Albert is on fire

You can only keep a power hitter like Albert Pujols down for so long, eventually he will get his bat going and the opposition will pay dearly. Yesterday the Cubs did just that as big Albert hit #'s 10,11,12 of the year and he now has 378 career homers. He is now just 322 away from 700 and just 122 away from the Hall Of Fame plateau of 500.

The only one of my pitchers that picked up another "W" on their way to a potential 300 career win mark was Jon Lester of the BoSox. Lester always seems to bring his best to the mound and yesterday was no different. He moved his record to 6-2 on the season as the Royals were his latest victims. He hurled a solid 7 innings as he struck out 5, allowing just 1 ER. He now has 48 career wins.

I have to mention Ryan Zimmerman of the Nats who hit two more homeruns and now sits at 101 career long balls. He reached the 100 homerun level very quickly and remains the strongest bat in the Nats lineup.

Three more wins

I have already written about Roy Halladay and his perfect game yesterday. It is so great to see one of the hardest working pitchers in all of baseball be rewarded with this incredible accomplishment. He is quickly making a name for himself to be considered for the hall of fame. He still needs a number of more wins, but he has now won 155 in his amazing career.

Brett Anderson of the A's returned to the lineup after coming off the DL. He was on a pitch count which held him back from pitching deep into the game. He did pitch 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball and struck out four Tigers batters. The 22 year old is now 2-1 on the year and has a record of 13-12 in his two seasons.

Mat Latos of the Padres continues to impress as he ran his winning streak to 4 games with a victory over the Nats. He pitched six innings and struck out 8 batters and then trusted the bull pen to take care of the rest. He now has a record 5-3 on the year and he has nine career wins.

Offensively young Jason Heyward hit his 10th of the season. That is pretty haughty numbers for the first two months of the season. This is the young version of Albert Pujols.

Speaking of Pujols, his Cards team was shutout by the Cubs and Carlos Silva. Silva ran his record to a perfect 7-0 with an 11 K performance against a strong hitting lineup. The 31 year old has been a very pleasant surprise for the Cubs team in need of consistent pitching.

Doc is perfect

Roy Halladay has finally done it. The best pitcher in all of baseball has pitched a perfect game. This rare feat has now been accomplished twice in one season as Dallas Braden pitched his gem earlier this season.

Doc was facing another ace of the staff this time Josh Johnson of the Marlins. The final score was 1-0, so Johnson pitched well too as he did not allow an ER. On this night though Halladay was incredible. He struck out 11 batters and threw just 115 pitches. He became just the 20th pitcher all time to have a perfect game. He continues to secure his spot as the most dominant pitcher in the MLB over the last 10+ years. That means I need to purchase a Roy Halladay ball card in order to build my collection of no hitting pitchers.

Last night Matt Cain of the Giants almost threw a no hitter himself as he one hit the D'backs as he pitched a complete game shutout. He struck out nine in the process and proved that he is a top line pitcher. He did not allow a walk, his only hit allowed was to Mark Reynolds. Cain picked up his 3rd win in 2010 and now has 47 lifetime.

Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers was the offensive player of the night as he hit 3 HR against the A's in a losing effort. he now has 13 HR's on the season and has 222 in his young career. He is only 27 years old.

Pujols gets it going

It has been a long time since I have been able to write something exciting about Albert Pujols, but he has finally been able to get his bat going. As he faced the tough Padres staff last night he hit his ninth homer of the season and his 375th career long ball. It is nice to see him get an RBI too as he had gone 11 games without one.

John Axford of Simcoe, Ontario picked up his first major league victory as he pitched the 10th inning against the Astros. It is always exciting to see one of our Canadian ball players in the majors and to see this success. Hopefully he can continue to be a valuable member of the Brewers staff.

