Why move a guy who has saved 72 games for you over the last two seasons into the rotation?  In the modern game elite closers are tough to come by and are worth their weight in gold.  Another thing to consider is the fact that Feliz has never thrown more than 127 innings a season at the professional level.

Irregardless of the fact that moving Feliz to the rotation is a bit of a gamble in general is the fact that they are handing the closer role over to a guy whose arm looks to be shot.  It would be one thing if they were getting the Joe Nathan of three or four years ago, but this is a guy who missed all of the 2010 season due to a bum elbow and never looked particularly sharp last season for the Twins.

It is not as if it was a case of Nathan needing to knock off the rust at the beginning of the year.  Granted he was better down the stretch than he was at the start of the year, he simply was not that good in general last season.  He did convert all six of his save opportunities the last two months of the season, but he did so while posting a 5.06 ERA.

It would be one thing if they went out and signed Johnathan Papelbon to take Feliz’s spot but Joe Nathan seems like a step back for the Rangers.  This move also makes one wonder if they do not think they have a shot at re-signing C. J. Wilson.

Don’t get me wrong Werth is a very good player and one of the better bats available on the open market this winter, but we are talking about a guy who has never hit over .300 and never driven in over 100 runs in a single season in his career getting roughly $18 million per year over the next seven years.  The only thing he has ever led the league in is doubles, at least Holliday is a career .317 hitter and averages 111 RBIs for his career, and at least he has a batting title and RBI crown to his credit.  Honestly if you are going to break the bank on a free agent outfielder this winter why not go for Carl Crawford who is a 4-time All Star and over three years younger than Werth?

As crazy as the Werth deal is I cannot help but wonder if Cliff Lee is even going to remotely live up to the contract he is about to get.  There are talks of Lee getting six or seven years at well over $20 million per season.  This is a pitcher who turns 32 next season and has only really pitched at a Cy Young caliber level one time in his 9 year career.  He is a guy who has only ever won more than 14 games twice in his career.  Lee owns a 3.85 lifetime ERA and has only ever posted a sub-3.00 ERA once in his career.

Cliff Lee is a very good pitcher and would be the ace on a lot of teams around the majors and is a great big game pitcher, but one really has to wonder whether a 31-year old pitcher is worthy of a 7-year deal when the odds are he will not be a top flight starter by the end of the deal.  At his age, odds are, he probably has, at most, only four or five years left as a top of the rotation pitcher.

One would think that teams would have learned from the last couple of pitchers who got the long term big dollar deals at the age of 29 or later.  Johan Santana and Barry Zito have not even remotely approached living up to the contracts they received.  Zito is a lot closer to Lee in terms of the level he had pitched at during his career up to the point he got the big contract.

The team that is lucky enough to land Cliff Lee will be getting an All Star caliber pitcher for the next couple of years, but one really wonders whether they will live to regret it five years from now when they will likely be paying $20 million to an aging lefty entering the twilight of his career.

… the Seattle Mariners were dubbed the favorites to win the American League West after dealing for Cliff Lee?  I was never one that jumped on that bandwagon simply because there best power hitter was Milton Bradley and they are a team full of guys who, aside from Ichiro and maybe Chone Figgins, are probably not hitting any higher than sixth or seventh on most other teams’ lineups.

… Phil Hughes looked like a legit Cy Young candidate?  Since starting the year 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA Hughes has gone 9-5 with a 4.98 ERA.

… Joba Chamberlain was going to be the next coming of Roger Clemens?  Since the beginning of the ’09 season Chamberlain is 10-10 with a 4.81 ERA.  It just goes to show that having a 95 MPH heater means nothing in the majors if you cannot locate it consistently and back it up with other quality pitches.  One can only wonder if Joba gets as much hype as he did if he pitches for any other team than the Yankees.

… Alex Rodriguez was a mortal lock to claim the career home run record?  He still has a realistic shot at doing it if he still has another five or six quality years in him where he can hit in the neighborhood of 30 homers.  His home run numbers have dropped of quite a bit in the past couple of years and one only wonders if it has to do with getting off the juice or if the hip injury has sapped him of some of his power.

… some of the experts on ESPN were trying to tell us that Jason Heyward was a potential MVP candidate at the beginning of the season?  Don’t get me wrong Heyward is a great talent but guys simply do not come up to the majors at the age of 20 and being putting up the numbers it takes to dethrone a guy like Albert Pujols.

… Todd Helton used to strike fear in the hearts of opposing pitchers and managers?  It is kind of sad to see a once great hitter struggle the way he has the last few years.

… the Rockies were the odds on favorites to win the National League West without too much effort?  What happened to the Rockies this season?  They actually have a legit ace and now it is all they can do to stay above .500.

… the Dodgers actually mattered in the National League West?  The team’s typically reliable pitching has let them down this year and without Manny being Manny the team is without a marquee bat to help pick up the pitching staff this season.

… Omar Minaya was a rising star amongst baseball GMs?  How far has this guys star fallen since taking over in New York for the Mets?  To be honest given all of the money he has spent since getting there and only one 90-win season and one playoff appearance I am kind of surprised he still has a job.  He has handed out some big time contracts to guys who have not come close to living up to them.

… Johan Santana was regarded as the best pitcher in all of baseball? We have not heard a whole lot about him the past couple of years in New York have we?

… Jason Bay was actually someone opposing teams had to be concerned about?  Man has that been one of the worst free agent deals in recent memory or what?

… nobody had Big Papi making through the month of May as a member of the Red Sox?  He still is not hitting lefties at all but he has bounced back to put up some respectable numbers and should hit 30-plus homers and drive in 100 runs this season.  Who woulda thunk it after hitting just .143 with one homer and four RBIs in the month of April?

… Tim Lincecum was arguably the most dominant pitcher going?  It is interesting to see his numbers drop off as much as they have in what has been the year of the pitcher in the National League.

Cliff Lee, Texas Rangers – Cliff Lee seems to be the guy ESPN is pushing to win it right now and he arguably has been the best pitcher in the league this year.  One wonders if the no decisions he is racking up in Texas and the fact he missed the first few weeks of the season is going to cost him some votes when it comes time to select a winner.  However, the fact still remains that Lee is averaging over 8 innings per start, has walked just 9 batters in 20 starts, and has an absurd 15.2:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

David Price, Tampa Bay Rays – Of the three pitchers tied for the lead league in wins Price has the better ERA by quite a margin.  Opponents are hitting just .226 against him and he is averaging 8.22 strikeouts per nine innings.  The biggest thing working against him is his inexperience.  Price is about 17 innings short of his career high and with the Rays being in the playoff mix they are likely going to start pushing some of his starts back to keep him fresh for the stretch run in September.

Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox – Lester is the only pitcher who ranks in the top six in the league in wins (5th), innings (6th), strikeouts (3rd), ERA (5th), and WHIP (6th).  Will the Sox stay healthy enough to score enough runs for him to get to the 18 to 20 wins he is probably going to need to win the Award?

C. C. Sabathia, New York Yankees – Sabathia ranks second in the league in innings and 9th in the league in ERA.  He has the benefit of being the number one starter on the highest profile team in the league which will help win him some votes.  The one thing working against him right now is he has not been particularly sharp the last few weeks.  In his six starts since the break he is only 3-2 with a 3.30 ERA and opponents are hitting .304 against him.

Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels – Weaver leads the league in strikeouts, is fourth in innings, and 7th in ERA, however, he is only 11th in wins an on pace to win around 15 or 16 games which, in the end, is probably not going to be enough to garner enough votes.

