Baseball

Though his major league career is still extremely young, it's hard not to notice why the Oakland A's were willing to part with a player like Trevor Cahill to acquire Jarrod Parker.  

After a few late shaky starts during the spring, Parker was demoted to AAA Sacramento.  He was able to rebound, however, going 1-0 with a 2.18 ERA, and more importantly, surrendering only six walks in 22 innings.

What had been a dream season for the Los Angeles Dodgers thus far took a major blow on Monday, with news that MVP favorite Matt Kemp would be put on the disabled list because of a strained left hamstring. 

Tim Wakefield recently told Jon Paul Morosi of CBS Sports about how he is settling into his retirement.

In his exact words as reported on Twitter:

"It's been difficult. The fire to compete is still there. But it's been fun to be home, be a dad, a husband."

Its election time again.  Philadelphians know what that means. 

Vote early.  Vote often.

This is not about city council, though.  Nor is it about blue and red states. 

It certainly has nothing to do with the mayor’s office.

The constituency is located in Ashburn Alley.  The candidates wear white with cherry pinstripes.     

Balloting is underway for this year’s MLB All Star game. 

When people look back at trades that worked out for the Indians, it makes it easier to forget about those that didn't. 

Josh Hamilton is playing baseball like people used to play Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball on Nintendo 64. Hamilton is hitting .400 with 18 home runs and 44 RBI through 34 games this season.

No, you are not reading that wrong. Hamilton is throttling opposing pitchers on a nightly basis. He is focused, confident and extremely talented. Hamilton's mind-blowing pace has him chasing an honor only fourteen players in baseball history have ever grabbed: the Major League Triple Crown.

Ervin Santana went 7.2 shutout innings and Mike Trout and Albert Pujols paced the Los Angeles Angels' offense as the Oakland A's fell 4-0 in Anaheim.

Losing pitcher Bartolo Colon allowed four runs on 12 hits in 6.2 innings while striking out four. He is now 3-4 on the season. The A's only managed five hits and could not get a big hit with two chances late in the game.

2012 has been an up-and-down season for the New York Yankees thus far. Some players have been surprisingly hot, while some have been uncharacteristically cold. The team as a whole has gone on hot streaks and cold streaks as well, usually coinciding with the offense.

Players like Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Raul Ibanez have been red-hot to start the 2012 campaign, and are really the only reason that the Yankees have managed a 20-15 record at this point in the season.  

At 36 years of age, David Ortiz is having the type of season that rivals his 2005, 2006 and 2007 seasons, at ages 29, 30 and 31 respectively.

In each of those seasons, Ortiz finished second, third and fourth in the American League MVP voting consecutively.

This season, he is absolutely raking for the Boston Red Sox. I must eat crow, I wanted him out of town during the winter and I was wrong.

The Boston Red Sox have managed to string together five wins in a row.

Over the course of the last several games, the team has only allowed eight runs, while scoring 34 of their own, showing that the offense is clearly clicking at the right time as well.

While I think it would be a bit premature to say that the team is set to tear up the rest of baseball, there are still some positives that can be drawn from the performance of the pitching staff.