Opinion

The trade deadline is less than three-and-a-half weeks away, and most teams have solidly positioned themselves as either buyers or sellers to this point. As a result, the buyers are exploring the market and assessing the value in their own farm system in hopes of patching holes that exist in their roster.

Some teams, however, have something that could be even better: Good players coming off the disabled list.

With the All-Star Game just around the corner, the rumor mill has cooled down, at least for the time being, as we focus our attention to the Mid-Summer Classic.

Once the festivities are over, though, the wheeling and dealing will be in full swing, and with so many clear-cut buyers and sellers, you can expect a good number of deals.

While it is a foregone conclusion that Cliff Lee will be moved, many of the other top players on the trade block could very well see the deadline come and go without switching teams, for one reason or another.

Here are the 10 players that should be traded, but wi

I've been thinking about writing some MLB articles, and this is the first one of what I hope to be many.

So far this MLB season, when I hear about the best pitchers in the game, I hear about Roy Halladay (Phillies), Johan Santana (Mets), Felix Hernandez, and Cliff Lee (Mariners), but let me bring up the guy who I think is the best pitcher in baseball, Josh Johnson.

Many choices in the 2010 All-Star Game were validated through various ways over the last few days.  And all season.

And one major snub will be validated for the same duration.

The Chicago White Sox have surged back to contention in the American League Central.  Great hitting by the likes of Paul Konerko and others, paired with the unbelievable pitching of the starters and bullpen alike, have the Sox 20-5 over the last 25 games.

Just 24 hours after the Colorado Rockies set a franchise record with a nine-run ninth inning that was capped off by a Seth Smith three-run blast—the Rockies did it again.

In fact, when Chris Iannetta bombed the game-winning solo homer in the bottom of the ninth, it was the third straight game in a row Colorado won with a walk-off.

Don't get me wrong.

Ubaldo Jimenez' no-hitter counts for something. So do his major league-leading 14 wins. Same goes for Roy Halladay's perfect game and major league-leading seven complete games.

But the pitcher who deserves the starting nod for the National League All-Star team plays for the Florida Marlins.

That's right, the same team that rarely captures national attention unless the manager gets fired or it trades away a star player. 

As we approach the All-Star break, the Minnesota Twins are sitting in third place after a 6-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.

The Twins are only a game and a half out of first.

This doesn't sound bad, but expectations are high and anything besides a deep playoff run would be a disappointment.  

The problem is that this was supposed to be the year the Twins put everything together.

Hey Bleacher Creatures! I'm Chris, co-owner and operator over at TheScoreBoards. It's been a while since I've been able to write anything on here, but I miss hearing from you folks.

I think I've found a way to contribute here without having to spend as much time on it as I used to. While I will certainly do my best to offer some of my own original work on a somewhat regular basis, I would also like to start sharing some of the discussions going on at my site.

If you didn't know who Miguel Cabrera was, and you asked him what he did for a living, his staunch response would obviously be: professional athlete. Your response would probably be, "bowler, Lucha Libre wrestler, competitive eater, possibly?"

He enjoys this distinction with the likes of Brian Scalabrine or John Daly as guys who don't necessarily fit the perception of their job description.

There was a point in time in the season where the Oakland A's could have made a surprising run at the American League West division title, but all hope are pretty much gone after another dreadful performance against the New York Yankees. 

So, what is there for the second half of the season for the A's? Well there's five things the A's have to have to show they could become a contender in the American League West division.