Nobody imaged this would happen after all of the off-season activity the Tigers had this year but it took them 80 games to reach the .500 mark. After today’s come-from-behind win against Colorado, Detroit is now 40-40. Many picked the Tigers to take the Central Division but they struggled out of the gate, starting out 0-7. They were 14-15 in early May and seemed to be climbing in the standings. After struggling again to finish that month at 23-32, Detroit bounced back in June and we’ll see if they can continue their play past the All-Star break and beyond.

The Tigers are 17-8 in June with two games to go and they really played well against divisional opponents and in Interleague play. Now they benefited from playing against the NL West, the worst division in the game but maybe that’s what they needed to get into contention. (Read More)

Here it is, by popular demand, my relief pitcher All-Star picks for both leagues.  Relief pitching is often overlooked, and I’m guilty of it myself, but there’s no questioning the value a good closer, setup man, middle, or long reliever can bring to a team.  Just look at the Angels.  They’re 16 games over .500 despite scoring only 12 more runs than they’ve allowed.  Gotta be K-Rod and the bullpen.

In most cases, only setup men and closers get All-Star honors, so I’ll limit this list to them. (Read More)

I can see a new Miller High Life commercial, $30 million guaranteed for a rookie offensive lineman, y’all must be crazy. You are not living the High Life. That is what is happening in the NFL though, rookies are becoming the highest paid players in the game and they haven’t even played an NFL down. Players Union president Kevin Mawae shed some light on the issue several weeks ago and now Commissioner Roger Goodell has said that these contracts are quote, “ridiculous.”

For instance, this season Jake Long became the highest paid offensive lineman and Matt Ryan’s contract puts him up there with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as the game’s highest paid quarterbacks and he hasn’t even stepped on an NFL field. Sure they had excellent college careers but that doesn’t warrant getting that much in guarantees because they didn’t do anything in the pros yet. (Read More)

Mark Martin is considering a full-time come back to racing.  Hendrick Motorsports announced this morning that Martin will come on board for the 2009 season to drive the #5 Chevrolet, either full-time or possibly part-time with another driver. (Read More)

Round and round we go on the Kelvin Sampson carousel - anyone feel sick yet? I know I do. A new NCAA investigation has turned up evidence - including cell phone bills - that clearly shows that Indiana knew what Sampson was doing. Are you kidding me? When Sampson arrived at Indiana they knew what he had been up to, they knew about his lack of discipline at Oklahoma and his 577 impermissible phone calls. The bigshots at IU knew that they were going to have to babysit Sampson to make sure he didn’t get out of line again. The NCAA told him he was not allowed to contact recruits by phone, including having his assistant coaches connect them on 3-way calls. (Read More)

Whenever you grab the GM by the neck and throw him to the ground, it probably won’t end well for you. In the case of Shawn Chacon, it might have ended his Major League career.

The Astros pitcher got into a heated altercation with Ed Wade when Wade wanted to discuss his role with the team. Chacon was recently removed from the starting rotation and had a little history of not listening to coaches this season. He was suspended after this incident and now waived. (Read More)

The NBA Draft was once again dominated by college freshman, just like last year, and several players look to contribute and make an impact right away. It was the first time that freshman went first, second and third in Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley and OJ Mayo. Each of these three players look to start right away. Also several international players were picked but likely will stay overseas to improve their games. I’ll break down some of the winners of the draft as well as some head-scratching moves on the part of some teams. (Read More)