So writing here has been a bit difficult to keep up with as of late however going to be committing to write more on here. Anyhow, onward! As the title suggests I'm just going to be looking at the teams performance over the first 1/3 of the season this year.
Baltimore Orioles:
So the AL East has been really weird these days huh, we've got all the teams who are only treading water above the .500 mark, which is pretty ridiculous when you consider where everyone finished the year at and how many major signings the Orioles and the Yankees have made that haven't seemingly made major differences yet (besides Masahiro Tanaka). Now the Orioles have been doing well in holding things together, now the current position is in part because of a slow start by some of their major offensive players (ie. Chris Davis and J.J Hardy) and a lacklustre performance by some of their starting pitchers (ie. Ubaldo Jimenez, Wei Yin Chen and Bud Norris) as well as some major players out of the lineup for a good amount of the first section of the season (Machado).
Now while these major negatives have kept the Orioles out of first and second place of the AL East or from really running away with the division while everyone else is down, many of their acquisitions have been very positive contributors. Going into the new season I thought a number of the signings that the Orioles made were a BIG mistake, Ubaldo Jimenez had really only had a small period of consistent success outside of his Cy Young season and had been pretty bad when it came to holding down the long ball. As well Nelson Cruz had come off of his PED suspension and I shared a view with other major analysts that his PED use may have been keeping him healthy, as before suspicion of PED use came about he was in and out of the DL almost every season. Now I'll be honest I was only 50% right there, Ubaldo so far has been a big disappointment for what he was expected to be, HOWEVER I was completely wrong about Cruz, he has been holding the offensive end of the Orioles lineup since the start of the season and in some of the early games I watched he surprised the hell out of me.
Now while, like other AL East teams, the Orioles have started slow some things are looking up, Chris Davis is heating up big time (he had a 3 home run game not long ago), Chris Tillman is working himself back into a groove, despite their closer Tommy Hunter getting injured Zach Britton has been able to hold his own very well. Now one of the odd things this season is that the Orioles have a winning record against the AL East, West and National League, however they are 7-13 against the AL Central and that comes off as odd because for one the Central has a more pitcher friendly set of parks, which should make it easier on their pitchers who aren't necessarily star calibre players and their hitters are weaker than the East or most teams in the West. In addition to Hunter running onto the DL, the Orioles have also lost Wieters for the foreseeable future making them a little weaker at the catcher position as well.
All in all it seems like, given where all of the other AL East teams are at, the Orioles are on pace to still keep in good competition in the AL East, as well they have a fairly easy/balanced next couple of months on their schedule leading up to the All Star Game. So if they can pick themselves up from the DL woes they've had and improve a bit on their offence, which seems to be happening, and get their 3 mediocre starters to take it up a notch they could easily see themselves in first or second in the AL East.
St. Louis Cardinals:
Oddly enough the situation the Cardinals have found themselves in over the first 1/3 of the season has been kinda similar to that of the Orioles as they are much lower in the standings than I'm sure people were expecting them to be. Also like the Orioles some of their major offensive producers from last year have been rather quiet, though some are heating up, those being Matt Adams, Matt Carpenter and Allen Craig. Now do I expect these 3 to continue being lacklustre? Not a chance! But this slow start is a big reason for them being where they are right now.
When the Cardinals hit the offseason there wasn't a lot of areas they needed to sign anyone significant to fill a spot in the roster, with exception to shortstop because of the injury issues to Rafael Furcal the years before and the fact that he was pushing 39. So they went out and signed Jhonny Peralta, again much like Cruz I thought this was going to be a bust because of his unusual spike in power last year and then being followed by his PED suspension. However shows me what the hell I know because he's been more than an above average offensive producer on the Cardinals batting order, and has kept about the same level of defence that he did when he was with the Tigers. Additionally they had some rotation and bullpen spots to fill so they slotted in a lot of their newbie pitchers (Wacha, Rosenthal, Martinez, Mille, etc) and there has been about a 50-50 turn out of these guys so far. Wacha has been fairly dominant in the bulk of his starts, which is great considering he didn't even play a full season at the major league level last year, on the other hand Miller has been a bit wobbly as he turns in some stellar outings and then others when he gets away with ALOT of bad pitching, though he has been turning it around as of late. Finally the Rosenthal and Martinez in the bullpen have also been showing the same sort of duality, Rosenthal has been, similar to Miller, struggling with command and because of that has blown a fair number of saves in addition to have some outings that could have been disastrous but thankfully were't due to things like he big time heater. Martinez on the other hand has been all smooth sailing since they put him in the set up role, which was a bit disappointing as most people, including myself, thought he's get the last rotation spot over Joe Kelly because well his stuff is just a lot better and he has the better prospect pedigree.
