Opinion

And so, the 2015 Major League Baseball season rolls ever onward. It's already nine whole weeks old!

To celebrate the occasion, we'll do what we always do at the end of the week: round up the big storylines and dig in.

This was a particularly busy week, so we have 10 storylines to cover. They range from awesome sluggers doing awesome slugger things to good teams hitting the skids to one of the weirdest baseball storylines in recent memory.

We'll go in order from least interesting to most interesting. Step into the box whenever you're ready. 

Pat Venditte was a feel-good story in February and March. 

He was thrown into the hype machine in April and May, and it was ramped up to full bore Friday after the Oakland A’s called up the ambidextrous relief pitcher from Triple-A Nashville.

In the middle of the New York Yankees' lineup, you can find two aging hitters who seemed to be past their primes but are now hitting as if they've found the fountain of youth.

The one who's gotten the most press is Alex Rodriguez, and deservedly so. But we're going to give some overdue credit to the other guy: Mark Teixeira.

Before Tuesday, the Texas Rangers knew they had an elite power-hitting prospect in 21-year-old third baseman Joey Gallo. What they didn't know is how he looked in real, live major-league action.

Well, now they do. And they have every reason to be excited.

Very, very, very excited.

With the return of Dillon Gee, the New York Mets are to institute a six-man pitching rotation in their pursuit of top spot in the National League East. 

And it's not going anywhere, according to ESPN's Adam Rubin.

The Toronto Blue Jays and Washington Nationals locked horns in a low-scoring matchup Tuesday afternoon.

Virtually no one got on base, partially due to Josh Donaldson doing his best Nightcrawler routine out there.

The New York Yankees spanked the Seattle Mariners 7-2 Monday night, thanks largely to a nuclear meltdown by Felix Hernandez.

After three innings of solid pitching, Hernandez buckled under some unseen force and began handing out walks, one of which Alex Rodriguez gladly accepted to advance to first in the fourth inning.

This year's Major League Baseball draft doesn't feature a generational talent at the top, nor does it have the depth of a class like 2011, but that does add to the drama, because anything can happen starting with the first pick. 

Arizona owns the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since 2005. That year produced Justin Upton, who turned out to be a very good big leaguer in his time with the Diamondbacks, before being traded to Atlanta and subsequently San Diego. 

If you were concerned that baseball's rumor mill hadn't been spitting out much in regard to some of the biggest names in the game recently, what's transpired in recent days should be enough to put your mind at ease.

1. Mets Vie for the Sixth Man Award

The idea, Mets manager Terry Collins estimates, came out of six or more hours of discussion over several days between him and pitching coach Dan Warthen. This was probably three weeks ago, when they saw what Noah Syndergaard was doing, looked at the schedule, noted that Dillon Gee was due back soon and knew they needed a plan to protect youngsters Syndergaard, Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom from too much work.