Opinion

Several teams have very good players in their three, four and five holes in the batting order. However I don’t think any are as good as the St. Louis Cardinals this season. Matt Holliday, Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman are as good as it gets.

As I write this article, Holliday is the National League’s leading hitter, and Berkman is in second place, both batting over .400.

In OBP, Holliday is in first place and Berkman in third.

All those who are New York Yankee fans remember the frustration we felt with the stupid Joba Rules a couple of years ago.

For those who may not remember, the Yankee brass, led by general manager Brian Cashman, decided they were going to limit the number of innings Joba Chamberlain would pitch as a starter.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have started the 2011 season with the losing record going into the last week of April that most observers expected them to have.

And yet, they are a stronger team than other versions who started previous years with winning records in April. That's because Pirate losses so far this year can largely be attributed to "strength of schedule."

Three weeks ago I wrote an article talking about the panic Boston Red Sox fans were experiencing and the excitement Baltimore Orioles fans were having over the start to their respective team's seasons.

In a story that made headlines all over the country, Major League Baseball took control of the Los Angeles Dodgers this week.

This decision came in response to the ugly divorce involving Dodgers owners Frank and Jamie McCourt.

The San Diego Padres may have the worst offense my eyes have ever seen. They are really, really bad offensively.

As a team, the Padres have a .212/.295/.311 slash line with 12 HRs. Those numbers in each category are dead last in all of baseball by a wide margin. For the love of everything holy in this world, their cleanup hitters are hitting .126 this season!

Seattle Mariners right fielder Ichiro Suzuki has taken the career path far less traveled, and that has led to uncertainty regarding just how good he really is.

While most prominent stars crack major league lineups in their early 20s after going through the minors, Ichiro cracked the Mariners lineup at age 27 after establishing his game in Japan.

Since the Cleveland Indians parted ways with CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee during the 2008 and 2009 seasons, they have been in search for one thing: pitching. 

We're not talking about just any kind of pitching, either, but the kind of pitching that can help the Tribe get back to the top of the American League Central Division and back into the postseason.

While Francisco Liriano had a good season in 2010 (14-10, 3.62 ERA) it is fair to say that he has only had one great year, way back in 2006 (12-3, 2.16).

Tommy John surgery in 2007 limited him severely for the following few seasons, but he is still regarded as a top starter in the American League.

Contract negotiations between Liriano and the Twins broke down before the season started and the lefty has struggled in the young season with a 7.40 earned run average.

Going into each season we wonder. We wonder what rookies will step up and make a name for themselves. We wonder which teams will fall flat on their faces and even which teams will shock the world.

We rarely wonder which of the players on our team is going to take a nosedive in terms of production. We try not to wonder which of our favorite players may just be entering "stiffdom". That's why I'm here.