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The most famous voice in baseball history will be returning for its 66th season. During the second inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully will be returning for play-by-play duties in 2015.

Jon Weisman of the Dodgers’ official blog reported the news following a montage that played at Dodger Stadium.

“It is very difficult to say goodbye,” Scully said. “God willing, I will be back next year. Over the years I have been blessed to have so many friends, including those that sit in the stands and listen, as well as those at home who listen and watch. It is just too hard to say goodbye to all these friends. Naturally there will come a time when I will have to say goodbye, but I’ve soul-searched and this is not the time.”

MLB.com provided video of the announcement:

Scully, 86, has been the Dodgers play-by-play announcer since 1950. He’s stayed with the organization through its move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles, the highs of six World Series championships and numerous different management teams and ownership groups.

Scully has been the voice of NBC and CBS national broadcasts while rising to become perhaps the most recognizable voice in sports. He was named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1995, and his work earned him a lifetime achievement Emmy. He’s also received numerous other accolades within the business—most notably a Sportscaster of the Century honor from the American Sportscasters Association. 

Through it all, he’s been a mainstay with the Dodgers, eschewing most national opportunities the last couple of decades to focus on his day-to-day coverage in Los Angeles. Despite his advanced age, Scully remains smart as a whip, able to pull references from a seemingly never-ending trove of memories accumulated over the years. 

“I’m obviously not alone in saying that I’m overjoyed Vin will be coming back to the booth in 2015,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said, per Weisman. “Our fans deserve the very best and Vin’s voice, knowledge, experience and passion for broadcasting Dodger baseball are second to none.”

Scully’s broadcasts are typically featured on SportsNet LA, which is partially owned by the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable. The joint venture allows Scully to keep a limited schedule, whereby he announces home and semi-local road games but does not make cross-country trips.

While it’s fair to wonder why Scully keeps working well into a stage of life when most would have been long retired, it helps that the Dodgers remain decidedly relevant. Los Angeles came into Tuesday night holding a two-game lead over the San Francisco Giants in the NL West. There are also the little moments that keep the game fresh, like Clayton Kershaw’s scintillating no-hitter last month or Yasiel Puig, well, doing everything Yasiel Puig does. 

Built partially on money made from the network deal that also pays Scully’s salary, the Dodgers have compiled a war chest of high-priced talent designed for a title run. Maybe Scully wants to ensure he’s around to see his seventh title in person.

But even if that doesn’t happen, Dodgers fans—and baseball fans in general—will be thankful to still have him along for the ride.

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Jon Lester has made all 241 of his career major league starts with the Red Sox. He may not get a chance for No. 242 with Boston, though. 

The team’s official Twitter feed confirmed that the 30-year-old will be scratched from Wednesday’s start, sparking speculation that he will be dealt before Thursday’s trade deadline:

However, it’s not time to throw your No. 31 Red Sox jersey on eBay quite yet. According to the New York Post‘s Joel Sherman, a trade is not imminent: 

Still, rumors surrounding Lester have been heating up over the past couple of days. The Boston Globe‘s Pete Abraham reported earlier on Tuesday that the Sox “want to deal him,” and this move suggests at the very least that they are close to finding a trade partner.

If that indeed happens, there would be many disappointed individuals in Boston, including fellow starter Clay Buchholz, via ESPNBoston.com’s Joe McDonald:

Lester has spent the last nine seasons with the Red Sox, has won 110 games and has been an important part of the franchise’s last two World Series runs, but he is currently in the midst of his best season. 

Through 21 starts, the left-hander owns a sparkling 2.52 ERA and 1.12 WHIP. His strikeout/9 ratio (9.4) is the best it has been since 2010, and his strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.66) is easily the best of his career. Moreover, with trade talks increasing, he has only gotten better: In four July starts, he has been nearly untouchable, giving up three earned runs in 29.0 innings (0.93 ERA). 

Tuesday morning, he appeared to address the rumors via Twitter:

If he’s traded, Lester may just be a midseason rental, as he’s set to hit free agency in the winter. Still, he should be able to return an impressive haul for the Sox. 

CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman reported the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles were the front-runners for Lester, while Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan and Tim Brown called the Pirates a “dark-horse candidate.”

The latter would certainly make sense for both sides. The Buccos, in the middle of the NL Central race, rank just 14th in starting rotation ERA and could use an upgrade. With arguably the best farm system in baseball, they could also entice Boston into a deal. 

In any case, it’s starting to look more and more like Lester will be wearing a new uniform for the first time in his career. 

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Boston Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz is hoping to avoid a dubious feat this season, as he’s in danger of becoming the first pitcher to triple his ERA from one year to the next while throwing more than 100 innings in both campaigns, per ESPN Stats & Info (via Elias Sports Bureau).

After posting a 1.74 ERA over 108.1 frames (16 starts) last year, Buchholz saw his 2014 ERA balloon to 5.87 with an ugly outing Monday against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The 29-year-old surrendered seven runs (all earned) over five innings in a 14-1 loss, and he now owns the American League’s fourth-worst ERA among pitchers who have tossed 60 or more frames.

With 96.2 innings to his name this season, Buchholz will likely hit triple digits in his next start, which is scheduled for Sunday against the New York Yankees.

As the first part of the criteria is seemingly unavoidable, Buchholz will need to lower his ERA below 5.22 by the end of the season to avoid an unfortunate piece of history.

Optimism may be hard to come by in Boston these days, but Buchholz does stand a decent chance to finish south of the 5.22 mark.

Since returning from a knee injury June 25, he owns a semi-respectable 4.63 ERA over seven starts.

Prior to the injury, Buchholz—owner of a 3.86 career ERA—posted an unsightly 7.02 mark through his first 10 starts of the season.

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MLB‘s all-time hit king Pete Rose opened up with CNN’s Rachel Nichols about his lifetime ban from the game in an interview for Unguarded.

With next year’s All-Star Game scheduled to take place at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Rose was asked about Bud Selig’s recent comments indicating Rose could take part in the week’s festivities, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Cincinnati Enquirer.

The 73-year-old responded in the interview that they’ll let him on the field one day, but “then it’s back in prison the next day.” He added that his family has also been affected by the aftermath of his indefinite leave from the game.

Although Rose remains banned from the league, it hasn’t precluded him from taking part in official MLB events in the past.

He was honored as part of the All-Century Team during the 1999 World Series, which was his first major appearance in an MLB stadium since his ban was handed down a decade earlier. In 2010, Rose was on hand in Cincinnati when the Reds celebrated the 25th anniversary of his record-breaking 4,192nd hit.

Selig spoke to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America about Rose’s possible involvement in next year’s Midsummer Classic:

That’ll be up to the Cincinnati club, and they know what they can do and they can’t do. They’ve been very good about that. We haven’t had that discussion. It’s sort of subjective, they’ve done some things with Pete, but they’ve been very, very thoughtful and limited. That’s a subject that I’m sure they’ll discuss in the next year.

The outgoing commissioner also made a statement about possibly overturning Rose’s ban.

“It’s a matter under advisement. That’s my standard line,” said Selig. “I’m the judge and that’s where it’ll stay. There’s nothing new.”

If Rose does attend the 2015 All-Star Game, it would appear that it will only be a momentary reprieve.

Catch Unguarded with Rachel Nichols on CNN this Friday night at 10:30 p.m. ET.

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With Week 17 here, it is time to once again examine the stocks of the New York Yankees‘ top 10 prospects.

Last week’s list went as such:

1. Gary Sanchez, C: Down
2. Luis Severino, RHP: Up
3. Rob Refsnyder, 2B/OF: Up
4. Eric Jagielo, 3B: Down
5. Tyler Austin, 1B/3B/OF: Down
6. Peter O’Brien, C/1B/3B/OF: Even
7. Aaron Judge, OF: Up
8. Ian Clarkin, LHP: Up
9. Jose Pirela, 2B/SS/OF: Up
10. Greg Bird, 1B: Down

With a week having gone by and the Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline right around the corner on July 31, let’s see where the stocks of these players have gone.

Note: While other sources were taken into consideration, this set of rankings is based on my own opinion.

