Baseball

2010 Top 50 Twins Prospects | No. 3 | Miguel Sano

We're just about a week into the MLB season, and a couple of teams have jumped out to early-season surprise starts .

The Blue Jays have won five straight since an Opening Day loss, and sit atop baseball's most loaded division at 5-1, while the A's have started 5-2 out West .

Let's be honest. The first week of the Seattle Mariners season has been a massive disappointment.

Thus far, the offense has underwhelmed and the pitching has struggled. The defense has been stellar, but it can't swing a bat or strike a batter out; therefore it can't solve the current Mariners' dilemma.

As several fans and writers have correctly pointed out, it's too early to abandon ship. This team has talent at several key positions, the best young pitcher in the American League, and a ballpark that is built to accommodate its playing style.

The San Francisco Giants sent Buster Posey to the minor leagues insisting that the youngster needed to be behind the plate every day in order to continue his growth as a catcher.

After a nice spring training with the bat, few who know the hitting-deprived big league club questioned the wisdom of Posey being ready to hit the big leagues.

Still, with the talk about him needing to catch every day combined with a bunch of malarkey about his arbitration clock starting (or making sure it doesn't start), most seemed fine with Posey catching for the Class AAA Fresno Grizzlies.

In yet another head-scratching move, Dayton Moore & Co. have decided that Mike Aviles was the 25-man roster casualty to make room for Gil Meche, who was activated from the disabled list for his start on Sunday.

Never mind that the optioning of a position player to activate a pitcher means the Royals are now carrying 13 pitchers on the major league roster.

Never mind that Kyle Farnsworth could easily be put on the DL as he is actually injured.

Week one of the 2010 baseball season was a bit of everything for the Tampa Bay Rays. Dramatic come-from-behind wins over the Orioles, a blow out of the Yankees in game one, then finishing the home stand with two ugly defeats at the hands of the Evil Empire definitely leaves a foul taste in the Rays' mouths as they head out for a 10 game road trip.

Starting the season 3-3 at home, while playing four of the six games in front of crowds of nearly 30,000, is not what the Rays were expecting. Tampa Bay usually excels when the Trop is filled.

 As all of us who saw the game, know what kind of game Soriano had in the outfield today.  Well so did uncle Lou apparently. In his post game comments to the press he said,"Obviously if we're not scoring runs we'll have to put our best defense out there, thats for sure." Get ready for the possibility of a heavy dose of Tyler Colvin, &/or Xavier Nady in the days ahead. 
 
  That's if it's not just Lou's frustration talking, although he didn't appear to be angry when he said it.
 

All of us who saw the game know how well Alfonso Soriano played in the outfield today. So does Uncle Lou, apparently; In his post game comments to the press he said, "Obviously if we're not scoring runs we'll have to put our best defense out there, that's for sure." Get ready for the possibility of a heavy dose of Tyler Colvin, and/or Xavier Nady in the days ahead. 
 
That's if it's not just Lou's frustration talking, although he didn't appear to be angry when he said it.
 

Look, it's hard enough to be a rookie in the majors. But to have to shoulder the burden of being the guy who brings interest in baseball back to the African-American community is taking this a bit too far.

Meanwhile, I do get it—Heyward is a very talented young black player coming along at a time when Major League Baseball is trying to encourage more African-American participation in baseball.

But there are other good, young black players in baseball that can help carry that mantle if it does indeed need to be carried.

This series is devoted to spotlighting each week’s top fantasy producers. Each player awarded a position is determined by their statistics for the last seven days. Game changing contributions are also considered.

Top Stat Stars