Paul Maholm

The NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers received some bad news on Saturday, as the team's official Twitter account reported pitcher Paul Maholm's MRI revealed an ACL tear:  

Bleacher Report's Scott Miller has an update on Maholm and the Dodgers' corresponding roster move:

The Los Angeles Dodgers recently recorded 17 consecutive innings of hitless pitching, setting a team record since the franchise moved to Los Angeles, per the team's official Twitter account.

Playing armchair general manager is often met with skepticism. In an ideal world, the New York Mets would have outbid the Seattle Mariners for Robinson Cano’s services, subsequently adding one of the premier offensive threats at a notoriously light-hitting position.

The Atlanta Braves (16-9) have all but wrapped up the first month of the 2013 season.

Highs include a 10-game winning streak and a sweep of the National League East preseason favorite, Washington Nationals. The low point came over the weekend as the Detroit Tigers swept the Braves.The tough series with the Tigers knocked a few players' grades down a letter.

Who's the hottest pitcher in the majors? There's Yu Darvish, the Texas Rangers right-hander who nearly threw a perfect game his first time out. Or maybe it's Atlanta Braves lefty Paul Maholm, who is 3-0 and has thrown 20.1 scoreless innings.

The Chicago Cubs poured it on the Reds 6-1 today as their bats finally came alive to end their losing streak at six.

Paul Maholm earned his first victory in a Cubs uniform, and the Cubs were finally able to prosper with runners in scoring position.

Here is what we learned from this Cubs win.

Until the recent wave of new-age statistics were introduced to baseball fans around the globe, the only way fans could decide what type of season a pitcher had was by looking at wins, ERA and WHIP.

Over the last decade, however, stats such as batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and home run-to-fly ball ratio (HR/FB) have allowed fans to get a better glimpse into which pitchers were plain bad and which were just having some bad luck.

So which five pitchers are the best bets to bounce back in 2011? Let's examine the numbers.

We all know that luck has a lot to do with the success or failure of some pitchers.  Let’s take a look at the five pitchers who qualified for the ERA title in 2010 who posted the worst BABIP and analyze their chances of a rebound in 2011:

James Shields, Tampa Bay Rays: .341 BABIP

Senior Fantasy Baseball Analyst, Jesse Mendelson, switches leagues to preview the National League Central's Pittsburgh Pirates' starting rotation. Jesse promises nothing, but notes Paul Maholm and company could potentially aide your fantasy baseball team in 2011.

From a fantasy perspective, the single most amazing thing about the Pirates’ 18 consecutive losing seasons is their incredible lack of mixed league-ownable starting pitching over that time.  

With the Pirates likely done improving the team via free agency, there still could be a trade or two that could better the club, not only in the short-term but more importantly the long-term.

The Pirates front office has made it known to clubs that it would be open to dealing both catcher Ryan Doumit and starting pitcher Paul Maholm.