When I first saw that Manny Ramirez received a 50 game suspension for performance enhancing drugs, I kinda shrugged. I didn’t think he was on them in the past, but at the same time, I’m done acting shocked when I find out a great home run hitter is juicing it up.

But after the story first surfaced, it’s now being said that he didn’t test positive for steroids or HGH, and that it’s something that was prescribed to him from a personal doctor.

I’m sure more and more will come out to this. And though he wasn’t right, as The Big Lead points out, you can probably chalk some points up to Jose Canseco.

As is, Ramirez is looking at a 50 game suspension, which will cost him just over $7 million.

[ESPN]

Here’s the Power Rankings over at ESPN, where they have the Marlins, 11-1, rightfully in the No. 1 spot. They’re followed by the Dodgers, Cubs, Blue Jays and Cards. With four of the five in the NL, is the power shifting? Or does anyone really even give a damn about power rankings, anyway?

Over at Fox Sports, Florida is No. 1, followed by the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Padres and Cubs.

Not that any of their opinions really matter, but it’s always cool to read about how well your team is doing. And when your team is the Braves, it’s always depressing to watch them fall from No. 1 to No. 15 in less than a week. A .190 batting average over the course of five games willl do that to you.

[ESPN]
[Fox Sports]

Instead of doing my own, I’ve promised to post the MLB Power Rankings for CBS, Fox Sports, and ESPN. ESPN and Fox Sports had theirs out the other day; today, CBS released their power rankings. At the top is the Cubs, followed by the Rays (3 losses — really?), followed by the Braves (who can’t hit the Marlins), followed by the Cardinals and Dodgers to round out the top 5. Enjoy.

[CBS Sportsline]

Here’s the link to the Power Rankings on ESPN. And here’s the link to the rankings on Fox Sports. CBS Sportsline is yet to have theirs out, though I’ll keep a watchful eye and update the post when they’re delivered. A couple of notes:

• The top three in both are comprised of the Marlins, Braves, and Cardinals. ESPN likes the Braves more than the Marlins; Fox Sports is the other way around. Both think St. Louis is the third best team one week in.
• Fox Sports really likes the Mariners at No. 5; ESPN thinks they’re barely inside the top 10, putting them at No. 9.
• Both believe the Astros and Nationals are the two worst teams in baseball, with the Nationals taking the cake for being the lousiest. Fox Sports believes the Indians are the third worst team, while ESPN says they’re better than San Francisco and Milwaukee, who both have one more win.

[ESPN]
[Fox Sports]

In recent weeks, there have been a lot of people — journalists, bloggers, media types — that have said in all of this, Bud Selig should be held responsible. And you know what? They’ve got a point. But you know what? They can all go eff themselves.

“I don’t want to hear the commissioner turned a blind eye to this or he didn’t care about it,” Selig told Newsday in a Monday phone interview. “That annoys the you-know-what out of me. You bet I’m sensitive to the criticism.

“The reason I’m so frustrated is, if you look at our whole body of work, I think we’ve come farther than anyone ever dreamed possible,” he said, adding, “I honestly don’t know how anyone could have done more than we’ve already done.”

So don’t blame this on Bud. He’s done everything he could. And on the bright side, at least these Congressional hearings didn’t end in a tie.

David Ortiz is probably the only person in the entire world that was good enough friends with Manny Ramirez to back him publicly on a regular basis.

And now even he’s saying that Manny needed to go.

“Everything started one day that I told Manny: ‘Hey look, look at the numbers that you have put up your whole career, and you have never been able to win an MVP, there’s a reason why,’” Ortiz said. “And the media is our family.”

He urged Ramirez to “pull yourself together and start getting connected with the media because that’s how you express your feelings and people get to know more and Manny’s good things, that people don’t know about Manny. And he agreed with me.”

The outsider looking in says Manny should’ve gotten his act together and stayed in Boston. Scott Boras looking in probably thinks he made a pretty good decision, one that will pay $45 million over two years.

New York Mets 7, Philadelphia Phillies 8: It’s very, very hard to get up 7-0 on your opponent and then lose, but the Mets found a way. It took 13 innings, but if there’s ever That Game in the middle of a season that separates whether a team makes the playoffs or not, this may very well be it. New York might have this loss lingering for a while.

