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The final week of the 2010 regular season has arrived and the Rangers and Twins have already popped the champagne.

The Rangers success can be attributed to finally having solid starting pitching. Nolan Ryan really does make whatever he touches turn into gold.

The Phillies have clinched at least a Wild Card position, while the Yanks and Rays are battling for the AL East crown. The loser gets the Wild Card.

Thinking back to April most experts wouldn't expect the upstart Reds to be one game away from clinching their first playoff birth since 1995.

As the 2010 Major League Baseball regular season begins to wind down, it is time to start to think about candidates for the annual awards.

After years of hitters dominating the league, this season has been all about the resurgence of the pitcher.  That is why this year's NL Cy Young race is filled with a lot of pitchers who have had great individual seasons.

Here are the top five candidates for the 2010 NL Cy Young award.

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Have you ever looked at an actor and thought how much he looked like a baseball player, football player or boxer?

Some bear such striking resemblances to a sports star that it is almost freaky.

I know in the movie Billy Crystal did for HBO called "*61", I was overwhelmed with how much Barry Pepper looked like Roger Maris. It was just incredible.

That got me to thinking about which stars looked quite a bit like which actor.

Take a look with me and see if you agree about the resemblance.

If you hit 30 home runs for a playoff team, everyone in baseball knows who you are.  If you win 20 games for a team that clinched a playoff berth a month ago, there will be no shortage of accolades.

But what if you are an above average hitter and play standout defense for a mediocre team?  What if your pitching is leaps and bounds ahead of your appallingly bad staff?  What if you got off to a slow start but were on fire in the second half?

The baseball season is a lengthy one, and can often be a roller coaster ride for players, coaches, and fan bases alike.

Things can go from good to bad, and bad to worse in the blink of an eye, and there have been a number of huge collapses through the years leading up to the pennant race.

However, for the following 10 teams, their collapses took things to an epic level, as they all but had a playoff appearance in the bag before, for one reason or another, the wheels fell off and the teams spent their October watching from home.

Over the many years of player comparison and analysis, our understanding of what it means to be a great baseball player has continually evolved.

Along with that, we have also formed a better comprehension of the concept of a "bad" player.

There was a time when we would assess shortstops, catchers, and center fielders based merely on their offensive contributions, a practice we now understand to be shockingly limited. If ballplayers are to be judged, they must be judged for all of their contributions, both their hitting and their defense.

"And down the stretch they come."

Those words, made famous by horse racing announcer Dave Johnson, should be playing on  loudspeakers in baseball parks all across the country.

With the regular season coming to an end, there are some divisions still up for grabs, and wild cards still to be determined.

While we wait to see which teams will be playing in this "second season," let's take a look back at the greatest pennant-race performances of all-time.

Every year we wind up hearing about a group of MLB stars that are reaching for the stars, so to speak, when it comes to playing for either a new gig in another town or an extension in their current digs.

This year there are plenty of players out there who are swinging for new deals, and I thought I would highlight a few of them for you today.

Interestingly enough, it will be where these players land and for how much that will inevitably take over the headlines, but for now, it's what they are doing to shop themselves in an otherwise volatile FA market.

Let's begin.

It has been a season to forget for many teams.

While many teams, whether it be from front office mismanagement, injuries, or simply bad player performances, have disappointed in 2010, among them the Red Sox, Mets, Cubs, and Dodgers. Fortunately for these teams, however, it could be worse.

They could be the Orioles, Royals, Mariners, Nationals, Pirates, or Diamondbacks.

For baseball fans, the pinnacle of the six-month grind awaits on the horizon.

With only a few weeks left in the regular season, it’s hard not to let the mind drift to October baseball, playoff drama, and the crowning of a new World Series champion.

Currently, three divisions stand all but settled.

The Minnesota Twins have a six-game lead in the American League Central, the Cincinnati Reds have a seven-game lead in the National League Central, and the Texas Rangers sit eight games up in the A.L. West.

That leaves us with three divisions up for grabs.