MLB

I’m tired of hearing the name. As citizens and baseball loyalist, our minds should be weary of the one player whose worse than Donald Duck when tempers flare. The childish tantrums have been everywhere, this explains why Milton Bradley has played for seven different teams in his troubling nine seasons.

"Will you sign my magazine?"
"Aww, sure thing, sweetie. Who should I make it out to?"
"Well…uh…to eBay?"
"That's a popular name today!"

-From Futurama

New New York Mets Pitcher Turanga Leela meets her fans.

Throughout the years Lance Berkman has proven time and time again that he was a great option for fantasy owners.  A career .299 hitter, he hasn’t hit below .278 since getting a full-time job in 2000.  He’s shown the ability to hit 45 HR, but has consistently been in the 25-35 range.  He’s a perennial threat to eclipse the 100 RBI/100 R plateaus.

Thank you once again, Bud Selig. Twelve years ago, you gave baseball fans across the country, and especially in the New York/New Jersey market, something to watch every June and July: inter-league play.

Nothing too much here, just a brief look towards Autumn and the 2009 MLB Playoffs. Also included are the projected final standings, and playoff predictions.

American League

1. Boston Red Sox

2. Los Angeles Angels

3. Minnesota Twins(yes, I said the Twins)

4. New York Yankees

5. Tampa Bay Rays

6. Texas Rangers

7. Detroit Tigers

8. Toronto Blue Jays

9. Chicago White Sox

10. Seattle Mariners

11. Oakland Athletics

12. Baltimore Orioles

13. Kansas City Royals

So my mother, in all her infinite wisdom, was having a garage sale today at our home. Besides the hours of heavy lifting and listening to old people as they asked me to read off prices of various items, a few interesting things happened.

A creepy old guy hit on my sister, a old man told us, "he was looking for that one thing," and some young kid asked me about trading cards.

"Trading cards? Yeah I got some"

So far this season, the Tampa Bay Rays' pitching staff has looked more like a M.A.S.H unit. Even though there are still pitchers on the disabled list, there are reasons for hope in St. Petersburg. Here are some reasons why the Rays' pitchers will help the Rays contend during the second half of the season:

1. Scott Kazmir's return from the D.L.

There was a welcome sight at US Cellular Field on Friday, and it wasn't just Lou standing up to Milton Bradley's temper. Aramis Ramirez was taking batting practice again. Lou described this as the final stretch in getting the motor of the Cubs offence back.

He will go out on a three or four game rehab assignment, and should be back a week before the all star game. So while that is fantastic news, that I'm sure will be covered in great detail here at BR by other writers, it got me thinking about another aspect of the Cubs line-up.

Team of the Week: Tampa Bay Rays (pictured above), for the second time in three weeks

Bust of the Week: Philadelphia Phillies, for the second straight week

As the MLB and its 29...err, 30...teams (sorry, Nats fans) approach the middle of the season, it's all about how well they can perform with the title races tightening and the summer sun heating up.