Chicago Cubs 14, Pittsburgh Pirates 9: The Cubs can hit, they can pitch, and if they can get over this curse thing, they should be in the World Series.

LA Dodgers 1, Washington Nationals 2: The Dodgers better get it together fast. Thankfully for them Arizona lost, but they’re still three games back.

Florida Marlins 9, Atlanta Braves 10: The Marlins are starting to fade as was expected, but you’ve gotta give this club some credit for being in it this long.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Houston Astros 1: Bronson Arroyo is actually starting to look like a real pitcher again. He pitched a complete game in this one and got the win.

Milwaukee Brewers 12, St. Louis Cardinals 0: Milwaukee’s pulling away from St. Louis, and the Cardinals Wild Card chances are getting dimmer and dimmer.

Arizona Diamondbacks 2, San Diego Padres 9: It’s a tough loss for the D’Backs, but the Dodgers lost, too, so no ground was lost.

Colorado Rockies 7, San Francisco Giants 2: There will be no late season rally from Colorado this year.

Chicago White Sox 8, Baltimore Orioles 3: The race between the White Sox and Twins is starting to get interesting, but it may simmer down. I don’t know how many, but the Twins have got something like 20 of their next 25 games on the road.

Cleveland Indians 10, Detroit Tigers 4: I know it would’ve been a long shot, but had they kept Sabathia, and with their recent surge, would the Indians be in this thing?

Boston Red Sox 7, New York Yankees 3: If the Yanks don’t take the next two in this series, you can pretty much count them as dead this year.

Toronto Blue Jays 6, Tampa Bay Rays 2: It’s a set back, but they’ve got the best record in baseball, and it’s going ot be hard for the Sox to catch ‘em.

Texas Rangers 2, Kansas City Royals 1: I feel like every year we think the Rangers year may be next year, and then they put together similar success from the previous season. But seriously: Next year this team could be dangerous.

Oakland A’s 1, LA Angels 5: They don’t have the best record in baseball anymore, but it’s hard to stay motivated when you’re up by about 3,000 games out West.

Minnesota Twins 2, Seattle Mariners 3: Maybe the Mariners just have the Twins number. For whatever reason, Minnesota just can’t seem to beat Seattle.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Chicago Cubs 1: The Reds gave up just three hits to a team that normally rips the cover off the ball.

Pittsburgh Pirates 2, St. Louis Cardinals 11: On the bright side, soon the people of Pittsburgh will have the Steelers to cheer for.

San Diego Chargers 6, Arizona Diamondbacks 8: It was the first time all season that Jake Peavy gave up five earned runs.

Colorado Rockies 4, LA Dodgers 3: With the Dodgers losing and the D’Backs winning, that lead is now one game in favor of Arizona.

Florida Marlins 5, San Francisco Giants 6: The Giants are starting to come around. They’re not going to do anything this season, but for a young team, this is promising.

Oakland A’s 1, Minnesota Twins 3: Francisco Liriano didn’t give up any runs, and if this guy is back to the form he was in two years ago, watch out.

Seattle Mariners 3, Chicago White Sox 15: Griffey ties Sammy Sosa for fifth all time, but like someone on ESPN said, “The report should read that Griffey remains fourth all time.”

Boston Red Sox 6, Baltimore Orioles 11: On the bright side, the Rays lost.

Kansas City Royals 5, Cleveland Indians 8: There’s really no intresting stat to report in this one.

New York Yankees 5, Toronto Blue Jays 1: Andy Pettite got his first win in a long time.

LA Angels 5, Tampa Bay Rays 4: The Rays went for the sweept, and tried to put together their normal late-inning magic, but that’s a hard thing to do against the Angels, and an even harder thing to do against K-Rod.

Detroit Tigers 1, Texas Rangers 9: Maybe next year will be the Tigers year to rebound and re-group.

St. Louis Cardinals 3, Cincinnati Reds 7: It’s always nice to see Cincinnati actually win a game. I know he’s on an awful team, but Edinson Volquez might well be your Cy Young. He’s the best pitcher, and he’s proving it by winning 15 games for one of the worst teams.