Overall the Cardinals have done a good job despite their struggling core of their offence and some shakiness to their pitchers however you have to keep things in context because despite Miller and Rosenthal having bad outings now and then, their not blow outs and when you consider they have Wainwright who is definitely a top 5 pitcher this year to back them up they have the potential to hold out and improve. Rosenthal though does have something to worry about since Motte has just recently come off the DL from his Tommy John rehab and if things keep going sour for Rosenthal we could see him losing the closer job, though that would make you wonder what they do with him or Martinez (ie. push them back to 7th/8th inning, send one down to AAA or move one to the rotation?). Either way as they always do the Cardinals have more than enough potential to make a run at the NL Central and the NL as a whole.
Toronto Blue Jays:
Many people will look back on my posts during the offseason about railing Alex Anthopolous because he did nothing for the team, I mean I applauded his signing of Navarro because I thought he'd be a good fit for the rotation since, from his stats, he seemed to be a catcher who enhanced a pitchers abilities when they followed the pitches he called. However that was pretty much all he did and it drove me insane (not going to go into the Masahiro Tanka rant again). The main issue I thought that was going to bite them to begin with was their starting rotation because they hadn't made any significant changes to it, now yes they did add Hutchison and McGowan from the DL however what we've seen from history is typically it takes about a year for a starting pitcher to get completely back into form after returning from tommy john surgery, which both of them were. That alone made me very wary about trusting this rotation, that added with Brandon Morrow lacking any sense of consistency as usual. All in all this is pretty much exactly how the first month of the season played out, Hutchison pitched above average, Dickey did slightly better than what he did the year before, Morrow collapsed and got injured, McGowan was terrible, and then Mark Buerhle……had an ERA under 2?
Now oddly enough this year so far and most years previous the Jays have seldom had problems with offence, they have led the league or been in the top 5 of home runs hit in several seasons past, so their prime problem has been keeping good healthy starters on the mound for a full season. The Buerhle stuff so far this year really caught me off guard but like I said about Navarro enhancing a pitchers ability by being good at calling pitches I think may have worked BIG TIME for Buerhle since he doesn't shake off any pitch calls by the catcher and due to his diminished velocity has had to develop pinpoint accuracy. Don't get me wrong though I don't expect him to keep this ERA and everything up but I wouldn't be surprised if his ERA at the end of the year was somewhere around 3.00-3.10, where he usually ends up at 3.40-3.50 or higher and with maybe 15-18 wins, as he usually gets somewhere between 13-15 on the past few seasons.
Currently the lights seem to be all coming on for the Jays, nearly all of their offensive pieces are pushing forward at full force, Dickey has seemingly got past his 7th inning woes (the being that he had consistently collapsed in the 7th inning in several games), Reyes, Gose and Pillar have turned on the speed on the base paths, and our bullpen has stabilized a great deal with the return of Casey Janssen and our starters being more consistent. They have already swept both the A's and the Red Sox before that, which bodes well as a sweep of the Red Sox in their current condition doesn't mean much, but being able to beat out the best team in the AL right now is definitely something big and their match against the Rays today showed that the offence isn't slowing down.
Going into this season not much was expected out of the Jays, now that isn't necessarily because they were thought to be a bad team, just that all of the teams around them in the AL East had either made big signings to improve their club or were keeping a solid group of players together with major success last year, however with that backfiring on most of the other AL East teams if Toronto can keep up this offensive surge, keep up with quality pitching and maybe add another front of the rotation starter by the trade deadline then they could very well be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs this year.
-Eric
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Bird Watch: Has It Helped?
