Carlos Quentin is heating up again and could end up being the MVP of the AL this season if the White Sox keep winning.

So the second half of the baseball season is in full swing, and you’ve already gotten your fantasy teams all set to dominate in the second half. (You have done that, right?) So now it’s time to turn your attention to…football season!!! Yes, that’s right folks, the 2008 football season is just around the corner. The NFL teams are already making preparation for the opening of training camps, and no doubt your fantasy league manager is preparing to get your football league up and running on the service of your choice. Are you ready?

I mean are you really ready? It doesn’t matter what you say to me now, because I already know that there is no way you’re ready. I know this because you haven’t signed up for your Sports Grumblings Premium membership yet.

Look, I’m not going to bore you with a long sales pitch that explains everything about the services we offer, or the value it represents. You can find that elsewhere on the site. But if you want to go look now, I’ll show you where, and you can go look now. I’ll wait for you to come back. Just click on these words right here.

All set now? Good. Now I just want to make sure that you saw two important things that were on that page. First, you can use all of the tools that we offer for fantasy football, right now, for free until August 1^st. All you have to do is register with Sports Grumblings, and that’s free too. Second, if you like what you see of our tools, including the free Draft Tracking software, you can sign up for a Premium Membership to Sports Grumblings for a mere $19.99 until August 1^st. After August 1^st the price goes up to $24.99 and the free trial period will end.

To be honest, I haven’t looked around at what all of the many other web sites are offering for their Premium Memberships, because frankly, I’m not interested in what they’re doing. I spend all of my time making sure that Sports Grumblings is bringing you the best written content on the web, along with the best player and team evaluation tools, and the best all around service.

In fact, when it comes to service, we have something that I just know the other sites don’t have. Every Friday and Saturday evening, there is an expert here at Sports Grumblings waiting to answer your fantasy football questions. This service has already started, and is available right now to everybody, but after August 1^st only to Premium Members. On Friday and Saturday evenings from 9 PM until Midnight, starting now and continuing throughout the NFL season, Premium Members can log in to Sports Grumblings and have any and all fantasy football questions answered by a member of our team of experts in real time, right there on the spot. Live Support for your fantasy team. I know you won’t find that kind of service in most places, and usually you have to email your questions to maybe get an answer. Not so at Sports Grumblings. We’re there, on the spot to help you DOMINATE your league. So give us a try before it’s too late, and consider signing up before August 1^st, and save yourself 20% off the price of membership.

Now lets get back to baseball and take a look through the boxscores.

If it weren’t for Mike Mussina, the Yankees would really be lost this season. Over his last ten starts he’s 6-2 with an ERA of 3.00, and he dazzled the A’s Friday with six innings of one run ball. He’s a strong play for the second half.

The Nationals had Paul LoDuca playing first base Friday night after originally penciling him in for right field. They’re showcasing him for a trade, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go to the Marlins before the deadline.

There are a lot of teams lining up for Rockies closer Brian Fuentes, but I think Colorado may end up keeping their lefty. Nobody in the NL West seems to want to win the division, and the Rockies are only seven and a half games back. Their pitching has been better recently and Jeff Francis is due back soon. If they don’t trade Matt Holliday and/or Garrett Atkins they could still contend.

The White Sox keep on rolling, beating up on the Royals Friday night. Mark Buehrle was his effective old self again, and is looking like a strong second half buy. Over his last eight starts he’s 5-2, with a 1.83 ERA. Batters averaged just .227, and Buehrle walked more than two batters in a game just once over those eight starts.

Mark Teahen is showing signs that his long lost power is returning. Over the last month (24 games) he’s hit four home runs, and nine of his 22 hits have been for extra bases. His average is still down around .252, but over his career he’s batted 20 points higher in the second half. If he keeps up the power hitting and bats around .270 that would make him serviceable for fantasy purposes, especially if he continues to bat third in the Royals lineup.

The Twins are getting some great pitching from their young staff, especially Glen Perkins who blanked the mighty Rangers Friday. Perkins held them to just three hits over six innings and improved his record to 7-2. He’s now won his last five decisions (six starts) with an ERA of 3.00 and his ERA for the season is down to 3.84.

After a fairly quiet month of June, Carlos Quentin is heating up again. Over his last 25 games he’s batted .307 with seven home runs, 16 RBI, and 20 runs scored. He even stole a base, giving him five on the season. Can you say MVP?

One reason for the Twins offensive improvement of late has been the play of Delmon Young. Manager Ron Gardenhire has allowed Young to freely use his aggressive approach, and it appears to be paying off. Over his last 36 games, Young is batting .345, with three home runs, 23 RBI, 18 runs scored, and three stolen bases. Most importantly though, his OBP is .362 in that stretch, and is up to .337 overall.

OK Folks, that’s all I’ve got for today. Shake it easy!!