Baseball

If you missed the original post, I gave my opinion about what is wrong with the Mets, which I feel is the absence of Jose Reyes. Now it is time to go what other fans are thinking, via Twitter. On Twitter, I asked the following question:

Mets fans, quick, 1 thing you think is currently wrong with these mets?

I got so many responses, I decided I needed to post them. Here we go:

Yes, woeful.

The Chicago Cubs spent $146,859,000 on their 2010 payroll, which works out to an average of $5,439,222 per player and is good for third in all of Major League Baseball. Only the Evil Empires—the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox—shelled out more scratch for their squads.

Only the Bronx Bombers are paying more per victory.

In some recess of his or her brain, every San Francisco Giants fan is thinking the same thing now that Dontrelle Willis has signed a Minor League contract with the club.

Does this mean someone in the current rotation is on his way out?

It's natural.

Although rookie Madison Bumgarner's name has popped up on the trade radar, it's doubtful the Gents would be interested in moving the 20-year-old lefty, given he's twirled a quartet of blinders since being called up at the end of June.

Kickoff Notes

Twitter is such an interesting place to spark ideas and have conversation. I was talking to Rob_Sports over there tonight when they mentioned an interesting scenario for when Luis Castillo returns.

@TylerFlushingBB I’d like to see Tejada get a chance to start full time with Castillo there to take over if he struggles.

https://twitter.com/rob_sports/status/18569163935

I have seen a lot of posts on Twitter this year about Jeff Francoeur—about how terrible he is and how he should never play another game. I always find a way to defend him, if possible. The main reason is that I don’t think the naysayers were saying that at the start of the season when he was on fire.

Originally, the plan was for Carlos Beltran to be in center field when he returned, with Francoeur and Angel Pagan alternating in right field.

In the same week, the New York Yankees have suffered two heart breaking losses. The first to pass away was long time public address announcer Bob Sheppard, at 99 years old.

Sheppard passed away on July 11th, and two days later long time Yankees owner George Steinbrenner followed him. Heading into the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star break, Yankee fans and the organization will have heavy hearts.

Remembering the life of George Steinbrenner is a monumental challenge. Steinbrenner lived a full life that was not just confined to being the owner of the Yankees.

With the All-Star break finally upon us, fantasy owners have time to take a breath and determine exactly where they are and what they can do to improve over the final few months of the season. Now is usually the time that stock can be taken.

Most baseball fans believe success in the Home Run Derby translates to a power outage in the second half of the season. Josh Hamilton in 2008 comes to mind, but it would be foolish to make assumptions based on that one particular instance.

To answer this presumption, I tallied the first and second half home run totals of each Home Run Derby winner since 2000. The results may surprise you.

David Ortiz became the first Boston Red Sox slugger to win the home run derby on Monday night, powering his way past Hanley Ramirez at Angel Stadium.

Ortiz put on a show for the fans from start to finish, and he outlasted his younger competition on his way to the silverware.

Read below to get a blow-by-blow account of the evening's home run derby showdown.