The first half of the 2008 Major League Baseball season has been full of surprises, from the Tigers to the Rays to the Padres to the Braves. Most surprising of all, at least to the Phillies faithful, is that at the All Star break the Phillies were in first place atop the National League East. The Phillies are currently a half a game ahead of the Mets and one a half games up on the Marlins.

Lets go through the majors and recap the season so far.

AL East

Perhaps the biggest story in the majors this year is the surprising play of the Tampa Bay Rays, who at the break were just half a game behind the first place Red Sox, and that’s with a seven game losing streak. The Rays have been bolstered by one of the most talented young lineups in the majors in years, as well as some timely defense and a great, young rotation led by ace Scott Kazmir. They are definitely the Cinderella, the darlings of the 2008 season, much to the chagrin to their division rivals the Red Sox.

Boston fans are upset that some of the media focus and the limelight has been diverted from their beloved Sox. The reigning champs …

The Phillies have been actively working the phones over the past several weeks trying to make a trade that would bolster their pitching rotation. The Phillies lack of serious starting pitching was made to look even weaker after the Milwaukee Brewers traded for Indians’ ace CC Sabathia and the Chicago Cubs traded for Oakland star Rich Harden last week. The Phillies were one of a number of teams that were in negotiations with Cleveland to acquire Sabathia’s services, but in the end they just didn’t have enough to offer. Instead of being able to trade for Rich Harden, who when healthy is arguably the best pitcher in baseball, it looks like the Phillies will wind up acquiring Joe Blanton from the Athletics. Blanton is Oakland’s number two starter and despite showing some serious talent in previous years, has really struggled this season, going 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA.

The Phillies have reportedly been negotiating with the Seattle Mariners over the past couple weeks in an attempt to acquire their disgruntled ace Erik Bedard, but it appears that they’re not going to be able to pull off that deal, and Bedard is currently on the DL and wants out of Seattle. Even more importantly, Seattle wants Bedard …

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 game, as all star games go. It wasn’t an obscene slugfest with no defense (Dan Uggla aside) and shotty pitching. There were actually some really exciting defensive plays, like Nate McLouth’s game saving throw to the plate, and catcher Russell Martin’s superb catch and tag on the same play. Not to mention the delightful meltdown of closer Billy Wagner in the eighth inning, giving up the tying home run to Red Sox outfielder J.D. Drew, the All Star MVP. In classic Wagner fashion, with the game on the line, he choked. The greatest thing that Ed Wade ever did for the Phillies was bring Wagner to Philly, allowing Brad Lidge to become the new closer in Houston, then allowing the idiot Texan (Virginian) go irritate the Mets, and then trading Lidge to the Phillies for mediocre trash.

Yea yea, Mets fan, I know …

Disgruntled Eagles’ cornerback Lito Sheppard has hired infamous super agent Drew Rosenhaus to represent him in his attempts to negotiate a new contract.

It’s a move that will likely provoke bad memories amongst the Eagles’ faithful.

According to news reports, the two sides had an initial meeting Wednesday and look forward to getting a deal done and avoiding the ugliness that occurred the last time that Rosenhaus held negotiations with the Eagles when he represented Terrell Owens.

Sheppard is due to earn a base salary of $2 million in 2008.

The Los Angeles Clippers traded for Denver Nuggets’ center Marcus Camby Tuesday. In return, Denver receives the option to trade second round picks with Los Angeles in the 2010 NBA draft. Camby is considered one of the premier defensive players in the league, leading the NBA in blocks with 3.61 a game last year.

More importantly, this means that the Clippers are no longer in a financial position to pursue restricted free agent forward Andre Iguodala. The Clippers were the most active team pursuing the Sixers’ star.

Last off-season, Iguodala rejected a five year, $57 million offer from the Sixers. He is reportedly asking for a five year, $65 million deal.

Everyone knows that the Phillies are in the market for a legitimate starting pitcher, especially after their National League rivals the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers made serious acquisitions last week. They have been trying to work out a deal for Erik Bedard from the Seattle Mariners, and have expressed interest in A.J. Burnett, Bronson Arroyo, Jarrod Washburn, and Randy Wolf. As you can tell, there isn’t a lot out there in terms of premier pitching talent, with arguably Bedard being the only bona fide ace. Phillies GM Pat Gillick has publicly stated that the Phillies are not willing to part with the few top prospects they have in their farm team for less than acceptable pitching. That basically means they are going to make a deal for Bedard, or they’re just going to stick with the pitching they have, unless they can convince a team to deal a “B” or “C” list pitcher for lesser prospects.

It appears that as a result the Phillies have turned their sights onto acquiring a significant offensive upgrade. One name that has been out there as being on the block is Pirates’ outfielder Jason Bay, who has struggled over the …

The Major League Baseball All Star Game, the Mid Summer Classic, the place for the Boys of Summer to really shine, is a sham. That’s right, I said it. The All Star Game is a sham that offends my moral (baseball) sensibilities. The only thing more morally reprehensible in baseball is that abomination called the designated hitter. Why, you may ask, do I so strongly believe the All Star Game to be an embarrassing blemish on the legacy of our Nation’s Past Time? Well don’t you worry, I’m going to tell you.

