Fan News

The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 6-1 in Toronto last night behind a strong performance from their ace CC Sabathia to clinch at least a wild-card spot in the American League.

Here are some highlights:

With their thrilling 4-3 victory over the A's in Oakland on Saturday, the Texas Rangers have finally made their long-awaited return to baseball's promised land, earning their first postseason berth since 1999.

With only four games remaining in the 2010 campaign, venerable manager Bobby Cox is making his last push for the postseason.

We all know that...and knew (or hoped) that this would be the case from the first side-sessions down at the Disney Wild World of Sports Complex in Orlando.

But, the fact that Cox is in his final stretch brandishing a cap with a fancy "A" is starting to feel "real," if you will.

After all, if the Braves manage to lose grasp of their current Wild Card advantage in the season's final series, No. 6 is gone for good.

Dusty Baker said, "We were hoping to celebrate here. It's better to do it at home, in front of the home people."

Jay Bruce tanked the rest of the NL Central with a solo-shot over Great America Ball Park's deep center field wall.  Quite fitting for a team that has rubber stamped this season on last at-bat heroics.

The home run came on the first pitch from tough lefty Tim Byrdek.

Even as the defending champion Yankees finish a season that will see them win well over 90 games and possibly a division title, this team is hardly invincible and cannot even be considered on the same level as last year's juggernaut.

The first and most glaring difference between this team and last is a serious lack of depth in the rotation.

While CC Sabathia has had a Cy Young-quality season, he has been without any support in the rotation for months with no real signs of a turnaround out there.

The Phillies are looking very good.  They just clinched the National League East for the fourth time in a row, and they are going to head into the postseason soon.  Earlier in the season, we probably wouldn't have expected this, but here they are, looking great.

With October coming up and a playoff berth guaranteed for the Phillies, it brings up a big question:  Will this team do as good of a job in the postseason as they have done in the last few years?

The Atlanta Braves are limping towards the finish line and on Tuesday they got some news that’s really not helping their cause.

According to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman, via Twitter, Braves 2B/3B Martin Prado will be done for the season with a hip pointer and torn oblique muscle.

The Mets are currently 76-79. Including tonight's game (in progress), they have seven games remaining: four against the Brewers and three against the Nationals.

If the Mets were in a heated pennant race, they would have lucked out considering their competition over this next week. But since they were eliminated from playoff contention a while ago, I would now like to see if the team can at least manage to finish .500.

So that begs the question: can a .500 finish be considered a success for this team?

Since 1920, 391 Yankees pitchers have had a seasonal ERA of at least 5.30. Of all those pitchers, no pitcher has been allowed to pitch as many innings as A.J. Burnett.

Why? Because Burnett is on a five-year deal, and he is making $16.5 million this season. Essentially, he is here to stay. It is mentally very difficult to waste $16.5 million dollars.