Fan News

Team (Current Record|Last Week's Ranking)

1. Toronto Blue Jays (25-14|1)

What a team you have when both your offense and pitching are top five statistically. The Blue Birds lead the MLB in runs (223), hits (408), total bases (647), and RBI (211). They're also second in extra base hits (142) and batting average (.290). The pitching staff is also impressive, leading the American League in quality starts (21) and batting average against (.243). Playing at Boston this week will be a test to see whether this team is for real or not.

All the rage lately has been about David Ortiz and his season-long slump. As of May 17, this is one of the longest homerless streaks in Ortiz' career.

Because of this prolonged slump Big Papi is experiencing, it is causing Yankee zealots and Red Sox haters alike to jump the gun, claiming that Ortiz was just one of a slew of Red Sox to take performance enhancing drugs.

Bob Geren is a great manager to build your confidence with. I mean what other manager will let a starting pitcher give walks to the first two batters of an inning before sending out the pitching coach, Curt Young.

Then only to have young catcher Kurt Suzuki call for a fastball down the middle of the plate and before you know it the pitcher is staring at a 3-0 deficit with no outs. Thanks, Bob appreciate the support.

Friday night I was at the Dodgers-Marlins game and saw firsthand the farce that baseball umpiring is. I was compelled to shout at the sky to whoever may be listening in the heavens. Unfortunately stadium security was clearing out the remaining thousand or so fans remaining so I have to direct my rumblings towards the internet heavens.

Despite becoming a baseball fan sixteen years ago with the arrival of the Marlins to my South Florida neighborhood, I’m still somewhat of a novice when it comes to the rules and details of the sport.

Billy Beane is the only general manager that would allow personal feelings to get in the way of the team's success. The hiring of Bob Geren was the worst decision Beane has ever made and now, Beane does not have the fortitude do fix it.

Here's an easy thought for Beane: It's time to get rid of whatever personal feelings you have for Geren, and get rid of him. Then to save yourself call a press conference explaining why you had to fire Geren.

When the Phillies signed outfielder Raul Ibanez in December, Phillies fans questioned the decision.

Ibanez never received much publicity playing for a bad Seattle Mariners team on the West Coast, so to the common fan he was an unfamiliar face and name. He was 36, turning 37 in June.

He was a left-handed hitter, even though the Phillies already had lefties Ryan Howard and Chase Utley in the middle of their lineup. An even bigger reason the Philly faithful were skeptical of the signing was because it meant the team wouldn’t be resigning fan favorite Pat Burrell.

Originally written for AccentAdvocate.com.

June 1 tends to be the time when a lot of the top prospects start getting called up.  We are now two weeks away, so let’s take a look at seven prospects (I left out names like Clay Buchholz and Lastings Milledge, who have already seen extended time in the major leagues) that should be on owners radars, as they could offer potential help once recalled:

Matt Wieters - Baltimore Orioles

The Counselor is IN: Michael Kaplan

It is probably getting tougher and tougher for Dan Haren to go back to the stadium for each start. Haren has gotten a total of three runs in his first four starts from that Diamondback offense.