In 2004, Major League Baseball, led by the eternally incompetent and unimpressive Commissioner Alan “Bud” Selig, entered into an agreement with the equally inept Player’s Association to award home field advantage for the World Series to the league that won the All Star Game. This was done to add incentive for the player’s to play hard, for the fans to tune in, and most importantly, so it would be more lucrative to Fox and MLB could sell the broadcasting rights for more money.

Making the outcome of this exhibition game, whose members are chosen in large part by the fans (which is just a glorified popularity …

Sportingnews.com writer Chris Mottram noticed Monday that one Phillies player signing autographs was not one that he recognized. Upon closer examination, it turns out that #16, C. Yeager, is not actually a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. This was especially evident since #16 is pitcher J.C. Romero.

Yeager signed autographs for about 30 minutes before security escorted him off, seemingly without anyone noticing. Yeager was dressed in a full Phillies uniform, with arm bands and shades to help hide his true identity.

Check it out for yourself.

Fan Impersonates Phillies Player At All Star Fan Fest

The Phillies did not start the week out well, but ended it in strong fashion as they head into this season’s All Star break in first place in the National League East, a half a game up on the New York Mets.

After losing three of four to the Mets, the Phillies stormed back and took two of three from both the Cardinals and Diamondbacks, including a four game win streak. It’s not a nine game win streak, but you can’t complain too much with ending the first half in first place.

The break, in my opinion, will actually benefit the Phillies and hurt the Mets. The Phils are playing well, but are not streaking like their New York rivals, and a four day break is the last thing you want if you are on a multiple game win streak. Hopefully the Phillies can capitalize and build on this past week, while the Mets will hopefully suffer from their time off.

Trade rumors surround the Phillies as fellow National League teams the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs made serious acquisitions to bolster their pitching rotations in CC Sabathia and Rich Harden, respectively. It was thought that they were the …

It was announced Friday by NL All Star team manager Clint Hurdle, also the manager of the Colorado Rockies, that New York Mets third baseman David Wright has been named to the all star team as a replacement for injured Cubs’ outfielder Alfonso Soriano. This year’s MLB All Star Game is being held at Yankee Stadium in New York, the same city in which Wright’s Mets play. hmm….

David Wright in no way deserves to be named as an all star. Wright currently ranks 18th in the NL in home runs with 17, tied for third in the league in RBIs with 70, and 26th in the league with a .288 average.

Those numbers are fairly impressive, sure, especially his RBIs. But lets take a moment to look at who is ahead of him. Ahead of Wright in RBIs are Ryan Howard (83) and Carlos Lee (72). Howard (27) and Lee (21) are also both ahead of Wright in home runs, as is Pat Burrell with 22. Lee (.293) also has a better batting average than Wright.

Most people would assume I think that Howard or Burrell should be named as all stars and since they weren’t, that’s why …

July 11, 2008

David Montgomery, General Partner, President and Chief Executive Officer
Pat Gillick, Senior Vice President & General Manager
Philadelphia Phillies

Citizens Bank Park
One Citizens Bank Way
Philadelphia, PA 19148-5249

Dear Messers Montgomery and Gillick,

I am writing to you today to ask that you please sign Barry Bonds for the second half of the 2008 baseball season. Mr. Bonds is offering his services at the league minimum salary of $390,000, which would be prorated to less than $190,000.

That means the Phillies could get 762 home runs (most all time), 1996 RBIs, .444 on base percentage, and a .607 slugging percentage for less money than it costs every time Ryan Howard strikes out.

I understand that the teams around the majors are reluctant to sign Mr. Bonds due to the media frenzy and the tarnished image that he carries around with him. I counter that by reminding you that this year’s opening day starter, Brett Myers, was arrested last year for hitting his wife in Boston. The team’s current ace, Cole Hamels, faced serious setbacks in his player development in …

As many know by now, at least those of us that read MLBlogs.com, Alyssa Milano, actress, model, entrepreneur, beauty, has a blog devoted to her beloved Dodgers. Not only is it remarkable to see an actor so publicly devoted to sport, especially one that does not normally attract a plethora of celebs, but it is even more remarkable to have a female celeb as a well informed, smart, passionate fan. And I do not mean that in a sexist way. Obviously, plenty of women are smart and passionate fans of all sports, not to mention wonderfully talented athletes in their own right. But my point is that in a day and age when most of the female celebs are in the news for their partying, divorcing, foreign baby adopting, etc., it is really nice to see someone in the public eye for something like baseball.

And Alyssa Milano is incredibly passionate and really knows her baseball, more so than many of my own friends. She is a die hard Dodgers fan, bleeding blue with every Dodger heartbreak. As a Phillies fan, I can relate to the consistent highs and lows that the Dodgers bestow on their fans. I …