Opinion

This is the time of year, with nearly a third of the season complete, when you start cutting the guys not producing.

Here's looking at you, Carlos Quentin, Gordon Beckham, and Aramis Ramirez.

Sometimes fantasy owners can't afford to be patient with some of these guys.

Why not add a red-hot slugger like David Ortiz or Jose Bautista?

You have to ride hot streaks, because once their streaks end they aren't as intriguing. It might be hard to part with hype machines like Beckham, but it's necessary if you want to win.

The New York Mets are within striking distance of the Phillies, and there's no doubt that they have a chance to make a run at the wild card.

But one thing that can really kill the Mets is their General Manager Omar Minaya, not that he hasn't already done so.

Minaya is desperate to keep his job, and the future of the franchise is in jeopardy if he decides to make another typical Minaya move, trading the best prospects for an older pitcher to help the Mets improve from a slightly better than .500 team to a wild card contender.

It's events such as these that proves my frustration towards Philly fan haters is justified. To those who may complain that Philly inhabitants are rude, reckless, and front-runners, read on.

Phillies fans proved they're just as phanatic as ever at the 26th annual Phillies Phestival Monday night. Over 7,000 fans, the most in phestival history, showed up to Citizen's Bank Park for the sold out event which raises money for the ALS Association for the fight again Lou Gehrig's disease.

In late September the Atlanta Braves lost two of the three to the visiting Florida Marlins to close out the regular season.

By then, the Philadelphia Phillies had already closed out the National League East division and the battle at Turner Field was for second place.

Fast forward eight months later.

The two teams are a half game apart in the standings and will once again face each other Tuesday night at Sun Life Stadium.

Not literally, but the Cincinnati Reds do need to do it figuratively.

Memorial Day weekend is just a few days away—marking the unofficial start to Summer—and for baseball, this weekend also marks the "real" start to the season.

The New York Mets have been perhaps the most volatile team so far this season.

They have shown flashes of World Series quality baseball, by winning eight games in a row in April, and have struggled miserably at other times, losing nine of 11 games in mid-may.

As much as the Mets season has been a roller coaster ride, the hype surrounding Jerry Manuel has been just as crazy.

When the team has been playing badly, Manuel has received a lot of criticism and a lot of Mets fans have been calling for his firing.

With the major league baseball draft about two weeks away, there are many teams still scrambling around trying to figure out what to do.

High School versus College? Power bat versus Pitcher? Immediate help or projection player?

High school or prep telent is looked upon as what is their ceiling. There is a lot or projectibility here, whereas college talent usually has almost all their tools in order. They basically need some refinement.

It wasn't too much of surprise when 33-year-old Roy Oswalt requested a trade from the Astros last week.

After all, the Astros and their awful offense aren't going anywhere in 2010 and the right-handed Mississippi native isn't getting any younger.

But, what was surprising was the list of teams Oswalt offered up for teams he'd wave his no-trade clause to go to.

St. Louis, Texas, and the Atlanta Braves.

Two pitching-rich franchises with polished arms in their rotations and an up-and-coming Rangers squad not necessarily in need of a big contract?

There is much hype surrounding the impending promotion of Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals to the big leagues. Deservedly so. If he wasn't hyped up enough before being drafted by Washington, he's proved his mettle in the minors this season, specifically with his spotless 0.00 ERA after 18 1/3 innings at Triple-A Syracuse.

When a team musters just a single run in a three game series, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the offense is struggling.

Essentially, changes to the San Francisco Giants' lineup are a guarantee.

Even if their manager was napping in the clubhouse during the past three games, changes would be made after looking at the final box scores.

Once the manager wakes up after such a dreadful offensive series, he will see 20 straight zeros in the boxscore and will naturally be inclined to shake things up.