Rankings/List

In this morning's paper, six games into the season, the order of the six National League Central division teams was listed as the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cincinnati Reds, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Chicago Cubs, and the Houston Astros.

That looks like the season-end order to me.

With an offense led by Albert Pujols and a sturdy rotation, the Cardinals figure to top the National League Central again. The main question is how far they will get in the post-season.

Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman are lighting up the baseball blogosphere as they make their professional debuts, and with their respective arms there is no reason that they should not be.

Both Strasburg and Chapman can reach 100 and have impressive secondary pitches, especially with their sliders.

With all of the hype surrounding Strasburg and Chapman, it makes you wonder where they would rank among the most hyped pitchers since the year 2000.

In order to make this list, you had to be a hyped arm before your rookie season.

Fans are what makes this game great. The fans are what make the players try that much harder and they're the reason that the ninth inning is the most exciting inning in baseball.

They stand during big plays, they explode on a big strikeout or a go-ahead RBI.

Fans aren't always the same. They think differently, they react differently, and they expect different things, some more irrational than others.

This time last year, Grady Sizemore was considered Cleveland's Iron Horse.

The speedy center fielder missed just seven games from 2005-08. He played every day in 2006 and 2007; a sprained ankle in April 2008 snapped his consecutive games-played streak at 382.

That all changed in 2009 when a groin injury, elbow problems, and a hernia limited Sizemore to just 106 games.

The leadoff spot in baseball is one of the most important slots on a manager's lineup card. The guy at the top of the order is expected to get on base, move into scoring position, and score runs.

It's the spot in the order where on-base percentage reigns supreme and where power is a bonus rather than an iron-clad prerequisite.

Sure, there's a handful of guys who will hit a dozen home runs from the No.

From 1946 to 1950, Boston Braves moundsmen Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain were two of the top five starting pitchers in all of baseball. Sain, who went on to great renown as the game's greatest pitching coach during the 1960s and 1970s, won 20 or more games in four of those five years. Spahn would go on to win 363 games. In 1947, at the tender age of 26, he won the ERA and WHIP titles in the National League, and led the league in both shutouts and innings pitched.

Unfortunately, Spahn and Sain had relatively little support in Boston for most of their five seasons together.

David Ortiz’ recent profanity-laced tantrum with the Boston media isn’t his first meltdown, and if he continues to hit poorly, Big Papi’s spoiled inner child will certainly rear his ugly head once again.

Yet Papi isn’t the only head case roaming the diamonds of America’s pastime. As you read this, half-whacked megastars and journeymen alike are getting ready to take the field all over today’s MLB slate.

They are all so different.

Every single year we are amazed at how fast the first week goes, but that's part of the beauty of baseball.

It’s way too early to care about league leaders and standout performances, but there's no shame in looking, is there?

Here are the top story lines from each team during the first week of the 2010 season. 

We're just about a week into the MLB season, and a couple of teams have jumped out to early-season surprise starts .

The Blue Jays have won five straight since an Opening Day loss, and sit atop baseball's most loaded division at 5-1, while the A's have started 5-2 out West .

This series is devoted to spotlighting each week’s top fantasy producers. Each player awarded a position is determined by their statistics for the last seven days. Game changing contributions are also considered.

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