Baseball

I am lucky enough to be a Mets fan living in Queens. I’m lucky enough to have the means to buy a nice ticket package every season. I’m lucky enough to work for a company that has season tickets to the Mets.

All those factors contribute to the fact that I go to a lot of Mets games every year.

I was at Opening Day last season, a game that was supposed to be fun. A new stadium, a new season. A chance to leave behind the bad taste we all had in our mouths following 2007 & 2008.

With the 2010 season just getting under way for the Yankees, there are already rumblings that the team is trying to add on more players.

On Sunday, FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported that the Yankees were possibly looking to add outfield help to what they already have.

Rosenthal reports this because of the Yankees' questionable depth in 2010. Curtis Granderson is a lock in center field and Nick Swisher is a lock in right field. But, if by any chance if they get injured, that hurts their depth and their batting order.

Here’s a look at the unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Placido Polanco, Philadelphia Phillies
Polanco hit just 10 HRs last year, but started out with a bang going 3-for-4 with a grand slam and six RBI. Hitting between Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley doesn’t hurt.

Starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano endured the worst outing of his career Monday, surviving just 1 1/3 innings and surrendering eight runs, an inauspicious beginning to what became a downright ugly loss for the Chicago Cubs on Opening Day.

The Atlanta Braves got nine RBI combined from shortstop Yunel Escobar and rookie sensation Jason Heyward en route to a 16-5 win.

There are always a few players fantasy GMs need to keep their eye on. Hopefully you've already drafted them. Anyone can draft Albert Pujols. Anyone can see the value of Evan Longoria. Finding value in the unproven commodities is where you make the big bucks.

If you haven't drafted them yet, here are five players to try to go get before their owners realize what they have. These are the guys that will lead you to title town.

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All other things being equal, it's clearly better to chalk up a "W" than an "L." Nevertheless, some wins are better than others.

The wins to be happy about are ones where opponents were clearly out of it, and are likely to stand up under most different sets of circumstances.

On the other hand, the Pittsburgh Pirates won last night, not because they posted winning metrics, but because they were playing an opponent they could beat. The Los Angeles Dodgers outhit the Pirates, 12 to 10, and proved once again that Zach Duke is one of the most hittable starters in baseball.

In any endeavor in life, the leap from the No. 2 person to being the No. 1 man or woman is tremendous.

Until you go through it, you will never know how big the actual leap is.

Going from a Director of Sales to a VP of Sales is a huge step. Coaches will tell you going from an assistant basketball coach to the head coach is the longest eight feet in their lives.

In baseball, going from the seventh or eighth inning guy to the closer is a big step.

New Toronto Blue Jays closer Jason Frasor found out how big that step was yesterday.

Unless an injury occurs or a trade happens, the Boston Red Sox will have four-fifths of their starting rotation set until 2014. That is because John Lackey, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, and now Josh Beckett are under team control until that year.

Yesterday, the Red Sox signed Beckett to a four-year, $68 million contract extension. The deal will pay Beckett $15.7 million from 2011-2014. Beckett also received a $5 million signing bonus.

When the deal ends, Beckett will be finishing his 14th year in the major leagues and will be 34 years old.

Too bad there's no such thing as mulligans in baseball. Carlos Zambrano's first two innings were just about as bad as they come, as the Atlanta Braves pounded on the Cubs in the season opener.

You really have to squint to see anything good in this one, but there are some promising remarks to be made.

First, the bad.

All of the promise of offseason trades and unbelievable expenditures culminated on Monday afternoon as the Chicago Cubs traveled to Atlanta to face the Braves.

It only took an inning to ruin the Cubs' season.

Jumping out to an early 3-0 lead in top of the first inning, the Cubs looked like they were ready to stake their claim and end the streak of something like 500 straight years without a World Series title.