Week Nine Wrapup: Voodoo Albert works

And it's kind of freaky. Since Voodoo Albert was born, not only has Pujols been injured, but so have Edmonds and Carpenter, and the Deadbirds are 2-4.

The Pujols injury is of some serious concern, as he is expected to miss a significant amount of time. Without him, the Deadbirds are nothing.

Reds (32-24, 2nd place)

Dropping two to the Cubs was not a good way to start off the week. Fortunately for the Reds, they won the rest of the games this week. Anytime the Reds win a series against the Asstros it's been a good week. Anytime the Reds sweep the Asstros, it's a great week. They hadn't done it in Houston since 1999.

As manager of Todd Coffey's campaign for closer, I'd just like to thank everyone who helped us out on this one, those of you that spent hours of your free time phonebanking and canvassing the streets in an effort to get this man elected. Although his second act in office was nearly a disaster, and his third was a disaster with that blown save and all, your hard work and dedication put our man in the driver's seat. I hope I didn't support the wrong candidate...

St. Bronson rox! St. Aaron rox! St. Lizard rox! St. Louis sux! St. EdE rox! St. Junior rox! St. Austin rox! St. Dunn strikes out way too much!

Reds and Dodgers are tied in the Wild Card race after today's Dodger loss.

Oh, it's so exciting to be going into St. Louis just three games back of the Deadbirds. It's time to make a serious dent in that lead, and dare I dream of brooms???

Reds Saint of the Week: Ryan Freel. You know, he, uh, you know, won the game on Sunday with his second homer, you know, of the game, you know and uh, saved the game, you know, with that spectacular catch on Saturday. You know, he also hit that, you know, home run in Chicago that uh, you know, the idiot umpire ruled it didn't go out. Freel was, you know, 7-18 with the two (three) homers, four runs scored, three ribbies, and uh, two game wins, you know. (That's how he spoke on Steve Stewart's Star of the Game show.)

Nats (24-32, 4th place)

I'm telling you, I believe this team will be in contention for a Wild Card spot by August, barring a complete fire sale at the trade deadline. I really hope management will take a risk and keep Soriano, because this guy is fun to watch. Laugh at me all you want. I also said the Reds would do well. So HA!

The week was a good one, overall, with a sweep of the Brew Crew and a win thrown in there against the Phoul Phillies, making it a 4-2 week.

Mike O'Connor is awesome. If there isn't an Irish bandwagon to jump on, then I'll start one myself. Too bad his teammates can't do anything for him.

Nats Saint of the Week: Alfonso Soriano for the second week in a row. He went 10-25, 3 homers, 5 runs scored, 8 RBI. For June, he is .583/.643/1.083. Yeah, yeah, I know that's only in three games, but wouldn't it be great if he could have a June like this?

Giants (29-27, 4th place)

3-3, not spectacular, not bad. Winning two against the Mets was great, though it was a very long weekend of baseball with the rainout on Friday, the double header on Saturday, and the 12 inning series victory on Sunday.

I'm mad at the way these guys are playing right now. The starters aren't getting through the sixth inning, the batters aren't getting timely hits. There are no saints this week.

Around the Horn

The Brewers, everyone's darkhorse pick for the NL Central, have lost 8 in a row and are really playing as poorly as the Pirates these days.

How the heck do the Yankees keep winning though their whole starting team is on the DL? Ugh.

Remember back in the day when the Rookie of the Year went to a Dodger every year? I guess times have changed. Look at LA's roster and see how the team is made up of everyone else's trash.

Is anyone ever going to beat Brandon Webb (8-0, 2.01)?

Deadbirds fans are panicking - looks like they might even be afraid of Cincy. (HA HA, take that, Deadbirds, as I stick another pin in!)

Demon of the Week

Jon Heyman, sports columnist for Newsday.com. This article claiming the Yankees are trying to get Griffey is about the most pretentious article I have ever seen in sports writing. The guy's attitude is that the Yankees can have whomever they want without giving anything in return. Nevermind that the Reds are only 3 games back of the Deadbirds and in a first place tie for the Wild Card. Many, if not most people, are finally giving the Reds the respect they deserve, but this guy just brushes them aside like he would a fly. Even if the Reds managed to play as poorly as they did in May, they still wouldn't be out of contention by the trade deadline. All the more reason to hate the Yankees.

Here's his email, by the way: jonhheyman@aol.com. Send him a piece of your mind.