Opinion

Yesterday, the daily chatter got kind of serious around baseball as many of us debated Cole Hamels throwing a pitch at Bryce Harper in Sunday night's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals. 

Raise your hand if your team has been hit by the injured closer epidemic spreading like wildfire around Major League Baseball this season.

Most of you should have your hands up, for what it's worth.

That's why teams willing to sell at the trade deadline this year might be able to acquire premium returns for their closers. One such team might be the Houston Astros, and one such player could be Brett Myers.

Carlos Zambrano has been a lot better than the Miami Marlins probably dared to hope when they acquired him from the Chicago Cubs for a bucket of baseballs and Chris Volstad.

Better yet, the Marlins can lean back and smile knowing that the Cubs are paying a huge chunk of Zambrano's salary.

I hate to be the one to rain on Miami's parade, but there's simply no way Zambrano is going to be able to maintain his hot start all season long. He's going to come back down to earth eventually.

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Kyle Drabek has turned things around and is having a great 2012 season on the mound.

After struggling through 2011 for Toronto and then being demoted to Triple-A Las Vegas after going 4-5 with a 5.70 ERA in 14 starts, Drabek is a new pitcher with superior control.

Currently, the Toronto Blue Jays are holding down the second wild card spot in the American League. The New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels have all had rough starts and might not have the season most people thought they would. That would leave room for a few teams—like the Blue Jays—to sneak up in the standings.

The San Francisco Giants' biggest enemy in 2012 is not the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Los Angeles Dodgers or any other National League opponent. 

Their biggest challenge to winning the National League West is the enemy within.

After the loss of star slugger Albert Pujols to free agency over the winter, the Cardinals were seen as a team surely on the mend. 

Few prospects have been hyped for as long or as hard as the Nationals' Bryce Harper.  When third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was put on the 15-day disabled list it heralded the call-up heard 'round the baseball world: Harper's debut.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are on fire through the first five weeks of the MLB season. A big reason for this success is because of Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. 

The Detroit Tigers have one of the best prospects in all of baseball in pitcher Jacob Turner, but now is the time that the organization needs to trade the budding star. 

The Tigers came into the 2012 season with the highest of all expectations. After winning the AL Central in 2011 and signing slugger Prince Fielder in the offseason, there's only one thing left to accomplish in 2012—winning the World Series.