Opinion

At this point in the MLB season, no team feels completely comfortable with its roster, and there is always tinkering to be done in an effort to get the best 25 guys in the big leagues.

Even if the big league roster is relatively solid, there are still decisions to be made at the minor league level, with an eye on who could possibly make an impact later on in the year.

Crazy as it sounds, we've nearly reached the first-quarter mark of baseball's regular season.

It's still early, of course—we've got just over two weeks to go before Memorial Day hits—and a lot can and will change between now and the unofficial halfway point of the campaign, the All-Star Game, much less the end of the regular season.

But we've seen enough over the season's first six weeks to have a good handle on things.

The Philadelphia Phillies were supposed to be easy to ignore in 2016. They were supposed to be bad, and that was supposed to be that.

But instead, here we are in the middle of May, wondering if they're actually this good.

First, let's get this out of the way: Bartolo Colon didn't make the MLB Team of the Week.

Despite launching his first career home run—a moment the Internet was created to celebrate—the 42-year-old New York Mets right-hander was edged out by a certain Washington Nationals hurler who fanned 20 batters in a game.

No matter where you live, what time it is or whether they're even playing at the moment, you can bet that the Boston Red Sox just scored.

Knuckleball pitchers stick together.

They understand each other in a way that no one else can. They ask each other questions that no one else can answer.

And when one of their own is pitching on national TV, they're going to do what they can to watch.

So last Sunday night, Steve Sparks skipped the NBA playoffs and watched baseball's latest knuckleball king instead.

It's looking like not even the New York Yankees can outrun losing forever, and that raises a question.

What would it look like if they decided to make the best of a bad situation?

It's already easy to imagine the Yankees will have to cut their losses by becoming sellers on the summer trade market. They're following a return to the postseason in 2015 with a 13-19 start to 2016, putting them in last place in the American League East. 

Take a bow, Max Scherzer.

One season after twirling a pair of no-hitters, the Washington Nationals right-hander struck out 20 Detroit Tigers on Wednesday in a 3-2 victory, tying the all-time record for a nine-inning game and carving his place in baseball history.

How exactly does a player become one of the faces of his respective sport?

From on-field ability and playing style, to off-field marketability and personality, there are a cornucopia of factors that go into a player becoming one of the ambassadors of a sport.

With MLB icon Derek Jeter hanging it up after the 2014 season and another of the game's most recognizable stars in David Ortiz set to call it quits at the end of this year, we're undergoing a changing of the guard in baseball.

When asked about Joe Ross’ dominance this season, Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker elected to offer a simple explanation.

“He’s good,” he said of the Washington starting pitcher. “It’s simple as that. He works the strike zone. Has a good sinker, good slider and this guy is going to be good for a long time.”