Clay Buchholz, Boston Red Sox – Buchholz leads the league in ERA and his 13 wins are good for 5th in the league.  The biggest things working against him right now are he ranks only 39th in the league in strikeouts and is not even in the top 40 in the league in innings pitched.

Trervor Cahill, Oakland A’s – Cahill is second in the league in ERA and WHIP, eighth in wins, and opponents are hitting just .195 against him.  The biggest thing going against him right now are his low strikeout numbers and the fact that nobody really knows who he is.  If he played for one of the bigger market teams like Boston or New York we would probably be talking about him being a front runner right now.

Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners – If Hernandez pitched on any other team where he was getting any kind of support behind him he would probably be the front runner right now.  Too many times this year he has lost due to no run support or the bullpen being unable to hold a lead for him.  He leads the league in innings, is second in strikeouts, and fourth in ERA, however, a record in the neighborhood of 12-14 is simply not going to be good enough to get any more than some token sympathy votes from the writers.

Carl Pavano, Minnesota Twins – Pavano has the wins, a solid ERA, and is pitching for a team in playoff contention.  However, his ERA does rank him in the top 10 in the league and his strikeout numbers are pretty low.  Pavano is basically pitching well enough to have a 15-7 record but really is not dominating opponents enough to get a significant number of votes.

Phil Hughes, New York Yankees – Hughes has the second most wins in the league with 14, the only problem is that since the end of May his ERA is 4.84.  The Yankees are also going to start skipping some of his turns in the rotation to keep him fresh for October.

Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals – The National League Cy Young Award is Wainwright’s to lose right now.  He is currently tied with Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez for the most wins in all of baseball with 17.  He is just behind Josh Johnson for the ERA lead and also ranks second in the league in innings.  Wainwright also leads the league in WHIP and ranks behind only Roy Halladay in complete games.

Roy Halladay, Philadelphia Phillies – Halladay currently leads the league in strikeouts and innings and has been consistently good to dominant throughout the season.  After posting a so-so 9-7 record to start the season Halladay has rallied to win 5 of his last 6 decisions and currently sits third in the league with 14 wins.  Halladay is a good enough pitcher to reel off another six or seven straight wins and be a major player in the Cy Young race, but unless he closes the gap between he and Wainwright in wins and/or ERA it will be tough for him to overtake him in the balloting.

Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado Rockies – Two-and-a-half months into the season it was almost a foregone conclusion that Jimenez was going to win the Cy Young Award after going 13-1 with a 1.15 ERA through his first 14 starts of the season.  Since then he has gone 4-2 with a 5.17 ERA as the Rockies have quietly fallen out of contention in the West.  He still remains atop the league with 17 wins but he has seen the likes of Wainwright and Halladay pass him in ERA and strikeouts.  He has pitched better his past couple of times out and there still is time for him to put together another run to get back into contention, but with the Rockies fading he will not have the luxury that Wainwright and Halladay do of pitching in meaningful games down the stretch.

Josh Johnson, Florida Marlins – Johnson leads the league with a 1.97 ERA and has arguably been the most consistent pitcher this season, however, he only has ten wins to show for his efforts this season which ranks him 15th in the league.  Voters tend to vote for pitchers at or near the top of the league in wins and he is currently seven off the pace set by Wainwright and Jimenez.  He also ranks fifth in the league in strikeouts and is third in WHIP.

Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves – Hudson’s career has been born again this season and is a huge reason the Braves sit atop the National League East.  He currently ranks fourth in the league in wins and is third in ERA.  However his rate of 4.76 strikeouts per 9 innings is going to severely hurt his candidacy.  He should have the wins and ERA but with guys like Halladay and Wainwright having comparable ERAs and win totals it is going to be hard for him to win over voters when is likely going to finish the season with more than 100 fewer strikeouts.

Mat Latos, San Diego Padres – Latos is sort of in the same boat as Hudson.  He rates seventh in the league in wins and is fifth in ERA but he does not have the numbers in other categories to seriously contend with guys like Wainwright and Halladay.

Chris Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals – He is currently third in innings and fourth in wins.  Carpenter is a bit of a dark horse right now as he has a track record in the past of being able to run off a string of 8 to 10 starts where he simply dominates his opponents.  However, it seems unlikely that he is going to steal away votes from Wainwright this season unless he has a stretch of two or three awful starts and comes back to the pack a bit.

Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers – After a so-so April and solid May Hamilton has been dominating the American League hitting .418 with 15 homers and 51 RBIs in his last 61 games for the Rangers.  He currently leads the league in hitting and ranks sixth in homers and eighth in RBIs.  He has been a big reason for the Rangers resurgence this season.  His 36 doubles represent a career high and he is just 8 home runs shy of tying his career best of 32.  The one major obstacle standing in his way to winning the MVP Award could be his health.  He has missed four games this season due to nagging injuries.

Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers – Cabrera currently ranks first in the league in RBIs, second in hitting and third in home runs and has flirted with the lead in all three Triple Crown categories much of the season.  He also leads the league in slugging, OBP, and OPS.  He definitely has the numbers to warrant winning the MVP Award, but the major question with Cabrera is how many votes will he lose due to playing on a sub-.500 team?  The Tigers may need to make a serious run down the stretch for Cabrera to avoid losing out to Hamilton.

Adrian Beltre, Boston Red Sox – Strangely enough Beltre has been the one consistent in the Red Sox lineup this year.  As most of their big bats have fallen by the wayside with injuries this season Beltre has been the one guy keeping the offense afloat.  He currently ranks third in the league in hitting and is 7th in RBIs and fifth in slugging.  He will carry some favor with the voters because he plays in Boston on a team that has been decimated with injuries this season.  As long as the Sox stay on pace to win 90-plus games Beltre is going to be in the mix of the MVP race.

Robinson Cano, New York Yankees – Cano put up huge numbers the first half of the season, but since seeing his average peak at .376 on June 10 his average has steadily declined to .327.  Since the end of June he is hitting just .268 and will need a big push these last few weeks to get back into MVP contention.  He currently ranks fourth in the league in hitting, fifth in OBP, and fifth in runs scored.

Paul Konerko, Chicago White Sox – Konerko is second in the league in homers and ranks in the top ten in RBIs, OBP, OPS, and slugging.  He has been a big reason the Sox are still in contention in the Central this year.

Delmon Young, Minnesota Twins – In a year when Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau have struggled to stay healthy Young has been a rock in the middle of the order for the Twins ranking 6th in the league in hitting and RBIs.  If not for Young’s breakout season at the plate the Twins would be struggling to stay in the playoff race.  However, he will probably end up losing some votes to Joe Mauer who is having a strong season of his own.

Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins – Mauer’s numbers have dropped off quite a bit on the heels of last year’s MVP season for the Twins.  However, he is still fifth in the league in hitting and leads the league in doubles.  He does not quite have the numbers to warrant being the MVP this year and he will lose some votes to Young who has arguably been just as valuable to the Twins offense this season as Mauer has.

Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays – Bautista leads the league in homers and is third in the league in RBIs.  Unfortunately for him the Jays are 9 games behind in the wild card standings meaning Bautista is unlikely to get serious consideration from voters despite having 8 more home runs than anyone else in the league.

Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals – The two-time defending NL MVP is looking to become just the second player in MLB history to win more than three times on top of winning three straight.  Only Barry Bonds have ever won more than 3 MVPs and won more than two years in a row.  Even though this has been a down year by Pujols’ standards he is still right in the mix to take home the hardware.

