Opinion

On this day 70 years ago, Ted Williams made his major league debut, going 1-for-4 with a double while hitting sixth against the New York Yankees.

Twelve men involved in that game went on to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, including Williams, Joe Cronin, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Bobby Doerr, and Jimmie Foxx.

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If not being able to hit with men on base isn’t enough to anger Mets fans, then the decision from Mets management to remove an impromptu signature by Dwight Gooden on the wall in the Ebbets Field Club at Citi Field will absolutely infuriate them. And who could blame them?

It looks like the Yankees are going to skip Chien-Ming Wang's start on Friday in Fenway Park. They have a off day on Thursday and it looks like they may have Wang throw a simulated game of 80-100 pitches, they can also stop him during the game and correct some mechanical issues.

After two weeks for the Cardinals, there have been good and bad things, promising and unpromising things, and most importantly, good and bad results.  The good has been the hitting, especially the homers, and the bad has been the blown saves/losses by the bullpen.

The Good

Well, I might as well start with the most important player, Albert Pujols. He has four homers and 14 RBI (half have been in one game, however) so far this season. 

During the turn of the century, the Yankees were the premier team in major league baseball, with players who knew how to play, and contribute positively for Joe Torre, as they won four World Series between 1997-2000.

But in 2001, the end of the dynasty became apparent, as key players Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, Chuck Knoblauch, and Paul O'Neill all either retired or moved onto different teams.

This all starts with Mike Pelfrey's tendinitis.

The Mets decided to skip his start to rest the arm, which I thought was a smart move, but from there, I'm not sure about how they've gone about dealing with this situation.

After 12 games the Mets have a 6-6 record, which equals .500, but based on the OBP percentage of the team and an average of about 12 hits per game, their record should be 8-4 at worst.

They are averaging about 15 men LOB each game, this has to stop in order for the Mets to be competitive in their division.

Jerry Manuel has basically stuck with his lineup, not really tinkering too much, but something needs to be done to maximize the hitters getting on base and being driven home.

We have quite the tough business here. First of all, we have all of these hopes in the young side armer Darren O’Day, and the Mets decide to offer him back to the Angels so they could call up Nelson Figueroa to make a start for the injured Mike Pelfrey.

I thought the Mets would have been better served either placing Pelfrey on the Disabled List to be safe, or they could’ve used Brian Stokes, who has made starts before for the club. But instead, the Mets decided to offer O’Day back to the Angels.

Though the Rox faithful weren't brimming with optimism heading into opening day, there was talk that the pieces were in place for the Rockies to make a run in the wide-open National League West.

There were a lot of unquantifiable "ifs" involved however. 

IF Ubaldo Jimenez, Franklin Morales, and Jorge De la Rosa grow up and start pitching up to their potential.

IF Todd Helton's balky back holds up.

IF the new acquisitions in the bullpen would become the shutdown bunch they were supposed to be.

The Detroit Tigers are a much different team than they were this time last year; obviously they have a better record, but there are some fundamental differences between the two squads.

Notably gone are the heavy-hitters without much range, and in their place are smaller, faster players who emphasize defense over the long ball.

Last season, the Tigers were picked by almost every single baseball analyst to not only make the playoffs, but to win the World Series. They not only failed to make the World Series but failed to keep themselves out of last place in their division.