Newcomers steal thunder from year-long contributors

You know, I've heard enough already about Ian Kennedy of the Yankees and no-hit wonder Clay Buchholz of the Red Sox. Just remember this: September is a funny time of the year for rookies. Especially rookie pitchers.

You want to talk rookies making good this month? Well, what about Boston's Dustin Pedroia, Arizona's Chris Young, the Angels' Reggie Willits and Milwaukee's Ryan Braun, four rookie position players who will play prominent, every-day roles for their playoff-hopeful teams in September? (Other good rookie position players probably out of the postseason hunt: Houston's Hunter Pence, Cincinnati's Josh Hamilton and Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki, to name three.)

Pedroia has been fantastic (.324, .393 on-base) all season long at second base for the Sox. And where would Buchholz be today without his heroics Saturday (see below)?

Center fielder Young has hit 28 homers for the Diamondbacks. Willits has been a good bat (.394 on-base) at the top of the Angels' lineup. Third baseman Braun has been keeping the Brewers afloat by hitting .330 with 26 homers.

Everybody loves the out-of-nowhere stories of Joba Chamberlain of the Yankees, Justin Germano of the Padres, Micah Owings of the Diamondbacks and Mike Pelfrey of the Mets, all of whom will join Buchholz and Kennedy as rookie headliners in September. Even Hideki Okajima and Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Red Sox, by rules Major League rookies, will get their due.

Just don't forget the everyday rookies who have spent all year getting ready for this month. They're the ones who could really make a difference.

Here are this week's Power Rankings:

MLB Power Rankings Rank LW Team 1 1 Boston Red Sox During a week in which the fashion police busted Terry Francona, Manny Ramirez's back flared into a real concern and the Evil Empire pulled off a convincing sweep, Clay Buchholz's brilliant no-hitter (and Dustin Pedroia's clutch up-the-middle stop that saved it) proved again that this team is just too deep and talented to stay down for long. Buchholz, by the way, was drafted with a pick the Sox got for losing Pedro Martinez. Add smart to deep and talented. 2 2 Los Angeles Angels After their four-game smackdown of the Mariners, the Angels ran into a little trouble with a rapidly improving Texas team. Kind of a post-sweep hangover, I guess. No worries, though. Chone Figgins is on his way back and Bartolo Colon may not be far behind. Even Ervin Santana might have things straightened out. Now, if they can just figure out what's up with Scot Shields (.342 batting average against since the break). 3 6 Cleveland Indians The ChiSox stopped the Tribe's eight-game winning streak Sunday, but not before Cleveland put a stranglehold on the Central. The Indians have the pitching to keep control of the division, too. We all know about C.C. and Carmona, but what about steady 36-year-old funky-throwing Paul Byrd, who is 14-5 with a 4.19 ERA? In his past four starts, he's 4-0 with a 2.39 ERA. Nothing funky about that. 4 5 New York Yankees The Yanks let down a little, too, after sweeping the Red Sox early in the week, losing a series to the Devil Rays over the weekend. But with Ian Kennedy making a nice debut Saturday in place of the demoted Mike Mussina, the Yanks may be better off for the stretch run -- as long as Roger Clemens' health problems (elbow, mainly) don't get to him, that is. A big series with fast-fading Seattle looms. 5 8 San Diego Padres With two days off in the next week, skipper Bud Black is mulling over going with a thin rotation -- Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Greg Maddux -- for a short time. Whatever the Padres do seems to work lately. They just notched impressive series wins against both Arizona and the Dodgers. And who says they can't swing? Over their last 12 games, the team (9-3) is hitting a completely respectable .300. 6 7 New York Mets The upstart Phils embarrassed them and put a temporary charge into the NL East playoff picture with a four-game sweep last week. But the Mets turned around and shut down the Braves -- in Atlanta, no less -- to reassert their divisional superiority. Plus (a drumroll, please), Pedro Martinez is back. We'll see how good Petey can be down the stretch. The Mets seem to have done just fine without him. 7 3 Arizona Diamondbacks Brandon Webb is suddenly hittable (10.13 ERA in his past two starts, .318 average against), but the real problem with the D'backs continues to be their hitting. With runners in scoring position, nobody in baseball has a worse batting average (.239), and only the woeful White Sox have a worse OPS with RISP (.720 to Chicago's .714). A first-place showdown with the Padres starts the week. 8 11 Philadelphia Phillies Maybe the most perplexing part of these not-going-away Phillies, who stumbled through a series loss in Florida after that manhandling they gave the Mets, is the resurgence of Pat "The Bat" Burrell, who is hitting .329 with a 1.075 OPS after the break. Some of it's a function of his home field -- he's hitting .227 away from Philly -- but the games in Citizens Bank Park count, too. 9 10 Chicago Cubs Lou Piniella called the Cubs' win over Houston on Sunday the "biggest of the year," and not just because the Brewers and Cards had won, too. The Cubs -- who have only 36 post-break home runs, tied with the Dodgers for the least in the NL -- got a game-winning jack from Derrek Lee on Sunday, his second homer in as many days. If the big guy gets going, the rest of the Central can go ahead and pack it in. 10 9 Detroit Tigers Series losses to the Royals and A's say about everything that needs to be said. This, right now, is not a playoff team. If there was any doubt, Sunday should have said plenty. The Tigers had a 7-0 lead on the A's, in the fifth inning, and still managed to muck it all up, eventually losing, 8-7. Left-hander Kenny Rogers may be back on the hill soon. That's looking more and more like a Band-Aid on an eight-inch wound.

1 of 3