He recently took over the league RBI lead from Ryan Howard and has moved into a tie for second in the league in home runs with Joey Votto.  Only Adam Dunn has more home runs.  He also ranks second in the league in OBP and OPS and third in slugging.

Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds – Votto was flirting with the Triple Crown for a little while but he has slumped off a bit in August and no longer leads the league in any of the Triple Crown categories.  He still ranks second in hitting and home runs and fourth in RBIs.  He also leads the league in slugging, OBP, and OPS.  He presents the biggest challenger to Pujols’ crown right now and I would not be at all surprised if the National League MVP comes down to the player whose team ends up winning out in the Central this year.

Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies – Gonzalez leads the league in hitting and is fourth in RBIs, and sixth in home runs.  He also ranks 10th in the league in stolen bases and could come close to posting a 30-30 season this year.  The biggest knock on Gonzalez’ candidacy right now is the Rockies are 8 games out in the West and 5.5 behind in the wild card race.  The Rockies simply have not gotten back into contention like everyone thought they would.  If the Rockies can get back into the playoff race by the end of August then we will hear a lot about Gonzalez as a MVP candidate, otherwise he will finish out of the running.

Adam Dunn, Washington Nationals – Dunn is currently on pace to win his first career home run title and is arguably having the best season of his career.  He is on pace to post career bests in doubles, RBIs, base hits, and batting average.  In addition to leading the league in long balls he currently ranks second in slugging and third in RBIs and OPS.  However with the Nationals 15.5 games out of a playoff spot Dunn is unlikely to get more than some token votes for the MVP Award this season.

Ryan Howard, Philadelphia Phillies – Howard was just starting to do what he does best at the plate, which is crank out home runs and drive in runs, prior to going down with an ankle injury.  He is eligible to come off the DL  next week, but he has yet to even begin running on his injured ankle.  Unless he comes back with a monster September, his stint on the disable list could kill any shot he had at winning.

Heath Bell, San Diego Padres – The Padres currently own the best record in the league and with no compelling hitters near the top of the league leaders in the major hitting categories and nobody having a monster year at the plate in general in the N. L. Bell is likely to get some consideration as th4e MVP this year.  He has a 1.85 ERA and is currently on pace to save 48 games this year.  He may need to get to 50 saves to get serious consideration though.

St. Louis Cardinals

The season has started to get away from the Red Birds a bit over the last six weeks of the season.  After sprinting out to a blazing 18-9 record through the beginning of May the Cards have leveled off a bit and currently sit at 38-31.  What was once looking like a runaway in the Central has turned into a real dogfight with the Cincinnati Reds making a run at the title and lurking just a game behind the reeling Red Birds.

The Cards are currently dealing with two major issues.  One is a rash of inconsistent hitting.  They cannot seem to get more than two or three guys consistently hitting at any one time at the plate.  Even the usually dominant Albert Pujols has been beset by the inconsistency bug this season.

Pujols still remains a viable MVP candidate ranking in the top ten in the three Triple Crown categories and leading the league in OBP, OPS, bases-on-balls, and ranking 9th in the slugging.  On the whole, though, his numbers have come back to the pack a bit this season.

After getting off to blazing start hitting .318 with 31 RBIs the first two months of the season rookie third baseman David Freese has cooled a bit hitting just .256 with two ribs in the month of June.  Despite the June swoon he still leads all NL rookies with a .306 average and ranks behind only Jason Heyward in RBIs with 33.

Matt Holliday is finally starting to heat up again and is coming off a series in which he torched the Oakland A’s to the tune of 8 for 12, four homers, and eight RBIs in a three game set over the weekend.  After starting the season hitting .423 with three homers and six RBIs in his first six games Holliday has struggled to provide Pujols any kind of protection in the lineup.  His average has hovered in the .290/.300 range but he has not been the big run producer for them the way he was last summer.  In the time spanning April 12 to June 16 Holliday hit just 3 home runs and drove in just 19 runs.

Colby Rasmus bounced back from a sub-par May and is hitting .296 with 6 homers and 13 RBIs through the first three weeks of June.  On the year Rasmus is hitting .276 and ranks second on the team with 13 homers and third with 34 RBIs.  He also leads the Cards with 8 stolen bases.

After plodding his way to a .212 start at the plate Skip Schumaker finally got it going with the bat and is hitting .274 since the end of April.

Shortstop Brendan Ryan is starting to show some life at the plate after flat-lining the first two months of the season with a .197 batting average.  Ryan is hitting .271 with 7 extra base hits and 7 RBIs in the month of June after just 8 RBIs and 7 EXBHs the first two months of the year.

The other major issue facing the Cards right now is finding enough healthy arms to round out the starting rotation.  The team lost Kyle Lohse indefinitely at the end of May when he had to have surgery on his right forearm.  Losing Lohse was not a crushing loss for the Cards though as he had given them little by way of quality innings this season.  Of his 9 starts only four were quality starts and on the year he is 1-4 with a 5.89 ERA.

The bigger loss was losing Brad Penny about the same time as Lohse.  Through his first seven starts Penny had been everything the Cards could have asked for going 3-3 with a 1.70 ERA and five starts of 7 innings or more.

The team has struggled to plug those gaps in the rotation with P. J. Walter, Adam Ottavino, and Blake Hawksworth combining to go 1-3 with an 8.23 ERA in six starts in their stead.  The Cards signed the recently released Jeff Suppan to help stop the bleeding but he has yet to pitch out of the fifth for them as he reconditions his arm to being a starter after being demoted to the bullpen in Milwaukee.

Jaime Garcia, Adam Wainwright, and Chris Carpenter continue to be the most dominant threesome in baseball combining to go 24-8 with a 2.26 ERA.  Garcia ranks second in the majors in ERA while Wainwright is 5th and Carpenter 16th.  Wainwright also ranks fourth in the majors in strikeouts, is second in innings, and is one of five pitchers to own 10 wins as we head towards the end of June.  If not for Ubaldo Jiminiez, Wainwright would be the clear front runner for the Cy Young right now.

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox were being written off as dead floundering in the standings 8.5 games behind the Rays not more than a month ago.  Since May 17 the Sox have gone 24-8 to climb to within one-half game of the Yankees atop the AL East standings.

Clay Buchholz has emerged as the ace of the Red Sox staff in helping them scrap their way back into the division race in the AL East.  Since May 8th Buchholz has gone 7-1 with a 1.62 ERA over those 8 starts.

Jon Lester has won 8 straight decisions for the Sox as well and has posted a 2.01 ERA since starting off the year going 0-2 with a 8.44 ERA after his first three starts.

After a slow start Daisuke Matsuzaka has won three of his last four starts for the BoSox posting a 1.97 ERA.

Adrian Beltre has picked up the pace at the plate for Boston.  After hitting .338 with 9 RBIs in April Beltre has gone on a tear hitting .335 with 10 homers and 39 RBIs since the end of April.  Beltre is making a strong case for comeback player of the year.

Catcher Victor Martinez has been another cog in Boston’s resurgence hitting .383 in the month of June.

Big Papi, David Ortiz, finally got his mojo going after a dismal April in which there was speculation that the Sox may be contemplating releasing him.  Since the end of April Papi has hit 14 homers and driven in 42 runs.

Cheers

Atlanta’s Tim Hudson has been on roll lately going 6-1 with a 1.99 ERA over his last ten starts for the surging Braves.  On the year he is 7-2 with a 2.34 ERA and has allowed more than two runs in just two of his 14 starts.

Florida’s Josh Johnson is 5-1 with a 0.63 ERA over his last 8 starts.  He has not allowed more than one run in any of those starts leaving Bob Gibson as the only pitcher in the modern era to have more consecutive starts without allowing more than one run with 11.

