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Pat Venditte was a feel-good story in February and March. 

He was thrown into the hype machine in April and May, and it was ramped up to full bore Friday after the Oakland A’s called up the ambidextrous relief pitcher from Triple-A Nashville.

While the novelty of a pitcher with a weird glove who can throw with both arms was certainly real, Venditte’s talent at the major league level was still uncertain as the 29-year-old switch-pitcher made his major league debut Friday against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

He erased the questions surrounding him by throwing two scoreless innings in Oakland’s 4-2 loss, showing that his minor league success that earned him the summons was anything but a sideshow attraction. The outing made him the first ambidextrous pitcher to appear in the majors in 20 years and earned him a memorable congratulatory tweet from a teammate.

Pat Venditte became first MLB player to record an out as LHP and RHP in same inning since Greg Harris did so for Expos on Sept. 28, 1995.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 6, 2015

Congrats on your debut @PatVenditte! (I wrote u this card with my right hand because I want to be ambidextrous too!) pic.twitter.com/HIO6RE8AmC

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) June 6, 2015

“You play it 1,000 times in your head how it’s going to happen, and I don’t really remember a whole lot,” Venditte told reporters. “Just a lot of emotions and being able to tell my family and friends that the work was starting to pay off.”

Venditte was gawked at by the baseball world from the start. As he warmed up in the bullpen, television cameras focused on him getting both arms loose. He is such a rarity even his unofficial pitches were newsworthy.

Once he entered the real thing, he was impressive. He gave up one hit and struck out a hitter in his two shutout innings, starting the seventh as a lefty and finishing it as a righty.

And, as could have been expected, confusion ensued the first time he faced a switch-hitter. Blake Swihart came to the plate in the eighth inning, and Venditte, per a rule that exists pretty much just for him, had to declare which arm he would use against Swihart. Venditte was not sure which way to go, though, and there was a bit of back and forth before he went right-handed and struck out Swihart, who hit left-handed.

The A’s are 11 games under .500 after the loss, and they were 10 under when they called up Venditte. Teams in that position could be accused of doing something like bringing up a circus act of a player for non-competitive reasons. Then again, the A’s had won nine of their previous 12 games and are trying to claw their way back into the American League West conversation.

They were not about to risk their momentum by throwing an undeserving Venditte a bone after he toiled in the minors for eight seasons, including 17 games of this current one. That is what September call-ups are for.

Venditte earned his way into the big leagues this year. Over 33 innings with Nashville, he had a 1.36 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and struck out nine hitters per nine innings.

He dominated left-handers with a .095/.136/.095 opponents’ slash line in 45 plate appearances. In 86 plate appearances against right-handers, he held them to a .208/.318/.306 line, showing he could get out hitters with either arm.

This was the kind of effectiveness the A’s saw in spring training. When they started him in the minors because of what began as a deep bullpen, it was with a watchful eye knowing they would eventually need his unique services.

“It’s one thing to be able to just throw a ball with both hands, let alone throw it pretty similar,” manager Bob Melvin told reporters during spring training. “The arm action is fairly the same. He moves it around a little bit. He impressed me.”

He also impressed the Red Sox, not to mention anyone who caught a glimpse of his effectiveness from both sides.

“That was truly amazing tonight,” Red Sox manager John Farrell told reporters. “To watch Venditte, it’s a remarkable thing to see what one person’s body is capable of doing. Even guys in the dugout were kind of marveling.

“It’s clear he’s able to get both lefties and righties with whatever arm he chooses. He’s got quality stuff.”

And the A’s need it. They started the game with one of the worst bullpens in baseball, and it’s been a huge reason the team is 3-15 in one-run games. Its 4.86 ERA entering Friday was the worst in the majors, and its minus-0.1 FanGraphs WAR was third worst. 

The bullpen has to find a corner and turn it if the A’s are going to become a relevant team within their division. They were expected to contend, but they’ve been a disappointment to this point of the season, falling 11.5 games out of first place and 7.5 games out in the wild-card standings.

Venditte is not a novelty. He is not a freak show. He is a quality reliever, and the A’s are in serious need of those.

Assuming he continues being a big-time run preventer, Venditte could assist with the shove the A’s need to get themselves trending upward permanently.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The reasons for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent retooling are plentiful. 

For starters, they wanted a better overall team, from the bullpen to the offense to the defense to the bench. A better clubhouse atmosphere, one possibly more conducive to long-term winning, was another goal. Some financial flexibility going forward, even for a team with a record payroll, was also an advantage, as was clearing some of the old regime’s personnel for a front office increasingly trying to put its stamp on the entire roster.

So far, through 46 games, the Dodgers seem to have accomplished what they were after. For the most part.

