Baseball

Some of his individual statistics don't look all that impressive. But a relatively new Yankee, Nick Swisher is quite a "package."

One would expect that from the first round 2002 pick of the Oakland A's "Moneyball" drafting process. In fact, Swisher finished with A's teammates Huston Street (the ultimate winner) and Joe Blanton in the top 10 vote-getters for rookie of the year in 2005.

On March 2, we released our 2010 starting pitching tier rankings.

In the five weeks in between, we’ve seen some surprisingly dominant performances and some lingering injury concerns, both of which have had an effect on our top 50 rankings for starting pitchers.

With the season underway, let’s see what is going on in the world of the Houston Astros.

Lance Berkman Gets Knee Drained…Again

If once you don’t succeed, try, try, try, and try again. Berkman had his left knee drained for a fifth time yesterday. You are reading correctly—a fifth time.

However, unlike the first four times Berkman had his knee drained, this time it might have actually worked.

You just got that buzz again, didn't you, Rays fans?

The thought crossed your mind the instant that Carl Crawford's walkoff two-run single sliced into right field and the Rays got a dramatic opening night come-from-behind victory against the Baltimore Orioles.

Just like old times.

James Shields put together a fine outing, only he put up three beach balls that Oriole hitters deposited into the Tampa Bay stands.

As the outs and opportunities clicked off, things began to look pretty bleak for the home team.

After a day off, the Yankees and Red Sox resumed their opening series last night at Fenway. A.J. Burnett and Boston's Jon Lester took the mound for their teams but neither pitcher was particularly sharp in this contest. Both went just five innings, giving up four runs each, although one of Burnett's was unearned.

Let's take a look at the good and bad for the Yankees in last night's game.

The Good

A 6.32 ERA…

A 1.76 WHIP…

A 5.67 K/9 vs. a 5.03 BB/9…

Looking at these statistics from 2009, you have to instantly conclude that the stats belong to one of the hottest pitchers entering 2010 for fantasy owners, don’t you? 

Of course, we’re talking about Fausto Carmona, who is arguably looking at one of the biggest turnarounds ever.

Barry Zito’s six scoreless innings in Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over the Houston Astros fit the profile the once-brilliant left-hander has slowly established in rebuilding himself after two horrendous seasons with the San Francisco Giants.

Oh, it would be nice to believe that the Zito, who gave up three hits while striking out five with just a single walk, was the result of his latest change in attitude and approach.

The Team takes a look into the lives of the Detroit Tigers baseball players. My favorite episode can be found here . The (new) Team follows our hero, Curtis Granderson, as he adjusts to life as a New York Yankee. The previous episode can be found here. This is the newest installment. Warning, strong language and stupidity follows.

Listed below, are the points and counterpoints about whether Drew Stubbs needs to hit well to stay with the Reds:

Point: Yes, Drew Stubbs' performance in the minors was not good enough to tolerate a weak bat.

Counterpoint: No, Stubbs' glove is so good that he stays unless he is failing miserably at the dish.

P: Stubbs had a .715 OPS in AAA in 2009.

CP: His OPS was .762 when he came up to the Reds. His minor league OPS was .765. What is your point?

Jake Mauer has been around baseball for his entire life.

Of course he's known as "Joe's Brother" but it wasn't long ago that Jake was also trying to make a name for himself as a player. The Twins drafted Jake in the 23rd round of the 2001 draft, the same year they took Joe in the first round.