whose self-centered actions have ultimately hurt their respective teams.

Who do you think are some selfish players in MLB? Which ones did we miss? Were we unfair to the players we mentioned? Sound off in the comments section below.

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Follow Ian Casselberry at @iancass

Be sure to sound off and let us know what you think in the comments below. If you like what you see, click here for more from Bleacher Report Productions. 

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The race for the NL Rookie of the Year award is going to be a fun one to follow for the final five weeks of the regular season.

Essentially, it’s become a two-man competition between Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Wade Miley and Cincinnati Reds infielder Todd Frazier. Many view Miley as the favorite the rest of the way, but if Frazier stays in the lineup regularly, his numbers might be too good to be denied. 

This is a classic debate: Is a starting pitcher or everyday player more important to his team? The Rookie of the Year award isn’t a Most Valuable Player award, of course. But that’s what this race could come down to. Is Miley more valuable to his team, or is Frazier? 

There wasn’t much change between last week’s rankings and the set we put together this week. San Diego Padres first baseman Yonder Alonso continues to hover around the top five. He had a strong week, batting 6-for-12 (.500) with a home run and four RBI. But he played in only three games. If he keeps that up, however, he could crack the top five again. 

Here are this week’s top five contenders for NL Rookie of the Year honors. Chime in with your responses and suggestions in the comments. (You can also reply to me on Twitter. My address is at the end of this article.) That feedback is definitely considered when doing these rankings each week. 

All statistics cited here are current as of August 28. 

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Out of 30 teams in MLB, the Boston Red Sox rank No. 23 in team ERA as of Aug. 21.

Only three American League teams have a worse mark than the 4.30 ERA Boston’s pitching staff carries. A change was going to be made. With the way this season has gone for the Red Sox, a change had to be made. 

The Red Sox didn’t wait until the end of the season to make adjustments on their coaching staff, dismissing pitching coach Bob McClure on Monday (Aug. 20). Assistant pitching coach Randy Niemann takes over the position through the final six weeks on the schedule and possibly into next year. 

But is McClure being made a scapegoat for the Red Sox’s failures this season? How poorly should this reflect on manager Bobby Valentine for reportedly working so poorly with one of his coaches? How much should this fall upon general manager Ben Cherington, who hired McClure even before hiring a manager and then forced Valentine to work with him?

What about the players McClure worked with this season? Is it entirely the pitching coach’s fault that Jon Lester is having the worst year of his career with a 7-10 record and 5.03 ERA in 25 starts? Josh Beckett also is having a terrible season, going 5-11 with a 5.23 ERA in 21 appearances. 

Is it just that simple an explanation to highlight McClure as the primary difference between this season and last year for Lester and Beckett? Was McClure too hands-off or deferential to his veteran pitchers, as this profile by the Providence Journal‘s Brian MacPherson seemed to indicate?

Yet we’re also talking about two pitchers with a combined 19 years of major league experience between them. Sure, any major league player can develop bad habits and get out of his best form. Coaches are there to help correct that. But shouldn’t the players also be held accountable for their performance? 

Is it also possible that McClure was essentially emasculated as a pitching coach when Valentine added Niemann to his staff? Even if he wasn’t marginalized, couldn’t two coaches possibly offering differing, perhaps conflicting tutelage cause problems among a group of pitchers? 

McClure and Niemann had separate duties, as MacPherson explains in another article. McClure worked with the active pitchers on mechanics and game planning, while Niemann focused more on strength and conditioning.

That sets up the possibility of conflict in the area of throwing motions. McClure could be telling a pitcher how throwing a certain way could create more movement on a pitch, while Niemann might advise the same pitcher to throw differently to save his shoulder or elbow. 

The inherent problems caused by this arrangement may have become most apparent when McClure took a two-week leave of absence to help care for one of his babies who had become seriously ill. Niemann took over the pitching coach duties, likely giving Valentine the setup he wanted for his coaching staff all along. 