But all the organization’s shuffling—front office and uniformed employees—was to accomplish one primary goal when history is written: win a World Series. Immediately.

Over the last two seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals have been the team stopping the Dodgers from doing so. Because of that, recent history is more important and hindering than traditional baseball beliefs for some players.

“I dream about them every day,” Dodgers superstar right fielder Yasiel Puig told reporters about the Cardinals during the offseason. “If we can beat them, we can win the World Series. We have to pass through them. They’re our principal rivals, not San Francisco, not anyone else.”

That quote obviously made headlines, especially with the San Francisco Giants, the Dodgers’ traditional rivals, winning their third World Series in the last five seasons last year. But Puig made a valid point.

While the Giants have championships, the Cardinals are the class of the league. They have made the postseason four straight seasons, knocking out the Dodgers in the last two. They’ve won two titles since 2006 thanks to a strong core of homegrown players and key trade and free-agent acquisitions.

They also go into their weekend series against the Dodgers with the best record in the majors, once again looking like the Senior Circuit’s team to beat.

“We can’t let them beat us three straight times. No way,” Puig continued, understanding the Dodgers led three postseasons games after six innings last fall but still lost to the Cardinals in four. “They’re a good team, and we all admire them. They have very good pitchers, very good players. If we beat them, we can win the World Series. We just have to get through them.”

The Dodgers’ remake, which included trading Matt Kemp (second in the majors in weighted runs created plus in the second half last season) and Dee Gordon (an All-Star second baseman), has them running well.

They go into the series tied for baseball’s third-best record, second in the NL. Their offense leads the league or is in the top five of several offensive categories. They have a starter vying to start the All-Star Game, and it’s not Clayton Kershaw. Their once-brutal bullpen, almost totally redone in the offseason, is arguably the best in the majors. Joc Pederson, the man who replaced Kemp in the outfield, is a strong front-runner for Rookie of the Year. 

“We have depth now,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We didn’t have that before. One guy gets hurt and the next guy is tearing down the door behind him. A guy gets hurt and someone else steps up.”

The Dodgers still might not be good enough to beat the Cardinals in another October fight. Despite their depth, they are a battered club with outfielders Puig and Carl Crawford on the disabled list with no timetable for their return and starters Hyun-Jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy out for the season. St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright is also lost for the year.

That is why they produce pitching matchups for their weekend in St. Louis that casual fans will not recognize.

Pitching matchups for Dodgers at Cardinals this weekend: FRI – Bolsinger/Lackey SAT – Frias/Wacha SUN – Anderson/Martinez

— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) May 28, 2015

Cardinals win on a throwing error & avoid Kershaw & Greinke vs the Dodgers this week. So things are normal on that front.

— Matt Clapp (@TheBlogfines) May 28, 2015

What should have been a strength—the rotation—is now a significant concern for the Dodgers, and not because Clayton Kershaw has a 3.86 ERA. He actually leads the majors with a 2.13 expected FIP and is ninth in Fangraphs WAR despite an ERA that dipped under 4.00 just this past week.

While fill-in starter Mike Bolsinger has been impressive in four starts (0.71 ERA), the Dodgers’ new, normally tight-lipped front office has made no secret it is in the market for starting pitching.

“We’re actively vetting the market, doing everything we can to augment our depth,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. “Acquiring starting pitching depth is my No. 1 priority.”

The problem is virtually every team with a desirable asset still sees itself one hot two-week stretch away from contention, if it are even currently out of it. And now with Scott Kazmir and Johnny Cueto dealing with shoulder and elbow issues, respectively, teams like the Dodgers have to wait to see how they recover.

Another problem with acquiring a front-line kind of arm is it might very well cost the Dodgers an elite prospect, and that is something the front office has been unwilling to pay. Even if it is willing to listen to counter offers, players like Pederson, Corey Seager and Julio Urias are essentially untouchable.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, it is likely they will need another strong starting pitcher to stick behind Kershaw and Zack Greinke if they plan to upend the Cardinals, or anyone else, in a postseason series. Ryu was that guy, and a healthy and effective McCarthy was the backup plan.

How the Dodgers fare this weekend in St. Louis will not determine if they are capable of beating their “principal rivals” when it counts most. How their roster looks come the first week of October will.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

At nine months apart in age, Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant ran in the same Las Vegas baseball circles as kids and teens, young prodigies with beaming futures. 

Harper, of course, took the unconventional path to superstardom. His well-known journey started with him graduating high school early, enrolling at a junior college and becoming the Washington Nationals’ No. 1 overall pick at the ripe old age of 17.

Two years later he made his major league debut, winning the National League Rookie of the Year award and even getting praise on MVP ballots in 2012. The kid who graced the Sports Illustrated cover at age 16 was a full-blown major league superstar.