I thought it would be a good time to remind us fellow Canadians of our nations MLB players. Here is the current list:

John Axford, Brewers

Jason Bay, Mets

Erik Bedard, Mariners (has not played in 2010)

Jesse Crain, Twins

Ryan Dempster, Cubs

Jeff Francis, Rockies

Rich Harden, Rangers

Blake Hawksworth, Cards

George Kottaras, Brewers

Chris Leroux, Marlins

Russell Martin, Dodgers

Justin Morneau, Twins

Scott Richmond, Jays

Mike Saunders, Mariners

Matt Stairs, Padres

Adam Stern, Brewers

Mark Teahen, White Sox

Joey Votto, Reds

Pettitte keeps winning

The Red Sox went into Tampa and swept the Rays. The Yankees were not going to be forgotten about either so they went out and swept a double header against the Twins. NY was led by a couple of veteran pitchers AJ Burnett and Andy Pettitte, and in typical fashion Mariano Rivera picked up two more saves.

Pettitte moved to 6-1 on the season with eight innings of solid work. With his victory he now has career number 235. He is closing in but does he have another 65 wins left in that left arm?

Chad Billingsley continues to rack up wins as he pitched 5 innings giving up 10 hits (thats not good) and allowed 2 ER, to pick up his 6th win of the year and 53rd all time. He must be thankful to his bullpen for getting through the last four innings to preserve his victory.

Relief pitchers are such a key to a pitcher racking up a lot of wins over their careers. Andy Pettitte is one player who knows very well the advantage of having this in reserve. Rivera has saved 500 plus games and many of them in Pettitte wins. That is why winning pitchers recognize the team behind them can make or break them.

Finally Ubaldo Jimenez pitched another gem. This time against the D'backs. He pitched eight innings of shutout ball. He raised his record to 9-1 and lowered his ERA to 0.88. Just to remind you, that in the one game he lost this season the Rockies got beat 1-0 by the Dodgers. He pitched seven innings and allowed just two hits. He should be 10-0!

New addition

I have been considering adding a new player to my list of potential 300 game winners. I can't believe that I had not considered this player before, but I am now. My new player is Jon Garland of the Padres. I think he may be overlooked by others as well.

Last night Garland pitched another incredible game as he outdueled the Cards Adam Wainright as he pitched seven innings of seven strikeout ball. With his shutout his ERA is now slightly over 2.00. Love those veteran pitchers!!

Here are the reasons he needs to be added to my list:

• He is just 30 years old
• He has won 123 games
• He has won 10+ games for the last eight years
• He is two years younger than Roy Halladay and trails Halladay by just 30 wins
• He doesn't give up big innings
• He is going to pitch 30+ games a year, he has been healthy throughout his career
• If you do the math and Garland picks up 15 wins a year for the next 10 years he will be in the 270 win range.

Jon Lester continues to show why he is on my list. Last night he took on James Shields and the Rays and pitched a one hitter. He was one hit away from his second career no hitter. He struck out nine in his 6 innings of work and trusted the bullpen to pick up the win. Lester is now 5-2 on the year and has 47 career wins.

Offensively Vlad Guerrero is back in great form. He was 3 for 5 with 5 RBI and had a double and 2 HR's on the night. His average is now up to .347 and he has 12 HR. Remember that last year he only had 15 long bombs. He now has 419 career HR's and is just 81 away from 500. Go Vlad Go!

Latest Update

Updated totals as of May 24th. Biggest movers since last update are Hamels, Billingsley and Latos.

1. Jamie Moyer 263
2. Roy Halladay 154
3. CC Sabathia 140
4. Mark Buehrle 138
5. Johan Santana 126
6. Josh Beckett 107
7. Justin Verlander 70
8. Felix Hernandez 60
9. Jered Weaver 55
10. Cole Hamels 53

11.Chad Billingsley 52
12. Zach Greinke 51
13. Matt Cain 46
14. Jon Lester 46
15. Tim Lincecum 45

16. Brett Anderson 12
17. Matt Latos 8

Battle of two young talents

It was the showdown on the west coast yesterday as Mat Latos of the Padres took on Felix Hernandez of the Mariners. Both pitchers put up good starts but the 22 year old Latos came out on top. He pitched six innings of 4 hit ball striking out five batters. Hernandez pitched seven innings allowing seven hits and striking out 6 batters for the Padres.

Latos continues to impress and with his 4th win of the season he continues to gain confidence. Latos has leveled his win loss total to 8-8 for his career .I think it is so valuable to have a Jon Garland around to show him what it takes to be a top knotch MLB pitcher. Big props need to be given to Padres pitching coach Darren Balsley who has turned that pitching staff around.

