Fan News

For Los Angeles Dodgers fans, the realization that their club hasn’t played a meaningful game in the last month of the season remains tough to swallow.

Los Angeles is headed for a sub-.500 record and an offseason of turnover, a 500-foot home run from the last two seasons that saw the Dodgers advance to the National League Championship Series. 

The New York Yankees are sputtering down the stretch and could find themselves as the American League Wild Card team once the playoffs get underway.

A.J. Burnett struggled yet again as the Yankees suffered a 7-5 loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto Monday night.

New York's magic number to clinch a playoff spot is still stuck at one following their fifth loss in six games.

Make no mistake, the reigning World Champions have big problems as the postseason rapidly approaches.

Here's a look at 10 reasons why the Yankees won't make it out of the ALDS.

Last season, the New York Yankees were able to ride through the playoffs with a three-man rotation. This year's staff is not built for that. The Yankees will likely need a regular four-starter rotation when the playoffs begin.

Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey will battle for the final spot in long relief in the Twins' bullpen once the American League playoffs begin next week, according to manager Ron Gardenhire. The team will start Francisco Liriano in Game 1, Carl Pavano in Game 2, and Brian Duensing in Game 3 of their ALDS matchup with either New York or Tampa Bay.

Gardenhire also noted that right-hander Nick Blackburn would get the Game 4 nod if necessary.

The Indians, in a trade involving two former promising prospects, acquired shortstop turned second basemen turned outfielder Preston Mattingly from the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for outfielder Roman Pena. 

Before last night's poor performance against the Red Sox, Kenny Williams assured fans that the White Sox would not be "rebuilding" next season.

"In our minds, it's still with the mindset of trying to win. Once you start using the R word, you create a different kind of mindset. I think a part of what we've done here is making sure our players understand that whatever the composition of the team is, it's designed to win."

This is simultaneously one of the things I love about Williams and one of the things I loathe.

I am the George Steinbrenner Plaque.

I am 760 pounds of solid bronze living in my new digs in Monument Park.  I’m seven feet wide, wider than CC Sabathia is tall. And I’m five feet tall, taller than CC Sabathia is wide.

New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi won a World Series last season and also was voted Manager of the Year in 2006 with the Florida Marlins.

The Chicago Cubs currently have an interim manager, Mike Quade, after Lou Piniella left the team in August to take care of his ailing mother. Quade has led the Cubbies to a 20-11 record in his short time as skipper.

They are known as the Cubbies or Baby Cubs because they are using all their young players. These kids are producing at a high level and much of the credit is going to the interim manager.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have compiled a 100-plus game loss record in 2010 that is unenviable even by recent standards. Yet this represents a mix of the truly awful and semi-respectable.

There are now signs of hope for their play in some divisions, particularly their home in the National League Central, which is arguably the weakest division in the majors.

The Pirates have "arrived" against the Chicago Cubs with a 10-5 season result, as good as can be reasonably hoped for.

When the player's strike of 1994-95 ended, Major League Baseball began its 120th season of play. In the first 119 years, 50 home runs was a nearly unreachable plateau, reserved for the game's true elite: It had been done only 18 times, by 11 players. Cecil Fielder had last reached the lofty mark, in 1990. Before him, no player had smashed 50 since George Foster in 1977.