Baseball Pro Online

Coming in to the 2008 Major League Season, the Rays were the underdogs of the AL East.

Now the Rays are the team to beat.

While winning their last 4 games, the Rays are 65-44 and 42-16 at home.

The Rays have put a huge dent in the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry while polishing a new Red Sox and Rays rivalry.

They are top 5 in the majors in starting and bullpen ERA.

They lead the Red Sox by 3 games in the AL East.

The Rays are dominating baseball and have taken over the AL East. I don’t think anymore has to be proven to say that the Rays are for real.

Approaching the end of the trade deadline, the AL west leading Angels were looking for a big bat to give their lineup some ‘pop’

Well they certently accomplished just that when they picked up Braves first baseman Mark Texiera for Angels first baseman Casey Kotchman and pitching prospect Stephen Marek.

At 28 Texiera brings over five years of major league experience and power to an Angels lineup.

Without even playing a game, Texiera is the Angels leading home run hitter and RBI producer.

There is, though an obvious reason that the Angels made this trade. The Angels did not go out and get Mark Texiera to help them win their division. the Angels were already going to win their division hands down.

The reason that the Angels went out and got Texiera was to prepare for the postseason, so that they could add another explosive bat to thier lineup next to Vladimire Guerrero.

                               -Tyler Dysart

The Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano has not played in a major league game since he got hit in the hand by a pitch on July 12.

In a game for the Mesa Cubs, Soriano went 0-for-2 with a walk.

After the game Soriano said that he felt no discomfort in his hand and that he hopes to be back in Phoenix for Mondays game against the Diamondbacks.

Despite their loss of Soriano 47 games this season, the Cubs have handled nicely with a 58-40 record.  

Coming into Friday’s play the Rays had dropped 7 straight games and were a half game behind the league leading Boston Red Sox.

But all that seems like ancient history as the Rays have put it all behind them and have won their first two games of the second half.

Tampa Bay opened up in bottom of the sixth with an Evan Longoria grand slam.

With a horrible offensive preformance during their losing streak, the Rays have turned it all around in the start of the second half.

The Rays are now a game and a half ahead of the reigning world series champions, the Boston Red Sox.

                              -Tyler Dysart

A game that looked to be a historic game, the very last All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, turned out to be a historic game and a game that will be remembered for many years to come.

The National League was on top 2-0 for a while until a J.D. Drew 2-run homer to tie it up 2-2.

Then in the Ninth it was 3-3 and neither side could pull through and scare a run for the next six innings.

In the bottom of the 15th the American League loaded the bases, hit a pop fly to the outfield, and Justin Morneu tagged up from third to score the winning run.

Something that was not so fabulouse about this game was how long the game went and haw many pitchers were used despite them pitching on Sunday.

The MLB needs to address this issue about having All-Stars that pitched the previous Sunday and are too tired to pitch and are risking injury.

Many teams who are in contention in their divisions do not want their All-Star aces to pitch just after throwing over 100 pitches on Sunday, as it could ruin their season if they were injured.

Bottom line, there needs to be something dome to fix this problem.

                              -Tyler Dysart