Baseball

In a trade early Friday evening, the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves swapped Ryan Church for Jeff Francoeur.

In 67 games this season, Church is batting .280 with two home runs and 22 RBI's. Church got off to a great start with the Mets in 2008, batting .320 with 10 Home Runs and 34 RBI's, but his season went downhill from that point, mainly due to a concussion.

The Mets acquired Church from the Nationals along with catcher Brian Schneider in exchange for Lastings Milledge on November 30th, 2007.

BY DOUG RUSH

Just saw on ESPN.com and SNY's Loud Mouth's:

The Atlanta Braves send Jeff Francoeur to the New York Mets for Ryan Church.

Mets fans....what do you think of the deal? Lets hear it?

Personally, I think it's a good deal for both teams.

It seemed like Jerry Manuel never liked Ryan Church, especially after the missed third base blunder and Francoeur just seemed like he ran his course in Atlanta.

On Thursday, July 9th, Baseball America unveiled it's Top 25 prospects in baseball, showing who tops the list at midseason.  Teams with bright farm systems, like the Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Rays, San Francisco Giants, and Baltimore Orioles were sure to have fans jumping up and down to see the list.

The fan base of the Baltimore Orioles has to be excited at the moment. In the top 10, the O's had two pitching prospects (Chris Tillman, 8th, and Brian Matusz, 9th). It's especially exciting for O's fans because the team is in dire need of starting pitching.

JP Ricciardi reminds me of myself, although maybe not in the way you think.

The world in the last three or four years has seemingly been swept up in the craze that is competitive poker. I, unfortunately for my social life, have not.

According to Bart Hubbuch's NY Post Mets Twitter account, the New York Mets have traded OF Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for floundering Right Fielder Jeff Francoeur.

Franceour, 25, started off hot in Atlanta hitting a cool .300 with 14 home runs in his rookie 2005 campaign.

He won a 2007 Gold Glove with his NL leading 19 outfield assists also.

There is no such thing as a "do or die" series or game until a team's magic number is terminated. 

And literally speaking, there is really no such thing as a "do or die" sporting event—with the possible exception of Colombian soccer.

After raking a three-run triple in his first at-bat of the season, Giants first baseman Travis Ishikawa was seemingly invisible at the plate for nearly six weeks.

But on May 25, Ishikawa had a career game that jump-started not just his season, but perhaps his Major League career.

Ishikawa powered the Giants to a 8-2 victory by going 4-for-4 at the plate, scoring three runs, and launching his first home run of the season, a three-run shot in the seventh inning.

Last night, an "organizational decision" was made to pull Yuniesky Betancourt from the game in Tacoma.

In other words, the move wasn't injury-related, meaning Yuni had been traded but the M's couldn't say that officially yet. The move that seemed imminent last night was finally announced. Now, officially, Yuni is going to the Kansas City Royals for pitching prospects Dan Cortes and Derrick Saito.

The Giants are in rebuilding mode, and the team is winning.  Now is the time for a push for the playoffs and moving forward next year.  I understand Bochy will probably keep trying different players at various positions, but now that the Giants have proven they are playoff contenders, the lineup now is good.  With the players they have now, here is a suggested starting lineup:

C: Molina (Whiteside has proven a good backup until Buster Posey comes up).

1B: Ishikawa—Great defense, offense is picking up.

Jon Lester (7-6, 4.16 ERA) takes the hill tonight against Brian Bannister (6-6, 3.87 ERA), as the Red Sox try to apologize to their fans for losing a 4-0 lead last night.

The bullpen, which until recently has been phenomenal, has been laying a few more eggs the past few weeks, especially during this home stand. It is almost single-handedly responsible for the Yankees catching up in the standings.