Category: MLB

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Don’t Get Too Excited About the Minnesota Twins’ Hot Start

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The Minnesota Twins were baseball’s hottest team in May, going 20-7 on their way to the top of the AL Central and to the best record in the American League. They hold a 1/2 game lead over their division rival Kansas City Royals for first and are 3.5 games up on the Tigers.  The question that many baseball writers and fans have had throughout the team’s recent run has been simple:  Can it last? This is a very legitimate question.  It is one that we can not answer for sure, but my best guess is that the success will not last.  Here’s why:

First, there was a rather interesting piece in the Washington Post this weekend about baseball’s biggest surprises.  You can read the whole article here, but if you don’t, this is the excerpt that deals with the Twins:

Winners of five straight to pull into a tie with the Royals atop the AL Central, Minnesota entered the weekend with no regular hitting above .280 or with an on-base percentage above .348. Their supposed ace, Phil Hughes, has a 4.57 ERA. Their major free-agent acquisition, Erwin Santana, was suspended for 80 games because of a drug violation. Their $49-million bust from a year ago, Ricky Nolasco, has a 5.12 ERA and is allowing 1.611 walks and hits per inning pitched — yet is somehow 5-1. Since being outscored 22-1 in a season-opening sweep at the hands of the Tigers, they have scored 211 runs and allowed 169 runs — and gone 28-15. Plus, their bevy of prime prospects — outfielder Byron Buxton, third baseman Miguel Sano and right-hander Alex Meyer — remains in the minors. No, nothing makes sense about these Twins.

That describes the Twins season to date quite well.  Additionally, pitching staff as a whole has put up a 3.92 ERA to date, 9th in the American League.  The pitching staff’s big bright spot has been closer Glen Perkins, who has allowed just five earned runs in 25 appearances this year.  He has also racked up 19 saves in the season’s first two months.  Another positive has been Blaine Boyer, who has accrued ten holds which have led to Perkins’ saves, leading the bullpen.  Other than that, the pitching staff has been kind of rough, including bullpen pitchers Tim Stauffer (8.03 ERA) and Brian Duensing (7.59 ERA).  The starting rotation has scuffled without Santana and with Hughes, Nolasco, and Santana fill-in Trevor May struggling.

However, the line-up has been better.  The team scores 4.6 runs per game and has hit .257 this season, the latter good for a tie for fourth in the American League.  While there are no horrendously struggling hitters on the team, no everyday player has cleared a .515 slugging percentage or an .850 OPS. Additionally, this team just does not steal bases.  They are 13th in the American League in both stolen bases (19) and stolen base percentage (55.88%).  Add this to the fact that they are 11th in the AL in on-base percentage (.309) and slugging percentage (.391), and they should be struggling to manufacture runs.  The only explanation for their winning is that their pitching staff, maligned as it is, hasn’t allowed very many home runs.  It also has allowed the 2nd least walks (117) in the game, trailing only the Mets’ pitching staff’s 103.

Consider this as well:  The Twins’ May schedule was, shall we say, easy.  Of the nine teams Minnesota played last month, five were under .500 (White Sox (six games), Athletics (four games), Indians (three games), Red Sox (three games), and Blue Jays (three games)). 19 of the team’s 27 games last month were against teams with below .500 records; to their credit, the Twins were 15-4 in these games.  Another three games were against the Rays, who are now sitting right at .500 with a 26-26 record; Minnesota took two out of those three.  The other five games were against the Tigers and Pirates, and the team was 3-2 against them. So once the schedule gets harder this month when the Twins have dates with the Cardinals, Rangers, Royals, and Cubs, they may very well struggle.

For all these reasons, the Twins are not for real.  While it has been enjoyable to see their run to the top of the standings so far this year, it is unlikely to last. However, it was fun while it lasted.  Give an immense amount of credit to first-year manager and team legend Paul Molitor, who has done an amazing job with this team. He should be up for Manager of the Year consideration this year.  Can they be like the Astros, Braves, Mets, Rangers and others and sustain a sudden run of success?  Who knows, but it will be very difficult.

