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The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Tag that as the headline after Roy Oswalt is heading to Philadelphia. Let’s get to the basics of how big of a move this really is.

Oswalt is 32-years-old. In baseball terms, a lot of miles are on his arm. But the Oswalt I know from being a NL central follower is a stud. One who guarantees innings, a low scoring game and strikeouts. Some are already saying this is a bad move for the Phillies, who upgrade pitching but do nothing for the bullpen. I disagree 100%. Because whenever Oswalt is on the mound, he diminishes the bullpen needed. You don’t need a 7th inning guy, or an 8th inning guy for relief effort. He’s a top 15 pitcher in the league. Oswalt carries the load himself.

While his record may be 6-12, it’s because he played for woeful Houston. Line up his stats to anything since 2001 and everything is very similar: era, strikeouts and walks. Three weeks ago he threw a one-hitter. Come playoff time, when the Phillies reach it, he’s a perfect No. 2 guy. He’s already got World Series experience.

This move makes all the difference in the world. In the trade, Philly sacrificed an unproven pitcher in J.A. Happ, not even a top prospect. They won’t owe Oswalt much, $12 million for two years of work. And they’ve won seven straight. It’s full steam ahead now. Good luck putting the boots to Philly.

Chris Johnson wants to run for 2,500 yards in 2010. It would be the most yards in an NFL regular season since 1984. In the record breaking days that today is, is this accomplishable? I think so. Athletes are better.

Johnson tore up the 2009 season in Tennessee, rushing for 2,006 yards. Anytime this guy catches the open field, he’s gone. He’s blazing fast. So when I said the futures NFL props thrown out last night, for MVP and others, I couldn’t believe Johnson’s odds. +2500.

I’m already telling you, the Titans record regardless, 8-8 for better or for worse, Johnson is my pick for 2010 MVP. Stats like 2,500 yards would pop off the stats sheet. He’d need at least 20 touchdowns as well. In the July 5th issue of Sporting News, he said he looks at himself in the mirror everyday and see’s the NFL’s best player. He says he’s better than Adrian Petersen and everyone else. Bold. By that he sounds like the MVP. He wants it.

Peyton Manning won the award last year, and it’s been a QB award since the new decade. Maybe voters from newspapers and magazines are tired of favoring the Tom Brady’s and Mannings. Because, the last running back to win it was in 2007 with LaDainian Tomlinson. I think the pendulum sways back this year and it’s a running backs type of year. For a $1 bet, you can win $25 on Johnson. Great odds.

Joe Mauer had an eye popping game last night in Kansas City. His one homer, seven runs batted in performance was more runs produced than 17 of the 19 teams who played last night. It got me to thinking.

There’s an old adage that if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em. Kansas City is bad this year. So bad that they’re run differential is -98. But they’re actually not baseball’s worst. What would happen if they had a Mauer type? Quick answer, they’d most likely win. But good luck KC. It’s not happening. Mauer is locked in the Twin Cities until 2018.

Baseball Reference stats indicate that Mauer has a sick career playing in Kansas City. It’s his eighth favorite park to hit in, a .350 career average at Kauffman. He has the second most hits there of any stadium, outside of the now replaced Metrodome. Should I add: most RBI’s, most total bases, second most triples, fourth most runs and fifth most doubles. Kansas City is like his secret paradise.

I know the Royals would never get him, but it’s a fun hypothetical of how good he’d be there if it was his permanent baseball home. He would undoubtedly help put fans in the seats. He’s the type of star KC needs.

Some say that Mauer’s numbers have dropped considerably just by going to the new Target Field. And it does show by his stats. They wouldn’t dip at Kauffman though. Hey Minnesota: Is Alex Gordon + Zack Greinke + Kila Ka’aihue + Aaron Crow enough? ☺

NFL training camps get underway this week. Finally, the football season is here. I’ve been dying for it to begin. It can be college or professional and I’m still geeked up. Football is king.

Just the offseason of Donovan McNabb going to Washington, LaDainian Tomlinson going East Coast, Brett Favre still deciding, the Saints winning a Super Bowl, and many others makes for excitement. Last year, it wasn’t this big. It was still Favre, but it was smaller plots like Matt Cassel in Kansas City and Josh McDaniels in Denver. That was still fun. Anything football is fun.

This will be the second straight year where I truthfully think the NFL will have a “different” winner. The Saints, Colts and Patriots are definitely good. But I really, really like the New York Jets. They are loaded, offenseively and defensively. Antonio Cromartie is the most underrated offseason move.

