Welcome Back!

Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to welcome you back to this blog. I would like to offer you my sincere apologies for my prolonged absence from here, mainly because school nearly had me in a choke hold over during April, May, and part of June. Now that school has been out for over a month, I can get back to offering you my opinions on the world of baseball, with special attention to the Sox.

A lot has happened since I was last here with you. There have been a whopping five no-hitters, two of which were perfect games. We have also witnessed one of the most agonizing near-misses in the history of no-hitters/perfect games, when Armando Galarraga came within inches of perfection, only to have it snatched from his hands by an errant call from first base umpire Jim Joyce.

In addition to the rash of no-hitters that have been thrown this year, there have also been remarkable stand-outs in the world of pitching. Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies, despite slowing down in recent weeks, has still been one of the best pitchers in baseball, as he continues to sport a 16-2 record, with a 2.67 ERA. Josh Johnson has also been right on Jimenez's heels in the National League Cy Young race, as he is featuring a 10-3 record and a major league-best 1.72 ERA. Other major league pitchers that are having standout seasons include Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia of the St. Louis Cardinals, David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays, Cliff Lee of the Texas Rangers and Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Also, who could forget about the dynamic debut of Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals? Before he went on the DL yesterday with shoulder stiffness, he has been rock solid in his rookie year, going 5-2 with a 2.32 ERA and with an excellent strikeout-to-walk ratio of 75-15 in 54.1 innings. You could almost make the case that what Bob Costas said during his first start was correct: the performance has exceeded the hype.

Plus, there have been many compelling division races in baseball through this point of the season. There have been many surprises in the National League, including the outstanding performances put on by the San Diego Padres and the Cincinnati Reds, who are both leading their respective divisions as of July 30. Also, the Atlanta Braves have returned to their perch atop the National League East, as they continue to lead their division by two and a half over Philadelphia.

There has been just as many surprises in the American League as well. The Chicago White Sox, who trailed the Minnesota Twins by a whopping nine and a half games on June 8, have stormed back to take the division lead, as they are up by a game and a half entering tonight's play. The Texas Rangers, after acquiring ace pitcher Cliff Lee in a trade with the Seattle Mariners, have plowed ahead of the Angels and A's, leading the West by eight and a half entering tonight. In addition to those races, the Rays and Yankees are continuing their battle atop the AL East, as the Yankees lead by two games over Tampa entering tonight.

Also, who can forget about the trade deadline tomorrow? There has already been a flurry of activity, as we have already seen Roy Oswalt get dealt from Houston to Philly, Edwin Jackson get dealt from Arizona to the South Side of Chicago and Matt Capps get dealt from Washington to Minnesota in just the last couple of days. With tomorrow's 4 pm deadline still looming, we should not be surprised to see more big trades go down in the next several hours.

It has been an absolute blast following baseball this summer (as it always is), and it has been even more of a blast watching the Sox make an incredible comeback to take over first place in the Central. With two months left before the postseason, you can all but gurarantee that there will be a lot more fun surprises headed our way in MLB. Rest assured, that whenever those surprises occur, I'll try to give you my thoughts on at least some of them! Once again, I would like to offer you my most sincere apologies for my prolonged absence, and you will definitely hear back from me soon!