San Francisco Giants 3, Atlanta Braves 1: The Braves are reaching all time lows. They can’t hit, they can’t pitch, they can’t really do anything right now.

Chicago Cubs 9, Florida Marlins 2: The Marlins are sinking further and further back. They had a nice run, but it looks as if it’s ending.

Colorado Rockies 7, Washington Nationals 2: The Rockies have won four of their last five. Can they rattle off 22 straight and make the playoffs? They did last year.

New York Mets 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 0: It looked rash getting rid of Willie not even half way through the season. But whether it’s his management style or not, the move is paying off.

Arizona D’Backs 0, Houston Astros 3: Don’t look now, but here come the Astros.

Milwaukee Brewers 5, LA Dodgers 7: It took a walk off, but it put the Dodgers back in first place.

Philadelphia Phillies 2, San Diego Padres 1: The Phillies are still two back from the Mets.

LA Angels 3, Cleveland Indians 4: It’s rare, but the Angels actually lost a series, and to the Indians, no less.

Baltimore Orioles 16, Detroit Tigers 8: They were an early season favorite, but the Tigers just haven’t played well this season.

Kansas City Royals 6, New York Yankees 15: They’re only five back in the Wild Card, and this “The Yanks are dead” talk may have been a bit premature.

Toronto Blue Jays 15, Boston Red Sox 4: All that’s ever talked about is Manny-Manny-Manny, but Jason Bay, even going 0-3 in this one, is hitting .328 since coming over to Beantown.

Seattle Mariners 8, Minnesota Twins 11: This year Adrian Beltre makes $13.4 million. He’s been a rip off for a while, and though he’s still not worth $13M, he’s at least got 20 homers this year.

Chicago White Sox 13, Oakland A’s 1: Ouch.

Tampa Bay Rays 7, Texas Rangers 4: With Boston struggling, they’re starting to run off with the AL East. And given that their entire team is injured, it’s something to applaud.

Chicago Cubs 10, Atlanta Braves 2: It was the first of a double header, and things didn’t get better in the second game.

Cincinnati Reds 2, Pittsburgh Pirates 5: I’m too lazy to look it up, but have the Reds won a baseball game in the last month?

New York Mets 12, Washington Nationals 0: The Mets are tied with the Phillies for first place in the NL East.

St. Louis Cardinals 6, Florida Marlins 4: The Marlins are slipping away out East. The Cardinals are three back of Milwaukee in the Wild Card.

Cubs 8, Atlanta Braves 0: Say hello to a decent draft pick, Atlanta.

San Francisco Giants 2, Houston Astros 6: The Astros, who started the season hot and then sucked, are starting to get hot again. At 61-59, it’s a stretch, but it’s still possible.

Arizona Diamondbacks 5, Colorado Rockies 6: I think the D’Backs will be the most dangerous team in the playoffs, but they’ve got to get there first.

Milwaukee Brewers 7, San Diego Padres 1: Does anyone want to play Milwaukee right now? Sabathia improved to a perfect 7-0, and is now gunning for the Cy Young with only a half season under his belt in the NL.

Philadelphia Phillies 6, LA Dodgers 7: Say hello to a tight race in the NL West. Couple that with a very tight race in the NL East, and we’ve got some fun heading into clutch time.

NY Yankees 2, Minnesota Twins 4: The Twins took two of three from the Yanks, who look as if they’re done this year.

Texas Rangers 4, Boston Red Sox 8: No, 36 runs weren’t scored in this one.

Baltimore Orioles 6, Cleveland Indians 1: Whatever.

Toronto Blue Jays 4, Detroit Tigers 3: The door of opportunity is being shut on Detroit. My prediction for AL representative in the World Series isn’t even going to make the playoffs.

Kansas City Royals 0, Chicago White Sox 4: The ChiSox will be a very dangerous team in October.

Seattle Mariners 10, LA Angels 7: They’re about three and a half million games ahead of the second place Rangers out West, so this loss shouldn’t hurt too badly.

Tampa Bay Rays 3, Oakland A’s 2: With Crawford and Longoria out, the Rays need to continue winning these 3-2, 2-1 type of ball games.