Opinion

The Padres must resist the urge to pull the trigger on the multiple offers that will inevitably come at them for third baseman Chase Headley.

Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported:

At last, the Boston Red Sox finally made a decision on struggling starting pitcher Daniel Bard.

They sent him to Triple-A Pawtucket to try and figure things out without hurting the major league club.

High school players take longer to develop than collegiate prospects, but a few prep stars in the 2012 MLB draft have an upside that was just too good to pass up.

The teams that drafted these teenagers will be in for a several year wait until they see their investment pay off. 

Still, the talent they just added to the organization will be very valuable in the future. 

Here are the five best high school players taken in this year’s draft. 

Manny will soon be Manny again.

Any day now. Maybe. Possibly.

OK fine, nobody except Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane has any real clue when Manny Ramirez might be ready to join the big club, thus ending a lengthy absence from Major League Baseball made up of a sudden retirement in 2011 and a 50-game PED suspension this season. Beane will know when Manny is ready when his scouts say Manny is ready.

Deven Marrero will have a hard time living up to his first-round expectations despite his fall to the No. 24 pick. He's not the only one though, there are two others that won't live up to the expectations of a first-round pick. 

We'll start with the aforementioned Marrero.

Deven Marrero, SS, Arizona State

Boston selected Marrero with the No. 24 pick. He is a defensive-first shortstop, which should come as no surprise, because most are.

This might not be the best time to take issue with Brian Cashman, the general manager of the New York Yankees. After a slow start, the Yankees are in third in the American League East, only 1.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays entering their three-game series.

Several teams beefed up their pitching staff in the 2012 Major League Baseball draft.

Some teams reached for a prospect, some teams got lucky to pick one that fell and a few teams got the perfect player at the perfect time. 

Here are the four best grades from teams that added big arms in the draft. 

Mark Appel, RHP, Stanford—Pittsburgh Pirates, Pick No. 8

Grade: A+

On May 18th, Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman Mark Ellis strained his hamstring against the St. Louis Cardinals and was placed on the 15-day disabled list the following day, adding his name to a long list of Dodgers who have spent time on the disabled list this season.

Sell, sell, sell!  The Oakland A's are  24-31 and have lost ten of their last 12 games and the club is tied for last place in the American League West.  The A's have no chance to make a season out of things, right?

In the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend."

Selling off big contracts at the trade deadline shouldn't be the answer, even as the A's are mired in a terrible slump.

Last weekend, I went to Citi Field and saw Johan Santana pitch a masterpiece. Santana dominated the San Diego Padres over nine innings. The Mets won 9-0 and Santana had his first shutout since 2010. The lefty struck out eight batters, walked none and threw 74 of his 96 total pitches for strikes.