Baseball

Josh Beckett continued to live up to the four-year, $68 million deal given to him by the Boston Red Sox prior to the season.

There has been a great debate going on in Rockies Nation for almost a year.

            “That won’t continue.” A new motto for Pittburgh Pirates fans to live by.

            During last night’s game, FSN Pittsburgh commentators Tim Neverett and Greg Brown stressed this point over and over again.

When you face Dan Haren, you have to be perfect.

So essentially the Rockies were done after Jason Hammel gave up three runs in the top of the first inning. The Diamondbacks went on to win 5-3.

• Francisco Liriano faces off against Justin Verlander tonight in what should be a very interesting battle. This is the first meeting between the Twins and Tigers since game 163 last October. Liriano is off to a great start while Verlander continues his April woes for the third consecutive year. Being as both players are playing out of their "norm," there's really no use in posting their career numbers against the opposition. But I'm excited to see how Liriano fairs against the hot-hitting Tigers.

Ryan Howard, arguably the face of the Philadelphia Phillies franchise, is now—on average—the second highest-paid player in the MLB, next to New York Yankees third baseman and arguably the game’s greatest, Alex Rodriguez.

Is Howard worth a guaranteed $25 million a season?

The numbers suggest yes.

Most would agree that Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay are in the top tier of starting pitchers in all of baseball right now. There are certainly other names that could be in the argument such as C.C Sabathia, Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright, Felix Hernandez, among other. However, for the sake of this argument we will compare Lincecum and Halladay.

To clarify, this is not choosing who I like better or who I would build my team around.

As the famous phrase goes, “Chicks dig the long ball.”

While that may be very true, what’s most often overlooked in the game of baseball is overall spectacular defense.

The most noteworthy defensive plays are often made by the athletic and talented shortstops of the game, which feature some of the best range in the field, combining their skillset to make diving plays, backhanded stops or the ever-so-famous jump and throw maneuver.

So who are the most spectacular and flashy of the shortstops in today’s game?

Yep, me and Matt put together a list of Power Rankings. They will be updated every week or so once the season starts.

In parenthesis is the teams rankings from last weeks edition.

NOTE: These rankings were done before the Sunday games

1. Tampa Bay Rays(4)
2. New York Yankees(1)
3. Minnesota Twins(3)

The 2010 Atlanta Braves could best be characterized as a crying shame thus far.

Floundering leadoff men, poor batting averages, atrocious RISP numbers, and a lack of fundamentals.

But they can sure take those walks, huh?

It's really been a downer in A-town since late-inning dramatics last Tuesday against the NL East-leading Phillies, and a large part of the time, it's been painful to watch.