After muddling his way through the month of May Troy Glaus has been on fire for the Braves hitting .316 with 12 homers and 46 RBIs.  Glaus currently leads the league with 55 RBIs and has been a key to the Braves recent surge to the top of the NL East standings.

Milwaukee’s Corey Hart is 10 of 28 (.357) with 11 RBIs and 5 EXBHs during a current six game hitting streak.  He has driven in three runs in three of his last five games.

Delmon Young has base hits in 17 of his 19 games in the month of June for the Twins.  Young is hitting .379 and has driven in 16 runs during the month.

Catcher Carlos Santana is hitting .393 with two homers and 8 RBIs in the 9 games he has played in since being called up by the Indians.

Scott Kazmir posted a 2.35 ERA while winning his last four starts for the Angels.  Kazmir has lowered his ERA from 6.34 to 5.08 during the month of June.

Magglio Ordonez is hitting .442 with 8 EXBHs and 13 RBIs during his current 10-game hitting streak.  He also has 5 multi-hit games during that same time span.

Paul Konerko is hitting .390 with 18 RBIs in the month of June for the Chicago White Sox.  Konerko currently ranks third in the AL with 17 homers and 5th with 51 RBIs.

Alex Rios has 13 homers and 20 stolen bases and is currently on pace for 32 homers and 49 steals.

Clayton Kershaw is 6-1 with a 1.82 ERA over his last 8 starts.

Jake Peavy has won two of his last three starts for the White Sox posting a 1.56 ERA.

Since the end of April Scott Rolen is hitting .317 with 10 homers and 36 RBIs for the surging Reds.

Javier Vazquez is 3-1 with a 2.25 in the month of June for the Yankees lowering his ERA from 6.86 to 5.01 during the month.

Joey Votto is 8 for his last 19 with two homers and 5 RBIs.  Votto has had two hits in four of his last five games.  He also has four homers over his last eight games.

Kansas City’s David DeJesus is hitting .411 for the month of June raising his average 33 points to .323.  He has had multi-hit games 9 times in 19 games in June.

Houston’s Carlos Lee has five of his ten home runs and 17 of his 38 RBIs in the month of June.

Arthur Rhodes has thrown 30 scoreless innings out of the pen for Cincinnati.

Marlon Byrd is hitting .385 in the month of June for the Chicago Cubs.

Despite going winless Brian Matusz has pitched well of late for the Orioles posting a 2.39 ERA and pitching 26.2 innings in his four starts this month.

Jeers

Colorado 1B Todd Helton is hitting just .204 with one homer and two RBIs in the month of June.

Roy Halladay has given up five home runs over his last two starts, both losses.

The Dodgers’ Andre Ethier has gone hitless in his last four games and is hitting just .197 with with 5 RBIs since returning to the lineup May 31st.

Arizona’s Mark Reynolds continues to be this generation’s Rob Deer.  He has almost twice as many strikeouts, 100, as he does base hits, 51.  Reynolds has struck out 3 or more times 12 times this season and has amassed 18 strikeouts in his last 24 at bats.

Travis Hafner has seen his average drop from .281 on May 25th to .251 entering play today.

A. J. Burnett has allowed at least four earned runs in each of his last four starts for the Yankees and is 0-4 with a 10.35 ERA for the month of June.

Rick Porcello has allowed five or more runs in each of his last three starts earning him a demotion to the minors.  On the year Porcello is 4-7 with a 6.14 ERA.

Houston’s Wandy Rodriguez allowed 14 runs and walked 9 batters over 8 innings in his last two starts.  Rodriguez currently leads the league with 10 losses on the year.

Francisco Cordero has allowed walked five batters and allowed six runs while blowing two saves in his last six appearances for the Reds.

Jason Heyward has hit a bit of a wall for the Braves in the month of June hitting just .205 with one homer and six RBIs.  He has also struck out 28 times in 78 at bats.

Detroit’s Austin Jackson is hitting just .220 with 0 RBIs and 3 extra-base-hits in the month of June.

After hitting 13 homers and driving in 32 runs the first two months of the season Baltimore’s Ty Wigginton has cooled off in the month of June hitting just .233 with no homers and just seven RBIs.

White Sox 3B Gordon Beckham is following up a strong rookie year with the dreaded sophomore slump hitting just .205 with one homer through the first three weeks of June.

Since beginning the season 1-1 with a 1.80 ERA after his first two starts David Huff was sent to the minors by the Indians after losing 8 of his next 9 decisions and posting a 6.39 ERA.

The Angels’ Ervin Santana has allowed 10 earned runs over 10 innings in his last two starts.

Kansas City’s Kyle Davies is 1-2 with a 9.78 ERA over his last five starts.

Brian Bannister has given up 14 earned runs in 7 innings over his last two starts for the Royals.

St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals have established themselves as the early front runners for the National League pennant.  Entering tonight’s game against the Phillies the Cards stand at 18-9, have won 8 of their last 9 games, and have taken 7 of the 8 series they have completed this season.  Only the Giants have won a series against St. Louis this season.

First year starter David Freese has been something of a surprise at third base for the Cards this season.  They always knew he could hit, but lately he has been tearing it up against NL pitching.  Freese currently leads the race for the batting crown hitting at a .360 clip.  During his current 8-game hitting streak Freese is hitting .500 (16 of 32) with all three of his home runs on the year and 14 of his 19 RBIs.  He has had multi-hit games in his last four games and 6 of his last 8.  He has also had at least one extra base hit in four straight games.

First year starter Jaime Garcia continues to be a pleasant surprise as well.  Garcia has arguably been the ace of the staff in the early going winning three of his first four decisions to along with a team best 1.13 ERA.  Garcia has gone at least six innings in all five of his starts and the Giants are the only team score more than one run against him.

Brad Penny is looking like another successful reclamation project for Dave Duncan as he stands at 3-1 with a 1.56 ERA through his first five starts.  Penny has also gone at six innings in all five of his starts and only Reds have touched him up for more than two runs in a start.

Adam Wainwright continues to dominate opposing lineups though.  Last year’s Cy Young runner-up won four of his first six starts with his only loss being a 2-0 complete game effort against the Giants last weekend.

The Cardinals starting rotation is a stellar 14-4 with a 2.45 ERA.  Kyle Lohse is the only member of the starting rotation that has not won at least three games this year.  In fact he is the only starter with an ERA over 2.84.

After seeing his average dip to .275 Albert Pujols has gone on an9-game hitting streak of his own.  He is hitting .429 (14 of 30) during his streak but has hit only one home run.

After driving in 6 runs in his first six games Matt Holliday has struggled at the plate driving in just 5 runs in his last 20 games.

Colby Rasmus has been either boom or bust at the plate this season.  It is something of an interesting phenomenon with him this season.  In  24 games in which he got an at bat Rasmus has gone hitless 11 times, and of the 13 games he has gotten base hits he has had 9 multi-hit games.  While he has struck out an astonishing 27 times he still leads the club with 17 walks, a .442 OBP, and .658 slugging percentage.  It is nice to see the 23-year old outfielder hitting the way the Cards thought he would at the big league level.

Cheers

The Dodgers’ Andre Ethier leads the league in homers and RBIs and is second in hitting and yet I don’t hear anyone talking about a possible Triple Crown run from him.

Tampa’s Evan Longoria is hitting .487 (19 of 39) with four homers and seven RBIs during a current 10-game hitting streak.  He also has 8 multi-hit games during his current streak.