I’m all signed up for fantasy football to start up as well. This will be the first year I compete for more than greed. I keep checking the ESPN fantasy home page time after time just waiting for draft day to get here.

It’s a wait and see type of time. But let the football talk begin.

Don’t kid yourself, but the New York Yankees will get even better this offseason. Let’s go ahead and call it a Bronx Reunion. That’s when Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia will be back together, this time in pinstripes.

It was somewhat of a shock last week when Lee, the most attractive trade deadline piece, was shipped to Texas. We all saw New York as a destination, who were offering their best prospect in Jesus Montero to Seattle. But Texas matched the Yankees offer and Seattle couldn’t refuse. Think Lee cared where he went? I doubt it. He’s a guy who’s so easy come, easy go, that he will play for anybody. I love his demeanor and the way he carries himself.

Reports said the move to the Yankees was about done. Just thinking about Lee and CC Sabathia again in a rotation is scary. Absolutely. These two aces, very different in their style, pitched the Cleveland Indians to the ALCS in 2007 alone. They very rarely ever need to be bailed out by hitting.

When this does go down, and it will trust me, Lee will get a big contract. The Yankees may even be in the talks of a possible three-peat in 2011. Lee may not get 7-years at $161 like Sabathia, the biggest pitchers contract ever. My guess is in December when the Yankees will wrap up their own Christmas present. Money can buy anything.

All it takes in baseball to win is timely hitting and timely pitching. It builds momentum. Baseball is a what can you do for me now game.

Another win for the Cubs today has me looking up. Is this team done? To some extent no. But other ways, yes. An upcoming schedule of Cincinnati followed by San Francisco, St. Louis, San Diego and Atlanta is ridiculous. That might be the toughest 17 day stretch in all of baseball. Each of these teams are at or near first place contention.

But writing this as a Cubs fan, of course I admit to always, and I mean always, believing. It’s culture to us.

You can just tell that by how this team looks and how this team is playing since the All-Star break that something is clicking. Six wins out of ten. What if Aramis Ramirez was hitting in May instead of July? Would this team be 10 games back of first place? One player can usually make a team. Just look at St. Louis with Albert Pujols or Minnesota with Justin Morneau. Chicago can beat anybody just by the look of their lineup when healthy.

The Cubs can become sellers if they want since the trade deadline is in eight days, but the fans, and I, wouldn’t be happy to see a guy like Ryan Theriot or Sean Marshall go. Or they can stay put, stick with the current team and fight to end the year around .500 ball. It’s not whether this team will make the playoffs because they won’t. This team won’t see first place in the NL Central. But things can become interesting if they play like they should. This team is likable.

When LeBron James signed with the Miami Heat, all attention on the NBA’s free agent market was lost. Really LeBron was the only one who mattered. Aside from the mega star in him, the pool of free agents was filled with veterans or young players with either a lot or few miles on them.

But to me, there’s one free agent still out that can still play. Wear and tear and all, I believe Tracy McGrady has some game left. Reports are that he’s been trying out for the LA Clippers and Chicago Bulls this week. With as slim as the market is, why not give T-Mac a one-year deal? Is there anyone more qualified for a roster spot? Now I don’t think McGrady is a die-hard wanting a championship ring every year like Kobe Bryant. He’s just addicted to basketball and wants to be on the court. He’s not obsolete like you think.

All the naysayers will persuade to say that McGrady is toast. But let me tell you one thing. Is age really that big a deal in the NBA? You’d be shocked to go down a list of guys, tell me their age and tell me their season production. Juwan Howard. Derek Fisher. Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Age is overrated in the NBA. In fact, and this would shock you, McGrady is the same age as Bryant. Both are 31.

Let’s go back a little bit and focus on Grant Hill. He parallels perfect with McGrady. Both have been mirrored by injury year after year. Everybody and I mean everybody said Hill was once done. Yet you have to give the guy credit for coming back, and for Phoenix last year he averaged 11.3 points along with playing 30 minutes a game, going to the Western Conference Finals. You’re crazy to think McGrady can’t match that.

T-Mac would be a perfect reserve guy, spotting 25 minutes a game, for any team. He has a ton of abilities that, don’t forget, won him the scoring titles in 2003-2004.

