Category: MLB

Outside of Tampa Bay, it might have seemed like the Rays’ march to the 2008 World Series was a bit of a fluke, considering they finished 19 games behind the Yankees in 2009.

But inside the clubhouse at Tropicana Field, 2009 is most definitely seen as the fluke season. This is the year the Rays are set on proving that. They’ve outscored their opponents by 80 runs, and they entered the week with the best record in the majors, thanks largely to the deepest rotation in baseball. All five starters have an ERA under 3.20, and new closer Rafael Soriano is a perfect 8-for-8 in save opportunities so far this season.

They might not stay No. 1 in the power poll all year, but they won’t be far from it. For this week’s edition, we’re looking at a surprising/impressive number through the first five weeks of the season.

Matt Garza has been outstanding for the Rays.

1. Rays (2). Matt Garza has been outstanding; he’s sporting a 2.09 ERA, a 1.070 WHIP and is averaging 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings. And he doesn’t lead his own team in any of those categories. (Side note: if you want to ask Garza a question, shoot me an e-mail and your question could get answered in an upcoming issue of Sporting News magazine)

2. Yankees (4). The Yankees led the majors with a team .362 on-base percentage last season, and they’re atop the list again this year, at .370. That’s not surprising. What’s surprising is who is leading the Yankees—Brett Gardner and his .425 OBP.

3. Twins (5). After three forgettable seasons because of injuries and inconsistency, Francisco Liriano reeled off a 23-inning scoreless streak to close out April. He has yet to allow a home run this season through 42 innings.

4. Phillies (7). Jose Contreras has been a stopper in the Phillies’ bullpen. Through 10 2/3 innings, the 38-year-old righthander has struck out 15 and allowed just five hits; his ERA is 0.84 and his WHIP is a tidy 0.563

5. Cardinals (1). Rookie Jamie Garcia is leading the rotation with his 1.18 ERA through six starts. Veterans Brad Penny (1.99 ERA), Adam Wainwright (2.08) and Chris Carpenter (2.80) haven’t disappointed, either.

6. Padres (3). Really hard to single out anyone on a pitching staff that’s produced a nifty 2.73 ERA entering the week—that’s second in the majors—so here’s a quick glance at the best ERAs on the staff: Jon Garland (1.71 in six starts), Wade LeBlanc (1.16 in four starts), Heath Bell (1.29 in 14 games), Tim Stauffer (0.39 in 10 games) and Luke Gregerson (1.53 in 15 games).

7. Giants (6). Opponents have managed just a .460 OPS against lefty Barry Zito, the best mark in the National League (Phil Hughes leads the AL with a .440 mark). Teammate Tim Lincecum isn’t far behind, at .504.

8. Blue Jays (18). Toronto is 10-4 against the AL Central, 9-10 against everyone else.

9. Rangers (9). Texas is 10-4 against the AL Central, 8-10 against everyone else.

10. A’s (19). Dallas Braden threw 109 pitches in his perfect game on Sunday. He’s topped that number only once previously in his career, with 111 pitches in five shutout innings on April 30 last year.

11. Nationals (13). Josh Willingham is bucking his career trend with 22 walks and 20 strikeouts so far this year. Going back chronologically from 2009: 61 walks and 104 strikeouts, 48 and 82, 66 and 122, 54 and 109.

12. Tigers (8). Dontrelle Willis has the best ERA of any of the Tigers starters, at 3.99. Justin Verlander is at 4.50, and Jeremy Bonderman, Max Scherzer and Rick Porcello are all at 5.74 or above.

Rod Barajas leads the Mets with nine home runs.

13. Mets (11). Dan Murphy led the Mets last season with 12 home runs. Catcher Rod Barajas already has nine this year. And, enigmatic lefty Oliver Perez has a better ERA than ace lefty Johan Santana so far (4.50 to 4.54). Crazy.

14. Reds (21). The youngest member of the pitching staff and the oldest member of the pitching staff are leading the Reds so far. Rookie Mike Leake, who skipped the minors entirely, has a 3.10 ERA in six starts (Johnny Cueto is second on the staff at 5.18), and 40-year-old Arthur Rhodes has a 0.75 ERA and 0.667 WHIP in 13 appearances.

