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The Pittsburgh Pirates trail the St. Louis Cardinals by just half a game in the National League Central and they have a 4.5-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds in the NL Wild Card race. The Bucs have every right to be thinking big down the stretch.

With those high hopes comes the reality that the team must seriously consider tightening up the roster for the final two months of the season.

Pittsburgh has been active on the rumor scene and deals could be coming soon. Here’s a look at the latest news:

Alex Rios Could Be the Right Fit

David Kaplan of CSN Chicago tweeted that the Bucs and Chicago White Sox are seemingly getting close to a deal that would land Alex Rios in Pittsburgh.

Rios has a no-trade clause but is apparently willing to waive it to play for the Pirates. He is having a very solid season for a bad White Sox team. He’s hitting .272 with 12 home runs, 49 RBI and he’s also stolen 22 bases.

Rios would be a definite upgrade over the young Jose Tabata in right field.

A Pirates outfield of Starling Marte, Andrew McCutchen and Rios would be solid. We’ll see if the Bucs and White Sox can close the deal.

Giancarlo Stanton Is a Long Shot

While Rios may be the more practical option for the Pirates, the team is apparently still sending out feelers on a player who could make a bigger splash down the road.

Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Pirates are among the teams that have been regularly checking on the availability of Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins.

Up to now they have been turned away, but a change of scenery could ignite Stanton’s bat. He’s struggled this year in a lineup that has been monumentally horrible. He’s hitting .262 with 13 home runs this year, but at 23 years old, Stanton still looks like he’ll be one of the majors’ premier power hitters over the next 10 years.

Prying Stanton away from the budget-conscious Marlins is worth exploring.

Bud Norris Could Be On the Way

It seems as though the Houston Astros are close to dealing starting pitcher Bud Norris. Per Dayn Perry of CBS Sports, Norris has been scratched from his scheduled start.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports tweets he expects Norris to be moved soon and names the Pirates as a likely landing spot.

The 28-year-old is only 6-9 with an ERA of 3.93, but in a pitching-starved market, he’s become a fairly hot commodity. If the Pirates can walk away with Rios and Norris, they will have strengthened their ballclub.

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The Cincinnati Reds are in a position to buy at the MLB trade deadline. The July 31 deadline is rapidly approaching, and although the Reds are not in need of any major changes, one name is continuously tossed around by fans looking for a big shake-up.

That player is Miami Marlins outfielder, Giancarlo Stanton.

Stanton is a feared hitter capable of putting up gaudy home run and RBI totals. Beyond Stanton’s incredible talent, though, is the fact that he’s just 23 years old and under team control through 2016.

Hitting fourth in a lineup like the one Cincinnati possesses would set Stanton up to be one of the most valuable players in all of baseball, but is he really a possibility in Cincinnati?

The Fit

We’ll start with how well Stanton actually fits in with the Reds’ current roster.

Stanton is a right fielder. In fact, he’s played just one game away from the position in his big league career. Therefore, acquiring him would require the Reds to shift him to a new, unfamiliar position.

While there’s little doubt in my mind that Stanton could adjust to left field, it is a concern given the outfield depth the Reds already possess. Stanton would have to slot in to left field for the time being, or at least until Ryan Ludwick returns from the DL.

If and when that time does come, the Reds would have to bench Ludwick in favor of Stanton. Although this is an easy decision from a production standpoint, it’s a difficult financial bullet to bite.

The Reds have never been the type of team to dole out big contracts to non-essential players, but they did this past offseason when they signed Ludwick to a two-year, $15 million contract ($7.5 million of which is owed to him next season).

Ludwick would be relegated to a bench role for the rest of the 2013 season, creating a grossly overpaid backup outfielder. This now brings us to next season. 

Shin-Soo Choo will likely move on to another team, creating a void in center field. Ludwick will still slot in at left field, leaving Stanton and Bruce to fight over center field and right field. 