It was fun while it lasted.

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On Bryce Harper Getting Ejected the Other Night

Bryce Harper and his streaking Nationals were at home on Wednesday night playing the Yankees.  The Nats have won five games in a row and surged to the top of the NL East over that stretch.  However, Wednesday night’s win would be overshadowed by an incident between Harper and home plate umpire Marvin Hudson.  Basically, the first pitch of the at bat was a strike that looked to be down in the zone or out of it altogether.  Supposedly, Harper then “refused” to get in the box, and Hudson ejected him.  Manager Matt Williams then cane out to argue on his behalf, for which he was ejected.  The ejection, in my eyes, was completely wrong.

First of all, players argue balls and strikes all the time.  If I had a dollar for every time a player was discontented with a ball-strike call, I could be really, really rich.  Harper was very unhappy however, and something that is important to note when considering the other side of the argument is that the pitch was only strike one.  Also, the at bat took place in the third inning, and there is still most of the game left at that point.  Think what you want about Bryce Harper, but he is an extreme competitor.  He wants everything to go his way, and sometimes if they go the other way, he becomes unhappy.  However, be clear of his intent; he just wants to win.

Second of all, if I pay the money to go to a Washington Nationals game, I would much rather watch Bryce Harper do what he does than watch Marvin Hudson do his job.  I have never heard of anyone that has gone to a baseball game and paid a real significant amount of attention to the umpires; they want to watch the players.  And without the best Nationals position player on the field, the game is simply not as exciting.  On a Wednesday night when people are most likely coming straight from work to see the game, depriving them of one of the most exciting players in baseball is simply not right.

Finally, along these lines, I am sick and tired of watching exhibitions that are not-so-affectionately known on social media as “#umpshows.”  Like I said in the first paragraph, I don’t watch baseball for the umpires.  It’s a great game, but the umpires are a blight upon it, no doubt about it.  Hudson did not exactly shy away from the arguments with Harper and Williams, either.  In the video above (which was shared by MLB’s YouTube account), not-so-nice words are blurred.  When Williams goes out to confront Hudson, he launches a bunch of these (examples of them rhyme with duck and spit).  However, Hudson did the exact same thing.  Don’t think of umpires as higher authority of better than the players, because they clearly don’t act it.

Finally, one of the reasons why Hudson wanted Harper to get back in the box (other than to create an #umpshow) is that he wanted to speed up the game.  This side of the anti-Harper argument is understandable.  However, the attempt backfired in Hudson’s face.  Not only was he embarrassed by Williams, Harper, and his own actions, the arguments took roughly two minutes, which doesn’t exactly speed up the game.  While this year’s pace-of-play rules have clearly worked, this was a miss.  An attempt to speed up the game by five or ten seconds wound up setting it back for two minutes, which does not look good for the game of baseball.

Any way you slice it, I think Harper should not have been ejected.

But, hey, let’s all get together to watch another great #umpshow sometime soon.

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My MLB Greatest Living Players

This year, Major League Baseball announced that, for the game’s 86th edition, they would have something known as a “Franchise Four” for each team; an opportunity for fans to vote for the four best players in each team franchise history.  There is also something that can be voted on that is known as “Greatest Living Players;”  the four best players in MLB history who are still alive.  To be honest, this was a fairly easy vote, as the candidates were Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Johnny Bench, Rickey Henderson, Sandy Koufax, Pedro Martinez, Willie Mays, and Tom Seaver.  Without further ado, here are my four greatest living players:

Hank Aaron

Sandy Koufax

Willie Mays

Tom Seaver

Let me know what you think.

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A-Rod Should Get His Money

As you probably already know, Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez hit his 661st home run on Thursday night, passing Willie Mays for fourth all-time on the home run list.  However, the feat has now turned into a childish fight over whether A-Rod should get paid a $6 million bonus that was promised to him in 2007.  When he signed his contract then, it stated that he would be paid the bonus, as it is (or was then, anyway) a “marketing opportunity.” However, the Yankees’ organization does not plan to pay A-Rod the bonus because it is no longer a marketing opportunity, due to his repeated PED use and his hitting a good deal of good deal of those home runs while supposedly juiced.

