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SAN FRANCISCO: Since the All-Star break, or maybe even before that, the Mets have suffered from a team-wide slump.

Every team goes through them. Just ask the Phillies, who went through something similar from late May through early June.

The Mets even swept the Phillies at Citi Field in May, shutting them out in all three games.

The Mets came within three innings of being shut out three straight games to the same opponent for the first time in their history.

Saturday night in Cincinnati was not unfamiliar to the Rockies.

Please check out my website, TheSportingRave.com. More celebrity/pop culture stories to discover.

Alex Rodriguez has been romantically linked to the likes of Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz, and now the roidhead Yankees slugger will attempt to move into the movie genre himself.

The Mets lost their third straight game to the Giants tonight, 8-4 in a game that wasn’t as much as a pitcher's duel compared to the last two games.

Starting off, Hisanori Takahashi was just awful; he gave up six runs over a mere two and two thirds, five of those runs in the second inning.

Something was missing from the All-Star break this past week.

It wasn’t a lack of home runs. David Ortiz and others provided plenty of those in one of the more intriguing Home Run Derbys to date.

It wasn’t a lack of star power. Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, Ubaldo Jiminez, Josh Hamilton and others were all on hand for the National League’s first win in the All-Star game since 1996.

This weekend, the Cincinnati Reds will be inducting three former players to the Reds Hall of Fame—Pedro Borbon, Chris Sabo, and Tony Mullane. I am familiar with both Borbon and Sabo, and enjoyed watching them play.

For this slideshow, I'm going to try and take the meaning of MVP (Most Valuable Player) as literally as possible.

Yes, some guys may have better stats that the top ones on this list, but I have ordered my top 10 based on how much the player's team would be hurt if he was taken off of it.

Let's get the discussion started.

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So I looked over some stats and decided people need to be told the whole story. There are a few other contenders for the NL CY Young Award. I originally did not want to analyze them but then I thought why not compare him to other players that people think are better, Halladay after all is the best pitcher in baseball.

So the first one I do is Josh Johnson. Low ERA 1.62. Minuscule ERA, I am amazed he has kept it up as long as he has. He has 128 innings pitched, an outstanding 130 strikeouts with only 28 walks. He has one complete game and no shutouts. So why him?

Part of having success in fantasy baseball is having the right guys on your team at the right time. Some guys like Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera hit anytime, so there is no peak point for them. Then there are guys who are just better for one reason or another at a certain point of the season. Here are six guys who have proven throughout their careers to be better hitters once the second half rolls around.

Pitching wins championships, or at least that is the saying.  If this is the case, then the Yankees better start looking for some more help in that department.

While CC, Pettitte, and Hughes are having great seasons thus far, that can’t be said for the rest of the staff.

When it comes to the bullpen, the only reliable pitcher has been Mr. Reliable himself, Mariano Rivera.  After him the bullpen is a crap shoot.