I made a trade in my fantasy league giving up Zach Greinke in order to get Latos. I also picked up Billy Wagner in a two for one deal. I am not sure what is going on with Greinke as he moved to 1-5 on the season. Greinke only pitched 3 1/3 innings allowing nine hits, not too impressive at all.

In the battle of NY, Johan Santana outdueled CC Sabathia to pick up the win. It was a very smooth performance for Santana who was in control for most of the game. He got great support off the bat of Jason Bay for his 4th win of the year and 126th of his career. It was pointed out on the Sunday night game that he has the 4th highest winning % of all pitchers who have more than 200 starts.

Jeff Francis returns to form

Being a Canadian and wanting to celebrate a great pitching performance, I had to recognize Jeff Francis of the Rockies. He started his second game of the season after returning from serious arm surgery. He looked extremely sharp as he pitched 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball against the Royals. Francis allowed 5 hits over that time. The 29 year old now has 52 career wins.

I have to include Daiske Matsuzaka in this blog as the Red Sox enigmatic pitcher turned in a dominating performance against a tough Phillies squad. He had quite a few defensive gems behind him and because of that he was able to take a no hitter deep into the game. He just gave up the one hit which was a bloop single with two outs in the eighth. If he could have picked up just four more outs he would have joined Ubaldo Jimenez and Dallas Barden in the no hitter column

Matt Stairs from my hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick made baseball history last night as he hit his 260th career HR. The monumental dinger represents the 11th team that Stairs has hit a homerun for. I watched Matt play ball when he was just a teenager as he played shortstop for the local Royals team in senior baseball. I am not sure any of us would have envisioned Matt having an 18 year career and hitting over 250 HR's. He has also won a World Series Championship and we are very proud of Matt.

Vlad Guerrero continued his hot streak as he hit his 10th of the season and #417 of his career. He still strikes fear into pitchers and he is one of those guys you just expect to hit the ball very hard each time he steps to the plate.

Hamels is back

Cole Hamels had a rough year last season and I think I am not the only one that began to wonder if he had hit the wall and was going to turn into an average pitcher. Clearly though, Cole is making a statement that he is back!!

Last night against the Red Sox, Hamels pitched another great game. This time he pitched seven innings of three hit ball and picked up 8 K's while allowing just one earned run on a first inning HR to Victor Martinez. After that Hamels was in lock down mode as he picked up his 5th win of the season and #53 of his career.

Keeping pace with Hamels is Chad Billingsley of the Dodgers. Chad took on the Tigers and pitched seven strong innings allowing four hits over that time frame. He too allowed 1 earned run and struck out 5 for his 5th win of the season and career win #52. Their numbers are eerily close.

Mark Buehrle finally got back in the win column after a long hiatus. He had picked up 5 consecutive losses and the White Sox had lost in 6 straight of Buehrle's starts. He pitched liked he did in the season opener, as he threw 8 innings of shutout ball allowing just three hits and striking out three. He now has a record of 3-5 on the year and he has 138 career wins.

Offensively my favorite power hitting rookie hit his ninth dinger of the season. Jason Heyward powers the Braves offense, which is pretty amazing for a 20 year old. He has 33 RBI to go along with his HR's and has also picked up 37 hits. He is going to be a great one for a long time. I am glad I have him on my fantasy team.

Ubaldo dominates again

Ubaldo Jimenez continue to show why he is the front runner for the Cy Young after the first six weeks of the season. He moved his record to a superb 8-1, with a seven inning shutout allowing just one hit during that time. In four of his last seven starts he has allowed less than 2 hits which is incredible in itself. What is the most impressive stat for me is that after nine starts his ERA is less than 1.00, as he comes in it 0.99. That is special!!!

Jon Lester picked up another win last night as the Red Sox defeated the Twins and Francisco Liriano. Lester hurled a complete game allowing no walks and striking out nine batters from the normally strong hitting Twins. Jon continues to drop his ERA, he is now in mid 3's after a pretty tough start to the campaign. The win was #4 on the season and he needs just four more to reach 50 in his career.

Vlad Guerrero continued to show the Rangers that he still has lots of skill left in his body. He picked up 2 more hits on the night to move to 2303, including a HR. His ninth HR of the year represents longball #416.

