NL East

The Washington Nationals have agreed a deal Bryce Harper. It has been reported by Kendall Rogers of Yahoo Sports that the deal is worth $9.9 million. This has been confirmed by Jim Bowden.

It appears as if the Nationals will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. With Stephen Strasburg already dominating in the majors and Bryce Harper on his way to the Nationals organization, the team appears to be on the rise.

Some scouts have said that the Mets have the best farm system in the National League East, but that may soon change.

It has been announced that Francisco Rodriguez will need to undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb.

It can be concluded that the injury came from the altercation that Rodriguez had with his father-in-law earlier in the week.

This is just another story in the sad state of affairs of the New York Mets.

Rodriguez had no business being on the Mets roster at any point this year after the altercation anyway. Now, he will most likely be placed on the DL and another reliever will be brought up.

Jon Niese hasn't gotten much run support lately, and the Mets will try to turn that around tonight.

Each of Niese's last two starts have been identical: pitch great ball, and get a no-decision for the effort. In both starts against the Phillies and Rockies, he went seven innings and allowed one run.

Both times the Mets bullpen blew a one-run lead in the eighth. It hasn't only been Niese not getting run support lately, but he's been the biggest culprit. He's only 7-5 this season and he should have at least 10 wins if not more.

I don’t want to defend Omar Minaya. I don’t want to defend anything about the Mets front office. I think they are all terrible, and the Mets won’t win anything until the entire organization is overthrown, which starts with the Wilpons selling the team.

However, I am going to make one daring statement: Is it possible that Omar Minaya has actually been doing a good job this season?

The Nationals just signed fourth round pick A.J. Cole, who was not only the least likely top ten pick in their own draft to sign, but one of the least likely picks to sign in the whole 2010 draft.

Cole, a 6'5" right-hander, is a high school pitcher with first-round ability. He slid in the draft after showing some inconsistency and making a commitment to the University of Miami. Guys like this have a lot of incentive to go to school and improve their stock, so the Nationals probably weren't going to get him without paying him first-round money.

If you’ve watched the Mets this season, you know how much of a roller coaster it’s been. From the hot start to April to the inconsistent May, to a month of June where they looked like true contenders and then a July that put that talk to bed.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest stories from yesterday’s games:

American League:

Francisco Rodriguez's recent altercation at Citi Field with his girlfriend's father may have come as a surprise to many around baseball.

But his downhill spiral has not.

K-Rod's most recent mess-up only sheds light on the fact that he has been disappointing this whole season. But that was just on the field. Now he's decided to blow it off the field as well.

As a friend of mine said to me a couple of weeks ago, if there is anything the 2010 Philadelphia Phillies baseball season has taught us, it is that 162 games can make for a very long season.

In just the last six weeks alone, the Phillies have been without Chase Utley, have spent three weeks without Jamie Moyer or Shane Victorino, and have lost Ryan Howard.

And yet, however improbably, the Phillies have simply prospered during the absence of three of their biggest stars and one of their most consistent starters.