Fan News

With Friday's 5-0 win over the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Rays became just the fourth team in major league history to reach .500 after sitting 18 games under at any point during the season, per Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times.

The Chicago Cubs have done an exceptional job at collecting assets in recent years, but with many of their young players ready to contribute, they will soon need to turn those assets into a balanced roster built to compete for a World Series title.

Apparently 10 is the magic number for Corey Kluber.

The Cleveland Indians ace was brilliant on Friday night against the Baltimore Orioles, allowing one run on five hits and two walks while striking out 10 batters over 7.2 innings.

Baseball has a new pope.

After a couple of failed tries, Rob Manfred has been installed as the new MLB commissioner by a unanimous vote of baseball's 30 owners, per the MLB Public Relations Twitter account. While the league's bosses were meeting in Baltimore, there was plenty of action on the field.

Don't count out the Seattle Mariners.

Yes, the 66-55 M's are looking up at both the 71-49 Los Angeles Angels and 73-49 Oakland A's in the American League West. But in this era of the second wild card, third place can be good enough.

The progress the young guns have made in the minor leagues this season is encouraging for the Chicago Cubs' future. As long as they add some quality pitching in free agency this offseason, they should actually be a pretty interesting team in 2015. Their lineup should also improve by adding prospects at the start of the year. 

The New York Mets have officially released outfielder Chris Young.

The team announced the move on Twitter:

This comes after New York designated the 30-year-old for assignment earlier in the week, per ESPNNewYork.com's Adam Rubin.

Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig is built like a brick, so when he collides with the outfield wall to make a catch, damage will happen to either him or the wall. 

MLB FanCave created this goofy video, which Puig himself shared from his Twitter account. It's well edited and quite entertaining.

To non-baseball fans, it may seem like nothing. To baseball fans, it's an incredible blunder.

The Detroit Tigers were giving away bobbleheads of two-time American League MVP Miguel Cabrera on Friday. The small figures show Cabrera holding MVP awards...for the National League.

While there already has been a large influx of prospects promoted to the major leagues this season, there are even more set to arrive when active rosters expand from 25 to 40 players on September 1.

For teams still vying for a postseason berth, the timely promotion of an impact prospect for the stretch run can provide a much-needed boost to their lineup, starting rotation or bullpen. Meanwhile, teams already out of the playoff hunt use the final month of the regular season to audition some of their top prospects.