MLB

Brian McCann came into today's game against the Philadelphia Phillies batting .440 with two homers, and Tim Hudson entered his fifth spring start with a 1.93 ERA and a 13-1 K/BB ratio.

With Hudson facing the tough Philadelphia lineup and McCann batting against tough, young left-hander J.A. Happ, it would have been easy to expect those numbers to come back down to Earth.

All good things must come to an end— unless

“Lock it up”

If you are reading this and you don’t already know where that quote is from, you need to put this paper down immediately and go watch the movie “Wedding Crashers.”

On second thought…finish reading my article first, then go and watch the movie.

According to Blake Bentley of MLB Trades Rumors, 17-year-old right-handed pitcher Rafael DePaula is expected to sign with a major league team soon with the Yankees and the Mariners listed as the most likely landing spots for the Dominican pitcher.

For five months, Miguel Cabrera led the Tigers' charge for first place in the Central division.

MVP, MVP, MVP!

With a beastly average of .330 to support 33 home runs and 101 RBI, Cabrera embodied all that was good in Detroit.

He, the young-blooded Venezuelan, along with Justin Verlander and the upcoming phenom Rick Porcello, was among the successful faces of the 2009 season.

Ah, pure rejoicing—the playoffs seemed inevitable.

Deep breath, cross fingers.

That Clay Buchholz was battered by the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday will raise few red flags in the Boston Red Sox clubhouse, as the lanky right-hander suffered the thumping during an admittedly sleepy spring training tune-up.

The Calendar still reads March, which is to say the numbers don’t matter yet.

But the Red Sox need to hope the numbers are impressive when they do.

The Yankees were in an unfamiliar spot on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. They had lost the first game of the World Series they night before, dropping a 6-1 decision in Game One. Yankee fans everywhere were frightened to see the Bronx Bombers down 0-1 to a team like the Philadelphia Phillies.

Any real fan of the Toronto Blue Jays knows that this year is going to be a long one. The first year of a rebuild always is.

As spring training comes closer to the end and the roster cuts keep piling up, it becomes clearer that the Jays are looking thin.

There is no doubt that a National Football League fantasy season is fun. Major League Baseball's storied infatuation with statistics and the length of its season just happen to make the diamond's make-believe game infinitely better.

I mention this because I'm of the camp that believes our resultant addiction to fantasy baseball skews some current observations of the game.

One example appears to be the growing import of Spring Training numbers.