Fan News

"More Days in First Place. More Days in First Place. More Days in First Place."

That’s Boston’s sports radio WEEI mocking a robotic Dan Duquette after the 2001 season, when the ‘Duke’ proclaimed that the Red Sox spent ‘more days in first place’ than that the New York Yankees.

Carlos Zambrano has always been known as a player who wears his emotion on his sleeve, and today it cost him.

He was called on an extremely close play at the plate, where Nyjer Morgan slid in just before Zambrano was able to get the tag down, but Morgan barely got his hand in before Zambrano could tag him out.

Mark Carlson, the umpire on the call, actually made a tremendous call, because from first angle it looked like Morgan was blocked by Zambrano and he was out. But upon further review of the play, it shows that he slid his hand in before the tag could be made.

Professional sports are full of underrated guys who never see the credit that they deserve.

We have seen it year in and year out, in every sport. But to me, baseball is the leading sport for guys who are underrated, and never receive credit.

Here's my list of the top 10 underrated players in the major leagues today, the non pitcher addition. The guys I have on this list deserve more than enough credit for their stellar play over their careers, and in the young 2009 season.

You may not agree with some of my choices, and that's fine.

The Oakland A's are coming off a game which should have gave them some momentum to at least get the A's in a tie for third place with the Seattle Mariners, but again their effort was again not where it should be especially for a professional baseball team.

The only offense the A's could muster against Erik Bedard was a solo homerun by Bobby Crosby.

Carlos Zambrano was tossed from Wednesday's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates after a very close call at home plate with one out in the top of the seventh inning.

Zambrano threw an 0-1 pitch in the dirt to Nate McLouth on the first base side (inside to the left-handed hitter) which Geovany Soto slid over to block. In doing so, the ball kicked back to the third base side behind home plate.

While Zambrano ran home to cover the plate, speedy Pirates outfielder Nyjer Morgan bolted in from third base in an attempt to score.

Did the Cubs call up Sacha Baron Cohen to start their game against the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon, or was that Carlos Zambrano going nuclear in the top of the seventh inning?

Even the well-mannered Milton Bradley was impressed, being quoted after the game referring to the tirade as "Bradley-like."

Talk about tact!

It all happened in the top of the seventh inning, an inning Zambrano started despite having thrown 107 pitches through six innings.

When Jack Zduriencik signed the veteran Russell Branyan this off season, he and the rest of the organization were probably expecting a solid defensive first baseman who could put up some decent power numbers in the middle of the order. It appears that what they got was a lot more.

Everyone already knew that Branyan had a great power upside, but he has performed well above expectations over the first two months of the season. Not only is he doing a bang-up job at first base, but he's near the top of the league in homers with a batting average above .300.

The recent call-up of Cubs' power-hitting prospect Jake Fox has fueled plenty of speculation about how he will fit Chicago's mold. With Derek Lee and Micah Hoffpauir occupying his comfort zone at first base, it would appear that Fox is a square peg squeezing into a round hole.

However, there is one area Fox may cover perfectly while he enjoys his time in the majors—go-to pinch hitter.

The '90s Nightmares

Every decade has its set of ferocious hitters that make pitchers wake up in a cold sweat.  Who were the most fearsome guys from the 1990s, though?