Baseball

Just a quick note.

David Ortiz's struggles early this season were well documented. He was swinging at bad pitches, consistently swinging off-balance and, above all, couldn't catch up to a fastball to save his life, let alone an inside fastball.

Last night's blast to right field off of Atlanta starter Jair Jurrjens should quiet any doubters left out there.

Testosterone, steroids, PEDs, or performance enhancers.

Anyway you say it, it means one thing: We can’t stop talking about them—or rather we can’t stop talking about the people who abuse themselves with them.

Our Detroit Tigers squandered a 4-3 lead in the eighth inning late Friday night. The Tigers had a runner in scoring position with just one out after a stolen base by Josh Anderson.

However, the streak ended at eight as they were unable to tie up the game in the ninth. Final score 5-3 with the loss going to Joel Zumaya.

The Good

I hate the Quad-A stereotype, particularly with hitters.

If you didn't know that before, you should check out my Quad-A/GPP article from last year. It's one of my best.

A consequence of my hating the stereotype is my loving the players who are labeled with it. You can't help but root for them.

They've been unjustly declared unfit to the majors, and you hope someday they come up and stick it to whoever doubted them.

When the No. 1 pick of the MLB draft is selected, he is expected to be a star.

Some picks are met with more fanfare than others (Stephen Strasburg elicited much more buzz than Matt Bush) but all No. 1 draft picks are expected to, at the very least, be good contributors to their major league teams.

And usually, they are.

It's June 27, and the major league trade deadline is drawing near.

As always, there are many teams out there looking for offense. The Mets, Rays, Blue Jays, and others are looking for a quality bat to further their playoff chances.

The Twins released Luis Ayala on Monday after showing his disgust to Twins manager Ron Gardenhire about not being used in the setup role, never mind that role has belonged to Jose Mijares all season.

With the Marlins looking for help in getting someone for relief, Ayala is available if the team is interested.

Tonight's 5-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers is only one game. The Giants are still 39-33 and still in good shape as a team overall (even though the Rockies are nipping on the heels of the Giants at a breakneck pace).

And after all, there is more than half a season of Giants baseball left to be played.

But that doesn't mean that this road trip against Milwaukee and St. Louis is one to be taken lightly. Sure, the Giants are in a close race with Brewers for the Wild Card position.

That being said, Wild Card races only get serious come August, not in June.

After taking the last two games in Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers headed out to Chicago to face the White Sox. Hiroki Kuroda dominated the South Siders in the first game, to give LA their third straight win.

Then the Sox bounced back to take the last two, giving the Dodgers their first series loss since they hosted the Angels in late May.

Since their inception in 1993, the Colorado Rockies have had several types of teams.