First of all, I’ll tell you my opinion right now, straight up: I think he should get the money.  When an organization signs a player to a contract, it should at least have to fulfill the obligations of that contract.  If the player is forced to play out the contract for the team that signs him, the team should have to fulfill its end of the bargain as well. After all, this is an organization that is able to pay its players large sums of money to its players, especially those who are older and past their prime (Rodriguez is making $22 million this year, the product of the worst MLB contract of all time.)  They are far from financially constrained; they can give up $6 million for one of its players giving their organization publicity, good or bad.

Second, let me just say how ridiculous it is that a player’s organization is regarding an incredible accomplishment as nothing more than a “marketing opportunity.”  Sure, A-Rod cheated (a lot), but for a player to attain an accomplishment as impressive as this in pinstripes?  People will identify that moment forever with the Yankees. More that that, however, for Alex Rodriguez, at this point in his career, this achievement is one that will last a lifetime.  Can the same be said about “marketing opportunities?”  I don’t think so.  I look at this contract just like any other incentive-based deal: if the player reaches the milestone that is outlined in the contract, the team should just pay him the money.  It’s just like if there is a $1 million bonus for a pitcher to reach a certain number of strikeouts.  If the pitcher reaches that number, the team pays him, not for the “marketing opportunity”, but for the accomplishment attained.

Personally, I find this debate to be one of the stupider and more childish sports debates we’ve had in a long time.  It is also stupid and childish on the part of the Yankees to not pay him the money because of so-called “marketing opportunities.”  I wish that the organization would just do the right thing, fulfill its contractual obligations, and pay him his well-deserved money.  But that won’t happen; they won’t pay him voluntarily.

Long live “marketing opportunities.”

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My MLB All-Star Game Ballot

The 2015 MLB All-Star Game is being held at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati on July 14th of this year.  The game is an exhibition of the game’s best talent (and worst rules), while much of the controversy gets pointed toward who does and doesn’t get chosen to play.  I know this is a little early, as the voting closes on July 2nd, but I filled out a ballot for the game based on the first four months of this year.  There will probably be more than one of these, so expect the ballot to change.  Here goes:

AL

1B: Miguel Cabrera, Tigers

2B: Jose Altuve, Astros

SS: Jed Lowrie, Astros

3B: Josh Donaldson, Blue Jays

C: Salvador Perez, Royals

DH: Nelson Cruz, Mariners

Outfielders: Mike Trout, Angels; Adam Jones, Orioles; Hanley Ramirez, Red Sox

NL

1B: Adrian Gonzalez, Dodgers

2B: Dee Gordon, Marlins

SS: Zack Cozart, Reds

3B: Matt Carpenter, Cardinals

C: Buster Posey, Giants

Outfielders: Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins; Matt Kemp, Padres; Justin Upton, Padres

Fire away in the comments section!

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In Support of the Universal DH

Over the years, there has been much debate about whether the National League should keep up with its counterpart American League in adopting a Designated Hitter.  The American League first adopted the DH in 1973.  The National League never has.  Another thing that has caused all this debate has been recent injuries to pitchers Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals and Max Scherzer of the Nationals, both suffered while at the plate.  Scherzer jammed his wrist while batting while Wainwright severely injured his Achilles while leaving the batters’ box after hitting a ball into the field.  After the Wainwright injury, Scherzer came out in favor of the DH, telling CBS Sports, “I wouldn’t be opposed.”  These injuries to two of the game’s best pitchers have rightfully brought up an important question: why are we making our pitchers hit when so few of them create offense anyway?