As ESPN Boston’s Gordon Edes recounts, however, Valentine tipped off his true feelings when he derisively referred to McClure’s leave of absence as a “vacation,” which seems terribly cruel considering the circumstances. Valentine corrected himself, but his initial word choice appeared to be deliberate, speaking to how poorly he regarded McClure.

However, this goes back to whether or not Valentine should have been forced to deal with this situation to begin with. Why did Cherington hire a pitching coach before hiring a manager? Obviously, he could have made McClure a condition of the hiring, and Valentine presumably wanted the Red Sox manager job badly enough that he’d agree to it.

But wouldn’t you want to set your manager up for success by letting him hire his assistant coaches? Was McClure seen as such a brilliant pitching mind and indispensable hire that Cherington didn’t want to risk losing him?

Let’s not absolve Valentine of responsibility, either. If he knew this was the circumstance he’d be working with, he was under a professional obligation to try and make it work rather than freeze McClure out.

Obviously, the two couldn’t have known whether or not they could work together. As CSNNE.com’s Sean McAdam wrote, Valentine and McClure disagreed on things such as whether or not pitchers should throw from the stretch all the time. McClure also apparently irritated Valentine by refusing to go out to the mound to talk to a pitcher during an inning. Perhaps this relationship was irreconcilable.

That leaves Valentine and Cherington with little other recourse than to share the blame and cover their you-know-whats in explaining McClure’s dismissal. 

As the Boston Globe‘s Peter Abraham points out, firing McClure is at least a passive endorsement of Valentine. Hey, it was that guy’s fault, not this guy’s. Valentine now has his guy, Niemann, fully in place, and things presumably will proceed more smoothly from here on out. 

Of course, it also puts more accountability on Valentine in the future. He can’t use the excuse that he didn’t hire McClure anymore. 

In turn, Valentine is attempting to claim some responsibility for McClure’s hiring, thus taking some of the heat off Cherington. According to WEEI.com’s Mike Petraglia, Valentine told reporters that he thought McClure was the best guy available at the time he was hired, so he and Cherington were in agreement on the hire.

Bobby V still just couldn’t help himself, however, admitting that McClure also was hired because they were running out of time to put together a proper staff because Valentine was hired as Red Sox manager in January. That reflects poorly on Cherington—and team ownership—for dragging out the managerial search for as long as they did. 

But now, Valentine and Cherington have six weeks to show that this thing can still work if the circumstances are more agreeable. If the pitching staff improves,—and Lester has pitched well in his past two starts—then changing pitching coaches speaks for itself. 

The 2012 season is a lost cause, so coaches and executives can get a head start on next year. Valentine, especially, can make up for the lost time that he didn’t get in the offseason. And maybe a few other scapegoats, such as Beckett, can be cleared out before next season.

Yet there are only so many more culprits Valentine and Cherington can throw off the truck before they’re asked to jump off themselves. 

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The New York Yankees still have a solid hold on a playoff spot, surprising considering their starting rotation woes.

Andy Pettitte went down and then so did the big man, CC Sabathia. Most teams would have spiraled out of control with those types of losses, but not the Yankees.

New York has seen some great surprises in the form of Freddy Garcia and David Phelps, making the real question as to what this rotation will look like come the end of September.

Rotations shrink and playoff rosters are locked in. Some of the biggest questions will be answered as we debate who gets the call to the start of the rotation, and who mans the mound after that?

The long season has the Yankees battered and bruised. Sound off on how you think this rotation will look in the big dance.

Be sure to sound off and let us know what you think in the comments below. If you like what you see, click here for more from Bleacher Report Productions. 

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The Chicago Cubs and shortstop Starlin Castro are reportedly thinking about committing to a long-term relationship.

CSN Chicago’s David Kaplan was the first to report that the Cubs and Castro are negotiating a six- to seven-year contract. That would buy out Castro’s four seasons of arbitration eligibility as well as his first three years of free agency.

