Fan News

This has undoubtedly been the year of the pitcher. So far this season, baseball has seen three no-hitters, two perfect games, and five other no-hit bids have been lost in the ninth inning. Baseball has been introduced to fiery young aces such as Stephen Strasburg, Trevor Cahill, and Mat Latos, and now you can add one more to the list.

Today, the Cincinnati Reds are expected to call up left-handed Cuban sensation Aroldis Chapman.

Moneyball is a baseball film starring Brad Pitt and Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, and it's set to open sometime in 2011.

Hoffman will perform as former big league manager Art Howe, and Pitt -- one of the most famous people in the universe -- will be playing Billy Beane, the "mastermind" general manager of the Oakland A's.

If you follow the Mets beat writers on Twitter like I do, you would know that a majority of the conversation tonight was not about how the Mets got knocked around like chumps against the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves. 

No, tonight's trending topic amongst the Mets media was on how 20-year-old Jenrry Mejia was blowing people away in his start in Buffalo tonight.  Mejia, who was in the Mets bullpen for the first few months of the 2010 season, went eight innings of 1-run ball, striking out nine. 

Soon enough, on a playground in a neighborhood called Mannywood, the Manny Being Manny theme will cease, and what was formerly referred to as Dodgertown will earn back its honest name. So now, the Dodgers are finally getting the message, as a disappointing stint in Los Angeles is ending so miserably. For once, the locals are not ignorant or naïve, realizing that he’s a worthless sleaze and a franchise saboteur.

Marcus Thames hit his sixth home run in as many games as the Yankees slugged their way past the Oakland A’s 11-5.

Here are some notes:

After recording three quality starts in row (though he lost each one), Mets' starter Pat Misch was hammered in his three innings of work tonight in Atlanta. He gave up five runs on eight hits, including a massive three-run homer to Braves' rookie phenom Jason Heyward with two outs in the second inning. The Braves won the game 9-3.

We've seen it throughout the years, as teams encounter difficult decisions, when long-serving veterans and fan-favorites enter the inevitable, athletic decline phase of their careers.

No one can escape the clutches of the dreaded father time, when a player's body simply cannot do the same things that it could during the prime of his youth. Maybe it's the eyesight, maybe the legs feel heavier and the footwork slower, the hands a tick behind Major League fastballs.

Fans haven't been hesitant to point to the player or the plan that keeps the San Francisco Giants from soaring to the top of the NL West and well past the field in the wild-card race.

As it turns out, though, most things that fans insisted the Giants do to get things going have been done and things haven't gone very well at all in the last month. The club is on the verge of falling out of the division race and has to keep pace with the Philadelphia Phillies, a tall order, to win the Wild Card.

2010 has blessed Major League Baseball with a memorable rookie class.

Fantasy owners in Dynasty and Keeper leagues were quite familiar with this cast of characters long before they arrived in the show.

In commemoration of their foresight, let's take a gander at the top 10 pitching keepers for 2011.

Check out our Positional Rookie List too!

If the season were to end today, the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, and Philadelphia Phillies would make the playoffs.

Of course, we still have a month left. Most of the above teams will make the playoffs, as end-of-August division leaders almost always do. But there are still plenty of questions revolving around these playoff contenders and a few teams that remain in striking distance heading into September.

What will the future hold for 10 of baseball's playoff contenders? Let's find out.