Baseball

This spring Mets manager Jerry Manuel spoke of his plan to bat shortstop Jose Reyes third in the order. Since then we have not seen the speedy leadoff hitter anywhere but atop the lineup.

Francisco Rodriguez did something he has never done before as a New York Met: he recorded a five out save and it sounds like manager Jerry Manuel liked what he saw enough that he might use him to do that more often.

“Once he’s ready to go he’s shown he can pitch multiple innings and he can bounce back,” Manuel said .

The Yankees have won their first five series, including last week's triumph over the Angels, but now the Bombers head out to Anaheim for a rematch in a stadium where New York has not had a great deal of success over the past 15 years.

Then again, this doesn't appear to be the same Halos team the Yanks have battled during the past decade-and-a-half. Los Angeles has been mediocre out of the gate, posting an 8-9 record with less-than-stellar statistics to back it up.

Sliding Into Home deserves the credit for this one. Here is a video of the incident that took place between Alex Rodriguez and Dallas Braden that ended in Braden erupting at A-Rod because he walked across the back of the mound on his way back to first base on a foul ball.

The Toronto Blue Jays began their 2010 season on a high note, starting 5-1 before coming back to the Rogers Centre for their home opener against the White Sox.

Don’t expect the Cubs (6-10) to have an easy go of it facing the Milwaukee Brewers (8-7) this time around.

The Cubs opened up their home schedule by taking two of three from the Brewers back on April 12-15—their lone series win to date—but Milwaukee and Chicago are two teams heading in opposite directions.

The Brewers piled on 20 runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday and outscored the Buccos 36-1 in a three-game sweep.

The Cubs, meanwhile, haven’t scored 36 runs in their past eight games combined.

Baseball is one really weird game.

One second you're feeling like an unstoppable freight train. Everything clicks: Pitching, hitting, defense.

It just works.

Then you blink, and BAM! Everything's upside down, and images of Manny Ramirez rounding the bases or David Eckstein singlehandedly defeating the Giants cause fans to toss and turn.

One can only really describe this as "a series of unfortunate events."

Let’s kick off our Prospect Tracker by looking at the early production of a dozen prospects.  Have they excelled?  Will they soon be pushing for a roster spot?  Let’s take a look (remember, who we look at will rotate on a weekly basis, so check back every Friday for the latest):

Carlos Santana - Cleveland Indians - Catcher

The Rangers are in an absolute free fall, the Texas sky is falling and somewhere in the Dallas/Ft Worth Metroplex, Chicken Little is running around screaming about it.

Well, ok, it's not really that bad just yet but Chicken Little may as well be Ranger fans because they certainly believe the sky is falling down on top of The Ballpark at Arlington.

They want Ron Washington fired as quickly as possible, the bullpen needs a drastic makeover and no I'm not talking about hair and nails, and the team needs to stop this slide their on after losing six of their last seven.

There are already some c

Look for New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira to break out his slump (I won't ever stop saying that until he does).

If the last series (won by the Yankees, 2-1, April 13-15) with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim is any indication of how the Yankees' latest three-game series this weekend with the Halos will go, then Yankee fans have little to be worried about.