15. Red Sox (16). Opponents are 33-for-40 on stolen base attempts against Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez.

16. Rockies (10). Middle infielders Troy Tulowitzki and Clint Barmes combined for 55 homers last season; they have a total of two so far this year.

17. Brewers (24). The Brewers have scored 11 or more runs on six occasions this season; they’ve also scored 1 or 0 on seven occasions.

18. Dodgers (17). Andre Ethier enters the week leading the NL in batting average (.383) and RBIs (32) and he’s tied for the lead with 10 homers.

19. Marlins (12). Ricky Nolasco and Anibal Sanchez have identical 4.08 ERAs despite a huge difference in WHIP—Nolasco is at 1.135 and Sanchez is at 1.528.

20. Pirates (29). The Pirates enter the week 6-0 against the Reds and Cubs, 8-17 against everyone else.

21. Cubs (14). The Cubs enter the week 5-1 against the Brewers, 9-17 against everyone else.

22. Angels (15). After a hot start to the season, Hideki Matsui is batting .128 with three RBIs in his past 13 games.

23. Braves (20). Rookie Jason Heyward has eight home runs so far this season; Troy Glaus is the only other Brave with more than nine RBIs.

24. Diamondbacks (23). Six players enter this week with double-digit home runs. The D-backs have two of them, Kelly Johnson and Mark Reynolds.

25. White Sox (26). Paul Konerko has 27 RBIs and 27 hits entering the week. Carlos Quentin has 20 RBIs and 20 hits. Konerko is batting .273; Quentin is at .194.

26. Mariners (22). The Mariners have fewer home runs as a team (12) than Konerko (13) so far this season.

Adam Jones has been an out-making machine for the Orioles.

27. Orioles (27). Adam Jones, an All-Star last year, has a .254 on-base percentage and leads the AL with 110 outs made in his 31 games, an average of 3.55 outs made per contest.

28. Indians (28). Through 29 games, the Indians have a total of four RBIs and five extra-base hits (all doubles) from their first basemen (primarily Matt LaPorta and Russell Branyan).

29. Royals (25). Kansas City is 3-1 in extra-inning games, 8-20 in regulation.

30. Astros (30). Bright spot: Roy Oswalt is pitching like an ace again. He’s sporting a 2.63 ERA and a 1.104 WHIP and has 45 strikeouts in 48 innings.

Ryan Fagan is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at rfagan@sportingnews.com, and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ryan_fagan.

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Free-agent pitcher John Smoltz will test his ability on the links Monday as he tries to qualify for next month’s U.S. Open.

MLB.com and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution report Smoltz, who’ll turn 43 on Saturday, will be among 144 players competing at an 18-hole local event in Marietta, Ga. The top nine finishers and two alternates will move to a 36-hole sectional qualifying tournament, with a spot in the Open on the line.

Smoltz tells MLB.com he isn’t overly confident about his chances.

"I’m pretty realistic," Smoltz said. "Even if I set forth a month’s worth of practice, my realistic chance of qualifying isn’t great. I just want to do it for the experience."

The Journal-Constitution reports Smoltz, who is an analyst for Turner Sports and MLB Network, has a 2 handicap. He has expressed interest in playing on the PGA’s Champions Tour when he turns 50.

Still upset about the incident last month when Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez walked across the mound when going back to the dugout, A’s left-hander Dallas Braden told CSNBayArea.com that there could be repercussions when the teams play again in July.

Braden hinted that those repercussions could include a fight, and he admitted he isn’t a fan of A-Rod.

"(A-Rod has a) lack of respect for the game or those playing it. … He’s just an individualistic player," Braden said.

Rodriguez tried to take the high road Friday night when asked to respond to Braden’s latest comments.

"I think Major League Baseball reads the same articles as we do," Rodriguez told reporters. "Now, look, I really don’t want to extend his extra 15 minutes of fame.

"Look, it is tempting to sit back here and go back and forth with the media for the next three months, but I’m not going to do that."

