FanHouse Barry Larkin

As director of athletic training at Louisiana State University, Jack Marucci knows it's going to be a good day when the Tigers are on the field and not in his office. This time of year, Marucci also knows it's going to be a good day if Carlos Pena and Albert Pujols are swinging hot bats.

Check today's box scores - it's a very good day for Marucci.

Five of the top-10 major-league home run leaders this season have something in common -- they are using wooden bats hand-crafted by Marucci and his tiny company in Baton Rouge, La.

From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

The Hall of Fame talk has begun to die down and baseball fans are starting to look forward to that oh-so-exciting date -- February 15th, when pitchers and catchers report -- but before we get there, let's look ahead at the players who will be eligible for enshrinement in Cooperstown for the first time in 2010.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

With nearly a month of the baseball season in the books, the Washington Nationals pretty much are what we thought they would be -- a bad team (9-17) wallowing in the cellar of the National League East. Just why they are struggling so much is more of a surprise.

The starting pitching has actually been very strong. Odalis Perez, John Lannan and Tuesday night's starter Tim Redding all have ERAs under 4.00. The offense, despite battle-tested pros like Ryan Zimmerman and Nick Johnson and young hitters with upside like Lastings Milledge, is really scuffling. Cristian Guzman is the only regular hitting over .300. Milledge is the only other player hitting over .255. Ouch.

That's especially hurt the Nationals in the power department. They have 14 home runs as a team, the second fewest in the NL. They rank 14th in the league in doubles (44) and 15th in slugging percentage (.334). And unlike last year, it doesn't appear they can blame the ballpark. Nationals Park seems to play a lot more neutral than RFK, which was a definite pitcher's park.

Manager Manny Acta, one of the more statistically-inclined skippers in the league, isn't worrying too much yet. "The power numbers will come," said Acta before tonight's game with the Braves. "The only reason [the middle-of-the-order hitters] don't have five, six, seven homers is because of the batting averages.

International Pastime will look at baseball's influence outside the U.S.

Although the Chinese as a whole aren't too enthralled with the game of baseball just yet, MLB has made significant strides with the country this season. Early in the year, Larry Lucchino embarked on an ambassador's trip to the Far East and later, the Yankees signed a few players from China.

And now? The Arizona Fall League will feature its first ever Chinese team this year.

China will enter a team in Arizona Fall League, and it will be coached by former major leaguers Jim Lefebvre and Bruce Hurst.

Barry Larkin, Tom Lawless and Duffy Dyer will assist in the instruction of the Chinese team, the first to participate in the Fall League. The United States also has a team in the Fall League, which starts Oct. 9 and includes players from big league teams who are not on 40-man rosters.

"The Olympics give us a unique opportunity to showcase baseball to the people of China, and we are happy to help the national team reach its potential," said Jimmie Lee Solomon, an executive vice president in the commissioner's office.

As I've said before, China is a country with around 1.3 billion people in it. So if MLB can start brining its baseball talent stateside, this means more revenue, more growth and more fans for the league. Certainly nothing wrong with that.