Fan News

Even after an early Mark Teixeira home run (23), Ricky Romero and the Toronto Blue Jays were too much for the New York Yankees.

As of today, the Yankees have lost three consecutive games, four of their last five.  But yesterday, they lost something more.

The division lead.

With an 8-2 Yankee loss to the Blue Jays, and a Tampa bay 6-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins, the Rays have taken the division lead from the Yankees, a spot the Yankees have held since June 12.

It's August 4th and the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball. After easily defeating the Yankees last night, the Rays sit alone atop the American League East.

The Rays MVP to date? That would be Carl Crawford. The 29 year old outfielder is having a career year, hitting .309, with a career best .855 OPS and 38 stolen bases. Crawford is also one of the best defensive outfielders in all of baseball. So far this season, he's saved his team nearly 20 runs on defense alone.

The face of the Tampa Bay franchise over the past decade is also the teams biggest problem going forward.

The Oakland A's did nothing at the trade deadline and by doing this general manager pretty much said "screw you" to Oakland A's fans. This year will be another wasted season for the A's. 

What's sad is if Beane had gotten some deals together the A's could have made a run at the Texas Rangers even if the Rangers went out and got Cliff Lee, Bengie Molina, Cristian Guzman, and Jorge Cantu. 

Through his first nine career starts, Stephen Strasburg has been nothing short of excellent, posting a 12.4 K/9, 1.067 WHIP, and a 178 ERA+.

In 2002, another rookie pitcher came up and caused quite the sensation. Over his first nine starts (52 IP), he struck out 65, and had a 1.23 WHIP / 3.98 ERA. That pitcher's name was Mark Prior.

Why would Mark Prior's name be significant?

Because he is the first name to pop up for many fans whenever a young starting pitcher has difficulty with injuries.

You would have thought that maybe all the injuries from the Red Sox would finally stop—well, they didn't.

The new victim to the injury bug is Kevin Youkilis. Youkilis came out of the ball game when he shook his right hand in pain after his first at-bat. Youkilis' MRI showed that he had torn his adductor muscle in his right thumb.

The Red Sox will decide on Tuesday whether he needs surgery. It was not told how long Youkilis will be out, but if he does have surgery his season might be in doubt.

While 2010 has been the year of the pitcher, it's also becoming the year of the injury. The Philadelphia Phillies placed slugging giant Ryan Howard on the DL today to the dismay of many fantasy baseball owners.

He joins the ever growing list of injured All-Stars including teammate Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Troy Tulowitzski, Ian Kinsler, Justin Morneau and Jason Bay to name a few (trust me there's plenty more).

Although scans were negative on his ankle, he will still be out for at least two weeks. So who do you pick up to pick up the slack?

It is no secret. Everyone who watches the Rockies consistently knows it. There is no way around it. Aaron Cook is awful.

Dave Cameron, of FanGraphs.com, posted an interesting <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/beltres-market-value/">article</a > this morning projecting the value of Adrian Beltre on the free agent market at 3 years, $45 million.

Will David Ortiz earn a stay in Boston? Will the New York Yankees have enough to hang on to the American League East? Can Ted Lilly save the Dodgers' fanbase from the McCourt divorce?

The 2010 trade deadline came and went Saturday afternoon with a flurry of both major and minor activity.

The Yankees lost their third straight game and with their 8-2 loss tonight they have fallen a game in back of the Tampa Bay Rays and are now in 2nd place in the AL East.