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Unless Cubs GM Jim Hendry makes some significant moves this off season, the Cubs rotation for next year could be really bad.

In fact, the Cubs top starter looks to be Ryan Dempster, who would be a fourth or fifth starter on any other "contending" club.

Of course, that is assuming the Cubs will be contenders next season, an assumption that is not likely to be realized.

Even in an average rotation, one would have to look long and hard to find a worse number one than Dempster.

The 2010 Major League Baseball season is being recognized in a variety of different ways. 

Most are calling it the "Year of the Pitcher." Pitching is in style again. The 2010 season has not only seen a great deal of refined pitching, but also no-hitters from Ubaldo Jimenez, Dallas Braden, Roy Halladay, Edwin Jackson, and Matt Garza.

Braden and Halladay's efforts were good for perfect games. The revitalization of Major League pitching has thematically been the talk of the season.

There are many arguments as to why a pitcher deserves to win both the Cy Young award and the MVP award, but perhaps the most important issue revolves around what a pitcher brings to a ball club.

What I mean by that is if you had to put a franchise tag on one individual on a baseball team, a majority of the time (if not all the time), that nods goes towards a starting pitcher.

There’s a reason for that, but we'll get to that later.

I woke up with a stiff neck. The problem is that it lasted more than four hours.

For a second, I thought my husband slipped me some Viagra.

Someone definitely slipped the Phillies something. They’ve taken the lead in the wild-card race and won twenty or so of their last bunch of games.

The New York Mets haven't had recent success with young players—until 2010. 

This year promising youngsters are popping up everywhere in the organization.

As much as a roller coaster year it has been, one thing is for sure.  The Mets have some talented prospects on the up rise.  Ike Davis is the cream of the crop along with Jon Niese, but there are many others. 

In the old days, ballplayers were expected to go out there and fight tooth and nail for all nine innings, or however long it took to beat the opposing team to dust. Come hell or high water, you got your hind parts out there and played.

But no longer. Even without injuries, nobody ever plays every inning of every game any more.

As the baseball world slowly starts to enter September, one must think of the 2011 free agency.

Huge names enter this year's offseason including Cliff Lee, Adam Dunn, Paul Konerko, Derek Jeter (we all know where's he's going), and All-Star Outfielder, Carl Crawford.

Carl Crawford can make any team better, literally. He has so much talent that he currently is the best "five-tool" player in baseball.

We all know the Yankees will sign one big name superstar. But I hope it's NOT Carl Crawford.

Oh, Roger.

Love him or hate him, the news that Roger Clemens is being (it is hard to even type it out) indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements to Congress about his use of performance-enhancing drugs is down-right depressing.

There was a time when the baseball viewing public was being forced to ask themselves:

"Could Roger Clemens be ready to surpass Walter Johnson as the greatest pitcher of all time?"

Former pitching great Roger Clemens has been indicted by a grand jury for lying under oath and not admitting that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

But Clemens, if guilty, would certainly not be the only baseball player to present false truths to the public. The fact that it was done while under oath during grand jury testimony is what makes it so reprehensible and a potential crime, but still, that doesn't make the other nine of these lies any less damaging.

In baseball, the art of being able to recognize and take pitches out of the zone is key to success. Although hitting statistics like home runs and batting average are glorified, walks greatly contribute to wins.

Here are the five least disciplined hitters, based on their O-Swing % (the amount of pitches out of the zone at which they swing). For some players, however, this strategy yields success (i.e. Vladimir Guerrerro)

Here's the Five Most Disciplined Hitters