I have to mention Ken Griffey Jr, as there has been not much to get excited about lately for him. He drove in the game winning run in the ninth to give the Mariners a win. He now has 2781 hits in his amazing career. Too bad it was cut short by injuries as he would have easily been a 3000 hit 700 HR guy. I am glad that this positive moment happened for him as they have been few and far between.

Verlander wins another

I assumed that there would be lots to write about over the last few days but all the starters I figured would pick up wins, failed to do so. Even Roy Halladay got beat by the lowly Pirates despite pithing another complete game.

Justin Verlander was the only pitcher on my list to pick up a victory over the last two days. He pitched a complete game against former perfect game pitcher Dallas Braden. Verlander gave up just 4 hits and struck out five as he moved to 5-2 on the 2010 campaign. This win represents #70 of his short but impressive career. When he is on he is one of the best in the business.

Hitting wise none of the guys I watch closely hit any homers except Vlad Guerrero who hit his 8th of the season, oh and by the way he is hitting a whopping .340 and now has 2301 career hits. His latest HR was #415 of his great career, I believe that 500 is a very real possibility.

Paul Konerko continued his great year as he jacked his 14th of the season. He has been a consistent hot bat in an otherwise unproductive lineup. Konerko's blast gives him 340 HR's and he is still only 34. Looks like he is a lock for 400.

Is it too much to ask

I am sure many of you have seen the clip of Hanley Ramirez and his complete lack of effort in chasing down the ball he inadvertently kicked into the corner. To say that he didn't try is an understatement, it was embarrassing for his team its fans and professional baseball.

I would expect more from someone who gets paid millions of dollars a season. In fact this year he will be paid $7 million, which works out to be $43,209/game. That means he gets paid $4800/inning or $1600/ out. You would think he could hustle for that one out for $1600.

What a pathetic performance. To think that he would then make up an excuse for why he couldn't hustle made it worse. There are guys being paid much less who would certainly hustle harder. It seems like he is a prima-donna and that he needs to check out his attitude before he steps back on the field.

Maybe he could take a few lessons from Adam Rosales of the A's who hustles all the time. He even runs to first base when he gets a walk. He makes $410,000 a year, which means he is still paid well at $2530 a game. When it comes to wanting to watch a player in person, I would rather watch the A's and Roslaes then I would Hanley right now.

Sunday night baseball

Is is just me or are the Phillies the most nationally televised baseball club out there. Other than the Yankees it seems like the Phillies are becoming America's team. Of course they are one of the best teams in baseball, and they have great pitching.

Cole Hamels is one of those stellar pitchers. Last night he took on the Brewers and led his squad to another victory. He hurled 6 + innings of effective ball, allowing just six hits as he picked up his 4th win of the season. Hamels now has 51 wins to his credit.

Chad Billingsley picked up another win for the Dodgers also. It will be a little more difficult for Dodgers pitchers to get victories with triple crown threat Andre Ethier out of the lineup with his injured finger. All that being said Billingsley got the win over the Padres Wade Leblanc, despite his team picking up just two hits against the Padres starter. Chad allowed just 4 himself in pitching 7 1/3 innings of shutout ball. This was the Dodger's starters 4th win of the season and 51st of his career too.

Mike Leake is 4-0

It is very rare to have a pitcher go straight from university ball into the big leagues but Mike Leake has done that flawlessly so far. He left Arizona State and headed directly into the Reds lineup where he has won and never lost. After his latest great start against the powerful Cardinals roster Leake moved to 4-0.

Leake lowered his ERA down to 3.09 which is impressive, but he has had one area of weakness in that he walks far too many batters. I am sure he will get that under control as he is just 22 and will have some great coaches to help him in the future.

Tim Lincecum kept his perfect season in tact as he moved to 5-0 with the Giants. He lowered his ERA to an almost unbelievable 1.76. He too struggled with some control issues as he walked 5 batters in his eight innings of work. He now has 45 career wins.

Finally, Andy Pettitte joined teammate Philip Hughes with a 5-0 record for the Yankees. His win total continues to rise as he moves up the all time win list. With his victory over the Twins he has now won 234 games and he sits in a tie for 61st all time. The 38 year old has only given up one HR in 45 IP this season and his ERA is 1.79 which is well below his career ERA of 3.87.

