Fan News

Another year, another playoff birth for one of the model franchises in baseball.

With their 6-4 win over the Cleveland Indians, coupled with the Chicago White Sox losing to the Oakland A’s, the Minnesota Twins have clinched the American League Central title and their sixth AL Central title in nine years.

The shortstop position is one that the Mariners have been trying to patch since Alex Rodriguez left Seattle following the 2000 season.

They used Carlos Guillen there in 2001, but his relationship with then-ace Freddy Garcia appeared to be damaging to the pitcher in the eyes of the front office, and he was sent packing to Detroit in 2003.

There has been a lot of news as of late regarding players being shut down for the rest of the season (and others who we aren’t quite sure about). 

Let’s take a look at a few of the names that influence fantasy owners.

Geovany Soto, Chicago Cubs

Shoulder surgery brought his renaissance campaign to a bitter conclusion as he hit .280 with 17 HRs, 53 RBI, and 47 runs on the year.

Winning for the second night against the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees are 2 ½ games ahead in the AL East; in addition to lowering their magic number for playoff spot to three and winning the division to 10.Yankees can thank the Boston Red Sox for helping those numbers falling to the Baltimore Orioles for the second nigh tin a row.

The Yankees jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning on their way to an 8-3 lead over the Tampa Bay Rays as they increased their AL East lead to 2.5 games.

Here are some highlights:

Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez powered a red-hot offense and Roy Halladay gutted it out for seven tough innings as the Phillies defeated the Braves 5-3 before a raucous Citizens Bank Park crowd.

The (what-else?) sellout crowd of rabid towel-waving rowdies saw Halladay notch his 20th victory, as the hometown Phils took a decisive five-game lead over the second-place Braves with just 10 games left to play.

In the winter before the Phillies' 2010 season, most of the talk revolved around Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, but one of the most exciting moves made by Ruben Amaro Jr. this off season was the acquisition of Placido Polanco.

There was a lot going on yesterday with the New York Yankees.

They played the Tampa Bay Rays last night in a battle for first place in the American League East. Before the game, they honored George Steinbrenner with a massive plaque in monument park.

Part of the Steinbrenner celebration was the fact that the Yankees brought back Don Mattingly and Joe Torre to take part in the festivities. There has been a lot of animosity between Torre and the Yankees since Torre left, so this was a big deal.

Eric Byrnes/Miguel Olivo - August 2006 

Don Long/Nate McLouth - April 2008

Todd Helton/Susan Rhodes - April 2008

Miguel Olivo/Brian O' Nora - June 2008

SPORTS IRREVERENCE AND MORE FROM THE OTHER TIP OF THE GOLDBERG

WAR: What’s it good for:  absolutely nothing?

Confession #1:   This was going to be a "power ranking" (Bleacher Report-style) of the AL Cy Young candidates, sparked in part by a discussion I had yesterday with a (fellow featured) columnist; he writes for the Mariners, and I write for the Phillies.  That companion piece of sorts is forthcoming.