Fan News

In some respects, the one-quarter mark of the 2015 MLB campaign is an arbitrary signpost. In another way, we've reached an important milestone.

There's still enough baseball left for anything to happen. Hot streaks will turn cold, injuries will hit, slumps will end, teams will rise and fall and maybe even rise again.

But we've also watched enough action to draw some conclusions and make a few semi-definitive statements. Like, say, naming the biggest winners and losers of the season's first lap.

Baseball offseasons are made for hope and optimism.

Those five months between the end of the World Series and Opening Day help dissolve any ugly memories and bad tastes that exist from the previous season. And when that fall and winter are filled with a team making blockbuster moves to improve for the following season, the hype and expectations soar.

The Seattle Mariners entered the 2015 Major League Baseball season with championship aspirations, but their inconsistent play has them toward the bottom of the American League standings.

It's been 107 years since the last time the Chicago Cubs were at the summit of the baseball world, but if you look around the diamond when they're on the field, you'll see a core group with the potential to end the curse.

MLB veteran pitcher Bruce Chen announced his retirement Monday after 22 years in the big leagues.

Chen took to Twitter to break the news himself:

This had to feel good for Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Carlos Gomez.

After getting drilled in the head by a pitch during Sunday's game against the New York Mets, the two-time All-Star returned Monday and hit a leadoff home run to start the game against the Detroit Tigers.

President Barack Obama got his own Twitter account on Monday, and he wasted no time in following the Chicago sports teams.

Well, most of them, anyway.

President Obama, who is a Chicago White Sox fan, conveniently chose not to follow the Chicago Cubs:

Now that's a true White Sox fan. 

If he thought he could snub the Cubs without anyone noticing, he was wrong. The Cubs got wind of it and called him out.

Over the past several seasons, Cubs fans couldn't help but focus on their farm system, if nothing else to get their minds off of the lackluster product at the major league level. Now that the Cubs are competitive, their minor league system has slipped back into the background.

However, continuing to churn out young talent in the farm system is extremely important, and the Cubs still have a number of talented young players getting ready to move to Chicago.

Mike Redmond couldn't win with the players Dan Jennings picked out, so Jennings decided to try it out himself. The Miami Marlins general manager will move down from his front-office post and take over as manager, the team announced Monday.     

The span of an inch or two made all the difference for Carlos Gomez on Sunday.

The Milwaukee Brewers outfielder found himself flattened at home plate after taking a 97-mph Noah Syndergaard fastball to the head during the sixth inning of his team's 5-1 loss to the New York Mets.