Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Marlins and Tigers are on fire.
Exactly two weeks ago, Florida was eight games behind Philadelphia. Since then the Marlins have gone 9-3, all in interleague play, to close within a game of first place. The hot streak includes four one-run wins and Thursday's 11-3 victory that sealed a sweep of the Orioles and ran Florida's win streak to five.
During this 12-game stretch, Hanley Ramirez has batted .400 with three home runs (one of them a grand slam Thursday) and 19 RBI while Cody Ross has hit .400 with five homers and 12 RBI.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead. You Oughta Know... That Ryan Zimmerman just keeps getting hits. It's easy to forget about Zimmerman because the Nationals have been playing so poorly this year, but Zimmerman extended his streak to 27 games on Saturday.
Zimmerman was hitless until his eighth-inning solo homer, which turned out to be the deciding run in the Nats' 2-1 victory over the Diamondbacks, their third win in a row.
Zimmerman's streak is getting to the point that it's worth paying close attention. This doesn't hapen every day. The last player to have a hitting streak of at least 27 games was Moises Alou, who hit in 30 consecutive games for the Mets in 2007. The franchise record is 31 games, set by Vladimir Guerrero in 1999.
Zimmerman will face Arizona's Max Scherzer today. Zimmerman has never faced Scherzer. Starting on Monday, the Nats will be in San Francisco for a three-game series in which they'll face Randy Johnson, Matt Cain and Barry Zito.
Saturday Spotlight is a weekly lightning-round of questions delving into the personalities and stories of Major Leaguers.
Omar Vizquel is best known for his outstanding work at shortstop, but you may also know that he's a musician, an artist and a pretty fancy dresser. On his way to the Hall of Fame, he's now finishing out his career in Texas, tutoring young phenom Elvis Andrus.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what's ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That the Marlins have had an interesting opening three weeks. After Sunday's 13-2 loss to the Phillies, which was so ugly that outfielder Cody Ross pitched the ninth inning, the Fish have dropped six in a row. That came immediately after they started 11-1.
"We're not an 11-1 team, and we're not an 0-6 team -- we're somewhere in the middle," manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
So now the Marlins are 11-7, having scored 93 runs and allowed 89 runs. That type of run production ought to leave them at a little over .500, which is where many prognosticators figured they'd be when the season began.
When it comes to playing shortstop, there haven't been very many in the game who did a better job of catching the baseball throughout their career than Omar Vizquel. There's a reason the man has won 11 Gold Gloves in his career, after all. So how does he do it?
Well, a lot of baseball players spend their offseasons relaxing and recovering, while working out just to stay in shape. Some don't do anything and wait until the last minute before Spring Training to get ready for the long season. Then there's Omar Vizquel, who spends his offseason utilizing his ability to catch things, things like anacondas.
Omar Vizquel played for Bruce Bochy for two seasons in San Francisco before Vizquel signed a deal to play for Texas this season. His final assessment of Bochy as a manager is not so great.
"I don't think Bochy was my type of manager," Vizquel said when asked about his former field boss during a discussion of managerial styles. "I always went along with his decisions. I never said anything in the paper about him, but sometimes I wished he could be more aggressive with the moves that he made. But everybody has his style, and you can't change that."
And what better time to start talking about your manager in the paper than when he's not your manager anymore?
Most of the time when it comes to drama and sports in and around the city of Dallas, it has something to do with the Cowboys. Maybe the Rangers noticed how popular the Cowboys have gotten because of it, because they've been creating their own drama this winter in their own infield. You all know the story by now. Team tells shortstop to change positions, shortstop tells team where they can stick their position change, shortstop then tells team he was drunk and didn't mean it, and just wants to move on -- or over as the case may be -- and that he loves them.
Tears are shed, hugs are exchanged, and life goes back to normal. Boring, routine, normal. Then the team sees that ratings are starting to drop and they realize they need to inject some "star power" into the equation, so they find that older player who has fallen on hard times and can't get the bigger roles to do some guest spots. All of which is an extremely long-winded and unnecessary way to tell you the Rangers are going to sign Omar Vizquel. DUN. DUN. DUNNNNN.
It wasn't like the Padres being interested in Omar Vizquel made a lot of sense, you know with the Padres trying to sell off parts and what not. But at least they needed a shortstop before they went and signed David Eckstein, and might still need one if Eckstein's going to play second. The Rangers having interest in Vizquel makes less sense, if that's possible.
After all, isn't this the franchise that asked another Gold Glove shortstop (Michael Young) to move to third base to accommodate rookie Elvis Andrus? That would mean that the Rangers would have two Gold Glove shortstops on the roster, and neither would be the everyday shortstop. That in and of itself is a bit strange.
When the Padres dealt Khalil Greene to the Cardinals recently -- in an attempt to slash payroll -- they were left with a void in the middle of the infield. Assuming they don't end up trading Jake Peavy for some major league ready players to fill those holes, they'll have to sign some short-term replacements. The candidates? Well, it ain't pretty.
"We've got to keep our options open, and we certainly need middle infield help," Towers said. "We provide opportunity, but to be financially aggressive on players right now, we can't do it. Our hope is that the later we get in free-agent season, there will still be inventory out there and people who need jobs."
I'm guessing Padres fans hope those guys are all signed by the time the Padres get around to being active. Let's take a look at each, and what he could (not) bring to the table in 2009.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
Starting Five
When it comes to playing shortstop, there haven't been very many in the game who did a better job of catching the baseball throughout their career than 
Most of the time when it comes to drama and sports in and around the city of Dallas, it has something to do with the Cowboys. Maybe the Rangers noticed how popular the Cowboys have gotten because of it, because they've been creating their own drama this winter in their own infield. You all know the story by now. Team tells shortstop to change positions, shortstop tells team where 
It wasn't like the Padres 
When the Padres dealt 