Bryant started playing with and against Harper at 9 years old, but his route to the major leagues and his own stardom with the Chicago Cubs have been quite different.

The hype has not been, however. Like Harper, Bryant became a household baseball name before he played a major league game, and is so far living up to it.

“When we were younger, we used to call him ‘Silk’ because he was so smooth with everything he did,” Harper told reporters Monday before the Nationals played the Cubs, which was the first time the two Las Vegas products played on the same field since they were kids. “He played third. He played short. He played a little outfield. He pitched, and he always hit very well. He’s a great talent. I’m excited for him. I always cheer for guys that are from my area.”

Bryce Harper and Kris Bryant face off for the 1st time in the majors today. They took very similar paths to the bigs. pic.twitter.com/2GLE6PThrh

— Baseball Tonight (@BBTN) May 25, 2015

Bryant was baseball’s most anticipated hitting phenom since Harper going into this season. He instantly became one of the game’s top prospects when the Cubs drafted him second overall in 2013. Whether the club would put him on its Opening Day roster, or if they even should, became the hottest baseball debate of this past offseason.

Harper, who has not had much contact with Bryant since becoming a professional, took to social media to toss in his two pennies:

If @KrisBryant_23 doesn’t make the big league team out of camp, then that’s a joke! I see you doin your thing brotha! #VegasMade #TheTruth

— Bryce Harper (@Bharper3407) March 14, 2015

The Cubs started Bryant in the minors as expected, eventually calling him up on April 17 and ensuring he would stay under team control through 2021. Once he arrived, he started paying dividends.

Bryant entered Monday hitting .273/.391/.445 with an. 836 OPS, five home runs, 29 RBI and a 131 OPS-plus in 35 games. And in his first professional game against Harper’s team, he quickly showed why he was such a hyped prospect by hitting his sixth homer in the first inning.

“He’s a great player,” Harper told reporters. “I think he needed to be in the big leagues. But I understand the business side of it and what goes on. If I was the Cubs, I would have done the same thing. I want him for another year, too.”

Harper is already in his fourth full major league season, and this year he is completely healthy and quickly becoming one of the best and most feared hitters in the game. He went into Monday’s game leading the league in home runs (16), RBIs (41), walks (39), intentional walks (six), runs scored (39), OBP (.471), slugging (.728), OPS (1.198), OPS-plus (224) and total bases (107).

What we have seen from him through 45 games this season is what so many expected from him at some point in his career. That he is doing it as a 22-year-old should be frightening for every pitching staff in the game except Washington’s.

“His is kind of the unconventional route, but it worked really good for him,” Bryant told reporters Monday. “I’m happy to see that work for him. For me, it was the right thing to go to college and do my thing. It was kinda cool we both ended up in the same spot.”

While Bryant is just a rookie and Harper is a veteran, Bryant is older at 23. He does not have nearly the professional seasoning Harper does, but playing college baseball and demolishing the minor leagues over 181 games indicates he will not need four seasons for us to see how great he can be.

“Bryant is your more laid back type for sure,” Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago wrote. “Harper is an in-your-face type and more pugnacious, working his way to the big leagues after starting pro baseball at 18. Both are killers on the field when it comes to the competitive juices flowing.”

While Bryant has yet to produce the way Harper is, Bryant is already showing signs that he will be one of MLB’s elite offensive players.

Watching both of them blossom together into two of the game’s megastars will provide plenty of jaw-dropping highlights and numbers for the next decade.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Garrett Jones pitched.

Got that? Garrett Jones, backup first baseman and backup designated hitter, pitched Saturday. 

For the New York Yankees.

In a real game.

And he was their most effective arm.

Garrett Jones lived out his dream…and it was awesome. He was our best pitcher of the day…and that’s sad.

— Delia Enriquez (@dfiregirl4) May 23, 2015

You can look at Garrett Jones’ 1 HR on Memorial Day weekend as bad or glass half full the most by any #Yankees pitcher

— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) May 23, 2015

Garrett Jones named as Thursday starter.

— Jeff Bradley (@JerseyJBradley) May 23, 2015

That is where this season has sunk to for the Yankees, a team with one win in its last 10 games. It had a four-game lead in the American League East just last week but now trails by 1.5 and was shellacked 15-4 by the Texas Rangers on Saturday. Lopsided losses like that tend to happen when you give up 10 runs in an inning a day after allowing 10 total.

“We got embarrassed,” outfielder Brett Gardner told reporters. “It seems about as bad as it can get.”

That is an agreeable statement, to say the least. However, there are reasons to think things could get worse and we are just witnessing the start of the end of the Yankees’ early-season success story.

