MLB

Baseball is a sport that transcends time. It is one of the few activities in America that a Civil War veteran, if he was miraculously raised from the dead, would understand.

And the uniforms have changed a bit, but are still generally recognizable. The socks and stirrups get a little longer or shorter depending on the era, and the clothes are not as baggy now since they are made out of super-duper high tech sweat absorbent space age materials now, but the overall look is the same.

Some uniforms have stood the test of time. The Dodgers, with their classic script, comes to mind.

Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Alex Rodriguez’s 19th career grand slam gave New York a lead they would not relinquish in an 8-4 win over Minnesota Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

Joba Chamberlain (1-1) struck out the side in the eighth inning to earn the win. Scott Baker (4-3) suffered the loss despite striking out nine in six innings.

MIAMI-- After a start in which Oliver Perez walked seven batters in 3 1/3 innings, blaming it on cold conditions, he had abolutely no excuse for this terrible outing.

Perez, who was given a vote of confidence by Jerry Manuel and was told that he was not pitching for his spot in the rotation, gave up four home runs in 3 1/3 innings as the Mets took a 7-2 loss.

It didn't start out too terribly for Perez as he struck out two in the first inning. Although he walked the first two batters to face him in the second, he bounced back with another two strike outs to escape trouble.

On Wednesday, Carrie Muskat wrote an article in which she said that "There are no deals pending, no scouts scouring other rosters to find help."

It wasn't a quote from Jim Hendry. It was just a line added into the article between quotes from the Cubs' general manager.

More specifically, it came immediately before the following quote from Hendry:

As it turns out, the Florida Marlins had suspected the Phillies were guilty of stealing signs long before the Philadelphia bullpen coach was caught gazing through binoculars at Coors Field earlier in the week, which has led to a reprimand from Major League Baseball.

"We've always had our suspicions," said Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez.

The Mariners' hitting is, to be blunt, very bad.

As an Indians fan, I think of my team's hitting, and think to myself, it could be worse. We could have the Mariners' hitting.

They are last in runs, home runs, and slugging percentage, and nearly last in batting average, hits, and other categories.

So the question is, how do we fix this?

Clearly, the Mariners are still in the hunt in a tight AL West, so they aren't out of it, and can afford to make some changes.

There's no doubt the New York Yankees has had some pretty good prospects over the years: Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Derek Jeter. These days' prospects are Jesus Montero, Francisco Cervelli, Austin Jackson (who left via trade), and Phil Hughes.

Austin Jackson was supposed to be the starting center-fielder, but Brian Cashman traded him for Curtis Granderson, who is now injured. Jackson is thriving as the leadoff guy as a Detroit Tiger.

Brian Cashman kept all four players as they were coming up with the Core Four.

Welcome back to this running series on the Cleveland Indians titled, "The Problem," where we examine one issue surrounding the current club. Although there is probably more than one problem with the Indians, you have to fix one issue at a time.

Today's problem involves the club's biggest star, Grady Sizemore, and the lack of power production. Not only has the power not been there, Sizemore hasn't even been getting on base as much as the Indians had hoped.

Continuing our mailbox segment properly titled Fantasy Baseball Insiders’ Inbox, our Insider will answer a question posed by one of our loyal readers.

If you have a pressing question for the Insider, whether it be a trade proposal or a spot-start question, drop him a line: nick@fantasybaseballinsiders.com .