Baseball

For those of you who drafted Martin Prado, or at the very least picked him up off the waiver wire, you’ve got to be happy with his current hot streak—and 14 game hitting streak—despite the streak coming to an end Saturday night thanks largely in part to Ubaldo Jimenez’s no hitter.

But as with any hot player in fantasy baseball, the trendy question is always whether or not the player is the real deal, or just another popular flare up.

Going into Sunday's game against Kansas City, the Twins have an awful lot to boast about:

• The very successful opening of Target Field. 

• The long-term signing of the reigning American League MVP, batting champion, and hometown hero Joe Mauer.

• The most wins and highest winning percentage in Major League Baseball.

• Four straight season-opening series wins, with the first two on the road.

• Third in the American League in home runs, with six players having hit at least two homers.

Caption: CF Mike Cameron lets Carlos Pena’s line drive get away from him in the first inning of tonight’s second game against Tampa Bay. The error led to four unearned runs in the Red Sox 6-5 loss to the Rays.

Saturday April 17th, 2010 turned out to be a great day of baseball.

After coaching my son's team in their final scrimmage before our season starts on the 19th, (Anthony Cappetta: 2-for-3, with two steals) my son and I sat down at 4pm eastern time, to watch the Mets take on the St. Louis Cardinals.

Despite the fact that the Mets have been a disappointment so far in this young season, even after their own manager proclaimed that the team needed to get off to a fast start, something about yesterday seemed different.

Where do I begin? How do you talk about ending a love-hate relationship?

That is where I am with Francisco "Coco" Cordero.

If you watched Saturday night's loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, you should already be in league with me.

Johnny Cueto left after five complete innings pitched and a one run lead. He was in line for the first win for a Reds starter in the young season.

Three pitchers (Daniel Harrera, Logan Ondrusek and Arthur Rhodes) were awarded a hold to set things up perfectly for our local stud, Cordero.

Here’s a look at the two-start pitchers for week 3.

Five Stars

None

Four Stars

Starlin Castro , arguably the Cubs' top prospect, is flashing the potential to hit at the big-league level early in the season. The Tennessee Smokie shortstop is currently hitting .342, with a .500 slugging percentage helped by his two triples in eight games.

Springtime is a phenomenal time to be a sports fan.

It starts with March Madness, which was better than ever this year. Baseball season kicks off. The NBA and NHL playoffs get started. Even football is in the fold, with the NFL Draft taking place at the end of April. What's not to love about spring sports?

However, it's not all sunshine and lollipops this spring in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

The 20-inning pitchers duel that the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets endured on Saturday was one of the craziest games I have ever seen in my life. And that is no exaggeration.

While I was disappointed, and even mad about the loss directly afterwards—as a fan, I had to appreciate what I had just witnessed.

Thoughts were flying through my mind at a million miles per second. Some entering and exiting my head before I could even try to rationalize them.

I’ve long been a proponent of MLB teams being allowed to trade draft picks or even draft slots. They do it in every other sport, why not baseball?

Just think about it: a Stephen Strasburg or a Bryce Harper comes along and a team like the Yankees want him badly. But what can they do? Winning teams draft too low to get a guy like that.

Ah, but not so fast, kimosabe. What if the team with the worst (or second-worst) record is allowed to trade that pick? Now what would some team pay?