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Javier Vasquez was acquired by the Yankees this offseason. 

There were many arguments involving this trade because of the struggles he had as a Yankee back in 2004.

There were two sides.

One said that he can’t pitch in the American League, and is not worth the salary he is getting paid.

One said that he was injured when he struggled in 2004, and did above average with the Chicago White Sox.

Looks like the first side wins.

Vasquez pitched six strong innings against the New York Mets at Citi Field, before leaving the game with a bruised finger on May 21.

Yankees fans were excited about this showing and then hearing that Vasquez would be ready for his next scheduled start against the Minnesota Twins after leaving the Mets game. We, Yankees fans, all thought Vasquez finally got settled into the American League. We were wrong.

The start against the Mets was the only one decent for him this year, and there is one fact behind it: the Mets are a National League team.

No wonder Vasquez finally had a quality start.

Against Minnesota, he struggled again.

Someone needs to get this guy away from New York before he does anymore harm.

Keep in mind that there are trade rumors regarding Vasquez and the Houston Astros’ Roy Oswalt.

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Every Major League team has a checklist.

The Baltimore Orioles have one.

Talent: B

Potential: A

Stats: D

Durability of Players: F

The O’s have had trouble with many things this season, and the injury bug adds more bad news to the cause.

They have the talent, but it has not been working out this year. 

The only player on the 25 man roster that is actually producing numbers is Ty Wiggington, who has come out of nowhere (not to mention the fact that he is the only All-Star candidate for the 2010 MLB All-Star Game in LA).

The injury bug had hit Brian Roberts, as he is finally returning to baseball activities this week. It will still be some time before he gets into an Orioles uniform.

It has also hit closer Mike Gonzalez and reliever Jim Johnson—who was replacing Gonzalez in the closing role. Both are still rehabbing.  

But also add two more players to the DL: pitchers Koji Uehara (right elbow strain) and Alfredo Simon (left hamstring strain). 

This has been already a tough year, but there is still baseball to be played.

As many expected, this is going to be one long season for the birds.

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Dave Trembley compiled a 64-98 record in 2009. He had a 68-93 record in 2008. 

This season, Trembley is leading the Orioles to a crisis with a 14-31 record.

How long can the Baltimore Orioles stick with this guy, who is maybe the worst manager in baseball at this time?

Trey Hillman tested the Royals’ patience until he was fired. Ned Yost replaced Hillman and has done a decent job so far. 

With the performance he has put up, Trembley is basically begging the O’s to fire him. Well, he should be given the door.

Not only is this guy making the players desperate for a win every single game, he is making the O’s tortured, with losing their fan base, too.

How long can he stay in Baltimore?

He was not successful as a bullpen coach, and he was hired as the manager of a Major League team.

Success in the Minor Leagues does not transform into success in the big leagues.

Trembley was a great minor league manager. People might have thought he was great at working with young players, but we were wrong. The Orioles have a young team, but Trembley does not seem to be improving anything on the team.

Maybe Trembley should just stay at the minor league level.

Unless he turns things around, there is not much time until he gets fired.

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Ned Yost, former Major League player and manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, is leading the Kansas City Royals: to the bright side of things.

Yost was fired as the Brewers manager, even after posting a 83-67 record, his best winning percentage yet at that time.

After his firing, the Royals put Yost as their bench coach, while Trey Hillman was leading the Royals to another disaster season.

But when the Royals front office had seen enough, they gave Hillman the boot and put Yost in charge of things. He has only managed Kansas City for nine games, but during that span they are 6-3.

It might be hard to tell things this early in the season, but the Royals have the potential to be a .500 team to finish the season.

When I mean potential for the team, I mean players like Billy Butler, Zack Greinke, and Joakim Soria.

There are some players that aren’t heard of much, such as Scott Podsednik, who can run and hit around .300.

Ned Yost is improving the team not only in stats, but in chemistry. You see players working together as a whole.

Why couldn’t the Royals think of Yost as manager in the beginning of the season?

