It's no secret that the savy manager can make or break his team with the buy low/sell high trade mantra. An extreme example is the trade I've just executed in my 12 team mixed keeper league. I was offered Joey Votto, Roy Halladay and a 3rd round pick in next years draft for Josh Hamilton and my 2nd rounder. This is an extreme example, and I think the planets alligned for it. The other owner loves Hamilton, and happens to not like Votto (I don't know why) so the hot and cold starts of each player has worked to my favor.

The biggest name with the coldest start this season is Albert Pujols. Through 102 plate appearances this year he has 0 homers, 8 runs scored and 5 RBI. His .208/.255./.292 line is enough to make seasoned fantasy managers cringe and panic (at least on the inside... never let the other managers know you are afraid. You ALWAYS know more than them...even if you don't, make them think you do). But this is where we come in with some sabermetric observations that may reveal a light at the end of the tunnel.

There are certain things in this world that are constant and will always be true. Cable will always cost too much money. I will always have trouble deciding between fish and chips or a burger when looking at a restaurant menu, and players will always get hurt doing something stupid. Now, nothing has happened recently or of any significance that I am aware of, but I would like to share footage of this Brett Lawrie walk off homer against the Rangers last night. Notice the height achieved on that leap into home plate while coming home. The Canadian Law Man gave me a heart attack upon lift off within 5 ft of home plate with his team surrounding. Have we not learned anything from Kendrys Morales?

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April is now in the books, and many a hitter in the minors had a hot start. In an attempt to highlight some of the top performers, I've picked out one player at each infield position, and three outfielders to shine the spotlight on.

Last season, Cameron Maybin led MLB with a 14.2 percent infield hit rate. The year before it was Ichiro, with a 15.8 percent infield hit rate. So far this season, eight players have an infield hit rate of over 18-percent. Since it is highly unlikely that these players will continue to see their infield balls in play turn into base hits, it might be a good time to sell high.

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So I have a baby girl now. She is 13 days old, beautiful, and eventually is going to force me to buy a gun. My days have been spent cleaning up around the house while my wife recovers and being Mr. Mom to our two boys. I am way more tired keeping up with my 2 year old all day than I am being on my feet most of the day at work. While my family has been my life the past two weeks (I'm not complaining, far from it. Despite the work involved, this has been one of the best two week stretches of my life) I have fallen out of loop somewhat in the baseball world. Sure, I knew that Mike Trout and Bryce Harper were called up. I had heard that Jordan Walden has had the closer role revoked (at least temporarily) and I saw that the Red Sox finally started to win some games. But a lot happened that I was completely clueless on. How far out of the loop was I?

I had no idea that Derek Jeter was batting .420 as of April 25th. I didn't now who Michael Saunders was or that Jake Peavy was back.

So after a lot of reading to catch up on things, I'm back too... with lots of coffee.

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Mike Trout has made his season debut and Bryce Harper will soon make his big league debut. It is probably too much to handle at once, but we don't have much choice. Let's look at the decision making that went into both and whether or not they will be here to stay.

Trout hit leadoff today. The Angels as a team had a .195 average and .250 OBP out of their leadoff hitter up until this point. Mike Scioscia did not say that they were going to lock him into the leadoff spot, but he's as good a candidate as any. Erick Aybar has been in a funk so far this season as the team's primary leadoff guy, and the team didn't feel comfortable with him as the leadoff guy the season before (he batted first in 55 out of 143 games). We don't need to go into who has the better ceiling for OBP, but Aybar is pretty close to the floor as is. Among qualifying players last season, Aybar did not even rank in the top 100 in OBP. Peter Bourjos hasn't delievered at the plate and the team hasn't had him hitting leadoff anyway to this point. And of course Bobby Abreu, did serve as the leadoff guy for this team, but Trout's arrival led to his departure.

Which leads into the other reason that Trout will probably be with the Angels to stay. For this team not to be in the pennant race in September would be the biggest disappointment of the 2012 baseball season (even greater than the Red Sox not making it). The team is feeling the pressure. That is why Bobby Abreu had to go and Mark Trumbo will become a regular. As great as Trout's future can be, his value to the oranization changed when Albert Pujols signed his contract. He is still a huge part of what they will be trying to accomplish long term, but they need to win now. The present and future of the franchise is the star power of Albert Pujols. Despite the fact that he doesn't have a home run, nobody in baseball is going to say this guy is finished. Having a player with Trout's potential on base with Pujols up will put pitchers in harder positions to get outs and maybe give him a few more pitches. 

In terms of Harper, the Nationals have less pressure in the standings, but felt pressure nonetheless to get offense. This move is certainly one that can be scrutinized a lot more than the decision the Angels made because Harper has not exactly torched the pitching in Triple-A. Without Ryan Zimmerman and Michael Morse, the team needed to get some offense in order to stay on top in the NL East. Zimmerman shouldn't miss more than the 15 days, and the team also has a somewhat capable option (albeit with much less fanfare and potential) in Tyler Moore at Triple-A. The leash on Harper could be a little shorter if he does not have immediate success.