Opinion

The last few weeks of Phillies baseball has been pitiful.

Just when fans thought the team’s current slump was over after Tuesday night’s slugfest, the Phillies proved tonight the slump has not ended.

Charlie Manuel needs to make changes with this team and edit his constant managing mistakes.

Charlie is an excellent player’s manager. Every player in the Phillies clubhouse gives 110% for Manuel and his staff every game.

The players like his laid-back style and his refusal to put more pressure on them that is already there.

Welcome to the Cleveland Indians Trading Post, a weekly segment meant to help my fellow Tribe fans sort out which of the few familiar faces left on the team won’t be around much longer.

This week’s potential trade bait is Russell Branyan.

The basics

The Cincinnati Reds were able to turn around their four-game series against the San Francisco Giants Wednesday night with a 6-3 win.

So, after losing twice to the Giants earlier in the week, what changed in this game that allowed the Reds to win?

For starters, the Reds did a much better job manufacturing runs. That’s the obvious difference shown by the final score. The six runs they scored were the most they've tallied in a game thus far in the series.

The Reds also did a better job of batting, and giving themselves an opportunity to score the runs they did.

Washington D.C. is home to some of the world's most visited landmarks. The Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian and Vietnam Wall are heralded across the globe and attract millions annually.

We can now add another monument: National’s Park, the new home of Stephen Strasburg. 

Robinson Cano doesn’t get the publicity of Yankee teammates Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Mark Teixeira, but he is having the best season of any Yankee position player in 2010.

He is currently leading the majors in hitting with a .376 average and is fourth in the majors in runs batted in with 46 with only Miguel Cabrera, Vladimir Guerrero, and Evan Longoria ahead of him.

In 2010, the Arizona Diamondbacks are 3-28 when scoring four or less runs.

Without much further investigation, it was safe to say that Arizona needed to pick up some additional help on the mound (no, Dontrelle Willis is not going to cut it).

And that's just what General Manager Josh Byrnes did.

His first eight, I repeat eight , picks at this year's draft were pitchers. 

"We are extremely excited about the quality of arms we were able to select throughout the draft," D-Backs' Scouting Director Tom Allison told foxsportsarizona.com.

In the hours following Stephen Strasburg's Brendan-Fraser-in-The-Scout -level debut for the Nationals on Tuesday, my buddy Howie posed this question to me (@danhanzus ) via Twitter:

Most trade value: Mauer, Hanley, Pujols or Strasburg? I say #Strasburg easy.

The Houston Astros have finally begun winning ball games fairly consistently.

My only question is: Where were these Astros at the start of the season?

Carlos Lee jacked a grand slam in the top of the 10th inning on Wednesday night in Colorado, as Houston came back from an early deficit and the Astros topped the Rockies, 6-2, in wild fashion.

And it’s about damn time.

Just moments after Houston made their final selections in the 2010 First-Year Player Draft, it finally appears as though the Astros are beginning to get things going this season.

Counting his five Arizona Fall League starts, Stephen Strasburg had made sixteen starts as a professional before making his major league debut on June 8th. During these appearances, Strasburg pitched a total of 74.1 innings, walking 20, striking out 88, posted an ERA of 2.18, and racked up an 11-3 record.

When is Major League Baseball going to learn to have some morals and values?

It starts—and ends—at the top. And that means commissioner Bud Selig.

He’s old and in charge. He wants to let the world know—and he’s too freaking stubborn to make one single change to America’s Pastime.

Like it or not, commissioner Selig, we live in the year 2010.

We live in a world with social networking, instant messaging, and texts.

We live in a world with instant replay.

When, oh when, is MLB going to wake up and face reality?