David Gonos

Good Start Teams

• San Diego - 7 home games, 3 vs. STL (23rd road ERA, 4 vs. CIN (29th road ERA)
• N.Y. Yankees - 6 home games
• Houston - 7 home games, 3 vs. CHC, 4 vs. PHI
• L.A. Angels - 6 on road, but Halos hit well on road (.269, fourth in majors)
• Minnesota - 7 games, 4 vs. TEX (4.65 road ERA), 3 at DET (5.16 ERA in May)

Bad Start Teams

• Tampa Bay - 6 games, 3 at OAK (2.81 home ERA), 3 vs. BAL (9th road ERA)
• St. Louis - 6 road games, at SD (top home ERA), at LAD (3.60 home ERA)
• Texas - 7 road games, at MIN, at CLE (top ERA in majors)
• Cincinnati - 7 road games, at LAD, at SD (top home ERA)
• Baltimore - 6 road games, 3 at NYY (8th-best May ERA, 3.45), 3 at TB (2.82 home ERA)

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Good Starts

• C - John Buck, KC: Hitting over .300 in May, still hasn't flexed his power
• 1B - Jason Giambi, NYY: Batting average is still rough, but power is there and he has six home games
• 2B - Akinori Iwamura, TB: Despite rough upcoming schedule, he has 22 hits in May and 10 runs scored.
• SS - Ramon Vazquez, TEX: Batting over .400 in May as Hank Blalock's replacement at 3B, use him in AL-only leagues
• 3B - Scott Rolen, TOR: He's healthy, he's hitting, he should be starting in Fantasy.
• OF - Melky Cabrera, NYY: 6 home games, one of Yankee leaders in HR and RBI at home

Bad Starts

• C - Jarrod Saltalamacchia, TEX: Still not connecting at the plate, hitting .143 in May.
• 1B - Eric Hinske, TB: No longer everyday player, struggling at plate in May
• 2B - Brian Roberts, BAL: 6 road games, and he's batting .227 with just two RBI and one steal in May.
• SS - Bobby Crosby, OAK: Six games this week are against TB and BOS pitching
• 3B - Evan Longoria, TB: Hitting just .150 in May, with three games at OAK this week, and three at home vs. BAL (one RBI in five games)
• OF - Adam Jones, BAL: Not doing enough in any category to help you this month, 6 road games (at NYY, at TB)

NATIONAL LEAGUE
Good Starts

• C - Chris Snyder, ARI: Batting .438 over past two weeks
• 1B - Adam LaRoche, PIT: 11 RBI in past two weeks
• 2B - Kaz Matsui, HOU: 7 home games, scoring over a run per game at Minute Maid Field
• SS - Stephen Drew, ARI: The quietest D-Back this season broke out this month. He's batting .360 over the past couple weeks, and no SS has more RBI in the month (10).
• 3B - Kevin Kouzmanoff, SD: Hitting over .300 in May and he has seven home games ahead.
• OF - John Bowker, SF: Hitting .353 with one homer and five RBI in his past 5, and six games at COL and FLA this week (both bottom six home ERAs).

Bad Starts

• C - Bengie Molina, SF: Just three RBI for month of May.
• 1B - Joey Votto, CIN: Seven road games at Petco Park and Dodger Stadium.
• 2B - Chin-lung Hu, LAD: Getting starts in place of Rafael Furcal, but he has just four hits in his past 27 at-bats.
• SS - J.J. Hardy, MIL: Just two RBI for month of May -- and the Brewers are on the road for six.
• 3B - Edwin Encarnacion, CIN: Streaky batter returns to streaky ways -- hitting under .200 in past two weeks.
• OF - Chris Duncan, STL: Batting just .185 in May, bad hitting schedule this week.

I believe your order was two scrambled eggs (not dry), with four slabs of crisp bacon, some thick-cut home fries, two slices of buttered rye toast, a cup of diner coffee, and large glass of orange juice (from concentrate unfortunately).

1. I knew "The Daily Dose" had a good ring to it: Saw yesterday that another site uses that for its morning column. I prolly stole it. So I figure, you're likely reading this after your first trip to the can anyway (bacon and coffee does it to me too). I'm changing it to "The Morning Constitutional."
   