Ok so here I'm going to evaluate whether the big acquisition of the three teams has made a contribution worth what they signed him for during the offseason so far, starting with the Cardinals and their signing of shortstop Jhonny Peralta. Alright so some, including myself were a bit confused when the Cardinals signed Jhonny Peralta to a 4 year deal over the offseason, mainly because of all the controversy surrounding him and PED allegations, though I guess the Orioles did the same thing with Nelson Cruz so let's take a look at what he's done so far.
Well the shortstop position has been a bit confusing for the Cardinals this year, first they shell $53 million over 4 years to Peralta, then they sign Aldemys Diaz to a 4 year deal worth $8 million but he's holding up in AAA. Well Peralta is who has the starting job so lets look at his stats. Well as of now he is sitting with a .063 AVG, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 H, 3 R, 0 SB and .189 OBP, now those are some very terrible stats. While I understand that it's early in the season he hasn't been facing a lot of elite level pitching the whole time, as well his fielding has been pretty bad as well since he has already made 2 errors, which is 50% of the errors he made last year. This just seems more and more like a case of can't play without the PEDs, which it may very well turn out to be, now there isn't much to focus in on thats positive but I suppose the fact that he hasn't raised his strikeouts a whole lot is a good indication that it's not likely to get any worse as thats usually an indication of lost ability in a hitter (and with Arencibia as the Jays catcher last year I know that all too well). Overall it seems that Peralta is not what the Cardinals were hoping for and he is certainly not pulling his weight on the 4 year deal he signed.
Next up are the Orioles and their big spending addition Ubaldo Jimenez. Now I once said if I were an exec or fantasy owner I wouldn't touch Jimenez with a 10 foot pole, and guess what? That still stands. So when I saw Baltimore sign him to a 4 year $50 million deal I nearly threw up a lung. And as expected through his first 2 starts Jimenez has been awful, sitting with an ERA of 6.75, 10K, 1.97 WHIP, 8BB, 13H and a W-L record of 0-2. Now the issue for him was coming to the AL East, he was coming from the AL Central, the weakest of the AL divisions (and don't give me any crap about the AL West being light, just look at who they have pitching wise and not to mention Beltre, Trout, Pujols, Hamilton, Cano, Hart and even Castro to a lesser extent). So it was expected to be a rough transition, however the 2 games he has pitched have been against division rivals in both the home park and on the road, and he seemed to have the same issues as before, problems commanding his pitches, which lead to the total 8 walks he currently has and the 2 home runs he gave up in the first game. Due to this he has thrown more pitches and worn himself out in these outings (ie. 106 pitches in 4.2 innings in his last outing). Again just like Peralta, Jimenez is sure not pulling along the $50 million the Orioles are paying him.
Now the Toronto Blue Jays only had one real acquisition this offseason and that would be Dioner Navarro, now plenty of people looked at this signing with confusion since Navarro wasn't a starting catcher and his numbers weren't phenomenal if you stretched them to a full season. However Navarro has been earning the 2 year $8 million deal he got, now the first thing Navarro has been doing is taking control of the pitching staff, this is a big deal because a smart catcher can play pitches often better than the pitcher can and it's been showing in the outings the McGowan, Hutchison and Buehrle have put up so far this season. In addition Navarro hasn't driven himself to a huge number of stats (.269 AVG, 4R, 11H, 0HR, 7RBI, 2BB, and 1SB). What Navarro has been able to do is act as a quality bat, which was a problem with the 'strikeout alley' we had in our 6-9 batting order positions, this year even though Navarro doesn't often get the pitch to drive out of the stadium he more often can make quality sacrifice plays that move the runner along, which is part of why the Jays hitting game has been weak for a while. Additionally other members of the team seem to like the chemistry between Navarro and the starting rotation and I'd say thats a good thing if the other players think highly of what he is doing. Unlike the previous signings Navarro was kind of a gamble as he was a part time player and even though his stats were good there was no guarantee he could replicate his part time numbers into a full time catching position. So far however Navarro has been pulling his weight and then some on his contract.