(Castro qualifies as a “Super Two” player, meaning that he’s earned a fourth year of arbitration over the usual three. As MLB Trade Rumors explains, a player with two years and 134 days of service time in the major leagues earns such status. This is why you see many teams hold promising prospects in the minors until after June, to limit their major league service time and avoid that fourth year of arbitration.)

But is this really the best decision for Castro? The 22-year-old gains the long-term security of a major league salary for multiple seasons regardless of how he performs or whether he gets hurt. However, Castro is also costing himself a lot of potential money and could spend many bad seasons with a team undergoing a massive rebuilding project.

Giving the Cubs a Bargain

Castro didn’t have to agree to a long-term contract with the Cubs. He was going to be in Chicago for at least another four years due to his arbitration-eligibility status. That length of club control is something major league teams covet nowadays as they attempt to keep costs down. 

Yet Castro is allowing the Cubs to keep costs even further down by giving up the bargaining power he was entitled to through arbitration.

Though he’ll surely get a raise during the next four years of his new contract, the increase will probably be less than he would have earned through the arbitration process. 

Castro is taking this even further, reducing his potential earning power by letting the Cubs buy out his first three years of free agency.

What would a 26-year-old shortstop—a position at which there are very few great players—possibly earn on the open market with teams like the New York Yankees, Los Angeles, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago White Sox and San Francisco Giants (just to name a few clubs) likely willing to throw big cash at such a rare commodity? 

Now, we’ll never know. Castro will surely be paid very nicely during those final three seasons on his contract. But he probably could have earned very much more.

Perception Is Hard to Change

Just three seasons into his major league career, Castro may already need a proverbial change of scenery. With several mental lapses in the field this season (which I detailed in a recent blog post), Castro is developing the reputation of a player who loses concentration and lacks cerebral discipline.

That can be a tough perception to overcome, especially with a fanbase that follows Castro regularly and witnesses these space-outs on a semi-regular basis.

It doesn’t take much for a reputation to stick to a player, and Castro may have already lost the benefit of the doubt with Cubs fans, coaches and executives for future mistakes he makes on the field.

If the belief that Castro lacks focus cements itself, he won’t be able to escape that perception for at least six years now. 

Had that reputation continued to plague him over the next four years, he would have had the opportunity to escape and get off to a fresh start with a new team and fanbase. 

Of course, Castro can always dispel this notion by playing well and eliminating the mental mistakes he’s becoming noted for. But he’ll have to work much harder to do so with the Cubs.

Lost in a Rebuild

The 2012 season represents the first year of team president Theo Epstein’s large-scale rebuilding project for the Cubs.

Pitchers Ryan Dempster and Paul Maholm were dealt away at the trade deadline. Matt Garza and perhaps even Alfonso Soriano (with the $36 million he’ll be paid over the next two years) could be traded in the offseason. 

Young talent such as Anthony Rizzo, Josh Vitters and Brett Jackson have already been summoned to the majors to jump-start the Cubs’ future. More will soon follow, especially as Epstein accumulates prospects by trading away expensive veteran players. 

Obviously, the Cubs hope and expect Castro to be the cornerstone of this rebuilding effort, the player around whom a future team can be built. 

But how many of Castro’s prime seasons will be lost playing for a team that doesn’t project to be very good for the next three to five years, if not longer? How much losing has Castro committed to being a part of with this new contract? Will he regret being stuck with a loser if Epstein’s reconstruction project doesn’t develop as hoped?

This contract extension is a leap of faith for the Cubs and Castro. Both sides are taking on risk. There are no guarantees Castro will be the player the Cubs are projecting him to be. Castro isn’t assured of playing for an eventual championship contender at Wrigley Field. 

Yet team and player will also enjoy significant mutual benefits by reaching a multi-year agreement in terms of cost control and long-term security.

If there’s a bright side for Castro, it’s that he’ll be 28 or 29 by the time this contract expires. He’ll still arguably be in the prime of his career, playing a premium position.

Another big payday—one boosted by free agency—still awaits him in the future. If signing away his arbitration and early free-agent seasons turns out to be a mistake, he still has an opportunity to make up for that decision. 

