Opinion

My two main topics this week are going to be rather short, mainly because all my little notes and random bits work out to be long enough.

Can we start though with the ridiculousness (love that word) that is the fines in Major League Baseball?

Bobby Jenks was fined $750 dollars for throwing behind Ian Kinsler.

Not $7,500 or $75,000. No, he was fined $750 dollars.

To Bobby Jenks and most major league players, that is pocket change.

So I ask you, why even fine him if that's all you are going to fine him for? It seems rather pointless.

When the Mariners won a game against the Red Sox, the rubber match of the series, they did so on the starting pitching of Jason Vargas, the late-inning pitching of David Aardsma, and RBI by Russell Branyan, Ronny Cedeno, and Franklin Gutierrez.

The common thread between each is that none of them were on the team last year.

The "Good" Outfield Problem

Five outfielders for four positions: Denard Span, Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, Michael Cuddyer, and Jason Kubel. Here is a brief run-down of each and what their playing time should look like:

Just two years ago, the Arizona Diamondbacks were in the NLCS, and were favored to make the World Series. They were a team filled with a lot of young talent, who gelled and would have played for the title had they not run against the crazy winning streak of the Colorado Rockies.

Now, the Rockies and Diamondbacks are competing to be the worst team in baseball.

First of all, calm yourselves. I am in no way speaking of Hall of Famer Vin Scully. 

Instead, while Vin was enjoying the last day of a week long vacation while the team was on the road in the East, new Dodger broadcaster Eric Collins and commentator Steve Lyons (pictured above) provided the play-by-play of today’s Dodgers/Marlins game on Channel 9 in Los Angeles.

Sunday, Dodger manager Joe Torre sent Clayton Kershaw to the mound to face the Fish.

For seven innings, Kershaw allowed no hits.

One of the most talked about things in the game of baseball in this day and age is the pitch count that pitchers now adhere to. What makes this such a topic for debate is that 10, 20, 50 years ago, the number of pitches a pitcher threw in a particular game wasn't a huge factor of concern.

Back in the day, if a pitcher got to the seventh inning and just gave up the lead, he would likely be removed from the game for that reason, not because he had reached or was close to a certain amount of pitches.

All the rage lately has been about David Ortiz and his season-long slump. As of May 17, this is one of the longest homerless streaks in Ortiz' career.

Because of this prolonged slump Big Papi is experiencing, it is causing Yankee zealots and Red Sox haters alike to jump the gun, claiming that Ortiz was just one of a slew of Red Sox to take performance enhancing drugs.