Fan News

While furious battles for MLB's four available wild-card berths will take place over the regular season's final week, indirect competitions for the game's highest individual honors are raging as well.

With only a handful of awards looking like they're wrapped up, players (and managers) have one final chance to impress voters. Some will rise to the occasion, while others will fold under the pressure. These award races only make the last stretch all the more intriguing.

The term "ace" gets tossed around too liberally. There's more to it than simply being the best pitcher on your team.

The Washington Nationals' Max Scherzer, however, checks most of the ace boxes.

For the first time since 2007, the Cleveland Indians are the champions of the American League Central thanks to their 7-4 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday.

The victory immediately led to plenty of celebration in the locker room, as Matt Loede of NEO Sports Insiders and Dave Chudowsky of WKYC shared:

Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, is a game of moments. On Monday night in Miami, Dee Gordon and the Marlins gave us all an incredible one.

The Miami Marlins paid tribute to deceased pitcher Jose Fernandez on Monday before their game against the New York Mets, all donning Fernandez's No. 16.

Eight Marlins opened the game by surrounding the mound, with no pitcher on the field. The team shared the tribute to Fernandez on Twitter:

Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, who died Sunday in a boating accident, will be forever remembered as part of the franchise. 

Every Miami Marlins player will wear No. 16 in Monday night's game against the New York Mets to honor Jose Fernandez, according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. 

It will also be the last time the number is worn by a member of the Marlins organization, with owner Jeffrey Loria telling reporters the team will retire the number.

We've arrived at the final week of the 2016 MLB regular season.

Baseball feels unimportant after the news early Sunday morning that Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez had died in a boating accident, but the pennant push continues on.

Fantasy baseball's finish line is well in sight.

One week remains on MLB's schedule. Although keep in mind that any tiebreaker game—a real possibility in both leagues' wild-card races—classifies as a regular-season contest. As a result, any stats accrued count in fantasy leagues.

Without any long-term ramifications, managers should feel no loyalty to anyone. Don't like a decent pitcher's matchup? Dump him for someone scheduled to tussle against a lesser adversary. 

With just over one week left in the long slog that is the MLB regular season, the playoff pictures in both leagues are becoming clearer with each passing day. Each of the six division races is all but over, but teams in both the American League and National League continue to claw at each other's heels in their final attempts to secure wild-card spots.