Opinion

If the duration of the major league baseball season were a California road trip up the Interstate 5, the Padres would barely be in Oceanside.

Nonetheless, with one month in the rear view mirror, the Padres are in cruise control.

For the third time in four games on Sunday, the Padres shutout the Milwaukee Brewers, this time on a combined three hitter by John Garland and two relievers. The Brewers came into the series leading the NL in scoring. 

All New York Yankee fans have gotten used to general manager Brian Cashman going through offseasons in which he makes everybody happy.

That was the case following the 2008 season, when Cashman opened the Steinbrenner safe and signed CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, and Mark Teixeira. The result was a World Series title.

All Yankee fans have gotten used to Cashman going through offseasons in which he leaves us wondering what in the hell he was thinking,

For the 2010 season, San Diego Padres General Manager Jed Hoyer took over to make the disappointing team in 2009, better.

Hoyer made some decent additions, such as Jerry Hairston Jr., Jon Garland, and Matt Stairs in order bring this team around (well, at least do better than their 87 loss season).

But they are already 16-9.

Jon Garland was brought in to be the No. 1 starter, replacing Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy, and he has been performing above expectations.

Matt Stairs was to be a pinch hitter.

The Colorado Rockies scored a run off Jonathan Sanchez in the fourth inning on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead over the San Francisco Giants.

Sanchez left the game with the Rockies still on top 1-0, with runners on first and third, with one out in the fifth inning.

It's going to require a more patience than what fans and, perhaps, the Giants are showing in order for the hard-throwing left-hander Sanchez to truly emerge as a consistently solid starting pitcher.

New York Yankees starting centerfielder, Curtis Granderson, strained his right groin and will be placed on the 15-day disabled list. The injury occurred in the sixth inning of Saturday's 7-6 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Similar injuries have kept players out up to four-six weeks.

How will this affect the Yankees?

Pretty badly. 

In fact, it cost them Saturday's game.

When Granderson went out, the Yankees were forced to move Brett Gardner from leftfield to centerfield. Randy Winn went to left.

There is no doubt the Royals have better expectations of themselves every single season from their previous year.

It seems the Royals will have a break out year soon.

The Kansas City Royals struck gold when they called Billy Butler up, a .300 hitter with 20HR power, but it is Third Baseman Alex Gordon that is the key for the Royals' future.

Alex Gordon was considered to have "very big" potential when he came up, and the fans in Kansas City had high hopes for him.

This year is his fourth year in Major League Baseball but he is yet to hit above .260.

You and I are starting an all-time Fantasy Baseball Hall of Fame team. We must select one Hall of Fame player at each starting position.

I get the first pick because this is my article, but you can have the second and third picks, after which we alternate selections.

My first pick is Sandy Koufax. I want to prevent you from scoring, and no one can stop a team from scoring better than Koufax, unless it is Pedro Martinez.

Now that you are thinking about the best of the best, I will tell you that my second baseman will be Bill Mazeroski.

If Yankees’ GM Brian Cashman purchased Nick Johnson and Javier Vazquez at a department store, he would be frantically searching for his receipt right now. Sorry, no returns.

I feel bad writing this after a win (the White Sox won today, 7-6 over the Yankees), but there is indeed no rest for the wicked, and this is a question that needs to be answered.

Let me get things started with this: I'm not an Ozzie "fan."

I think he is one of the more overrated managers in baseball, still riding high from can't-miss pitching and power hitting in 2005.

His blowups in the media are infamous, ranging from derogatory terms used to describe hometown sportswriters to his now-tired "blame me, fire me" routine.

Before the 2010 Major League Baseball season began, I really wanted to put the San Francisco Giants atop the division when previewing the National League West .

Instead, I stuck them in second and gave them the NL Wild Card because I figured the more grandiose vision was the product of the fan in me.

Furthermore, I thought granting them a postseason berth was still setting the bar pretty high. Possibly a little too high.