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At the beginning of the month Curtis Granderson was in the middle of one of the worst slumps of his career. Over the span of 11 games from July 30th through August 11th, Granderson was three-for-29 (.103 BA) with just one extra base hit.

At that point, Granderson went to Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long and, figuring things couldn’t get much worse, asked for his help. So K-Long and G-Unit went to work on his swing.

Rookie Mike Leake has been relegated to the bullpen effective immediately.

Leake came straight to the Reds from Arizona State University without stepping foot in a minor league dugout. He has been a pleasant surprise all year to a rotation that looks nothing like it did to start the season.

Much as been chronicled about innings pitched for the young right-hander. Obviously, baseball seasons at the college level are not nearly as long as in MLB.

The Little World Series officially begins on Friday with teams from all over the globe seeking Little League glory. Sixteen teams will descend on the hallowed ground of Little League baseball in Williamsport, Pennsylvania with the goal of hoisting the championship banner.

Many baseball experts discuss the pitcher who has been unlucky, who just cannot seem to win no matter how well he pitches. Roy Oswalt is the main example being used this season, and his 8-13, 3.36 ERA season is indicative of a player whose win-loss record should be flipped.

Yogi vs Casey Quote War: Top That     

In an effort to protect the arm of Phil Hughes, who has never gone beyond 146 innings in any one season in his career, the Yankees are limiting him to about 175 innings this year. Many believed this meant that the Yankees would move him to the bullpen in October, as a way of keeping that innings total down. It turns out that isn’t the case.

In a recent CNNSI.com column, Tom Verducci posits that Josh Hamilton is now the best player in baseball. The premise for this supposition is laid out nicely in the following passage from Verducci's column:

Since the days of Walter Johnson, the fastball has been a pitch that, when mastered, can blow hitters away.

Many pitchers enjoy looking at the radar gun on their fastball, but here are the ones that really come in at high velocity.

These are the top 10 flamethrowers of 2010 so far ...

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At the beginning of August, the Giants trailed the Padres by one game and led the Wild Card race.

They came off a month where they won 20 of their 28 games. They led the majors in runs scored.

But since then they are 7-8 and have fallen to five games back in the division. Now they are on the outside looking in on the playoff picture.

What happened? Three things.

Power outage:

Game after game, we see a hitter's numbers versus the pitcher on the mound pop up on the television screen, and we usually dismiss it.

Of course, each batter varies from pitcher to pitcher.

Even the best have a few pitchers they simply can't hit.

For Joe Mauer, however, it seems as though anytime those stats pop up, he's hitting, at the very least, .330 against the pitcher on the mound, no matter who it is, no matter which arm they throw with, and no matter how many at-bats he has against them.