Well the shortstop position has been a bit confusing for the Cardinals this year, first they shell $53 million over 4 years to Peralta, then they sign Aldemys Diaz to a 4 year deal worth $8 million but he's holding up in AAA. Well Peralta is who has the starting job so lets look at his stats. Well as of now he is sitting with a .063 AVG, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 H, 3 R, 0 SB and .189 OBP, now those are some very terrible stats. While I understand that it's early in the season he hasn't been facing a lot of elite level pitching the whole time, as well his fielding has been pretty bad as well since he has already made 2 errors, which is 50% of the errors he made last year. This just seems more and more like a case of can't play without the PEDs, which it may very well turn out to be, now there isn't much to focus in on thats positive but I suppose the fact that he hasn't raised his strikeouts a whole lot is a good indication that it's not likely to get any worse as thats usually an indication of lost ability in a hitter (and with Arencibia as the Jays catcher last year I know that all too well). Overall it seems that Peralta is not what the Cardinals were hoping for and he is certainly not pulling his weight on the 4 year deal he signed.
Next up are the Orioles and their big spending addition Ubaldo Jimenez. Now I once said if I were an exec or fantasy owner I wouldn't touch Jimenez with a 10 foot pole, and guess what? That still stands. So when I saw Baltimore sign him to a 4 year $50 million deal I nearly threw up a lung. And as expected through his first 2 starts Jimenez has been awful, sitting with an ERA of 6.75, 10K, 1.97 WHIP, 8BB, 13H and a W-L record of 0-2. Now the issue for him was coming to the AL East, he was coming from the AL Central, the weakest of the AL divisions (and don't give me any crap about the AL West being light, just look at who they have pitching wise and not to mention Beltre, Trout, Pujols, Hamilton, Cano, Hart and even Castro to a lesser extent). So it was expected to be a rough transition, however the 2 games he has pitched have been against division rivals in both the home park and on the road, and he seemed to have the same issues as before, problems commanding his pitches, which lead to the total 8 walks he currently has and the 2 home runs he gave up in the first game. Due to this he has thrown more pitches and worn himself out in these outings (ie. 106 pitches in 4.2 innings in his last outing). Again just like Peralta, Jimenez is sure not pulling along the $50 million the Orioles are paying him.
Now the Toronto Blue Jays only had one real acquisition this offseason and that would be Dioner Navarro, now plenty of people looked at this signing with confusion since Navarro wasn't a starting catcher and his numbers weren't phenomenal if you stretched them to a full season. However Navarro has been earning the 2 year $8 million deal he got, now the first thing Navarro has been doing is taking control of the pitching staff, this is a big deal because a smart catcher can play pitches often better than the pitcher can and it's been showing in the outings the McGowan, Hutchison and Buehrle have put up so far this season. In addition Navarro hasn't driven himself to a huge number of stats (.269 AVG, 4R, 11H, 0HR, 7RBI, 2BB, and 1SB). What Navarro has been able to do is act as a quality bat, which was a problem with the 'strikeout alley' we had in our 6-9 batting order positions, this year even though Navarro doesn't often get the pitch to drive out of the stadium he more often can make quality sacrifice plays that move the runner along, which is part of why the Jays hitting game has been weak for a while. Additionally other members of the team seem to like the chemistry between Navarro and the starting rotation and I'd say thats a good thing if the other players think highly of what he is doing. Unlike the previous signings Navarro was kind of a gamble as he was a part time player and even though his stats were good there was no guarantee he could replicate his part time numbers into a full time catching position. So far however Navarro has been pulling his weight and then some on his contract.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Bird Watch: The First Week
Ok so heres going to be a little overlook at the 3 team's performance over the first week of the season.
Baltimore Orioles: Not hell of a lot to bitch about or praise here, the Orioles are sitting at a 2-4 record after this week oddly enough their biggest issue of this week is also their biggest strength in a way. That of course is their pitching. I say that because in 2 of the 4 games they lost they got blasted, and it was obviously because they had a far more inferior starting pitcher on the mound for who they were facing. However on all the other games they either won (2 of the remaining 4 games) or barely lost by 1 run meaning that their pithing in those situations was able to keep them in the game, basically they need to get more out of those 2 starters who fucked up this week (Gonzalez and Jimenez). On the offensive side they did what Baltimore usually does, get a fairly high number of hits but still manage to make the game a close one, honestly I'm interested to see what they do offensively when Machado comes back and they have their full offensive core in place.
