Kuzul

The Double G Sports Expert Panel has been polled once again to come up with our Major League Baseball Power Rankings for June. This is the third installment of our power rankings this season.

For last months rankings, click here .

Once again there was quite a bit of movement up and down the rankings. The biggest jump was the Atlanta Braves who moved from 20th in May all the way up to 3rd this month. Also moving up was the LA Dodgers, from 17th to 7th.

A couple teams tumbled down hill this month. The Philadelphia Phillies took the biggest hit, dropping 13 spots to 16th. The Oakland A’s dropped 11 spots to 22nd overall.

The New York Yankees took over the top spot in our rankings this month, switching spots with the Tampa Bay Rays .

Here are the Mid-June Power Rankings:

First Place Votes:

Yankees:  Gregg, Jon, Rob

Rays:  Pat

For more local sports news, visit Double G Sports .

*Double G Sports Expert Panel Members, Gregg, Rob, Jon, and Pat participated in these rankings.*

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Battle of the Blogs Fantasy Baseball reached its midway point last week. The league has become very competitive, while remaining a friendly competition among bloggers from all over the country.

Some teams are off to fantastic starts, while others will be playing catch-up the rest of the season or preparing for next year. It’s just like live baseball.

The top team in the league at the halfway point is Royals Junkie , which has dominated the league thus far. Royals Junkie has 127 wins already. The next closest team has only 109. The Kansas City Royals blogger has an overall record of 127-61-12, good for a .665 winning percentage .

Six teams have over 100 wins. Royals Junkie is joined by Royally Speaking (109), Yankee GM (109), Double G Sports (104), On The Black (102), and Astros County (101) as teams that have surpassed the 100-win mark. These six teams are crammed into two divisions. Royals Junkie and Double G Sports are together in the Willie Mays Division, while the other four are all packed into a very tight Hank Aaron Division.

Royals Junkie has also been the most active owner with 52 transactions to this point. The owner with the next-most transactions is Lady Loves Pinstripes with 24. The Oriole Post and Yankees Chic Chat have not made a singe move so far this season. Time to investigate the owners’ inactivity?

Continue this full article at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When Yankees fans woke up today and looked through the sports page of their local newspaper, they will see a friendly and familiar site. The New York Yankees are back in first place, albeit a tie with the Tampa Bay Rays .

While the Rays have gone just 5-5 in their last ten games, the Yankees won seven of their past ten to pull even with the Rays at 40-23 overall this season.

New York just completed a span of 13 games in which they played teams with below .500 records. The Yankees won 11 of those 13 games, including a weekend sweep of the Houston Astros .

Veteran Jorge Posada was a big reason why the Yankees were able to complete the sweep of the Astros. Posada who had been strictly used as a DH since coming off the disabled list with a foot injury, returned to catching duties on Sunday.

Against the Astros, Posada went 4-for-9 including two grand slams. The grand slams came in back-to-back games, Saturday and Sunday. He became the first Major Leaguer to hit grand slams in back-to-back games since Carlos Beltran did it in 2006.

Read full article at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The American League East had looked a bit strange for much of the beginning of the 2010 baseball season. The Tampa Bay Rays have been on top since the start. At many points, they’ve had a significant lead over the rest of the division. That has since changed.

The Toronto Blue Jays had been rolling early on and making everyone believe the division would be a four-team race. That has since changed.

The New York Yankees were right there with the Blue Jays and kept battling between second and third place.

The Boston Red Sox had been struggling to win games early on and therefore had been in fourth place for most of the season. That has since changed.

The Rays continue to stand atop the best division in baseball, but have fallen a bit of late and given the Yankees a chance to catch up. Tampa still remains a serious contender for the division and with an extremely talented roster, they should be in contention all year. They have been a .500 club their past 10 games.

Continue this story at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Call him bipolar if you would like. Just in baseball terms, A.J. Burnett can be considered a bit bipolar this season. We have been witnessing two very different sides to the Yankees’ pitcher.

Burnett seems to be a different pitcher on the road than he is at Yankee Stadium. The numbers are glaring.

If we could pitch A.J. during home games only, he would be considered an All-Star and possible Cy Young candidate. Throw in his road game performances, and he is an average pitcher.

Keep in mind, Burnett has pitched in five games at home and eight on the road so far this season. He has completed 35.2 innings at Yankee Stadium and 48.1 away from the Bronx.

In his 35.2 innings at home, Burnett has given up less than a hit per inning—32 hits in total at home. He has almost struck out as many batters as hits given up when on the mound at the stadium. Burnett has 31 strikeouts at home. On the road, he has given up 51 hits in 48.1 innings and struck out just 29 batters.