UPDATE: ESPN Deportes’ Enrique Rojas is reporting Castro’s contract with the Cubs is for seven years and $60 million.

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Are six-man pitching rotations the new hotness in baseball?

Only a handful of teams are going with six starting pitchers instead of the usual five, so this can’t really be called a trend yet. But it’s notable that three clubs—the New York Mets, Atlanta Braves and Chicago White Sox—have decided such a move is necessary as they try to push through August while giving some tired arms a rest.

The Mets are the latest team to try a six-man rotation. As reported by MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo, manager Terry Collins wants to make sure two of his starting pitchers coming off shoulder surgery—Johan Santana and Chris Young—get an extra day to recover between appearances. 

Baseball teams seem to be more worried than ever about pitch counts and innings limits for their young arms. Stephen Strasburg’s workload has been a prominent storyline all season, as the Nationals plan on shutting him down in September so his surgically repaired elbow isn’t overworked. Is it inevitable that more teams will opt for a six-man starting staff?

Just prior to the Mets announcing their decision, the Braves revealed their own plans to use a six-man rotation, in order to accommodate the return of Tommy Hanson from the disabled list. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution‘s David O’Brien, this isn’t just a case of the Braves having a surplus of arms. 

Hanson is recovering from a lower back strain, so the Braves want to use him cautiously in his next couple of starts. But Tim Hudson is also dealing with bone spurs in his left ankle, which he plants on every time he throws. Additionally, Ben Sheets is pitching in the majors for the first time in two years after elbow surgery. 

Earlier in August, the White Sox decided to expand their rotation. As CSNChicago’s Dan Hayes explains, Chris Sale and Jose Quintana have both pitched the most innings of their young careers and are experiencing tired arms due to the increased workload. 

However, each of these three teams insist that this is a temporary development, one that will be re-evaluated once September begins. Not every pitcher will receive extra rest as a result of the expanded rotations. 

Keeping starting pitchers on their regular five-day routine is an important consideration for major league teams. Taking them off of their typical schedule could be disruptive, not to mention dangerous.

No team seems better suited to try a six-man rotation than the Washington Nationals. Not only do the Nats want to limit Strasburg’s innings, but they also have the depth of starting pitching that would allow them to expand their rotation. By going with a six-man staff, the Nationals could extend Strasburg’s season into October while limiting his workload. 

Yet the Nationals have been insistent on keeping Strasburg on a regular rotation. His arm needs to become accustomed to bouncing back every five days as he pitches through his first full season since undergoing Tommy John surgery.

To skip a turn occasionally would provide extra rest but could also weaken his arm as he tries to establish the strength and stamina required to get through a major league season. 

But the Nationals are the rare team that could actually field a rotation of six—perhaps even seven—starting pitchers. Most major league clubs have difficulty filling out a five-man starting rotation these days. Finding a consistent, reliable fifth starter can be a season-long endeavor. Those teams that can find five regular starters are the ones that tend to be the most successful. 

Going to a six-man rotation would also limit a team from using its best starting pitchers as often as possible. How successful would the Detroit Tigers be if they got fewer than 34 starts a season from Justin Verlander? The Tigers are a much better team because they pitch Verlander every five days. 

Yet Verlander is also the rare pitcher who can throw 250 innings during a season and not appear to suffer at all from such a workload. Very few teams have that kind of arm on their roster. Using a six-man rotation would allow more pitching staffs to compensate for the lack of an ace who can provide 32 starts and more than 200 innings per season. 

More pitchers seem to be getting hurt—and seriously so—than at any other time in the history of Major League Baseball. Obviously, something isn’t being done right and needs to change to keep pitchers healthy and give teams a better return on their investment. 

But is the answer to ask less from starting pitchers or to better prepare them for a heavy workload? There is still a major difference in philosophy between major league teams as to how pitchers should be handled.

