Fan News

The Pittsburgh Pirates will not have a winning record this season.

And water is still wet. The sun still rises from the east. Telemarketers still call at the dinner hour. Wile E. Coyote still hasn’t caught the Road Runner.

You know how whenever you watch a boxing match, no matter how little-known the fighters are, they always have winning records? This defies logic, because somewhere out there must be a fighter with a record of like 5-45. A tomato can with gloves.

It’s been a while since we’ve updated our first basemen rankings, and there is one major change...Joey Votto. He just continues to rake and now finds himself among the top five in the league.

Will he be able to maintain that mark? There are some concerns, so that’ll be a question for the offseason, but for now, he is looking like a potential first round pick next season.

It’s time to size up the National League MVP race. Or what what I like to call the “Albert Pujols’ to lose” award. This year, Pujols is getting a run for his money by a couple of young studs.

Here is how I see the NL MVP race shaping up…

Best of the Rest

NEW YORK: The Mets have let two straight opportunities get by, losing a series to the Marlins after winning the first game.

Each of the last two days, the Phillies lost and the Mets lost games they could have and should have won easily.

Ironically, the team that tried to help them out are the Houston Astros, whom the Mets begin a series with tonight.

The Astros have had a very bad season, and a dreadful first half. They got off to an 0-8 start and were 17 games under .500 at the All-Star break.

In just about any sport, there are the elite teams that appear regularly in the postseason and then there are the cellar dwellars, the teams that nobody takes seriously and are often never talked about.

Unfortunately, some of the best players in the MLB are on some of the worst teams in baseball.

Let's give these players some recognition and the respect they deserve.

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Manny Ramirez and his 20-year-old bat have been placed on waivers...now what?

According to sources close to the Dodgers, the veteran slugger has been placed on waivers for the Los Angeles Dodgers to work out a trade (if he is claimed, that is). 

If you are unfamiliar with waivers, let's see how it works:

Any player can be put on waivers by his team, and the player does not need to be informed.

As reported earlier, the Dodgers placed five players on waivers before finishing a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday. However, the moves on the roster should not be taken as an act of desperation to possibly make the playoffs this season.

Plain and simple, the Phillies play to the level of their competition. If they're playing a good team, they're going to pick their game up and come up with the plays they need when they need them in order to win.

We saw the best example of that right before the All-Star break in their four-game series with the Cincinnati Reds.

NEW YORK-- Once again the Mets had an opportunity to gain ground in the playoff race, and once again they lost a winnable game at home to the Marlins.

The Mets had one of the best rookie pitchers in baseball on the mound tonight, and the Mets were cruising both offensively and on the mound through the first three innings. 

After the first three innings of the game, the Mets had four runs and seven hits, and the Marlins had no hits.

Major League Baseball wasn't necessarily meant to be enjoyed with one finger extended in an attempt to find a target for today's round of criticism.

Oh, the 2010 San Francisco Giants have made it easy for fans who want to affix blame, find solutions to every potential problem, and moan about what will go wrong next from Opening Day through the dog days of summer.