Their run to the top of the standings peaked with an 11-5 win at Tampa Bay on May 11. To that point, the offense was performing well with a .759 OPS, 43 home runs and a 4.8 run-per-game average.

In its 10 games since that win, New York has cratered. Going into Saturday, the Yankees were hitting .223/.277/.333 with a .610 OPS and 3.1 runs per game. The lineup managed to make itself appear somewhat respectable Saturday with seven hits and a couple of homers. But considering all four runs were scored after the outcome was decided, that’s not worth celebrating.

Jacoby Ellsbury, one of the team’s better offensive contributors this season, has not played since Tuesday after landing on the disabled list with a knee issue. There is no timetable for his return, and manager Joe Girardi thinks it will take more than the minimum 15 days for him to recover.

More worrisome is the starting pitching, a group that has been shaky all season but seems to be getting worse by the game at this point. The rotation’s May ERA is now 5.08, the worst in the league.

It took over that top/bottom spot Saturday after what was CC Sabathia’s ugliest outing since his fall from baseball grace started in 2013—and his shortest since 2009. The former ace lasted 2.1 innings and allowed six earned runs on seven hits, all of them singles. The start pushed Sabathia’s ERA to 5.47, the sixth-highest posting among qualified AL starters.

Based on what we’ve seen from Sabathia so far, there is no indication that things will get better in the near future.

Lower than CC Sabathia’s ERA https://t.co/ONKxP2UhX1

— Chris Detje (@cdetje) May 24, 2015

Michael Pineda, the man tasked with helping Masahiro Tanaka lead the rotation this season and then with leading it himself after Tanaka’s forearm injury in late April, has been disappointing through nine starts, including Friday’s in which he allowed eight hits and seven runs (four earned) in six innings. He lost that decision despite the offense scoring nine runs.

Pineda has shown flashes of dominance—eight shutout innings in Toronto on May 5—but too often he has flopped—five earned runs over 5.1 innings on May 15—leading to his 110 adjusted ERA, which is only reasonably better than league average.

Tanaka’s second rehab start will happen Wednesday, and it’s possible he could rejoin the rotation after that. He could provide significant help, but his health will be a constant question mark after this DL stint and last season’s partial ulnar collateral ligament tear that landed him on the 60-day DL.

This is not rock bottom for the Yankees, because they could retake first place by this time next week. Also because that would assume things could not get any worse.

They could, as soon as Sunday.

After allowing 25 runs in two games to a team that was five games under .500 before this series and 11th out of 15 AL teams in slugging percentage, OPS and weighted runs created plus, according to Fangraphs, the Yankees will send out Chris Capuano. The veteran left-hander has made one start this season—last Sunday—and allowed four runs in three innings.

Counting on him to be a stopper is a sure sign of desperation, especially before hosting the first-place Kansas City Royals, the best offensive team in the league.

“They happen during the season,” Girardi told reporters about losing trends. “It’s no fun when you go through it. You don’t expect to go through it for this long a period. We need to change it.”

The Yankees certainly do. It just not might happen anytime soon, especially if Garrett Jones continues to be their most effective pitcher.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Listening to the men in charge and the player, the easy conclusion is Troy Tulowitzki will remain the long-suffering Colorado Rockies shortstop. 

Suffering because the franchise has not had a winning season since 2010 and is nowhere close to being able to contend with National League West rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants or San Diego Padres. And Tulowitzki will remain so because he, the owner and the general manager have all come out publicly and shot down thoughts that Tulowitzki, the best shortstop in baseball, is seeking a trade or that they will even be willing to consider such a request. 

GM Jeff Bridich went so far last week as to call the topic “a media production.” Owner Dick Monfort hung up on one Fox Sports reporter (Ken Rosenthal) for even broaching the subject and made it absolutely clear to another (Jon Morosi) that no such trade is unfolding and the franchise’s biggest star has not said he wants one.

“We’re not trying to trade him,” Monfort told Morosi. “There’s no story there.” 

Behind the scenes, there have been different kinds of whispers. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported last week that people who “know” Tulowitzki hinted he would like to be traded to a team with a chance of winning, such as the New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers or Los Angeles Angels. 

The Rockies have waited long enough for Tulowitzki to be healthy and a significant part of a winning lineup. However, he and fellow star Carlos Gonzalez have been healthy all season and the Rockies are still terrible because too many other parts of the club—mainly pitching—have never been properly addressed by the organization.

The time has come for all sides to realize and accept that the best thing for the player and the Rockies is for Tulowitzki to be traded. He can finally take his elite game to a bigger stage and the Rockies can start a rebuild they so desperately need to become relevant again.

So, based on what Tulowitzki is reported to want, other teams’ needs and resources, here is a look at the shortstop’s top five suitors for a blockbuster trade that could reshape one or more of the postseason races.

