Rankings/List

Team of the Week: Tampa Bay Rays (pictured above)

Bust of the Week: Kansas City Royals

Well, by now, we've started to fall into the routine of summer baseball. A loss, a couple wins, then another loss...

Anyhow, mid-season baseball has begun to settle in, and the back-and-forth patterns have started to show themselves. For example, 24 out of the 30 total teams have a record between 4-6 and 6-4 in their last ten games, and currently the longest win/loss streak is just five.

This slide show will rank the best hitting seasons in Mets history.

Similar to the previous article, which listed the best pitching seasons, a player will only be ranked once.

When you think of the Mets history, pitching is usually the dominated vision.

But the Mets have had their share of outstanding hitting seasons, which is why it was difficult to rank these seasons. I would say that any of the top 5 ranked players can is fitting to be #1.

Now on to the list...

The Rookie of the Year Award was established in 1947. For the first two years, it was given to the best Rookie in the Major Leagues. Then, in 1949 the sportswriters voted for the best rookies in each league.

The sportswriters all write down three names on their ballot. They rank them from first to third. First place players get five points; second place gets three points; and third place receives one point.

In 1987 the award was named the Jackie Robinson Award, though I have rarely heard it called that.

Derek Jeter is a nine-time all-star, a four-time World champion, and a three-time gold glove winner.

Yet with of all his on-the-field accomplishments, his biggest claims to greatness can be found off-the-field.

Derek Jeter has dated a barrage of stunning women since entering the league. He even hit the coveted double-Jessica mark that men would literally kill for.

The Yankees' captain never won an MVP award, but when it comes to the ladies, he is definitely the Most Valuable Playah.

It's finally June, and as of me writing this, the first day of a three-month span when baseball shall rule supreme.

Sure, the NBA Finals are going to kick into gear here in a few days (go Magic by the way) and there are at most five hockey games left. But it's the stage for baseball at this point in time.

The boys of summer are ready to go and before we know it, the All-Star break will be here and oh my, the season will be more than two months old.

With the baseball season already two months in, pitchers are starting to really establish themselves as top candidates for the 2009 NL and AL Cy Young award. Here is the updated list of candidates for this prestigious award:

American League

1. Zach Greinke: Kansas City Royals,  8-1, 0.90 ERA, 88 K's

Although the Royals have recently struggled, Greinke has kept pitching beautifully. He gave up three earned runs today to raise his ERA to 0.90. He is still the top candidate for the Cy Young.

It has been almost a year since the Tampa Bay Rays called on Tim Beckham as their No. 1 pick in the 2008 MLB first year player draft. The top ten picks of last year's draft included some very talented players, but we won't see many of theme in a Major League uniform for several years.

Team (Current Record|Last Week's Ranking)

1. Los Angeles Dodgers (34-17|1)—Did anybody think that Juan Pierre would be such a good fill-in for Manny, leading the team in RBI last week? Matt Kemp has also been hot. The Dodgers lead all of baseball in batting average (.281) and on-base percentage (.370).

They also lead the National League in runs (279), hits (508), and RBI (264). Although Billinglsey struggled last week, the Dodgers still lead the MLB in batting average against (.236) and are second in ERA (3.77).

Wrapping up what has been a very enjoyable series for me to write as a die-hard Cubs fan, I put together my list of top Cubs closers.

I have learned a lot about some Cubs I did not know prior to this, and I hope you have enjoyed this series as much as I have.

If this is your first read of the series, and you are a Cubs fan, I encourage you to read the previous seven of the series.

The Braves have made some boneheaded moves (or non-moves) over the years.

A month and a half into the 2009 season, however, it seems that the Braves serisouly dropped the ball in the offseason.

Here are the Top 5 mistakes, in my opinion, that the Braves have made up to this point in the season.