Opinion

When you’re a fan of a team who had the potential to make the playoffs but falls short, there's always the question of “what if?”

“What if they had made it? They have such a good top of the rotation and a ton of veterans...they were made for the playoffs!”

I found myself asking “what if?” about this year's White Sox team. The Sox came into the season with low expectations, yet found themselves competing for a division title anyway. Now they sit six games back with too few games remaining to feel they actually have a chance.

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Yankees manager Joe Girardi was ejected in the fifth inning yesterday but still takes credit for removing reliever Brian Bruney in the eighth even though, technically, bench coach Tony Pena was the acting manager.

Since the start of the season rumors flew that 2009 would most definitely was Carlos Delgado’ last season in the Big Apple.

Even though was considered one of the key players for a pennant run this season, management knew behind the scenes most likely the 37-year-old Delgado, whose contract expires after this season, was not going to be ask to return.

My weekly take on the Tigers, also known simply and affectionately as “MMM.”

Week of 9/7-13: 1-5

This week: 9/14: TOR; 9/15-17: KC; 9/18-20: at Min

Goat of the Week

The bullpen sprang its first major leak of the season.

I'll be honest, when the Giants signed Brad Penny on Aug. 31, I wasn't thinking he could recreate what he did the last time he was considered a legitimate major-league pitcher when he first strapped on the orange and black.

Not only was his time in Boston a complete disaster, his 2008 in sunny SoCal wasn't exactly something you want to remember either.

Even though I missed a week in documenting the race for Bryce Harper, not much has changed atop the leaderboard. To check out the Harper standings from two weeks ago, click here.

Without further ado, here are the current standings in the race for Bryce Harper:

Panic!

John Smoltz is hurt. Chris Carpenter has lost his “A” game. Ryan Franklin has morphed into a bad Brad Lidge slash Jason Isringhausen clone. Kyle Lohse is complacent after signing a big contract. The defense is poor. The hitting is worse. It’s time to stop the season right now and put this team out of it’s misery. We can’t let them perform any longer. We simply do not want the youth of America exposed to such blatant acts of cruelty. The kids, why doesn’t anybody ever think about the kids!

Easy, people. Easy.

With all the hoopla surrounding the onslaught of the National Football League's Opening Weekend as well as a couple huge college football games, the San Francisco Giants' weekend series with the Los Angeles Dodgers flew almost completely off the radar.

In truth, I don't really have a beef with that—the return of such monsters as well as the renewal of storied college rivalries merit every drop of ink they got.

It's hard to believe that it's already mid-September.

School has started, college and pro football games have begun, and before you know it, the trees will be leaf-less and it will be time to carve some turkey.

While much of the sports coverage begins to shift this time of year to the beginning of football season, there is still plenty of great baseball left during this final month to satisfy even the most die-hard baseball fan. Unless, of course, you're a fan of the New York Mets.

According to a recent article on MLBTradeRumors.com (seen here), the Red Sox had offered six of their best young pitchers (Justin Masterson, Felix Doubront, Nick Hagadone, Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard, and Michael Bowden) to the Toronto Blue Jays for their ace, Roy Halladay, before the trade deadline of July 31.

This deal seems incredibly un-Theo Epstein-like. Since arriving in Boston in 2003, Epstein has repeatedly preached prospect development.