I’ve never been a Leonardo DiCaprio fan. Shutter Island and Inception changed that. He’s not as dull as I once thought. He keeps you in suspense and glued to your movie seat. In a cheesy sense, he takes your focus off the popcorn. Just think about it, DiCaprio or Nicholas Cage? Or Johnny Depp? I’ll now take DiCaprio any day.

If you haven’t seen Inception yet, get off of this blog and go see it now. It’s the most mind numbing movie in awhile. It has a certain premise about it. See the thing about hollywood films these days is how unoriginal they are. Nothing is new. Doesn’t that bug you? The majority of the 2010 films are copies of other films. The Killers. The Bounty Hunter. She’s Out Of My League. Directors and producers aren’t thinking enough.

But Inception’s director did, meet Christopher Nolan who also directed The Dark Night. Rumor has it that when the actors and personnel of this film got together some time ago, security guards were hired to occupy the building. Nolan didn’t want this film script to leak out. So he had them guard the doors. He knew it would be a hit. Just since the release on Friday, it’s grossed 62.8 million.

Inception isn’t hard to follow. It’s hard to explain afterwards. You can understand what’s happening when it’s happening, but later on it’s hard to digress. I had to punt when I tried to clarify the plot to my Dad.

It’s a very good concept. Dreams relate to all of us. Some make us not want to wake up. DiCaprio is set out in this movie to plant a seed and make a twist in someones mind. DiCpario says a great quote: “Dreams feel real while we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was strange.”

In short, this movie got me to go out. Normally I wouldn’t. I’d rather sit at home and watch a baseball game on TV, check my fantasy teams or surf the internet. This movie was worth my time. Would I go again? It would help me understand it more.

Whether or not Lou Piniella was in his final year of his contract, he wasn’t going to be brought back in 2011.

Piniella came in to overhaul a team and bring light back to earth. And he did a good job in winning back-to-back NL Central Division titles in 2007 and 2008. Add a second place finish to last year. That’s not a bad run. Actually, a hell of a run. It just doesn’t seem like Piniella has done that well.

I thank him for getting us there, but the post season collapses hurt, a lot. And that’s all that matters. Arizona and Los Angeles put us to bed rest.

Thing is, the Cubs have stunk this year. Aside from just rolling off 8 of their last 13, this team has been stuck in the ground. You could blame the front office moves, out of reach for Piniella to fix. He needed depth, and didn’t get it. The worst thing to happen to Piniella was letting Mark DeRosa walk out, his most versatile player.

Many fans have lobbied for this team to be blown up. And I’m right there. What I really want to hear is this team admit it’s bad. Aramis Ramirez was meant for 2003-2005, not 2010, as is the rest of the team. Carlos Zambrano, Derrek Lee. This is a then team of years past.

So when the Cubs are 42-52 and 10.5 games out of the division, Piniella announcing his retirement is just a sign of the times. This puts hope into next year already.

Go ahead and speculate, but there’s three guys, and three guys only who should be considered for the Cubs managerial job next year.

1. Ryne Sandberg
2. Bob Brenly
3. Joe Girardi (the man for the job)

Perception = reality. Look at the New York Yankees roster and you’re sold. Top to bottom, it’s stacked with the veterans and the up and comings, a potent mix for down the stretch in baseball. Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, C.C. Sabathia, they’re all money. It’s hard not to buy into them. The perception of them being a great team is just so true. They are.

With the All-Star Game over, and teams back on the road for more series, I’m here to calculate some second half predictions. Because as we all know, it’s not how you start but how you finish. I’m feeling self-righteous. Will my perceptions turn into reality? Let’s get this underway:

1. The Boston Red Sox will finish with the third best record in baseball, but will miss the playoffs.
2. Ubaldo Jimenez will not win National League Cy Young for Colorado. Josh Johnson of Florida will.
3. The Cincinnati Reds will miss the playoffs, faltering on getting any decent pitcher during the trade deadline.
4. Adrian Gonzalez will be the biggest name dealt at the trade deadline as San Diego collapses in the National League West.
5. Josh Hamilton will win the triple crown, the most recent hitter in baseball to win since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
6. Stephen Strasburg will win National League Rookie of the Year, with 15 wins and 141 strikeouts.
7. The Houston Astros will finish as the worst team in baseball, five years removed from their 2005 World Series.
8. The Atlanta Braves will win the National League.
9. The New York Yankees will win 105 games, and be crowned back to back World Series Champions.
10. The Chicago Cubs will blow it up. Joe Girardi will walk away from the New York Yankees for the Cubbies after back to back rings.