Opinion

Greg Gibson is a 41-year-old Ohio-born man, who has worked as an umpire for some 13 years.

On August 23, 2010 he made a controversial, potential game deciding call, against a team in the heat of a vicious pennant race. If that is not enough, he consulted nobody for a second opinion.

In the top of the eighth, Ryan Howard fielded a bunt by Michael Bourn and dove to tag Bourn. Bourn ran out of the base path to avoid the tag, and proceeded to first base where he was called safe.

       There are two schools of thought when it comes to hiring a General Manager for a Major League Baseball team, either you hire a business man or a baseball man. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox have gone the business man rout with Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein and have been successful.

Every season, fans, writers, and anyone following baseball has an idea of how the season will play out. We know that Albert Pujols will always be great. We know that the Yankees will always have way more wins than losses.

But there are always individual and team performances that we can't predict.

And this year, many teams have surprised, in both good and bad ways. There are many surprising division leaders and even a few surprising division cellar dwellers.

Here are the top 10 surprising teams of the season thus far, as we head into the stretch run of September.

There's one thing that you never, under any circumstances, want to hear when scouting a pitcher.

Raw? That's not a big deal. The pitcher can be developed in the minors, as long as it may take, and it can still work out.

Wild? That's a problem, but again, it can be worked out, whether it's just a wild arm or something psychological.

Lack of Passion? We are getting close, but even this is not the worst; if the pitcher has talent it can still work out. After all, Rube Waddell was a Hall of Famer.

I can safely say that I am a gigantic fan of Adam Dunn. Consistency is one of the main benchmarks for picking my favorite players, and he very simply gets the job done. He is a freak of patience and power, but the consistent production is what draws me to him.

For instance, his production from 2007 to 2009 looks a little something like this:

2007   .264 AVG/.386 OBP (101 walks)/40 home runs

2008   .236 AVG/.386 OBP (122 walks)/40 home runs

Six years ago, prior to Game Four of the ’04 ALCS, Kevin Millar strutted around Fenway Park with a message.

“Don’t let the Sox win tonight!” Millar bellowed to anyone that would listen.

Of course, the Red Sox trailed the New York Yankees 3-0 in the series and looked all but titleless for yet another October. The Curse of the Bambino appeared to live for another year.

But Millar didn’t see it that way.

The 2010 MLB season has really been great. With 17 out of 30 teams at or above .500, I have to admit that a form of parity does exist as I am seeing that form on the field.

And the surprises have been what have made this a great season.

The San Diego Padres, with a payroll ripped apart by the divorce of their owners, have been at the top of the National League all season. The Padres were even buyers at the trade deadline as they brought in the bat of Ryan Ludwick to help their lone superstar hitter in Adrian Gonzalez.

Tampa Bay Rays star Carl Crawford talks about his All-Star experience with Torii Hunter in his ear about playing in Anaheim.

He just won't seem to go away.

Sammy Sosa said in an interview with Chicago Magazine his number should be retired in the Chicago Cubs organization.

"That number should be untouchable because of the things that I did for that organization," Sosa said. "That right there shows me that they don't care about me, and they don't want to have a good relationship with me."

Travis Snider is one young player who has certainly seen his fair share of ups-and-downs in his limited major league career.  After getting called up from Triple-A for the tailend of the 2008 season, and batting .301 in 24 games, he was likely thinking that he would be playing with the team the next season.