BAD to see Colorado fall flat. The Rockies went from the first World Series appearance in franchise history to a battle for third place in the NL West, battling in the final week to avoid 90 losses. The hoped for candidates for the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation — Franklin Morales, Jason Hirsh, Mark Redman, Kip Wells and Josh Towers — combined for a 3-8 record and 7.71 ERA in only 16 starts.

UGLY to see the mess that was the Detroit Tigers. After giving away the farm system to acquire LHP Dontrelle Willis and 3B Miguel Cabrera, the Tigers signed Willis to a three-year, $29 million deal, allowing him to turn into the highest paid player in Single-A history when he lost total command, and gave Cabrera an eight-year, $152.3 million deal before realizing he wasn't capable of playing third base any longer. So what did a $137.7 million Opening Day payroll — higher than any teams outside of New York — get the Tigers? Enough frustration that the decision has been made to slash the payroll below $100 million.

GOOD to see left-hander Cliff Lee, whose struggles with injuries and command issues led him back to the minor leagues last year, not merely rebound but dominate this season. The burden of a career-high workload has shown recently (4.95 ERA in his last three years), but he is still 22-3 with a 2.54 ERA on a team that had gone from May 17 until Sunday without spending a day above .500

BAD to see the Yankees take a home-grown approach with pitching and fall flat, ending a stretch of 13 consecutive postseason appearances. Does that mean the Steinbrenners will start writing inflated checks and blow the salary market out of whack again? Things could have been smoother if it hadn't been for a combined 3-9 with a 5.41 ERA in 28 total starts from Joba Chamberlain (3-1, 2.76 in 12 starts), Phil Hughes (0-4, 7.96 in seven starts) and Ian Kennedy (0-4, 8.35 in nine starts). How bad were things? Sidney Ponson and Carl Pavano wound up in the rotation.

UGLY to see Seattle pound its chest, declare itself a serious contender in the AL West after selling out the farm to acquire LHP Erik Bedard (15 starts) from Baltimore and overpaying free agent RHP Carlos Silva (4-15, 6.46). The Mariners wound up firing GM Billy Bavasi and manager John McLaren and the only thing they contended for was the battle with Washington for the game's worst record, which earns the right to the first pick in next June's draft.

GOOD effort by Dodger GM Ned Colletti. With an inflated payroll and underachieving roster, Colletti was told by ownership that there was no money left in the budget to add players that were needed to make a run at the NL West. Colletti was able to work magic. He added Manny Ramirez from Boston, Casey Blake from Cleveland and Greg Maddux from San Diego for a combined price of some solid prospects but only $800,000 in payroll. Next thing Dodger fans knew the team was taking charge in the tepid NL West.

BAD precedent in Milwaukee, where owner Mark Attanasio panicked. With 12 games left, and the Brewers tied for the NL wild-card, he fired manager Ned Yost. With his finances stretched, and aware that the Brewers won't be able to re-sign potential free agent starting pitchers CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets, Attanasio knows it's this year or who knows when for the Brewers to end their postseason drought that dates back to the 1982 World Series loss to St. Louis. The team responded by losing four of its next seven and falling back of the Mets in the wild-card chase.

UGLY sham by the Major League Baseball Players Association who claimed it was fighting a battle based on principle when it challenged the signing of No. 2 overall draft pick Pedro Alvarez by Pittsburgh for $6 million, claiming it happened after the Aug. 15 midnight deadline. And then, when the Pirates agreed to a four-year, $6.4 million deal — which allowed agent Scott Boras to claim he got Alvarez a higher bonus than the $6.2 million Buster Posey received from the Giants — the principles didn't matter, and the grievance was dropped. Irony is that instead of having to shell out the $6 million within 12 months, the Pirates actually save money because they can spread out the $6.4 million over four years, which means Alvarez may brag about getting the biggest bonus in the draft but his greed actually resulted in less actual spending money.

GOOD to see the Cubs claim the NL Central and earn back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time since they advanced three consecutive seasons back in 1906-07-08. Yeah, a century ago, That's also the last time the lovable losers from Wrigley won a world championship. The Cubs might be one of baseball's rich kids, but they are a bright new face in what had become the predictable October appearances for the Yankees, Braves and Red Sox.

BAD memories to see the one-time dominant trio of John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, once the basis for Braves success, show that in their 40s they really are just human. Smoltz and Glavine, reunited in Atlanta, battled injuries. Smoltz was good when he pitched, but that wasn't often. Limited to six games, five starts, he was 3-2 with a 2.57 ERA. Glavine went 2-4 with a 5.54 ERA. Maddux, meanwhile, couldn't even find a final push when given the chance to be in a division title race.

UGLY mess with Houston created by Hurricane Ike. Commissioner Bud Selig took the beating for the Astros series against the Cubs being moved from Houston to Milwaukee so the games could be played, even though Astros owner Drayton McLane and the players had to approve the move. Of course, what the Astros, in their whining, never talked about was that the Wednesday before Selig began trying to convince McLane to move the series because of concerns about the hurricane and offered to provide all expenses for the players' families to travel to the series. McLane, however, resisted because he wanted the income from three expected sellouts. In fact, as late as Thursday night, McLane was proposing having the Cubs fly into the hurricane-threatened area, play Friday in the afternoon instead of at night, and then ride out the hurricane in a Houston hotel. Selig was in a bind because if he was going to move the series he wanted to make sure it would be played without weather problems so it had to be a dome stadium, and the only ones available were Milwaukee or Seattle. With the Astros headed to Florida immediately after that series, Milwaukee was chosen because of the travel demands that would have been created by playing in Seattle.