Baseball

Though the Sox exceeded the expectations of many pre-season predictions, they still finished a distant second to the Twins and enter the off-season with some work to do.

Before we even talk about making any upgrades to the roster, the Sox have several major decisions to make regarding their current players. The team already has a number of sizable salary commitments and would need to make a few more to keep this same core together.

Money will be a big theme this off-season, and Kenny Williams will probably have to creative to improve this team.

Part 5 of 7 Phillies Championship Advantages

The Philadelphia Phillies are fortunate to call Citizens Bank Park "home." The stadium is both part and parcel to the greatest era in the organization's history.  

The divisional round of the baseball playoffs begin this week.

All eight teams have at least 90 wins. This is only the third time since 2000 that each playoff team has hit the ninety-win plateau. It certainly means that the cream has risen to the top.

It took the entire 162 game season to clarify the playoff pairings for both leagues.

In the American League the AL East Division title was still up in the air. Tampa Bay's victory assured them the AL East title, and the best record in the league.

Giants clinch NL West; A look back at the Giants season

San Francisco vs San Diego
With 2 strikes and 2 outs on Will Venable, Brian Wilson knew he couldn't give up a hit and the momentum. So he decided to pitch a high fastball. 

And it worked like a charm.

Was there a more surprising 2010 performance than R.A. Dickey’s?  Signed as a minor league free agent, he didn’t open the year in the Mets rotation.  By year’s end, however, he had entrenched himself as their most dependable starter.

From the beginning of the season this year felt different for the Atlanta Braves. Walk-off wins were the norm and despite the Braves nine game losing streak in May the team came together to take the lead in the NL East while the Phillies were dealing with injuries.

Even as the Braves lost key players (Chipper Jones, Kris Medlen) they kept winning close ballgames. Late in the season, the Braves were overtaken by the Phillies, but the Braves seemed like a lock for the playoffs as recently as this past Friday morning.

While the Cy Young debate in the American League is getting a lot of attention, the Most Valuable Player award is not. Although it is discussed occasionally, people are not giving it the attention that it deserves.

The front-runner(s) at this point are Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera, and Josh Hamilton. All have had incredible seasons, but can also be easily argued against. If you ask me, this debate will come down to the wire, because no one is running away with it.

Expectations can be tricky things.

Often times, teams with high expectations fail to measure up, while squads without expectations do better than anticipated.  For the 2010 Athletics, the latter is true.

Without any considerable power threat on the roster (Jack Cust started the season at Triple-A), it was hard to imagine the non-explosive A's coming close to .500 record.  With two games the left, Oakland is two wins away from finishing 81-81.  

In the immortal words of American Idol host Ryan Seacrest, “America, this is your bottom three.” For the New York Yankees, the bottom three of their starting rotation this season has been about as stable as Lindsay Lohan in a rehab centre. This is no doubt going to leave the Yanks with some serious problems this coming postseason.

In most respects, 2010 has not been a great year to be a Mets fan.  The team will finish under .500 for the second straight year, and it now appears that the height of the Wright-Beltran-Reyes era may have come and gone with a disappointing loss in the 2006 NLCS.  Philadelphia won the division again, the Atlanta Braves have re-emerged as a threat now and for the future, and yesterday's headlines exploded with rumors that the manager and GM were on thin ice.