Baseball

In the sixth game of the 1917 World Series, New York Giants' third baseman Heine Zimmerman was forced to chase Eddie Collins of the Chicago White Sox toward an uncovered home plate.

After a horrifying moment last season on August 5, 2011, when Juan Nicasio's neck was broken after being hit in the temple with a line drive by Ian Desmond of the Washington Nationals. Nicasio suffered a fractured skull and had bleeding on his brain from the impact of the liner.

It would be misleading to characterize second base as a position of scarcity in 2012.

Yes, there are no certifiable facsimiles of Robinson Cano, Ian Kinsler, Dustin Pedroia, Rickie Weeks, Chase Utley, Ben Zobrist, Brandon Phillips or Dan Uggla after the first 60 picks of a 12-team, mixed-league draft.

For the first half of the season, the Atlanta Braves struggled mightily to produce offense, and were carried by their amazing pitching.

In this half of the season, so far, their pitching has been declining, and their offense has been surging.

This is not necessarily a negative thing; however, it seems it is now the Braves' pitching that needs assistance.

In their time of need, the Florida Marlins have called on the services of an old friend to aid in their cause. In a trade with the Colorado Rockies, the Marlins reacquired super utility infielder Alfredo Amezaga to start in second base and take infielder Omar Infante's place in the lineup.

New York Yankees starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia enters Saturday's start against the Boston Red Sox with a 16-5 record and 2.55 ERA.  He leads the majors in wins and has allowed just seven earned runs over his last eight starts.

It's not even an argument that the 31-year-old is the Most Valuable Player on his own team, as the club has won 18 of his 24 starts. 

Biased as I may be, I came away from last night's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants with even more respect for my hometown team of red and less for the defending world champions.

Is it possible for a player to be one of the consensus top five players in his league and still be underrated?

If that player is Matt Kemp, then the answer is an unequivocal Yes.

Brett Lawrie, 2B Toronto Blue Jays (23 percent owned in Yahoo, 22.7 percent in ESPN)

Current Stat Line: 2/4, 1 RBI

Brett Lawrie has finally arrived! He tore up AAA pitching this season going .353/64/18/61/13. In my opinion, the call-up should have happened much earlier—but it didn't. Then Lawrie suffered a hand injury on May 31st which kept him out of the game for a while. Now that it is completely healed, expect him to rake for the Blue jays.

The Toronto Blue Jays have blown 18 saves this year while amassing a grand total of only 23. During Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays, the Blue Jays blew two saves in extra innings, which cost them the game. Coming into the season, the Blue Jays had four former closers on the team, Jason Frasor, Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch and Octavio Dotel.