Opinion

After a dropped foul ball and a questionable non-strike call helped the Cardinals snap San Francisco's three-game winning streak, the month of July didn't start off the way the men in orange and black would have preferred.

However, the 2009 Giants still lead the Wild Card race coming into the second of July. Currently, San Francisco is still 1.5 games ahead of both the Cardinals and those pesky Colorado Rockies who have seemingly rose from the dead.

With the first half of baseball quickly coming to a close, the Oakland A's are sitting 9.5 games out of first due to their anemic offensive attack. A's General Manager, Billy Beane, signed Jason Giambi, a former MVP, Orlando Cabrera, Nomar Garciaparra and traded for the NL Silver Slugger, Matt Holliday last offseason. The signings were believed to turn Oakland into a darkhorse contender.

Those signings haven't changed a thing. The A's are still dead last in batting average, on-base percentage as well as slugging percentage.

No player has been more valuable to his team this year than Torii Hunter.

Hunter has always been a great player and a great leader; these are facts. This season, however, he has taken his game to the next level when his team desperately needed it.

Tim Wakefield has been a fixture with the Red Sox for so long, his presence with the pitching staff has been a given year-in and year-out. After two seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992 and '93, Wakefield left for greener pastures.

Ironically, after guys like Wakefield, but especially Barry Bonds, left Pittsburgh, the team has had a losing record every year, and this year the Pirates are still in search of that elusive winning season.

The Tampa Bay Rays have been surging through the AL East standings of late, winners of eight of their last 10 and went 19-7 in the month of June. Now the question remains are they peaking to early or playing up to their potential? And if they are peaking too early how do they become better.

Analysts on ESPN, Fox Sports, and Sports Illustrated believe the Rays do not have enough to compete with Boston and New York, barring a move before the trade deadline. It is suspected both Boston and New York will get better, thus the Rays also need to get better. 

This has nothing to do with Wilson's baseball abilities, which are basically average. But he is stellar in another respect that is often overlooked: citizenship. Pirate greats like Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell weren't just great ball players, they were great human beings as well.

Clemente died at the tragically young age of 39 in a plane crash while personally flying relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Stargell's contributions are a bit less dramatic, but he has been active in local charities since retiring from baseball.

In July of 2005, the Mets signed outfielder Fernando Martinez out of the Dominican Republic for roughly $1.4 million. At the time, the signing was seen as a pivotal move in making the Mets a winning franchise following the acquisitions of Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran.

His locks free-flowing, and his quirky, juxtaposing windup spell out sentences in the book that is the 2009 San Francisco Giants.

Tim Lincecum is just the tasty, page-turning first chapter.

Everything else is falling into place. Everything for a team that was picked to finish, by some, fourth in the deplorable National League West.

They knew the pitching would be there, they knew that, but what they didn't know is that a slew of castoffs and no-namers would come to the helm and contribute on a daily basis to wins, spun by some of the best dealers on the mound.

Now that July is upon us, the baseball world will begin focusing on the impending trade deadline at the end of the month. I think it's safe to say that the Texas Rangers can be lumped into the category of "Buyers".

Currently sitting a half game out of first in the West, the rest of the season is sure to be a battle with the Angels. So what pieces will be added—and which will be lost—to give the Rangers that extra advantage?

In the world we live in, we get a lot of choices to make. What do you prefer: Burger King or McDonald's? iPod’s or Zune’s? Xbox 360, Wii or PS3? Two percent or whole milk?

Ok, I’m kidding about the last one.