He is getting closer

Jamie Moyer the 47 year old pitching wonder has taken another step closer to 300 wins as he defeated the Milwaukee Brewers for his 5th of the season. He pitched well in all but one of his six innings when he surrendered three homeruns, but then he settled back into form and pitched well enough to win his 263rd career game. He now has four other pitchers well within sight as he moves along the all time win list. This is getting very exciting.

What if he were to win another 12 games this season? What if he could win 15 the next season? Could he win 10 games as a 49 year old? You never know!!!

Offensively it was good to see Albert Pujols finally get back on track with a long awaited HR. He hit his 8th of the year and 374th of his career. He has been walked over and over this season which helps the team but not himself. I would like to see the Cards make opposing managers look bad by jacking a few HR's after walking him but it hasn't really been happening this season. He is still the most dangerous batter in baseball.

Three great starts

My favorite young pitcher in the majors is Mat Latos of the Padres. He has crazy stuff and he has been pitching so well lately. In his last two starts he has pitched 17 innings and has allowed just three hits, he has struck out 15 and has not allowed a walk. That my friends is dominance, and he is just 22 years old. He now has won 6 games in his short career but expect many more. He could be the next Roy Halladay.

Justin Verlander of the Tigers showed he is getting back into form as he beat a very tough Yankees team and an impressive CC Sabathia. Verlander allowed just 4 hits over 6 innings as he picked up his 4th of the year and 69th of his career. Anytime you can put that kind of game together against one of the best clubs in the game you have to be impressed.

Finally, yes finally Zach Greinke got off the schneid and picked up his first win of the season. He was not as lights out as he has been lately but the anemic bats of the Royals finally got swinging and got him a win. He did strike out 8 batters over his 6 innings which shows that he has not lost any of his dominance. Hopefully this is the beginning of something great. Zach finally moves one more up the chart on the win column and has now attained the elusive 51st.

Lets hope Moyer gets one tonight.

Should Griffey retire?

One of the classiest players in baseball over the past 20+ years has been Ken Griffey Jr. He has been a bright light and a fun player to watch for years. Lately he has been struggling and his .200 avg, makes you wonder how much longer does he have and how much longer can the Mariners afford to give him playing time.

Griffey has 2779 career hits, could he be hanging on to try and get to 3000 hits. He has 630 homeruns but none this year, so it is unlikely that he will reach 700 in his career. I wonder why he is still hanging around. Maybe it isn't about the numbers for him, maybe it is because he can teach younger players how to be good pros. I have a feeling that he is still around because he loves the game and being in the dugout and in the locker room.

I will be sad to see him go, but the writing has to be on the wall for him right now. The Mariners have some young talent that they need to give opportunities to. Players like Michael Saunders the 23 year old Canadian need to be given a chance to play regularly. I can see Griffey being a great mentor to the young guys like him.

Are the M's paying to big a price to keep Griffey on the roster. I think not, as I believe that he adds much more to this team that what he brings to the field. I hope that he can become productive again and that he can get to some of those lofty hitting goals he may have. So, until then I say Go Kid Go!

Time for an update on the win total

Not much was happening last night as far as great pitching games. Chad Billingsley got a win despite a poor pitching performance, so I figured this is a good time to update my potential 300 win stats.

As of may 10/2010 here is where things stand:

1. Jamie Moyer 262
2. Roy Halladay 154
3. CC Sabathia 140
4. Mark Buehrle 137
5. Johan Santana 125
6. Josh Beckett 107
7. Justin Verlander 68
8. Felix Hernandez 60
9. Jered Weaver 55
10. Cole Hamels 51

11. Zacg Greinke 50
12. Chad Billingsley 50
13. Matt Cain 46
14. Jon Lester 45
15. Tim Lincecum 44

16. Brett Anderson 12
17. Matt Latos 5

Red Sox finally win one

The Red Sox had to be wondering if they could ever win against the Yankees or maybe if they could even play a game that was close. The best way to compete with the Yanks is to have some good pitching and they got that.

