MLB

The first month of the MLB season was rough on Houston Astros hitters with only two players (Miguel Tejada and Geoff Blum) finishing with an above-.300 batting average. Tejada hit .315 while Blum was close behind at .313. Both are regular players, so thankfully, the numbers don’t seem inflated.

The AL East is one of the most entertaining divisions in all of sports.  It is unequivocally exciting and unpredictable.  The Blue Jays are playing incredibly well, the Rays and Yankees have been a disappointment and the Orioles have had moments of greatness to match moments of incredible frustration. 

The only team that has played even close to what was expected is the Boston Red Sox even though they have an injury hampered rotation and their ace is not playing up to snuff.

In part one of this series, we took a look at the overall team numbers of the Washington Nationals' surprisingly effective offense. In part two here, we'll examine each of the Nats' regular players to evaluate their performance so far, and try to establish if they can keep up their pace.

Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA system is a tremendously accurate projection system, so we'll compare their projections to the players' pace to aid us in our evaluations.

Baseball fans, pundits, beat reporters, and major league managers and general managers alike, look to the usual suspects when a team is below the .500 mark at this stage of the season.

Things such as a lack of clutch hitting, an erratic starting rotation, an ineffective bullpen, sloppy fielding, and inattentive base-running.

The Minnesota Twins have suffered breakdowns in all these departments at one time or another thus far this season.

That's why they sit at 15-17, mired in third place in the American League Central Division.

Late last week, the Cubs traded speedy-yet-worthless urban legend Joey Gathright to the Baltimore Orioles for Ryan Freel, a player most Cubs fans would have loved to have seen at Wrigley Field four years ago.

Freel, who stands 5'9" and is 33 years old, is a versatile player who can play most infield and outfield positions.

Aaron Miles, whom the Cubs gave a two-year contract in January, stands 5'8", is 32 years old and is a versatile player who can play most infield and outfield positions.

Now that Oliver Perez has been airbrushed out of the Mets team picture (no record of him even existing can be found anymore), the Mets can’t seem to lose. In fact, the last game they lost was when the erratic lefty made his last start a week ago Saturday.

Seven games and three series sweeps later, the Mets have shot to first place. The combination of quality starting pitching, timely (and a lot of) hitting and the season-long success of their bullpen, along with aggressive base running, have turned the team around.

Drafted in the same round in the same draft, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson's paths through San Francisco's minor league system were bound to be compared.

The Yankees were playing the Athletics in Oakland on May 31, 1988 in a battle of division leaders. Rookie left-hander Al Leiter started for the Yankees, but he faced only one batter because his first delivery to Carney Lansford was lined right back from where it came,

The drive hit Leiter on his left forearm and landed a few feet away. Al picked up the baseball, made an errant throw towards first base, and Lansford wound up on second with no outs. Leiter could not continue.