Begin Slideshow

Baseball offseasons are made for hope and optimism.

Those five months between the end of the World Series and Opening Day help dissolve any ugly memories and bad tastes that exist from the previous season. And when that fall and winter are filled with a team making blockbuster moves to improve for the following season, the hype and expectations soar.

That was the case for the Chicago White Sox, a team that used the trade and free-agent markets to bolster its roster during the offseason. They added big names at key positions to the point that they were expected to contend for an American League Wild Card berth at the very least.

After getting off to a disappointing 8-14 start, the White Sox are finally living up to their billing. They have won six consecutive games—a 10^th-inning walk-off against the Cleveland Indians on Monday was the latest triumph—to creep above the .500 mark for the first time this season. The stretch has also made them relevant again in the AL Central, where they trail the Kansas City Royals by 4.5 games.

#WhiteSox last won six straight late in 2013. This streak comes at a little more important of a time.

— Dan Hayes (@CSNHayes) May 19, 2015

The franchise lost 99 games in 2013, their worst year since a 106-loss season in 1970. It saw a 10-game improvement last season, and much more was expected in 2015 after the team traded for Jeff Samardzija to strengthen the rotation, signed elite free-agent reliever David Robertson as well as Adam LaRoche and Melky Cabrera to lengthen their lineup over the offseason.

“Once you get players like that, the excitement is there,” manager Robin Ventura told CSN Chicago in January. “For me, it doesn’t feel any different. I think everybody acts like it’s going to be a different thing, but in the end it just means there’s higher expectations, which are great.”

The start to the season certainly was not.

Through the first 22 games, the offense was abysmal. It batted .242/.296/.341 and scored 70 runs (3.2 runs per game).

The pitching was just as bad in that time frame. The staff racked up a brutal 4.56 ERA, and the rotation was worse at 5.50.

Those numbers culminated with a 13-3 loss in Minnesota and a five-game losing streak that dropped the White Sox seven games out of first place and six games below .500. That led general manager Rick Hahn to hold a pregame dugout press conference two days later.

“We’re all accountable for where we sit right now,” Hahn told reporters. “That starts with the players, it goes to the coaches and Robin and myself and the front office.

Hahn continued: “This team is far, far better than what we’ve seen the last few days. … We need to be better than that. Based on the rotation we put together, based upon this lineup, we feel there are far, far better days ahead.”

That Q&A session looks like a premonition looking back. Starting that day, the White Sox have been on an impressive run of 10 wins in 13 games with the first five wins of their six-game streak coming on the road. The offense is scoring 4.9 runs a game and the pitching staff has a more respectable 3.85 ERA.

The run has pushed their record to 18-17 as the offseason makeover is finally paying off. LaRoche has 13 walks, seven RBIs, a .463 OBP and .878 OPS in May. Cabrera has 16 hits, eight RBIs and seven walks in the month. In that time, Samardzija, while still struggling to find a consistent groove, is 2-0 and Robertson has a 1.93 ERA and 10 strikeouts in 9.1 innings.

Just as important is ace Chris Sale’s last two starts. After compiling a 5.93 ERA in his first five, Sale has thrown 16 innings and allowed three runs in his last two outings, including an eight-inning, one-run gem Monday to outduel Cleveland ace Corey Kluber.

“I wouldn’t even say it’s a turnaround, you know?” Adam Eaton told CSN Chicago’s postgame coverage after Monday’s sixth straight win. “It takes a while for teams to jell together, especially with a lot of the new faces we have here. It takes a while, and it’s a learning process. We want to play good baseball [through] June, July, August and into October.

“We’re coming along as a team and learning each other. Hopefully we’ll have more of this going forward.”

While the White Sox might not be as prolific as this recent winning streak, they certainly did not appear to be as bad as their start based on player track records. But runs have a way of correcting themselves, which we’ve seen this month.

Now the White Sox have to sustain the success and become a loud voice in the AL Central through the summer, just like the offseason hype billed them to be.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It doesn’t take much time to run out of superlatives when describing Miguel Cabrera’s ability to make square contact with a baseball.

He is, after all, one of the two best hitters of his generation. The best since Barry Bonds, probably better than Alex Rodriguez, right there with Albert Pujols, and it might take somebody like Mike Trout continuing his greatness for another 12 to 15 years for anyone in the next generation to match Cabrera’s offensive aptitude.

Cabrera reached another milestone Saturday afternoon, further establishing himself as one of the best hitters Major League Baseball has ever employed. On a totally misplaced Tyler Lyons first-inning cookie, the Detroit Tigers slugger smoked his 400th career home run over the center field wall of St. Louis’ Busch Stadium.

