Yankees Pitcher Mike Mussina to retire after 18-year career

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Miracle Teams to make it to the Big Game Part 4

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Are the Tampa Bay Ray's for real?

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June 25th MLB Rankings

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1 Cubs 1 - 1/13 The Cubs bounced back from being swept in Tampa to take their weekend series against the South Siders. There was talk last week of Alfonso Soriano returning earlier than expected from his broken hand. The Cubs have to hope Soriano isn't rushing back just to be a part of the All-Star festivities in New York. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 2 Angels 3 (+1) 2/12 If Ervin Santana keeps this up, he'll pitch his way into the AL Cy Young argument. Santana completely baffled the Phillies last Friday in a park where not many visiting pitchers can say that. The Halos' schedule lightens up a bit this week with sets against two sub-.500 clubs in the Nats and Dodgers. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 3 Red Sox 2 (-1) 1/3 Anything Curt Schilling gave the Sox this season would've just been gravy. So officially losing him for the season doesn't really change things. Taking a series in Philly without a healthy lineup was pretty impressive, but it didn't carry over into the weekend against the Cardinals. Dice-K's back, but he'd better improve off of Saturday's showing. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 4 Rays 4 - 2/24 The Rays are getting downright scary at home. Only Boston and the Cubs have a better home winning percentage. You can bet the Marlins will be looking for a little revenge this week after the Rays swept them at the Trop last weekend. Who knew a Marlins-Rays series could be so interesting? Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 5 Cardinals 5 - 4/20 What a fickle game baseball is. The Cards took their weekend series against the Red Sox, looking very much like a playoff-caliber in the process. But they spent the early part of the week being swept by Kansas City. Albert Pujols is scheduled to return this week in time for a revenge set against the Royals. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 6 Phillies 6 - 5/16 The Phils haven't won a series since taking a set against the Braves in early June. Granted, the competition has been stiff as the Phils have played arguably the toughest June schedule of anybody in the league. It only gets tougher this week with road tests at Oakland and Texas. With no clear No. 2 starter, it's obvious what the Phils need to do at the trade deadline. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 7 Brewers 11 (+4) 6/23 Ryan Braun has driven in a run in all but six games this month. But he hasn't been the catalyst to the Brewers getting over .500. That's been Russell Branyan, who has 10 homers this season. Starting Branyan over Bill Hall may have saved Ned Yost's job. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 8 White Sox 7 (-1) 7/19 The weekend set at Wrigley didn't go according to plan, but it's no fault of Jermaine Dye, who hit five homers last week. Pitching would be a better place to put the blame. Jose Contreras is giving every indication his hot start was an aberration. Perhaps the ChiSox will fare better at home this weekend vs. the Cubs. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 9 Athletics 8 (-1) 7/25 Friday's win over the Marlins was a perfect microcosm of the A's season. Just when you think they're done, they come back ... and it's usually from an unexpected source. It gets tougher this week with the Phillies hitting town before another weekend set against their Bay Area rivals. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 10 Marlins 9 (-1) 6/29 Dan Uggla is getting ridiculous. Raise your hand if you thought he'd cool off three weeks ago? Well, he hasn't. Uggla has quite honestly played his way past Chase Utley, but that doesn't mean he'll start ahead of him at the All-Star game. The Marlins get their chance at revenge this week when the Rays come to Dolphin Stadium. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 11 Yankees 12 (+1) 3/23 Nobody thought the Yanks' winning streak would last forever, but dropping a series at home to the Reds? The Yanks are still within striking distance in the East and the hitting is good enough to make it an interesting summer in the Bronx . But unlike the Red Sox, who seem to just absorb injuries and move on, we don't see the Yanks simply overcoming the loss of Chien-Ming Wang. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 12 Twins 16 (+4) 12/26 The Twins caught the Nats on a rare winning streak and quickly put that fire out with a sweep. They then took a series against Arizona, which isn't hard to do these days. This interleague stuff has worked out pretty well thus far and a set at punchless San Diego this week should continue the trend. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 13 Diamondbacks 10 (-3) 2/13 Eric Byrnes is nearing a return and that has some people grumbling that Justin Upton may be sent down when it happens. Upton's struggles over the last two months have hurt the D-backs. He was hitting .327 entering May and is now in the mid-.240s. But the D-backs have to take the good with the bad while starting such a young roster. Team: Home | Stats | Fantasy 14 Orioles 13 (-1) 12/30 The O's swept the Astros with two one-run wins and a two-run win. Closer George Sherrill, who has bee

David Big Papi Ortiz becomes an American citizen

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David Ortiz, one of the finest sluggers in the long and storied history of the Boston Red Sox, is now an American citizen. The Dominican-born slugger -- affectionately known throughout Major League Baseball as Big Papi -- had a big day on Wednesday, sworn in along with 226 other immigrants at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester, Mass. Ortiz declined to talk about the moment multiple times when approached by beat writers in the clubhouse before Wednesday night's game against the Orioles. However, he did say a few words to news reporters outside the Kennedy Library. "I'm proud to be an American, and it's great to part of the American family," said Ortiz, dressed in a dark sport coat and white shirt. Why did he choose to become an American citizen? "Well, my whole family, pretty much my kids and everybody, have been born here," he said. "Like I said, America is a great country. I'm proud to be here, and now proud to be a part of it." Ortiz is now eligible to vote in the presidential election in November, but it's a little early to ask him who he will vote for. "I don't know yet," he said. Tiffany Ortiz is proud of her husband. "It's a big deal for him," Tiffany Ortiz told The Boston Globe. "It's really important, and I'm really proud of him." When Manny Ramirez became an American citizen in 2004, it was a highly publicized event. Manager Terry Francona gave Ramirez permission to go to Miami to be sworn in, and when Ramirez took the field the next night at Fenway, he ran out with a small American flag and a huge smile. This time around, Francona didn't even know Ortiz had been sworn in until after the fact. "Is that why he had a sport coat on? I didn't know," said Francona, who enjoys a close relationship with Ortiz. And unlike the Ramirez situation -- when he openly interacted with teammates about the event in the clubhouse on the day it occurred -- Ortiz was low-key. Ortiz's father did come into the clubhouse about an hour before the game and shook his son's hand. Ortiz is on the disabled list with a partial tear of the tendon sheath in his left wrist.