St. Louis Cardinals: Well it's been interesting for the Cardinals, their even 3-3 after the first week, which may come as a surprise but for the most part the young pitchers they slotted into the rotation, and Wainwright have delivered and even the games they lost were close with the exception of one. Now the one game I speak of was the first against the Pirates and Shelby Miller just didn't have his stuff that day, he left a fair number of pitches over the heart of the plate that game, hence why he allowed 3 home runs. As well I think it's safe to say he had a bit of shaky control during the game as well as he walked 3 and only struck out 2, which is fairly unlike him as his control is fairly pin point and usually allows him to get high strikeouts and low walks. In addition to poor pitching that game was very terrible for the Cardinals on offence as well only scoring 2 runs despite having players in scoring position 8 times during the game, and none of them could be attributed to the 2 runs. Now while I can say this, it's only one game and the offence and pitching of the Cardinals has done well otherwise so theres no reason to distrust Miller quite yet, though a couple more outings like that could change my mine
Toronto Blue Jays: What a roller coaster first week, we start with R.A. Dickey getting pounded, then Drew Hutchison and Mark Buehrle have a flash of brilliance, followed by 2 more stumbles by Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan, then to finish the week we get the exact opposite, a magnificent outing from Dickey and a horrible one from Hutchison. Now first off I think McGowan will get better as it came to light that he was tipping his pitches during that outing. Tipping your pitches basically means that your in essence developing a tell that is letting the batter know what kind of pitch your going to throw (ie. letting them accidentally see the grip of the ball before it's thrown) so if he can correct that and get over the nervousness of being back after a little over a year he'll be good to go. On the other hand Morrow looks like he's still completely lost and he seems to need a lot of work since he allowed 4 runs to the Rays and just didn't look like his dominant self we saw a couple years back. Hutchison and Dickey are harder to read strictly because we've seen two completely different outings and theres no real evidence to suggest one outcome is more likely than the other. Buehrle on the other hand is the master of consistency so I expect him to throw well, not like the last game but on average 4 strikeouts 7 hits and a couple runs, which should very well give us a chance to win if the offence can get moving. Speaking of offence we had a similar duality as with the pitching, when the pitching was bad we got a lacklustre number of hits and runs but when the pitching was good we all of a sudden were on fire. Now like I said in the last post there still are a fair number of very big positives to take home in regard to the Jays offence so like Miller of the Cardinals it's time to play the waiting game and see if the Jays can right themselves in the next series.
-Eric
Baltimore Orioles: Not hell of a lot to bitch about or praise here, the Orioles are sitting at a 2-4 record after this week oddly enough their biggest issue of this week is also their biggest strength in a way. That of course is their pitching. I say that because in 2 of the 4 games they lost they got blasted, and it was obviously because they had a far more inferior starting pitcher on the mound for who they were facing. However on all the other games they either won (2 of the remaining 4 games) or barely lost by 1 run meaning that their pithing in those situations was able to keep them in the game, basically they need to get more out of those 2 starters who fucked up this week (Gonzalez and Jimenez). On the offensive side they did what Baltimore usually does, get a fairly high number of hits but still manage to make the game a close one, honestly I'm interested to see what they do offensively when Machado comes back and they have their full offensive core in place.
