Baseball

The 2012 Fantasy Baseball season is a month-and-a-half old. Since the opening series in Japan, fantasy owners have been over-analyzing statistics to determine which players they want to start for their team. While fantasy teams appear flawless on draft day, weaknesses begin to emerge as the season goes on. Injuries happen and players can slump at any time. Sometimes the best place to turn to is the waivers to fix a problem on your team.

The New York Yankees may have left spring training with questions about their starting rotation, but the bullpen was considered a strength.

How many teams could afford to have Rafael Soriano, who saved 45 games for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2010, as their seventh-inning go-to guy?

The Tigers are 17-18, so it's time for the armchair-general managers to come out of the floorboards and call for the heads of Jim Leyland, Lloyd McClendon, David Dombrowski–-you name it.

Raul Ibanez has been a pleasant surprise so far for the New York Yankees.

Many fans thought Ibanez would be an automatic out entering the regular season, as his spring training left much to be desired.

Those fans couldn't have been more wrong.

After Tuesday night's two home run performance against the Rays, Ibanez now has five home runs and 16 RBI on the season.

At the rate Josh Hamilton started this season, you just knew that he was bound to do something special at some point in this season.

Well, wait no more for that special moment.

Josh Hamilton hit for the "cycle" Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles. But when the ball flies out of the park, they don't let you stop at first, second or third.

Hamilton hit four two-run home runs against the shell-shocked Orioles. He finished a perfect five-for-five with eight RBIs.  He now sits at 14 homers on the year with 36 RBI and appears to be steam-rolling toward another MVP award.

If he wasn't already, Josh Hamilton is now your early front-runner for AL MVP.

Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Jose Valverde account for $73 million of the Tigers' payroll this year.

And nearly thirty games in, General Manager David Dombrowski might well be asking himself if the Tigers are seeing the type of returns expected from such a large investment.

The Cincinnati Reds started the season on the wrong foot—poor starting pitching, over-usage of the bullpen, shady defense at times, ice cold bats and some questionable managerial decisions.

However, as of late, the Cincinnati ball club has looked to be righting their ship. The pitching has begun to come together and the bats are finding their way.

On Sunday, Albert Pujols hit a home run, and there was much rejoicing.

There was much rejoicing, of course, because it was Prince Albert's first home run in a Los Angeles Angels uniform. It's been that kind of season for the former St. Louis Cardinals superstar, and it hasn't been fun to watch.