Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Golf's dream pairing - Woods and Mickelson - is on the course in the final round at Pebble Beach. Jason Sobel has hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
APChicago White Sox
Give credit to Ozzie Guillen for imploding a few times in the first half and refocusing his team when they looked flat and uninspired. They are another team that is great at home (32-13) and sub par on the road (22-27) but always play hard until the final out is recorded. The White Sox lead the American league with 129 HR and are second in pitching with a 3.56 team ERA.
They have a veteran lineup and rock solid bullpen that is rested heading into the second half of the season. I would not be surprised if General Manager Kenny Williams made a deal in the next week to add another bat to a lineup that might succumb to an injury at any moment.
Minnesota Twins
Another brilliant managing performance by Ron Gardenhire after losing Torii Hunter and Johan Santana. They hit and catch as consistent as any team in the American League and are ranked forth in batting with a team .278 average and forth in defense with a .983 fielding percentage.
They trail the White Sox by two games in the loss column heading into the second half and are poised to stay in the race until the very end. Too bad billionaire owner Carl Pollard does not care to spend his money on his loyal fan base because they could sure use another veteran starting pitcher down the stretch.
Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau have already proved that they are two of the top 15 players in the entire league and if they get hot in September the Twins could be tough to beat come October.
Los Angeles Angels
The best overall team in baseball is also the only team to have won more than 30 Games (31-18) on the road this season. They have several elite players including closer Frankie Rodriguez who has already compiled 38 saves at the break and a starting pitching staff that is as good as it gets in the American League.
Ervin Santana sits at 11-3, Jon Garland is 8-6, John Lackey is 6-2, Jered Weaver is 8-8 and Joe Saunders is an all star at 12-5. The health of this pitching staff is the key to the Angels going deep into the playoff.
Torii Hunter should get hot in the second half and build off the 154 total bases that he compiled so far and Vladimir Guerrero will build on the 15 HR and 50 RBI that he has heading into the second half of the season. Gary Mathews .235 average is hurting the teams overall offensive statistics, but the rest of the roster continues to hit in the clutch.
Manager Mike Scoscia has his team right where he needs them with a six game lead over Oakland and an owner who is willing to spend to win another championship.
Oakland Athletics
It is tough to take the A's seriously after general manager just traded Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin away to the Chicago Cubs. Owner Lew Wolff is not committed to winning in Oakland and until he moves his team and commits to spending more money of his roster, The A’s will remain a team that competes hard but pretends to want to win.
Oakland has a team ERA of 3.39 and opponents are only batting .235 against them so that could keep them in the wild card race until the end of September. Jack Cust and Kurt Suzuki always play inspired while Eric Chavez's $11.5 million salary is the biggest money issue surrounding this club.
This fan base deserves on more shot at a championship so hopefully GM Billy Beane has one more trick up his sleeve to help improve the team.
SportsTalk: Albert Pujols signs with the Angels and Prince Fielder joins the Tigers. Which team is better now?
DeMarco: Plug in a well-heeled ownership group and negotiate one of those mega-bucks TV deals that are going around, and the Dodgers could become the west coast version of the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.