MLB

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I have been at a trade show for work in Orlando, FL. Bill Simmons thought that Orlando was the cougar capital of the U.S. and I would have to agree with him on that one. This city is littered with them.

If you are ever in Orlando, I recommend Texas de Brazil. It’s a Brazilian steakhouse and they just keep coming with meat after meat after meat. The bacon wrapped filet mignon was especially fantastic.

If it's not one thing with these Phillies over the past two weeks or so, then it's another. If the pitching is spot on, then you can be sure the offense will struggle to muster a single run.

Then once the hitting finally gets going, the pitching and defense begin to struggle, and you're stuck with that Padres game from Sunday.

Ubaldo Jimenez continues to roll.  Hanley Ramirez was returned to the leadoff spot. Matt Capps could be in jeopardy of losing his job.  Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

Monday is the first day of Major League Baseball's three-day First-Year Player Draft.

There are 50 rounds stretched out over those three days and, from the somewhat limited research that I was able to do, it seems that five or six players, on average, from any given team's draft class will eventually reach the big leagues.

Of course, that doesn't take into account that teams typically only sign a little less than 30 of their picks every year. Most teams will probably draft one future major leaguer (maybe even two) that they won't sign.

Oakland A's manager Bob Geren nearly blew another game by having Tyson Ross come into the ballgame to face Delmon Young of the Minnesota Twins. With Joe Mauer on base via a free pass, in came Ross to face the right-handed hitting Young. 

Ross immediately fell behind 2-0 to the free-swinging Young. The next pitch that Ross threw was the last one he would for the game, he gave up a two-run home run that went out of the park in a hurry. 

Busy week for America's pastime and there is no end in site. Led by one of the most controversial calls ever. We all know Jim Joyce made the wrong call to ruin Armando Galarraga perfect game. But he did everything right after it.

On the very same night one of the greatest players of all time retires in Ken Griffey Jr. The Orioles fired manager Dave Trembley. More to come this week...

The MLB draft kicks off on Monday night and the All-Star ballots are filling up as the summer heats up.

When this season started, I had high hopes for the Rangers pitching staff, and for the most part they have delivered.

There have been quite a few ups and downs, but in general I am quite happy with their performance thus far.

I expected Rich Harden to have a decent season and was somewhat skeptical of moving C.J. Wilson to the starting rotation. 

Boy, was I wrong.

C.J. Wilson has been a great success as a starter. Despite a rough stretch of four or five games, he has pitched extremely well. 

When Mark Teixeira struck out for the fifth time against the Blue Jays on Saturday, it did more than just match the worst individual performance of his career.

It also marked the exact moment the Yankees first baseman finally hit rock bottom.

It had been a long, strange trip to get there, prolonged slumps followed by promising breakouts followed by prolonged slumps. Teixeira's confidence eroded with each strikeout at Rogers Centre, his approach growing more tentative with each failure.

• AL East
• Game Recap
• MLB
• New York Yankees