Baseball

After a 21-7 June, the Colorado Rockies suddenly find themselves in a pennant race.

Less than three weeks ago, this was a team on the verge of trading away its best players, packing its bags and hoping for next year.

Now, the Rockies are a team poised to make a run at the playoffs.

As we sit three weeks from the July 31 trading deadline, what is the team’s next move?

This was, after all, a team stacked with potential trade bait only a few weeks ago. Now, most of these players look to be serious contributors to a potential Rockies playoff race.

All star snubs Kevin Millwood and Jared Weaver, will face off in a crucial division matchup in Los Angeles tonight.  Millwood of the Texas Rangers, and Weaver of the Los Angeles Dodgers, will face off for the second time this season, the Rangers winning the first meeting 9-7 on July 1st. 

Entering the holiday weekend, the Rays came in as one of the hottest teams in baseball. When it was over, the Texas Rangers were in first place and the Rays fell further behind in both the AL East Divisional race and the AL wildcard chase.

Texas swept Tampa Bay by silencing the red hot bats of the Rays, and taking advantage of uncharacteristic defensive lapses in their three game sweep.

Tampa Bay recovered from an extremely slow start to the season to pull over .500 in the second quarter. With 83 games in the books, the Rays have passed the midway point in 2009 and we begin to gear up for the second half of the season and hopefully a stretch run.

When we looked at the team at the quarter pole, the Rays were a measly 21-22. Since May 21, the Rays have gone 23-17.

At times they have looked like the champions of the American League, defending their crown. At other times, they've looked like the "Devil" Rays. Consistency remains elusive for this ball club.

On Sunday, July 5, it was announced that Orioles center fielder Adam Jones would represent his team in St. Louis, at the All Star Game. The 23-year old outfielder has made his mark so far, with a .308 average, 12 home runs, 46 RBI, 91 hits, a .364 on base percentage, and 17 doubles.

June 6, 2006.

Justin Morneau and the Minnesota Twins sat comfortably in forth place in the American League Central, 11.5 games behind the first-place Tigers.

Their record was 25-32. They had lost three in a row and had been outscored by 41 runs on the season.

Fast forward to the end of the year and Minnesota not only won the division by exactly one game over the Tigers,. 

The Twins lead the division for all of one day—the day that mattered.

Entering the holiday weekend, the Rays came in as one of the hottest teams in baseball.

When it was over, the Texas Rangers were in first place, and the Rays fell further behind in both the AL East divisional race and the AL wildcard chase.

Texas swept Tampa Bay by silencing the red-hot bats of the Rays and taking advantage of uncharacteristic defensive lapses in their three-game sweep.

On Saturday, the Cincinnati Reds Micah Owings launched his third home run of the 2009 season. He also hit four home runs in 2007, putting him in a rare group of pitchers who have homered three or more times in multiple seasons. In the last 30 years, just five players have done so: Owings, Carlos Zambrano, Mike Hampton, Tim Lollar, and Rick Rhoden.

I've decided to take a look at the top power hitting pitchers in the Post World War II era.

The list isn't arranged by total home runs but rather a combination of how prolonged their power surge was and also their career best year.