Fan News

James Shields takes the mound for the Tampa Bay Rays today with his team already down 1-0 in their American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers.

Cliff Lee opened up the ALDS yesterday for the Texas Rangers in Tampa Bay as they faced off the Rays in Game 1. Lee was matched up against Tampa’s ace, David Price. It was set to be an epic pitching duel, but Lee completely dominated leading the Rangers to a 5-1 victory.

Baseball traditionalists never cede the high ground. From the supremacy of Babe Ruth to the joy of day baseball, there are many who just refuse to acknowledge the times when the modern game evolves far beyond the reaches of "Baseball's Golden Age."

Such entrenchment is nearly always myopic, and nowhere more so than in the recent insistence that Don Larsen, who threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series, performed a greater feat than Roy Halladay, who threw the second-ever no-hitter in playoff history Wednesday.

I've been pretty hard on Mark Teixeira this year.

This can happen when a star slugger of your favorite team also happens to be the No. 1 pick in your big-money fantasy baseball league. It's kind of like doubling down in black jack—payoff is double the pleasure, but losing hurts twice as bad as winning feels good.

With the fantasy baseball season coming to a close, this is the most ideal time to get an early jump on your research for next year.  Many leagues are won and lost by the decisions made months before the draft takes place.  Take a look at these guys listed below and have them on your fantasy baseball draft boards entering 2011.

American League

The easy and simple call in the AL is to say that the New York Yankees are going to take the pennant in the AL, but if you would like to hear some crazy scenarios that I think might take place, please read on...

So, the Yankees will lose tonight against Pavano in a must-win for the Twins.  Then what happens? 

Many of us remember the game-winning, walk-off home run that Mark Teixeira launched in Game 2 of the 2009 ALDS against the Twins.

Many more of us are having trouble forgetting the rest of the 2009 playoffs, where Teixeira was practically a no-show. He had just a .180 batting average with a .593 OPS last postseason. He capped it off with a pathetic .136 hitting performance in the World Series that left many Yankee fans thankful for Alex Rodriguez and the clutch performances of Hideki Matsui.

I hope you are sitting down when you read this because it might shock you: The Cardinals picked up their option for Albert Pujols.

The fact that this "no-brainer of the century" transaction even made the headlines on ESPN.com made me laugh. After all, what are they going to tell us next, that we're in an economic downturn? 

In order for a team to be successful in the playoffs, it is imperative that it has at least one dominant starting pitcher.

Each year, the winner of the World Series features one, if not a few starting pitchers who are capable of tossing eight innings of shutout ball on any given night.

Halladay did one better last night.

With his electrifying performance in Game 1 of the National League Division Series came visions of postseason dominance gone by. Here are the five greatest postseason pitching performances of all time.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Eric Hinske is a career .254 hitter who never batted .280, never slugged 25 home runs, never scored 100 runs, and never drove in 85 runs.

Making matters worse, all of his career highs in those categories came in his rookie season, possibly showing he peaked too early.

Stats aside, he couldn’t be more valuable to teams hoping to contend.