Bruce is the most likely candidate for a position change given his experience in center—205 minor league and 35 major league games at the position. But are the Reds comfortable doing that? Possibly.

The Trade Package

Fitting Stanton into the order isn’t really the big issue here. The trickiest part of any deal for the young slugger would be assembling a trade package that could actually bring him to Cincinnati.

The problem for the Reds in this scenario is that they may not have enough high level prospects to nab Stanton.

Consider the Reds’ top 10 prospects, their rankings within the system, their positions and their current/future 2-8 overall scouting grades (per cincinnatireds.com). 

Players with a future grade of six rank above average, while those with a grade of four or five are considered below average and average, respectively.

The Reds have several prospects with high floors and high ceilings—e.g. Hamilton, Stephenson, Corcino and Travieso. They also have mid-level prospects like Wright and Winker who could be everyday contributors on a big league team.

Factor in newcomers like Ervin and Lorenzen, and the Reds have an intriguing mix of prospects.

The problem here though is that, outside of Stephenson and Hamilton, none of these prospects have star potential. Hamilton himself is no guarantee, and although he’s shown signs of life over his last 20 games at Triple-A, one has to worry about his disappointing showing this season.

Corcino is in the midst of a wildly disappointing season, and his trade value has never been lower. As for Stephenson, he’s enjoyed a superb season with both Low-A Dayton and High-A Bakersfield. 

Travieso is only 19 years old and has yet to progress beyond Low-A ball. That’s no knock on his ability, but the Marlins would be looking for players who could contribute at the big league level in 2014 or 2015, at the latest.

As far as prospects are concerned, the beginning point of any deal for Stanton would have to be Stephenson and Hamilton. If Hamilton is able to get on base at a .350+ clip at the major league level, he’ll be a star in this game. On the flip side, if he were to continue upon his current path—.307 OBP at Triple-A—he’d be no better than a Dee Gordon-type player.

Stephenson’s upside projects to a one or two starter, and he could be a valuable asset for the Marlins. Beyond that though, unless the Marlins see potential in Corcino, there aren’t any big-name prospects who could solidify this deal.

Enter Aroldis Chapman. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s John Erardi tossed around the idea of trading Chapman and even pondered as to whether or not the Marlins would be interested in him.

The Marlins could very well be interested in Chapman, but they already have a very talented closer in Steve Cishek. For that reason, the team’s interest in Chapman could hinge on his willingness to transition into a starting role.

The Reds tried to convert Chapman last offseason, but the resurgence of Mike Leake, coupled with Chapman’s desire to remain a closer, led them to return Chapman to the back of the bullpen.

Perhaps more importantly than Chapman’s willingness to start, however, is the Reds’ willingness to trade him.

If Chapman goes, then the Reds need to decide on a new closer. Generally, this wouldn’t be an issue, as Sean Marshall and Jonathan Broxton could step in to fill that void. However, neither of the two are healthy at this juncture, and J.J. Hoover has yet to prove that he can limit his walks in clutch situations—4.0 BB/9 this year.

Some final food for thought here: Consider another trade the Marlins made back in 2007. When the Tigers decided to cash in on the potential of Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, the Marlins received a major haul of prospects.

Now, while that prospect haul amounted to what can now be looked at as a whole lot of nothing, consider what the Marlins thought they were getting at the time (prospects obtained via ESPN.com).

• CF, Cameron Maybin (Baseball America‘s No. 6 prospect pre-2007)
• SP, Andrew Miller (Baseball America‘s No. 10 prospect pre-2007)
• P, Eulogio De La Cruz (Tigers’ No. 6 prospect pre-2007, per-Baseball America)
• P, Dallas Trahern (Tigers’ No. 8 prospect pre-2007, per Baseball America)
• SP, Burke Bradenhop (N/A)
• C, Mike Rabelo (N/A)

To sum up the prospect haul, the Marlins received two top-10 prospects from Baseball-America’s Top 100, two prospects within the organization’s top 10 and two additional prospects.

