The Check Swing: 2 Months Gone and Suprises Everywhere

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, which means that the baseball season in two months deep. I'm not sure what's more surprising, the fact that the Indians hold a six game lead in the AL Central, the Arizona Diamondbacks taking the lead in the NL West or the fact that Boston is in first so quickly after their horrible start to the season. In the other spectrum, who could have foreseen the Minnesota Twins or Chicago White Sox playing so poorly at this point? The Twins rank near the bottom in every major statistic category in the AL. How about the tight race in the AL West as every team is one and a half games back or less. Just an absolute crazy season so far.

One topic that has been bumped up by baseball is collisions at home plate after Buster Posey had his season end earlier this week on that very play. Later in the week we would see Prince Fielder collide with the Giants backup, Eli Whiteside and Ryan Roberts injured Astros' catcher Humberto Quintero. Quintero has been place on the 15-day DL with a right ankle sprain. Now people are talking about taking the play out of the game but to me, if MLB didn't do it after Pete Rose plowed Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star Game then how can they do it now? I mean Fosse was never the same after the collision and subsequent broken bone in his left shoulder killed his swing. The collision is part of the game whether MLB and the fans like it or not.

Arizona Diamondbacks: 29-24, 1st NL West. For the first time since Sept. 5, 2008 the D'Backs are in first place in the NL West. The D'Backs have been the hottest team in baseball the last two weeks as they've gone 14-2 since May 14th to overcome a 5 1/2 deficit in the West.

Atlanta Braves: 30-24, 3.5 GB 3rd NL East. Jair Jurrjens is leading all of baseball among starting pitchers in ERA with an outstanding 1.51. Jurrjens has allowed 11 earned runs in his nine starts this season and in no start has he allowed more than two earned runs.

Baltimore Orioles: 24-27, 5 GB 5th AL East. As if things couldn't get any worse for Baltimore, they lost center fielder Adam Jones Sunday to a sore right shoulder. No word on how serious of an injury it is, but skipper Buck Showalter doesn't think it'll be too serious.

Boston Red Sox: 30-23, 1st AL East. David Ortiz hit a pinch-hit game-winning home run in game one of Sunday's double header to give the Sox a 4-3 win over the Tigers. The last time Ortiz hit a pinch-hit home run came April 27, 2003 which just so happened to be his first as a Red Sox.

Chicago Cubs: 23-28, 7.5 GB 5th NL Central. Here's how badly the Cubs starting pitching has been this year, last year they led the league in quality starts. Yesterday was only their 17th quality start of the season, good for dead last this year.

Chicago White Sox: 24-31, 9.5 GB 4th AL Central. Ozzie Guillen seemingly lost his mind this weekend in Toronto. After Saturday's loss in a 14-inning game the manager ripped his team then before Sunday's game he ripped the fans and his critics. To say Ozzie is feeling some heat woud be an understatement.

Cincinnati Reds: 27-27, 5 GB 3rd NL Central. The Reds are coming off a rough 2-8 10-game road trip which saw them play a 19-inning game and a 12-inning game. However one Red not struggling is Jay Bruce who hit his NL leading 15th home run last night. In May, Bruce has hit 11 home runs with 29 RBI.

Cleveland Indians: 31-19, 1st AL Central. The Indians got Grady Sizemore back this week but perhaps the guy they miss even more is Travis Hafner. Since Hafner has been out of the lineup the Indians have gone 5-6 and have been shutout three times. In seven of the 11 games he has missed, the team had scored two or fewer runs.

Colorado Rockies: 25-27, 3.5 GB 3rd NL West. When it rains it pours and Colorado is finding that out the hard way. In the midst of some horrible baseball, the Rockies lost their top starter, Jorge De La Rosa to a torn ulnar collateral ligament in the left elbow. He's expected to have Tommy John this week and be out until next summer.

Detroit Tigers: 26-26, 6 GB 2nd AL Central. After the 2009 season the Tigers decided to let Placido Polanco go because of the amount of talent they thought they had at second base. So far that decision has been awful, the guy thought to replace him Scott Sizemore was traded away on Friday and the likes of Will Rhymes, Danny Worth and Carlos Guillen have failed to hold down the spot. The team hopes Ryan Raburn can now fill the hole but the team may want to look at Ramon Santiago who should do enough to get them by until the offseason.

Florida Marlins: 30-21, 2 GB 2nd NL East. Logan Morrison extended his reaching base safely streak to 30 games on Sunday when he doubled in the seventh inning. Bad news for the Marlins is shortstop Hanley Ramirez had leave Sunday's game in the second inning with lower back stiffness.

Houston Astros: 19-34, 12.5 GB 6th NL Central. The Astros placed starter Wandy Rodriguez on the the 15-day DL this week and have turned to 20-year old Jordan Lyles to take his place in the rotation. Lyles is considered to be the Astros top pitching prospect.

Kansas City Royals: 23-29, 9 GB 3rd AL Central. What's going on with Joakim Soria these days? Soria blew his fourth save in 11 chances on Sunday which is odd because prior to this year, Soria had never blown more than three in a season. That being said manager Ned Yost is sticking with Soria as his closer for now.