Jon Lester pitched a nice game to get the win for the Sox vs. the NY squad. He outlasted a very tough and undefeated AJ Burnett to pick up his 3rd win of the year. He pitched 7 innings and struck out 7 batters. He now has 45 career wins.

Ubaldo Jimenez finally lost his first start of the season, but he certainly did not deserve to lose. He pitched very well again as he allowed just 1 ER and 2 hits in 7 innings. He was defeated by a very tough Clayton Kershaw who also gave up just 2 hits while striking out nine.

Cole Hamels of the Phillies came through for his team once again, as he picked up his 3rd win of the year. He did not pitch real well as he allowed 3 ER in 5 innings of work but he got enough offensive support to get the W. He now has 51 victories for the Phillies.

As I mentioned in my previous entry all these performances were overshadowed by the perfect game that was hurled by Dallas Braden. He joins just 18 others in achieving this feat. Congrats are in order for the young man that stood up to A Rod earlier in the year.

Dallas Braden is perfect

I was watching a bunch of games online this afternoon flipping from game to game like I often do. I began to take note of Braden pitching a perfect game through the first six innings. There have been so many pitchers that have pitched no hitters into the late innings this year that I never gave it a serious thought that a perfect game would be pitched today.

Being mothers day, I had made plans to go and spend some family time with my amazing mother. I never gave the game another thought. I had an incredible visit which I need to do more often. I drove home and did a few more things before checking the ball scores for the day.

The first thing I noticed was that the A's managed to shutout the Rays. That in itself is quite a feat as the Rays have an impressive lineup. I wondered how many hits he gave up in the shutout and the box score read 0-0-0. I knew then that Braden had pitched a no hitter Then I looked to see how many he walked and saw that everyone was 0 for 3 and that I had just missed watching a perfect game.

Last year I was thrilled to watch Mark Buehrle's perfect game. It was outstanding, and the catch by Dwayne Wise was brilliant. Now I have to watch the highlights to see if there was anyone who did the same for Braden.

I need to go online to purchase a Dallas Braden RC as I need to add this card to my collection of no hit pitchers. I just purchased and received my Ubaldo Jimenez RC.

Oh yeah but before that I have to acknowledge that Justin Verlander won his 68th career game on Saturday night. Way to go Justin, he knows what it is like to pitch a no hitter too.

What a great night

Jamie Moyer made history last night as he is the oldest pitcher in history to pitch a complete game shutout. The 47 year old pitched a gem and had the hitters confused all night long as he pitched a two hitter. It makes me smile to think that this brilliant pitcher can put this record beside his name, it is a testimony to his endurance. Moyer now has 262 wins only 38 more to go. After nights like last night it makes it seem like less of a long shot to accomplish 300 wins.

From the old to the young as the youngest player on my list also pitched a two hit shutout. Matt Latos of the Paders struck out nine Astros on his way to pick up his second win of the year. Latos has so much upside and the Padres are looking great. Latos now has 6 career wins, thats right just 6 but he will win a latos of games.

Jered Weaver and Jeff Weaver both picked up W's for their teams last night. Jered pitched very well as he defeated the Seattle squad and Felix Hernandez. Jered pitched a two hit shutout too. It is great to have three of my guys pitching 2 hitters on the same night. His brother Jeff picked up a rare win as the Dodgers won, Jeff got one out and managed to get the W. It will likely be the last time I write about Jeff winning. Just to compare, Jered has 55 wins and Jeff has now won 100 in his career. Big night for the Weaver family.

Vlad Guerrero struck again as he continued his hot streak. His 6th of the year gives him 413 total. On the other end of the spectrum Cubs future SS Starlin Castro hit a 3 run HR in his first at bat and then drove in another 3 runs with a triple. Now thats an impressive debut for the just turned 20 year old. I think maybe the future has arrived now for the Cubs.

Halladay and Cain

Doc was back at it and making the game look easy as he dominated once again. If the man gets an early lead the game is pretty much over. He left this game early, yeah he pitched just seven innings, I guess it is good to give him a little rest once in a while. His sixth victory ties him with Ubaldo Jimenez for the lead and he now has 154 wins against just 77 losses.