A comparable package from the Reds—including Chapman—would look something like this.

• RP, Aroldis Chapman
• CF, Billy Hamilton (MLB.com‘s No. 19 prospect mid-2013)
• SP, Robert Stephenson (MLB.com‘s No. 20 prospect mid-2013)
• SP, Sal Romano (Reds’ No. 10 prospect mid-2013, per Cincinnatireds.com)

Props to my fellow Featured Columnist Kyle Newport for suggesting this comparison.

Conclusion

A package including Chapman, Hamilton, Stephenson, Romano and Soto would be a great starting point for Stanton. However, there’s no telling how much it will take given the stance Marlins GM Jeff Loria has taken on trading Stanton.

According to New York Post blogger Joel Sherman’s Twitter, the Pirates and Rangers have repeatedly been turned away by Loria and say Loria has little, if any, interest in moving the young slugger.

The Reds could use a power bat to put them over the top. While Stanton would do just that, it doesn’t seem like there’s any way for the Reds to pry him away from Miami without completely raiding the farm system and the back end of their bullpen.

Even then, it still may not be enough to land the biggest fish in Miami.

All stats come courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted and are current through play on July 25.

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Earlier today, I named seven players guaranteed to be traded by the July 31st deadline. Not surprisingly, all seven will be free agents after the season and play on teams that aren’t in playoff contention now and aren’t expected to be a month from now. 

On the flip side, there is an entire different group of players that might become available if their teams either fall out of the playoff race or fail to make a run to get back to within striking distance. Then there are the rebuilding teams, such as the Astros and Marlins, with valuable trade chips who are under team control for a few more seasons. Trading them could make sense if a particular organization feels that the return will help expedite the rebuilding process. 

Which teams will be left standing as playoff contenders in late July is still to be determined, but it’s likely that many of them will be asking about the availability of these six players in hopes of acquiring them for the stretch run and beyond. 

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Teams will normally assess where they are in the standings much closer to the trade deadline on July 31st before deciding if they will be “buyers” or “sellers”. Yet, here we are in June and there are a handful of teams that have to feel like they are heading in the wrong direction and it’s getting close to “do or die” time. 

Back in April, I made some arguments for why teams should consider making trades earlier in the season, if possible, with the few extra wins in the standings potentially being the difference between going to the playoffs or going home for the winter. 

In these June trade ideas, the goal is for a team to avoid dropping out of contention and into “seller” mode by the end of July or, in some cases, to just make a trade a month earlier to try and win a few extra games. The challenge is finding a non-contending team—Astros, Brewers, Cubs, Marlins, Mets are included in this group—that has an impact player that they’re willing to trade now. 

Here are three potential trades that should be made now.

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The Houston Astros and Miami Marlins took different routes to end up in the dirty cellar of Major League Baseball.

The question is who will get out of the sewage first?

The Astros have played in Houston ever since they started as the Colt .45’s in 1962, but their seasons have lately gone far south of that. A record of 15-36 is a pace that only the Cleveland Spiders could aspire to.

Meanwhile, on the coast of west Florida, the 13-38 Marlins have gone bottoms-up, with a fire-sale the only thing that kept them from drowning in their 2012 Opening Day payroll.

But is there any real hope for these teams in the near future? And which team will we stop scoffing at first?

The Marlins have had their fun in the sun over their franchise’s relatively short life. But now they seem dead in the water; a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs since their last of two World Series runs in 2003.

The Astros, who have never won a World Series, are well on to their way to a fifth straight season under .500, and a third consecutive 100-loss campaign.

There was a time where Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Lance Berkman ran the show in Houston. Heck, even Carlos Lee was a star for them not too long ago.

But now that those talented pieces have departed from everyday duties at Minute Maid Park, what’s left for Houston? Jose Altuve, modern day’s Eddie Gaedel? Or Carlos Pena, once held high but now washed-up?

