Fan News

When the No. 1 pick of the MLB draft is selected, he is expected to be a star.

Some picks are met with more fanfare than others (Stephen Strasburg elicited much more buzz than Matt Bush) but all No. 1 draft picks are expected to, at the very least, be good contributors to their major league teams.

And usually, they are.

It's June 27, and the major league trade deadline is drawing near.

As always, there are many teams out there looking for offense. The Mets, Rays, Blue Jays, and others are looking for a quality bat to further their playoff chances.

The Twins released Luis Ayala on Monday after showing his disgust to Twins manager Ron Gardenhire about not being used in the setup role, never mind that role has belonged to Jose Mijares all season.

With the Marlins looking for help in getting someone for relief, Ayala is available if the team is interested.

Tonight's 5-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers is only one game. The Giants are still 39-33 and still in good shape as a team overall (even though the Rockies are nipping on the heels of the Giants at a breakneck pace).

And after all, there is more than half a season of Giants baseball left to be played.

But that doesn't mean that this road trip against Milwaukee and St. Louis is one to be taken lightly. Sure, the Giants are in a close race with Brewers for the Wild Card position.

That being said, Wild Card races only get serious come August, not in June.

After taking the last two games in Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers headed out to Chicago to face the White Sox. Hiroki Kuroda dominated the South Siders in the first game, to give LA their third straight win.

Then the Sox bounced back to take the last two, giving the Dodgers their first series loss since they hosted the Angels in late May.

Since their inception in 1993, the Colorado Rockies have had several types of teams.

The Major League baseball season is a marathon, and usually the teams that end up playing in October are the ones who deal best with the adversity that’s encountered throughout the course of a long season.

Fortunately for the Angels, Manager Mike Scioscia is one of the best in the game at finding ways to win, regardless of the hand he's dealt.  

The Florida Marlins have enjoyed a nice recovery thanks to Interleague play. Taking two of three against the Yankees and sweeping the Orioles have helped them climb back into NL East contention.  

There seems to be a battle for the team RBI lead. Hanley Ramirez currently has 47 thanks to two grand slams in the Baltimore series. Jorge Cantu is in second with 46, while Cody Ross and Dan Uggla are tied for third with 45. Emilio Bonifacio has 13 stolen bases, while Ramirez has 11. 

The MLB season is a war.

Whether it's injuries or a hitting slump, there are many minor battles that occur over the course of season. But during the Cubs' 6-5 win over the White Sox on Friday, Lou Piniella fired the first salvo in one of the most important battles the Cubs will face all year: the battle for the clubhouse.

This past week the Braves played a three-game series against the Yankees in Atlanta. As expected, the stands where split about 50-50. After all, New York has a large following.

The amount of visiting team fans is not my complaint. It's the unbelievable lack of respect that the fans showed during the games that upset me. 

It is important to point out that I do not wish to pin this on just Yankees fans. I know these people are all over and no team is exempt from a variety of disgraceful followers.