Opinion

THE MEAT OF THE ORDER

Every week there are three things I deem to be really important. It's kind of like the "meat" of my lineup.

1. Plummeting attendance should be a concern.

The attendance issues in baseball are real people.

Three attendance lows for ballparks in one night? This is in addition to Baltimore and Cleveland doing it the week before last has to just make you shake your head.

This past off season, the New York Yankees made two trades involving pitchers. They will live to regret both trades.

The first is obvious. The Yankees have lost six games in this young season and three of them are directly attributable to horrendous efforts by Javier Vazquez.

Vazquez was acquired in a trade with the Atlanta Braves to be the Yankees fourth starter. The way he has pitched so far, he should the the fourth member of the grounds crew.

Brett Gardner finished Saturday's win hitting .340 for the New York Yankees as they won their 12th game over the Angels. He has also stolen nine bases which puts him on a pace to steal about 85 for the year.

Gardner did not start in the series finale in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon as the Yankees lost the game and their first series of the season.

Marcus Thames was in Gardner's place as southpaw Scott Kazmir started for Los Angeles.

Thames did get a hit, a base on balls and scored a run.

Save your sabermetrics and your OPS and OBS and all those other statistics that address a hitter's ability to produce.

The 2010 San Francisco Giants, when healthy, score a few more runs a week than the 2009 Giants did. This bunch, however, is no better than last year's club at scoring a run when they really, really, need one.

The easiest way to score a run is, naturally, to jack a ball over the fence. Pablo Sandoval is a consistent home run threat. Beyond Sandoval, the club is without a true source of power.

Due to David Ortiz’s struggles last season and early this season, many people have speculated over whether or not Big Papi is done.

In short, I think he is nearing the end. 

I am sure he still has a few good games left in him, but I would venture to guess that even the most diehard member of Red Sox nation would agree that his best years are behind him.

Whenever a player of Ortiz’s caliber nears the end of his career, the conversation almost always switches to a discussion of whether or not said player will make it to the Hall of Fame.

Mike Leake is not your typical pitcher. Leake, 22, has made the jump straight from the draft to the major leagues. Aroldis Chapman and Stephen Strasburg have made more headlines with their 100 mph fastballs, yet they are not in the major leagues and Leake is.

Leake is only 5'10" and 180 pounds. His fastball barely tops out in the low 90s. Now how does a right-handed pitcher who puts up average numbers on the radar gun get to the major leagues before two flamethrowers such as soon-to-be teammate Chapman and highly-rated and hyped Strasburg?

April baseball rarely provides a clear window into the state of the game by October.

Teams that struggle to find their way early on suddenly become high-powered contenders late in the season, and those who lead their respective divisions in the first month rarely sustain that dominance into the sixth.

However, while 20 or so games may not be enough time to accurately predict a team's path through the season, it is plenty of time to notice trends.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are trending poorly.

With all of the movement in the AL West—big trades, free agent signings, and the los

Milwaukee 20, Pittsburgh 0. I nearly dropped my laptop when I saw that score-line the other night. Almost right away, I wondered if it was time for Major League Baseball to implement the mercy rule.

The Milwaukee win isn't actually the best case of a reason to bring in this ruling, also known as the "Slaughter Rule." It was "only" 10-0 after six innings, before the Brewers piled on ten more. (A better example would be the Texas Rangers 30-3 win against the Baltimore Orioles during the 2007 season.)

Last evening, Jayson Werth put on a "Baseball Tonight" highlight reel in leading the Phillies to a 3-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. Watching him continue to evolve as one of baseball's brightest all-around stars argues that the Phillies should sign him to a contract extension right now. 

The St. Louis Cardinals lost their first series of the year this past weekend in San Francisco.

How concerning is this to the Cardinals?

Let's try not at all. Or maybe 0%. Either would work.

Fans are understandably on edge. After all, the teams offense seems to be under the impression that they only have two options when batting: strike out or hit a home run.

While this approach isn't exactly preferred by baseball people, it has propelled the Cardinals to a comfortable first-place lead after three weeks.