Nothin’ creepy about this video. No siree: My son is going to be five this summer. He has a plastic tee he likes to hit wiffle balls off of. 60% of the time he hits the tee instead and, quite frankly, enjoys it more. I’m not sayin’ that my son is going to be in…

The Post-Gazette’s Dejan Kovacevic observed something quite extraordinary: in the early going of the Pirates-Giants game, the Pirates consistently shifted all three outfielders towards right, even with right-handed batters at the plate. This allowed Aaron Rowand’s leadoff double and Mark DeRosa’s broken-bat, two-run single before the shift was removed. Kovacevic believes that Lastings Milledge could…

Chan Ho Park had a bad Opening Day last week but has since bounced back.  In the video below — which somehow stayed secret for a week — Chan Ho explains the problem.   Laugh all you want — and Mariano Rivera and friends seem to be doing plenty of that — but I prefer…

Yahoo!’s Jeff Passan and Orlando Hudson spoke yesterday about this Thursday’s Jackie Robinson Day and about the still-unemployed Jermaine Dye. Culture warriors: let’s get ready to rumble: You’ve got some guys who miss a year who can come back and get $5, $6 million, and a guy like Jermaine Dye can’t get a job. A…

Padres 17, Braves 2:  Er, um, yeah. I’m going to pretend that this was just an 8-2 game or something like it, because really, once Bobby Cox decided to let Jo-Jo Reyes mop up the game was already lost and the actual stats mere details. But enough about the Braves deplorable performance. Let’s talk about…

After the Twins’ win over the Red Sox this afternoon Joe Mauer was asked by a Boston newspaper writer if he gave any thought to playing for a “big market” team before inking an eight-year, $184 million contract extension with the Twins last month. His straightforward response made me smile: “I didn’t wanna go anywhere,…

Ron Gardenhire said before this afternoon’s Target Field opener that he was glad the Twins had Carl Pavano lined up for the start because the 34-year-old right-hander had pitched for the Marlins in the World Series and on a big stage with the Yankees. Yankees fans who watched his forgettable five-year stint in New York…

We’ve had a rash of injury updates today. Here’s another one, via Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. Derrek Lee underwent precautionary X-rays on his right thumb after leaving Monday’s home opener against the Brewers. “[Lee] hit a ball that jarred his finger a little bit so we got him out of the ballgame,” Cubs manager Lou…

During pregame workouts Michael Cuddyer held court with the media here at Target Field and speculated that the Twins’ new ballpark will prove fairly neutral in terms of impacting run scoring. That’s pretty difficult to tell after one season, let alone one game, but today at least a few well-stuck fly balls died in the…

UPDATE: According to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, Rollins will undergo an MRI on his right calf on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Jayson Werth, who left Monday’s game with a sore left hip, will not need an MRI exam. 3:57 PM: Jimmy Rollins was scratched from Monday’s home opener against the Nationals due to a right calf strain,…

According to Bill Ladson of MLB.com, the Nationals offered free agent outfielder Jermaine Dye a contract, however it wasn’t enough for him to uproot his family to the D.C. area. Meanwhile, Ben Goessling of MASNSports.com reports that the club hasn’t had discussions with Dye “in a while” and they seem content to move forward with…

UPDATE: Don’t count on seeing Roberts return after the minimum. Roberts will have to rest for 4-5 days after undergoing another epidural injection in his back on Monday, according to Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com. Team doctors believe Roberts re-aggravated his back on the very same slide where he suffered an abdominal strain last Friday. 11:54…

Jimmy Rollins was scratched from the home opener due to a right calf strain, now Jayson Werth has been removed from the game due to an undisclosed injury while running down to first base. Costly day for the Phillies. UPDATE: Werth’s injury is reportedly “left hip soreness.”

The AL East is down a second star second baseman after Aaron Hill was placed on the disabled list Monday because of a strained hamstring. While Brian Roberts appeared DL bound from the moment he suffered a strained abdominal muscle, the Hill moves comes as a surprise. Expectations were that he’d be back early this…

This is the first Power Rankings post that actually has some data behind it. But before you go crazy comparing records of the ranked teams and trying to find statistical inconsistencies and stuff, know this: my power rankings are not a highly empirical exercise. Yes, the Blue Jays lead the Yankees in the AL East,…

Since the Detroit broadcast team is my third least favorite from the 30 clubs and the Royals team is just blandly generic, I’ve now been subjected at least three times today to the fact that Jason Kendall has hit in every game this season. Yeah, Jason Kendall. It’s mind-blowing. So I check, and it’s the…

SportsBusiness Journal reports that MLBPA head Michael Weiner is going to continue his predecessor Donald Fehr’s tradition of taking $1 million a year in salary. You may say that’s not exactly “working cheap,” but (a) that salary has remained flat since 1990, meaning that in real terms the MLBPA head has taken annual pay cuts;…

I’m here at Target Field, the weather is just about perfect, and after a couple decades of watching the Twins in the Metrodome the whole experience almost doesn’t even feel real. The place is starting to fill up about 75 minutes from the first pitch. Actually, Joe Mauer was asked during batting practice about any…