Rocco Baldelli and Hank Blalock have had amazing Aprils in their first full years in the majors. Baldelli hit is first homerun yesterday and hit a triple today and is hitting around .360. He broke the record for rookie hits in April with 40. He never walks but he doesn't strike out that often either. And unlike Blalock, does not benefit from having great hitters around him. I have been following him and he is a tremendously exciting player.

Blalock, unlike Baldelli, has dealt with high expectations since he was the number one draft choice. He has settled down within that Texas lineup and is also hitting in the .360 range. When teams like Texas and Tampa struggle, it has to be exciting to follow new players. In Texas, they can also follow Mark Teixeira who is starting to hit now.

I have been thrilled so far with how many of my predictions are coming true. But I can't get too cocky about it since the season is a long one. The team that I believed in the most, the Chicago Cubs, look great and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't win that division.

The Red Sox must be thinking now that whenever they are behind, they are right where they want to be. Three come from behind wins against the Royals and tonight they came back from six runs down to tie the Twins before the Twins then erupted again and won the game. Even so, the Sox must never think they are out of any game.

It has not been a good season for former Oakland Athletic players. Jason Giambi is the only Yankee not hitting and is below the Mendoza Line. His brother is currently batting .134 for the Red Sox. And Jermaine Dye hurt his leg again and is on the disabled list. Weird. To complete the picture, Miguel Tejada is doing just as poorly and seems to be in a huge funk since the A's said they wouldn't try to sign him after the season.

Mendoza Line? You might not know what the Mendoza Line is about. Mario Mendoza played for parts of nine seasons in the major leagues from 1974 to 1982. He was a pretty slick fielding shortstop but it's hard to figure out how a player could play five of his nine years with a batting average below .200 and continue in the majors for that long?

Although Mario Mendoza batted .180 in 1975 and .185 in 1976, his two years of batting .198 established forever the now famous Mendoza Line. George Brett and/or Tom Paciorek are usually given credit for creating the line. It is said that every Sunday, Brett would search the stats in the paper to see who was hitting "below the Mendoza Line."