What Houston does have going for them is the fact Altuve (hitting .311 as of Sunday), at age 23, can be a cornerstone for the team’s future. But players like Brett Wallace (.042 average in 24 plate appearances) and Matt Dominguez haven’t exactly turned into what they were supposed to.

The Marlins have many of the same problems. The one difference between the clubs may be the fact that the Marlins have a potential superstar in Giancarlo Stanton.

But ever since he went on the disabled list, the Marlins have been lost at the plate and in the NL East standings. They have about as many hits as Vanilla Ice and about as much pop as Redenbacher without a microwave.

In fact, Marcell Ozuna is the only hitter (barely) above a .300 average, and no Marlin has shown much power at all, with Justin Ruggiano leading the club with eight homers.

So through all the woes, the lack of building blocks, and not much production from the veterans either, which team has the edge to build a winner again?

In slightly more than a flip of a coin, the ‘Stros have the better future.

The Marlins can’t buy their way out of this one. They went for the high-risk, high-reward strategy again after it worked twice for World Series runs, but the third time was the charm of destruction for Miami.

They have a brand new stadium they are paying off, and a shopping spree they wish they could forget. They have Ozuna, and Jose’ Fernandez, an ace-to-be. But the Astros can match them with guys that will soon be up with the club, including pitchers Jarred Cosart and Lance McCullers, and a potentially dangerous infield for 2014 or ’15.

The Astros truly do have a dump of a squad on their major league roster right now, but for the Marlins, the deciding factor may be Stanton.

It can only be rumored, but there’s more than a fair chance Miami moves him.

I see him in a different jersey by the trade deadline of 2014, if not before. And the Marlins won’t pick themselves up off the canvas until well after that.

As for Houston, they won’t exactly be the talk of the league any time soon with the Texas Rangers owning the NL West and the Los Angeles Angels beefing up their roster. But the Astros will become relevant again before the Marlins.

Or at least stay far away from the Cleveland Spiders.

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Heading into the season, the last thing the Miami Marlins needed was something bad to happen to young slugger Giancarlo Stanton.

These being the Marlins, it’s only natural that something bad has indeed happened to Stanton. And now the Marlins should be worried.

Very worried.

The 23-year-old Stanton injured his right hamstring running through the first base bag during Monday night’s game against the New York Mets at Marlins Park. The pain was bad enough to make him hit the deck immediately, and the injury itself was bad enough to put him on the disabled list on Tuesday.

It’s not that we’re talking about a contender losing a star player. We’re talking about a can’t-bear-to-watch awful team with an already disillusioned fanbase losing its main attraction.

That’s the reality team owner Jeffrey Loria is presumably cursing, and for good reason.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, the Marlins are drawing 19,331 fans per game. That’s second-lowest in baseball next to the Cleveland Indians, and it represents an average of almost 11,200 fans fewer than the Marlins were drawing last season.

So business is already bad, and now the Marlins better get ready for it to get worse. Stanton won’t be there to hit any light-tower home runs as long as he’s out, so you have to figure many fans aren’t going to bother turning up.

But attendance is a mere short-term concern. The bigger concern is how Stanton’s injury could impact the Marlins franchise long-term, and his injury has the potential to do some significant damage.

It’s no minor injury, after all. Here’s the word from Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald:

Will Carroll, B/R’s resident injury expert, took a look at the situation and wrote that the time frame for recovery for such an injury is four-to-six weeks.

But there’s always the possibility that Stanton actually has a Grade III strain or a strain in a “bad location.” If that’s the case, the rest of his season could be compromised. 

Not that I have Carroll’s expertise, but even a lesser hamstring injury could impact Stanton’s entire season. We saw Matt Kemp have his once epic-looking 2012 season derailed by a pair of Grade I hamstring strains. He spent 58 days on the disabled list with those two injuries, according to Baseball Prospectus, and he just wasn’t quite the same player when he was able to play.

