Every Friday I will give my thoughts on the baseball week that has passed, including realizations, predictions, interesting findings or random thoughts.

• Pedro Martinez is on the DL after one start with an injured hamstring. The Mets better hope Johan Santana and John Maine can pitch every other day.
• Jon Lester could be the best pitcher in baseball if he severely cuts his walks down. I’m serious. He has unbelievable stuff and has finally regained enough strength to increase his velocity.
• Detroit was swept in 3 games. At home. By Kansas City. Too early to say no World Series?
• The manager of that KC squad is now Trey Hillman. Hillman managed the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan and led them to two Japan Series appearances, winning one. He is a manager who demands solid play from all of his players and is welcoming to the fans. He might be able to turn around a very young (and surprisingly talented) Royals team.
• Kosuke Fukudome looks decent so far, going 3-3 in the first game of his MLB career with the Cubs. He hit a 3-run homer off of blockbuster trade superfailure Eric Gagne in the 9th inning to tie the game. I saw Fukudome in Japan and personally, I think he could hit 30 HR in a year or two.
• The Nationals have a brand new stadium and no new fans
• There hasn’t been a lot of talk about Yankees, at least not as much as they’re used to. Maybe that’s just what they want.
• Randy Johnson is still set on coming back for the Diamondbacks despite numerous injuries. Maybe its time to just let it go, Randy.
• Jason Bay looks terrible, which is sad because he is the only thing the Pirates have going for them, really.
• Dusty Baker continues his streak as one of the worst managers in baseball (in my opinion). He is encouraging the entire Reds team, especially Joey Votto, to be much more aggressive at the plate. Votto is now guaranteed to hit .220 as a rookie and Adam Dunn will strike out 300 times.
• If Rich Harden stays healthy, he’s a Cy Young contender.
• Joe Torre should work on making Nomar less of a whiny b****, if he ever gets off the DL.

• Jeff Francis is the luckiest man in baseball this week. In the first game of the season for Colorado, Francis had thrown 70 pitches over only 2.1 innings and allowed 5 runs before watching the game, and his awful stats, washed away. Yours truly is facing Jeff Francis this week in fantasy baseball and saw my opponent’s ERA go from 27 to 0 after this. Great…