Kuzul

The Oakland A’s received some bad news Friday about the ace of their pitching staff, Brett Anderson. He was already on the disabled list with a sprained ankle, but was determined to have a fractured foot and will be out for at least another month. Oakland announced that the 25-year-old left-handed Anderson has a navicular stress fracture in his right foot via their official Twitter account: The #Athletics announced that LHP Brett Anderson has a navicular stress fracture of his right foot. He will be reevaluated in four weeks.— Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) May 17, 2013 The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser confirmed the story, while indicating Anderson will be re-evaluated in four weeks. In an update to her story, she reported that he is expecting to pitch again this year, but if it is determined he needs surgery, it would likely end his season. Now in his fifth major league season, ...

With optimism higher for many Mariners fans after a series win against the AL East leading New York Yankees, fans are starting to think about bigger things for the 2013 Seattle Mariners.From individual performances to team goals, there just seems to be a different vibe surrounding this Mariners team than has been there in years past. The Mariners may still be a shade under .500, but they continue to battle against quality teams and show glimpses of what could be when everything starts to click.So what exactly could the Mariners do if everything clicks?Well, there are of course the individual statistics that could come from it, but there are also moves the Mariners could make to truly make a splash in the AL West. With that in mind, here are five radical predictions for the remainder of the Mariners' season.Begin Slideshow

The Houston Astros have their Ryan.Maybe not the Ryan they were hoping for, mind you, but the Ryan the Astros have hired certainly comes to them with baseball cred, and his hiring could potentially lead to a fascinating shake-up of the baseball landscape in Texas.If you're just now catching up, the Astros introduced Reid Ryan, son of Hall of Fame pitcher and Texas Rangers boss Nolan Ryan, as their new president on Friday, according to Alyson Footer of MLB.com. He's replacing George Postolos, who resigned from his post earlier this week.This is a hiring that came together fairly quickly. FOX 26 Sports in Houston reported just a couple days ago that Ryan was "being strongly considered" to fill Postolos' shoes, and Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported Thursday that it was all but a done deal."Today really is a dream come true because you grow up an Astros fan if you're ...

On Thursday night, Yu Darvish beat the Detroit Tigers and threw 130 pitches. It wasn't his best performance this year or even this month, but it may end up the most scrutinized. As Darvish's pitch count climbed, everyone—including announcer Matt Vasgersian and analyst Tom Verducci—had something to say about it. Vasgersian called Darvish's deep pitch count a "Herculean feat." Unfortunately, Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan wasn't in his customary seat just to the left of the Texas Rangers dugout, so the camera couldn't cut to him. Ryan, who pitched in the major leagues for over two decades and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999, was as well known for his durability as he was for his fastball.While I don't know what Ryan thought about Darvish pitching the eighth inning with a six-run lead or giving up the ball in the ninth, we can look back and see what Ryan the ...

After their first 40 games, the Oakland A's are 20-20 in the 2013 season.Remember 2012? The A's started 20-20 as well. In 2006, The A's—led by Frank Thomas—rode a five-game winning streak to get to 21-19 after 40 games. Historically, the A's have tended to be a slow-starting team. Under manager Bob Geren, the club never started better than 23-17 through 40 games (2008) and started as slowly as 15-25 (2009) while opening 20-20 three times. Go back to the Moneyball era when the A's opened 21-19 (2000), 18-22 (2001) and 19-21 (2002) after 40 games. Oakland went on to win 91, 102, and 103 games those three seasons, respectively.In many ways, the 12-4 start that the Athletics have raced out to this season was a bit of fool's gold. Eleven of those 12 wins came at the expense of AL West foes Seattle, Los Angeles (Angels) and Houston. Those teams sit a combined ...

As the 2013 Major League Baseball season race reaches the quarter pole, it becomes time to take stock of where teams and players are in terms of production. In the American League West, the Texas Rangers have taken their customary position of being the front runner, largely due to tremendous pitching and consistent power in the lineup. The A's and Mariners have both been largely inconsistent, with the A's scuffling back to .500 since starting the year 12-4. However, the biggest story has been the lack of success in Anaheim as the Los Angeles Angels are not fighting for an expected spot at the top, but trying to keep clear of division newcomers the Houston Astros. In the basement.There have been solid performances from individuals on all five teams. But sometimes, overlapping positions keep deserving players from receiving deserved accolades. This will likely be no exception. So instead of lamenting who is not, ...

Since the team moved from Kansas City to Oakland 45 years ago, the A's have largely been a team built on great pitching. Whether it was Charley Finley's Mustache Gang, the 1981 "Billyball" club, the Walter Haas owned/Tony LaRussa run team from 1988 to 1992 or Billy Beane's Moneyball teams, Oakland has always won with great pitching.As such, there have been great pitching performances—some in the regular season, others in the playoffs or even the World Series. Finding the 10 best is a matter of circumstance and history. It is also highly subjective. Having followed this franchise since 1985, I have seen good, bad and ugly. But it has almost always been interesting. With that said, here's a nice look back in to time. Here's my list for the 10 greatest pitching performances in Oakland A's team history.  *Stats are courtesy of "Baseball-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.Begin Slideshow

It's hard to look at Albert Pujols these days without asking, "Man, what the heck happened?"The last time we saw Pujols in St. Louis Cardinals red, he was standing tall at the top of the baseball mountain after a 37-homer regular season that constituted a bad year. He was also celebrating the second World Series victory of his career, having helped the Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers with a 1.064 OPS in the seven games.The man was a baseball god. Less than two years later, we're looking at Pujols in Los Angeles Angels red and what we see is anything but a god. What we see is an albatross, not to mention the latest case study of how albatrosses come to be.What he goes to show is that, shoot, it really doesn't take much.What's happening to Pujols on the field isn't the result of some sinister conspiracy. He's old and beat ...

Dear Alex Rodriguez,Or should I address you as "A-Rod?" Yeah, that sounds good. Certainly easier to type, anyway.At any rate, I hear you're on the comeback trail. It's been almost four full months since you had surgery on your left hip, and the word on Monday from Adam Berry of MLB.com was that you can finally participate in some baseball activities.The word after your surgery was that there was a chance you could return to the New York Yankees around the All-Star break. That sounded optimistic at first, but now it sounds about right. In fact, it sounds like you may even be back on the field before Derek Jeter.But you're not too sure, are you?"I really hope so. That's as specific as I'll get," you said when asked if you were positive you were even going to return at all this season. I took that to mean you don't want ...

The Los Angeles Angels (11-20) currently sit in fourth place in the A.L. West with a winning percentage of .355 (third worst in the American League).To say that the team has underachieved through the first five weeks of the season would be a giant understatement. Prior to the 2013 campaign, fans and analysts alike had the Halos slated as true World Series contenders. But winning hasn't come easy. When looking at the season statistics, it becomes rather apparent that the Angels pitching staff is the main reason why. The Angels staff currently has a team ERA and team WHIP of 4.78 and 1.48, respectively, which both rank second worst in all of baseball. They have allowed 129 walks through 31 games, the highest number of any team. In addition, Halo pitchers have had a hard time closing out games, converting on only four out of nine save opportunities. If the Angels want to be playing meaningful ...