The South Florida Sun Sentinel speculated Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez could be on the hot seat. Loria, speaking with The Miami Herald before the team’s game in Washington on Friday, tried to put a stop to that talk.

"Please, stop with that," Loria said. "Fredi and I are just fine. Fredi and the Marlins are just fine. Enough already. Please stop. I am not giving more life to what you want to be a story. Did you just see me come and hug the guy?"

But Loria also said that the team is underperforming. He added that Gonzalez addressed the team prior to the game.

"Who can be thrilled with being two games under?" Loria asked. "The team is better than that. Fredi had a long talk with them today. State of the Union message. the appropraiate city to do that in. I told him he should do that up at the Lincoln Memorial. Maybe they would be overwhelmed. They know they’re not playing up to their abilities. I have no worries whatsoever. They’re going to be fine.

"There’s a lot of room to move forward. We came out of spring training, I thought, a little flat, and we’re working our way out of that now."

The Sun-Sentinel noted that Loria nearly replaced Gonzalez following last season and that he said before the season that he expects to make the playoffs.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona on Friday offered his theory as to why his team’s games against the Yankees take so long to play — essentially, both teams are good and they play on TV a lot.

"There’s various reasons," Francona said in a radio interview with Dan Patrick. "One is, most of them are nationally televised, so you’re going to add a lot of time between innings right off the get-go. Every pitch, every thing is contested. Every pitch is so meaningful, and the players take it that way, the managers take it that way, the coaches take it that way.

"It’s not that people don’t care, that they don’t respect the game. It’s just it’s a big deal, and sometimes the games last longer. I don’t think people mind. Seems like a lot of people are watching."

Boston and New York are playing a three-game series this weekend, with Saturday’s game on Fox and Sunday’s game on ESPN. Their three-game set in April averaged 3 1/2 hours per game, leading umpire Joe West — who worked the series — to call the teams’ pacing "embarrassing," among other things.

The Cubs on Friday promoted prized shortstop prospect Starlin Castro from Class AA Tennessee, and the 20-year-old phenom wasted no time making his mark — he homered in his first major league at-bat and lined a bases-loaded triple, giving him six RBIs in his big-league debut.

Castro, a right-handed batter, launched an opposite-field, 3-run blast to right in the second inning against Reds starter Homer Bailey. The home run came on a 2-2 pitch. In the fifth, against reliever Micah Owings, he laced a liner into the left-center field gap, clearing the bases.

Castro hit .429 with a homer and five RBIs in 35 Cactus League at-bats this spring, and he hit .376 with a homer and 20 RBIs in 26 games with Tennessee this season.

With Castro taking over as the Cubs’ starting shortstop, Ryan Theriot will shift to second base and Mike Fontenot will become a reserve. Theriot has played exclusively at shortstop since the 2008 season but has played 79 games at second in his major league career.

The Tampa Bay Rays are off to the best start in baseball and a big reason is the pitching of Matt Garza. If you have a question for Garza, send it, along with your name and hometown to kbradley@sportingnews.com and we’ll have him answer five of the best ones in a future issue of Sporting News magazine.

Despite several banged-up players and a few slumping All-Stars, the Yankees appear primed to defend their World Series championship. The Red Sox, however, have struggled to stay near .500.

Boston, which got a fundamental makeover this past offseason with an emphasis on pitching and defense, has struggled to find its identity. Its 4.79 rotation ERA ranks 21st in the majors, and its 4.68 team ERA ranks 23rd. Defensively, the Red Sox are 15th with a .982 fielding percentage. Last season, Boston committed 18 errors through May 6 (in 28 games); this season, it has 20 errors in 29 games.

The Red Sox have recovered from a 4-9 start, but given the hole they dug in a division that features the teams with the majors’ best two records, hovering around .500 won’t cut it.

Why this weekend’s series against New York is vital to Boston:

Are things turning around for Big Papi’s bat?

Division dominance: The Rays (21-7) and Yankees (19-8) have been superb, and the Red Sox are a combined 1-6 against the AL East front-runners. Even more alarming, all seven of those games have come at Fenway Park.

