Author: Garrett Rudolph

To me, the biggest news in baseball is the announcement that the amateur draft will be televised for the first time. I’ve been saying for a while now that it’s time the MLB did some extra work to hype the draft. The NBA draft gets televised, the NFL draft gets televised; it only seems appropriate that the national pastime’s draft should be televised. The added hype of the draft will create a more knowledgeable fan base and it will help add some hype to the College World Series.

Some people say that the baseball draft isn’t as relevant as the NFL and NBA counterpart, because it takes too long to develop the talent in the minor leagues, that the players don’t make an instant impact. To those people, I would simply point at the players who were selected in the first rounds of the past three drafts: Justin Verlander, Jeremy Sowers, Jered Weaver, Stephen Drew, Phil Hughes, Huston Street, Alex Gordon, Ryan Zimmerman, Travis Buck, Brandon Morrow, and Tim Lincecum.

Next up is a revision to the draft-pick trading rules…

There’s been a lot of moving and shaking this week in the Power Rankings. The Yankees continue to slide, while the Brewers, Indians, and Diamondbacks have gained a lot of ground.

It seemed everybody was jumping on the Giants bandwagon, after they won eight games in a row, but now they’ve lost three out of their last four and finish the month two games over .500.

Another team that’s showing impressive improvement is the Pirates, who are currently at .500. Last year at this point they were 7-20.

Is it just me or have there been an awful lot more two-game series than normal this year? All in all, it seems there has been quite a bit more scrutiny about the scheduling than usual. If you’re looking for somebody to point a finger at, then take aim at Katy Feeney, a senior vice president for Major League Baseball who is in charge of the scheduling puzzle.

In terms of the rankings, the Mets hold on to their top slot and the Red Sox are still in second. The Braves and Brewers continue to march their way toward the top with impressive starts, while the Royals and Nationals look like they’re going to be in a season-long battle for the numero treinta.

In other news “Manny Being Manny” is just another way of describing the constant comedy of Ramirez’ play in the outfield; Alex Rodriguez might join the 600-homerun club this year; Torii Hunter could potentially be suspended for three years for a fairly minor rule violation; and both Mark Prior and Kerry Wood are injured, although that should go without saying.

Two weeks into the baseball season and the rankings are looking awfully similar to what they were last year. The Braves still have the best record in baseball, so I’m finally ready to admit that they belong in the top ten, and with the Yankees pitching woes they’ve fallen from the top spot.

On the other hand the Phillies continue to look like an overpaid AAA team and their 200 year-old manager is challenging talk show hosts to a round in the octagon. And over in Chicago another rampaging manager and a no-hitter can’t prevent the Cubs and Sox from free-falling.

On the injury front, it seems every other marquee pitcher in the game is missing games because of an elbow or shoulder problem. Chris Carpenter, Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano, Rich Harden, BJ Ryan and Felix Hernandez are all looking at an indefinite spell on the injured list. On the other hand, it seems Chien-Ming Wang and Randy Johnson should be returning soon.

Week one of the Sportscolumn MLB Power Rankings and the top spot should really come as no surprise. Granted, the Yankees have pitching problems, but until somebody proves otherwise they’re the best team in baseball.

It’s too early in the season for records to matter much, but it is interesting to take a look at the teams with the best and worst records in the league. The Phillies are my dark-horse pick to win the World Series, but they’ve stumbled out of the gate with the worst record in baseball. The Atlanta Braves, on the other hand, have the best record in baseball and look more like the Braves team that didn’t miss the playoffs for a decade and a half than they do last year’s team.

As always, I look forward to your questions, comments and complaints throughout the season.

Spring is here and that means one thing for certain. It’s raining cats and dogs in Seattle. But, with only slightly less certainty it also means that the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues are in full swing and baseball season is rapidly approaching.

Most of us have spent the entire weekend scouring over our NCAA tournament brackets, looking for that underdog who will catapult us to the top of our office pool, but with all the attention paid to college basketball, it’s easy to forget that as soon as the madness is over, it will be time for baseball. So, now seems like the perfect time to talk preseason Power Rankings, because by the end of this week my vocabulary will be reduced to phrases like bracket buster and buzzer beater; I will devote all the room in my head to memorizing the seedings of all 64 teams and who they’ll play next if they win, and the only adjective that will hold any meaning will be, “It’s awesome, baby!”

Welcome everybody to the second-to-last MLB Power Rankings of the season. By this time next week we’ll know who’s going to be playing baseball in October and who’s going to be playing golf. We’ll know whether or not Ryan Howard joined the 60-homerun club (he needs three), and whether Alfonso Soriano became the charter member of the 50-50 club (he’ll need a massive last couple days, 5 homeruns and 10 stolen bases). We’ll also know exactly how many homeruns Barry Bonds will need to catch Hank Aaron if he comes back and plays next year, and how many wins Roger Clemens will need to catch Denton True Young, better known as Cy (it’ll be somewhere in the 170 range, but I think he might be able to do it.).

So baseball fans… read on, enjoy, feel free to question, comment, and complain, and I’ll talk to you again next week for the season wrap-up.