The home run made Cabrera the most prolific home run-hitting Venezuelan in MLB history, surpassing Andres Galarraga as well as former Tigers great and Hall of Famer Al Kaline. Cabrera is the 53rd player to amass 400 home runs.

While the glowing adjectives inserted before Cabrera’s name are running low, his latest feat reminds us that he is destined to gain another before the end of his career: immortal.

Cabrera is 32 years old, and after this season, he is under contract for eight more years and an unforgettable $248 million. As long as his body does not completely betray him, Cabrera is a lock for 600 career home runs and 3,000 career hits.

That would put him in the company of only Henry Aaron and Willie Mays as of now, but by the time Cabrera reaches those marks, Rodriguez and Pujols will both likely be in the club as well. That would make Cabrera only the fifth player to ever get to 600-3,000.

So yeah, “immortal” is a fine superlative.

Miguel Cabrera just hit his 400th homer at age 32. Most homers through age 32: 553 – ARod 500 – Foxx 475 – Pujols 468 – Griffey 454 – Mantle

— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 16, 2015

We might have believed Cabrera’s health was already starting to betray him in the past year. He posted a 147 OPS-plus, hit 25 home runs and drove in 109 in 2014. For many players, that is a career year. But for Cabrera, those were his lowest OPS-plus and RBI marks since 2009, and it was his lowest home run total since his rookie year, when he played in just 87 games. Cabrera followed that with offseason ankle/foot surgery to remove bone spurs and repair a stress fracture.

To wonder about his health and production going into 2015 was reasonable, but Cabrera already buried those concerns before Saturday’s 400th homer. He entered the game with a .338/.442/.592 slash line, a 1.035 OPS, nine home runs and 28 RBI. His OPS-plus was 183.

His 154 career OPS-plus, which is an adjusted OPS calculated at Baseball-Reference.com used to compare players of different eras, is currently the 25th highest in baseball history. Seventeen of the 24 players ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame. Bonds, Shoeless Joe Jackson and Pujols are also in that group of 24.

Of those ahead of Cabrera, only Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle and Jimmie Foxx have 400 career homers, a Triple Crown and multiple MVP awards.

Cabrera, who still might be in his hitting prime, is already in truly elite company.

“What makes him so great and special is that you never, ever, ever catch Miguel off-guard,” teammate Victor Martinez told Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan in early May. “Once he steps up in the box, he’s ready to hit. I don’t know how he does it. … He’s always ready to hit. You throw a pitch on the plate, he’ll do damage.”

Another thing to keep in mind: Cabrera’s 6’4″, 240-pound body does not seem to be betraying him. Despite the surgery and the “down” 2014, Cabrera has missed a total of 33 games since the start of the 2009 season. He has played in at least 148 games in all of his seasons except his rookie one, and he has averaged 191 hits and 34 home runs in each of those.

If Cabrera averages 180 hits and 25 home runs a season starting this year, he will reach 3,000 hits and 600 home runs in 2019. His contract extension, which doesn’t even kick in until next year, goes through 2023 with club options for the following two.

Miguel Cabrera will go down as one of the greatest Detroit athletes of all time. Maybe the greatest. Enjoy every at bat.

— Bob Wojnowski (@bobwojnowski) May 16, 2015

The Tigers were absolutely crushed by many for giving Cabrera that contract extension in March 2014, both by the baseball media and by major league executives. And rightfully so, since the deal takes Cabrera through his age-40 season, and players rarely produce at elite levels at the ages for which the Tigers extended Cabrera.

Even Pujols, the previous best hitter in baseball, is in major decline with the Los Angeles Angels. That makes the team’s $240 million investment in him look foolish, as it did at the time he signed. The decline, not coincidentally, started in Pujols’ age-33 season, the same age Cabrera will start his extension. And like Cabrera, Pujols was quite durable before he played in only 99 games that year.

That mistake is on the Tigers, though. It should not, and likely will not, tarnish Cabrera’s greatness. He is a truly amazing hitter who has produced through two eras, one that greatly favored hitting and the current one that greatly favors pitching. He is also unlikely to eek out milestones by hanging around as an average hitter, piling up the counting stats.

No, Cabrera is an all-time great. And sometime within the next five or so years, he will cement himself among the best the sport has ever seen when he undoubtedly reaches 600 and 3,000.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Wins and losses are the currency of sports, and the standings are the trump card. They have ultimate say in which teams move beyond the regular season to compete for a championship.

That is why former NFL coach Bill Parcells was mostly correct when he said, “You are what your record says you are.” 

Mostly.

In an age of advanced measuring tools for players and teams in every sport, Major League Baseball—and more so the people dedicated to its evolving metrics—leads the way.

