Fan News

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.

Bunting is meant for bad hitters or to get a man from second to third when one run will make or break a game.

Sacrifice bunting a man to second base should only happen when you have a player who has a best-case scenario of a strikeout or groundout double play.

This is why pitchers bunt. Professional hitters should not have to bunt a man to second.

It's only April, but the New York Yankees already look like winners. I'm not ready to declare them playoff bound yet, but might be doing so before the month is out.

That's because the next four series are almost as crucial as the ones that the Yankees just won.

The Yankees took two out of three EACH against the two stronger division rivals, the Boston Red Sox, and the Tampa Bay Rays on the road.

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.

The Yankees opened the 2010 season by playing their most hated rivals, the Boston Red Sox, on the road to start the year.

The Yankees won two of the three games to win the first series against Boston, a major confidence booster.

After Boston, the Yankees traveled to play another tough AL East division rival in the Tampa Bay Rays.

The first game went poorly for Javier Vazquez, and the Yankees took a 9-3 loss.

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.

Here’s a look at some unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Luis Valbuena, Cleveland Indians

Valbuena went 2-for-4 with a grand slam. They were his first RBI of the year.

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 Arizona Diamondbacks have started 4-2 and are second in runs scored in the National League with 42.

Their run total was helped by a 13-run outburst in the fourth inning of Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The 13 runs in that inning were a Diamondbacks team record.

Let’s see what is going on with the team from the Valley of the Sun.

Kelly Johnson is back!

With one week of the regular season behind us, what have we learned about the 2010 edition of the Philadelphia Phillies so far? A week is a just a week, but how a team plays and what story lines unfold once the big curtain goes up on the games that count often foreshadow the season.