Opinion

In this great game of baseball we have nearly every imaginable stat at the tip of our finger so we can best determine a player’s worth. However, there are certain intangibles you could never measure statistically that go a long way from separating the mediocre players from the great.

Heart. Passion. Intensity.

I'll come right out and say I was mentally drained until about two minutes before writing this.

When I'm mentally drained, I tend not to be able to put together a coherent thought. My one idea is to sit around and just stare at the television or the wall.

Sometimes I'll randomly click on links in my bookmarks toolbar, hoping to see something that will cure my mental drain.

Or my boredom.

Loyalty has to take a backseat to winning.

The Braves are one of the more storied franchises in all of baseball. Certainly, it is nice to see a guy like Chipper Jones set himself up to play his whole career as a Brave.

I'd like to have seen it for Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine, too.

The fact is that the Braves have the talent to be a World Series-caliber team.

They probably sport the best bench in all of baseball, in fact:

Amongst several other allegations regarding Alex Rodriguez, it has been reported that Alex has tipped pitches to opposing hitters. It was part of “slump busting,” to boost stats during times when Alex or other hitters were slumping.

Allegedly, it was always done late when the games were basically already decided and was done for the benefit of other middle infielders, who Alex thought would “return the favor” when he was going through a slump.

The Phillies have many broadcasters, be it TV or radio. The famous Harry Kalas is the first name to come to mind, but there are many other key voices that make watching and listening to the Phillies a huge success. There's the dynamic radio duo of Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen and there's the TV trio of Tom McCarthy, Chris Wheeler, and Gary Matthews. And there was Harry Kalas. One of the greatest voices in all of baseball.

Billy Beane needs to take responsibility for his putrid hiring of Bob Geren he should say "I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for the hire and now I'm going to fix the problem."

What this really means is that Beane should be firing manager Geren as soon as the A's return home on Monday. Geren could go down as the worst manager in Oakland history.

I wrote an article on Saturday http://bleacherreport.com/articles/166673-come-to-think-of-it-put-derrek-lee-on-the-disabled-list suggesting the Cubs should have put Derrek Lee on the disabled list.

Well, boy, am I happy they didn't listen to me (not that they read B/R).

Evidence – The Game is Suffering

When you hear the word "baseball", what do you think of?

Do you think about the Mitchell Report?

How about the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry?

What about a walk-off grand slam?

Chances are, very few people think about their favorite pitcher from the Savannah Sand Gnats, their hero from the Toledo Mud Hens, or the thrill of watching the Triple A All-Star Game up close and in person.