Wade Davis

Zack Greinke is available, and James Shields remains a target, but the Angels' chances of acquiring a front-of-the-rotation starter before Tuesday's non-waiver trade deadline “are below 50% right now,” according to a source who is familiar with the team's thinking but not authorized to speak publicly on such matters. The challenge for the Angels is that with an extra wild card boosting the number of teams in playoff contention, there are far more buyers, including the prospect-rich Texas Rangers, than sellers, “and that's really limiting what you can do,” the source said.

Zack Greinke is available and enticing, and James Shields remains a target, but the Angels' chances of acquiring a top-flight starter before Tuesday's nonwaiver trade deadline "are below 50% right now," according to a person familiar with the team's thinking but not authorized to speak publicly about it. With an extra wild card boosting the number of playoff contenders, there are far more buyers — including prospect-rich Texas — than sellers, "and...

AMERICAN LEAGUE PREVIEW WEST OVERVIEW 1. Angels: Depth gets you to October—if not through October—-and Angels have five No. 2 starters. 2. Texas: Rotation depends on Colby Lewis, back from Japan, and converted reliever C.J. Wilson. 3. Seattle: First four batters: Ichiro (11 HR last year), Figgins (5), Kotchman (7), Bradley (12). 4. Oakland: Heresy? Outfielders Coco Crisp, Rajai Davis, Ryan Sweeney last year combined: 12 HR, 60 SB. KEY PLAYERS Angels: Torii Hunter turns 35 this summer, and Angels have no depth in center field.

Neither rain, nor snow and nor gloom of night could stop World Mail Center. But red ink finally did. The chain of private post offices, founded nearly five years ago in Camarillo with a highly publicized splash and touted as an innovative alternative to the U.S. Postal Service, disclosed last week that it had run out of money. World Mail said it closed its 19 outlets in Texas, Illinois and California, fired all but one of its 50 or so employees and had its entire board of directors quit.

Mickey Hatcher has tried everything short of bringing in a psychic to help the Angels' hitters find their stroke. The way things are going, that might be next. The Angels' hitting coach and his disciples have taken instructional sessions out of the batting cage and onto the field. They have visualized hitting singles to take away the temptation to overswing. Some days, they will talk about anything but baseball. None of it has revived a slumbering offense that continued to snooze Tuesday night at Angel Stadium during a 10-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

The young men have gone west, for the money. The New York Yankees are no longer baseball's financial powerhouse. The Dodgers are. But Dodger dollars are not the only dollars flowing west. The richest free-agent contracts this winter came from L.A.: Zack Greinke got $147 million from the Dodgers; Josh Hamilton got $125 million from the Angels. Add the extensions for two stars - the pending $175-million deal between Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners, and the completed $138-million deal between David Wright and the New York Mets - and three of the winter's four $100-million contracts came from the west.

In 1947, botanist Richard Evans Schultes was traveling up an Amazon tributary in a rain-soaked, leaking barge. The plants he had collected over many weeks were rotting because he had used poor-quality formaldehyde. He was racked by a high fever, unrelenting nausea and pains in every limb--signs, he would later learn, of malaria and beriberi. Despite these conditions, he and a few companions had coursed over rapids, surviving an encounter with a jagged rock.

Wade Davis, a Harvard University botany student, was asked by his adviser three years ago to fly to Haiti and investigate whether there was any truth to the voodoo myth of zombies. After a series of expeditions over 2 1/2 years, he returned to Cambridge with malaria, hepatitis, the material for a nonfiction book said to read like a spy novel--and the secret formula for creating zombies. "I left knowing nothing about the country and arrived with only my wits," said Davis.