Matt Cain looks like he is back in the groove and has joined the dominant Giants pitching staff in his effectiveness. Cain and Lincecum and Zito are very impressive indeed, throw in Sanchez and that is a powerful group of starters, maybe the best in the bigs. Cain's win on Thursday night against the Marlins was his second of 2010 and #46 all time. With six more wins his record will be even in the win loss column.

Offensively one of my favorites, Vlad Guerrero came through big time for the Rangers. He hit two more HR's on the season raising his totals to 5. His career number is now 412 and he is closing on in 2300 hits as he sits at 2285. He has also drove in 10 runs in his last three games.

Andre Ethier continues to lead the Dodgers squad as he jacked a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to secure a win for the Dodgers. Ethier is now hitting .371 with 10 HR and 30 RBI. Could he be a triple crown threat this season? He has the potential to do so for sure.

Pettitte wins again

The future of Andy Pettitte looks great as he continues to roll along, picking up another win to go 4-0 on the season. But his future may not be that great this season as he was pulled due to some arm trouble. Can he get well enough to win more games this season , will he miss a bunch of starts, or is he just in need of a bit of rest. Lets hope he does not miss too much and can add to his 233 win total. It is never good to see an older pitcher develop arm trouble, as it is tough to come back and be productive if it a bad injury.

Offensively there is not too much to write about other than another HR by Andruw Jones, his ninth of the season. He is now sitting just three homers away from 400 of his career.

Jason Heyward picked up an injury last night to his groin. I have played sports my whole life, and I am in much worse shape than these professional athletes. They stretch well, they have great trainers and all the best equipment to keep their bodies in shape. All that being said, how does a healthy, extremely well fit athlete like Heyward pick up these type of injuries. Baseball is not exactly a contact sport for the most part, but there seems to be so many injuries, can someone explain this to me.

Curtis Granderson and many others have suffered these types of injuries. I can understand injuries where someone gets hit with a ball in the face, or someone has a high speed collision with a teammate or the wear and tear on a pitchers arm, but I cannot see how so many muscle tears or pulled groins take place.

I guess the argument would be that they expend much more energy as they play. They take off quickly with explosive running from a dead stop which could have impact on their muscles etc... but I am sure the trainers know how to help them prepare their bodies for this. Anyways enough of the rant, answers anyone...

How can he say thanks?

Jon Lester pitched a very solid game for the Red Sox as he pitched against the struggling A's. On this night he was matched up against Ervin Santana. Both hurlers pitched well late into the game and it certainly looked like they were headed for extra innings. Jeremy Hermida came through with a big double and made a winner out of Lester. Jon is now 2-2 on the year and has 44 career wins against just 18 losses.

Vlad Guerrero of the Rangers had a great night for his squad as he hit his 410th HR of his long and effective career. He hit a crucial grand slam and drove in another run for a 5 RBI night. I still believe he is one of the more feared batters in the bigs.

Jason Heyward was the best hitter once again for the Braves. His eighth HR this year and 3 RBI, he now has 24 this year, showed his incredible talent.

u-baldo, u-dominate

Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez is having an unbelievable 2010 season. His season start reminds me so much of the start of Zach Greinke in 2009. In his 6th start of the season, Jimenez pitched another gem to move to 6-0 and his ERA went up to 0.87. That is correct in went up to that lofty number.

In this start he pitched seven innings and struck out 13 batters, for a career high. There is no one putting up numbers like Jimenez in 2010. Lincecum and Halladay are impressive for sure but nothing compares to Ubaldo. The 26 year old is headed for a 25 win season.

CC Sabathia picked up his fourth win this year as the Yankees bat's came to his aid. He pitched well allowing just one run on a HR from Matt Weiters. He now has 140 career. He should win 25 with the Yankees but he will likely only win 18 or so.

The best pitching of the night came from the Blue Jays Brett Cecil. In his start against the Indians, Cecil took a no hitter late into the game before finally giving up a single. He finished the game with eight IP, 10 K's and 1 hit allowed.

In the battle for 1st place in the AL West Texas' Rich Harden has his best start in a long time as he pummeled the A's to solidify the Rangers lead/ He was not messing around as he struck out nine in seven innings allowing just two hits. It was a pitched dominant evening for sure.