Continue reading at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Don’t expect the New York Yankees to publicly admit to wanting both or either of these players.

According to MLBTradeRumors.com, George A. King III of the New York Post says the Yankees are likely to be interested in both Mariners starting pitcher Cliff Lee and Astros first baseman Lance Berkman.

The Yankees have five quality starters on the team at this point, so many may think pursuing Lee would be pointless. In all reality, adding Lee would be more of a move for next season.

Andy Pettitte and Javier Vazquez are free agents after this season, so the Yankees will need another starter if they do not re-sign either or both.

The Seattle Mariners are apparently expecting the Yankees to inquire about Lee. They have been sending scouts to check out the Yankees’ farm teams, a sign they are taking a look at potential trade bait.

It is being reported the Mariners will likely seek Triple-A shortstop Eduardo Nunez and one of the Yankees’ catching prospects.

Would you give up Nunez and Austin Romine or Jesus Montero for Cliff Lee? Lee is one of the league’s top pitchers, but you better be darn sure you can sign him to a long-term contract if you are going to give up prospects of that caliber.

Continue reading at Double G Sports.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Yes, there was some baseball played outside of Washington D.C. last night–and some exciting baseball at that.

Mike Pelfrey pitched a gem yet in the Mets’ 11-inning, 2-1 victory over the first place Padres.

The righty went nine innings, giving up just one run on five hits. The only run came on an RBI double in the first inning by Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Pelfrey struck out six in the nine innings he worked.

Jose Reyes tied the game in the seventh inning with a solo home run but that would not prevent the game stretching all the way into the eleventh.

The Mets 2008 first round pick, first baseman Ike Davis provided the heroics. Prior to his final at bat, Davis had not been having a good night. He was 0-for-4 with a strikeout before stepping to the plate against Padres reliever Edward Mujica.

Continue reading at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira has continued to struggled this season. Typically a slow starter that stumbles through rough Aprils, Teixeira usually gets it going by this point in the season.

As of June 8, Teixeira is batting a meager .210, barely hanging above the Mendoza Line .

He continues to stay calm and focused while not getting concerned about his low average. The Yankees first baseman went as far as to say his past performances should say enough.

“I’ve been through plenty of ups and downs and the back of my baseball card says it all,” Teixeira said this past weekend in Toronto, where he struck out a career-high five times in one game against the Blue Jays. “I’m amazed sometimes when I look at it, because it’s not an easy game.”

Not since his rookie campaign has the star first baseman hit for this low of an average at this point in the season. After his bad April, Teixeira did post a hot 16 game streak in May but has since fizzled.

Continue this article at www.doublegsports.com. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

A few days ago, I was talking with a friend of mine and he brought up something that got me thinking. This friend, a member of my Double G Sports Expert Panel, thinks Robinson Cano was helped by the trade in which the Yankees sent Melky Cabrera   to Atlanta.

I spoke briefly about this yesterday in my appearance on Fantasy Baseball   With Andrea .

The past couple seasons, Robinson Cano has shown signs of greatness. He also showed signs of immaturity and laziness. This season, we are seeing a mature and focused Robinson Cano.

Can this be tied to Cabrera no longer being a member of the Yankees?

Certainly something to think about.

Cabrera and Cano were best friends while teammates with the Yankees. They would always be seen together on and off the field. In the dugout, Cano and Cabrera would always be side by side talking and laughing with each other.

Many times during the past few seasons, Cano would seem a little bit lazy and uninterested. One day he would show signs of greatness to come, the next day he would take a lazy swing, or take his time getting to a ball hit to second base   .

Continue this story at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Double G Sports had a great showing in Battle of the Blogs Fantasy Baseball last week. In just one week, I jumped from last place in the Willie Mays Division to second place. A 15-5 win over Lady Loves Pinstripes made the run possible.

Lady Loves Pinstripes had been in first place in the Mickey Mantle Division, but has since fallen to second in her division.

I currently have an 81-73-6 overall record on the year, 22 games behind division leader Royals Junkie . That team also holds the league’s best record after eight weeks of the season.

The batting lineup carried Double G Sports to victory last week.

As a team, we hit .299. A few of my players had monster weeks. New York infielders Jose Reyes (Mets) and Robinson Cano (Yankees) absolutely dominated this week.

Reyes batted .500, with a home run, three doubles, and seven runs batted in. The speedster also stole three bases this week.

Cano was even better with a .565 average, one home run, four doubles, and nine runs batted in. Yes, NINE!

Continue this recap at Double G Sports .

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com