2. Mariano Rivera's perfect season is officially ruined: The Yankees' future HOF closer allows his first earned run of the season to the Rays in extra innings Tuesday. In a season where closers are shakier than the office chair I'm close to breaking, it's been great to see Mo pitch this good in the first six weeks. (Oh yeah, and Troy Percival blew the save ... whatever.)
3. The Rays are YOUR AL East leaders almost one quarter of the way through the season: In Tuesday's 11th inning, Jonny Gomes came on to pinch run for Cliff Floyd (Floyd is making it hard for me to continue to not like him) and then Gomes stole his third base in two games (what?), to get into scoring position for Gabe Gross' game-winning single. Gomes, Floyd and Gross combined to help the Rays to their 11th-straight win at Tropicana Field. But completing their fourth sweep in a row will be tough -- it's a four-game series against the Bombers. Tampa Bay has the best record in baseball over the past 19 games (14-5).
4. Who are the two hottest teams outside of the state of Florida? The Houston Astros and Shermboat19's Texas Rangers. Houston is 8-2 in their past 10. And along with the Rays and Marlins, the Rangers have now won seven of their past 10 games, including last night's 5-2 win over Seattle. Has anyone else noticed that Gerald Laird is finally starting to hit like we hoped he would? He's batting .275 right now, which is up from .207 as late as April 20 -- just 13 games. He has 18 hits in 51 at-bats (.353) with 16 runs scored in that span. Lock him up! He's only owned in 18 percent of Fantasy leagues!
5. Rocco Baldelli takes BP Tuesday: I know you're sick of reading about the Rays, but I found this point interesting. His body fatigue wasn't enough to sideline my favorite player, he even had an infection in his leg. My take -- it was probably from bed sores. COME ON, ROCCO! Man up!
6. The Red Wings and Penguins are up 3-0 in the conference finals: Can't we just skip right to the Cup Finals?
7. Great Scott! Luke Scott hits his second homer of the season Tuesday for Fantasy POD honors: He took Josh Beckett deep, which probably hurt more owners than it helped. Scott is batting .281 on the season, but we thought he'd be exhibiting much more power at this stage.
8. Ross Devonport's New Orleans Hornets are now up 3-2 against the Spurs: Both teams are undefeated at home in the playoffs -- and it's heading back to San Antonio. Devonport is one of our Fantasy writers. He's British, worked for the Double-A Tennessee Smokies, roots for the Hornets and is a devout Florida Atlantic fan. Weird. He also won Fantasy Golf Writer of the Year from the FSTA this year. Another cool thing -- he lent me a DVD series called, "Little Britain" -- it's a BBC sketch comedy show. QUITE FUNNY! Here's a link to one of their skits.
   
9. My favorite Cincinnati Reds pitcher, Edinson Volquez, runs record to 6-1 on the season: He allowed just one earned run in six innings against the Marlins Tuesday. He has 34 strikeouts in his past four games, he's second to Cliff Lee in the majors with a 1.12 ERA, and his 57 strikeouts for the year lead the majors. I LIKE! I LIKE!
10. Oh yeah, and the Patriots cheated.

Here's our most recent podcast from this afternoon. We get a little goofier than usual. Emack's turkey pops out of the oven, Jamey takes five-minute no-talking breaks and I expound on the greatness that is Rays Baseball.

Looking at what happened over the past 24 hours, here's what you need to know while you scarf down three blueberry pancakes with plenty of syrup, four thick sausage links, a glass of cold milk and a cup o' joe:

