FanHouse FernandoPerez

Let's get this straight: The World Baseball Classic is far from perfect. If you want to hate the event, and believe it should never occur again, that's well within your rights. I won't argue, although I'm personally enjoying it. I do, however, have a problem with the constant complaining done both in the media and by fans of Major League Baseball when it comes to injuries.

Injuries are part of baseball. They occur whether you are playing in your local summer bush league, Spring Training, the World Baseball Classic, or in the regular big-league season. This spring, there have been a rash of injuries across all of the majors, but the overwhelming majority of them had nothing to do with the WBC.

Fernando Perez was probably going to have the first two weeks of the season to prove himself as an everyday major league starter. B.J. Upton, the Rays' regular center fielder who is coming off shoulder surgery, will likely need an extra few weeks after Spring Training before he's ready to come back. The speedy 25-year-old Perez was ready to step right in and take his shot.

Thursday morning, however, he received some very bad news. After rolling his wrist attempting a diving catch, he dislocated it. This injury will keep him in a cast for the next six weeks. All told, Perez will miss at least the next three months.

FanHouse breaks down the who's who and the what's what of the baseball world each week with our MLB Power Rankings.

Spring Training is always a time of year when false hopes or false assumptions are built based on performance. It might Jeff Francoeur lacing the ball, for instance. Or Yovani Gallardo stinking the joint up. But it is also a time of year when season-altering injuries are revealed. For instance, Alex Rodriguez will miss the first 10 weeks of the season because of surgery. Chipper Jones is dealing with an oblique injury. Oh, and this Manny Ramirez guy signed with the Dodgers. So even though it might seem premature to react in a knee-jerk fashion, it's not.

Hence, we have our second installment of preseason MLB Power Rankings, just to keep your jones going for America's pastime.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Best team in baseball. Yes, they are still better than the Yankees and Red Sox. Lost in all the joy of last season were the facts that two key players were injured down the stretch and another had an absolutely dreadful offensive season. Throw in the addition of Pat Burrell, and the continued growth of the young pitching staff, and you have a team who can take on the big-spending Yankees and venerable Red Sox.

B.J. Upton provided a serious power presence in the middle of the Rays' lineup during their postseason run, hitting seven home runs and driving in 15 in the first two rounds of the playoffs. This was following a disappointing 2008, in terms of power, for Upton -- he dipped from 24 to nine home runs in just one season.

Upton underwent surgery on his left -- non-throwing -- shoulder after the Rays finished the World Series late last October. While his recovery is said to be going well, he's planning on having to miss the first week of the upcoming 2009 season.

Every four years, Major League Baseball's postseason intersects with a presidential election. This is one of those years. In the spirit of the season, we here at MLB FanHouse have divided the playoff teams up for a series of debates. Tom Fornelli and Eamonn Brennan discuss the ALDS between the Rays and White Sox.

Eamonn and I took a look at this series and broke it down into six key areas: Starting rotation, Bullpen, Defense, Lineup, Bench, and Manager. Then for good measure we throw in our five-star lock of the week predictions, because we're psychic mediums in our spare time.

All of the debating goodness after the jump.

Minor League Spotlight is the MLB FanHouse's look into baseball's minor leagues. But you probably figured that out already.

I know what you're thinking, two Minor League Spotlights in one day, what have you done to deserve such an honor? In truth, nothing. Really all your doing is sitting there and reading while trying to avoid doing any kind of work, and we here at FanHouse can respect that. Hell, we invented it.

So sit back and enjoy this video of Durham Bulls center fielder Fernando Perez doing everything but a back flip to avoid being tagged out at home plate against the Charlotte Knights over the weekend.



Eat your heart out, A.J. Pierzynski.

(Hat tip to Awful Announcing)