Opinion

Every year, I make the proclamation that this is the year the Kansas City Royals contend. Every year it turns out the same way.

Again the Royals have fallen on hard times, losing 14 out of their last 17 ballgames.

From the sound of things, the Milwaukee Brewers are going to hold a yard sale and one of the items up for grabs on the front lawn will be Yovani Gallardo.

New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman were refreshingly candid when commenting on Alex Rodriguez's tenure with the team (via Wallace Matthews, ESPNNewYork.com).

As we approach the 2013 MLB draft on Thursday, several prospects, ranging from high school to college, have jumped up teams' boards.

As always, it's all about projection in the MLB draft. Through the years, scouts have become better and better about projecting a player's potential in the pros, even at the high school level. That includes precisely predicting pitchers' velocity and hitters' power down the road.

Here's a look at prospects that have soared up draft boards in recent weeks.

With less than three days remaining before the 2013 MLB Draft commences in New Jersey, the top prospects in the field, in some order, seem to look like Stanford right-handed pitcher Mark Appel, San Diego 3B Kris Bryant and Oklahoma right-handed pitcher Jonathon Gray.

The No. 1 overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft has a checkered past. 

The 2013 MLB All-Star Game is still a month and a half away, but voting is already underway and the first voting update for the National League was released by MLB.com on Tuesday.

Mark Appel, the Stanford right-handed pitcher who passed up a $3.8 million bonus from the Pittsburgh Pirates as the No. 8 pick in last year's draft, appears to have made a smart business decision to return to school for his senior season in 2013. 

On July 30, 2011, it was announced that the Seattle Mariners were going to trade young starting pitcher Doug Fister and scrappy reliever David Pauley to the Detroit Tigers for a pile of prospects.  Those prospects ended up being outfielder Casper Wells, pitcher Charlie

• AL West
• Baseball
• Doug Fister
• MLB
• Opinion
• Seattle Mariners