Look at the Texas Rangers, who famously decided two years ago to emphasize conditioning over pitch counts. As detailed in this Sports Illustrated article, team president Nolan Ryan believed that current pitchers were being too pampered. In his view, this approach prevented them from building up the necessary stamina for a major league season and also deprived them of valuable experience in facing as many hitters as possible. 

Is Ryan’s philosophy correct? The Rangers have had difficulty fielding a regular five-man rotation this season, due largely to injuries suffered by Derek Holland, Alexi Ogando and Colby Lewis.

Is this the result of overwork? Or has the job of pitching in the major leagues become too grueling for most arms to endure through a full season?

Permanently going to a six-man starting rotation is probably too drastic a move to consider for most major league teams. Though there is obviously room for innovative thinking and differing philosophies within the game, no team wants to try anything too radical. 

If the Mets, Braves and White Sox have success with six-man rotations—even if it’s on a temporary basis—it might inspire enough interest among some teams to try it for a longer period during a full season.

Ultimately, however, pitchers are not an abundant resource. There just aren’t enough quality starters available for every team to try this. That’s what will prevent the six-man rotation from becoming prevalent—let along permanent—throughout baseball. 

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Michael Bourn figures to be one of the most popular free-agent targets this offseason. Plenty of teams need a quality center fielder, and Bourn is having the best season of his seven-year major league career.

As of Aug. 17, Bourn is batting .290/.350/.425 with nine home runs, 22 doubles, nine triples, 51 RBI and 31 stolen bases in 547 plate appearances. He has also played excellent defense in center field. Fangraphs’ Ultimate Zone Rating places him as the best defender at that position in baseball. No one has more defensive runs saved in center field than Bourn’s 15. 

Bourn has been everything the Atlanta Braves could have hoped for since acquiring him from the Houston Astros at the trade deadline last season. Yet according to the Boston Globe‘s Nick Cafardo, the Braves don’t believe they can re-sign him as they haven’t had good luck dealing with Scott Boras’ clients.

So where will Bourn play next season? Which teams will go after him hard in free agency? Here are six teams that have the greatest need for him and will give him the five- to six-year deal worth $15 million per season that the Atlanta Journal Constitution‘s David O’Brien believes he’ll pursue. 

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Alex Rodriguez is being paid $29 million this season by the New York Yankees. For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume he still has approximately $10 million of salary to be paid through the rest of the regular season. 

For that reason alone, the idea of platooning Rodriguez with Eric Chavez at third base once A-Rod returns from a broken hand seems absurd. But just look at some numbers and consider the possibility for a moment.

In 197 plate appearances against right-handed pitching, as of Aug. 14, Chavez has a triple-slash average of .315/.376/.590 with 13 home runs and 27 RBI. Meanwhile, Rodriguez is batting .275/.346/.425 with eight homers and 27 RBI in 269 plate appearances. 

With Chavez’s .990 OPS against right-handers versus Rodriguez’s .771 mark, don’t the Yankees have to at least consider the possibility when Rodriguez is activated from the disabled list sometime in September? 

Regardless of platoon matchup, Chavez is having an outstanding August. Yes, eight games and 29 plate appearances is a small sample size, but Chavez is batting .464/.483/.964 for the month. He’s been more than a capable replacement for Rodriguez at third base. 

Still, we’re talking about platooning the highest-paid player in baseball here. No, it shouldn’t be just about the money. Although with the Yankees, isn’t it typically about the money? But it’s not like Rodriguez was stinking up the pinstripes before a Felix Hernandez changeup broke his hand on July 24 in Seattle. 

Prior to suffering the injury, Rodriguez was also swinging the bat as well as he had all season. For July, he batted .315/.367/493 with five doubles, two homers and nine RBI in 79 plate appearances. Rodriguez also hit his first triple of the year during the month. 

No, Rodriguez is highly unlikely to just resume that sort of production when he returns to the lineup. His timing and swing mechanics will surely be off. If it took three months for everything to start clicking for him, how can he be expected to do so in a couple of weeks during September?