Arizona’s Kelly Johnson continues to impress with his comeback season.  He has already hit more home runs this season (9) than he in 109 games last season (8).  With 18 RBIs he needs just 12 more to eclipse last season’s total.  His current .697 slugging percentage is five points higher than his OPS last season.

Barry Zito and Tim Lincecum are 8-0 with a 1.62 ERA for the Giants through their first 11 starts.  Zito has pitched at least 6 innings in each of his five starts.  Lincecum has gone at least seven innings in five of his six starts and has struck out seven or more in all six games he has pitched in.  He also has three double digit strikeout games.

After starting the year going hitless in 7 of his first 13 games and hitting just .205 with 3 RBIs, Josh Hamilton’s bat has come to life hitting .345 with 4 homers and 11 RBIs in his last 13 games for the Rangers.

Almost two years removed from elbow surgery Francisco Liriano is back pitching like an ace for the Twins again.  Liriano has allowed runs in only two of his five starts which included a string of 23 scoreless innings.  He has also pitched at least seven innings in each of his last four starts and struck out at least 8 batters in three starts this year.

The Rays starting rotation is 15-3 with a 2.63 ERA.  Jeff Niemann is the only starter with fewer than three wins and James Shields is bringing up the rear with a 3.15 ERA but leads the team with 43 K’s and is tied with Matt Garza for the team lead in wins with 4.

Detroit’s Austin Jackson is hitting .548 (17 of 31) during his current 7-game hitting streak.  He is currently second in the league with a .376 average despite the fact he is on pace to strike out 203 times.

Dontrelle Willis has allowed two or fewer runs and pitched at least six innings in three of his first four starts this season.

Andruw Jones and Paul Konerko have combined to hit 20 of the White Sox 36 home runs so far this season.

After three underwhelming starts Boston’s Jon Lester struck out 23 and allowed just one earned run over 20.2 innings in his last three starts.

Atlanta’s Jason Heyward continues to be an early favorite for the NL rookie of the year smashing 8 homers and driving in 24 runs in his first 25 games.  The only real knock on him is the 26 strikeouts he has compiled.

Colorado’s Ubaldo Jiminiez has not allowed more than two runs in any of his six starts this season and has yet to allow more than two runs in a start.  He also has gone three starts where he did not allow any runs.

Phil Hughes has not allowed more than two runs in any of his four starts and opponents are hitting just .122 against him.

The White Sox bullpen has struck out 92 batters in 77.1 innings this season.

It is a shame the Braves cannot get any consistent starting pitching after Tommy Hanson and Tim Hudson as the bullpen features three pitchers with sub 3.00 ERAs.

The maturation of Johnathon Niese and Mike Pelfrey has been a welcome surprise for the Mets who came into the season wondering who was going to round out the rotation after Johan Santana and John Maine.  Pelfrey and Niese have combined to go 5-2 with a 2.75 ERA in their ten starts for the Mets.  The Mets are 7-3 in games the young duo have started for them.

Joba Chamberlain has saved the last two games for the Yankees in place of Mariano Rivera who was unavailable due to stiffness in his side.

Matt Capps has converted his first 11 save opportunities for the Nats allowing just one earned run in his first 14 appearances.

Jon Rauch is making Twins fans quickly forget Joe Nathan converting 7 of his first 8 save opportunities for the Twins.

Daniel Bard has struck out 11 batters in his last five innings pitched for the Red Sox.

Carlos Marmol has struck out 11 in his last five innings as well for the Cubs.

Jeers

Ben Sheets allowed 17 runs in 7.1 innings over his last two starts for Oakland.  The A’s are just 1-5 in games Sheets has started for them.

Mark Teixeira and Nick Johnson are hitting a combined .159 with just 19 RBIs for the Yankees.

Javier Vazquez has given up five or more runs in three of his five starts and has not given up fewer than three runs in any of his starts.  He has yet to pitch six innings in any of his starts and has allowed 8 home runs in just 23 innings.  Manager Joe Girardi has already gone on record stating Vazquez will skip his next start in the rotation.

Arizona starter Edwin Jackson has surrendered 18 runs in 6.1 innings over his last two starts.

The Pittsburgh Pirates starting rotation is 5-15 with a 7.34 ERA.

It is beginning to look as though this may be Trevor Hoffman’s last season in the big leagues.  He has blown 4 of 8 save opportunities and allowed 6 home runs in his first ten innings for Milwaukee.

Doug Davis has pitched into the fifth inning just once in five starts for the Brewers this season.  He has also allowed 4 or more runs in four of his five starts.

Derek Lowe, Kenshin Kawakami, and Jair Jurrjens have combined to go 4-9 with a 5.63 ERA for the Braves.  Lowe has all four of those wins by the way.

Even though the Diamondbacks lead the league in runs scored they also lead the league in strikeouts and are on pace to whiff an astounding 1482 times.

Justin Upton has yet to live up to the contract extension he received in the off season.  Through the team’s first 26 contests he is hitting just .225 with four home runs and has struck out an astronomical 38 times in just 102 at bats.  He is currently on pace to whiff 237 times this season.

After getting off to an encouraging start Chipper Jones has seen his average dip from .295 to .225 over his last 9 games in which he has gone just 3 for 28.  He is beginning to show even more signs of being over-the-hill.

Pitching continues to be Arizona’s bugaboo as Ian Kennedy paces the team with a 4.45 ERA and Esmerling Vasquez is the only pitcher with more than one appearance with an ERA lower than Kennedy’s with a 3.12 ERA in 8.2 innings pitched.

Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder has just one home run and two RBIs in his last ten games.

Heyward and Martin Prado are the only two members of the regular starting lineup hitting over .257 for the Braves.

Boston’s Josh Beckett has given up five or more runs in 3 of his 6 starts this season.

Jake Peavy has given up at least six runs in 3 of his six starts for the White Sox.

Johnny Cueto, Homer Bailey, Aaron Harang, and Bronson Arroyo are a combined 3-8 with a 6.14 ERA for the Reds.

Paul Konerko has hit three more home runs (12) than the Houston Astros have as a team (9).

The move does not make a ton of sense given that Zambrano has not really pitched that poorly to warrant a demotion to the bullpen.  Sure he got tuned up by the Braves on opening day, but he has been solid since then.  He has posted a 4.00 ERA and whiffed 25 batters in his last three starts.  I know those are not spectacular numbers but they are not awful by any stretch.

What really makes this a disaster in the making is Big Z’s take on the demotion:

“Right now they need somebody to step up in the eighth inning. I don’t like to be a reliever. I don’t want to be a reliever, but this team needs somebody to step up and help the bullpen.”

So Zambrano is willing to go on record saying he hates being a reliever and you are going to stick him in the bullpen.  Good luck with that Lou let me know how that works out for you.  Does anyone expect this end well for a head case like Zambrano when he says he hates coming out of the pen?

What I love though is Lou Pinella’s spin on this:

“I’m confident this will help our situation out,” Piniella said, according to the Tribune. “This makes all the sense in the world. This is a significant move, not a panic move.”

Not a panic move?  Sure it isn’t Lou everyone moves their best starter to the pen two weeks into the season when they need a setup guy.  If this was not a panic move the Cubs simply would have brought someone up from the minors or tried out a veteran free agent.  Moving Zambrano to the bullpen means you are feeling the heat from a poor start and you feel like the season is slipping away from you.  Either that or you fear you might be fired in another two weeks if you don’t get the Cubs on the right side of .500.

St. Louis Cardinals

Thus far the Cards have completed four series and have won all four winning two of three from the Reds, Brewers, Astros, and Mets. They own the league’s best record at 9-4 and are just one game off the Rays major league leading pace of 10-3.

