Opinion

Rumors have been flying around Nationals sluggers Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn. Most of the rumors have Willingham and Dunn headed to Boston, Kansas City, Atlanta, and the Mets, among others.

This article hopes to break down the reasons why and why not for trading Willingham and Dunn.

The first half of the Major League Baseball season is over. For the first time since becoming a full time player, Alex Rodriguez will not be an all star.

Truth be told, he hasn't played like one either. Not for a long while.

OK, he missed the first month after hip surgery and still has 17 home runs on the season and got his average from a dismal .212 to around .257.

In the series against the Angels this weekend, he did slug three home runs and now has 570 career home runs, putting him 10th on the all-time list.

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Sports fans are entitled to various idiosyncrasies, and mine include disproportionate affection for Brad Radke, Twins pitcher from 1995 through 2006.

“Disproportionate” is the term others would apply; I feel entirely justified in proclaiming Radke among my all-time favorite players.

Now that the Twins have inducted him into their Hall of Fame, here’s my three-point case for Radke.

On Monday, Major League Baseball will embark into its 24th annual State Farm Home Run Derby in St. Louis.  With the contestants already announced, the fans will anxiously await to see if anybody can repeat Josh Hamilton's incredible feat of 28 jacks in a single round. 

All will be on their seats as hometown favorite Albert Pujols, a man who has a legit shot at breaking Barry Bonds' 762 career home runs, will set the standards.

There are going to be a lot of Mets fans that are not going to be too happy with me after they finish this article.

In fact, I'd venture to say that there will be a few who will refuse to finish it because they will say I'm not a true fan, I am being too negative, and that I am giving up the remainder of the 2009 season.

All of the above may be so, but since this is definitely an opinion piece, if you don't mind, allow me to fire away.

When I woke up this morning and saw that the Cincinnati Reds' had recalled Adam Rosales to fill the vacant roster spot, courtesy of Jay Bruce's broken wrist, the second word I thought was "trade".  The first word is not printable.

This Thursday, my "Spidey Sense" tells me that we will have traded Edwin Encarnacion and possibly a highly touted outfielder (either Drew Stubbs or Chris Heisey) to the Blue Jays for Scott Rolen.

Major League Baseball announced Sunday that Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia has withdrawn from Tuesday's All-Star Game to be with his wife, who is in the hospital.

This gave American League manager Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays the opportunity to right an egregious wrong.

Maddon was given a free pass to add Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler to the All-Star Game.

In fact, adding Kinsler seemed liked the most logical option as well. Replace a second baseman with a second baseman, it just makes good sense.

The White Sox head into the All-Star break at 45-43, 3.5 games back of the division-leading Tigers, and you know what? For where this team was earlier in the year, that's really not bad. Until this weekend's predictable series at the Metrodome, the White Sox had not lost a series since June 8-11 against Detroit.

On balance, the Yankees had a successful first half.

They hit a bunch of home runs, had some nice comeback wins, received extended stretches of quality pitching, and managed to overcome injuries to key players. Because of that, they are comfortably above .500 heading into the All-Star break.

But things aren't exactly as they seem.

As the Cubs finish the first half of the season (figuratively) with a Sunday double header against the Cardinals, it's time for fans to pause, take a deep breath and look forward.

Part of that pause is looking at where the team has been, though. Though the Cubs have played more than half of their games, the All Star Break is the time to evaluate the team, the division, and the season.

How have the veterans done so far? What kids have contributed? What options are there for changes?