Opinion

Here is a curveball at you.

For the Brewers, losing Rickie Weeks in 2009 is a bigger blow than losing Yovani Gallardo in 2008.

I know, at first it sounds outrageous.  How can anyone pretending to know anything about baseball say something so absurd? 

It is not possible that losing a pitcher of ace caliber can be less damaging than losing a second baseman, who throughout his entire career—minus the most recent couple of months—has been under-performing, is it? 

Mike Port apparently needs to read the umpires' report before making any kind of determination of what should happen to Todd Tichenor, a fill-in umpire in yesterday's Boston Red Sox vs Minnesota Twins game.

There's no need for Port too look at the report, Tichenor messed up majorly and clearly has shown why he's usually umpiring down in AAA and even that seems too good for him now.

All the events occurred in the seventh inning as well. 

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The Colorado Rockies are playing bad baseball.

Through Wednesday, the team is the second-worst team in the game, slotted right behind the dreadful Washington Nationals with a record of 18-28.

The Rockies were recently swept in a three-game set with the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in abysmal fashion, losing by a combined score of 31-13. 

And they actually managed to look worse than the aggregate score would make it seem.

This Column Originally Published on GetOutofMyBallpark.com

Warning: This post written under the influence of Big League Chew.

Cheer up Nationals fans. A brighter future is just around the corner.

Think I'm kidding? I'm not. No this is real optimism, not some pie-in-thy-sky act.

The Washington Nationals, despite the fact of an MLB worst 13-33 record, a bullpen that couldn't get a little league team to go three-up, three-down, and a surprisingly porous defense, is looking very much like the Atlanta Braves circa 1990.

Although many refer to baseball's current generation as the "steroid era," far from the only changes in the game can be traced to medically enhanced physiques. Pitcher wins, losses, and saves, batting average, RBI, errors and bunting all seem to be on the way out in favor of adjusted ERA, BABIP, VORP, range factors, and pitch counts, all leading to a newer era in baseball influenced by the work of sabermetrics—trying to measure objectively what leads to wins and losses, challenging the conventional wisdom, and often upending it.

Jerry Manuel has made it abundantly clear that Fernando Martinez was punished enough for the big mistake that he made during Wednesday’s game against the Nationals.

Martinez hit a high pop fly and didn’t run, and surely enough, the ball wasn’t caught, and Martinez was thrown out. The crowd booed as they didn’t appreciate the lack of hustle by the young rookie.

This article originally appeared on Fantasyfootballmaniaxs.com.

Finally, after weeks of waiting, the top prospect in baseball arrives to the majors. 

Matthew Wieters, a switch-hitting elite catching prospect, will be making his major league debut on Friday against Dontrelle Willis and the Detroit Tigers. 

It will be a grand day for baseball, as a new era of young stars is born. He is the first to make some noise.

It’s all but obvious that the Mariners will draft Dustin Ackley in the upcoming amateur draft with the second overall pick. However, the team also holds picks 27 and 33.

Jack Zduriencik has been diligent in acquiring left-handed power hitters, speedy outfielders, and middling starting pitching prospects, so the bottom of the first round could be a field day for the GM.

Ackley has high value because he may be able to play center field, and recently some have begun to project him at second base. Supposedly Zduriencik likes the idea of Ackley at second.