Los Angeles

Like Carlos Zambrano, big-time pitchers Justin Verlander, Jake Peavy, and Josh Beckett are off to awful starts. They are not alone. Names like Jon Lester, Aaron Harang, Javier Vazquez, Chad Billingsley, and Jeremy Bonderman join them on this list of the top ten worst pitchers in 2010.

Virtually all of these pitchers have two things in common. They were expected to be aces, stoppers, shutdown grinders, strike-one dealers. They are all disappointing.

Let’s take a look at how bad they all really are, see if they’re improving, and ask ourselves:

Is this just an April shower?

Los Angeles Dodgers’ LHP Clayton Kershaw has a ton of talent. There is no doubt about that. It’s that talent that made him the seventh overall pick in the 2006 Draft.

Kershaw is entering his third year now in the major leagues and if he wants to get to the next level in his career, he is going to have to learn how to throw strikes. I don’t care how much talent you have as a pitcher, if you can’t throw strikes on a consistent basis, your career won’t last long.

Scott Kazmir, it seems, has been around forever.

Moneyball introduced the world to Kazmir, and he since has been at the head of the class.

Chosen 15th overall by the New York Mets and then signing for $2.15 million allowed Billy Beane to select Nick Swisher.

Kazmir went on to lead the resurgent Tampa Bay Rays into their lone playoff appearance as the “veteran” ace of the staff.

It appears that being the ace in your early 20s comes with its problems.

Perhaps the most amusing topic of discussion this spring as position players fight for roster spots is a stipulation of Ronnie Belliard's agreement with the Dodgers and manager Joe Torre: Lose weight, gain a roster spot.

That's right. The Dodgers want Belliard—just not as much of him.

As the 2009 season came to a close, no one was more prominent of an influence in the Dodgers' playoff run than Ronnie Belliard.

On the heels of demotions to minor league camp, the Dodgers are slimming their prospective pitchers for the major league roster.

After all the hype about the return of Eric Gagne, the rebounding pitcher was sent to minor league camp and accepted the assignment.

There is no doubt that Gagne would have been welcomed in Hollywood and given a hero's welcome jogging from the bullpen to the mound, but he has been less than impressive, and the team had to pull the string.

Another Oscar night filled with people who are completely useless to society explaining their thoughts and ideals to it while holding a golden naked man has passed, but the quest for a different trophy has begun.

And I, another useless person to society, would like to explain my thoughts and ideas of what each team needs to do to hold the Commissioner's Trophy at the end of the 2010 MLB season.

With spring training beginning, now is the perfect time to get your arguing shoes laced up for another year of baseball.

And what better way to prepare one's arguing than with some predictions that w

Few individuals knew it at the time, but on Oct. 6, 1966, Sandy Koufax started the final game of his career.

The highly favored Los Angeles Dodgers had dropped the first game of the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles, but Dodgers fans were not overly concerned because Koufax was starting the second game against young Jim Palmer.

Koufax won 27 games during the season and completed 27 of 41 starts. The Orioles' entire staff had "only" 23 complete games.

Forget the stale taste of yet another Yankees-Red Sox rivalry.

If you're looking for relentless competition between heated rivals, do what your forefathers did: head out West.

After a flurry of moves this offseason, the AL West has finally become major league baseball's Wild West.

For the better part of a decade, the game's smallest division was really just a one-horse town, with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim laying down the law in six of the past 10 seasons.

But a shuffling of all four decks has put the three-time defending champs on the defense.

With a sudden influx of young guns an

There are always warning signs to addiction.

Addicts often experience mental and emotional instability, changes in physical appearance, and a sudden rejection of family or friends.

Fans, then, are addicts.

First and foremost, we are fanatics, the root of the term “fan.” We cheer wildly in large groups of strangers for players most of us have never met. We dress up in costumes like children on Halloween to show our team pride.

And, for a brief few hours, we push away everything in our world that doesn't revolve around that day's game.

Friends, family, work?

The wire services are crackling with what is deemed to be news today—Manny Ramirez is saying he will not return to the Dodgers in 2011!

This revelation ranks right up there with water being wet and the sky being blue.

Any Dodger fan who is paying attention knows this will be Manny's last season in Dodger blue. They also are aware if fate sends the season sideways, the team would look to deal Manny to an American League team.