Fan News

With the All-Star break concluding yesterday, I thought it would be a good time to look at the best players in baseball through the first three months of the season.

I decided the best way to do this objectively was to use the Wins Above Replacement (WAR) stat that is used on many sites, including the one I used (Fangraphs.com).

WAR is a stat that measures how many wins a player is worth over a replacement level player, or a player that any team can plug into a hole whenever is needed (think a AAA player filling in for an injured player).

This stat is calculated in a complicated way, but it

With the best record in baseball through the 1st half of the season, the defending champion New York Yankees look to be in prime position to make a run at their 2nd World Series Championship in as many years.

On the streets there are rumblings of the return of the, "Dynasty."

Years 1996 - 2000 hold a special place for every Yankee fan. To this day, I can remember the entire starting line up of the '96 Yankees, but I can't do multiplication to save my life.

I am sure many Yankee fans are the same way. To fans like us, baseball is more important than math.

Poor Mat Latos.  Right in the middle of a breakout season in his second year with the Padres, the baseball gods have dealt him a blow with a truly bizarre injury.

Latos landed on the DL Friday with a strained left side. He suffered the injury a week ago after a win over Colorado when he tried to hold in a sneeze while going down the dugout steps.

We sit just two weeks in front of the Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline, which occurs on July 31. Already, we have seen one ace (Cliff Lee) get dealt to a new team, and there are several more arms that could be traded before 4:00 pm on the 31st.

And tonight, all of those pitchers are on the mound for their current teams. Could this be the last starts for their respective clubs? Will these starts act as auditions? Only time will tell.

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These rankings are based on a 300 point system, 150 for offensive production, and 150 for pitching production. 30 points (1 point for each team) are the most points any team can receive in a given category. For instance, if the Rays lead the league in HR's they will get 30 points for that category.

The 5 offensive categories used:

HR's, RBI, Runs, Average, and SB's           

The 5 pitching categories used:

The St. Louis Cardinals know a mid-season drought should only be temporary—injuries, slumps, and the like are issues every ballclub encounters.

Although they boast a strong lineup on paper, the Cardinals are in trouble at the 2010 season midpoint: Two starting pitchers and an All-Star outfielder are injured, and the Redbirds' big bats have yet to live up to their potentials.

An obvious cure for injury and lack of performance is to go to the bench, but sometimes the bench simply cannot get the job done. So, franchises make larger adjustments—they make trades.

Part of being the team with the worst record in all of baseball is that you become a huge seller right before baseball's trade deadline.

As the team who fits that role, it is no surprise that the Orioles have been talked about these past weeks as being potential sellers for teams that are in the playoff race.

In return for these veterans that the Orioles currently own, team management will look for prospects who can possibly help the team in the future.

Andy MacPhail has always said that he won't make trades just to make them, but with several older veterans on a team that has already looke

Currently, Alex Rodriguez has 597 home runs, and he is only three away from his milestone 600th. Upon hitting number 600, A-Rod will join the exclusive club which contains only six members: Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Willy Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., and Sammy Sosa.

600 home runs is a lot of home runs, and for a player to reach that career total clearly is a big deal. Yet, I feel like not very many people at all are mentioning the fact that A-Rod is only three home runs away from 600; as if this isn't newsworthy!

As the San Francisco Giants open up the second half of the 2010 season with a 2-0 victory over the New York Mets on Thursday, the rumors of trading for a big bat still grabbed more attention.

Whether it is more talk about Milwaukee Brewers' outfielder Corey Hart, Kansas City Royals' outfielder Jose Guillen, or even what the minor league signing of pitcher Dontrelle Willis' means to trading for a bat, the buzz about the Giants is centering around improving the offense.