Baseball

He may have started off slow, with the longest homer-less streak of his career, but David Ortiz seems to be back to his old self, and not a moment too soon! 

A three-run shot in Washington, a huge bomb off a Bronx arm, and five other home runs have all come quite recently.

While the critics were all over Ortiz to start the season, they haven't been able to say much as of late.

Ever since July 31, 2004, the Boston Red Sox have had issues with at least one position on their roster<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExp

With the All-Star game less than one month away, I wanted to break down each team in the National League and list the possible All-Star selections.

We all know that every team has to have at least one representative. This rule may not be the most popular, but at least it gives the game some diversity—a dozen Yankees and Red Sox players doesn't appeal to everyone.

The National League looks to break the stranglehold that the American League has had on it for the last decade or so. 

At the onset of this season I thought the Mariners would perform within a range: either they would lose as many or more games than they did last year, or they would finish at about .500.

Halfway in the Mariners are meeting my higher expectations, standing at exactly 35 wins and 35 losses, and looking as if they could make a push at the Rangers and Angels. Sitting 2 and a half games back of first place is a good place for a team that hasn't really found its stride or suffered major setbacks.

The Chicago Cubs lost Tuesday night to the Detroit Tigers 5-4 when Ryan Raburn hit a two run walk-off home run off closer Kevin Gregg.

If it seems like every Cubs' game is close, it's because they are. The Cubs are 34-33 and are only 3.5 games back in the NL Central division. Plus, this team are 21-13 at home, continuing the positive trend from last season of playing well at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field.

Finally, the news coming out of Boston is good. After dominating the MLB with an 18-3, 2.90 ERA performance in 2008, the Red Sox knew something was wrong with Dice K this year.

Coming back from another great performance at the World Baseball Classic, which has been thoroughly dominated by Japan in it's two contests since inception, Red Sox fans were hopeful that Dice K would be able to build on last year's numbers.

The only problem was the World Baseball Classic.

As we approach the halfway point of the campaign for the Jays, it's time to take a look at the numbers.

It's been a weird, weird, season. Expectations were pretty low for Toronto coming into this year. Yet they've turned potential disaster into first place, back to potential disaster, and finally into real competitors.

The numbers say it all for Toronto, and the following ones will define the remainder of the season for the Blue Jays.

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Manny Ramirez is no stranger to controversy, and now is part of a new one that has gained popularity in recent days. Only this time, it is not his fault.

As everyone knows, Ramirez is currently serving a 50-game suspension for violating major league baseball's illegal substance policy. Ramirez's suspension will end on July 3, barring any rain-outs before then.

The MLB amateur draft was first held in 1965. There's been some big hits and big misses chosen, especially in the top ten.

The list includes Hall of Famers, future Hall of Famers, and you can tell that it tails off near the end of the top-ten.

Here are the best players chosen by their pick number. Do you agree or disagree? I've also listed honorable mentions, although some of the pick numbers do not have any. Enjoy.

Travis Ishikawa

Ishikawa’s first base defense has been astonishing to start the season.  He has been as close to perfect as you can get.  I checked out some of his defensive numbers on baseballreference.com.