As baseball technology gets smarter and the people around it get more adept at analyzing the data, Parcells’ famous quote becomes less and less accurate. Just six weeks into this 162-game season, a team’s actual record might not be the best reflection of how good or bad it has actually performed.

Teams with gobs of wins might not be so good, and struggling clubs might not be so destined to stink all summer.

Using certain outlying stats and record projectors like Bill James’ Pythagorean formula and Fangraphs’ BaseRuns model, we can determine which teams’ records are currently lying.

Begin Slideshow

You would not be bending any limbs before the season to declare that the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals might be the best teams in their respective divisions.

At least one of those two franchises have appeared in five World Series since 2004, and they faced each other in the 2006 Fall Class with the Cardinals winning it all in five games. And since 2000, they have combined to win 12 division titles, with St. Louis holding eight of those.

Entering 2015, both clubs were favorites to win their respective Central divisions again. Both were coming off at least two consecutive division championships, had legitimate aces leading their rotations and had potentially potent lineups.

However, there were also questions and “what ifs” weaved into their preseason narratives. But as the season approaches its six-week anniversary this weekend, both teams have handled the questions, significant injuries and challenges from other teams within their divisions to sit at or near the top of the standings going into Friday.

They face off this weekend in a three-game series in St. Louis. The Cardinals go in with the best record in the majors (24-10), a five-game lead in the National League Central and the second-best run differential in the majors (plus-51). The Tigers sit a game behind the Kansas City Royals in the American League Central with a modest plus-14 run differential, making it appear the Cardinals have the advantage in a series that could determine who is closer to being baseball’s best.

#Tigers now head to St. Louis for 3G road trip v. Cardinals, who have best record in ML (24-10), and lowest ERA in ML (2.70)….

— Dan Dickerson (@Dan_Dickerson) May 14, 2015

In this series, though, the Tigers are the team that lines up better through all three games—potentially. They send out Shane Greene, David Price and Alfredo Simon while the Cardinals go with Carlos Martinez, Tyler Lyons and Lance Lynn for Sunday’s finale.

The Probables

Shane Greene has maybe been the streakiest pitcher in the majors this season. He threw at least seven innings and allowed one earned run or fewer in each of his first three starts—23 innings, one earned run, 0.39 ERA—but after that he failed to complete five innings in any of his next three outings and allowed at least five earned runs in each—11 innings, 20 earned runs, 16.36 ERA.

Greene might be starting a new streak as he went eight innings and allowed one run against the Royals in his last start.

He opposes St. Louis’ 23-year-old Carlos Martinez, who had a 1.80 ERA—25 innings, five earned runs—through his first four starts. But in his last two, he’s managed only nine total innings and has allowed seven runs in each.

“The last two outings, I felt like I wanted to do it too good, so I would go and rush a little bit at times,” Martinez told reporters through an interpreter last weekend. “I’ll try to be better for the next time, try to make the first pitch for a strike and try to be ahead in the count.”

Price has been mostly solid this season except for a 2.1-inning, eight-run debacle on April 22. Lyons is getting another crack at the rotation for a third consecutive year, failing to pitch well enough to earn a permanent spot in the last two. Through his first two starts this season, Lyons has allowed five earned runs over 9.1 innings.

Sunday, the Tigers go with Simon, who has been mostly a stud this year with a 3.05 ERA over seven starts. The Cardinals counter with Lynn, who is coming off six shutout innings in his last appearance.

The Injuries

Adam Wainwright has arguably been the most impactful injury in the majors this season. The Cardinals lost their ace for the season on April 25 when he went down with an Achilles injury while running out of the batter’s box.

At the time the Cardinals were well equipped to handle the loss because Martinez, Lynn and Michael Wacha were all pitching like front-line starters, and the team has gone 12-6 since the injury. But Martinez has struggled recently and Lyons does not look long for the job, so the Cardinals are definitely seen as buyers on the trade market going forward.

The Tigers have also felt the effects of injury this season as closer Joe Nathan has not pitched this season after tearing his ulnar collateral ligament in April, which required his second Tommy John surgery. Even without him, though, the Tigers’ bullpen has posted a 2.93 ERA, the fourth lowest in the league.

The Tigers are also without catcher Alex Avila, who went on the disabled list Saturday with loose bodies in his left knee. Avila, who had a .342 OBP when he got hurt, will not have surgery and the hope is he can be back in less than a month.

Alex Avila talked about his decision to opt against surgery: http://t.co/hZuQ9UzBIg

— anthony fenech (@anthonyfenech) May 14, 2015

The Future

Based on the most recent trends, it seems like the Tigers have the upper hand in this series on the pitching side and offensively since they have one of the best lineups in baseball. Plus the Cardinals have a couple of struggling arms going against that Detroit lineup.