Albert Pujols is in a bit of a mini-slump getting just three hits in his last 18 at bats.  He did, however, break Eddie Mathews record for most home runs in the first ten years of his career with his fifth homer of the season last Monday.  If all goes well Pujols should become the first player ever to hit 400 home runs in the first ten years of his career.  He needs to hit just 29 more over the remainder of the season to hit that mark.

Third baseman David Freese has been red hot of late going 8 for 16 in his last five games including a three game stretch last week that saw him go 7 for 12.  Freese leads the Cards with a .353 average headed into Monday night’s contest against the Diamondbacks.

A concern right now for the Cards is the team is hitting only .245 with Brendan Ryan both hitting below .200 and Yadier Molina and Colby Rasmus struggling to stay above the Mendoza line.  Rasmus does appear to be coming to life though going 3 for 9 in his last two games with a homer and 3 RBIs.  Only Pujols, Freese, Matt Holliday, and Ryan Ludwick are hitting above .250.  New hitting coach Mark McGwire seems to have his work cut for him in the early going.

Fortunately the pitching has been lights out as Brad Penny, Jaime Garcia, and Adam Wainwright have combined to go 6-0 with a 1.24 ERA in their eight starts.

Chris Carpenter bounced back from a so-so start against the Brewers to hold the Mets to just one unearned run over seven innings while racking up 10 Ks.

Ryan Franklin has been a bit shaky out of the bullpen allowing two runs in two of his seven appearances.  He has yet to blow a save, but it is a bit disconcerting to see him struggle like this in the early going given the way he finished last season.

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox are in a complete tailspin right now having lost six straight games.  Kevin Youkilis, Victor Martinez, David Ortiz, and J. D. Drew are all hitting .217 or worse and have combined to drive in just 14 runs in the Sox first 13 games.

Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Beltre, and Marco Scutaro are the only regulars hitting above .233 for Boston right now.

Jon Lester has yet to allow fewer than 4 runs in each of his three starts.

It is not all bad for the Sox though.  Josh Beckett appears to be getting on track with back-to-back 7 inning outings.  After a shaky opening day start Beckett is 1-0 with a 1.92 ERA in his last two starts.

Philadelphia Phillies

Ryan Howard has struck out only six times in his first 55 at bats.  Quite an accomplishment for a guy who strikes out roughly once every three at bats and has more strikeouts than base hits over his career.

The Phillies have four players with 11 or more RBIs after 12 games: Placido Polanco, Chase Utley, Howard, and Shane Victorino.

Cole Hamels has struck out 14 and walked just one batter in his last 13.2 innings of work.

Roy Halladay has not walked a batter in 20 innings of work.

Cheers

Florida’s Jorge Cantu started the season with a major league record of at least one hit and one RBI in each of his first ten games.  On the year Cantu is hitting .288 with 16 RBIs after 13 games.

Ubaldo Jimenez became the first pitcher in Rockies history to throw a no-hitter on Saturday.  On the year Jimenez is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA for the Rockies who may have developed their first legit ace in franchise history.

Ivan Rodriguez is hitting .450 with 7 doubles for the 7-6 Nationals.

Livan Hernandez has been lights out for the Nats starting the year with 16 scoreless innings including a complete game shutout against the Brewers last week.

Matt Capps is 6 for 6 in save opportunities with a 1.23 ERA for the Nationals.

Atlanta’s Jason Heyward has emerged as an early favorite for Rookie-of-the-Year hitting three homers and driving in 15 runs over the Braves first 12 games.

After two weeks Martin Prado is hitting .426 for the Braves.

Matt Garza continues to dominate for the Rays putting up his third straight start of 8 innings against Boston on Sunday.  For the year Garza is 3-0 with 0.75 ERA.

David Price is starting to mature into the type of starting pitcher the Rays thought they were getting when they drafted him.  Price has started the year going at least seven innings in both of his starts, which he won, striking out seven in each.

Casey McGehee and Ryan Braun have combined for 7 homers and 22 RBIs for the Brewers after 12 games.

Scott Podsednik has started the year white hot for the Royals hitting .457 with seven stolen bases in his first 12 games.

Jose Guillen is also in the midst of being reborn in KC knocking five homers to go along with a .377 average for the Royals.

After a pair of so-so outings to start the season Ben Sheets posted six scoreless innings against the O’s last week.

Robinson Cano is off to a hot start for the Yanks hitting .340 with four homers and 10 RBIs in his first 12 games.

Andy Pettite, C. C. Sabathia, and A. J. Burnett are a combined 6-0 with a 1.85 ERA in their 9 starts for the Yankees.

Vernon Wells is back to hitting like an All Star again with a .333 average and six homers in the Jays’ first 14 games.

Magglio Ordonez seems to be bouncing back from a sub-par season hitting four homers over the first two weeks of the season after hitting just 9 all of last season.

Nelson Cruz has been a monster for the Rangers with a major league leading seven home runs after two weeks.

Barry Zito is 2-0 with a 1.86 ERA after three starts for the Giants.

Jon Rauch is 6 for 6 in save opportunities for the Twins thus far.

Francisco Liriano is showing signs of being all the way back from his arm issues turning in two solid starts for the Twins to begin the season.

Joel Piniero is building off of last season’s success in St. Louis for the Angels this year.  After a so-so first start Piniero went 2-0 allowing just one run in 14.1 innings in his two starts last week.

Rookie center fielder Austin Jackson has been just about everything the Tigers could ask for in a lead off hitter.  Jackson is hitting .333 with a .379 OBP and has had two or more hits in six of his first 12 games as a big leaguer.  The biggest knock on him right now is he has struck out a whopping 17 times in 54 at bats.

Shin-Soo Choo has been a one man show in Cleveland with a .350 average, four homers, and 12 RBIs over the first two weeks of the season.

Is Ty Wigginton becoming the next Matt Stairs?  He is about the lone bright spot for the Orioles this season with 5 homers and 11 RBIs in 11 games.  It seems like everywhere he goes Wigginton gives a team 20 homers and 70 RBIs and hits around .270.

David Huff is off to a hot start for the Indians going 15 innings with a 1.80 ERA in two starts for Cleveland.

Carlos Silva has allowed just one earned run and has not walked a batter in his first 13 innings for the Cubs.

Jeers

Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence are hitting a combined .129 and have driven in just two runs for the Astros.

Tampa’s Dioner Navarro is mired in a 4 for 36 slump and is hitting just .162 on the year.  He is in danger of losing at bats to Kelly Shoppach.

Is Josh Hamilton’s career going to be that of a one-year wonder?  After struggling to stay healthy last season he has gotten off to a bad start hitting just .220 with no home runs and two RBIs after the first two weeks of the year for the Rangers.

Mark Teixeira is hitting just .114 with home run in the Yankees first 12 games.

Javy Vazquez continues to struggle for the Yanks giving up four runs in five-plus innings in his second start.  After two starts Vazquez is 0-2 with a 9.52 ERA.

Clevland’s Jhonny Peralta is mired in a 2 for 27 slump and is hitting just .135 for the season.

White Sox catcher A. J. Pierzynski is in the midst of a 2 for 19 slump and is hitting just .171 for the year.

Gavin Floyd failed to get out of the first inning for the White Sox in his last start allowing 7 runs and walking four batters in just one inning of work against the Indians.

Rich Harden has struck out 15 batters in his first 13.1 innings for the Rangers, however, he has also walked 14 batters and has failed to win a game.

Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder has yet to hit a home run and has struck 15 times in his first 12 games.

Adam Dunn is hitting just .179 with home run and 2 RBIs for the Nats.

John Maine has failed to get past the fifth inning and has given up at least three runs in each of his three starts for the Mets.

Jose Reyes has gone hitless in his last four games and is hitting just .150 on the year for the Mets.

Doug Davis has failed to reach the fifth inning and has allowed at least 4 runs in each of his three starts for the Brew Crew.

St. Louis Cardinals

The Cardinals have to feel good about opening the season going 4-2 on the road against division rivals Cincinnati and Milwaukee.

Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday have picked up right where they left off last fall.  Through seven games Pujols is hitting .407 with five homers and 14 RBIs.  Holliday is hitting at a .379 clip with 3 homers and six RBIs.

Colby Rasmus is off to a good start hitting .294 and knocking out a pair of homers so far.  Rasmus has shown a new found discipline at the plate drawing 9 walks and posting a .538 on-base percentage which begs the question as to why Tony LaRussa moved Ryan Ludwick into the two spot instead of Rasmus.  If Rasmus is showing a willingness to take pitches and draw walks stick him in the order in front of Pujols and Holliday to give them more RBI opportunities.  Ludwick is a nice power guy but has never really been a high on-base guy.  For the record Rasmus, who hit .251 last season, hit .284 batting in front of Pujols last season.

David Freese will not hold onto the third base job much longer if he continues to kick the ball around the infield.  LaRussa and Dave Duncan build their pitching staff around guys who are comfortable throwing ground ball outs.  They cannot afford a 3B who is going to commit errors every two or three games.

Chris Carpenter has not looked terribly sharp allowing five homers in his first two games thus far.  But if memory serves Carpenter is no stranger to throwing a couple of clunkers his first few starts of the season.  He is typically at his best in July, August, and September.

Adam Wainwright, Jaime Garcia, and Brad Penny combined to go 3-0 with a 1.28 ERA in their four starts.

Seattle Mariners

The Seattle Mariners were the hot stove media darlings by dealing for Cliff Lee and signing Chone Figgins away from their division rivals in Anaheim.  They were being hailed as the favorites to win the American League West going into spring training.  I never bought into the notion of the Mariners being that much better of a team this spring.  Sure Lee and Felix Hernandez may arguably be the best one-two punch atop a starting rotation, the problem with the Mariners is where do go from there?

After those two, Lee has yet to start a game by the way, the rotation consists of Ian Snell, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Doug Fister, and Jason Vargas.  But, the main issue with the Mariners is a very lackluster lineup.  They have some good sticks at the top of the order with guys like Figgins, Ichiro, Milton Bradley, and Jose Lopez.  The problem is Milton Bradley is arguably their best power hitter and is hitting clean up for them.  When Milton Bradley is your cleanup hitter you are going to have problems scoring runs.  Also, consider that Bradley seems to drag teams down with his antics.

Through 8 games the Mariners are 2-6 with a team batting average of .212 and have scored just 21 runs.

Boston Red Sox

The Red Sox have to feel pretty good about being 3-4 despite the fact that Josh Beckett and Jon Lester are just 1-1 with a 6.64 ERA in the four games they have started and J. D. Drew and David Ortiz, two bats the team is going to rely heavily upon to drive in runs are a combined .159 and driven in just 4 runs through the Sox first seven games.

With Drew and Big Papi not carrying their weight in the early going Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Beltre have stepped in to provide run support.  Pedroia is hitting the way he did when he won the MVP Award two years ago.  Through seven games he is hitting .357 with 3 homers and 8 RBIs.  Beltre is hitting .375 and driven in six runs for the BoSox.

Early Surprises

The A’s are 6-2 and 6-0 in games Ben Sheets has not started this season.  Now Sheets has not been awful but he has not been great either.

The Twins are 6-2 despite losing All Star closer Joe Nathan for the season during spring training.  New closer Jon Rauch has converted all five of his save opportunities and allowed just 5 base runners in 5 innings.

The Giants are 6-1 despite having a lineup that features Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa as its best power hitters.

Barry Zito is 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA.

Vernon Wells (5) and Alex Gonzalez (4) have combined for 9 of the Blue Jays 13 home runs as they have jetted out to a 5-2 start this season.

Kevin Gregg appears to have wrested the closer job away from Jason Frasor in Toronto converting two save opportunities and allowing just one runner in his first 3.1 innings.

Could Tampa’s Matt Garza be this year’s Zack Greinke?  The 26-year old righty has won his first two starts with a 1.13 ERA and .179 opposing batting average.

It is no surprise that Ryan Howard has 3 homers and 11 RBIs in his first 7 games, however it is a surprise that he is hitting .375 and has struck out only 4 times so far.

Cincinnati’s Scott Rolen is hitting .318 with 3 homers in the Reds first seven games.

Kelly Johnson is hitting .368 with three homers through the Diamondbacks first six games.

Early Duds

Jason Frasor has allowed runs in two of his first five outings and has already blown two of his first five save opportunities.

Orioles closer Mike Gonzalez has blown two of his first three save opportunities and allowed at least two base runners in each of his three appearances this season.

Mark Teixeira and Nick Johnson are hitting a combined .130 through the Yankees first six games and neither guy has hit a home run.

David Ortiz and J. D. Drew are hitting a combined .159 with just one home run and 4 RBIs between the two.

Javier Vazquez got shelled in his first start of the year against the Rays making some wonder why the Yankees bothered bringing him back in the first place.

Jake Peavy has given the White Sox just 10.2 innings in his first two starts while posting a 8.44 ERA.

Raul Ibanez and Shane Victorino are hitting a combined .190 for the Phillies after seven games.

The heart of the Astros lineup, Hunter Pence, Carlos Lee, and Geoff Blum, has combined to hit .137 with one homer and 2 RBIs in the Astros first seven games.

The Astros bullpen is 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA.

Minus Roy Oswalt the Astros starting rotation is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA.

The Cubs are hitting just .223 and scored 27 runs through 7 games.

The Cubs bullpen is 0-3 with a 6.30 ERA.

Milwaukee’s starting rotation is 1-3 with a 6.57 ERA.

Pirates starting pitching is 2-4 with an 8.82 ERA.  Take Zack Duke out of the equation and it is 0-4 with a 12.04 ERA.

Random Notes

Roy Halladay has been everything the Phillies were hoping for winning his first two starts with a 0.56 ERA and striking out 17 batters in 16 innings.

Ryan Madson has been solid as the Phils closer so far converting both his save opportunities, however, he gave up a run against the Astros and has allowed 4 hits in 3.1 innings.

The Mets are 2-4 and in last place in the East despite outscoring their opponents while the Marlins, Braves, and Nationals are all ahead of the Mets despite being outscored by their opponents.

The Astros have scored just 13 runs and hit two homers this season.  Albert Pujols have driven in 14 runs and hit five homers on his own.

It is mildly surprising that Hughes will be the fifth starter given that Sergio Mitre is arguably throwing the ball better than Hughes this spring and Hughes was as good as there was as a setup guy last season.  Hughes has not pitched particularly well this spring and got lit up in his last appearance giving up 3 homers in 4.1 innings and has allowed five home runs in 13 innings during the exhibition season.

It comes as no real surprise that Joba is headed back to the bullpen.  He has been downright lousy this spring walking 7 batters in 6.2 innings and giving up 6 runs in 2.1 innings in his lone start.  It is probably time to put a fork in Joba’s career as a starter and simply start grooming him as the heir to Mariano Rivera in New York.

