An achy back sidelines your dominant young hurler.

A freak accident causes a hairline fracture to the thumb of your hot-hitting all-star second baseman.

A strange ailment that started as mysterious dizzy spells and has changed to a stress-related condition has put your best hitter on the DL.

Just like that, the promising season of the Cincinnati Reds has begun to unravel.

OK, so we all knew this would happen.

Manny Ramirez currently sits outside the top three National League vote-getters for the outfield position and Joe Torre made his case known today.

Torre believes that the All-Star Game should benefit the players who experience the best first-halves of the season.  He also stated that it has become a popularity contest.

The MLB's current rules for the All-Star Game allow for fans to select the starting lineups for the games. However, how does the league ensure that the players that deserve to be there, get there?

Being a nice guy is overrated.

A team's ace pitcher doesn't have to be a Dale Carnegie protege.

The exact opposite, in fact, is often what's needed.

Bob Gibson had it.

"It" was the disposition of a hungry, caged lion.

Especially on the days that he was slated to pitch.

It was best to stay out of Gibson's way on those days. Gibson was never really known as a congenial man—still isn't, frankly—but he turned positively wretched when his turn in the rotation came up.

The Baltimore Orioles have been one of the most disappointing organizations in baseball.

With eleven striaght losing seasons, the O's have been at the bottom of the cellar of the AL East for over a decade, facing beatdowns to the Yankees and Red Sox.

There hasn't been much to talk about in this decade beside these long woes.

All the hearts broke when Cal Ripken retired, who was virtually the last piece to Baltimore's success.

Peter Angelos, current Orioles owner, has been one of the more unpredictable ones in the years.

When I first heard about this series, I loved the idea—almost all sports fans are, more or less, homers for the underdog.  Rarely do we sit down for an important match/game and root for the favorite unless the favorite happens to be OUR team.

Otherwise, we're usually rooting for the little guy to pull an upset—the more memorable the better.

Every now and then, the meek delivers.

Some players just irk me. Whether it be delaying an inevitable retirement (yes, I'm calling out Brett Favre in a slideshow for MLBers) or just failing at the game, these players are not worthy of a job at the professional level and should really just get out. Seriously.

This is my first slideshow and some of the players I—okay wait a second how is slideshow a misspelling? Way to fail, spell check. You too get out—criticize aren't totally deserving, and it is all in good humor. The reasoning will be real but a bit exaggerated.

In 2003, just a year and a half removed from being drafted 25th overall out of Long Beach State University, Bobby Crosby stormed into the majors and won the American League Rookie of the Year award. 

Early All-Star ballot results were released on Tuesday, and the Milwaukee Brewers are poised to be well-represented in St. Louis.

Outfielder Ryan Braun and shortstop J.J. Hardy are the early leaders at their respective positions, with catcher Jason Kendall and first baseman Prince Fielder currently sitting in second place.

Injured second baseman Rickie Weeks sits second in voting as well, and Mike Cameron, Corey Hart, and Bill Hall (Bill Hall?!?!) all reside within the top seven of their position leaders.

Last night Mets rookie Fernando Martinez failed to run out a pop-up that was dropped by Nationals' Catcher Will Nieves. Had he run hard to first, Fernando would have been safe.

The play was inconsequential as the Mets beat the Nationals 7-4, and moved into first place in the NL East.

Mistakes like the one Martinez made last night are refered to as "rookie mistakes."  Martinez is a rookie, these things happen.