The past few days have been full of moving in shaking throughout the majors. The trade deadline brought a lot of big changes. The Yankees won a bunch of games and the Red Sox, Phillies, Giants, and Tigers got considerably better.

1. Yankees: Not doing anything at the trade deadline may end up hurting the Yankees. Or it may end up not mattering at all. The core has started to put it together and the Yankees now have the lead and a nice record in the best division in the better league, …

We waited a bit to get a better sample of the second half from this first post-All-Star week. The Dodgers and Phillies remain hot, the Yankees got hotter, and as of a few hours ago, the Cardinals picked up Matt Holliday, a major acquisition for a team in a tight race for a playoff spot. Here are the Week 16 Power Rankings. If you were wondering about the AwardWatch, essentially nothing changed over a few days of second half play, so we'll wait a bit.

1. Dodgers: Winning a lot of …

The Hurt Locker

If you have read the other reviews I've written so far this year, you may have started wondering if I am really easy to please. The answer is no; in fact, most people would tell you that I am terribly hard to please when it comes to movies, and that my standards are very high. As such, I typically see movies (and subsequently review them) that I think have the potential to be good. Fortunately, most of the films that I have seen lately have lived up to that. If …

Just hours before the second half officially begins, we give you our Power Rankings, AwardWatch, and some predictions at the midpoint of the baseball season. The first half (really a little bit more than that for most teams) showed us that great talent does not certainly always a good team make (Chicago Cubs) and that the AL East is the best division in baseball. We have also learned that people have begun to perceive Albert Pujols, not Alex Rodriguez, as the best player in the league, and that, in this game, …

Brüno

That umlaut cost me a lot of effort, so you better enjoy this brief review. Brüno is quite possibly the most ridiculous movie I have ever seen (and btw, the word is spelled RIDiculous and not REDiculous, for all you spelling morons out there whose mistakes I constantly read and abhor when surfing the interweb). Back to the movie. The film was epically vulgar. More male nudity than you will see in an average day, even if you spent the day in the shower. But beneath its vulgarity, which I won't call …

Sitting pretty at the top of the rankings, the Sox decided to start shuffling their feet into the break. The Dodgers lost a few, but then won a few close ones to reclaim the top. Manny Roidmirez (hey, it was a nice try right?) is helping them, hitting big flies with authority wherever he goes. Boston then proceeded to lose to some pretty mediocre teams, allowing the Yankees to gain momentum. Elsewhere, the Phillies woke up at home and the Cardinals started putting up big numbers to build a Central lead.

1. …

NL:
MVP: Albert Pujols… For former AwardWatch MVP candidate Ibañez, the Disabled List has been a pretty insormountable foe. A pretty big believer in OPS as a defining statistic of a player's skill, the SportsHuman has some pretty talented options at this spot, but Pujols still holds it down. Hanley Ramirez has the ability and is turning it on, so watch out for the next AwardWatch. One thing to note with Hanley: he has 12 stolen bases, but has been caught 7 times. He'll have to fix that if we wants some end of …

Remarkable consistency at the top of the rankings… but we smell change as Los Angeles faces two opposing forces in the coming weeks: 1) a slide into mediocrity from several players, like Orlando Hudson, leading to a few more losses in the past few weeks, but 2) the return of Manny Ramirez. The Yanks reclaim the 3-hole with a string of wins last week.
1. Red Sox: When your starters have been as mediocre as Boston's have been, it would be a blessing to be anywhere near the top of these Rankings. Thanks …

Away We Go

Unlike the movie I just wrote a review for (The Hangover), Away We Go turned out to be almost exactly what we expected. Penned by famed novelist/memoirist Dave Eggers and his wife, Vendela Vida, the movie was intended to play like Juno
and Little Miss Sunshine (seriously, these two movies are mentioned almost everywhere Away We Go is brought up), quirky, self-important, half-cute, and overly committed to seeming realistic. Many of the characters introduced — in fact, most of the non-leads — are practically unreedemable for one reason or another, …

The AL East gets more interesting every day… the Sox have gone on a tear, the Yankees have lost a few, and the Rays are trying pretty darn hard to stay in the conversation, even as the Blue Jays fade. Week 11…
1. Red Sox: We wonder where Brad Penny will be at the end of the year, and whether David Ortiz will be playing baseball anymore. But, for now, Jason Bay and Co. are picking up the slack. As noted, they unseat the Dodgers because, as we have been saying all year, …