It seems like a new era of the franchise is starting with Ned Yost. 

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Trevor Hoffman is the all time leader in saves with 596 (as of May 21, 2010) in 18 seasons. 

After playing for the San Diego Padres for a long time, Hoffman was acquired by the Milwaukee Brewers before the 2009 season.

In 2009, Hoffman excelled as a closer with the second lowest season ERA of his career with 1.83—saving 37 games to add to his resume. It seemed like this guy was a machine, and his career would never end.

But Hoffman’s 2010 season has been miserable.

As a quarter of the season is over, Trevor’s ERA has ballooned up to 13.15 to tag along with three losses. His record last year for the entire season contained only two losses (and no, he does not have a reasonable amount of saves with five).

Hoffman is at the age of 42. He is aging—and too quickly.

Hoffman is now testing the Brewers patience. 

How long can the Brewers stick with Trevor as a closer—or even keep him on the roster?

Can this be the final year for No. 51?

If it is, it was once heck of a career. 

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Outfielder/DH Pat Burrell has been released by the Tampa Bay Rays.

Burrell, 33, signed with the Rays in the offseason to a 2 year $16 million contract, after their run at their first World Series Championship.

The Rays thought they were for real in 2009, with key additions such as “Pat the Bat.” 

But the Rays finished 3rd in their tough AL East division, and Burrell was not that productive, hitting only .221 with 14 home runs in 122 games, and was injured for a while in the disappointing season.

After a .201 average later this season, Burrell had been designated for assignment, cleared waivers, and now is a free agent.

He can now sign with any team, for a minimum of around $300,000.

That’s pretty cheap for a guy that hit 33 home-runs in 2008. In case you did not notice, Burrell has been struggling with the Rays (an American League team). 

We have seen players be dominant in one league, then acquired by a team in a different league and struggle.

We have seen it with Jaiver Vasquez, Melky Cabrera, Chan-Ho Park, and now Pat Burrell.

Pat Burrell will probably sign with a team—a National League team—to help them during a playoff push in August and September.

There seem to be two possible destinations: the San Diego Padres or the San Francisco Giants.

San Diego is currently in 1st place in the National League West, and could use a bat off the bench. But they need to find him room on the roster.

San Francisco seems to be a stronger possibility: not only do they need help on offense, they need help as a team whole, at 22-20. That is not a good enough record as of right now to be in 1st place.

Burrell would be a pinch hitter or even start sometimes, kind of like the situation with Jason Giambi in Colorado.

Who knows where Pat will go, but it seemed like a bad deal for the Rays.

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Roy Oswalt reportedly requested to the owner of the Houston Astros, Drayton McLane Junior, to be traded this season, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Oswalt, 32, is currently and has been the ace of the struggling Astros this season.

You can see why he wants to get out of Houston: a 14-27 record.

The closest the Astros ever were to winning a World Series Championship was back in 2005, when the young right handed pitcher named Roy Oswalt won 20 games in back to back seasons with a 2.94 ERA.

After that dominating year, things went rolling for Oswalt, who racked up 15, 14, and 17 win seasons. Last year in 2009, Oswalt was injured. 

But if you look at Oswalt’s ERA, it’s been pretty impressive and consistent: 2.73, 3.01, 2.97, 3.49, 2.94, 2.98, 3.18, 3.54 (2001-2008).

This year, Oswalt has an ERA of 2.66 (as of May 21, 2010), but because of the weak overall team, has 6 losses to his stats.

Many baseball experts, analysts, magazines, and I myself predicted Houston to trade away its aging stars. The main factor of this was because the Astros were competing in a tough division and had a little shot at winning it, with the St. Louis Cardinals having a strong team all around.

We can say to them now, “you were right.”

As of right now, there are plenty of playoff contenders that need a strong arm throughout the season, so there are many possible destinations.

The question now is: where will Oswalt go if he is leaving Houston?

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New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman has been smart in some ways.

Other times, he hasn’t been too smart.

