Opinion

Disclaimer: The following is an extremely biased, completely subjective view of the Giants/Phillies rivalry from the mind of a Giants fan.

Phillies fans, you probably shouldn’t read any further without first being aware that you will not like what is written. You will disagree, and will no doubt let me know what an idiot I am for writing this.

Which is fine.

I just want you to know what you’re getting yourselves into before you start.

Nate McLouth's frustrating tenure with the Atlanta Braves may finally be over.

On the disabled list since July 29, McLouth underwent surgery to repair a sports hernia he had been playing through for most of the season. 

The Florida Marlins are well-known for dealing players such as Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera, Gary Sheffield and Edgar Renteria.

In fact, tracing back to 2004, the Marlins have been talking about becoming a spender once the new ballpark is constructed.

Unfortunately, despite placing clauses in player contracts such as Mike Lowell, the deal was delayed and the Marlins continued to gut the roster of talent throughout the years.

Hey Giants fans, how about those trade-deadline deals? 

In 10 games with Carlos Beltran, the Giants are 2-8. They've scored an aggregate 23 runs—eight in one game, 15 in the other nine combined. 

Not exactly the energy boost GM Brian Sabean had hoped for.   

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.

Three weeks ago, the San Francisco Giants sat multiple games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks for first place in the NL West.

About two of every three games was a one-run contest, and they won a like ratio of those games. Taking about half of those remaining games was good enough to make a second-seed seem almost certain.

At the time of this writing the Reds are nine games out of first place, pending what the Milwaukee Brewers do later. They have just lost the series to the upstart Chicago Cubs and try (I hope) to avoid a sweep tomorrow afternoon.

USA Today is polling its readers with respect to each team's greatest player. Five "finalists" are selected and fans select the one they consider the best.

The Chicago White Sox have had many great stars. The five finalists for the greatest White Sox player are Luke Appling (.310/.399/.398),  Eddie Collins (.333/.424/.429), Nellie Fox (.288/.348/.363), Frank Thomas (.301/.419/.555) and Ted Lyons (26.-230, 3.67 ERA).

As we head into the dog days of August, Jays fans are just now starting to get excited over the prospects of this team.

Usually around this time of year, it's the lull in the schedule where teams usually just try and play out the string until September, but for the Jays, things look completely different.

The Jays are fighting game in and game out, and are 57-55 in 102 games this season. The team was expected to maybe win at most 75 games this season, so they are definitely ahead of expectations.

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.