This morning, the Dan Patrick Show revealed that in this week's edition of Sports Illustrated, the cover story would be a story written by NBA player Jason Collins, coming out as the first active, gay male athlete in the major professional sports leagues. Reception for Collins' article has largely been positive, and people from all across sports have reached out to Collins.

One organization to reach out to Collins was the Boston Red Sox. Collins played 32 games with the Celtics this year, including seven starts, before being dealt to the Washington Wizards in February. The Red Sox tweeted to Collins that he had an open invitation to throw out the first pitch at Fenway Park due to his courage and leadership in coming out.

We salute you, @jasoncollins34 for your courage and leadership. Any time you want to throw out a first pitch at Fenway Park, let us know.

— Boston Red Sox (@RedSox) April 29, 2013

Hats off to the Red Sox for supporting Collins, like many people throughout the sports world are today.

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It's only a matter of time before one of the first rounders in last June's draft will be playing in the majors. Mike Zunino (Mariners), Michael Wacha (Cardinals), and Marcus Stroman (Blue Jays) are the most likely candidates.

Regardless, here's a look at where all of last year's 1st rounders are, and how they're currently doing as of Sunday.

1. Carlos Correa , Houston, SS, Age: 18

The first Puerto Rican ever taken with the 1st overall pick, Correa – viewed largely as a signability pick – signed quickly and picked up over 200 plate appearances in rookie ball last year. Now he’s in the Midwest League (A) where he’s hitting .206/.342/.397.

Based on the success of Correa and other players from Puerto Rico, MLB will now be partnering with the Puerto Rico Scouts Association and the countries best amateur tournament.

2. Byron Buxton, Minnesota, OF, 19

Buxton got his feet wet in rookie ball last year, and now is completely destroying the Midwest League (A) to the tune of .391/.511/.652. It will be interesting if the Twins allow him to keep mashing, or to challenge him a bit more.

St Louis Cardinals reliever Mark Rzepczynski has one of the most difficult names in the majors to spell. Two non-consecutive Z's? What? Anyway, in this edition of the Cardinals BirdsiView web series, St Louis teammates Joe Kelly and Daniel Descalso try to spell Rzepczynski's last name, largely to failure before finally managing to get it right.

Why couldn't his last name be as easy to spell as his first name? And you wonder why people call him Scrabble...

[Big League Stew]

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Baseball is a funny game, especially this early in the season. After game one of the Marlins' doubleheader with the Twins on Tuesday, right fielder Giancarlo Stanton had a triple slash of .176/.311/.216. There was some talk that he was a doomed player in Miami's awful lineup. But of course, Stanton has gone on a tear since that afternoon game, and after his two homer game on Sunday, his triple slash for the season is up to a much more respectable .243/.361/.414. While it's still nto ideal, that line is a hell of a lot better than the one he possessed a week ago. If anything, Stanton's improvements should put fans of struggling players at ease. It won't be a trial all year.

PIC OF THE DAY

Daniel Nava of the Red Sox goes full extension to make a diving catch for the final out of the game (Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Day: A's 9, Orioles 8 (ten innings). This could be the game of the month for April. Baltimore surged out to a 5-0 lead over the first five innings, but Miguel Gonzalez allowed four runs in the sixth to cut the lead down to one. A Manny Machado single in the seventh extended the lead to two runs, but Seth Smith homered in the bottom of the inning off of Troy Patton to deadlock the game at six runs. A Chris Davis solo homer off of Sean Doolittle in the eighth gave Baltimore the lead back once again, and an RBI double by Machado in the ninth once again extended the lead to two. Brian Matusz stayed in the game to finish it out, but allowed a game-tying two-run homer to Yoenis Cespedes. The game went into extras, and in the bottom of the tenth, Oakland scored in the most bizarre way imaginable. Eric Sogard led off with a single off of Pedro Strop, and Adam Rosales attempted to bunt him over to second...but Strop threw the ball wide into center field, letting Sogard and Rosales both advance safely. Then Coco Crisp attempted to bunt the pair of runners over, but Machado threw wide of the third base bag into left field, allowing Sogard to score the winning run.

On Sunday, the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Chicago White Sox 8-3. 2012 AL Cy Young winner David Price started for the Rays and picked up his first win of the season, allowing three runs on six hits in seven innings, walking out two and striking out nine.

But after Price left the game following the seventh inning, Rays pitcher Jeremy Hellickson was ejected by home plate umpire Tom Hallion. Hellickson, who was on the bench, reportedly yelled at Hallion to provoke the ejection. 

That's not the story Price is going with, though. After the game, the Rays' ace took to Twitter and lambasted Hallion.

The Nolan Arenado era in Colorado begins today. After last night's loss to the Diamondbacks, the Rockies announced that third baseman Chris Nelson had been designated for assignment and that Arenado would be called up from AAA Colorado Springs. In 21 games this year, the 27 year old Nelson had a .242/.282/.312 line to go along with no home runs and poor defense at third base once again. 

Arenado, universally one of the top three prospects in the Rockies farm system, will provide a definite offensive upgrade over Nelson. In 18 games this year with Colorado Springs, Arenado has a .364/.392/.667 line, homering three times for the Sky Sox. He made a push in Spring Training to win the starting third base job, but eventually lost out to Nelson.

