Fan News

1. NL West: Change, Money and Bubble Gum

One week in, and you know what's more fun than Furious 7 meets Coachella?

The National League West.

Grab a fistful of Dubble Bubble, because that's the first checkpoint for a summer of bubble-blowing good times: Padres home opener Thursday, ninth inning, Giants center fielder Angel Pagan at the plate and suddenly he and San Diego catcher Derek Norris are jawing and must be separated.

Two of the early favorites to win the 2015 World Series will meet again at Fenway Park on Tuesday in the second game of a three-game interleague series between the visiting Washington Nationals and the host Boston Red Sox.

The second week of the 2015 MLB season has only just begun, but from the return of Alex Rodriguez to a flood of unfortunate injuries, there are already more storylines to keep track of than there are in an episode of HBO's Game of Thrones.

The critics came out in droves.

They slammed Billy Beane for dismantling a playoff team during the last offseason, and they questioned his commitment to keeping a winning team on the field since he jettisoned players like Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Derek Norris and Brandon Moss for lesser returns. They even retroactively bashed his trading of Yoenis Cespedes for Jon Lester.

They say you only get one chance to make a first impression, but nobody says you can't recover from making a bad first impression.

That's what the Chicago Cubs must be telling themselves about Jon Lester's bad first impression, anyway. And fortunately for them, their $155 million man should allow them to breathe easy before long.

All together now: It's only been a week. If the baseball season were a marathon, we'd barely have broken a sweat. So while it's tempting to draw sweeping conclusions, it's mostly folly.

Still, we just can't help ourselves. It may be early, but a handful of teams have already bucked expectations and turned heads—for better or worse.

We're talking about projected basement-dwellers who have charged out of the gate, and presumed contenders who have stumbled, often due to injuries. 

New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner exited Monday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles with a wrist injury. He did not start on Tuesday.

Continue for updates.

Kansas City Royals outfielder Alex Rios left the team's April 13 game against the Minnesota Twins after getting hit in the hand by a pitch from Twins reliever J.R. Graham. He was diagnosed with a fracture in his hand and could be out from three to six weeks. The Royals placed him on the disabled list on April 14.

Continue for updates.

Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia commented on the Josh Hamilton situation on Monday, offering his opinion of the team's star player.      

Scioscia talked about what he feels is a frustrating situation and added that he hopes to personally meet with Hamilton to get an update, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times:

Madison Bumgarner's pitching performance for the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 MLB postseason entitles him to do pretty much whatever he wants in San Francisco.

That includes riding a horse around AT&T Park before a game.