In the very early portions of this season and going into tonight’s action, pitchers in both leagues are hitting a combined .089.  This underscores an important fact: most pitchers, except if they are bunting, are not even interested in hitting.  After all, we’ve learned a cautionary tale over the past week:  if pitchers try too hard, they can potentially get injured.  I believe that these injuries will lead to pitchers giving an even more apathetic effort at the dish, leading to that number getting even lower.  Another disadvantage to National League (or American League, in a National League Park) pitchers having what amounts to an almost automatic out is that it tips the scales even more towards the pitchers in a game that already favors them.  No, I don’t want a repeat of the steroid era: I just want an evenly balanced game between offense and pitching.  It pitchers going to try even less at the plate, fans will be less likely to be interested and hitting numbers in the NL will continue to stay the same or decline.  But they’ll continue to be interested in this guy, at least:

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Another point needs to be made here: why do two different leagues have a set of rules?  Hypothetically, what if the NBA’s Western Conference allowed a sixth player on offense?  Teams could plan for that luxury.  How many three-pointers could the Warriors hit then?  Or what if cornerbacks in the NFL’s NFC could get away with more hand contact/pass interference than in the AFC?  Would the Seahawks ever allow a point again?  Look, the point is, teams that are better at pitching in the National League are set.  Take the Mets, for example.  Their team ERA is collectively, under 3.  Actually, take the entire National League.  Three of the top 4 teams in ERA hail from the NL, but the top five teams in runs come from the American League.   Also, in 19 games, the American League has scored seven more runs, has hit three more home runs, and has an OPS twenty points higher then the National League does. This can clearly be attributed to the added production of having a Designated Hitter in one league, and making a position of players that have hit a combined .089 this season hit in the other league.

The bottom line here is that two pitchers got injured this week doing something that they are not comfortable doing. One will be back soon.  The other is not coming back this season.  While he could have torn his Achilles going out to his car or walking a flight of stairs, he did it at the plate.  There’s a tragedy in that.  What if a team’s franchise middle-of-the-order hitter was made to pitch and got severely injured and missed the rest of his team’s season?  His team might not reach its expectations for this season.  That may happen to the Cardinals without Wainwright, just in the opposite scenario.  Why should a team have to deal with this when it could be easily avoided by a simple rule change? This rule should be changed as soon as possible.  Another famous injury we cannot forget about the Yankees’ Chien- Ming Wang, who suffered a foot injury while running the bases in the then-National League Houston Astros’ stadium in June of 2008.  After that injury, Wang was never the same.  He went from a Cy Young Award-winning caliber pitcher to one who averaged a 5.31 ERA in the four years that he pitched after the injury.  He hadn’t been used to running the bases, and it can be speculated that we were robbed of one of the best pitchers in the game in his prime due to his having to run the bases and suffering the injury.  There’s a tragedy in that, too.

While I understand the argument that “baseball purists” may make for National League baseball being superior to that of the American League, I think the rules should be the same in both leagues: there should be a DH, all the way around.  We cannot allow any more pitchers to be injured over the course of a baseball game doing anything other than pitching.  I’m sure this article will probably be met with disagreement by purists and those who generally like to watch pitchers hit (I don’t know anyone who does, unless it’s Bartolo Colon), but there should be a DH in all of Major League Baseball, and this rule should be enacted as soon as possible.

I wouldn’t be opposed.

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Yes, the Mets are For Real

The New York Mets are baseball’s hottest team in the early season, accumulating a 13-3 record and winning their last 11 games.  They went 10-0 on their last homestand, which was a first in the history of the franchise.  The 11 game winning streak is also tied for the longest streak in their history, and the 1986 World Series Champion team also won 11 in a row.  Sure, the Mets have been baseball best team in the first two and a half weeks, but are they legitimate contenders?  They are.

Over their first 16 games, the pitching staff of Bartolo Colon, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harver, Jonathon Niese, and Dillon Gee have combined for a 2.81 ERA, good for second in the major leagues.  Those same starters have combined for 12 quality starts, tied with the Padres for the most in the league.  Newly minted closer Jeurys Familia has done a fine job in replacing overthrown Jenrry Mejia, leading the majors with eight saves; this adds up to a ratio of saving a game every two days.  Sure, he won’t get 81 saves this year, but he’s still off to a great start.  The pitching staff also walks the second-least batters in the game with just 31 total walks.  They’ve walked less than two batters per game. The bullpen has been paced by Familia, lefty Jerry Blevins, who suffered a forearm injury and will be out for at least the next six weeks, other lefties Alex Torres and Sean Gilmartin, Buddy Carlyle, and workhorse Carlos Torres.

