Opinion

Dec. 24, 2006: Suppan signs a four-year, $42 million contract with an option for 2011. Did Santa come early in 2006? No, but Scrooge sure did. 

Fresh off of a NL Championship series MVP award, Suppan jumped at the chance to sign a big contract with the Brewers. GM Doug Melvin explains the signing stating, "He gives us a big-game pitcher. He's shown that last year."

That quote was far-fetched considering Suppan's line from 2006: 12-7 with a 4.12 ERA.

Most Reds' fans who visit this site are already well aware of Friday evening's nail biter victory vs. the Chicago Cubs.

Let's start with Homer Bailey.

Bailey struggled through four tough innings.  His fifth and final inning of work was a rather simple one, even though he did plunk the first batter, Xavier Nady.

When all was said and done, Bailey's line read:

5 IP, 7 H (all singles), 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 2 HBP, 2 WP, and 1 BK—29 batters faced, and 109 pitches tossed.

Anyone who has suffered through the downturn in the San Francisco Giants fortunes, then survived a surprise playoff run in 2009, isn't about to start picking at nits after the club's 4-0 start this week.

Well, almost nobody would point out tiny flaws in a team that is on pace to finish 162-0.

The Tampa Bay Rays saw two Javier Vazquez's tonight.

In innings one, two, three, and five, they faced a pitcher whose velocity and command made him difficult to hit. The Rays went down in order in the first, third, and fifth, and couldn't score off Vazquez after putting two men on base to begin the second.

During those four innings, Vazquez fanned five Rays, who simply couldn't hit the ball hard against the right-hander.

Friday night's game against the Tampa Bay Rays was the first time since 2004 that Javier Vazquez officially took the ball for the Yankees.

Most remember how bad that ended up, especially since it led to his departure from New York.

Unfortunately, his first start back wasn't any better than what most hoped for.

After Alex Rodriguez's RBI triple followed by an error gave the Yankees an early 2-0 lead, it looked like Vazquez could have a chance to settle down and control the game.

The Rays offense had other plans for the night.

Major League Baseball is concerned with the time it takes to play games, believing that the sport is suffering because games take nearly three hours (on average) to play. For the last four or five years, the league has attempted to address the issue, going so far as to implement measures designed to pick up the pace of the game, including reducing time between pitches and the hitter’s ability to step out of the batter’s box.

But apparently, umpire Joe West doesn’t think the Red Sox or Yankees care to cooperate.

Trading in fantasy sports can be simplified to a four-word common denominator: Sell high, buy low.

The key is knowing which players will bounce back from a slow start and which ones will crash and burn after lighting the fantasy world on fire early on.

It should be noted that at the moment, not even a full week into the MLB's regular season, you won't find too many owners panicking enough about Mark Teixeira's slow start or overzealous about Vernon Wells' astronomical stats thus far.

For the last two years, the Baltimore Orioles relied on George Sherrill to close games for them.

Now, the Orioles look to another lefty, Mike Gonzalez, to fill that role.

Unfortunately, for the health of Orioles’ fans, the two might be a little too similar.

The Los Angeles Dodgers appear to be the perfect mix of youth and veteran players on paper. With great young talent in Matt Kemp, Andre Either, and Clayton Kershaw, and solid veteran leadership from Casey Blake and Rafael Furcal, this team is set for another run at that elusive National League Championship. That is, if they can make the playoffs.

It was only one game into the 2010 baseball season for New York Yankee fans, there were 161 more to go, but panic was in the air. The newest addition to the bullpen, Chan Ho Park, was roughed up. Curtis Granderson reiterated to all involved that he couldn't hit left-handed pitching, CC Sabathia couldn't last through six innings, and Joba Chamberlain's performance in the eighth inning indicated that he couldn't get out batters whether he was a starter OR a reliever.