Instead of recapping what happened last night (The AL won, they now have home field advantage in the World Series, again. End of recap.), I am going to take this opportunity to rant about the absurdness of the game.Well, maybe I'll do a little recapping. First of all, it actually was not a bad   more...
Original Story: http://www.hotstovephilly.com/2008/07/16....

Yesterday, Major League Baseball announced its rosters for the 2008 All-Star Game to be played on July 15 at Yankee Stadium. Now, we take a look at the National League roster, to see who doesn't deserve to go and who got shafted. We don't have quite as many problems with the NL Roster as we did   more...
Original Story: http://www.thesportsmuffin.com/2008/07/2....

Charlie Manuel called out his hitters and their ability to hit in the clutch, and the Phillies responded. Down 5-2 entering the 9th inning, the Phils took advantage of some poor Mets fielding and got timely hits in a 6 run inning that gave them a 3-run lead that they hung onto for an 8-6 victory.   more...
Original Story: http://allthingsphillysports.blogspot.co....

The Mets are poised for a smooth pennant run, but their closer Billy Wagner could make it a bumpy ride.
Original Story: http://www.mrflushing.com/2008/07/wagner....

A lot of kids growing up get excited for the normal made up holidaysa€¦Valentine's Day, Halloween, the last day of school. Mea€¦I always got jazzed up about the day the Hall of Fame announcement was made. Sure, it doesn't have some fancy name or some wing at the Hallmark store dedicated to it, but   more...
Original Story: http://hallofverygood.blogspot.com/2008/....

There is a new look to the Closer Report this week with expanded coverage of bullpen situations around baseball and rankings for the top fantasy closers and middle relievers. This week AccuScore analyst looks at the All-Star relievers, and has a problem with the selection of one player in   more...
Original Story: http://dallas.accuscore.com/articles/mlb....

There's good news and bad news about Billy Wagner.
Original Story: http://newyorkmetsdaily.com/?p=69.

A few New York baseball thoughts while cursing the mythical "sick passenger" on the F train…It was great of Billy Wagner to let us know (via an article by ESPN.com writer Jason Stark) what the root of the New York Mets' problems were earlier this season:"I don't want to bash Willie, because I liked   more...
Original Story: http://www.hotstovenewyork.com/2008/07/1....

Are these New York Mets for real? They reeled off 10 straight wins in the month of July, which began on July 5th and did not end until July 18th. In fact, the Mets are 19-2 since Willie Randolph was shown the door, and Jerry Manuel took over the reigns as manager. The major strength of the Mets   more...
Original Story: http://www.betsportsweb.com.

The All-Star break was last week, but several players are finally getting back to work. Troy Percival and J.J. Putz came off the disabled list over the weekend while other closers are having their own injury issues. And what does the presence of Ray Durham in Milwaukee mean for Rickie Weeks?
Original Story: http://accuscore.com/articles/fantasy-ru....

There are two sides to every coin. On one hand, I leave Johan Santana out there for the 9th inning to work his magic. That's why he's getting the big bucks. On the flip-side, I can see why you don't want to run your "ace" out there and run up his pitch count, especially with Pedro Martinez   more...
Original Story: http://theropolitans.com/2008/07/early-m....

Billy Wagner's been around long enough to know the importance of Wednesday night's game.He knew a€" win or lose a€" the Mets were still mathetically right in the thick of the race for the National League East. But Wagner, a 37-year old veteran, also knew his presence was more important than wins or   more...
Original Story: http://newyorkmetsdaily.com/?p=57.

Tonight was a great win for the N.Y. METS . What happened yesterday is now in the history books . Yep , back in first place . We had our closer and he was Throwing serious HEAT ! LETS GO METS ! Time to start another streak and create a little separation . METS WIN !

After splitting their last two four-game series, the Mets took on the Phillies for yet another four-game matchup over the July 4th weekend. The Mets came into the series with a 4-2 record against the Phils this season but four-and-a-half games behind them in the standings. After losing the one game   more...
Original Story: http://www.hotstovenewyork.com/2008/07/0....

UPDATE!: Lidge singing confimed by MLB.com>According to Rob Ellis of 610 WIP, the Phillies are holding a press conference at 1 this afternoon. Ellis says the press conference is reportedly to announce the signing of closer Brad Lidge to a contract extension.Lidge has earned this extension by   more...
Original Story: http://insidetheiggles.com/?p=695.