He has been mediocre as a starting pitcher but downright dominating as a reliever.  Chamberlain is either not interested in learning how to pitch or it just is not sinking in to him that he needs to have more than one or two pitches to be a starter in the majors.  He is generally good for a couple of innings but when he gets into the third, fourth, and fifth innings he gets lit up.  So, basically he gets through the order one time and does not show teams anything different the second time around and they start locking in on his pitches.

The struggles of Hughes and Chamberlain to crack the rotation and stick in the last three seasons just speaks to the team’s inability to develop young pitching.  Sure they may still go on to have successful careers as starters but I just do not think it will be in New York.  Think about it for a minute, the only two starting pitchers the Yankees developed that amounted anything are Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettite.

The 22-year old right fielder is coming off a season that saw him post a .300 average and crank out 26 home runs in just 138 games.  The biggest knock on Upton right now is his plate discipline and his defense as he struck out 137 times last year and committed 23 errors over the last two seasons in the outfield.

This is a good move for the D-Backs as Upton clearly has the tools to be an elite player in the years to come and should eventually develop into a premiere hitter in the #3 spot once he develops some more plate discipline and learns how to bail himself out when he falls behind in the count.  As it is right now he tends to strike out when he falls behind in the count.  He also does not hit particularly well with runners in scoring position.

Reports have the Giants offering Lincecum roughly $37 million for the next three years, a nice sum for a guy essentially playing for the league minimum the past couple of years.  But, to me, the offer seems a bit of an insult and like the Giants are trying to pull one over on Lincecum.

Consider that they gave Barry Zito a deal worth well over $15 million per season and that was a couple of years after winning a Cy Young Award and is due to make $18.5 million next year.

Consider that Johan Santana, the only other active multiple Cy Young winner still at the top of his game, earned $20 million last season and is due to earn $21 million in 2010.

Tim Lincecum is the two-time defending Cy Young winner in the National League.  He is one of the very select few to win back-to-back Cy Young Awards in any league and the Giants are only willing to pay him $12 million a year.  I guess maybe since the offer is slightly more than Lincecum is asking for in arbitration they figured he would take it.

Let’s be real here though.  The only reason Lincecum is asking for as little as he is is because he knows when he wins it will be the highest amount ever awarded.  Lincecum’s handlers know they cannot ask for the upwards of $20 million he would easily command on the open market because there is a good chance he will not win his case.  They figure settling for $12 million is much more amenable than getting only $8 million.

What has to be the most insulting to Lincecum though is the fact that his contemporaries, Justin Verlander and Felix Hernandez were just rewarded with much healthier deals and they have not even won one Cy Young Award.  Verlander just inked a 5-year deal worth $80 million and paying him $20 mil per season over the last three years.  King Felix just signed a 5-year deal worth just under $80 million and paying him an average of $20 mil over the last three years.

Given what Hernandez and Verlander just signed for the Giants need to re-think their bargaining strategy here.  If both sides are agreeable to doing a three-year deal that is fine, but, the Giants need to open with a minimal offer in the $40 to $45 million range not $37 million.

Lincecum is shaping up to be a once-in-a-generation pitcher for the Giants franchise and one wonders if they really want to risk losing him via free agency in three years because they did not pay him what he is worthy of.  One would think the Giants would be treating him like a king right now given that their chances of getting back to the World Series rest largely on his arm.

This deal means the Yankees will now have a payroll of at least $205 million next season despite the proclamation they needed to slice roughly $30 to $35 million off of last year’s payroll that topped $207 million.

The choice of Winn is somewhat interesting given he had the lowest OPS amongst everyday outfielders last season.  However, he is only a season removed from being a guy coming off his third .300 season and 4 years and 7 double digit home run seasons.  Winn used to be a guy a team could pencil to hit .285 to .300, hit double figures in home runs and steal 20 to 30 bases a year.

He still has some speed, he stole 16 bases last season, but Winn’s home runs dropped to just two and he hit just .262 for the Giants in 2009.  At the age of 35 is Winn showing his age, or, did he just have a down season?

Whatever the case may be it should be interesting to see whether Winn has enough left to beat out Brett Gardner or Nick Swisher for one of the corner outfield spots or whether he is simply being brought in to be a defensive replacement late in games.  Winn is still a good defensive outfielder and is definitely better than Damon or Swisher when it comes to playing defense.

Manager Bob Geren has already proclaimed Sheets to be his ace and opening day starter.  If healthy Sheets gives the A’s the top of the rotation starter they were missing last season.  Brett Anderson led the Athletics with 11 wins and Trevor Cahill threw the most innings with 178.2.

While Sheets’ stuff us unquestioned giving someone who has a history of injuries and sat out all of last season $10 million is a bit of a gamble.  Sheets has not thrown 200 innings since the 2004 season and has made 30 starts once since then.

This will either be a stroke of genius for Billy Beane or folks will be scratching their heads wondering why he was so willing to give Sheets $10 million knowing his extensive history of missing several starts a season.  It is somewhat surprising that this was not an incentive laden deal worth up to $10 million.  If it were me I would have wanted to add kickers for starts, innings, and wins.

In the past the Yankees simply would have cut a check for a guy like Damon but those days appear to be over.  Instead they are trying to find another corner outfielder on the cheap.

With Xavier Nady coming to terms with the Cubs and Johnny Gomes close to going back to Cincy the Yankees options for a minimal salary player to play left or right field are getting slimmer.

I am kind of surprised the Yankees have not had discussions with Garrett Anderson.  He played for $2.5 million for the Braves last season, had a decent year at the plate, and has his share of post season experience.  He is also potentially a better defensive player than Damon is right now.  It seems like Anderson would be a good fit for the Yankees.

As for Damon it remains to be seen where he ends up.  It was thought that San Francisco might have an interest until they decided to go in a different direction in an attempt to upgrade the offense.  The Braves are still believed to be in the mix as well.  There were also reports surfacing the past few days that Oakland had an interest, but, that seems less likely after the A’s just dropped $10 million on Ben Sheets.

There has been recent speculation that Damon may be contemplating retirement given he is attracting little more than a nibble from prospective teams.  Damon reportedly still wants to play but he may need to swallow his pride and come way down on his asking price to do so.  One begins to wonder if Johnny Damon is becoming a victim of Scott Boras’ pie-in-the-sky notions of what is players are worth.

The move was made with the anticipation that Beltran will start the year on the disabled list and will give the team some added depth in the outfield.  It is, however, a curious one how well Angel Pagan played for them in spot duty last season.  Pagan hit .306 with a .837 OPS and stole 14 bases in 88 games for the Mets last season.

How desperate were the Angels to unload Matthews?  They are taking back a middle-of-the road reliever in Stokes and agreeing to pay $21 million of the remaining $23 million left on the last two years of Matthews’ contract.  They are essentially paying the Mets to take Matthews off their hands.

Pineiro is coming off arguably the best year of his career winning 15 games and posting a 3.49 ERA for the National League Central Champion St. Louis Cardinals.  He has always been considered someone that has enough talent to be a quality big league pitcher but has battled injuries throughout his career.

Joel was considered an up-and-coming starting pitcher after winning 16 games and sporting a 3.78 ERA in 2003 for the Seattle Mariners at the age of 24.  His career began to derail the following year as he battled through a series of injuries.

At the age of 31 the Angels are getting a pitcher who re-made himself under the tutelage of Cards’ pitching coach Dave Duncan.  He is expected to take Lackey’s spot in the rotation and should end up battling Joe Saunders for the #3 starter spot behind Jered Weaver and Scott Kazmir.