Fan News

It’s only a little over a month into the Major League Baseball season—meaning all statistics still represent a small sample size—but many of the game’s top rookies are off to a hot start.

At the same time, there are several highly regarded young players who have struggled—some even mightily—to begin the season. While some of them will be encouraged to work through their scuffles in the majors, others will face an inevitable demotion if they don’t right turn things around in a hurry.

Now a month into the MLB season, it's as good a time as any to take a look at the latest trade buzz around the league.

Phillies Itching to Sell?

The St. Louis Cardinals certainly have no shortage of young star pitching prospects in their farm system. Shelby Miller sat at the top of that list of prospects coming into this season, and he has done an outstanding job fitting into a starting rotation that is arguably the best in the entire MLB right now.

Hanley Ramirez was helped off the field Friday night after clutching his left hamstring following a slide into third base.

UPDATE: Saturday, May 4, at 6:21 p.m. ET by Tom Kinslow

The St. Louis Cardinals are engaged in a tight battle already in the NL Central, and some sobering news on Friday will make their fight to stay alive in that race a little bit tougher.

According to Barry Petchesky of Deadspin.com, an authentication expert concluded that a 1964 game-used Mickey Mantle bat that was going up for auction contained cork in the barrel.

The St. Louis Cardinals will not have reigning National League saves king Jason Motte as their closer at any point during the 2013 season. 

There, in the distance, I see smoke and white flags being waved!

Such is my vision of the 2013 Major League Baseball season. There will be a point, right around the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, when some teams just plain give up and go into fire-sale mode.

Not a hard prophecy to conjure, really. It happens every year, and it will happen again this year. The only question is which teams are going to be the ones doing the giving up and the selling?

Finding sleepers in fantasy baseball is a process very similar to discovering them just as a fan and/or analyst of the game. Too often, we get caught up in the easily discernible numbers, like batting average, to say that a player is having a breakout season.

Thanks to enhanced metrics, as well as a deeper dig into stats, you can tell when a player is doing something different that is sustainable and who is in for a rude awakening as the season moves along. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers ended April with a very appropriate 13-13 record. The .500 record was fitting because the first month of the MLB season provided as much hope as it did frustration for Dodgers fans.

While some of Los Angeles’ most important players got off to fantastic starts, others stumbled out of the gate. Injuries have also decimated the roster, just as it did during the second half of the 2012 season.