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For division leaders, the Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees, its ho-hum this time of year. With less than a month to go in the season, these teams realize that nothing is clinched yet, and are playing their best baseball because of it. That is a product of experience from the managers and players, knowing how to handle the most clutch time of the regular season.

However, for division leaders like the San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers, this is a brand new experience, and its starting to show. For the first four and a half months, the Padres used their speed, clutch hitting, and their overall pitching staff in a monstrous ballpark to their advantage. On August 26th, they were leading the NL West by 6 1/2 games,  looking like they were well on their way to receiving a postseason ticket. And then it happened, something that almost everyone was waiting to happen. Over the next 11 days, they went on an 10-game losing streak, letting their division lead dwindle to 1 game over a Giants team that has enough pitching and offense and 4 1/2 games over a Rockies team who's shown the late season magic over the last couple seasons to make it to the BIG Dance.

Like the Padres, the Texas Rangers have been on cruise control for most of the season in their division. Owner Nolan Ryan has helped influence the staff and his young promising pitching staff to become bulls on the mound and not worry too much about the pitch counts that have taken over a lot of organization's minds. Helped by an impressive offense, the Rangers have had no worries hanging onto first place in the NL West. However, for the last couple of weeks, those 'bulls' on the staff have started to show some signs of wear and that injury bug has started to invade Arlington. Yes, they still have a comfortable lead over the Athletics, but shouldn't be feeling comfortable about how they are playing heading into October, when the season really begins.

It just tells you how long the season is it and how much it takes to be a division winner. Should be another fun and drama-filled race to the end...

This week "At the Market", the special is "Long Beach Nationals up for grabs". I'll be talking about a lefty who wasn't a popular replacement but is rebounding in his second stint in the BIGS and an IF who might have completed the Nationals infield of the future.

John Lannan - SP - Washington

The most popular question for Nationals fans before the 2010 season was "When will Stephen Strasburg make his debut for us?" If you don't know or if you have lived under a monstrous rock for a long period of time, Strasburg was the San Diego State pitching sensation that was chosen as the first overall pick of the '09 MLB Draft. Beginning the '10 season in the Minors, he immediately was living up to the hype and expectations, being flat-out dominant in almost every start. He wound up with a 7-2 record with a 1.30 ERA, striking out 65 batters in 55 1/3 innings. He could have been called up after just a few starts, but basically due to arbitration and financial reasons, he wasn't brought up by the Nationals until early June.

It was an ideal first start setting, at home against the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates. And the result was the same as the setting, striking out 14 batters in seven innings for his first career win. That performance carried over to the end of July, going 4-2 in his next eight starts, allowing 3 ER and under in all of them. He was 5-2 with a 2.32 ERA for the first two months, and then the forgettable happened. On August 21st in his start at Philadelphia, on his 56th pitch in the 5th inning, he felt a sharp pain in his right arm. The result: Tommy John surgery, which not only forced him to miss the rest of this season, but probably most of '11. The only real positive from this is based on the history of pitchers who have gotten the surgery. Like Atlanta's Tim Hudson and St. Louis' Chris Carpenter, they have gotten back to their old form, with some of them being even better pitchers post-surgery.

With a roster spot to fill, the Nationals recalled LONG BEACH, Long Island native John Lannan. Lannan was sent to Double-A Harrisburg in late June after beginning the season 2-5 with a 5.76 ERA. But even being sent down didn't help, as he was 1-4 with a 4.20 ERA in seven starts. It was when he got his second chance with the Nationals that he started to show the potential he showed in his first two full seasons as a starter. He did only go 18-28 in those two seasons, but finished with an ERA under 4.00 in each. Since being called back up, Lannan is 5-1 in seven starts, allowing just 14 ER in that span.

Can he continue this strong run to the end? It doesn't look that way, with the biggest reason being the schedule. The Nationals will see alot of their divisional foes, and that doesn't spell good news for Lannan. Against NYM, PHI, ATL and FLA this season, he is 2-3 in five starts, posting an ERA over 5.00 against three of those teams.

Danny Espinosa - SS/2B - Washington

3B Ryan Zimmerman can relate to Stephen Strasburg. Like him, Zimmerman was a top-five draft pick, chosen as the fourth pick by the Nationals in the '05 MLB Draft. It also didn't take long for him to get his first taste of the BIGS, even playing in 20 games the same year he was drafted. For the next five seasons, he has not only validated his draft selection, he has also emerged as one of the league's best all-around 3B. The Nationals weren't in existence when Ian Desmond was drafted, as the Montreal Expos took him in the 3rd round of the '04 MLB Draft.

For the first four seasons in the Minors, Desmond didn't look like he was going to be in the Nationals long-term plans. However, in '08 and '09, Desmond started to show some life, showing the speed (36 SB combined) and a strong bat (.330 in 97 games in '09), and was finally called up by the Nats in September of '09. In 153 games since making it, he's batted .286 with 13 HR, 70 RBI and 15 SB, showing that he just might be a mainstay.

Then there's 1B Adam Dunn, aka the Big Donkey. Since entering the league in '01, he has become one of the best and most efficient sluggers in the game, as he recently became one of the fastest to reach the 350-HR plateau. However, with the team again struggling, Dunn was once again part of trade talks, but for the second consecutive season, remains a National for now. It will be a difficult task, but if the team can somehow bring him back after this season, that would complete a very impressive infield.

You're saying, "Wait, that's only three. Isn't there four players on the infield?" Yes indeed, let me tell you about the fourth and final piece.

Out of LONG BEACH State, Danny Espinosa was drafted in the third round of the '08 MLB Draft. It didn't take long for him show that maybe he could have been drafted higher than that. In two full seasons in the Minors, he averaged 20 HR, 70 RBI and 27 SB. Teams and players love September 1st, because that's when teams can expand the rosters and bring in re-enforcements. Since being called up on that magical date, Espinosa has instantly shown that the Minors were no fluke, batting .409 with 3 HR and 10 RBI, highlighted by a 4-for-5, 2 HR and 6 RBI effort this past Monday against the Mets.

With Desmond as the newly crowned long-term option at SS, the plan is now to move Espinosa at 2B. The future for Dunn as a National is unclear, but for now, he is, and with him, Zimmerman and Desmond in the lineup, that makes Espinosa's stock as a fantasy player pretty high in the last stretch of '10.

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