Fan News

Late April on the Major League Baseball front is the time when teams, successful or not, begin to fine-tune their lineups.

So, here's a few modest proposals for Major League teams to consider.

Cincinnati Reds

Take Micah Owings off the mound and install him as an everyday player.

Holy Babe Ruth, the kid can crush the ball.

In 126 Major League at-bats, Owings is hitting .325 with 19 extra-base hits and 23 RBI.

For those of you who may already be giving up on your team, and wondering what can be done to fix your team, know this: There are solutions.

Although there are few marquee names, a solid cast is available to revamp your Nationals, Indians, Rockies, or Astros. Think about this, trade every player on your roster for whatever minor league talent you can scrape together, then go out and sign a new team, an all-star team, the all free-agent team. Here they are:

Starting Lineup

Here is a short list of what I have deemed to be the best names in baseball. The important thing to remember is that mothers and fathers actually sat down and decided to name their kids these names. These names will definitely not be featured in any baby book. OK, so not all of these names are that bad, but some of them are just downright funny.
Feel free to leave any others that you know in the comment box.

When Troy Glaus went down this winter with shoulder surgery, Cardinals fans started to count the days until his return.

There was much speculation as to who could start in absence of Glaus, and names such as Joe Mather and David Freese arose. Mather ended up being optioned to AAA, and Freese has only managed 19 at-bats and a couple of hits.

But the dynamic rookie duo of Joe Thurston and Brian Barden have excelled so far this season, leaving myself and other Cardinal fans worrying less and less about Glaus' return date.

Youk you hear it every time Kevin Youkilis comes up to bat, makes contact, or a great play in the infield. As of late this guy has been on fire. Now my question to you out there is what the hell is any team going to do about this guy?

When Jose Morales made the club out of spring training as Joe Mauer's replacement, the assumption was that Morales would fill in until Mauer was ready to return. It was a fair assumption because, after all, with a tight bench to begin with, making room for three catchers would be a difficult task.

Much in the same manner as the Twins did with their 11-man pitching staff idea, the team has rethought the plan to ship Morales to triple-A when their All-Star catcher returns to the lineup Friday, in the Metrodome against the Kansas City Royals.

It is impossible to approach Dodger Stadium without driving through a set of hills. These hills serve as a preamble—an overture, as it were—to the joyous occasion that is seeing the Los Angeles Dodgers host another major league team.

After passing through the parking lot gates, you soon view the stadium structure and notice a low thrumming drumbeat. As you cross the threshold of the fan entrance and have your ticket scanned, the other instruments become audible and amplify once you are first able to see the lush green field.

As much as I hate to say it, reports of the Yankees' demise are premature. 

Yes, they just got swept by their arch rivals in humiliating fashion. Looking at the bigger picture though, they are 9-9 so far without their best player. Plus, they could have easily won two of the games against the Sox.

In reality, the Yankees are far from done. This series didn't really tell us that much about where they would finish. However, it did give me a chance to look at the squad more closely. Here are the three positives and negatives that I gleaned from this weekend's series:

Over the next month or so, I'm going to break down a different MLB team each day, and make a bold prediction as to what they're looking at, position wise, come September.

Naturally, I'll start with my team—the Seattle Mariners.

It was painfully obvious last year, that the Mariners were not a good team. Suffice to say, almost nothing went right in a 101 loss, last place season. The 2008 Mariners were also the first team in history with a $100 million payroll to lose 100 games. Not an accomplishment to be proud of.