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Sorry, but the David Price fantasy is over.

The man is just too expensive. Not in a contract sense, but a lump sum of $14 million this year before being eligible for arbitration one last time over the winter, per Spotrac.

No, the market price on, well, Price, is simply too high at this point, thanks to a copious amount of factors that boil down into a really barebones set of statements. Price is really good. The rest of the market? Not so much. Tampa Bay is suddenly really good. Seller status? Revoked.

There was a time not too long ago when the Rays were careening toward the bottom of the AL East, a feat that can never be fully realized this season thanks to downright incompetence that wafts from Boston. The Rays have won nine of their last 10, which brings them into flirtation with .500 range after sitting at 18 games under that mark.

A mere seven games out of first place, it suddenly does not look like such a great idea to abandon a 28-year-old hurler who has been downright dominant in recent years:

Of course, that will not stop general manager Andrew Friedman and his front office from seeing what the market has to offer, as CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman helps to illustrate:

Colleagues suggest Friedman has the guts to deal Price when the team has rallied from nowhere to the cusp of the AL pennant race. A few even suggest that he may prefer to pull the trigger. “We are talking and willing. [We’ll] see if any teams have the desire,” one Rays-connected source said.

Obviously. Friedman can use the team’s recent performance and Price’s six straight wins as ammo to drive the asking price higher than ever before. Should a contender offer the motherload, he is not in an enviable position when it comes time to make a decision at Thursday’s deadline. 

“Guessing Price is sold at 200 percent markup or not moved,” one rival GM said, per Heyman.

Even at a markup, dealing Price sends a horrific message to a clubhouse that has worked tirelessly to bring itself back from the dead. Team chemistry neutered, the Rays might as well fly a white flag at Tropicana Field for the remainder of the season.

That would explain why nothing is going to happen on this front, at least not this season. A mere week or so ago, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe noted that contenders such as the St. Louis Cardinals want a long-term commitment from Price before shipping away the farm—literally—to Tampa Bay:

Would Price ever sign with the Mariners long term? The Mariners don’t view it as an issue because they would have Price for the remainder of this year and next. The Cardinals have shown interest but would want a financial commitment, according to a major league source. Don’t rule out the Giants, who also have had interest in Ben Zobrist to solve their second base situation. The Rays, however, know they need top value in return, just as the Phillies would need for Hamels.

Obviously things have changed since then, and that goes double for the status of arms available on the market. Teams in search of an ace may no longer look to the surging Rays and lofty prices, instead opting to wrangle Jon Lester from the Red Sox for better value.

For his part, Price just wants to not be like so many other stars who have been thrust into the market’s spotlight with little leverage.

“I don’t want to let anyone with my situation affect how I am in the clubhouse and on the field,” Price said, per USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale. “If I let it affect me, then it’ll definitely affect the team, and affect my teammates. I don’t want to be a distraction.”

Thursday marks the deadline, and the Rays will either be floundering away after the loss of their best player or continuing a hot streak toward the top with a renewed focus because management has shown it believes in their postseason chances.

As for the contenders on the hunt to purchase, other more affordable commodities are out there. Price is the preferred option, sure, but as the popular saying goes—there’s always next year.

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New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter continued his assault on the record books Monday night, using a three-hit performance against the Texas Rangers to move into seventh place on MLB‘s all-time hits list, per ESPN New York’s Wallace Matthews.

Jeter had three hits and a walk in four plate appearances against Texas Rangers starter Yu Darvish, bringing the veteran shortstop’s career total to 3,420 hits, one ahead of Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski (3,419).

Jeter singled to left field in the first inning and doubled in the third to tie Yastrzemski, before breaking the tie with a seventh-inning single. He registered a fifth-inning walk between the second and third hits, and later made the game’s final out in the top of the ninth.

The Yankee captain is having a solid year in this, his 20th and final MLB season. He has a .278 batting average and .333 on-base percentage through 93 games, albeit with only two home runs, 27 RBI and 34 runs. His career batting average stands at .311 entering Tuesday’s game against the Rangers, meaning he’ll retire with a mark well above .300.

