Opinion

I don’t care how comfortable Alfonso Soriano is in the leadoff spot—he has to be moved.

Soriano is a very dangerous leadoff hitter, but only when he makes contact with the ball, which nowadays is not very often. The Cubs' leadoff hitter needs to have a batting average near .291, which is Soriano’s current on-base percentage.

The All-Star break is still three weeks away, yet it’s already been a long season in Oakland. Home games have been remarkably lifeless, and the team can’t even sell out their annual home series with the Giants.

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If you asked a baseball fan last year who the best player in the game was, you would most likely get a wide array of answers.

Manny Rameriez, Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera, Dustin Pedroia, Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, and countless more names that rank atop any stat sheet. All of them are worthy players with extreme talents.

However, a lot can happen in the course of one year.

NOTE: Team records and stats updated thru Sunday morning, June 21

1. Boston Red Sox (41-27)

The Red Sox are the only top-five team that has won at least seven of their last 10 games.

Jason Bay is third in the Majors with 66 RBIs, only behind Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.

Jacoby Ellsbury has stolen 29 bases (eight behind Carl Crawford for the ML lead.)

2. Los Angeles Dodgers (45-24)

This weekend I attended my first Dodgers and Angels game. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Anaheim, and the stadium was sold out.

Before this series started last week, I read an article about how Dodger fans couldn't care less about the Freeway Series. At the same time, I also thought it really wasn't a big deal to Angel fans either. The teams have never been in a postseason battle, and there really wasn't much of a rivalry.

But after leaving the stadium, I can, without a doubt, say that Dodger fans and Angel fans both care about the Freeway Series.

We're at the half-way point of the 2009 Major League Baseball season, and with all the statistics and numbers that baseball keeps, it's not too hard to point out how the Sox are at where they are...on top of the American Leauge!

This is my Red Sox mid-season report, and as the title says... it's all in the numbers!

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The MLBPA is now the strongest union in sports. Headed by Don Fehr, the union came, saw, and conquered the collective bargaining world. The players couldn't have asked for a better negotiator.

Don Fehr decided to step down as head of the MLBPA on Monday.

Under Fehr's leadership the contracts of baseball players have become more and more beneficial to the players, at a cost to everyone else.

We keep hearing that many teams simply will not have the budget to take on the salary of some of the players that non-contending teams will want to move at MLB's trade deadline.

Yet, I'm sure that there will be some opportunistic ball clubs that take advantage of this year's lack of competition.

There may be some bargains to be had, especially if many teams stick to filling gaps from within.

Look, it's the law of supply and demand at work. If I have a player and there are multiple teams interested, it will surely drive up the price.