MLB

When the Boston Red Sox's designated hitter David Ortiz cracked his third home run of the season Tuesday, he pulled within three home runs of Gary Sheffield for 25th on the career home run list, per Baseball-Reference.com.

Bryce Harper hit the century mark in home runs, and he did it in style. 

The 23-year-old reigning National League MVP hit the 100th homer of his career, a grand slam, in the third inning of Thursday's 6-2 win over the Atlanta Braves.  

Veteran pitcher Justin Masterson agreed to a minor league deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported. Adam Berry of MLB.com later confirmed the news.  

Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon left Wednesday's game against the San Francisco Giants early after suffering a toe injury, and the timetable for his return is uncertain. 

Continue for updates.

The injury problems for Minnesota Twins outfielder Byron Buxton continue, as the 22-year-old left Thursday's game with a hand injury.  

Continue for updates. 

As the Washington Nationals learned in painful fashion just a season ago, in the bigs, everything that can go wrong will go wrong.

While the neighboring New York Mets rose as the power in the the National League East, a flood of injuries combined with underwhelming play by just about everyone not named Bryce Harper ensured that the Nats would be left out of the October conversation.

Philadelphia Phillies relief pitcher Daniel Stumpf was suspended 80 games Thursday for his first violation of Major League Baseball's policy against performance-enhancing drugs.

The Phillies released a statement following the suspension and made a corresponding roster move:

One of the most exciting parts of any new MLB season is watching the next wave of stars arrive on the scene with breakout performances.

Whether it's a rookie making a major impact in his first season or an established MLB player taking that next step, there are always a handful of emerging stars each year.

The tricky part in the early-going is deciding whether a hot start over the first couple weeks is the real deal or significant regression will follow in the days and weeks to come.

The minor league season may only be just over a week old, but there have already been a number of impressive performances put forth by some of baseball's most highly touted prospects.

But not all impressive performances are of the head-turning variety—and they don't all belong to baseball's top young talent.

Byung Ho Park was basically the Bryce Harper of the Korea Baseball Organization. In his last four seasons, in particular, many baseballs were obliterated by his bat.

But now with the Minnesota Twins, Park is already raising the question: Does he have the goods to translate his talent to Major League Baseball?