Phillies erupt

How sweet it must be to be a starting pitcher on the Phillies. Last night they erupted for nine runs in the fifth inning to help Jamie Moyer pick up another career win. Moyer didn't start very well giving up three runs in the 1st inning, but with the Phillies bats he just needed to keep battling, which he did. After the nine run eruption Moyer settled down nicely to pick up #261 of his amazing career. He now has won 97 games since he turned 40.

I continue to be frustrated by the KC Royals and their lack of offense. Once again Zach Greinke was spectacular as he threw a gem against the Rays and Wade Davis. The only mistake he made the whole day was giving up a HR to Evan Longoria, other than that he gave up just three hits. His O gave him nothing once again, and his record dropped to 0-3 on the season in six starts. His ERA is now 2.27. Come on Royals get it together and support the best pitcher in the AL.

Justin Verlander threw a beauty yesterday against the Angels as he hurled 8 1/3 of three hit ball. He struck out seven in the outing. Verlander has been inconsistent for most of his career, despite winning 19 last year. He is now 2-2 on the 2010 campaign and picked up #67 of his career.

One other vet I want to applaud for a great start on the season is Jon Garland of the Padres. He picked up his 3rd win of the year and #120 of his career. He has won 10 or more games each of the last eight years. His ERA is a nice and tidy 2.06. maybe it is time to pick him up on my fantasy team.

How many career wins would Greinke have if he played on a team that could help him out? I am going to do some homework to see if I can come up with a best guess.

Cain tosses a one hitter

Well it took him five starts before he finally got into the win column, but now Matt Cain has a "W" beside his name for the 2010 season. In his previous 4 starts he had one loss and three no decisions. In his 8 inning performance he gave up just one hit and struck out 8 before letting the bullpen pitch the ninth. He was the Matt Cain of old, well he seems older than his 25 as he has been in the league for six years now. Cain now has 45 wins against his 52 losses. He will get back to .500 before the season is over.

Roy Halladay got back on track as he beat Mike Pelfrey and the Mets. He won the game 10-0 and pitched another complete game shutout. His complete was his 3rd in 6 starts this year. His record is now 5-1 and he has 153 "W"'s to his credit. I would guess there will not be too many more speed bumps for Doc in 2010.

Jason Heyward continues to swing a powerful young bat as he hit #7 for the year in just four weeks of baseball. He is an impressive young hitter and if he stays healthy he will win the R.O.Y. by a long shot.

Andruw Jones is swinging a hot bat too. He drilled two more HR's 7 & 8 on the year and he now has 396 in his career. He seems to be quite a bargain at $500.000/year. He is the multiple HR hitting machine this year.

Mark Reynolds of the D'backs has stepped up his HR production again this season with his 8th and ninth of 2010. Last year he hit 44 and he looks like he will get to those numbers again. He now has 98 career HR's and is a 26 year old slugger.

Welcome back Cliff Lee

The Mariners had to be so excited to be getting their former Cy Young winner in the lineup for his premier start with the club. He got them exactly what they expected and pitched 7 strong innings, giving up just three hits while striking out eight batters. As well as he pithed in his debut he was out pitched, thats probably not the best word, maybe matched is better by Colby Lewis of the Rangers.

Lewis through nine shutout innings and allowed just three hits while striking out 10 batters. In Lewis' last four starts he has struck out 10 3 of those times. He is quickly becoming one of the leagues top power pitchers. You gotta believe that the Rangers are pleased to have this surprise in their starting staff.

One of my potential 300 game winners came up with another "W" as he defeated the always underwhelming Pirates. Chad Billingsley pitched six innings giving up 2 ER for his second win of the season to move him to 49 in his brief career. He is a long shot as he seems to have settled into being an average hurler.

I have to mention Barry Zito. The man with the great curveball moved to 4-0 on the season with another stellar pitching performance. Zito pitched eight solid innings giving up only 2 ER, and Zito is now up to 137 wins and in just 31 years old. Could he get back on track to make a run at even 200 wins, I think he could.

Last night there were many more multiple homerun games, not sure what is going on with that but here is the list: Rod Barajas, JD Drew, Ryan Zimmerman and Alex Gonzalez.

Jason Heyward continued with his amazing hitting as he drilled his sixth career HR and Paul Konerko went deep for #11 on the year and 337 for the career.