Aramis Ramirez

Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez has accepted the mutual option on his contract and will remain with the franchise for the 2015 MLB season.     

The Brewers’ official Twitter account announced the news Monday:

In the New York Yankees' endless search for viable bats, the next name on the list could very well be Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez, tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe.

Teams will normally assess where they are in the standings much closer to the trade deadline on July 31st before deciding if they will be "buyers" or "sellers". Yet, here we are in June and there are a handful of teams that have to feel like they are heading in the wrong direction and it's getting close to "do or die" time. 

The population of third basemen in Major League Baseball is talented and getting increasingly young, and with the promotion of Manny Machado and impending ascension of top prospects Anthony Rendon, Nick Castellanos and Mike Olt (if he stays at 3B), the position is getting deeper and becoming even younger.. 

Chicago Cubs third baseman Aramis Ramirez is having a good season after an awful start, no question. But it's fool's gold, with the gold going to Ramirez and Cubs GM Jim Hendry the fool.

For if Ramirez's season leads Hendry to either pick up his club option at $16 million for 2012, or motivates him to sign an extension, then this otherwise solid season by Ramirez will actually be a negative for the Cubs in the long run.

One of the keys to winning in fantasy baseball is to catch players in the middle of a hot streak. This June, there were a number of players who crushed the playing field. Which of these players will come back to Earth and which are capable of sustaining their June dominance? In this article, I will identify who you should hang on to and who you should sell high on. 

Atlanta Braves 3B Chipper Jones has been placed on the 15-day DL with a torn meniscous and will miss the 2011 MLB All-Star Game. Philadelphia Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel came out Saturday and said that it is likely All-Star 3B Placido Palanco will miss Sunday's game, and very well could miss the All-Star game. 

Over the last decade, there have been many Major League Baseball teams that inspired the feeling for a split second that you could have made a career off that .300 average you carried in the Frankfort Dixie Youth League. 

Last week I wrote about my hope for the 2011 Cubs. For the first time in a long time, I look at the Cubs organization and see reasons to be optimistic about their short and long-term future.

This article is also available at theperspective.yardbarker.com

The Chicago Cubs have spent the past few years treading water in the middle of Major League Baseball.  They haven't been going on tears, but they also haven't been at the bottom of the league.

Although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is something that is very frustrating for Cubs fans who want to get some sort of identity out of a team that refuses to give itself one.