While it's not really prudent to scout minor league box scores, it's especially unwise with Arenado, due to him playing in the hitter-friendly PCL. In addition to nine home games at his ridiculous hitter-friendly home park in Colorado Springs, the Sky Sox and Arenado have played road games in Las Vegas, Reno, and Tucson this season, three of the highest altitude parks in the league. Ten of the next 16 Rockies games are away from Coors Field, so there's a very real possibility that Arenado struggles away from the friendly confines of the PCL.

But realistically, he's still a much better option at third than the light-hitting Nelson, who needed a .374 BABIP last season to put together a respectible triple slash. Nelson split time at third last year with Jordan Pacheco, who is playing first base for Colorado right now with the aging Todd Helton out of action.

After starting the year 13-4 to the shock of many (myself included), the Rockies are 2-5 in their last seven games. With the way their schedule looks over the next month, it's not out of the realm of possibility for Colorado to be in fourth place in the NL West at the end of May. By installing Arenado at thrid now, the Rockies are banking on him being another potent bat in their already stout lineup, enabling to just slug teams to death instead of letting dead spots in the lineup overwhelm their solid core.

[Denver Post]

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If anyone is wondering why you shouldn't put too much stock in early standings, I direct you to the American League West. The A's started the year 12-4, and have lost eight of their last night to sit just a game above .500. Ironically over the last week and a half, the Rangers and A's have nearly inverse run differentials (+21 for Texas, -19 for Oakland), and that's spurred their turnarounds. In another odd note, the A's this year are 11-2 against AL West teams, and just 2-10 in teams outside of the division. Oh, and what about the Angels, baseball's most confusing team? Well, after sweeping the Tigers and outscoring the defending AL champs by 18 runs during their three game set last weekend, Anaheim is just 2-4 this week against the Rangers and Mariners, and need a win today in Seattle to prevent themselves from losing three of four to the Mariners.

PIC OF THE DAY

Yonder Alonso of the Padres dumps the water bucket on teammate Nick Hundley after Hundley's walkoff single (Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Night: Brewers 6, Dodgers 4. On a night loaded with close (although unexciting) games, this one stood out from the bunch. A Luis Cruz RBI groundout in the sixth put Los Angeles on top 3-2, but the Brewers surged back in front on the seventh after a two-run homer from Carlos Gomez off of Matt Guerrier to spoil Matt Magill's attempt for his first major league win. In the eighth, Martin Maldanado struck a two-run homer off of Guerrier to extend Milwaukee's lead to 6-3. Andre Ethier responded with a solo homer off of (who else?) John Axford to make it a 6-4 game, but freshly minted Brewers closer Jim Henderson picked up his sixth save of the year despite letting the tying run get to second with two outs in the ninth.

Miami Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton hit his first home run of the year on Saturday night in his 18th game. Stanton got his money's worth with the moonshot, as his first inning homer off of Chicago Cubs starting pitcher Travis Wood traveled an estimated 440 feet and went over the scoreboard in left field at Marlins Park. Last May, Stanton hit a similar blast that broke the same scoreboard he cleared against the Cubs.

Unfortunately for Stanton and the Marlins, his first homer of the year wasn't enough and Miami fell 3-2. Their record now sits at 5-19, 10.5 games behind the first place Braves in the NL East. 

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The St Paul Saints of the American Association indy league are at it again. The Saints have been known for goofy promotions for years, and on May 11th against the Gary SouthShore RailCats, they're going to crank things up to another level and play without umpires.

Balls and strikes will be called from behind the mound by a judge, complete with a robe and a gavel that he'll bang on home plate to start the game. As for calls on the basepaths, there will be 12 Little League players in box seats up the first and third base lines that will act as a jury. Majority will rule, and the judge will break any ties from his position on the field.

There's also going to be a judge located in the ballpark's main seating area to mediate disputes between any fans.

While this is something that will absolutely never (under any circumstances) take place in an actual major league game, it's going to be interesting to see how it works out. The jury scenarios could take some extra time, but managers arguing with umpires ends up taking up just as much time during a close play that they disagree with. There's also the very real possibility that the judge either gets in the way of a player attempting to make a play, or gets hit by a ball.

The scenario of an umpire calling strikes from being the mound actually took place for an inning during Spring Training, when home plate umpire Seth Buckminster got hurt and Tim McClelland was forced to engage in the unusual behind the mound practice since umpiring crews in Spring Training only consist of three umpires.

[Ballpark Digest]

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Anibal Sanchez set the Tigers franchise record for strikeouts in a game on Friday night, fanning 17 Braves and getting 28 whiffs on the evening (good for a 23.1% whiff rate). Considering that Detroit currently features strikeout artists like Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and Mickey Lolich, that somehow makes Sanchez's accomplishment that much more awesome in context.

PIC OF THE DAY

An ironic one...Josh Reddick slips on the outfield grass in front of an "Athletics" sign in the outfield (Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports)

Game of the Night: Dodgers 7, Brewers 5. The Dodgers are finally back up to .500, but it wasn't an easy trek there on Friday evening. Milwaukee to a 3-2 lead in the fifth after a Yuniesky Betancourt solo homer tied the game and a Jean Segura RBI single but them in front. The Dodgers tied the game at three after an Adrian Gonzalez RBI double in the bottom of the inning, but the Brewers jumped back out in front after a run-scoring single off the bat of Norichika Aoki. Another Gonzalez doubled in the seventh plated two more and put the Dodgers in front 5-4, and they added two more in the eighth against Brandon Kintzler. Milwaukee made it interesting in the ninth, scoring a run on a Segura infield single, but Ryan Braun grounded out as the tying run to end the game.