Kuzul

Did you know that Saturday night at Safeco Field is Dustin Ackley Bat Night?All kids 14 and under will receive a full-sized Dustin Ackley Louisville Slugger, complements of Jack Link's Beef Jerky. Seriously, I can't make this stuff up.Don't believe me?Feel free to check the official 2013 promotions and special events schedule at Mariners.com.Honestly, sometimes you need to laugh to keep from crying with this team.However, if you've already given up all hope, feel free to simply take the bat home to smash your "Smoakamotive" (eBay) from last year to pieces with it to vent your frustration. That's assuming you will make the journey to Safeco in the first place.   If I had to venture a guess, I'd imagine that more people in the region probably watched the NFL draft the past two days to see who the Seahawks selected in their quest for a Super Bowl than any of the Mariners' ...

Los Angeles Angels first baseman Albert Pujols has five career home runs against Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Aaron Harang, which is important to consider when making your MLB picks on Friday as the two teams meet at Safeco Field.Sports bettors will find that the Angels are minus-145 road favorites in the pro baseball odds (courtesy of SBR Forum), while the total stands at 7.5 in the betting market.Let's take a closer look at this American League West matchup from a betting perspective, while offering a prediction along the way.Begin Slideshow

The Seattle Mariners are in a familiar position. They aren’t hitting.Haven’t we seen this movie before? As tweeted by Greg Johns of MLB.com: #Mariners shutout for second straight night in Texas, this one 5-0. Maurer pitched well (2H, 2R in 6 2/3), but no offensive help.— Greg Johns (@GregJohnsMLB) April 21, 2013 No offensive help. Shall we all utter an audible sigh?When are the Mariners going to start hitting on a regular basis? The team is ranked 29th in the league with a .220 team average. Unfortunately, this is a familiar statistical position.The Mariners have been here before.Michael Morse started out so hot. So did Franklin Gutierrez. Morse has cooled off and is now hitting .230 for the season. Gutierrez is starting to struggle with injuries—again.Audible sigh.There are also the hitters that are really struggling:Brendan Ryan: .152Dustin Ackley: .153Justin Smoak: .200Jesus Montero: .217The young core of hitters that was supposed to ...

After a dominant 10-0 victory on Saturday, for the first time this season, the Los Angeles Angels bats and pitching came together for their most complete win of the season, bringing them to 6-10. Not that their bats haven't been hitting well (with the exception of a horrifically slow start for newly acquired Josh Hamilton), but it's been the Angels pitching that has faltered in this early part of the season.  Saturday, however, they looked great as a team.  And two players, Mike Trout and Albert Pujols, hit the ball like the players everyone expects them to be.So who will have the better season of the two this year?  Reigning National League Rookie of the Year Mike Trout went 2-for-5 with a home run, four RBI and two runs scored.  Though he got off to a relatively slow start this season, he now has a slash line of .304/.347/.522 with two home runs, ...

The Texas Rangers are about three weeks into the new season. They were just dealt a big blow with the news that lefty Matt Harrison will need back surgery.Despite the bad news, there is reason for optimism—after all, it's only April.Ron Washington and his players can still set their sights on the division crown. Here are a few reasons why.Begin Slideshow

The Rangers announced bad news regarding pitcher Matt Harrison on Friday afternoon: Rangers GM Jon Daniels says Matt Harrison has a herniated disk. Will have back surgery Tuesday.— Anthony Andro (@aandro) April 19, 2013  The back surgery will likely be a microdiscectomy, given the relatively short return time. The surgery will be performed in Dallas by Dr. Drew Dossett, one of the country's top back surgeons and a protege of Dr. Robert Watkins. A microdiscectomy is a surgery in which the spinal surgeon or neurologist goes into the spine through a tiny incision and removes a small part of the damaged spinal disc using special tools. These spinal discs act as cushions between the vertebrae, so removing only the damaged or impinging part leaves much of the cushioning effect in place and results in less trauma. In the case of Harrison, Anthony Andro also gave the location the doctors will repair:L5-S1 is the disk that's ...

The Texas Rangers' quest to catch the surging Oakland Athletics in the AL West just got a whole lot more difficult.According to the Rangers' official Twitter feed, starting pitcher Matt Harrison will undergo back surgery for a herniated disc and be out until after the All-Star break:The 27-year-old left-hander had been suffering through back soreness throughout April and was placed on the disabled list earlier this month.Initially thought to be merely an inflamed nerve in his back, Friday’s diagnosis will put the Rangers’ rotation in a dire situation. Ascending in Texas' rotation in each of the past two seasons, Harrison had developed into one of manager Ron Washington’s top workhorses. Harrison compiled an 18-11 record with a 3.29 ERA and 1.26 WHIP last season, tossing four complete games en route to his first All-Star appearance.  Expected to dominate atop the Rangers’ rotation again in 2013, it was clear from Harrison’s ...

In the previous decade, a culture of winning was established in Anaheim. The Angels qualified for the postseason six times in the last 11 years (which included a memorable World Series title run in 2002). But after missing the playoffs in 2010 and 2011, the direction of the team began to come under question. Angels owner Arte Moreno took action and parted ways with the team's longtime general manager Tony Reagins. In his place, Moreno hired ex-Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Jerry Dipoto on October 28, 2011. Dipoto's first and most important responsibility as new general manager was to bring the Angels franchise back to relevance. And the new GM wasted little time doing so. His 2011 offseason signings of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson (on the same day) shocked the baseball world and immediately thrust the Angels into the limelight. Within months of being hired, Dipoto appeared to pull off the unthinkable by managing to land (what most considered to be) ...

Entering the second week of the Major League Baseball season, the Oakland Athletics find themselves in a comfortable spot.Sitting atop the American League West, the A's continue their road trip against the formidable Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This marks another early-season test for the Athletics: how will they fare against a team who many believe to be the prohibitive division favorites.Particularly after an offseason spending spree that saw the Angels land the heaviest of free agent bats for the second year in a row.But Oakland will look to prove for the umpteenth time that its frugal version of team building brings better results than their free-spending foes. After the A's snatched the 2012 AL West title, bypassing both the vaunted Angels and Texas Rangers squads, the question this season resurfaces: Can the A's do it again?The odds suggest that lightning cannot strike twice in the same spot ...

The Los Angeles Angels fit one of my favorite, classic plot lines in the MLB. With 162 games, stretching over six months, even the greatest, talent-rich teams will hit a bump in the road now and again. There are the foreseen and the unpredictable, the sore arms, backaches…and all the other ailments so eloquently listed by coach Lou Brown in "Major League". And while the Angels certainly are not having any issues with owner Arte Moreno turning on the water heater for the jacuzzi or forcing the team to travel via a rundown prop plane on road trips—like Rachel Phelps did to those lovable, fake Charlie Sheen-led Cleveland Indians—they have seen their share of obstacles thus far. This early? Sure, foreshadowing possible roadblocks over 162 games with only a six-game sample size, to any certainty (and with a straight face), is like claiming you can reconstruct the Great Barrier Reef ...