Whatever the case, what the Marlins need is for Stanton to bounce back from his hamstring injury the same way he bounced back from last year’s knee surgery. He was actually better after the surgery than he was before it, posting a 1.057 OPS and hitting 18 homers in only 43 games. 

If Stanton bounces back from his hamstring injury like that, he’ll still have the one thing that’s vital to the Marlins’ long-term future: trade value. The Marlins haven’t come out and put a Stephen Strasburg-esque countdown in place, but we know that they’re going to deal Stanton eventually.

It’s either that or hold on to him, and that’s a matter of first allowing him to go to arbitration, which will make Stanton much more expensive, and then signing him to an extension to keep him away from free agency, which is the hopeless fantasy of hopeless fantasies.

When fully healthy, Stanton’s the kind of guy who could fetch any prospect in the game. T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com recently wrote that the Texas Rangers would deal Jurickson Profar, widely considered the best prospect in the game, for Stanton in the “blink of an eye.” A New York Mets official told Andy Martino of the New York Daily News that he would trade Zack Wheeler and Travis d’Arnaud for Stanton “in a heartbeat.”

And so on. A fully healthy Stanton is the key to an overwhelmingly good cache of young players with which the Marlins could aid their rebuild. If you’re into geek references, he’s like the AllSpark or the Cosmic Cube for the Marlins’ ongoing rebuilding effort.

A not-so-healthy Stanton? That’s a not-so-valuable Stanton.

If Stanton is still hurting around the trade deadline, the Marlins aren’t going to be able to go get a Profar, a Wheeler or a whoever for him. Stanton will still be an insanely talented player with a few years of team control ahead of him, but, you know, damaged goods are damaged goods.

The smart play for the Marlins in a situation like that would be to hold on to him and hope for a strong finish. If he were unable to provide one, his winter trade value would be just as uncertain as his deadline trade value had been.

Sure, a winter of recovery would have the potential to make Stanton an elite player again, but the warning signs would be clear and present. For a guy who’s only been in the league since 2010, he already has a number of injuries under his belt.

Most of them have been minor, but last year’s knee injury wasn’t minor and this year’s hamstring injury isn’t minor. A team looking at Stanton from afar would have every reason to fear that more non-minor injuries would be waiting in the wings. A fear like that makes one grip top prospects tighter.

This would put the Marlins in a corner. The longer Stanton stays under their control, the more his salary is going to rise and the more his trade value is going to decline, regardless of whether he were to turn things around in 2014 after a lost season in 2013.

The Marlins would then be kicking themselves for not trading Stanton this past offseason while they were trading pretty much everyone else under their control. It was easy to read their intentions—did they dare trade the only player with drawing power they still had?—but there’s no denying the opportunity was there to make a damn good baseball trade.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports was one of the leaders of the “Trade him now!” bandwagon, writing that the chance to do a Hershel Walker deal was right there in front of the Marlins. Besides which, who exactly were they hoping of attracting after the various stunts they had pulled throughout the past year?

“They basically said eff you to their fanbase,” said a National League general manager, “so why not now?”

The Marlins passed, and as recently as April 14 Peter Gammons of MLB Network was reporting that they weren’t interested in moving their prized slugger.

Now it’s looking like the Marlins’ hard-to-get act with Stanton could backfire in a significant way. All it will take is for his already bad-looking hamstring injury to get worse and linger for a while.

Stanton would surely still be traded somewhere down the line, but not for a bushel of top prospects. He’d maybe only fetch one, with assorted decent prospects on the side. Or maybe two, with no decent prospects on the side.

Either deal wouldn’t be bad without context, but the context in this scenario would be that the Marlins once had a chance to do a franchise-altering deal. And without a deal like that, the Marlins’ rebuilding process is not going to move as quickly as it otherwise could have, or arrive at as special a destination as it otherwise could have.

