Fletch already mentioned it in the Starting Five this morning, but on Monday night in Kansas City Zack Greinke was once again absolutely dominant in going the distance and pitching a shutout against the White Sox. It was the type of pitching performance that you couldn't help but enjoy watching, even if you happened to be pulling for the other team, as it was an absolute clinic performed with a surgeon's precision.
White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said afterward that it was the best performance he'd seen from a major league pitcher in a long time, and I have to agree. I've seen Greinke make three starts this season -- twice on television, and once in person -- and I'm yet to see him surrender a run. However, I did see him strike out 27 batters while only walking three. It's the type of dominance I haven't seen from a pitcher since Pedro Martinez's amazing run from 1999-2002.
While his recovery from a ruptured achilles tendon last August has been miraculous, Jose Contreras's performance on the pitching mound this season has been disastrous. Contreras wasn't expected to be back until the middle of the season, if at all, but somehow he worked his way into the White Sox starting rotation out of the spring.
Since then he's done nothing but work his way out of it, going 0-4 and posting an 8.31 ERA in five starts. Contreras had a very strong outing against the Blue Jays last week which provided a glimmer of hope that maybe he was getting his control back, but a shellacking in Dallas on Saturday put any of that optimism to rest. Now the Sox are saying they're concerned about Contreras, but they're not going to take him out of the rotation just yet.
MLB Power Rankings:Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.
HAVE YOU HEARD? YANKEE STADIUM HAS A WIND TUNNEL!!! Does it matter/is it real? Probably not. In fact, it might actually be on the other end of the spectrum of importance when compared to MLB Power Rankings. This week, we welcome another brand new No. 1 at the top of our rankings, although, all spoiler alerts aside, it's from the same division as last week! Debate the quality of your team, after the jump.
The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.
Jered Weaver gave the Angels a much-needed respite Tuesday night. Weaver, along with left-hander Joe Saunders, is one of the last men standing in a Los Angeles rotation ravaged by injuries and, of course, the tragic death of Nick Adenhart.
He pitched seven innings and allowed three runs as the Angels beat the Tigers, providing a quality start and taking some of the pressure off of a bullpen which entered the night with a major league-worst 8.31 ERA.
Unfortunately, it was only one night, and Los Angeles has many ahead.
Opening Day of the 2009 season has come and gone as baseball enters its first weekend of the season, and already there are plenty of teams with questions about their pitching staffs. While managers and pitching coaches are already losing sleep worrying about their pitchers, there's one man who is sitting at home loving every minute of it.
That's because when the season started last Sunday night, it was the first Opening Day since 1992 that Pedro Martinez wasn't on somebody's roster. Martinez couldn't get the $5 million deal he was looking for this winter, but even though he's still unemployed, he has no plans on retiring. He thinks somebody is going to give him what he wants sooner or later.
The Daily Jolt is a dose of baseball reality every weekday morning.
First Mike Mussina walked away. That was Nov. 21 -- almost four months ago -- and you had to love him going out on top, washing away the biggest knock on his borderline Hall of Fame career in his final season by winning 20 games. A few weeks later The Professor, Greg Maddux, hung 'em up too, officially the greatest pitcher of his generation now that Roger Clemens has been exposed as a cheat.
It took Curt Schilling a little while longer -- maybe he just wanted the stage all to himself -- but he too has now exited, taking his unrivaled October guts with him. Pedro Martinez, the most dominant pitcher any baseball fan under the age of 35 has ever seen, is sitting on a couch somewhere without a job, too proud to accept a paycut after all he has accomplished.
A long, long time ago when I was a teenager ESPN was actually a network that was dedicated to showing sports. The showcase of the network was SportsCenter, which every day showed highlights from every single game played in the country, without any interruptions from Coors Light or their cold, hard previously scripted opinions. It was during these halycon days of ESPN that the world was introduced to the duo of Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann.
Eventually Olbermann would leave the network, instead choosing to spend his time talking about politics on MSNBC, but you knew that much like the mafia, just when he thought he was out, the sports would pull Olbermann back in. It all started with his work on NBC's Sunday Night Football, and now Olbermann has taken the next logical step in his return to the welcoming arms of the sporting world. He's become a baseball blogger.
The Dutch baseball squad is the talk of the World Baseball Classic. In a top-heavy field with eight clear favorites to advance to the second round, the Dutch shocked everyone by upsetting the Dominican Republic not once, but twice. On Friday night, I had a chance to talk with Dutch closer Leon Boyd about his team's magical run.
For the most part, the Dutch pitcher seems much less surprised by these upsets than the typical fan. Still, it's clear in talking to Boyd that the Dutch players are still in awe of what they've done. In fact, when it comes to Pedro Martinez, Boyd sounds more like a regular baseball fan than a guy that saved one of the biggest games in the history of Netherlands baseball and won the other.
Pedro Martinez, a 37-year-old in the twilight of his career, is still searching for big league work this season. The three-time Cy Young Award winner and eight time All-Star has been spending his time pitching for the Dominican Republic. Thanks to a rousing upset at the hands of the Netherlands, though, the Dominican is done playing.
-- Seattle teammates Wladimir Balentien and Adrian Beltre couldn't play in this year's World Baseball Classic -- Balentien, a native of Curacao, because he is fighting for playing time and Beltre, a native of the Dominican Republic, because the Mariners forbid him.
But, as old friend Larry Stone points out, just because neither is playing doesn't mean Balentien has been sparing Beltre from trash talk in the wake of the Netherlands' shcoking elimination of the D.R.
Fletch already mentioned it in the Starting Five this morning, but on Monday night in Kansas City Zack Greinke was once again absolutely dominant in going the distance and pitching a shutout against the White Sox. It was the type of pitching performance that you couldn't help but enjoy watching, even if you happened to be pulling for the other team, as it was an absolute clinic performed with a surgeon's precision.
While his recovery from a ruptured achilles tendon last August has been miraculous, 
Opening Day of the 2009 season has come and gone as baseball enters its first weekend of the season, and already there are plenty of teams with questions about their pitching staffs. While managers and pitching coaches are already losing sleep worrying about their pitchers, there's one man who is sitting at home loving every minute of it.
A long, long time ago when I was a teenager ESPN was actually a network that was dedicated to showing sports. The showcase of the network was SportsCenter, which every day showed highlights from every single game played in the country, without any interruptions from Coors Light or their cold, hard previously scripted opinions. It was during these halycon days of ESPN that the world was introduced to the duo of 
The Dutch baseball squad is the talk of the 
