Baseball

Sell, sell, sell!  The Oakland A's are  24-31 and have lost ten of their last 12 games and the club is tied for last place in the American League West.  The A's have no chance to make a season out of things, right?

In the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend."

Selling off big contracts at the trade deadline shouldn't be the answer, even as the A's are mired in a terrible slump.

When people talk about the minor league prospects in the Cleveland Indians organization, they mostly discuss a small number of players. Names such as Francisco Lindor, LeVon Washington and Chen Lee are the some of the most usual suspects.

While those names are exciting to talk about, there are just as many intriguing prospects that are very rarely mentioned.

After previewing the 10 best catchers in the 2012 draft class earlier today, Prospect Pipeline’s draft coverage continues with a preview of the top draft prospects at second base.

Last weekend, I went to Citi Field and saw Johan Santana pitch a masterpiece. Santana dominated the San Diego Padres over nine innings. The Mets won 9-0 and Santana had his first shutout since 2010. The lefty struck out eight batters, walked none and threw 74 of his 96 total pitches for strikes.

On March 7, Peter Gammons of the MLB Network reported that a scout thought that Cuban free agent outfielder Jorge Soler would sign with the Chicago Cubs for $27 million.

Today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported that Soler has been deemed a free agent by the MLB, so he may now begin fielding official offers and may agree to play for a ball club.

Stanford third baseman Stephen Piscotty is an underrated college baseball player who will end up landing higher than expected in this year's MLB draft.

Many mock drafts are projecting teams near the top of the draft to select developmental high school players, but by the time the results are in we're going to see that teams value players who can make a more immediate impact.

Forget for just a moment that the Chicago White Sox hit .271 as a team and went 18-8 in the month of May.

Forget that the Sox had 39 dingers and scored 156 runs for the month for an average of 5.38 runs per game.

On Saturday, the Baltimore Sun reported the Orioles acquired first baseman/outfielder Steve Pearce from the New York Yankees in exchange for cash considerations.

While the 2012 draft class has tons of depth at some positions such as pitching (but what draft doesn’t?) and outfielders, it’s incredibly slim at others.

As I mentioned last week, the crop of shortstop prospects is less than impressive, and I think the fact that the Pirates have been linked to Arizona State’s Deven Marrero at No. 8 overall is a testament to this notion.

Let the bidding begin. Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler is officially a free agent and is allowed to sign with any team, according to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal.

Source: Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler, 20, is now a free agent, eligible to sign with any club.