Jeter started the season in ninth place on the all-time hits list with 3,316 and has added an additional 104 to pass Paul Molitor (3,319) and Yastrzemski (3,419).

The next mark on Jeter’s hits list is Honus Wagner, who is currently in sixth place with 3,430, according to MLB.com. There is a bit of a discrepancy in the record-keeping, as Baseball-Reference.com lists Wagner with 3,420 career hits, which would put the two legendary shortstops on equal footing, at least for another day or two.

Either way, barring a serious injury within the next week or two, Jeter will eventually hold down the No. 6 spot.

All stats courtesy of MLB.com unless specifically noted otherwise.

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Jon Lester is a rental.

There seems to be a rather potent stigma around the R-word at this point in baseball, but rarely do contenders have such an open shot at acquiring a legitimate ace to only further the short-term agenda.

It hurts to surrender future assets and perhaps impede championship efforts in the long run, especially if a rental chooses to bolt town after a few months of service, but Lester is the rare rental who is worth almost any magnitude of investment.

By all accounts, Lester is very much available. The 30-year-old hurler turned down a four-year, $70 million offer last spring and has been subsequently thrown on the trade block. Although his agent wants the world to know that Lester’s presence there has nothing to do with contract talks.

“The discussions we had with the Red Sox were confidential and will remain that way,” Seth Levinson, Lester’s agent, wrote in an email Tuesday to ESPN’s Gordon Edes. “There is no truth to the report, and I am not going to guess why it was written or the basis for that report.”

Lester is in the final year of a deal that pays him $13 million, per Spotrac. As the alleged declined offer shows, he is going to be quite pricey once he actually hits the market, although he has the results through recent years to back up the asking price:

The caveat being that any team that wants to inherit this production has to understand that this is different from a normal rental—Lester has not outright confirmed he will not re-up with a new team, but it is not often we hear about a player willing to go back to the team that dealt him away, as captured by Sean McAdam of CSNNE.com:

Yeah, why not? I mean, (Boston) is what I know, this is what I love. Like I’ve said plenty of times, this is where I want to be. And if they trade me I completely understand. No hard feelings. I know what they have to do for their organization and if that involves me, so be it. If it doesn’t I’ll keep running out there every five days and pitching.

Not convincing enough that Lester has Boston on the mind? Try this:

Ultimately, baseball is a business. It makes sense for the Red Sox—fifth in the AL East—to begin a bidding war and gain a bevy of assets though his departure rather than minuscule compensation should he leave via free agency and sign somewhere else.

What a war it has become too.

Just ask ESPN’s Jim Bowden:

Go ahead and add the Pittsburgh Pirates to the fray as well, per Jeff Passan and Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.

Let’s glance at those Pirates for a moment. Stuck in the quagmire that is the NL Central, they still have a shot at the top spot and very much a shot at the World Series. An addition such as Lester would work wonders, and the front office has a deep farm to pull from in negotiations, even if the front office does not have a July track record that suggests a deal will go down.

The allure of a title, though, has to be palpable. Will it ever get closer than this in the foreseeable future? Perhaps burning through prospects for the best shot the club will see for years is not such a horrific gamble.

Such is the dilemma a host of contenders face. The Milwaukee Brewers lack high-end assets to surrender but knows a thing or two about pulling the trigger on such a deal about six years removed from the CC Sabathia transaction.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays seem to be in on everyone and have assets to burn, as does Seattle, although the Mariners need more bats than arms at the moment if one had to put an annotation on it.

It is a fickle game of “what if” to be sure, and the brass in the Red Sox front office surely kick themselves daily for low balling Lester so much last spring. But they have had the proper reaction to the chain of events and seem set to deal to the highest bidder.

Which bidder that turns out to be is perhaps the biggest storyline as the month of July, and the trade deadline, fades to black. Lester is relatively young, a proven playoff winner (one loss in five tries last postseason) and undeniably a No. 1 in about any rotation in the league.

The Red Sox seem to have overplayed their hand in negotiations but will reap the benefits when a contender finally takes the dive. Lester is the best kind of rental, especially if he turns out to like his new home and the boatload of cash his new team backs up to his, well, rental.