That’s a notion that should have Mr. Loria feeling uncomfortable. After all he’s done, Loria owes the people of Miami something special.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter. 

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Just look at the names in this week’s UTK and you’ll see the issue. Giancarlo Stanton, Zack Greinke, Troy Tulowitzki, Stephen Strasburg—these are big-time stars, with most making big time money or carrying the hopes of a franchise on their back.

Instead of being on the field, these players and more are in the training room or worse. The inability of Major League Baseball to keep even their biggest stars healthy is a true indictment of the last decade. Some can’t be helped, but some can, and those opportunities to save money and keep the talent on the field are often being missed.

Let’s take a look around the league to see what’s going on with the biggest names and biggest injuries in another week of Under The Knife:

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Giancarlo Stanton looks like Superman, but injuries have been his kryptonite. On a hustle play in extra innings Monday night, Stanton racked up another injury. This time it is a hamstring strain that could cost Stanton a month or more, depending on the severity.

The Marlins pushed Stanton to the disabled list on Tuesday morning, even before an MRI could be taken. The Marlins medical staff needs to have clear indication that this is a significant strain.

Manual testing, as well as Stanton’s assertion that he heard a pop, indicate at least a Grade II strain. That type of injury will leave what doctors call a “palpable defect,” which means that someone with their hand on Stanton’s leg would be able to feel the hole that the tearing has left in the muscle.

The injury is to his right leg, which is his “power leg” when hitting and the same one he had knee surgery on last season. Stanton was able to come back from that minor knee surgery and showed no issues with his power, so there’s a positive in his ability to return to production. 

If this is a normal Grade II strain, the time frame is usually four to six weeks for a return. Stanton isn’t a speed player and has enough power to deal with a minor deficit in push when he returns. 

However, if this turns out to be a more serious injury, such as a Grade III strain or even just one in a bad location, it could end up effectively ending Stanton’s season. An MRI is scheduled for later on Tuesday to determine just how bad this is, giving us a more distinct timeline soon.

Stanton is joined on the DL by Joe Mahoney, also with a hamstring issue. While Stanton’s injury is the clear, traumatic result of a hustle play, any cluster of injuries has to be noted. The Marlins have often been among the bottom 10 in injury statistics, largely because they use a lot of replaceable players who cycle through. They have also had substantial injuries to major stars, including Stanton, which have hurt them in terms of days, if not dollars. (Stanton makes just over the major league minimum for a player with his service time.)

The state of the Marlins does have to be taken into account. The team is out of the playoff race already, but it has Stanton as about its only gate attraction. Moreover, many around baseball expect Stanton to be traded before he hits arbitration after this season. The haul of prospects he could bring back would kick-start the latest rebuilding effort by Larry Beinfest. 

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For a team that’s probably going to finish last in the National League East for the third consecutive year, the Miami Marlins don’t have many issues thus far. 

Ricky Nolasco has already been named the Opening Day starter—shocking. Jacob Turner, Nathan Eovaldi and Henderson Alvarez are still slated to follow Nolasco while Wade LeBlanc continues to make his case to be the team’s No. 5 starter after throwing four shutout innings Sunday against the Atlanta Braves. 

Among position players, second baseman Donovan Solano has hit .480 in 25 at-bats and Casey Kotchman is batting .435 in 23 at-bats. Kotchman is trying to win a spot on the team which, in his case, comes with the designation of starting first baseman if Logan Morrison isn’t ready when the season begins.

According to Morrison’s agent, Fred Wray, Morrison could be playing by April 15 after having surgery to repair a torn patella tendon in his right knee.

Meanwhile, with Team USA at the World Baseball Classic, slugging outfielder Giancarlo Stanton is hitless in seven at-bats, but he’s broken a windshield with a home run during batting practice.

Stanton’s teammate, closer Steve Cishek has two scoreless appearances, which includes the biggest out of Sunday’s 9-4 win against Canada when Cishek induced Tim Smith to ground out to second baseman Brandon Phillips to end the eighth inning with the bases loaded while preserving a one-run lead.

