Game Day: Thursday, May 7th

The Top 100 MLB hitters (min. 100 plate appearances) are batting .242 or better this season.  The Top 10 is currently occupied by a group of players who are all playing on one-year contracts.  

Ildemaro Vargas of the Arizona Diamondbacks leads the pack at .364.  Vargas signed a minor-league deal with the Diamondbacks, had an invitation to spring training, and broke camp with the team at the end of March.  

Yankees sophomore 1B, Ben Rice, has crushed the ball this season.  Rice leads the Yankees and is second in MLB, batting .342 into the end of Q1 (the first quarter of the season).  Ditto for Andy Pages who has been the Dodgers best hitter this season.  Pages is hitting .336, good for third in MLB.  All three are earning under 1M this season.

Teams are running record payrolls and it's a pair of pre-arbitration players and a second-hand veteran leading the pack early.  

Cubs have an eight-game winning streak on the line and will look to sweep the Reds this afternoon, losers of six straight.  A sweep at the hands of the Cubs, in a four-game series, is a devastating setback for a young team with playoff aspirations.   They'll send rookie Rhett Lowder to the mound and Lowder hasn't pitched all that well early.  He'll need some good fortune if he is to match Cubs veteran Shota Imanaga.  The Japanese import has a sizzling 2.40 ERA and a 0.85 WHIP in 41.1 innings this season.  First pitch at 1:20 CDT.  It will be on the cool side in Chicago today.  The weather has been unseasonably cold this spring.

The Red Sox and the Mets are both climbing out of their respective cellars.  A sweep of the Rockies makes it four straight for New York.  Rockies, losers of six-in-a-row, send Jose Quintana to the mound.  The journey-man landed in the mountains this off-season.  It was only two short seasons ago that Quintana was pitching for the Blue and Orange.  Rookie Christian Scott starts for the Mets, his second start of the season.  It's a 2:10 PM CDT start at Coors Field in Denver, CO.

Red Sox open a four-game series with the Rays.  Both teams have winning streaks on the line.  Red Sox winners of three-in-a-row, the Rays winners of six straight.  That makes this an exciting game. One streak lives on.  Griffin Jax, who had been the Rays' closer entering the season, gets the start for Tampa, his first of the season.  Rookie Jake Bennett starts for Boston.  They play at Fenway Park in a 6:10 PM CDT start.

The Thursday Night Game of the Week has the Cardinals facing off with the Padres in San Diego.  The Cardinals, 21-15 on the season, have played surprisingly well early.  They get the King tonight, Michael King, who is, on paper, the Padres' ace.  The Padres are winning games but they will need King at the top of their rotation to pitch well this season if they are to stay with the pack in the NL.  Matthew Liberatore starts for St. Louis.  Can the Cardinals keep it rolling on the road against a good Padres' team?  First pitch at 9:10 PM CDT from Petco Park.  They'll play under the lights in downtown San Diego.  

Game Day is in.  We'll be back with Today's Pick shortly.  The Pickstreak blog pulled down a win last night with the Phillies beating the Athletics 6-3.