Fan News

Going into Tuesday's action, the Oakland A's have found themselves losers of their last three games and six of their last 10.

They're trending downwards at the wrong time of the season.

In what has been a surprising season to say the least, Oakland sits 5.5 games behind the Texas Rangers for the lead in the American League West and just a half game out of Wild Card contention.

Of course, yesterday they owned one of those Wild Card playoff berths.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article arguing that San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy was wrong to play catcher Hector Sanchez over Brandon Belt. I based my argument on Belt's superior minor and major league statistics as well his higher prospect pedigree, according to publications like Baseball America and prospect experts like Keith Law of ESPN.

John Axford recorded 46 saves in 2011, which began a streak of 49 in a row—second most all-time. Axford's magical run ended this year and it has been a struggle for him to even record a save. Axford has done so poorly that he even cut off all his hair to remove the jinx on his performance.

It didn't work.

Five years ago on Aug. 7, Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756 for his career, taking over baseball's all-time home run record from Hank Aaron. 

The Major League Baseball trade deadline has come and gone, and some big-name players will be wearing new uniforms for at least the rest of the season.

However, who was the most important player traded? Who will have the biggest impact on the tight playoff races that are already developing?

Those are both huge questions.

It is Jonathan Papelbon, not Cliff Lee, whom the Phillies should be trying to move via waiver trade this month.

Last season, there was little question that Justin Verlander was going to win the AL Cy Young Award. He won the AL pitching Triple Crown, leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts. Pitchers who do that tend to walk away with the hardware.

Verlander is once again in the middle of a tremendous season, but the AL Cy Young race isn't nearly as cut-and-dry as it was last year; Verlander has some serious competition.

While it tends to be quite difficult to root against the long shot, the underdog and the Cinderella story, sometimes the plug gets pulled on the dream and there's nothing left to be said.

Before last night's 14-strikeout blowout by Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander, the New York Yankees took two of three games from the Seattle Mariners in the Bronx last weekend.

The Tigers' 7-2 smacking marks the Yankees' 11th loss in their last 17 games, and the Bombers are now four games deep into a 20-game stretch that continues with three more versus the Tigers.

As part of the new collective bargaining agreement, the signing deadline was moved from August 15 to July 13, forcing teams to sign their draft picks at least a month earlier than previous years.

In 2011, 98 of the 331 players drafted within the first 10 rounds were still unsigned headed into deadline day (August 15). This year, as a result of the new, accelerated signing deadline, only 17 of the 338 players selected in rounds 1-10 remained unsigned headed into July 13.