St. Louis Cardinals: Well it's been interesting for the Cardinals, their even 3-3 after the first week, which may come as a surprise but for the most part the young pitchers they slotted into the rotation, and Wainwright have delivered and even the games they lost were close with the exception of one. Now the one game I speak of was the first against the Pirates and Shelby Miller just didn't have his stuff that day, he left a fair number of pitches over the heart of the plate that game, hence why he allowed 3 home runs. As well I think it's safe to say he had a bit of shaky control during the game as well as he walked 3 and only struck out 2, which is fairly unlike him as his control is fairly pin point and usually allows him to get high strikeouts and low walks. In addition to poor pitching that game was very terrible for the Cardinals on offence as well only scoring 2 runs despite having players in scoring position 8 times during the game, and none of them could be attributed to the 2 runs. Now while I can say this, it's only one game and the offence and pitching of the Cardinals has done well otherwise so theres no reason to distrust Miller quite yet, though a couple more outings like that could change my mine
Toronto Blue Jays: What a roller coaster first week, we start with R.A. Dickey getting pounded, then Drew Hutchison and Mark Buehrle have a flash of brilliance, followed by 2 more stumbles by Brandon Morrow and Dustin McGowan, then to finish the week we get the exact opposite, a magnificent outing from Dickey and a horrible one from Hutchison. Now first off I think McGowan will get better as it came to light that he was tipping his pitches during that outing. Tipping your pitches basically means that your in essence developing a tell that is letting the batter know what kind of pitch your going to throw (ie. letting them accidentally see the grip of the ball before it's thrown) so if he can correct that and get over the nervousness of being back after a little over a year he'll be good to go. On the other hand Morrow looks like he's still completely lost and he seems to need a lot of work since he allowed 4 runs to the Rays and just didn't look like his dominant self we saw a couple years back. Hutchison and Dickey are harder to read strictly because we've seen two completely different outings and theres no real evidence to suggest one outcome is more likely than the other. Buehrle on the other hand is the master of consistency so I expect him to throw well, not like the last game but on average 4 strikeouts 7 hits and a couple runs, which should very well give us a chance to win if the offence can get moving. Speaking of offence we had a similar duality as with the pitching, when the pitching was bad we got a lacklustre number of hits and runs but when the pitching was good we all of a sudden were on fire. Now like I said in the last post there still are a fair number of very big positives to take home in regard to the Jays offence so like Miller of the Cardinals it's time to play the waiting game and see if the Jays can right themselves in the next series.
-Eric
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Bird Watch: Opening Day Performances
Ok so first bird watch of 2014 eh? Anyhow as the title states I'm going to give a quick run down of the opening games for Baltimore, St. Louis and Toronto and give them a letter grade.
Baltimore:
Pitching - Ok so looking at the score initially we can tell this was a prototypical Orioles game as the score was low and the margin they won by was only 1 run (they had the most of those wins last year in I believe the entire MLB). Anyhow you had Chris Tillman taking the hill against Jon Lester and in both cases each pitcher performed very well, Tillman isn't known as a strikeout pitcher so his 4 K's on the game is pretty typical of him and he managed to stay in control of his pitches and only allow 1 run and 1 walk, which is good in my book (especially if you watched the Blue Jays pitching). Additionally surprisingly Tillman only allowed 7 hits, I say that because he pitches to contact so you would expect the potential for more hits but since there isn't that means the Orioles defence was obviously on the ball today. As the Orioles usually do they had Tillman handle the first 5 innings of work then turned their bullpen on the Red Sox and again worked out fantastically, together all 4 pitchers only allowed 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2 as well. Now Tommy Hunter did get into a bit of bind in the 9th inning when he hit Will Middlebrooks and then one out later allowed Pedroia to single and get 2nd and 1st base full with David Ortiz coming up thankfully he was able to get out of it and get the next 2 outs. Overall the pitching in this game from the Orioles was solid, not perfect but definitely solid, the type of play that would ensure you get into the playoffs if you can repeat it at least every 2nd game.
Hitting - Ok on the hitting side theres not a whole lot to talk about, mainly because the game was so low scoring, however it is telling that about half of the batting order got on base at one time or another, and like I said in the last post about the Jays the Orioles had the hits dispersed throughout their lineup allowing to keep an offensive wave going. On the other hand however the people who didn't get on base did strikeout a fair bit like Chris Davis (and Matt Wieters to a lesser extent), now while Wieters is expected since you don't really associate catchers with high averages Chris Davis, one of the 2 big hitters for the Orioles, is expected to have an AVG in the high .200's so this start is not necessarily good for him. As well their team batting AVG with RISP (runners in scoring position - a runner at 2nd or 3rd base) was 0-1 so that tells me that despite having several hits and getting people on base not many times only once did someone get over the 2nd base. Now a surprise show was the home run from Nelson Cruz in the 7th that ended up being the game winning run. I'll be honest that I've been down on Nelson Cruz and it's mainly because 1.) his skill set is declining and 2.) the timing that showed he could finally stay healthy coincides with when he started taking PEDs leading me to believe health could be a risk for him again. However he surprised me by hitting a home run off of Jon Lester a tough opponent.
Grade: Pitching - A-, Hitting - B-, Overall - B+
An overall quality job pitching and about average performance from the offence, though I' m skewing this grade a bit considering that the Orioles have been geared for these types of games for the last couple seasons.