That could be one argument for platooning Rodriguez when he’s ready to play again. He’s going to be rusty, so why not keep a player in the lineup who’s sharp and hitting well? Of course, that’s presuming that Chavez will continue his current production into August and through September.

But Rodriguez needs all the plate appearances he can get once he returns to the Yankees’ lineup. Playing just against left-handed pitching isn’t going to get him nearly the repetitions he’ll need to get back into baseball shape, both at the plate and in the field. 

Fortunately, the Yankees play in the American League, so this dilemma is easily solved.

Chavez and Rodriguez can be rotated between third base and designated hitter through the rest of the regular season and into the playoffs. Either player would probably be a better choice at DH, though Raul Ibanez has an .819 OPS, 15 homers and 48 RBI against right-handed pitching this year. 

Given that Chavez is appearing in the most games he’s played in five seasons, Yankees manager Joe Girardi might feel it necessary to give him some rest down the stretch to keep him as fresh as possible for the playoffs. That would allow Girardi to give Ibanez and Andruw Jones at-bats while also providing days off in the field for players like Nick Swisher or Mark Teixeira.

This question could be revisited later on, however.

If the Yankees make it to the World Series and Chavez is still swinging a strong bat, while Rodriguez is trying to work back into form, Girardi might have a decision on his hands. Who would Girardi play at third base in the National League city with no DH available in the lineup? 

Oooh, you can almost see the New York media rubbing its collective hands together and turning on laptops at the mere thought of writing about a possible third-base dilemma during the World Series. Can’t you also imagine FOX cameras trained on a cheerleading A-Rod in the dugout, with eyebrows furrowed in appropriate intensity during a pivotal at-bat? 

Rodriguez tends to attract controversy anyway, so this would be nothing new for him or the rest of the Yankees’ clubhouse, really. 

We probably shouldn’t be trying to stoke controversy before it’s even developed, either. Oh, who am I kidding—this is what we do! The $275-million man benched because a $900,000 reserve is outplaying him? That would be delicious. 

But until it happens (if it happens), we should probably snack on other stuff. There will surely be plenty of fretting over Phil Hughes to do in the meantime. 

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Just how bad are the Houston Astros?

The standings say they’re the worst team in baseball. With a record of 38-79 as of Aug. 14, the Astros have MLB‘s lowest winning percentage at .325 and it’s really not even close. The Rockies are the next worst team with a .372 winning percentage and eight fewer losses than the Astros. 

The Astros are in last place with a rock. They’re sixth in the NL Central, 32 games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds. They’re 8.5 games behind the fifth-place Chicago Cubs. 

Actually, since Houston is the home of NASA and the Johnson Space Center, maybe that should be “last place with a rocket.” Except rockets go up. They soar. If a rocket went down, plummeting through the earth’s crust into the upper mantle and mantle, then “last place with a rocket” would be appropriate.

How bad are the Astros? The Cubs play a three-game series against them this week, from Aug.13-15, and the expectation from the players and reporters who cover them is that they should sweep the Astros in three games.

Look at this quote from the Chicago Tribune‘s Paul Sullivan.

“While the Cubs are trying to avoid a 100-loss season themselves,” Sullivan writes on Aug. 14, “they’re still head and shoulders above Houston, which has a .143 winning percentage (6-36) over its last 42 games. The Cubs have won two of their last 13 games.”

The underlying sentiment is that the Cubs have to sweep the Astros. Otherwise, doesn’t that mean the Cubs could be the worst team in baseball? 

Just wait until the Cubs don’t have the Astros to beat up on anymore in the NL Central. Next year, the Astros go to the American League, joining the AL West.

Oh, my goodness—what will happen to the Astros in the AL West? That’s home to the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels. Even the teams that were supposed to stink—the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners—are playing good baseball. (Actually, the A’s are playing better than good.) 

But seriously, just how bad are the Astros really?

Houston went 3-27 in July. Three wins in 30 games. The Washington Nationals got seven wins last week. Of course, three of those victories came against the Astros. 

