Baseball

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The Tampa Rays are positioned to take the American League East. 

They’ve been through their injuries. The Rays have played without BJ Upton, Evan Longoria, Jason Bartlett, Akinori Iwamura, Shawn Riggans, Pat Burrell, Troy Percival, Scott Kazmir, Chad Bradford, Jason Isringhausen, and Brian Shouse. 

Tampa Bay lost its replacement center fielder before the season even started, and they are only six games back.

Yesterday, I spent a while sitting in the car while driving to the Mets game, and I listened to Mike Francesa talk about how the Mets’ season is effectively over. He said, “Rather than the Mets trying to tread water, they are just trying to tread.”

While this may be an accurate statement, I am not going to be so quick to just give up on the team. That won’t solve any of our problems.

Remember what Tug McGraw said, "Ya gotta believe!"

Being already the 23rd of June in the year 2009, the current MLB season is over 40 percent complete.

This year's San Francisco Giants stand at 37-32, a record that few predicted for the orange and black, but more amazingly, they are doing it despite poor general managing and poor coaching.

First off, let it be clear that this is not a pessimistic article. In reality, it is an piece filled with optimism if you read between the lines.

But let's get to the issue at hand, shall we?

I don’t care how comfortable Alfonso Soriano is in the leadoff spot—he has to be moved.

Soriano is a very dangerous leadoff hitter, but only when he makes contact with the ball, which nowadays is not very often. The Cubs' leadoff hitter needs to have a batting average near .291, which is Soriano’s current on-base percentage.

By Derek of The Sportmeisters

Another week of baseball in the books means another Winners, Losers, and Waiver Wire Wonders blog from the fantasy guru. Keep in mind, the stats I show are the players stats for the week, not on the season. Let’s go!

The All-Star break is still three weeks away, yet it’s already been a long season in Oakland. Home games have been remarkably lifeless, and the team can’t even sell out their annual home series with the Giants.

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If you asked a baseball fan last year who the best player in the game was, you would most likely get a wide array of answers.

Manny Rameriez, Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera, Dustin Pedroia, Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, and countless more names that rank atop any stat sheet. All of them are worthy players with extreme talents.

However, a lot can happen in the course of one year.

NOTE: Team records and stats updated thru Sunday morning, June 21

1. Boston Red Sox (41-27)

The Red Sox are the only top-five team that has won at least seven of their last 10 games.

Jason Bay is third in the Majors with 66 RBIs, only behind Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.

Jacoby Ellsbury has stolen 29 bases (eight behind Carl Crawford for the ML lead.)

2. Los Angeles Dodgers (45-24)

This weekend I attended my first Dodgers and Angels game. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, and the stadium was sold out.

Before this series started last week, I read an article about how Dodger fans couldn't care less about the Freeway Series. At the same time, I also thought it really wasn't a big deal to Angel fans either. The teams have never been in a postseason battle, and there really wasn't much of a rivalry.

But after leaving the stadium, I can, without a doubt, say that Dodger fans and Angel fans both care about the Freeway Series.