Until something happens, that line will only get longer and the price will only get higher.

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During his 16 years in the major leagues, Mike Piazza compiled a career batting average of .308 with 427 homes runs.

Piazza, who was the 1,390th overall draft pick for the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1988, batted .300 or better for nine consecutive years between 1993 and 2001. He also had nine seasons with 30 or more home runs, and his 1997 season, where he batted .362 with 40 home runs and 124 RBI, was arguably the greatest single offensive season by any catcher in history.

Piazza’s best years came with the Dodgers between 1992 and 1997 although he did hit 30 or more home runs in each of his first four seasons with the Mets and also provided New York fans with arguably their most memorable post-September 11 baseball moment.

While Piazza was never known for his defense behind the plate, he is, statistically speaking, the best hitting catcher of all time and by no small margin.

But despite Piazza’s otherworldly offensive production from the catcher position, he has not yet been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Piazza received 57.8 percent of the votes cast by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America during his first year of eligibility and improved to 62.2 percent this past year, both well short of the 75 percent needed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

So how is it even remotely possible that the doors of Cooperstown have not yet swung wide open for a player who put up the type of offensive numbers that Piazza did throughout his career?

Well, the answer to that question is quite simple: Rumors have taken over the BBWAA, and cold, hard facts—and even logic—evidently cease to exist when it comes to the Hall of Fame’s induction process.

Piazza was never implicated in any formal steroid investigation, including the Mitchell Report, which was put together by former United States Senator George J. Mitchell at the direct request of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.

Aside from some shadowy whispers, which have circulated around the world of baseball for virtually every single player who managed to find success during the steroid era, the only real allegations of steroid use by Piazza came from columnist Murray Chass, formerly of The New York Times, who essentially accused Piazza of steroid use due to acne he had seen on Piazza’s back.

While other worthy players, such as Jeff Bagwell, have been kept out of Cooperstown due to nothing more than rumors, Piazza’s situation is slightly different in that we are talking about the greatest hitting catcher of all-time and a player who should have been a sure-thing, first-ballot selection to the Hall of Fame.

Piazza’s poor defense behind the plate during his career is nowhere near enough to overshadow his offensive production and keep him out of the Hall of Fame if the BBWAA was looking strictly at on-the-field performance.

What has happened with Piazza is that the BBWAA has taken it upon itself to play judge, jury and executioner when it comes to alleged steroid use and the Hall of Fame.

While baseball might be America’s favorite pastime, the Hall of Fame selection process has become about as un-American as any formal judgment process in this great nation of ours.

Players are no longer innocent until proven guilty; they are simply guilty if a handful of writers believe the rumors that have spawned out of thin air without any real shred of evidence.

It makes no difference that there has never been a spec of true evidence pointing towards Piazza’s use of steroids or any other performance-enhancing drug. All it takes is more than 25 percent of the BBWAA voters to believe these unfounded accusations, such as those made by Chass, to keep worthy individuals such as Piazza out of the Hall of Fame.

And that is simply not right.

If any member of the BBWAA has any hard evidence that Piazza used steroids or any other performance-enhancing drug during his career, he or she should come forward now and present that evidence.

Heck, if any writer is sitting on this kind of evidence, he or she should write a book on the subject. It would almost certainly be a bestseller amongst baseball fans.

But if not, it is time for the BBWAA to get over its newly formed God complex as it relates to the Baseball Hall of Fame and open the doors of Cooperstown to a player who is more than deserving of the honor.

Mike Piazza belongs in the Hall of Fame, and it would be a true tragedy if he is excluded from this elite baseball club due to nothing more than unfounded rumors and accusations.

Unless otherwise specified, all statistics for this article came from Baseball-Reference.com.

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After years of only inducting a few players into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the 2014 class welcomes six more-than-deserving players and managers.

It seemed to be an Atlanta Braves year, as former pitchers Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, as well as former manager Bobby Cox, enter the Hall.

Watch as Dick Stockton and Ron Darling take us through this year’s class and how it ranks among the greats.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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