Stats

Certainly, it’s impossible to ignore the great start Mike Cameron has provided the Brewers in April and the early days of May during this season.

We shouldn’t ignore, however, the starts of three other Brewer hitters in the top third of qualified (3.1 PA/team game) NL position players by Value Wins this season.

Unsurprisingly to all Brewer fans, Ryan Braun is one of these three players.

Albert Pujols is quickly becoming one of the grestest hitters that the game has ever seen.

In his first eight full seasons in the MLB, he has put up gawdy numbers, that can't be matched.

Recently, Pujols surpassed the 1,000 RBI plateau, and is slowly creeping up the all-time home run list.

Pujols was drafted in the 13th round of the 1999 MLB Draft by St. louis.

My daughter, Kaitlyn, came home with her mid-term progress report the other day. Not sure why the teachers pick on her so.

Last time I checked 66, was not a C as she has been telling us since September. And she did do well in Music, Art and Gym. I'm sure that will get her into an Ivy League school.

In any event, her poor with an occasional gust to fair grades, has whet my appetite to grade the Red Sox at the end of the first month of the season.

It's Thursday, and the weekend is almost upon us. If you're like me, you start looking forward to the weekend on, well, Monday. But before we dig into this full plate of steamy weekend baseball, why not look back and reminisce about the pitchers that flat out got it done last week. These guys are already looking like Cy Young contenders, with stat lines that make baseball fan's eyes go wide upon first view.

AL:

With the boo-birds out in full force over CC Sabathia’s slow start to his first season as a Yankee, baseball fans prove that they can always be counted on to completely miss the point.

Rather than go into a tirade about how stupid everybody is, let’s just take a look at CC’s splits from last season, first his performance though April and then for the rest of the season:

Jordan Zimmermann has gone from small town kid to a big league starting pitcher in the Nation's capital.

Zimmermann was born and raised in Central Wisconsin's Auburndale, where he also attended the local high school.

He then attended a small Division III college 30 miles east of his hometown in the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where he played baseball for three years.

Alright, I know this sounds crazy. You were expecting the Halladay’s, the Sabathia’s, or even the Beckett’s to be mentioned here.

But no; if the season ended today, I would say Detroit’s Armando Galarraga has been the most dominant pitcher in the AL thus far.

What's wrong with the Colorado Rockies?  They started out the season 4-4, but are currently 5-9. They lost five of their last six, and eight of their last 10 games. 

So what's the problem? 

It's not necessarily hitting—the Rockies are ranked seventh in the NL in runs scored.

Fielding? Not exactly. The Rockies have committed just eight errors on the year, seventh in the NL.

One area you can point to is pitching. The Rockies' 5.84 ERA is ranked 14th in the NL, and the Rockies' opponent's batting average is .307, last in the NL.

Both Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera started their careers in 1995 as New York Yankees.

Mariano has stayed put and has been with the Yankees since the start of his career, while Andy has been a Yankee for 12 of his 15 seasons.

Both Yankees have impressive career numbers:

Pettitte has over 2,000 strikeouts, 217 wins, and a career 3.88 ERA.

Rivera sports an impressive hall-of-fame stat line of 485 saves, close to 1,000 strikeouts, and an astonishing 2.28 ERA. These numbers secure a spot as one of the most dominate closers ever.

Speed kills. 

And for Emilio Bonifacio, the Marlins' young speedster at the hot corner, it's his main tool. 

Born in the Dominican Republic, Bonifacio is 23-years-young, and has already been traded twice. 

Brought up in the Arizona Diamondbacks' organization, he made his MLB debut on September 1st, 2007.  Bonifacio was traded to the Washington Nationals on July 22th, 2008 for pitcher Jon Rauch, and immediately optioned to the Nationals' Triple A affiliate in Columbus.