Fan News

Twelve is the magic number the Reds have at the moment to garner the National League Central Division title, and with it their first playoff berth in—guh—15 years! And, with a 7-game lead on the St. Louis Cardinals, the Reds are in a good place..

Yankee fans were unhappy—to say the least—on Monday night, when the Yankees surrendered first place to the Rays for the first time since August 3. Tuesday night, the Yankees got first place back, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Amidst all that anger came an interesting thought: what if, by some chance, the Yankees didn’t win the division?

With only 15 games left in the season for the Atlanta Braves, things are beginning to turn south.  Since the Philadelphia Phillies stole the lead in the NL East on September 12^th, the Braves have fallen 2.5 games behind. 

In order to provide themselves with more bullpen depth, the Yankees have recalled LHP Royce Ring from the minor leagues.

Although the Houston Astros have spent a majority of the 2010 season in the cellar of the National League Central, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the team’s future.

Today, we’re going to look at 15 solid reasons to get pumped up about next year’s Astros squad.

Let’s begin by taking a look at five honorable mention candidates before quickly narrowing down to the top 10 players on Houston’s young and talented depth chart with the highest probability of becoming future MLB stars.

Here is today's Holy Crap discovery. It has to do with the roller coaster season Andre Ethier has had.

But let's not start in 2010. Let's go back to 2008.

Back in 2008, you'll recall, Manny Ramirez made kind of an ass out of himself (which is like saying back in the summer of 2003 Kobe Bryant had some trouble in Colorado), and got himself run out of Boston. The Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Manny, he had an unbelievable two months with L.A., and the Dodgers went to the NLCS.

Via MLB.com:

"Having previous big league managing experience will be a plus for those under consideration to manage the Marlins in 2011.

"Meeting the criteria is Tony Pena.

"Currently the Yankees bench coach, Pena spent parts of four seasons (2002-05) managing the Royals. In 2003, he was named the American League Manager of the Year.

So, who is still ready to throw Barry Zito into the nearest dumpster? Anybody?

Zito threw 5.2 innings and gave up one hit and no earned runs. He picked up loss No. 13.

He is 8-13 with a 4.02 ERA.

Now I realize when he is bad, he’s really bad. Zito has allowed four or more earned runs in nine of his 30 starts. In those nine starts, he has allowed 46 runs in 44.1 innings.

Zito is 0-6 in those starts. The Giants are 3-6 in those starts.

Jorge Posada had become something of a forgotten man around the Yankee Universe this season.

He's always stayed in the shadows of New York's starry landscape when you think about it, which is pretty amazing when you realize he's one of the greatest offensive catchers to ever play the game.

All indications are that Omar Minaya will not be running the show next year. So, under hopes that he won't be, the obvious question then becomes, who should replace him?

Here is the run-down of a potential candidate, Jon Daniels.


Who is he?