Rankings/List

Surprise players can carry both a fantasy baseball squad and a major league baseball team to a championship.

Owners and managers may have hunches regarding certain players, but they remain pipe dreams until the production actually comes to fruition.

The true value of these players comes in their unexpected contributions, usually at very low salaries. A cheap all-star, in many ways, can be considered more valuable than a high-priced superstar.

The hunt for October is coming ever closer. With each day, it's becoming more clear who is making a move in the MVP race and who is fading out of the race.

Here's the weekly update on the top nine Most Valuable Player candidates in the American League.

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In baseball there are players who bat right handed or left handed but then there are some who do both. The name for hitting right and left handed is "switch hitting." In this list I will say the best switch hitters in baseball at every position.

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We've reached a milestone in the 2010 MLB season.

As of this morning, 16 of baseball's 30 teams have played at least 108 games.

Starting Sept.

The top half of this week's "who's hot and who's not" has a rather familiar feel to it, with five of the first seven players occupying spots in my preseason Top 30 rankings, including an old familiar face who hasn't seen this much attention in a few years.

The bottom half is a who's-who of new faces, including a few recent draftees, and a ton of late-round fliers, including 30th, 34th, and 43rd round picks, in addition to a few undrafted players.

Get used to these names, because a lot of them will be occupying spots on my postseason All-Organization team, with maybe one of them receiving top

So many huge names, yet such a small club.

As Alex Rodriguez enters the 600 HR club, here is my ranking of the club's best members.

NOTE: This list is very flexible, as each member can be argued as the best player of their era. This list is not only about HRs. It's about overall statistics. Everyone has their own opinions. Thank you and enjoy!

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Baseball's non-waiver trade deadline came and went last weekend, with a number of clubs making last-minute additions to their team in a bid to make one final charge towards October.

There were buyers and there were sellers. Others decided to stay pat, content with what they had, or, more likely, unable or willing to shell out top dollar or part ways with highly-touted prospects.

Now that July 31 is a thing of the past, baseball fans can look forward to the next big deadline... August 31.

With my Philadelphia Phillies leading Major League Baseball in the number of players placed on the disabled list at some point in the year, I could fill some space with how they can ride out injuries and make yet another late-season playoff run. But where’s the fun in that?

Instead of focusing on how to survive injuries, I decided to take a look at how to avoid them altogether during team celebrations.

In sports, we see a number of strange ways to revel in the moment.

It's August 4th and the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball. After easily defeating the Yankees last night, the Rays sit alone atop the American League East.

The Rays MVP to date? That would be Carl Crawford. The 29 year old outfielder is having a career year, hitting .309, with a career best .855 OPS and 38 stolen bases. Crawford is also one of the best defensive outfielders in all of baseball. So far this season, he's saved his team nearly 20 runs on defense alone.

The face of the Tampa Bay franchise over the past decade is also the teams biggest problem going forward.