On Deck: Bay-Bee Ruuuth?

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Arizona Diamondbacks (20-8) vs. New York Mets (14-12) - 9:40PM Est.

There's no doubt about it, if Sloth from The Goonies weren't a fictional character and lived in the real world, his favorite baseball player would be Diamondbacks pitcher/slugger Micah Owings. Owings has only been in the bigs for a little over a year now, but he's already garnering comparisons to the legendary Babe Ruth.

Obviously, the comparisons are extremely immature, but it's easy to see why they're being made. After all, not only is Owings 4-0 on the season with a 3.48 ERA, but he may be the best hitter on the Diamondbacks as well. In 79 career big league at bats, Owings is hitting .354/.373/.671 with five homers and 18 runs driven in. In the entire history of baseball, of players who have had 75 career at bats, there are only four who have a higher career OPS than Owings' current 1.044: Barry Bonds, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, and of course, Babe Ruth.

Now, obviously, 75 at bats is nowhere near enough a sample size to actually compare Micah with those all-time greats, but it's still pretty impressive company for a pitcher to be keeping. It's also enough to make you wonder if the DBacks would be better served to find more playing time for Micah in the lineup when he's not on the mound.

He'll be on the mound tonight facing the Mets, and hoping to bounce back from a bad performance in his last start. Owings allowed five runs in five innings against San Diego on Saturday, but he was dealing with a sprained right ankle. Of course, even if he allows a few runs tonight, he'll probably drive twice as many in.

Micah will be facing off against John Maine, who's 2-2 with a 3.48 ERA on the season, and 1-1 with a 2.25 ERA in two starts against the Diamondbacks. The Mets would like Maine to match his last start in which he lasted seven innings, and give their overtaxed bullpen a bit of a break. If he can't do this, you can be pretty damn sure he'll hear about it from Billy Wagner in the near future.

Atlanta Braves (12-15) vs. Cincinnati Reds (12-17) - 7:30PM Est.

Jayson Stark mentioned it in his April wrap-up column over at ESPN the other day, and he's right, there wasn't a trade made over the winter that's worked out better for both teams involved than the one that sent Edinson Volquez to Cincinnati for Josh Hamilton. While Hamilton is currently leading the American League in RBI's for the Texas Rangers, Volquez has been about as automatic as a pitcher can be for the Reds.

He's 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA in his first four starts as a Red, and has emerged as the team's ace ahead of Aaron Harang. With another win tonight, Volquez will be the first Reds pitcher to start a season 5-0 since teammate Bronson Arroyo did it in 2006. Of course, much like Volquez, Arroyo had just come over to the Reds from the American League via a trade, and he ended up finishing that season with a 14-11 record. I'm sure the Reds are hoping Edinson can keep up his current pace, but something tells me he's going to come back down to earth at some point in the future.

He'll be going against Tim Hudson who has been struggling recently. In his last three starts, Hudson is 1-2 and opponents are hitting damn near .400 against him. He'll have to get his act together tonight if he's hoping to put an end to the Braves current four-game skid.

Boston Red Sox (17-13) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (16-12) - 7:05PM Est.

The Rays and Red Sox are currently tied atop of the AL East standings, and begin a pretty important three-game set in Beantown tonight (well, as important as a series in May can be). The Red Sox are currently mired in an offensive slump that's seen them manage to plate a paltry 6 runs in their last six games. Six games in which they've been shutout three times.

The slump began last weekend against these very same Rays, as Tampa swept a three-game set against the Sawx at the Tropicana Dome. Edwin Jackson started one of those games for the Rays, allowing only one run in seven innings, and I'm sure he'd very much like to do the same thing tonight. Edwin's opponent that game? Why it was Clay Bucholz, who starts for Boston tonight, and who allowed only two runs himself in eight innings of work in that start, yet got saddled with the loss thanks to his team's inability to support him.

Surely the Red Sox will wake up tonight, right?