Baseball

I recently asked the Double G Sports Expert Panel to give me their MLB team rankings and with that I have come up with our power rankings.

I realize its only two weeks into the season and you can't get a true evaluation of a team in that short period of time. We will bring you our power rankings once a month.

Who is the top team? Is it the defending champion Yankees? Their World Series opponent the Phillies? Or could it be a surprise team such as the Blue Jays or Rays?

There are so many transactions and trades that need to happen this season right now and before the July 31st Trade Deadline. Many of these trades and moves will all put the teams on top and become even better than they are and will cause them to pretty much guarantee to make the playoffs. Of course not all of these transactions will happen, and in fact most of them won't happen, but these are moves that should in fact be made and if made, then those teams would be put on top and be even better.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona currently faces two questions that are in essence one and the same; how much longer can he, in good conscience, continue to write David Ortiz's name into the lineup each day, and how much longer can he not write Jeremy Hermida's name into that lineup?

The Colorado Rockies spent six weeks in Tucson stressing fundamentals. Through the first nine games of the season they look like they spent their time in Tucson at the golf course.

What is up with Jorge Cantu?

He now has at least one hit and one RBI in each of the Florida Marlins' first nine games.

That is a record. That's right, he is the first player to accomplish that in the history of Major League Baseball.

Mike Piazza of the New York Mets has the longest streak of a hit and an RBI. On Jun. 14, 2000, Piazza went 2-for-5 with three RBI against the Chicago Cubs. Then for 15 consecutive games, ending on Jul. 2, he managed to get at least one hit and at least one RBI. 

You have to hand it to Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. His taste in women is as varied as his hot zone at the plate.

He's been linked to women old enough to be his mom (Madonna) and he just reportedly let a 25-year-old loose for being too clingy.

He's gone Hollywood with Kate Hudson and high society with girls like Key West socialite Elaine Spottswood.

He's gone from Kate's chest impairment to Elaine's ample endowment.

Now he's going back to Tinseltown and going a little older.

Arch Ward was the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune from 1930 until his death in 1955. He was a powerful, influential individual who could sell sand at Jones Beach.

In 1933, during the Great Depression, Ward argued that "baseball needed to show that it was not in a state of decadence."

Chicago was going to have the Century of Progress World's Fair that summer and Ward suggested that an all-star game between the two leagues would bring baseball to new heights.

A perfect example of Reds starting pitcher Homer Bailey came Wednesday night against the Florida Marlins. The frustration fans have felt about this guy is back.

We all thought he had turned the corner. We all thought the former phenom finally "got it." We all thought the Reds had found a solid starter for the next 10 years.

Looks like we were wrong.

Sure, the season is still in its infancy, and the marathon is still in the first mile, but so far Bailey has shown he is still not there yet.

I love going to Yankee games. Love, love, love it.

My feeling is probably similar to how Hank Steinbrenner reacts when the Phillip Morris Convention rolls into town. Pure titillation.

So when my buddy Mark offered me a ticket to the Yankees' home opener against the Angels on Tuesday, you can guess that my schedule was quickly cleared.

Being your dutiful Yankee blogger, I felt it was my responsibility to do a couple of laps around the House That George Built and report on what I saw.

Please excuse my shoddy camera work.

Hope springs eternal. Alas.

Chicago Cubs fans are resiliently optimistic. They’re also habitually disappointed. More than a century after the Cubs’ last World Series win, the locals are still praying for a miracle in the Windy City—which would be better news if earthly prayers weren’t so apt to blow away in a stiff breeze.

Faith means believing that anything can happen.

Fatalism, on the other hand, means knowing that it usually doesn’t.