Opinion

They say around 90 percent of the things we get anxious about, are things we never have to experience. The majority of what's left of that 10 percent, doesn't kill us.

So why are we so jumpy Philly?

The reason we panic, as Phillies fans, may have to do with a lot of things. Our nerves may be jumpy from previous trauma involved with our other teams.

In MLB, unlike the other three major sports leagues, there is a disparity among the number of teams in the American League and National League as well as the divisions.

Four divisions have five teams, while the AL West has four and the NL Central has six. The NL has a total of 16 teams, while the AL has 14. This also causes scheduling conflicts during interleague play, since the NL has two more teams. The leagues need to have the same number of teams, so adding two expansion teams would help.

Expansion

This article and other ones like it can be found on North and South of Royal Brougham.

I understand the need to appeal to the mass audience. It's even somewhat expected that an announcing team from a nationally televised broadcast may not know all there is to know about the teams they're visiting.

But the shame of ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the Tampa Bay Rays-Boston Red Sox game crossed the border of embarrassing and went straight into laughable.

In the midst of another miserable season for the Pittsburgh Pirates, it's often tough to find real bright spots to talk about, but the Pirates have one in outfielder Jose Tabata.

Neil Walker gets the press, being the hometown kid, and he's deserved it. Walker is having a tremendous rookie campaign and has cemented himself as part of the future core of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

With the 13th pick in the 1991 Major League Baseball Draft, the Cleveland Indians selected Manny Ramirez.  On September 2, 1993, Ramirez made his Major League Baseball debut against the Minnesota Twins, wearing a Cleveland Indians uniform for the first time.  From that day, until May 6, 2009, Ramirez earned and wore the distinction of being his generation's finest hitter.

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With the 2010 season seemly over for the Mets, it's time to look to the 2011 season and who will be coming off the books.

Buster Posey and Tim Lincecum are the big names in Giants territory. Newcomers Jose Guillen and Cody Ross are the new fan favorites.

However, the man right now red hot in San Francisco with his bat is Andres Torres.

Say who?

Even in his own Puerto Rico many baseball followers are starting to listen and know about Torres.

The New York Yankees have a situation. And it is pretty simple to know what the situation is regarding: the AL East.

The Yankees goal is to win the division, but the Tampa Bay Rays are standing in the way. The Rays have kept pace with New York and vice versa, as both teams are tied for first place.

The Yankees need to get in sync and end this awful August run.

A turn-around by AJ Burnett, who is taking a lot of blame, is not the main issue.

The Pittsburgh Pirates won only five games in the season series against Milwaukee in 2010. That's the same as in 2009, and either result is better than the sole win in 2008.

But this year, the Pirates showed signs of building a base for better success against the Brewers in the future.