Bonds, Gibbons, Logan remain on sidelines

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Who will have the worst record this season?

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MLB team with Worst record Picks

MLB Power Rankings

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Roberts Acknowledges Using Steroids Once

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BALTIMORE (AP) - Baltimore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts has acknowledged using steroids, but insists he only tried it once before realizing he had made a "terrible decision."

Never Gonna Lastings.

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New York and Lastings Milledge was a romance destined to fail.

Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: Yankees May Snag First Place in Historic Fashion

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Red Sox Clay Buchholz pitches no hitter in his second start

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The 23-year-old rookie pitched a no-hitter in just his second outing to beat the Baltimore Orioles 10-0 Saturday night.

Are the Red Sox the Yanks biggest competition in the AL East?

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Debate whether the Red Sox or Another AL East Team can beat the Yanks for the Division. The best video will be replayed during the April 15th NYBO Radio Show from 10pm to 11pm

Japan's Matsuzaka figures to be most coveted pitcher on market

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Demand always tops supply when it comes to front-line pitching, which is why A.J. Burnett was able to sign a deal for $55 million last season. The inventory of potential aces on the free-agent market appears a little deeper this winter, but it's still a scary time to be shopping for a stud. Barry Zito looks better on paper than in person. Neither his trademark curve nor his fastball—topping out at 86-87 m.p.h.—have been especially sharp late this season, even in the playoff start when he beat Johan Santana. Jason Schmidt, who looks better to scouts, is 33 and somehow won only 23 games over the last two seasons in San Francisco. He has spent time on the disabled list in three of the last five seasons. This is why the most intriguing pitcher available is in Japan. But some questions need to be asked about Daisuke Matsuzaka as well. Perhaps because they knew they would sell his rights after the season, the Seibu Lions allowed the 26-year-old Matsuzaka to carry a tremendous workload this season. In his final start, a 13-strikeout shutout in the first round of the playoffs, Matsuzaka threw 137 pitches, and that wasn't atypical. While going 17-5 with a 2.13 ERA, Matsuzaka topped 120 pitches 12 times in 25 regular-season starts. It's true he got more rest than major-league pitchers, as the Lions used a six-man rotation, but 115 pitches per start is still an alarming number. He twice topped 140 pitches, with a high of 145. Say this for Matsuzaka, though. He has always been a workhorse. He came into prominence in Japan, where high school baseball is king, with a memorable performance in the 1998 National High School Baseball Championship. When the quarterfinal game went 17 innings, Matsuzaka threw 250 pitches. He played the outfield the next day until he pitched for the save in the ninth. He bounced back to start the championship game a day later, throwing a nine-inning no-hitter. That's a hoss. Matsuzaka, who was named the most valuable player of Japan's surprising victory in last spring's World Baseball Classic, was 18 when he won 16 games for Seibu in 1999. He has gone 108-60 in eight years with the Lions, approaching free agency at an unusually young age because he advanced so quickly as a teenager. The book on Matsuzaka is that his fastball tops out at 96 and gets some nasty sink when he throws a two-seamer in the low 90s. His next-best pitch is a slider as good as any in the big leagues. He has a handful of secondary pitches, including a change, a roundhouse curve and a split-finger fastball. You need nine years to become an unrestricted free agent in Japan. Matsuzaka can come to North America for the 2007 season only if Seibu agrees to sell his rights to a major-league team, which it plans to do. The so-called posting process is expected to begin shortly after the World Series. Teams will have 40 days to submit bids to Commissioner Bud Selig's office, with the highest one being awarded a 30-day window to accomplish a deal with Matsuzaka, who is being represented by Scott Boras. Seattle spent $11 million to acquire the rights to Ichiro Suzuki from the Orix Blue Wave six years ago, then signed him to a three-year, $14 million deal. That was a $25 million outlay that seemed a huge risk. It will cost more than double that to close a deal with Matsuzaka, and potentially three to four times as much. The rights fee could run $30, million with Matsuzaka then seeking $10 million a year for three or four years. The Cubs are believed to have scouted Matsuzaka as recently as September, but no one knows if they'll extend a bid. The front-runners are the Yankees, Mariners and Dodgers with the Red Sox, Angels, Rangers, Orioles, Mets and Diamondbacks also known to have interest.

THE GRIMSLEY REAPER

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according to a report in the sunday LA times former mlb pitcher jason grimsley has named names. and those names are some biggies! along with perennial susoects roger clemens and miquel tejada squeeky clean god squader andy petite's name has now been dragged into the mess. apparently grimsley fingers former yankee trainer brian mnnamee for supplying him with such baseball essentials as steroids, HGH and amphetamines. mr mcnamee just so happens to be a personal strength and conditoning coach for misters clemens and petite. others named in the affidavit include former oriole david sequi, along with current orioles jay gibbons and brian roberts. grimsley denies much of this story claiming it's just an fbi agents recall of a conversation they had and of course the various camps of the accused are in turtle mode with denials from agents and lawyers and no coments from pretty much anyone else involved. stay tuned this is going to be HUGE!