The New York Yankees are in first place in the American League East with the best record in baseball, but all of a sudden their starting pitching has become a concern. On Saturday, the Yankees’ AJ Burnett left the game early with cuts on his pitching hand and on Sunday the team lost lefthander Andy Pettitte to an apparent groin injury. Despite losing Pettitte to injury, the Yankees’ offense picked up the slack and New York beat Tampa Bay 9-5 to take the weekend series between the sport’s two best teams.

The Golden State Warriors have been one of the NBA’s worst teams in recent years, but they did set an off the court record this week. On Thursday, an agreement was reached to sell the team to Boston Celtics’ minority partner Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber for $450 million (US). That is the highest price ever paid for an NBA team, eclipsing the $401 million that Robert Sarver paid for the Phoenix Suns in 2005. The sale must now be approved three-quarters of the NBA Board of Governors, and Lacob must unload his interest in the Celtics.

New York Red Bulls announced that they’d reached a deal with former Arsenal and Barcelona striker Thierry Henry. The 32 year old Henry signed a multiyear deal with the Red Bulls, with financial terms not disclosed. He’s expected to make his MLS debut in an exhibition game against English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur on July 22.

Following LeBron James’ hype filled announcement that he’s signing with the Miami Heat, Cleveland Cavaliers’ owner Dan Gilbert lashed back with a scathing letter on the team’s website. Hopefully it took a ‘load off his mind’ but it definitely took some weight out of his wallet—on Monday, he was fined $100,000 for his comments by NBA Commissioner David Stern. Stern also indicated that Gilbert should stay mum about what transpired unless he wanted to receive another hit to his wallet.

While most of the media focus heading into the British Open will be on the sport’s most famous player, there are a couple of lower profile entrants that shouldn’t be ignored by sports betting enthusiasts. Tiger Woods is the favorite to lift the ‘claret jug’ symbolic of winning the oldest major tournament, but he’s never a good betting value and particularly in his recent form which has been well below his usual level of excellence. For that matter, the sport’s second most famous golfer, Phil Mickelson--and the third favorite to win the British Open—is notoriously awful in this tournament. That’s good news for us, however, since the presence of ‘false favorites’ gives us some nice betting value on golfers that might not be household names.

TUESDAY JULY 13TH

AL VS NL 8 PM EST (CURRENT BETPHOENIX.COM LINE IN BOLD)

AMERICAN LEAGUE -$119 NATIONAL LEAGUE +$109 TOTAL 8.5

STARTERS- AL -DAVID PRICE TAMPA BAY RAYS NL - UBALDO JIMINEZ COLORADO ROCKIES

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz hasn’t had a particularly good 2010 season, but he looked great on Monday as he hit 11 homers in the final round to beat Florida’s Hanley Ramirez in the annual Home Run Derby. The event, held in conjunction with the Major League Baseball All Star Game, featured a number of heavy hitting players including Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera and Milwaukee’s Corey Hart. More notable was the players who didn’t participate--Ryan Howard, Albert Pujols, Jose Bautista, Adam Dunn, Joey Votto, Alex Rodriguez and defending champion Prince Fielder all sat out the event.

Despite the acquisition of LeBron James and Chris Bosh, not everything is going the Miami Heat’s way this NBA offseason. On Monday, veteran point guard Derek Fisher rebuffed overtures to join the biggest free agent in the sport and announced that he’ll return to the Lakers for the 2010-2011 season. The Lakers have won two straight NBA titles and five during Fisher’s time with the team dating back to the Shaq/Kobe era. He’s signing a three year, $9 million (US) deal to stay in Los Angeles.