With three wins thus far in August, however, the Astros can at least console themselves with the knowledge that they won’t have a worse record this month. One more victory and you can point to the month’s win-loss record and see improvement. 

Since the All-Star break, the Astros are 5-26. That’s a .181 winning percentage. 

Their opponents have outscored them by 84 runs. For the season, opponents have outscored the Astros by 156 runs. That’s the worst run differential in baseball by 38 runs. 

As of Aug. 14, the Astros’ road record is 11-47. As ESPN’s Jayson Stark points out, they’ll need to giddy up if they want to finish worse than the 1963 Mets or 2010 Pirates, both of whom won 17 road games. Can the Astros go 7-16 in their final 23 games away from Minute Maid Park? 

OK, we’ve picked on the Astros enough. The headline to this article asks if this is the worst franchise in baseball right now. I say it is not. 

However, let me explain where I’m coming from on this. As a Tigers fan, I watched the 2003 team that went 43-119. The 2012 Astros are going to finish with a better record than that. No, really—they are.

That Tigers team had a middle infield of Warren Morris and Ramon Santiago. I would much rather watch Jose Altuve and Jed Lowrie (or Tyler Greene).

Maybe that Tigers outfield (Craig Monroe, Alex Sanchez and Bobby Higginson) was better. After all, the Astros just sent their best outfielder, J.D. Martinez, down to Triple-A Oklahoma City after hitting .130 with a .304 OPS in April. That dropped his season average to .235/.308/.373.

Pardon my self-indulgence there. I just wanted to make the point that I know bad baseball because I’ve seen a lot of it as a fan. 

But I can’t call the Astros the worst franchise in baseball right now because I see much reason for encouragement.

General manager Jeff Luhnow has made some excellent trades this season He loaded up on pitching prospects in a 10-player deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. He also may have gotten his third baseman for the future in Matt Dominguez, acquired from the Miami Marlins for Carlos Lee. 

Compare that to the San Diego Padres, who inexplicably keep signing veteran players like Carlos Quentin, Huston Street and Mark Kotsay to long-term contract extensions when they should be dealt off for prospects. Maybe those moves will look good in the short term and Padres fans will have a semi-respectable major league product to watch on the field.

But what about the future? Personally, I’d rather have some hope and promise to look forward to, even if highly-touted prospects don’t always grow into major leaguers.

Maybe that’s not a fair statement, though. The Padres have plenty of young talent to follow, including Yonder Alonso, Yasmani Grandal, Andrew Cashner and Cameron Maybin. The Astros should aspire to develop a collection of players like that. 

However, Houston could be on its way to doing so. Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart, George Springer and Delino DeShields Jr. should all see the majors during the next season or two. Jason Castro is a promising young catcher, an asset many teams would like to have. And Lucas Harrell and Bud Norris give the pitching staff two younger arms to build around or deal off for more prospects. 

That doesn’t look like the worst franchise in baseball to me.

I think the future of a team like the Cleveland Indians looks less bright right now. They traded away the best of their farm system for Ubaldo Jimenez, then ownership didn’t follow through by supplementing that move with top free-agent signings.

What about the Cubs, who have to carry Alfonso Soriano’s dead weight of a contract? Look at the Marlins, who spent big in the offseason only to hold a sell-off at the trade deadline and now face having to win back a dwindling fanbase that feels duped yet again. 

But perhaps you feel otherwise. Please share your thoughts in the comments. Are the Astros the worst? If not, which team is?

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Those baseball teams that end the regular season tied for a division lead or a wild-card playoff spot better get all the sleep they can. Loading up on some Red Bull and/or 5-Hour Energy might not be a bad idea either.

(Are those considered performance enhancers? Are they on the list of banned substances? Team trainers and medical staff should check now.) 

MLB released its postseason schedule on Thursday, Aug. 9, revealing that the playoffs will begin with the one-game wild-card playoff on Friday, Oct. 5. Baseball’s regular season ends on Wednesday, Oct. 3. That leaves one day for a tiebreaker to be played for a division title or a wild-card playoff spot. 

