Baseball

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.

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.

Prior to this year, Nelson Cruz has been known as strictly a power hitter. He averaged 27 home runs per season from 2009-2013 and then made the most of his one season in Baltimore by leading the league in round-trippers last year.

It doesn't take much time to run out of superlatives when describing Miguel Cabrera’s ability to make square contact with a baseball.

Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki left Friday's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a quadriceps injury.

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After putting together a solid 2014 season, Washington Nationals starting pitcher Doug Fister has struggled to begin the 2015 campaign. His year took another detour Friday after he headed to the 15-day disabled list.

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At this juncture, the Cincinnati Reds have no idea what they're going to do at the deadline.

They're 18-17, 6.5 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central and just a half game behind the final wild card spot. That makes it particularly challenging for the Reds' brass to decide what to do with this roster at such a pivotal fork in the road, one where the Reds and ace Johnny Cueto probably part ways.

For a team that hasn't won a World Series in over 100 years and came into 2015 off a string of five straight losing seasons, it's remarkable just how much hype the Chicago Cubs are generating.

Never mind the National League East; there was a time not too long ago when the New York Mets seemed to be on top of the world. They were 13-3 through 16 games, the last 11 of which were all W's.

That seems like ancient history by now. The Mets began rolling downhill immediately after their 11-game win streak ended. Thursday, they hit a low point with a resounding "thud."