NL Central

I've had a while to simmer down. 

Please congratulate me if I can somehow manage my way through this piece without jumping into one of Rahm Emanuel's profanity-laced tirades.

Dusty Baker is the sole reason why our Reds are losers.

The talent is there, perhaps not enough to make the playoffs this season—but enough to look respectable while trying.

This is what needs to be done:

New year, same result for the Houston Astros.

Roy Oswalt takes the mound and, for the first game of the season and coming off a season of injuries, pitches a decent game: six innings, seven hits, three earned runs, three strikeouts.

His team goes out and gets four hits against two-time Cy Young Award-winning San Francisco Giants hurler Tim Lincecum. They also strike out seven times, draw no walks, and score no runs.

End result: Giants 5, Astros 2.

Filed:April 5th, 2010

What were you expecting exactly? Consider me fairly non non-plussed about the Cubs 2010 opener, a 16-5 shellacking by the Atlanta Braves down at Turner Field, for a couple of different reasons actually.

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.

Don’t let Michael Jordan beat you.  

Double-team him.  Triple-team him.  

Make sure his tail hits the paint every time he drives to the basket.  Do everything you can to take him out of the game and if Scottie Pippen nails a jumper to put you away, so be it.

No matter what sport you are playing, you should always do your best to take the opposition’s best player out of the game.  In baseball, that means keeping the ball away from the hitting zone and not allowing the batter to get the fat part of the bat on the ball.

The new season is officially under way for the Milwaukee Brewers, and while they didn't come out of the day with a "W," they played some pretty good baseball in places.

The best performance of the day from someone in a Brewer uniform belonged to new center fielder Carlos Gomez.

He had four hits in five at-bats with a double, solo home run, stolen base, and two runs scored. Gomez also played well in center field to cap off a memorable Milwaukee debut.

In his first spring training ever—and with last year's Arizona Fall League listed as the only professional fodder on his Major League résumé—Mike Leake snagged the role of fifth starter for the Cincinnati Reds on Friday.

The move makes Leake only the 13th pitcher to completely skip the minor leagues since the amateur draft was introduced in the mid '60s. 

It's been 16 years since the last one, Ariel Prieto. He went 15-24 during a six-year career—a possible indicator as to why it has been so long.

With March Madness quickly coming to a close, that means only one thing: baseball season is about to begin.

In just about a week, it will be time to open ballparks across the nation as the 2010 MLB season gets underway.

Right in the National League division mix will be your Houston Astros -- and regardless of what you may hear on the radio or TV, Houston’s 2010 team will contend for the NL Central title.

But, before we jump the gun on next season, let’s quickly address seven burning issues facing the Astros as Spring Training comes to a close…

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