AL Central

A serious Triple Crown candidate is emerging in Detroit.

Miguel Cabrera's 18 homers and 53 runs batted in pace the American League and he ranks fourth in batting average (.339).

I know precisely what you're thinking. It's the second week of June.

How dare you utter "Triple Crown"!

Well, let's look at it this way—with each mention of the feat, writers offer a refresher course in history.

Who was the last player to earn the Triple Crown?

Carl Yastrzemski.

When was this feat last achieved?

The Tigers head into this 2010 season with championship aspirations and a talented roster, but they have also relied heavily on the support of a few Tigers.

The club has recently floundered offensively, allowing more runs than they have scored. Most recently, the Tigers were shut out by the subpar Chicago White Sox.

In terms of pitching, the only bright spot has been the Tiger bullpen.

Billy Butler had started 89 consecutive games for the Royals, but that all ended on Thursday night at Target Field in Minnesota.

Butler hasn't been swinging the bat well, hitting just .176 over the past nine games. In that same span he has only one extra-base hit and three runs batted in.

According to ClevelandIndians.com, Indians top prospect Carlos Santana is expected to make his Major League debut sometime this summer and could be in the majors as early as the all-star break. The 5’11” catcher is said to be the best player within the Indians farm system and the Tribe hopes that he may be able to deliver the spark that the Cleveland offense desperately needs.
   

Welcome to the Cleveland Indians Trading Post, a weekly segment meant to help my fellow Tribe fans sort out which of the few familiar faces left on the team won’t be around much longer.

This week’s potential trade bait is Russell Branyan.

The basics

In the midst of a clearly dismal season for the Cleveland Indians, a complete overhaul of the organization is well underway.

After trading key players like CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and Victor Martinez last season, the Indians entered the 2010 season with a sense of optimism and many new faces filling out the roster. Those good feelings from opening day seem like years ago for many fans who have watched the Tribe fall to a disappointing 21-36 on the year.

Here’s a list of the first 18 players selected by the Twins in this year’s  MLB draft from mlb.com, which may grow as the Twins continue to draft players. 

The players selected thus far look like what we’ve come to expect from the Twins: a lot of college pitchers and athletic high school position players.

Second Round (74 overall) Jarrett Parker OF Virginia:   Parker actually hit better his sophomore year than he did this year.  In 2009 he hit .355 with a 1.114 OPS.  Both numbers fell this year to .338 and 1.033, which is probably why he fell to the bottom of the second round.

Bud Selig is reportedly "very comfortable" with his decision not to award Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga with a perfect game.

Glad we could get that out of the way, Bud.

Professional sports' most aloof commissioner remains just that.  The other side of his aloofness (you know, aside from arrogance) is that he's also utterly out of touch with fans.

You remember fans, Bud?  The ones who used to follow baseball before your lockout.  The ones who used to follow baseball before they found out all of their heroes were juicing. 

The first round (including supplementals) of the 2010 MLB Draft is in the books. There were a few surprises (at least based on the mock drafts I saw), with Cal State Fullerton SS Christian Colon (4th Royals) and Texas RHP Barrett Loux (6th Diamonbacks), going higher than projected. Middle Tennessee State outfielder Bryce Brentz, The Citadel’s RHP Ascher Wojciechowski and LSU’s RHP Anthony Ranaudo going lower than expected.