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Well, it's been a pretty remarkable couple of weeks which has seen an incredibly dramatic climax to the final ever Yankee Stadium All – Star game. After five hours on air, our very own channel 5 had to switch the show off to terrestrial viewers in lieu of the kids TV programmes which were due to start, who unfortunately would have missed the dramatic climax.

So let's have a look at who's been sizzling hot in the last fortnight:

THE AMERICAN LEAGUE – Whatever the National League throws at the American League, it gets a response. If we ignore the controversial tie (which we could have seen repeated here) the AL has won eleven straight All – star games now and its dominance in inter league play, this seems to outline an overall dominance. A 4-3 walk off victory at the bottom of the fifteenth innings saw the AL succeed once more and JD Drew walks away with the MVP award. Isn't it ironic that a Red Sox wins the MVP at the final year of Yankee Stadium! The partisan Yankee crowd didn't know whether to boo or cheer!

RYAN HOWARD – This guy is a simply a huge presence for the Phillies. Howard is supposedly having a bad season but being the top home run hitter in all of the majors hardly attests to that view. Howard is notorious for being struck out too much but the big first baseman has been immensely impressive in his ability to regularly hit deep. Howard is a great guy and deserves all the success that he gets. He will have been valuable for anybody that had him in their fantasy league team! Six dingers in the last fortnight make him the hottest around right now.

MIKE PELFREY – You know when you've been ‘pelfreyized'! What a ridiculous way to describe what happens to teams that are pitched out of the game by gigantic Mets pitcher Mike Pelfrey. Despite the silly made up name, it does not disguise the fact that this formerly inconsistent pitcher is absolutely red hot and on top of his game right now. In his two starts in the last fortnight, Pelfrey has pitched fifteen innings with an earned run average of exactly ZERO! One to watch.

Who is having a tougher time of things at present? Here we go:

TAMPA BAY RAYS – How can life possibly be bad for the Rays? Well it isn't really but this has been a pretty disastrous time for them. With a losing streak of seven going into the All-star game perhaps Joe Madden would be thankful of the momentum break. Not a hope! Catcher Dioner Navarro played a gruellingly large part of the game and pitcher Scott Kazmir who is notoriously fragile, and had been asked by his team not to pitch in the showpiece at Yankee ended up being forced to pitch an inning and risk damaging himself and the Rays in the process. He did not look well at all but pulled through. With the Red Sox and the Yankees in the AL East it is difficult to imagine this challenge being sustained by the Rays.

RICHIE SEXSON – What a fall from grace for the six feet eight tall first baseman. Seattle Mariners decided to pull the curtain down on his time with them by releasing Sexson and paying him off. Sexson was a prized name on the team sheet back in 2005 and while he can still hit deep, he has shown a real impatience and inability to play the percentages and try and get base hits. I still wouldn't be surprised to see him turn out for someone else before long.

DAN UGGLA – Put in for both the All-star game and the Home Run Derby, this should have been a great time for Uggla but a slump on the back of an injury has hampered his recent performances. No doubt but some of his errors and terrible at-bats in the all star game were simply embarrassing to watch and I feel for the guy. He is young and will be better for the experience but this has been a terrible spell for the second baseman for the Marlins.

RECENT TRADE RUMOURS

Matt Holliday of the Rockies has been rumoured to be potentially lined up for a sensational trade with Carlos Beltran, however it is difficult to envisage this would sit well with the Mets... The Mets along with the Yankees are extremely keen on Holliday but the Rockies may just be asking a little too much.

In line with the injury to close Saito, the Dodgers are rumoured to be lining up a swoop for Orioles close George Sherrill, who pitched well in relief for the American League in the All-Star match up.

It has been a pretty momentous couple of weeks in the majors but now the race for each divisional title beginning to hot up and reach critical stages you should see some teams thrive under the pressure and produce their best baseball, and perhaps some of the pretenders will show their true colours and fold under the pressure.

Look out for the Yankees to pick up their performance levels now we are past the all-star game and I wouldn't be surprised if they appear in one of my articles soon enough!

Seeeeeee ya!

Crafty Stan