Baseball

"There was absolutely no doubt that he (Wakamatsu) had the capabilities to one day manage in the big leagues," Mike Scioscia once said. "He was a terrific teacher, communicator, and he knew the game."

Who will win AL manager of the year?

I say not Garnedhire, not Maddon, not Girardi, and not Francona.

Who?

Don Wakamatsu.

Believe it or not folks, this is a critical time of year.

Right now is when the free agent and trade moves you make can define your season. We have all sat around and watched the first month of the baseball season.

In most cases, teams have given their players time to work out of early season slumps. This has worked out well for players such as Justin Upton and Chris Davis. For others such as Derek Lee and Matt Holliday, we are still waiting for the turn-around.

I know, I know—I'm a tad late with this one. Not only have the San Francisco Giants already started their next series against the Colorado Rockies, but the first pitch for the second game is only minutes away.

And it's all the more inexcusable because the series I've been dragging on was a fantastic offering that saw our good guys slay the evil Los Angeles Dodgers twice in three chances.

Oliver Perez has certainly been a bit of a project since he became a Met. There have been some days in which he looks ike an ace, and there have been others that make people think that he shouldn’t be in the major leagues. So far this season, there has been more of the latter.

He has only lasted five or more innings once, and that was when he earned his only victory of the season against Dan Diego on April 15. He has already walked 15 batters in just 19.1 innings, and he is going to need to get his act together if he wants to stay in this rotation.

Inspired by Rob Abruzzese’s article:

MVP of the Month:

Right now, I am sitting in the Editing Suite for my college, and my group members and I are working on a documentary on farming.

Even on an off day, and while working on something that has nothing to do with it, I am still thinking about the Mets—and with a big weekend series with the Phillies coming up, all of the rage of the past couple of seasons has risen from the depths of me.

So I got myself thinking: Who do Mets fans dislike the most when it comes to the Philly Players?

"Oh [expletive]."

That's what I'd be thinking if I were a sports agent right now—more specifically, an agent representing one of Major League Baseball's forthcoming crop of free agents.

The problem might be just the same in the other major American sports, but it's baseball season, so I'm talking small ball.

Some of the members of this blog play intramural sports at their respective universities and we like to share our tales of intramural glory. This is another one of those epic tales.

I love Baseball. Like really love Baseball. So much so that I have Honus Wagner's lifetime BA in my brain.

So much so that I often tell my girlfriend how much time she has left with me (meaning how much time until the first pitch of the Rays game) and so much so that I study everything I can about the history and lore of the game.

Welcome back my friends to the most in depth free agent and waiver pickup blog anywhere, The Hot Eight! As we close out the first month of the MLB season, I am happy to have recommended free agents such as Dexter Fowler, Nelson Cruz, Colby Rasmus, Scott Downs, Nyjer Morgan, Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner well in advance of their most productive games so far.