MLB

By the end of the fifth inning with the Phillies up by eight, I was thinking, this game can’t be over fast enough . But after the eighth, when the home team added three more to the score, the Dodgers were thinking the same thing.

The signs said it all.

“City of BrotherLEE Love”

It’s time to wrap up our early 2010 rankings with the starting pitchers.  There’s an extremely fine line between many of these pitchers, so look for things to really move around as we get closer and closer to draft day.  With that said, let’s take a look at how things stack up so far:

In a season full of dramatic ballgames, the context of the drama of Game Two of the American League Championship Series can only be described as What We Have Come to Expect.

"One relief pitcher left in the bullpen, one position player left on the bench, in a five-hour affair featuring pitchers getting into and out of jam after jam..." kind of sounds like the conclusion to the fifteen-inning epic the Yankees played against Boston at the beginning of August.

Alex Rodriguez has become the new Yankee October hero this postseason with unbelievably timed hits and home runs. In Game Two of the ALCS versus the Angels, A-Rod did it again. Leading off the inning against Angels closer Brian Fuentes, who saved 48 games this season*, the Yanks' chances didn't look so hot.

The St. Louis Cardinals enter the offseason in a frustrated, yet excited state.

They were just swept out of the playoffs. Matt Holliday, Mark DeRosa, Joel Pineiro, Rick Ankiel, and John Smoltz enter free agency. Tony La Russa and the entire coaching staff are free agents.

But, the Cardinals did make the playoffs for the first time since 2006, and have a great base of young talent brewing.

Decisions, decisions.

What should the Cardinals do?

I am here to help.

Bobby Abreu was rumored to be receiving a contract offer by the Angels, it was true, but Bobby Declined.

The offer by the Angles to Abreu was a 2 year $16 million dollar extension.

When Alex Rodriguez flies the other team dies…eventually. That seems to be the formula of the 2009 playoffs.

Prior to the 2009 postseason, Rodriguez struggled immensely at the plate when it mattered most. The three-time regular season Most Valuable Player seemingly could not hit anything after Game Three of the 2004 American League Championship Series.

An objective observer of our two-party political system would be shocked by the exclusionary nature of the United States government.

Many liberals are quite disappointed with the way President Obama has governed so far. They are frustrated by his perpetuation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his lackluster environmental policies, and his complete abandonment of Single-Payer health insurance, and rightfully so (though if they had read the fine print during the campaign, this would not have come as a surprise).

It’s too bad this isn’t golf, where a weaker player gets a handicap, because the Angels are playing every game with one less player.

The clean-up hitter.

It’s a vacuum, a non-existent, game-sucking, anchor-dropping, win-defying, gut- wrenching, can’t-stand-to-watch-anymore shadow of a once great player.

Vladimir Guerrero has left the building.

And unfortunately, he’s taking the entire Angels team with him.