Fan News

Earlier this season, many writers and fans, including myself, were wondering if Mike Pelfrey was an ace after his strong start to the year.

The question was certainty warranted as Pelfrey had gone 10-2 with one save after his first 15 starts. Pelfrey had posted a 2.71 ERA, a 1.85 K/BB rate, and held hitters to a .246 average over that period.

Since then, Pelfrey has done nothing but struggle. In his last seven starts, Pelfrey is 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA. Pelfrey has an ugly 0.88 K/BB rate and has had hitters bat .437 against him over that span.

For just about two weeks I read an article every day about how people didn’t care about Alex Rodriguez's quest for 600 home runs because he was a cheater (except, of course, the newspapers cared enough to remind me every day).

On Wednesday afternoon against the New York Yankees, starting catcher John Buck injured his thumb and was placed on the disabled list after the game. There's no definite timetable for his return, but he won't be back until Aug. 19 at the earliest. Injuries are never anything to get excited about, but sometimes the player movement that stems from one can cause some excitement.

Most fantasy owners were expecting Elvis Andrus to erupt in 2010, entrenching himself as one of the elite shortstops in the game. For a longtime it looked like that would be the case, hitting .300 up until June 12. Things have taken a turn since then.

The Baseball Writer's Association of America has long irked sporting fans from coast to coast by basing their decisions on trivial aspects of the game (grittiness, hustle, and clutch being a few personal favorites) that really shouldn't factor into MVP discussions.

With catcher John Buck on the 15-day DL, it was the perfect opportunity for the Blue Jays to call up their stud in waiting, J.P. Arencibia . Let's take a quick look at why Blue Jays fans and fantasy owners are getting excited...

AAA Line - .306, 30 HR, 77 RBI    

Billy Beane is notorious for deadline deals. He has a quick trigger finger and seems to always be shuffling players in and out of the Oakland clubhouse. However, the 2010 trade deadline was different, as Beane and the Athletics just sat back and watched from a distance.

Is 600 a big deal?

That was the question posed by ESPN's morning edition of SportsCenter the day following Alex Rodriguez's historic home run.  Performance enhancing drugs or not, 600 home runs by one individual player most certainly is a big deal. 

Of the thousands of players to play the game, Alex Rodriguez is only the seventh player to accumulate that many home runs.  That's a smaller percentage of players than have recorded 3,000 hits, won triple crowns, or pitched perfect games.

Alex Rodriguez hit a home run yesterday.

Baseball managerial practices are organic. They change and shift according to knowledge into the laws of physics, culture, and economics.

In times of yore, a five-man rotation was thought to be useless, Cy Young started 49 games in a single year, and the concept of a closer would have been bizarre.

Getting back to the present, Stephen Strasburg's muscles flared a few weeks ago, and it seems he may be shut down for the year.