Best Slideshows - Team

It is a notion that dates back as far as Don Newcombe's 1956 season with the Brooklyn Dodgers: if a pitcher is the Most Valuable Player in his league, then he must be the best pitcher as well.

Logically, this is a very straightforward proposition: pitcher is subset of player; a pitcher who is the most valuable player must also be the most valuable pitcher.

After dealing Justin Smoak and his right-handed bat for Cliff Lee, the Texas Rangers may have increased interest in reviving an offseason trade for Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell, according to WEEI Sportsradio Network's Rob Bradford.

Both Smoak's departure and corner-infielder Chris Davis' offensive struggles may force the American League West leaders to acquire a player of Lowell's caliber to at least platoon with the likes of Davis.

The Oakland A's have had an up-and-down season so far.

They were in first place in the American League West at the beginning of June.

At the All-Star Break the A's are now 43-46 and seven-and-a-half games out of first place and three games out of second.

Now is time to take a look at the grades for each player the A's have had at the break. I'll start with the infield, then outfielders, relievers, and then the starters for the A's.

Begin Slideshow

Flash back to July 31st 2009. The trading deadline. Jake Peavy agrees to come to the White Sox.

The pretty girl at the dance who had already snubbed the White Sox, has now changed her mind and has agreed to leave sunny San Diego and come north to the south side of Chicago.

The Angels had the second best record in all of baseball for the month of June.

The problem is, the Texas Rangers were the only team better, and they are the team the Angels are trying to catch.

July has not started out with as much promise.

The Angels now find themselves 5.5 games back in the AL West after being swept by the Chicago White Sox during a four-game series in Chicago for the first time in 27 years.

Many are ready to push the panic button and start the fire sale. However, all is not lost with the Angels.

If there is anything we've learned from recent baseball history, it is that the good teams make the obvious moves when the time comes to make them, but the great teams make the right moves when no one else sees them.

To my mind, the best recent example of the difference between obvious moves and good moves comes from the Ken Williams Era in Chicago.  After the 2004 season, Williams traded Carlos Lee to the Milwaukee Brewers for Scott Podsednik and allowed Magglio Ordonez to sign with the Detroit Tigers as a free agent.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim stand at a very precarious spot in the season.

At 46-41, just slightly past the halfway point and 5 1/2 games behind the AL West-leading Texas Rangers, they must make a decision: give up and tough it out with the players they have, or make a move and wrest back control of a division they've owned for the better part of a decade.

37-48.

11.5 games out of first place.

Those are the numbers Brewer fans were forced to endure this morning when opening their papers or looking online to see the current position of their favorite team.

After a 15-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants, it's clear that the Brewers won't be sniffing the playoffs in 2010.

We are officially less than a week away from the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The 81st annual midseason exhibition will definitely be one to watch, as there are several dynamics to look forward to: a cluster of new faces, a bunch of superstars coming back, and the question of whether or not the National League can beat the American League for the first time in since 1996.

This was the year that the Pirates were supposed to climb out of the cellar. Which is to say that they were supposed to be better than at least one other team in the National League Central.

But after a decent start, that hasn't happened.

The Pirates do have a nice record (9-3) in the season series against the Chicago Cubs.

Under different circumstances, the Cubs might be in the cellar and the Pirates ahead of them. As was the case in 2006.