While the rest of the NL tries to figure out what the Mets did to shut out the Phillies three straight times, we thought we’d offer up a couple of links.

Former GM Jim Bowden has been in charge of a couple of have-not teams (Cincy and Washington), so he knows a thing or two about small market baseball. He shared his thoughts with Whatifsports and you can read it here.

Speaking of the Reds, over at Razzball, there’s an interesting article about the currently scorching Scott Rolen. This is a dude I’ve been recommending people sell high on, but I might risk waiting another month to part with him. Check out Rolen’s first-half-second half splits over the past few years (not to mention his injury history) and you’ll know why it’s wise to parlay his excellent start now.

The Swedish born power forward was inconsistent from a production standpoint, and his ceiling is likely limited, but he provided a great spark of energy and toughness for a listless Piston team and proved to be one of the true steals of the 2009 draft. I could see selecting Jerebko with a late-round flier, but don’t expect him to outperform his rookie effort by much, if any in 2010-11. more

Still, taking over as General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning is a great opportunity for a man who is clearly ready to head up an NHL club. Sure, he could have stuck around for as long as it took until he got his opportunity to run the Wings, but imagine the pressure that would have been heaped upon the local hero if he was suddenly thrust into the top position in Detroit. And imagine if he had failed. more

Over at What If Sports, they’ve complied their all-budget teams. more

I can’t honestly recall a situation quite like this one. On the one hand, 2k has pumped out some really strong new content. The maps are absolutely top notch, Kill ’em Kindly is a fun alternative to the standard modes and Rebirth gives players that have maxed out a reason to return. However, what good is all this new content if you can’t jump online and just play the maps? more