But even with a series win here, the Tigers still have the more difficult road going forward. The Royals are proving they are not a one-year wonder with a first-place standing and an AL-best plus-42 run differential. Beyond that, the Minnesota Twins are above .500 and the Chicago White Sox appear to be improving to where expectations had them at the start of the season.

The Cardinals have a five-game lead as of now and the Chicago Cubs are the only other team above .500 in the division as it appears there is no real threat to the Cardinals winning a third consecutive NL Central title.

Regardless of the challenges, both teams are still living up to expectations as two of the best, making this weekend set quite the treat.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Expectations poured down on Gerrit Cole unlike few Major League Baseball draftees before him. 

That tends to happen when you have a triple-digit fastball, are picked first overall and sign for an $8 million bonus, the highest ever in MLB draft history.

The only job that followed for Cole was living up to the hype. Billing it was the easy part. Fulfilling it, that would take some professional seasoning.

Now, nearly four years after the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Cole with their No. 1 overall pick in the 2011 draft, the right-hander is emerging as the ace the franchise envisioned him becoming when they handed over that record-setting check.

Cole, through his first six starts this season, is 4-1 with a 2.27 ERA, a 2.63 FIP and is striking out 9.84 hitters a game, his highest rate as a major leaguer. He is also stranding baserunners 78.5 percent of the time—the league average is 72.9—and his 0.9 WAR, per FanGraphs, is up there with names like Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke, Jon Lester, Clayton Kershaw and Matt Harvey.

Cole’s 95.3 mph average fastball velocity ranks second in the National League to Harvey, proving he is learning to pitch while not completely sacrificing his heat.

He was also named the National League Pitcher of the Month for April.

Congrats to the Cole Train, #Pirates‘ ace Gerrit Cole, on being named the NL Pitcher of the Month! pic.twitter.com/EfodpdmQPR

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) May 4, 2015

“He’s so talented, but works very hard to perfect his craft,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington told Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He is focused on being excellent. Not on being good or being a big leaguer. His focus is excelling. His focus is on being elite.” 

After a pair of so-so seasons with the Pirates, Cole is flashing that kind of ability. Over 41 starts in his first two seasons, the UCLA product had a respectable 3.45 ERA and 3.09 FIP, but his 105 ERA-plus rated him as barely above league average.

This season, things have changed for Cole, starting with his command and pitch selection. His percentage of first-pitch strikes has jumped up 7.2 percent from last season, and while his fastball velocity is slightly lower than it has ever been in the big leagues, he is throwing it more (69.6 percent compared to 66.7 last season), according to Baseball Info Solutions.

FanGraphs also tells us that Cole is getting hitters to swing at more of his pitches (47.8 in 2015 compared to 45 last year) and they are making less contact (76.8 compared to 78.3). His swinging-strike rate is also up to nearly 11 percent from 9.5 percent last season. Cole’s slider has also found a new gear, and his command of it is good enough to throw in any count. 

For a power pitcher whose success is connected to his ability to strikeout hitters, these jumps are indicative of his newfound success.

“His fastball actually got stronger as the game went on,” Arizona Diamondbacks slugger Mark Trumbo told The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro two weeks ago after Cole pitched pitched 7.2 innings against them and gave up one run. “It’s a hard, boring one. It gets in on right-handers quite a bit and stays off the sweet part of the bat, at least. And a real good slider, a good swing-and-miss pitch late in the count.”

This kind of steady dominance is giving the Pirates a weapon that has foiled them in the postseason and one that several other National League teams possess—an ace.

Adam Wainwright twice dominated the Pirates in the 2013 postseason, and last season Madison Bumgarner threw a complete-game shutout against them in the NL Wild Card Game. And with Jon Lester and Johnny Cueto in Pittsburgh’s division, the Pirates tend to run into aces all over the place.

Cole’s emergence could be the vehicle with which to overcome those roadblocks. While the Pirates have had quality starters over their last two postseason runs—Francisco Liriano, Edinson Volquez, Vance Worley—they have lacked a shutdown ace, a pitcher who can go out and match an opposing team’s No. 1 inning for inning.

These changes and developments in Cole’s game are the evolution of a young pitcher emerging into an elite player. So far this season, he is producing the results the Pirates believed he would when they drafted him and plopped $8 million on the table.

The franchise has had four No. 1 overall picks in its history, and before Cole it took Kris Benson in 1996 and Bryan Bullington in 2002—infielder Jeff King was drafted first overall in 1986. Neither pitcher lived up to the hype or pressure. Cole is on his way to changing that trend.

“It’s time for him just to take the ball and go,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle told reporters. “He’ll write his own story along the way.”

If this season is an indicator, it could have a fairy-tale ending.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com