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John Romano's worried that the Rays' fate in 2011 might already be set by the end of the Winter Meetings next week: As of now, the Rays are still contenders in the American League East. Even without Carl Crawford. Even without Rafael Soriano. Ev...

In the second part of our two-part series, we look at the tough personnel decisions faced next week by National League postseason contenders ... Braves: With Takashi Saito's shoulder seemingly healed, the Braves have six of their seven postseason ...

As bad news for a contender goes, this could be a lot worse: San Diego Padres center fielder Tony Gwynn went on the disabled list Thursday with a broken bone in his right hand. Gwynn suffered the injury while fouling off a pitch in Wednesday's ...

Hey, a Hall of Fame-caliber player was just traded to a contender! Jim Edmonds has been traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for outfielder Chris Dickerson. --snip-- The Reds host one of Edmonds' former teams, ...

Troy Renck on how the Rockies might address their single crying need: When contenders have weak spots, they naturally pop up in roster talk. Spoke to a major league source tonight who said that the Rockies would have interest in second baseman Kazuo...

Ah, spring. Every team's a contender and every hot prospect's ticketed for Cooperstown. As FanGraphs' Bryan Smith notes, however, maybe we should temper our expectations for young Starlin Castro. At least for the moment ... Just between Muskat and ...

Running through CAIRO's projected standings in two more divisions (courtesy of Revenge of the RLYW) ... Phillies - 92 Braves - 88 Mets - 82 Marlins - 74 Nationals 73 There's so little to see here that I'm going to move along to the National...

In the service of promoting Daniel Murphy as the Mets' First Baseman of the Future, the Times' Jim Luttrell constructs a straw man that I can't resist setting a match to: The Mets were contenders with Keith Hernandez and John Olerud at f...

Tango, playing the Devil's Advocate (sort of) for non-Mauer contenders for American League MVP, lays down four reasons to at least question Mauer's candidacy. The big finish: 4. Zach Greinke. That's huge argument against Mauer. I don't hav...

Posted by Steve Buffum One of the more intriguing matchups yesterday featured Seattle and Texas, two teams that weren't supposed to be serious contenders. On April 1, you wouldn't have found many people signing up to watch Ian Snell vs. Scot...

Let's offer a bit of tribute to the American League Central. It might not be the best division, but all three contenders are trying to get better this season and the Indians are trying to get better in the future (which leaves only the Royals, bu...

As Mark Bradley writes, suddenly these Braves are looking like contenders: I'm starting, again, to think this is going to happen. I thought the Braves were a playoff team when they left Lake Buena Vista, and then I watched the first 80 games and...

Rob Neyer covers contenders , pretenders, the top managerial jobs and Joe Torre's misuse of the Dodgers' bullpen....

Tim Dierkes has lists of Rookie of the Year candidates who might make your head swim: Time to open up the floor for your Rookie of the Year picks. Some of the contenders: American League: Matt Wieters, David Price, Koji Uehara, Ricky Romero, Trev...

The Mets, Phillies and Brewers are fighting for two playoff spots. The loser is going to look back and wonder what might have been.

Contenders make deadline deals to put them over the top, but they've rarely made a significant impact.

Story | Conversation | July 26, 2006