What if two teams are tied for first place at the end of the regular season yet both have qualified for the playoffs?

A tiebreaker will still need to be played because, as clarified by Fox Sports’ Jon Paul Morosi, the division champion will automatically be in the division series while the runner-up has to play in the Wild Card playoff. Best to have that determined on the field, rather than by head-to-head record, division record or nicer uniforms. 

Meanwhile, the division winner with the league’s best record will wait until Sunday, Oct. 7 before playing the first game of their division series. Will three days of rest be an advantage or a detriment? That team might need Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy or a few espressos for different reasons.

What if three teams end up tied for the two wild-card spots?

If you think that’s an outlandish scenario, that was exactly the case with the American League Wild Card standings on Aug. 9. As of Aug. 11, there’s basically a five-team cluster you-know-what at the top of the AL wild-card race. This thing could very well happen.

So in that case, the two teams with the best head-to-head records against one another would play a tiebreaker.

The winner of that game gets one wild-card spot. The loser of that game plays the team with the worst head-to-head record for the second wild-card spot.

Then the two Wild Cards would play their one-game playoff to determine who plays in the division series. 

Did that make sense? Because I’m the one who typed it out and presumably proofread and fact-checked it and I’m still not sure I got it right. I suppose we can just follow along with the games that will be played if there’s a three-way tie for the AL Wild Card.

Oh, and remember this: The Wild Card gets to host the division winner with the league’s best record for the first two games of their division series.

This scheduling quirk only occurs this season, however, because there was no room for an extra travel day before a potential Game 5. This is because MLB had already made the regular-season schedule before the postseason schedule was agreed upon. Next year, order will be restored with a 2-2-1 series format. 

Are you still following along? I am, but I’m typing this out. 

ESPN’s Jayson Stark pointed out another quirk of the 2012 postseason schedule with this tweet:

MLB finally announced 2012 postseason sked. NO off day between ALDS Game 5 & ALCS Game 1 even though the ALCS site depends on ALDS outcome!

— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) August 9, 2012

Haven’t we always been told one reason that home-field advantage in the World Series isn’t determined by which team has the best record because travel schedules, hotel accommodations and so forth have to be planned in advance?

That’s typically the rationale from MLB and commissioner Bud Selig, usually when defending the rule that the winner of the All-Star Game now determines home-field advantage in the World Series. 

Did anyone stop to consider that if the division series between the top seed and Wild Card team goes to a Game 5, no one will know where Game 1 of the ALCS will be played until that Game 5 is completed? 

Apparently travel schedules, hotel accommodations and the variety of other logistical concerns don’t matter when it comes to the ALCS. 

I realize that Selig isn’t entirely responsible for this potential postseason mess, despite what the title of this article might indicate. He wasn’t locked in his office, working tirelessly into the late night and early morning, perhaps sleeping on his office couch and not seeing his family for days while pounding out this schedule. 

Well, maybe he was for all I know. But a staff of several people probably put this thing together, looking for any open day to cram postseason games into. And maybe there was some somewhat maniacal, sleep-deprived laughter if or when someone asked, “What about the players? Can they do this?”

However, this postseason schedule falls at Selig’s feet, just as the 2002 All-Star Game debacle and the home-field incentive that it spawned is on him.

This is why Selig’s detractors continue to say he doesn’t get it, that he does things like expand the playoff schedule when a regular-season schedule is already set. And he doesn’t expand instant replay while umpires continue to blow calls and the technology to review such matters is already on hand in every ballpark in the majors. 

But maybe this will all work out.

Maybe there won’t be any ties for division titles or in the Wild Card standings. Maybe a team with a better regular-season record won’t lose a playoff series after having to play the first two games on the road. Maybe the ALDS featuring the league’s best team and a Wild Card won’t go to five games. 

In that case, Selig might exhale, wipe his brow and smile the smile of a relieved man. But he’ll probably just have the same pained look on his face that he always does. That’s our baseball commissioner, you guys. 

Follow @iancass on Twitter.

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