And as far as the kiddies go, they have impressed as well. Future ace Jose Fernandez struck out two in two scoreless innings in his only spring training appearance while the Marlins’ other star prospect, Christian Yelich, has been scorching hot as he’s batted .375 with three home runs and 11 RBI in 32 at-bats. Yelich has been so good, it’s prompted first-year manager Mike Redmond to sing his praises to MLB.com:

I’ll tell you, man, I love putting him in that lineup. Every opportunity I have to put him in there, I get him in there. He gives you a great at-bat. It doesn’t matter who he faces. Believe me, we go around and around [on where he’ll start the season]. That’s something that we’ll have to talk about.

But not everything has been rosy with the Marlins…

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After a disappointing 5-2 loss to Mexico (box score via MLB.com) in its World Baseball Classic opener on Friday night, Team USA needs Brandon Phillips and Giancarlo Stanton to step up in order for the team to advance.

Before the team takes on Italy on Saturday, there needs to be some adjustments made by the players. Ryan Vogelsong is slated to take the mound in the second game, but it’s the offense that needs to get ready to go.

Jimmy Rollins, Joe Mauer and David Wright all recorded multi-hit games in the opener, but the bottom third of the lineup went 0-for-10 with two walks.

Things will get better, but the team can’t wait around too long before the bats wake up. The middle of the order showed up on Friday, but it was tough getting rallies going when there was no production out of the bottom of the lineup.

It will be important for Team USA to avoid falling behind again in the first inning. The offense has the firepower to come back, but the team could use a fast start.

Phillips and Stanton are two of the game’s brightest stars, and they will be counted on to make plays as the tournament goes on.

Brandon Phillips

As the second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds, he is known for his flashy play. He makes more highlight plays than anyone in the league.

He will need to continue to flash the leather in the field, but he will be called upon to get on base for the heart of the lineup. As the No. 2 hitter, he needs to set the table for Ryan Braun, Wright and Mauer.

Unfortunately for Team USA, Phillips went 0-for-4 and struck out twice in the opener. He was one of two starters who did not reach base in the game.

In the last three years, he has hit .298 in the No. 2 spot. The second baseman has a unique set of skills that combines power, average and speed. 

Phillips is at his best when he is swinging early in the count. He hit .301 last year when at-bats lasted less than two pitches, so expect him to come out swinging.

Team USA will take off when Phillips starts to get on base. There may not be a better middle of the lineup in the tournament, but they need guys on base ahead of them. Rollins got on base twice tonight, but Phillips will be the key to this lineup.

Giancarlo Stanton

When Giancarlo Stanton is the No. 7 hitter, it’s a pretty good lineup.

He was part of the bottom third of the lineup that did not have a hit, but he will get rolling at some point. After hitting .290 and smashing 37 homers last year, the 23-year-old will be an important part of the lineup.

The right fielder did draw a walk, but the team needs him to be knocking in runs. He is one of the most dangerous hitters in the world, and his power is second to none.

In his career at Chase Field, he is a .333 hitter and has four home runs in only 39 at-bats.

Like Phillips, Stanton is unreal when swinging at the first two pitches. He hit .457 last year in at-bats that were over within two pitches. 

Conclusion

Team USA needs Phillips and Stanton to go to the plate ready to swing. They are at their best early in the count, and the team can’t expect to win the tournament without them hitting well.

It’s easy to overreact to one game, especially when it’s a loss. Team USA faces Italy on Saturday and Canada on Sunday. 

The opening loss to Mexico is concerning, but it’s not the end of the world. There are still games to be played, and the lineup is working through some early hiccups. Let’s not forget that this team had to replace Mark Teixeira with Eric Hosmer late in the week.

It was a disappointing opener for Team USA, but Phillips and Stanton will be ready to lead their team to the next round. 

*All stats are from ESPN.com

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