Fan News

Over the last few seasons, we have seen the emergence of a number of young pitching prospects in Major League Baseball.  

Unfortunately, 2014 has been the year of torn ulnar collateral ligaments, resulting in season-ending Tommy John surgery for a lot of those young stars.  

Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is currently on the disabled list with a broken thumb, but when he comes back, he may no longer be "Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals third baseman."

It has been a nightmarish start to the season for 25-year-old Will Middlebrooks, and it's about to get even worse. 

According WEEI.com's Alex Speier, the Red Sox have placed the third baseman on the disabled list with a fractured finger:

As the Arizona Diamondbacks desperately search for answers amid a frustrating start, the team thinks it has found the man who can provide them. The Diamondbacks announced Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa will join the team in a newly created Chief Baseball Officer position.

The news came from Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports. Joey Votto, the Cincinnati Reds star first baseman, stayed in Cincinnati for an MRI and a consultation with team physician Dr.

Do you remember the infamous "Jungle Bird," the man who crashed the 2012 U.S. Open and a 2013 match between Everton and Juventus all in the name of deforestation? Of course you do. 

Well, he's back, this time storming the field at Nationals Park during Washington's matchup against the New York Mets. 

Baseball's 162-game schedule allows for introspection and wide-ranging narratives, but the day-to-day news cycle looms for every team. With each injury, disabled list stint, minor league call-up or transaction, the state of the league can easily shift.

With few dominant or awful teams, the beauty of this season lies in the details. Every pitch of every at-bat matters. Therefore, it's instructive to review the season on a weekly basis. 

Finding a trade partner at this time of the season isn't easy.

Teams that have quickly fallen out of playoff contention, even if they are fairly certain that they're not good enough to bounce back, will typically wait until at least late June before throwing in the towel and trading away a player with value.

Why? Because they want to give the team that they assembled a chance before subtracting an integral part of that roster in a trade. 

In the over century-long World Series drought the Cubs are currently experiencing, they've had their fair share of heartbreak. Sometimes they've been downright bad, but sometimes they've actually had reason to get excited. Such is the case for the Cubs right now as they are building up a solid hitting farm system with potential future stars like Javier Baez, Albert Almora, Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler. 

A quarter of the way through the season, the 2014 American League Cy Young race isn't lacking in participants. Masahiro Tanaka is one standout. So is Sonny Gray. And Mark Buehrle. And usual suspects Felix Hernandez and Yu Darvish.