Opinion

The MLB All-Star Game is dumb. People use it to note a player's credentials in their careers, even though it only measures half of a player's season,

So why don't we look at second-half stars? Here are the best players per position in each league in the second half of 2010.

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The notion that Tim Lincecum's woeful performance in August was prompted by rookie catcher Buster Posey tipping pitches is utterly ridiculous.

Of course, the desperate search to explain how poorly Lincecum has pitched lately leads fans to suggest he cut his hair and has manager Bruce Bochy saying the two-time Cy Young Award winner needs to work harder to get in better condition during the offseason.

Next year, the MLB will have several managerial openings. Some openings are coming from retirement, while others are clubs looking to replace a manager in need of wins. 

Here are a few different teams that are in dire need of a new manager. Some managers want out, and others are being eased out.

The managerial job in the MLB is a game of cat-and-mouse, and you need to be successful to stay in the game.

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The San Francisco Giants are a team built around their starting pitching.  Over the past month, it's this aspect of the team that has been letting them down.

GM Brian Sabean has made several moves during the course of the season to bolster the offense.  Outfielders Pat Burrell, Jose Guillen, and Cody Ross give manager Bruce Bochy a lot of flexibility to go with the hot bat.  Infielder Mike Fontenot was a much needed acquisition when Edgar Renteria went on the DL.

Tony Massarotti said on 98.5 The Sports Hub this afternoon that the odds were stacked mightily against the Red Sox heading into Friday night's critical series opener at Tampa Bay.

According to a report on ESPN.com Tony La Russa announced that Albert Pujols will appear with him in a Glenn Beck event at the Lincoln Memorial where Rev. Martin Luther King made his famous civil rights speech.

Here is a quote from the great Tony La Russa:

Look, Washington National fans, I know you all must be feeling like absolute crap right now. And with reason. Stephen Strasburg going down, especially this late in the season, might have been the worst news a Nationals fan could've ever heard. In particular when considering how good he looked in only his first year in the majors.

However, here are two silver linings to cheer all of you up.

Stephen Strasburg needs Tommy John surgery (TJS), and if you are in shock over this, you shouldn't be. Strasburg has all the requirements of a guy destined for this procedure.

First, he throws extremely hard, upwards of 100 MPH. That is just too taxing on the throwing arm’s tendons and ligaments. There is a certain threshold for the body when it comes to pitching a baseball. Second, Strasburg has brutal pitching mechanics, with a very violent motion.

Looking back, it's astounding to think that the Yankees ever let Andy Pettitte get away.

He's only been the guts of every championship rotation the franchise has assembled in the past 15 years, after all. Not to besmirch the dead, but Pettitte's regrettable sabbatical in Houston fell directly on The Boss, who never did fully appreciate what the lefty meant to the Yankees.

By now the baseball world is well aware that the National League Most Valuable Player race has essentially come down to two NL Central first basemen currently chasing the Triple Crown.

Barring a huge slump on either of their parts or a huge surge by another candidate—crazier things have happened, and Adrian Gonzalez looms in the shadows—the NL MVP is going to go to one of these two players.

So how close is the race between them? Shockingly close.

They are in a statistical dead heat.