MLB

The Triple Crown.

It's been missing in horse racing since 1978. 

But it's been missing in baseball even longer.

Stephen Strasburg, meet Karl Spooner, who might have become one of the all-time greats.

Karl Spooner made his Major League debut on Sept. 22, 1954, shutting out the soon-to-be World Champion New York Giants.

The Brooklyn Dodgers young left-hander struck out 15 Giants to set the strikeout record for a major league pitching debut, which J.R. Richard equaled a few years later.

In his next and final start of the 1954 season, Spooner shut out the Pirates, striking out 12, to set the record of 27 strikeouts by a pitcher in his first two games.

Hey Stephen Strasburg, it's all been done before.

On June 27, 1973, 18-year-old David Clyde made his major league debut for the Texas Rangers at Arlington Stadium before the largest crowd in Rangers' history.

The top selection in the June 1973 baseball draft, Clyde, who had pitched nine no-hitters for Westchester High School in Houston, signed for a $125,000 bonus. It was the most money given to any drafted player in return for signing.

One of them is still a cellar dwelling team. The other no longer is. And that's not just by the standings.

The Pirates' win percentage of .390 is genuinely cellar-dwelling. They've been lucky for most of the season, in that one or more teams have had (until recently) even worse showings. But this luck seems to have run out, at least for now.

The Nationals have a win percentage .483. That puts them only half a game above the cellar, but only in the very competitive National League East. They're also only five games out of first place.

Welcome to the Cleveland Indians Trading Post, a weekly segment meant to help my fellow Tribe fans sort out which of the few familiar faces left on the team won’t be around much longer.

This week’s potential trade bait is Russell Branyan.

The basics

With the Midsummer Classic just one month away, Bleacher Report's Featured Columnists are back with an updated mock All-Star vote!

This is part two of this week's poll: the NL results (for the AL results, click here). For each position, I've listed the full vote totals, as well as the current real-life leader(s) and a reminder of who we chose five weeks ago.

The Cincinnati Reds were able to turn around their four-game series against the San Francisco Giants Wednesday night with a 6-3 win.

So, after losing twice to the Giants earlier in the week, what changed in this game that allowed the Reds to win?

For starters, the Reds did a much better job manufacturing runs. That’s the obvious difference shown by the final score. The six runs they scored were the most they've tallied in a game thus far in the series.

The Reds also did a better job of batting, and giving themselves an opportunity to score the runs they did.

In the next few weeks, Major League Baseball will embark in trade frenzy. Every team must quickly decide whether they are a buyer or seller.

Do they have a chance to compete this year? Is it better to hold the pieces for a run next year? Should they sell any valuable assets to rebuild for years to come?

It is not easy for a general manager to make these decisions.

Here’s a look at the unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Red Sox pitching, of course, refers to just two men:

Daisuke Matsuzaka and Tim Wakefield.

Remember how both those guys dominated the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park three weeks ago over a span of 18 hours?

Well, both righthanders will be out to repeat their wizardry of the Phillies this weekend, while the Phillies will be given a shot at redemption, a chance for revenge.