Preview/Prediction

With the second half of the Major league baseball season under way, here are some predictions as to what could end up happening when the regular season is all said and done. There will also be two bold predictions at the end, those of which would shock the sports world, and could happen if events fall a certain way.

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Over the years, the Atlanta Braves have been very active in the trade market.

SAN FRANCISCO-- The New York Mets lineup tonight against the San Francisco Giants is out, and it includes Carlos Beltran for a third straight game, but Jose Reyes has been pushed back until Monday.

Tonight's Mets lineup against San Francisco:

CF Angel Pagan

2B Alex Cora

3B David Wright

CF Carlos Beltran

1B Ike Davis

LF Jason Bay

C Rod Barajas

SS Ruben Tejada

P Hisanori Takahashi

John Lackey has been nothing less than a tremendous disappointment this season. 

After signing for more than $82 million in the offseason, certainly a lot more was expected of him than he has provided.

In 18 starts, Lackey has given the Red Sox 118 innings, which is the good news. 

However, Lackey has a 4.78 ERA and opponents are batting an astounding .298 against him. 

Of equal concern, Lackey has given up far too many walks (46) and hasn't had nearly enough strike outs (68).

Brandon Belt has been on the radar of die-hard San Francisco Giants fans since the start of the season when he established himself, at least statistically, as the best hitter in the entire organization.

What's hard to believe is that the guy can sustain his amazing performance because it just is never done much past high school and to a lesser extent college.

The MLB trade deadline is just two weeks away and talks are beginning to heat up around the league.

This year's deadline is sure to be filled with sellers as a lot of teams are looking to free up cap room in an ever-struggling economy. Despite a meager bank account and not many prospects for improvement, the Dodgers view themselves as buyers.

The lack of a solid starting rotation has prompted the Dodgers to reach out to several teams regarding pitching, but the Dodgers seem unwilling to part with core talent.

With five All-Stars and 50-plus wins before the break, the Atlanta Braves look very strong going into the second half of the 2010 season.

They’ve combined their stellar pitching staff with timely hitting (16 wins in their last at-bat before the All-Star Break) and have steered clear of the Phillies and Mets to jump out to a 4-game lead in the NL East.

The first half of the 2010 MLB regular season was like stepping into a 1990's time warp - with usual bottom-feeding teams such as the Cincinatti Reds, Texas Rangers and San Diego Padres leading their respective divisions - but the second half promises to bring a dose of reality back to the normal MLB landscape.  However, it is possible that one of those teams can make a run deep into the playoffs and, if everything goes as planned, should be playing in late October.  Just one of the many reasons why the conclusion of the 2010 MLB regular season guarantees to be one

SAN FRANCISCO: The Mets offense during the first two games in San Francisco has been M.I.A. After getting shut out Thursday night, manager Jerry Manuel attempted something drastically different last night, batting Jason Bay second, and well, the Mets got shut out again.

Once again, after being told he'd play, Jose Reyes was out of the lineup. He did take batting practice around 6:15pm local time, and batted from both sides of the plate.

Ever since David Price's shut-down relief pitching a few years ago in the ALCS, teams have become more dependent on hot-shot prospects down the stretch.

And you just know that's going to be the case this season, especially with the sustained success of the rookie class of 2010, that includes Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Santana, and the possibly playoff-bound Buster Posey, Mike Leake, and Jason Heyward.

But aside from those big names, there's several of lesser known ones that could end up playing huge roles this September for the stretch run, and on into October, once playoff baseball arrives.