Fan News

While lefty starter Joe Saunders came out strong through eight innings on Friday night at Angel Stadium, Brian Fuentes was not able to slam the door on a 1-0 lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. 

Kansas City's Mike Aviles was able to break through the shutout attempt with an RBI hit, his second hit of the ballgame, forcing the Angels to extend into extra innings where the Halos would fall short 2-1 to the Royals in Game 1 of a holiday weekend in Southern California.

In just a matter of days, things have gone from bad to worse for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Injuries and losses continue to mount, all the while the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets have increased their lead in the NL East.  And, division aside, the Phillies currently sit fifth in the Wild Card standings.

After a brief revival from the offense, it has seemingly gone back in the tank. Heck, pitchers must be starting to feel like they need to hurl a perfect game to win—although that almost didn't work for Roy Halladay.

It was just a matter of when Jim Thome would tie, and then surpass Harmon Killebrew for 10th place on the all-time home run list—not if.

With two outs in the bottom the second, on hot and humid Saturday afternoon in Minneapolis, Thome drove a 1-0 fastball off of Tampa Bay Rays' pitcher Wade Davis 345 feet to left field for his 573rd home run in his 20-year career.

Both the calendar page and the greeting card companies dictate that the one day per year we are allowed to "honor thy father" (at least in this country) is the third Sunday of June. Since 1910, children around the globe have annually taken a mere 24 hours out of their busy lives to "celebrate fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society" by dousing Dads with a collection of humorous cards and never to be worn ties.

If nothing else, Father's Day acts to provide a fitting and opposite book end to the prior month's holiday, Mother's Day.

With the Milwaukee Brewers starting to turn things around over the past few weeks,their recent performance brings up an interesting question: Will the Brewers be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline?

The worst part about their turnaround is the fact that they are still nine and a half games back of the first place Cincinnati Reds and nine games back of the wild-card leading-Mets.

Unless the Reds or Mets have a two-week collapse, it looks like the Brewers will almost certainly be sellers at the trade deadline.

Buster Olney tweeted on Saturday morning that Seattle continues to look for "big bat potential" in exchange for Cliff Lee.

He listed two potentially available prospects who fit the bill: Cincinnati's Yonder Alonso and Texas' Justin Smoak. 

The Mariners have made it known that they are seeking bats in return for the top-tier southpaw. They have been linked to several top catching prospects, including Minnesota's Wilson Ramos and the New York Yankees' Jesus Montero.

Finally, New York fans get to see Stephen Strasburg. I have been waiting a while to see him face the Mets MAJOR league team. I actually saw his last minor league start against the Buffalo Bisons. He was pitching with the Syracuse Chiefs and went five innings, allowing three hits, no runs, one walk, and five strikeouts. Three words. He looked awesome.

The bad news—the Los Angeles Dodgers are expected to place left fielder Manny Ramirez on the 15-day disabled list sometime before the start of Saturday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

By Sunday evening, the Chicago Cubs will have a new outfielder, Chris Heisey, and the Cincinnati Reds will have a new relief pitcher, Carlos Marmol.

You heard it here first.  

Sources are saying that, "Walt Jocketty and Jim Hendry are in serious discussions over a trade involving Chris Heisey and Carlos Marmol."

The intra-divisional deal is sure to raise more than a few eyebrows.  Teams almost never within their own division—especially when it comes to young talent.

Angel fans have been spoiled. From 1996 to 2008 it was just about automatic, the game was over in the 9th inning. Between Troy Percival and Francisco Rodriguez , Angel fans saw the two relievers combine for an amazing 524 saves. Rodriguez lead the league in saves three times including a Major league record 62 in his final season with the club in 2008.