Los Angeles Angels: 28-27, 1 GB 2nd AL West. Things aren't going well for some Angels players on the DL. Vernon Wells out since May 9th with a groin pull still can't run much, Kendrys Morales just had a second surgery including a bone graft for ankle his snapped off last year and Scott Kazmir got rocked in his first rehab start in AAA Salt Lake.

Los Angeles Dodgers: 24-30, 5.5 GB 4th NL West. Clayton Kershaw has been one of the lone bright spots for the Dodgers this season. Kershaw (6-3) picked up his second complete game shutout Sunday in the 8-0 win over Florida and is picking up All-Star considerations. He ranks top ten in every major NL pitching stat including first in strikeouts.

Milwaukee Brewers: 29-24, 2.5 GB 2nd NL Central. Most Brewers fans were excited about the chance to see Zach Greinke pitch, now they might get excited about seeing him bat too. Greinke hit his second home run of his career and first since 2005. Greinke was also considered a great prospect in the field too before signing to pitch with the Royals.

Minnesota Twins: 17-34, 14.5 GB 5th AL Central. Joe Nathan was placed on the 15-day DL with inflammation in his right forearm, the Twins were told by Nathan's surgeon who performed the Tommy John surgery on him last year that this isn't uncommon.

New York Mets: 24-28, 8.5 GB 4th NL East. Jose Reyes is leading all of baseball with his 76 hits on the season which is good news for the Mets as it seems like they probably won't re-sign him this offseason. But if Reyes continues to play like this, the Mets could cash in nicely on him come July 31st.

New York Yankees: 28-23, 1 GB 2nd AL East. Quite the weekend for Yankees captain Derek Jeter this weekend. First he passed Rickey Henderson as the Yankees all-time leader in stolen bases with 327. Then he went 1 for 3 Sunday leaving himself 20 hits away from 3,000 in his career.

Oakland Athletics: 27-27, 1.5 GB 4th AL West. The A's might be able to put their closer controversy to rest soon as they activated two time All-Star Andrew Bailey off the DL. The A's plan to move slowly with Bailey before putting him in the closer role again.

Philadelphia Phillies: 33-20, 1st NL East. Wilson Valdez became the second player ever to start a game as a position player only to end up as the game's winning pitcher when he pitched a scoreless 19th inning Wednesday. The other player to do it, Babe Ruth.

Pittsburgh Pirates: 24-27, 6.5 GB 4th NL Central. On Sunday the Pittsburgh Pirates lost their catcher Ryan Doumit, who was believed to be a possible trade bait material for the San Francisco Giants. Doumit injured his ankle when Carlos Pena slid hard into him on a play at the plate.

San Diego Padres: 22-31, 7 GB 5th NL West. For the second time this month, one of the Padres better starters picked up his first win with Tim Stauffer getting his on Saturday. Stauffer is 1-3 with a 3.60 ERA this season and the Padres are 6-5 in his starts.

San Francisco Giants: 28-24, 0.5 GB 2nd NL West. If you live under a rock then you probably missed Buster Posey breaking his ankle on a collision play at the plate Wednesday night. Posey had ankle surgery the other day to fix two ligaments and is done for the year. He's is however, thought to be ready by the 2012 opener.

Seattle Mariners: 26-26, 1.5 GB 3rd AL West. Before Sunday the M's had won nine of their last 10 and fans were so happy about the streak they decided to go streaking themselves. On Saturday, four separate fans went streaking during the Yankees Mariners game, including one guy who made a naked b-line for Derek Jeter.

St. Louis Cardinals: 32-22, 1st NL Central. Kyle Lohse is tied for the league lead with seven wins this season, what's more impressive is the fact that Lohse has had to overcome injuries the last two years which saw him win a combined 10 games. Lohse should surpass that total if he stays healthy.

Tampa Bay Rays: 28-24, 1.5 GB 3rd AL East. Evan Longoria had been struggling mightily in the cleanup spot as of late and figured he'd drop a few spots in the lineup. Instead on Saturday, Joe Maddon moved Longoria into the leadoff spot. In the two games there, he's been on base 10 times hitting 4 for 7 with three walks with a homer and a double to boot.

Texas Rangers: 28-25, 1st AL West. Mike Napoli might have taken advantage of the recent rash of catchers getting hurt on collisions at home plate with his play on Sunday. Royals catcher Brayan Pena had the plate blocked but appeared to brace for a collision when Napoli slid and caught him off guard. Can you blame Pena for not wanting to get plowed by Napoli?

Toronto Blue Jays: 27-26, 3 GB 4th AL East. Tonight Jo-Jo Reyes will attempt to make avoid making history for all the wrong reasons. Reyes has gone winless in his last 28 starts which has tied the record and if he fails to get the win tonight at home against Cleveland he'll have the record to himself.

Washington Nationals: 22-30, 10.5 GB 5th NL East. Closer Drew Storen has seen his 21-scoreless inning streak go by the wayside. Sunday Storen took his second loss on the season and has allowed runs in each of his last three appearances.

Until next week... FIRE LEYLAND!