While the lineup is generally regarded as being a weakness for the team, it has performed capably in the early going of this season.  It ranks seventh in the league in on-base percentage, ninth in the league in runs, and 12th in the league in batting average.  At leadoff, Curtis Granderson, even though he is only hitting .200, has been on-base one way or another 37.5% of the time.  David Wright had been hitting second until last week; he tweaked his hamstring on a slide into second base and is out for at least three weeks.  Lucas Duda has hit .359 in the three hole and leads the team in slugging percentage.  New acquisition Michael Cuddyer has performed well as the cleanup hitter, with an on-base percentage of .355.  Daniel Murphy has struggled out of the gate, but if he gets going, it adds another dimension to the lineup.  Defensive stud Juan Lagares is hitting .270, but is more noted for his defense.  Wilmer Flores has led the team in home runs with three, and has performed decently at shortstop.  And Travis d’Arnaud was the starting catcher until being hit on the hand with a pitch.  Now, he is likely to be out for around six weeks.  He has been replaced by prospect Kevin Plawecki, who has played in two game behind the dish.

With its core of players built around pitching, defense, and just enough offense, this team can compete for a division crown and potentially even more.  The team is tied for eighth in the league in fielding percentage at .986.  With a gold glove defensive center fielder, the team should definitely be able to stay near the top of the league in fielding. With these critical components, it is looking more and more like the Mets are for real and could contend for the playoffs and beyond.

No more LOLMets.

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The Thunder Fired Scott Brooks, and That’s Wrong

On Wednesday, the Oklahoma City Thunder announced that they had fired head coach Scott Brooks after seven season with the team.  In a statement, GM Sam Presti said: “”Therefore, it is very important to state that this decision is not a reflection of this past season, but rather an assessment of what we feel is necessary at this point in time in order to continually evolve, progress and sustain.”  However, the Thunder have done all of these things with Brooks at the helm, and and it may be hard do do these things with the uncertainty of bringing in a new head coach.

Over his tenure at the helm of the Thunder, Brooks led the team to a 338-207 record, which comes out to a .620 winning percentage.  In his first season, after taking over for deposed head coach P.J. Carlesimo, Brooks went 22-47 over the course of 69 games.  In the next season, the Thunder won 50 games and were bounced in the first round of the Playoffs; 50 games symbolized a 26-win improvement over the year before.  In 2011, the team made it to the Western Conference Finals, losing to the Mavericks, who would then become NBA champions.  The next year, Oklahoma City made the NBA finals, losing to the clearly superior Heat in five games.  The next year the team lost in the conference semifinals to the Memphis Grizzlies; in fairness, the team was crippled after a key knee injury to star Russell Westbrook in game 2 of the team’s first round series against the Houston Rockets.  Last year, the team lost to the eventual champion Spurs in 6 games in the conference finals, and this year the team missed the playoffs after a rash of injuries, particularly to key stars Serge Ibaka and Kevin Durant.

Two names that have been brought up as replacements fro Brooks are college coaches; UConn’s Kevin Ollie and Florida’s Billy Donovan.  Neither have any NBA head coaching experience (although Donovan almost became coach of the Magic after the 2007 season), but Ollie has a very tight kinship with Kevin Durant.  As an aside, Durant is set to become a free agent after this season.  However, we must ask ourselves an important question of both these people: would they actually take the job?  Donovan makes $3.7 million per year at Florida and Ollie makes up to $3 million per year at UConn.  Why would either leave their cushy environments in college and go to the NBA to deal with the more trying task of dealing with pro players?  They also would have to deal with more blame and scrutiny in the pros than in college, as we just saw with Brooks.  In college, the coaches get none of the blame and all of the credit (this is another article for a later time).

