MLB

It’s a case of Wally Pipp, redux—in an indirect sort of way.

Jhonny Peralta got a headache and Jose Iglesias took his job.

Kind of.

Vladimir Guerrero, one of the most dangerous hitters of the late-1990s and 2000s, has retired, reports Hector Gomez of Listen Diario (Spanish link).

Guerrero had this to say on the difficult decision (via Gomez): 

Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday that the San Francisco Giants have started negotiations with impending free-agent right fielder Hunter Pence.

Few awards in baseball are as overlooked—and disrespected—as the Gold Glove.

Its critics will claim that the award is meaningless, that defense cannot be evaluated by statistics and that the voting, by-and-large, is nothing more than a glorified popularity contest.

To be sure, past winners have an advantage over those who have never one before. History has proven that voters tend to favor those who have won before over a player looking for his first Gold Glove, even if the numbers show the newcomer having a better season than the old guard.

Every baseball season has its surprises. Whether it’s rookies emerging into stars, stars playing like duds or earth-shattering injuries, a baseball season always throws fans a curveball.

There are just over two weeks left in the 2013 MLB regular season, and while the playoff picture is becoming more and more clear, there is still a lot to be decided between now and October.

In the National League, the Braves, Cardinals, Pirates, Reds and Dodgers look like safe bets to earn postseason spots, and the Nationals are still on the fringe of contention. However, the NL Central title remains a three-way race and home-field advantage is still very much up for grabs.

By winning seven straight games and 18 of their past 23, the Washington Nationals have surged back to relevancy. They've been extremely inconsistent all year, but an ultra-talented core and World Series-winning manager are now thinking in concert and executing to perfection with a few weeks of the season to spare.

Sound familiar? It should.

With the Double- and Triple-A playoffs nearing completion, there’s a chance there will be one final wave of call-ups before the end of the season.

The free-agent market won't be officially open for business for about another month-and-a-half (at the conclusion of the World Series), but most free agents-to-be are down to their last 12 to 15 games to either boost, maintain or lose value. 

While a majority of the group will be in the "maintain value" category, a handful of others are either playing good enough to bump that price tag up or bad enough to knock it down.

Here are eight players, four from each side, who have shifted the needle on their free-agent stock during the past week or two. 

Major League Baseball is infatuated with round numbers. Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles reached a special one on Friday night with his 50th home run of the year.

Watch him flaunt his opposite-field power with this eighth-inning blast to break a 3-3 tie in an eventual O's victory: