Rankings/List

Relief pitching in the first half of the 20th century was much different than the relief pitching of today.

Back then, it was still the general ideology of managers that the good arms were in the starting rotation and the duds were in the bullpen.

In a way it was true.

However, that ideology was starting to shift by the 1960s and the relief pitchers on this list broke that rule.

They could flat out pitch.

While the stars steal all the headlines in baseball, it’s a team’s backups that steal the bases, steal the hearts of fans and push a team far into the Major League postseason.

More often than not, the big market teams feature the best backups – in many cases, players who could start for half of the other teams in the league (perhaps more).

It’s not even close to Halloween, but these performances were scary bad for their teams this week.

1) 3B Chipper Jones, ATL

Braves fans everywhere are shedding a tear for their favorite third baseman. Jones had a terrible week of baseball.

He only had one hit in 20 at-bats, leaving him with a .050 AVG for the week. Since he can’t hit his way to first base, he has been able to force six walks this week.

2) C Victor Martinez, BOS

The postseason in MLB provides us with multiple hair raising situations that are as indelible on the mind as our childhood memories. Situations such as the unexpected sweep, a nail biting Game Seven, and the unthinkable rally, are all a big part of nearly every postseason game in MLB history.

One of the great misconceptions of fantasy baseball is that a player is destined for a monster season simply because it happens to be his walk year. Theoretically, if a player has a slow start in a contract year, he may be pressing, and just needs time to get his game together.

The beauty of a 162-game schedule is that even the most frustrated players have enough time from this point forward to turn their season around. If a big contract is at stake, a player destined for free agency in 2010 will play hurt, and is likely to be a model citizen.

I can’t believe it has already been a full month of baseball. Here are the guys who knocked the cover off the baseball this past week.

Welcome to the second half of this week's Featured Columnist Poll, an early All-Star vote.

As stated in yesterday's AL results slideshow, for this survey, I asked my peers to select only the players who have earned spots based on their performances so far this season—not to predict who will make the team or choose players who they think will have earned spots by July.

For each position I have included the full vote totals, and asked a different respondent to write a synopsis for each winner.

Thank you to everyone who voted and submitted commentary!

Note: So as not to clog people's in

Over the past few years, the hot corner has gotten hotter. It is the address of some of Major League Baseball's best talent, featuring players who flash the leather and provide some thunder at the plate.

Many teams throughout the league call on their third sacker to anchor the middle of their lineup. Then when the inning's over, they look to them to turn two on scalding two-hoppers or cover bunts with acrobatic barehanded plays.

The position features some long-established stars, but in recent years it has been augmented by the emergence of new stars.

Upsets can be defined many ways.

When you think of upsets in American sports you will probably think of the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” where the upstart men’s college hockey team defeated the alien USSR for the gold medal in the winter Olympics.

In major league baseball, there are no upsets like that.

During the regular season that word isn’t even mentioned. Teams go through hot and cold spells, face all sorts of pressures and expectations from sources that are never seen or heard from, and in general play for the marathon, not a single series.

This is an All-Star starting lineup, as would be voted by the fans (if the fans actually knew what they were doing), plus a starting rotation and one relief pitcher.

But this is one fan's opinion: mine. It was an easy exercise. There were several somewhat close calls, but nothing which I had to wring my hands over.

All numbers displayed are from the month of April only, and nothing these players did in the first couple of games in May had any impact.