We know what this is all about.  The Thunder have to find a way to keep Durant after next season, with rumors swirling about his future with the team and a potential “homecoming” with the Washington Wizards.  However, how can they keep Durant by firing the coach that he really likes? Said Durant of Brooks after the season: “He made sure everybody was emotionally stable. It was a lot of guys in and out the lineup and he kept everybody together. So that’s what your head coach is supposed to do. We can’t really say nothing about it because he did his job. He kept us together. That’s what the main thing was … So it’s kind of tough. But he did his best job he can do and I’m proud of him.”  Said Russell Westbrook of Brooks:“I don’t think he gets enough credit for what he does behind the scenes. Obviously, a lot of people that’s not in (the practice facility) want him to do other things, want to see other things from him. But as a coach and as a friend, I think he does an amazing job of communicating what he wants out of the players.”   Serge Ibaka also endorsed Brooks and implored the team not to fire him, saying: What has he done? Injuries were not his fault. Why would he go? He has not done anything. He’s not responsible for the injuries. He did his best with the team he had. Would (another) coach do better with a team with so many injuries? What could he possibly do about it? The team is with him. You can’t blame him for what has happened.”

Sure, the Thunder want to evolve, progress and sustain.  But what if evolving, progressing, and sustaining can be done without firing your former coach of the year, one of which your team’s three best players all gave ringing endorsements to?  And what if doing this alienates Durant into leaving the team next summer?  Is that, evolution, progress, and sustainability?

Or is that unrest, insustainability, and going backwards?

Firing one of the best head coaches in the game certainly doesn’t help the team’s chances of evolving, sustaining, and progressing.

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MLB Season Preview

NL East

Team W L
Washington Nationals 96 66
Miami Marlins 86 76
New York Mets 84 78
Atlanta Braves 78 84
Philadelphia Phillies 64 98

 

Discussion: The Nats win this division easily due to the ridiculous starting rotation and their above-average line-up.  The Marlins take a leap forward as Jose Fernandez returns from his Tommy John surgery to put forth a solid second-half of the season.  The Mets improve over last year with the solid addition of Michael Cuddyer and improvements to the bullpen as well.  The Braves stay around the same as they finished last year because their key gains match their key losses.  They are very similar to how they were last year.  And the Phillies are just going to be really, really bad and that’s that.  Their rotation, lineup, and bullpen are all terrible.  They will be the worst team in baseball.

NL Central

Team W L
Pittsburgh Pirates 89 73
St. Louis Cardinals 87 75
Chicago Cubs 81 81
Milwaukee Brewers 81 81
Cincinnati Reds 69 93

 

Discussion: The Pirates bring back many of the same players from last year, but the addition of Francisco Cervelli behind the plate will help its pitching staff take the next step.  Pedro Alvarez rebounds from a poor season in 2014, leading the Bucs to their first division title since 1992.  The Cardinals will be there; they always are.  They haven’t gotten much better, however, and the division around them has.  They will fall slightly.  The Cubs had a very solid offseason, and look for prospects Jorge Soler and Kris Bryant (when he comes up) to have good campaigns.  The Brewers stay where they were last season, and Jonathan Lucroy has an MVP-caliber season.  Finally, the Reds have a poor season, suffering as the division pushes forward around them.

NL West

Team W L
San Diego Padres 88 74
Los Angeles Dodgers 84 78
San Francisco Giants 81 81
Colorado Rockies 72 90
Arizona Diamondbacks 69 93

 

Discussion:  The Padres take a leap forward this season, as the additions of Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Wil Myers, James Shields and others catapult the Pods to the division pennant.  The Dodgers take a step back with the losses of Hanley Ramirez and Dan Haren.  The Giants, in an odd-numbered year, take a step back as they lose Pablo Sandoval and, for the beginning of the season, Hunter Pence.  The Rockies and Diamondbacks, two rebuilding teams, round out the division basement, each losing at least 90 games.

