Opinion

Joe Girardi refused to endorse Javier Vazquez. This was in response to his lousy outing last Saturday afternoon.

Not surprisingly, Girardi skipped Vazquez's turn last night. The Yankees manager realized Boston was not the place for Vazquez to fix his mechanical issues.

The beleaguered Yankee starter will start Tuesday evening against the Tigers.

The Tigers are salivating at that thought. Even the Twins feel optimistic about their chances against Vazquez when they play at New York next weekend.

The Cleveland Indians' bullpen, usually the source of anguish amongst fans when seasons are going right, is this year at least handling itself well. The Indians' bullpen ERA up to now is 4.03, which is not amazing, but it is definitely an improvement from 4.66 last year, fourth worst in the league.

Cubs GM Jim Hendry called up highly-touted prospect Starlin Castro Friday morning, a move that’s been widely speculated for the past week.

The MLB All-Star Game has been an event of diminishing returns in recent years. The ratings have plummeted and general interest has waned over the years, leaving the Mid-Summer Classic has nothing more than a blip on the radar.

The MLB All-Star Game once had significant meaning to the players and fans who saw the best of the best square off for the only interleague matchup outside of the World Series.

Pete Rose's collision at home plate. Reggie Jackson's moonshot. Cal Ripken's home run. All were memorable moments from a game that is losing those moments and overall attraction.

The big behemoth from Georgia lumbered to the mound to begin the top of the ninth inning with a 3-1 lead Thursday evening, in Chavez Ravine.

Jonathan Broxton closes games for the Los Angeles Dodgers, or he’s supposed to anyway.

Triple-digit fastballs, and 90 mph sliders don’t generally greet hitters with a smile.

The San Francisco Giants' two biggest surprises of 2010 so far have been Barry Zito's resurgence, and Nate Schierholtz emergence.

While Zito is finally enjoying some good press in his fourth year in San Francisco, Schierholtz is hitting .381 from the eighth slot in the lineup.

With respect to Giants' Manager, Bruce Bochy's reluctance to "mess with success," by shaking up his lineup, the numbers say he'd be foolish not to.

The San Francisco Giants are off to a great start in 2010. They have the best record in the National League, and are led by perhaps the best starting rotation in all of baseball.

While the team has a stranglehold on great pitching, their offense is below the league average in most categories. They have grounded into more double plays than any NL team, and have the fewest number of walks of any team in the league other than the Houston Astros.

According to the dictionary, the term curse means, "the expression of a wish that misfortune, evil, doom, etc., or a formula or charm intended to cause such misfortune to another."

I bring that up because in the sports world, another curse has been brought up and being talked about.

It's hard being the younger, less tradition-rich franchise in the city that never sleeps.

Well my friends, another series has come and gone for the Seattle Mariners, and the result remains the same. Swept. This time by the Tampa Bay Rays. The final game of the series, an 8-0 shellacking, saw them once again fail to push any runs across the plate.

Not even the return of Cliff Lee has been able to inspire the M's, who appear to be nothing more than a shell of the fun loving team we saw in 2009.