Baseball

Is April gone already?  Last year, it couldn't end soon enough.  The Rays 2008 World Series hangover left them 9-14 at April's end, leaving Rays fans searching for the aspirin.  The Rays would never recover.

Lesson Learned.

The Rays capped off the first month of the season with their best start in team history.  The offense pummelled other pitchers into frequent early showers.  The starting pitching led the AL in ERA.  And for the most part, the bullpen shut the door.

But have the Rays finally started to cool off?

Over the past few years, the hot corner has gotten hotter. It is the address of some of Major League Baseball's best talent, featuring players who flash the leather and provide some thunder at the plate.

Many teams throughout the league call on their third sacker to anchor the middle of their lineup. Then when the inning's over, they look to them to turn two on scalding two-hoppers or cover bunts with acrobatic barehanded plays.

The position features some long-established stars, but in recent years it has been augmented by the emergence of new stars.

The New York Yankees went into last night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles with a 16-8 record and have essentially gotten nothing from Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson, and Javier Vazquez.

I guess that might be all relative because they have gotten some unreal production from guys like Francisco Cervelli, Marcus Thames, Andy Pettitte, and Brett Gardner. But going back to the players who have struggled, perhaps the biggest concern for the Yankees in the long run is Vazquez.

Upsets can be defined many ways.

When you think of upsets in American sports you will probably think of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” where the upstart men’s college hockey team defeated the alien USSR for the gold medal in the winter Olympics.

In major league baseball, there are no upsets like that.

During the regular season that word isn’t even mentioned. Teams go through hot and cold spells, face all sorts of pressures and expectations from sources that are never seen or heard from, and in general play for the marathon, not a single series.

With Curtis Granderson on the 15-day disabled list, Yankees outfielder Randy Winn will receive significant playing time in the outfield.

On Monday night, he provided the power stroke with a three-run home run to help lead New York past Baltimore, 4-1, at Yankee Stadium.

CC Sabathia (4-1) pitched eight innings of one-run ball to earn the win, while Jeremy Guthrie (0-4) suffered the loss.

Joba Chamberlain pitched the ninth for his first save of the season. Mariano Rivera was unavailable due to stiffness in his left side.

My Double G Sports fantasy baseball team which is competing in the Battle of the Blogs continues to struggle and has hit a new low. I am now officially in last place in the Willie Mays Division and am ranked 13 out of 20 teams.

Ubaldo Jimenez looks like the best pitcher in baseball.  Rich Harden and Jake Peavy appear to have turned things around.  Adrian Beltre homered for the first time.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

Pitchers:

Game number 20 of 162 in the Fantasy Baseball Insiders Tonight summer-long journey featured a game that provided a whopping 25 runs on 32 hits between two struggling A.L. powerhouses.

Game No. 20 — Anaheim Angels vs. Boston Red Sox

NATS' HISTORIC APRIL

With no game Monday evening, the Washington Nationals (13-12) can look ahead to their upcoming series with the Atlanta Braves (11-14).

While just one game above .500 now, the Nationals went 13-10 in April, posting a winning record in the month for the first time since the franchise moved to Washington.

With star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman returning after missing eight games so far, optimism abounds at Nationals Park.

EAST UP, A-TOWN DOWN

Whether it is conditioning, better use in the earlier part of careers, or simply positional evolution, any fan can recognize the trend of older pitchers lasting longer than ever.

While we will likely never see a post-40 year old run like Nolan Ryan had to close his career, the likelihood of being an effective pitcher, from the rotation or the pen, is higher than ever. Who, however, are the best?