Months ago, when Major League Baseball released the 2008 season schedule, Gregory Pratt determined when the San Diego Padres would be coming to Chicago and decided to catch what many believe will be Greg Maddux' last game at Wrigley Field. Unfortunately, what should have been a sacred experience instead became a cold day in Wrigley, andd not just because of the 50-degree weather.

The Arizona Diamondbacks ended April with a 20-8 record, making everything they had done in the offseason above reproach. Now that they have begun May with a 3-7 stretch, the Snakes are no longer immune to the question, "As good as they are, how good could they have been?" The losses of Carlos Quentin, Dana Eveland, and Greg Smith could doom this team into missing the postseason.

Ozzie Guillen, Gavin Floyd, and Jose Contreras play a large part in this week's Pepper. We also find a pitcher who said something far more offensive than anything that has ever come out of Ozzie Guillen's mouth, a different manager who hasn't leaned much from his past, and an ex-White Sox player whose defense merits him more Hall of Fame consideration than he is ever likely to receive.

Barry Zito, fresh off of a week-long "demotion to the bullpen" that really amounted to a skipped start, dropped to 0-7 Wednesday night despite his best effort of the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is the first Giants pitcher to lose his first seven decisions since reliever Rod Beck went 0-9 in 1996, and only the third starting pitcher since 1956 to go 0-6 before May.

This was the first time in Zito's major league career that he had missed a start, and according to Richard Van Zandt, maybe he should have taken more days off throughout his career. Rich blames Zito's downfall on a loss of velocity, and blames that loss of velocity on Billy Beane's overuse of the once-talented southpaw.

The Hall of Fame ranks chief among Gregory's topics for the first week in May. He gives his opinions on the candidacies of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Mike Mussina, and Andruw Jones. The comebacks seasons of shortstops Rafael Furcal and Miguel Tejada, plus the comeback career of Josh Hamilton are also profiled in Gregory Pratt's Week 5 Pepper.

In 2007, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays finished last in the major leagues in hits allowed per game, yielding 10.2, a full hit per game more than the second to last AL team. Consequently, the Devil Rays finished distantly last in runs allowed and earned runs allowed per game. But after revamping their defense and retooling their starting rotation, the Tampa Bay Rays find themselves in second place in the AL in runs and earned runs allowed per game, and are leading the American League in fewest hits allowed per game!

It is hard to imagine that any predicted that simply by acquiring competant defenders the Rays would improve their pitching staff that consequentially. I mean, you could check the BaseballEvolution.com Tampa Bay Preview, but I am certain we did not see this coming.

Asher addresses these points and much, much, more in his most recent Weekly Roundup.

Today marks the evolution from the weekly Power Rankings format to a monthly version. How much sense does it make to rank a team weighted so heavily on the last week of play? All great teams will go through a rough stretch at some point, and many futile teams have found fleeting success here and there. Why, just on the last day of April, we had scores of 8-1, 19-5, and two instances of 13-1 blowouts. Are we supposed to bow down to the winners of those blowouts and write off the losers?

Of course not. Here are the Baseball Evolution Power Rankings based on a full month of play.

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