Weekly Sports Magazine: Baseball

BRUCE ALMIGHTY

Jay Bruce is the next big thing in baseball. Better than any of the great rookies the past few years. Yes, he's better than Ryan Braun, Alex Gordon, Evan Longoria and Justin Upton. Jay Bruce is Bruce Almighty. After going 3 for 3 in his MLB debut, Bruce is currently hitting .571. (8 for 14) He also has 3 RBI's, 2 stolen bases and only one strikeout. What I like most about his start is he's walked four times in four games. That shows that he can be patient, a rare quality for such a young kid. The 21 year old center fielder is the future of baseball. He is this good. In a couple years we will be talking about him as one of the best players in the game. A few years later he'll win the MVP award. Then the Reds will win the World Series and he'll get his ring, and in about some 20 odd years when he's eligible for the Hall of Fame, he will be a first ballot inductee. Jay Bruce is Bruce Almighty.

POWER OUTAGE

What's going on with Victor Martinez? The stud backstop has yet to hit a homerun this year. "V-Mart" has hit at least 16 homeruns each of the past four years, including a career high 25 in '07. He also knocked in 114 runs last year. Through Saturday, he only has 18 RBI's. What's strange though is he's still hitting. He currently has a .294 average. Part of this could be due to the slumping Indians, and now Travis Hafner is on the DL. Regardless however, expect the usual double digit homers from Martinez.

ALL ABORD THE D-TRAIN, NEXT STOP: THE BULLPEN

Remember Dontrelle Willis? The Cy Young candidate who won 22 games in 2005. Well, after a miserable 2007, and an even worse start to 2008, he's heading to the bullpen. The D-Train, as people like to call him, has had control issues this year and got hurt only a few weeks into the season. Willis pitched out of the bullpen in 2003, for the World Champion Florida Marlins, and was effective. I don't expect this to be long term. I don't think Dontrelle will go back to his Cy form, however I do expect him to become a starter again, a good one also.

VOTE FOR PEDRO

Pedro Martinez is expected to return to the Mets next week. Pedro, whose career has been in jeopardy ever since the 2006 season, should be a pleasant surprise. Now nothing looks good here. In his only game, back on April the first, Martinez surrendered four runs in 3 1/3 innings. In the beginning of the '07 season, Pedro even considered retirement as a possibility. That being said, it'd be easy to think that Martinez will be ineffective for the struggling Mets. I think different however. I think the Mets are going to turn their season around, and Pedro will start pitching like he used to. Vote for Pedro everybody.

HIP HIP JORGE

Jorge Posada, whose been out since April 27, is expected to be back in the line up Tuesday, earlier than expected. Posada had a dead arm and has played in extended Spring Training games this past week. Before being hurt Posada knocked in 11 runs and hit .302. Expect his usual numbers to return to form.

3 Up, 3 Down

--Clayton Kershaw pitched well in his debut.

--The Cubs now hold baseball's best record. Mark my words, IT'S GONNA HAPPEN. The 100 year drought will come to an end.

--Erik Bedard had a great outing against the Red Sox the other night, throwing seven shutout innings.

--Billy Butler got sent down to AAA.

--J.J. Putz is proving 2007 was a career year.

--Dice-K is on the DL with shoulder tiredness. Remember what happened last year when he got tired?