Tampa Bay’s biggest weakness last season is now a strength. The Rays went 32-49 on the road in 2009, but they are 12-1 away from Tropicana Field this season. They have scored the most runs in the majors, and their starters’ 2.51 ERA and 17 wins are both best in the majors.

Despite slow starts from Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Nick Johnson, the Yankees are second in the AL in runs scored and first in the majors in OPS. Their starting pitchers not named Javier Vazquez are 15-1 with a 2.14 ERA, and they have survived the past week without Mariano Rivera.

The Red Sox can’t expect the Rays and Yankees to suddenly come back to the pack, so they must get some head-to-head wins.

Fenway factor: Boston’s 56 home wins last season were second to the Yankees’ 57. But the home-field advantage has been lacking this season. The Red Sox are just 9-8 at Fenway Park even after their four-game sweep of the Angels this week.

Boston is averaging 5.35 runs at home, compared to 4.92 on the road, but its 17- and 11-run outputs against the Angels this week skewed those numbers a bit. Overall, the Red Sox’s .275 batting average at home is identical to its road mark.

From 2000-09, only three teams in the major had more home wins than the Red Sox, and that is the home-field advantage they must recapture. Especially with a challenging road schedule ahead. By the end of May, Boston must play the Tigers, Yankees, Phillies and Rays at their parks. All of those team have winning records.

Creating confidence: The Red Sox (15-14) are above .500 for the first time since their season-opening win over the Yankees — a game they trailed 5-1 at one point. The team is riding a season-best four-game winning streak, and there are signs that things are beginning to turn.

The starting pitching, a major factor in the team’s slow start, finally is stabilizing. After going 0-2 with an 8.44 ERA in his first three starts, Jon Lester is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA in his past two outings. Josh Beckett followed two brutal starts with seven innings of two-run ball in his most recent outing. And any concerns about John Lackey have been put to rest (2-0, 2.57 ERA in his past three starts). Clay Buchholz (2.97 ERA) has been the ace, leaving Daisuke Matsuzaka as the biggest lingering concern. And Dice-K won’t pitch this weekend.

Offensively, David Ortiz’s bat is thawing. After hitting .143 with a homer and four RBIs in April, Big Papi has a .286-3-3 line in May. And he isn’t the only Red Sox hitter showing signs of life. J.D. Drew (.435-1-6) and Victor Martinez (.304-1-7) both are streaking in the right direction this month. And Adrian Beltre, who has hit for a high average since the start of the season, hit his first two homers this week.

A big weekend would create even more momentum, but losing two of three (or worse) to the Yankees would be devastating.

Chris Bahr is a senior editor for Sporting News. E-mail him at cbahr@sportingnews.com.

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U.S. Cellular Field the site of latest fan-on-field incident.

A fan ran onto the field during the Blue Jays’ 2-0 win over the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on Thursday, according to multiple reports out of Chicago.

Security subdued the man without using a Taser, as the fan "hook-slid, calmly going to his knees in surrender," the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

The incident is notable because there were two similar incidents in Philadelphia earlier in the week, the first of which ended when a police office Tasered the fan on the field. The next night at Citizens Bank Park, Phillies security corralled the offending fan without a Taser. The Phillies announced that they were changing their security policy to keep police officers off the field unless greater force is necessary to remove a fan.

U.S. Cellular Field was the site of the fan attack on Kansas City Royals first base coach Tom Gamboa in 2002. In the wake of the Gamboa incident, the White Sox pushed for tougher penalties for fans who run on the field, the Chicago Tribune notes.

Astros left fielder Carlos Lee tells the Houston Chronicle he may retire when his contract runs out after the 2012 season.

"I don’t know if I’m going to play after this contract," Lee says. "I’m ready to go home."

Lee is due $18.5 million this year and the next two. He owns cattle ranches in Texas and his native Panama.

"Maybe on my last year if I still have a love for the game and I still feel like I can play, I will probably come back," Lee says. "As of right now, me and my family have plans to finish up here in Houston."

The Chronicle points out that Lee has a full no-trade clause this year and limited no-trade rights in 2011. He would regain full rights in 2012 when he reaches five years of service with the Astros.