AL East

Team W L
Baltimore Orioles 85 77
New York Yankees 82 80
Toronto Blue Jays 81 81
Boston Red Sox 80 82
Tampa Bay Rays 69 93

 

Discussion: This division only features one sure-fire basement team (the Rays).  The Red Sox improve off of last year, but weaknesses at pitcher and catcher will serve to hold them back.  The Blue Jays, besides the addition of Russell Martin, are not as strong as last year with the losses of Juan Francisco and Melky Cabrera.  The Yankees; who knows?  They could be anywhere from 60 to 90 wins, but on paper, they are an around .500 team.  And the Orioles, this year’s weakest division winner, will have just enough to win the division, along with the comeback of Manny Machado.

AL Central

Team W L
Cleveland Indians 89 73
Detroit Tigers 87 75
Kansas City Royals 83 79
Chicago White Sox 81 81
Minnesota Twins 69 93

 

Discussion: The Twins carry the bottom of this division, as they are still awaiting the development of Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton, who are starting the season at class AA.  The White Sox improve off of last year’s showing with additions of Melky Cabrera, David Robertson and Jeff Samardzija help improve the team, but they are still weak at second base, right field and in the bullpen.  The Royals lose pieces from last year’s team, namely DH Billy Butler and ace James Shields; they take a small step back.  Finally, the Indians take a leap of faith to the top of the division, needing all-around solid seasons from Michael Brantley and Michael Bourn to do so.  The Tigers finish second, and have to be concerned over the plight of Justin Verlander.

AL West

Team W L
Seattle Mariners 95 67
Oakland A’s 86 76
Los Angeles Angels 84 78
Houston Astros 83 79
Texas Rangers 67 95

 

Discussion: The Mariners lead this division, as the addition of Nelson Cruz helps alleviate the pressure of Robinson Cano to produce.  Also, Felix Hernandez wins his second Cy Young leading one of baseball’s best pitching staffs.  The A’s are a mystery, but they will most likely be good enough for second in this division.  The Angels are also a mystery, but I have them behind the A’s because it remains to be seen if Josh Hamilton can figure himself out and if Albert Pujols can have another good season.  The Astros will be a surprise; they take a leap forward this year with the additions of Jed Lowrie and Evan Gattis.  Finally, the Rangers will easily finish last in the division after the season-ending injury to Yu Darvish.

Playoffs

NL

(1)Nationals

(2)Pirates

(3)Padres

Wild Card Game: Cardinals over Marlins

AL

(1)Mariners

(2)Indians

(3)Orioles

Wild Card Game: Tigers over A’s

NL:

(2)Pirates vs (3)Padres: Pirates in 5

(1)Nationals vs (4)Cardinals: Nationals in 4

(1)Nationals) vs (2)Pirates: Pirates in 7

Explanation: The Nationals easily dispose of the Cardinals in the first round, and the Pirates and Padres play a tightly contested series that goes the distance.  In a  7-game series, the pitching of the Pirates catches up to that of the Nats.  Also, their outfield (Marte, Polanco, and McCutchen) will be this year’s version of the Royals’ outfield last year.  The Pirates win the NL.

AL:

(1)Mariners vs (4)Tigers: Mariners in 4

(2)Indians vs (3)Orioles: Orioles in 5

(1)Mariners vs (3)Orioles: Mariners in 6

Explanation: The Mariners’ pitching coupled with enough offense gets them past the experienced Tigers.  The experience of the Orioles, along with the return of Manny Machado, leads them past the Indians.  Then, the Mariners defeat the Orioles in a solid championship series.  They take the pennant.

World Series: (2)Pirates vs (1)Mariners: This series will be tight.  However, the Mariners’ pitching, especially in a three or four-man rotation, allows few runs.  Also, Nelson Cruz and Robinson Cano have sold series, and the talent on each side in too much for the Bucs.  Mariners win in 6.

Most importantly, this season will be fun.  Your guess is as good as mine as to who wins.