At the trade deadline, or at least this off-season, the Yankees should have acquired ace starting pitcher Roy Halladay when he was with the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Before July 31, the Yankees might’ve needed to give up three or four prospects.

But in the offseason, Cashman could have made a deal that would have been news everywhere: trade Austin Jackson, Joba Chamberlain, and Arodys Vizcaino for Halladay. 

Roy Halladay had one year left on his contract, but of course the Yankees could lock him up. Not only do the bright lights of New York attract him, the history of winning on the team made Halladay think the Yanks were a possibility to be a place where he could land.

Just imagine this: Roy Halladay, followed by C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, and Phil Hughes.

With this trade, the Blue Jays could’ve gotten a great deal to rebuild.

Joba Chamberlain

Joba Chamberlain is a pitcher that many consider to be one of the best prospects in the game today. The Blue Jays would have been very happy to have him. But Cashman had to be stubborn, and he stayed with Chamberlain.

Here’s the theory:

Let’s say Chamberlain becomes the next 20-game winner. The Yankees will still have maybe the best rotation for the 2010 season.

Austin Jackson

Austin Jackson is excelling at the lead-off spot as a Detroit Tiger. Even though the Blue Jays had Vernon Wells at center field, Jackson could’ve been placed in right or left field.

Arodys Vizcaino 

He was the best relief prospect pitcher on the Yankees. Then, Cashman trades him and Melky Cabrera for Boone Logan (who seems to have no future as a Major League pitcher) and Javier Vasquez, who struggled for a month.

For the weak Toronto bullpen, Vizcaino could have been up in the big leagues after a year in the minors for some tune up.

Roy Halladay should currently be a New York Yankee.

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It’s obvious. The Baltimore Orioles have struggled mightily in the American League East this season.

There are some quality players on this roster. Nick Markakis, Ty Wigginton, Miguel Tejada and Kevin Millwood can all contribute.

Even so, The O’s are the worst team in baseball.

That’s pretty embarrassing. If the Orioles can’t sweep, or take at least one game from,  the Royals at home this week, it’ll be another tough year for Baltimore fans.

With the season already a quarter finished, the Orioles should at least show they can compete.

The Orioles face a must-win scenario in the upcoming KC series. Their reputation is on the line, and manager Dave Trembly is on the hot seat.

Don’t expect Trembly to make it through the season if the O’s keep playing bad baseball.

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There’s no doubt the New York Yankees has had some pretty good prospects over the years: Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Derek Jeter. These days’ prospects are Jesus Montero, Francisco Cervelli, Austin Jackson (who left via trade), and Phil Hughes.

Austin Jackson was supposed to be the starting center-fielder, but Brian Cashman traded him for Curtis Granderson, who is now injured. Jackson is thriving as the leadoff guy as a Detroit Tiger.

Brian Cashman kept all four players as they were coming up with the Core Four.

This time around, will he stick around with Cervelli, Montero, and Hughes until they reach their prime years?

Hopefully, as these three faces are the future key to this organization (next to big free agent signings).

Francisco Cervelli will replace Jorge Posada, as Cervelli is an extremely talented catcher who not only can hit, but can call games and has a pretty decent arm. And considering the fact the Sabathia is going to stick around in New York for a while, Cervelli is the good option to go to, as when he is catching for Sabathia, they allow an average less than three runs.

And to answer your question, no, I did not forget about Jesus Montero. I do not think he will be a full-time catcher, and might switch positions such as the outfield or first base. Let’s face it, Montero isn’t the greatest defender: he hasn’t even worked with a Major League pitcher yet! It’s his hitting skills that brightens his future.

The ace for the starting rotation of the future New York Yankees is Phil Hughes. It took one short season with five wins, the unsuccessful second season of his career, and another season in the bullpen to get where he is now: a dominant looking 23-year-old right-handed pitcher.

As of May 13, 2010, he is 5-0 with and ERA of 1.38. He doesn’t seem to be one of those pitchers that have good and bad months, which leads to inconsistency.

Francisco Cervelli and Phil Hughes is the future Jorge Posada and CC Sabathia.

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