Opinion

Last night, an "organizational decision" was made to pull Yuniesky Betancourt from the game in Tacoma.

In other words, the move wasn't injury-related, meaning Yuni had been traded but the M's couldn't say that officially yet. The move that seemed imminent last night was finally announced. Now, officially, Yuni is going to the Kansas City Royals for pitching prospects Dan Cortes and Derrick Saito.

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The Cubs have been very disappointing in the first half of the season. They start today 41-41, when in reality, they should be six or seven games above .500.

Luckily, they are not too far away from that. Any day now, they could go on a six game winning streak and be right back in the thick of things.

There are a numerous things that the Cubs need to do to win consistently over the next 80 games. If the Cubs can achieve at least the majority of them, they should find themselves a top the National League Central for the third straight year.

Brooks Conrad is no prospect. Not even close.

He is not a prized piece of the Atlanta Braves' future, such as Tommy Hanson, Jason Heyward, and Freddie Freeman. 
 
Conrad is a nearly 30-year-old, career minor leaguer. His only major league experience came last year with Oakland. He had 16 at-bats and struck out in nine of them. 
 
But Conrad is much different this year.

The Toronto Blue Jays released former closer B.J. Ryan prior to Wednesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

As a result, the two-time All Star is now a free agent and can be signed for a prorated portion of the league minimum salary. The Blue Jays are responsible for the roughly $15 million remaining on his contract. The contract—at one time the highest-ever given to a reliever—runs through next season.

The Seattle Mariners and Jack Zduriencik have done a great job acquiring talent like Jason Vargas, Russell Branyan, and several more that haven't reached the majors yet.

Now right now the Mariners have some strong parts, but they have also found a few weak points.

I know some of you won't agree with this trade. Nationals fans and Red Sox fans alike will probably not like this trade. But baseball isn't about making moves that people like—it's about winning. And I believe that this trade will make both the Nationals and Red Sox better.

So imagine—You're in your living room, watching SportsCenter when Scott Van Pelt says something like:

Ken Rosenthal first reported yesterday that the Toronto Blue Jays will listen to offers about their stud ace, Roy Halladay, speculation started to fly around the sports world as if Brett Favre was considering a comeback.

ESPN picked it up and ran with it, Comcast Sportsnet ran with it as well. Just about every source for baseball did as well like they did last season with C.C. Sabathia.

I know it’s July, but some teams are already going “Holliday” shopping. Or perhaps “Halladay” shopping?

That’s because we’re in that month of the season where MLB teams not only face the trade deadline, but are looking at the two of the better players on the market in Matt Holliday and Roy Halladay.