1. "Happy Mother's Day Mom! ... Now SIT YOUR ASS DOWN!": LeBron James' mother got in on the action in the crowd as a ruckus among LeBron and a couple Celtics moved off the court Monday night. King James turned around and yelled at the Queen Mum to take her seat ... Reports indicate that Paul Pierce will no longer be allowed to come over to LeBron's house after school.
2. History's revenge: The South burns down the Yankees: Wildfires have enveloped Florida over the past day, especially in Central Florida. Including the Bay area, where the Rays torched the Bronx Bombers 7-1 for their 10th win in a row at Tropicana Field. SP Andy Pettitte lost to the Rays for the first time in eight starts.
3. Asdrubal Cabrera turns an unassisted triple-play against Toronto: And some Fantasy owner in an obscure Head-to-Head league that thought it would be fun to add that as a scoring option got 398 points for that play.
4. FSU C Buster Posey plays all nine positions in a 7-inning game vs. Savannah State: Every now and then, Noles head coach Mike Martin will allow a special player to play all nine positions in a game as a reward for his career. Posey is such a player, and he struck out two hitters and added a grand slam at the plate. It reminds me of that old cartoon, "Now playing first base, Bugs Bunny. Second base, Bugs Bunny. Third base, Bugs Bunnny ..." The other reason this note was interesting is that Tampa Bay, with the No. 1 overall draft pick in back-to-back seasons for the first time in MLB history, is considering drafting Posey No. 1 overall.
5. Pavel Datsyuk pots hat trick Monday: The Red Wings are now just one win away from heading back to the Stanley Cup Finals after going up 3-0 on Dallas Monday. He has eight goals this postseason and he's just behind Henrik Zetterberg (18) with 17 total points. He came three points short of 100 this past regular season, playing in all 82 games, posting career-highs in goals (31), assists (66), plus/minus (plus-41) and points. The soon-to-be 30-year-old Russian should be a second-round Fantasy pick in 12-team leagues next season.
6. Rafael Furcal's super season on hold for now: The Dodgers' SS is second only to Hanley Ramirez in Head-to-Head points, but he had to go on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with a strained lower back. Chin-lung Hu will likely see time in his place, which makes him a nice add in NL-only leagues. Furcal's .366 batting average is third in the NL.
7. Eric Gagne said he's ready to close again: Also in "It's not up to you" news, I've decided to give Jennifer Aniston another shot at making this work between us. Emack says he's ready for people to like his bad breath. And Dave Richard is willing to let people say he's skinny.
8. Cliff Lee wraps up AL Cy Young award Monday night: Cliff Lee threw nine scoreless innings against the Blue Jays Monday (it went into extra innings and he didn't get the decision), but Lee has now posted the lowest ERA (0.67) after seven starts since the early '40s.
9. Milton Bradley equals the Angels and demons of Fantasy Baseball: He homered for the sixth time this season, then left the game with a sore shoulder. Expect news that he also injured his hand after punching the doctor when he told him his diagnosis.
10. Ramon Vazquez (yeah, Ramon Vazquez) earns Fantasy P.O.D. honors: Vazquez had two hits (including his second homer of the season) and two walks against Seattle Monday. He continues to start at third base in place of Hank "sugar-glass" Blalock, and he's now hitting .406 in nine games this month. He's owned in just three percent of CBSSports.com leagues -- and to be honest, we can't blame the other 97 percent.

Emack and I were discussing which catchers were top picks over the past decade or so, and I thought it would make a nice review piece for the ol' blog. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I have an affinity for backstops -- and Emack has a distaste for them. Which makes me cool and him lame.

Since the inception of the MLB draft back in 1965, there have been six catchers selected with the No. 1 overall draft pick:

• 2001 -- Joe Mauer, MIN: The Twins knew they could sign the Minnesota native, so he was picked ahead of Mark Prior, Gavin Floyd and Mark Teixeira (oh yeah, and TB's fabulous selection of Dewon Brazelton). He was the first catcher to lead the AL (.347) in batting in 2006.
• 1985 -- B.J. Surhoff, MIL: Started career as a catcher for six seasons, moved over to third base, shortstop and left field and ended up playing 19 major league seasons.
• 1975 -- Danny Goodwin, CAL: The only player in MLB history to be draft first overall twice! After getting drafted by the White Sox in '71, he chose to enroll at Southern University.
• 1971 -- Danny Goodwin, CHW: Unfortunately, he couldn't play college ball for eight years. His MLB career consisted of 252 major league games, with a .236 batting average and 13 homers.
• 1970 -- Mike Ivie, SD: Split time between the Padres and Giants throughout most of his career, but he became a first baseman after his first season in the bigs.
• 1966 -- Steve Chilcott, NYM: