If you read only one thing…..

It is Memorial Day. For most prognosticators, Memorial Day is the time when early trends start to look real. We can finally take stock of where things are going. If we look at the standings we’ll notice that just about every division has the right teams on top except for the American League West. The Astros have a five and a half game lead after the holiday. Who knows whether it will hold, but it’s definitely more than just a passing trend.

In terms of individual numbers, the story of the first week was Adrian Gonzalez. He’s certainly tapered off, but he added his 33 RBI of the season on Monday night. Memorial Days is just after the quarter pole, so he is on pace to add another 120 RBI to his career tally. As you might suspect, he isn’t the league leader in that category as of Monday.

Just as we expected….

Don’t look now, but Prince Fielder is back. He had three more hits on Monday to lift his average to .365 on the season. That came with his ninth home run and up to 35 RBI on the season. Many thought he was done and at the beginning of the season and it took him awhile to get going, but he is definitely on pace to put up the kinds of numbers that Rangers fans have been expecting for the past few seasons.

We don’t often talk about relievers in this section, but the Cardinals Trevor Rosenthal is off to another good start this season. He got the win on Monday night after a scoreless inning. His ERA stands under 1.00 and he also has 13 saves on the season. I generally don’t trust closers, but he seems to be one of the top closers in the game again.

But we didn’t see this coming….

Bartolo Colon won his league leading seventh game of the season on Monday. He stands at 7-3 with a 4.82 ERA. Of course, that proves that won-loss records are more luck than anything else, but the ageless wonder seems on pace for another double digit win campaign. If he had only done better in his thirties he would be in line to get into Cooperstown. I wouldn’t put too much stock into his performance at this point.

Teams that win often have players that come out of nowhere to produce. The Dodgers have been full of those the last few years. This year, it is Alexander Guerrero. He hit his eighth home run of the season off the bench and added his 19th and 20th RBI. Unfortunately, Mattingly has to juggle Guerrero, Justin Turner, and Juan Uribe all at third base. Guerrero also occasionally plays left field as well. It may be time to get him into the lineup somewhere every day.

The Rest of the Details

Save Chances

• Kenley Jansen (converted)
• Fernando Rodney (converted)
• Mark Melancon (converted)
• Shawn Tolleson (converted)
• Drew Storen (converted)
• Jeurys Familia (converted)
• John Axford (converted)
• Zach Britton (converted)

Lineup Moves

• The Braves are apparently working on an Alberto Callaspo trade. It is unclear as to where he will go and whether he would have an everyday or bench role where is going. Of course, he has been relegated to the bench in Atlanta since Jace Peterson took over as the regular second baseman.

Injuries

• Reds ace Johnny Cueto had his elbow examined today and missed his scheduled start on Sunday due to elbow stiffness. His manager felt he could have pitched if necessary, so everyone hopes it isn’t anything serious. To make matters worse, he is rumored to be on the trade block and that obviously won’t happen if he moves to the disabled list this summer.

Rumors and Transactions

Memorial Day is that day when people start to take a real stock into what is going on in the standings. That means that we start to get a better look at who will be buyers and who will be sellers. The sellers appear to be the Brewers, Phillies, and Rockies so far. It will be interesting to see what names get bandied about over the next few weeks from those three squads alone.