Fan News

Put simply, things got weird during Monday night’s matchup between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers. 

The MLB regular season wraps up at the end of the month, but with just those two weeks of games left, there are still 15 teams in the running for a postseason spot.

For some teams, the final two weeks will mean jockeying for seeding and playing for home-field advantage. For others, it means fighting for their postseason lives, as every game between now and the end of the season is incredibly important.

It’s a case of Wally Pipp, redux—in an indirect sort of way.

Jhonny Peralta got a headache and Jose Iglesias took his job.

Kind of.

Vladimir Guerrero, one of the most dangerous hitters of the late-1990s and 2000s, has retired, reports Hector Gomez of Listen Diario (Spanish link).

Guerrero had this to say on the difficult decision (via Gomez): 

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday that the San Francisco Giants have started negotiations with impending free-agent right fielder Hunter Pence.

Few awards in baseball are as overlooked—and disrespected—as the Gold Glove.

Its critics will claim that the award is meaningless, that defense cannot be evaluated by statistics and that the voting, by-and-large, is nothing more than a glorified popularity contest.

To be sure, past winners have an advantage over those who have never one before. History has proven that voters tend to favor those who have won before over a player looking for his first Gold Glove, even if the numbers show the newcomer having a better season than the old guard.

Every baseball season has its surprises. Whether it’s rookies emerging into stars, stars playing like duds or earth-shattering injuries, a baseball season always throws fans a curveball.

There are just over two weeks left in the 2013 MLB regular season, and while the playoff picture is becoming more and more clear, there is still a lot to be decided between now and October.

In the National League, the Braves, Cardinals, Pirates, Reds and Dodgers look like safe bets to earn postseason spots, and the Nationals are still on the fringe of contention. However, the NL Central title remains a three-way race and home-field advantage is still very much up for grabs.

By winning seven straight games and 18 of their past 23, the Washington Nationals have surged back to relevancy. They've been extremely inconsistent all year, but an ultra-talented core and World Series-winning manager are now thinking in concert and executing to perfection with a few weeks of the season to spare.

Sound familiar? It should.

With the Double- and Triple-A playoffs nearing completion, there’s a chance there will be one final wave of call-ups before the end of the season.