Baseball

For the first half of the season, the Atlanta Braves struggled mightily to produce offense, and were carried by their amazing pitching.

In this half of the season, so far, their pitching has been declining, and their offense has been surging.

This is not necessarily a negative thing; however, it seems it is now the Braves' pitching that needs assistance.

In their time of need, the Florida Marlins have called on the services of an old friend to aid in their cause. In a trade with the Colorado Rockies, the Marlins reacquired super utility infielder Alfredo Amezaga to start in second base and take infielder Omar Infante's place in the lineup.

New York Yankees starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia enters Saturday's start against the Boston Red Sox with a 16-5 record and 2.55 ERA.  He leads the majors in wins and has allowed just seven earned runs over his last eight starts.

It's not even an argument that the 31-year-old is the Most Valuable Player on his own team, as the club has won 18 of his 24 starts. 

Biased as I may be, I came away from last night's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants with even more respect for my hometown team of red and less for the defending world champions.

Is it possible for a player to be one of the consensus top five players in his league and still be underrated?

If that player is Matt Kemp, then the answer is an unequivocal Yes.

Brett Lawrie, 2B Toronto Blue Jays (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 22.7 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 2/4, 1 RBI

Brett Lawrie has finally arrived! He tore up AAA pitching this season going .353/64/18/61/13. In my opinion, the call-up should have happened much earlier—but it didn't. Then Lawrie suffered a hand injury on May 31st which kept him out of the game for a while. Now that it is completely healed, expect him to rake for the Blue jays.

The Toronto Blue Jays have blown 18 saves this year while amassing a grand total of only 23. During Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Blue Jays blew two saves in extra innings, which cost them the game. Coming into the season, the Blue Jays had four former closers on the team, Jason Frasor, Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch and Octavio Dotel.

Michael Cuddyer will not leave the Minnesota Twins before the end of the season via trade, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

He may walk when his contract expires at the end of the season, and if the team's announced intention to re-sign him falls through.

Picture a baseball prodigy. Maybe it's the next Bryce Harper; maybe it's the next Stephen Strasburg. He's young, nervous, fidgeting with his tie and sweating slightly under the heat of bright television camera lights.

Whitey Ford didn’t know he had been treated with cocaine in an attempt to alleviate the pain in his left shoulder during the 1957 season.

The New York Yankees ace spoke to his friend, Toots Shor, who recommended Dr. Milton Reder. Ford visited the good doctor, received the treatment and reported his shoulder felt better the next day.