St. Louis:
Pitching - Ok so this was a pitchers duel if I've ever seen one, both guys went 7 innings and allowed only 3 hits a piece, unfortunately for Cueto one of those 3 hits was a home run that cost them the game. On the other side Wainwright issued 4 walks throughout the game, now I guess I could call that 3 since he intentionally walked Brayan Pena, however 2 of these walks were almost right next to each other in the 6th inning and could have cost him. To make up for it Wainwright was dominant the rest of the time striking out 9 over the 7 innings he did pitch, now I think that I can't really fault him that much for the walks when he puts up stats that basically show he more than doubled his walks in strikeouts, allowed less hits than walks and didn't allow a run. After the 7th they threw in the bullpen and just like in the Baltimore game the St. Louis bullpen cleaned shop with Trevor Rosenthal ending it with 2/3 strikeouts in the final inning, Pat Neshek did allow 1 walk in the 8th, however thanks to the Cardinals having a very smart manager they continued with their patented match ups on pitching and continued to dominate on pitching.
Hitting - The Cardinals had the same problem on offence that the Orioles had only to a bit more of an extreme, their team RISP was 0-4 again showing us that they managed to get guys on base but just couldn't get them home, and because of that they were lucky to get the home run from Yadier Molina or it would have just been a war of attrition. As well if you were to look at the box score of the game those times when players got on base it was narrowed down to just 3 players (Kolten Wong, Yadier Molina and Matt Adams) now thats not good, yes it's a positive that the guys in the lower to middle area of the batting order got hits because thats usually where the offence weakens in a typical batting order, however in this case the guys in 3 and 4 positions who are supposed to be the power hitters who drive base runners in didn't get a single hit, and even worse their lead off man, Matt Carpenter, was only able to get on base once. Now just as a side note I'll include defensive flops in here because the Orioles had 3 errors on the game by Boujos, Wong and Adams another unsightly issue during the game and again something they were lucky didn't cost them the game.
Grade: Pitching - A, Hitting - C+, Overall - B+
Now the Cardinals had a DOMINANT game on the mound however the offence was not what we expect from them on a regular basis and the defensive errors they made were pretty bad and they got lucky it didn't cost them a run or just like the Orioles game it could have moved into extra innings and given that the Cardinals had used double the relievers that the Reds used could have made it difficult.
Toronto:
Pitching - I'll be honest I was excited to see/listen to this game because despite the lack of movement from AA in the offseason Dickey had a decent spring and said in his last outing he was working on other pitches to throw into games to throw hitters off balance and McGowan and Hutchison looked great in spring training as well, there still was hope. Or so I thought, this game pretty much embodied everything that was bad about last season. Now the pitching, if you can call it that. Was just like what happened early last year, Dickey's pitching was wild as hell he allowed 5 hits, but topped that off with a 666 line, 6 runs, 6 earned runs and 6 walks, with only 4 strikeouts to write home about. Now the issue here is that this is EXACTLY what Dickey was like last year, I think most attributed his bad start to him rushing through spring training to open for the World Baseball Classic and the back injury he played through the first half of the season. However if this is whats going to be coming out every time he takes the mound I'm really worried. Now things smoothed out when Esmil Rogers got the ball as he cleared through the following 2 innings with a couple of hits, a walk and a pair of strikeouts fairly typical performance by him but then things were handed to Jeffress in the 8th (who honestly I don't think should be in the bullpen) and he proceeded to allow another 3 runs on 1 inning. Oh man that pitching was BAAAAD today.
Hitting - Ok so unfortunately just like how Dickey's pitching today was pretty reminiscent of his pitching last season the offence had the same problems as last year as well, first off we lost Reyes to injury in the first inning (god damn it, was after the first 10 games not soon enough?!?!?!!?), then the same usual hitting happened, the front of the batting order got on base but as soon as we moved down the order everyone ceased to be able to hit leaving the team with a RISP of 0-5, which again is pretty atrocious. Now I did see some glimmers of hope in this game, Izturis managed to get on base even against David Price, Navarro got on base as well (which was a nice surprise to see our crap acquisition from last year and this years acquisition were productive against a heavy handed pitcher). As well Rasmus and Lawrie were both MUCH more patient at the plate, hell I saw Lawrie take balls and force Price to throw 10 additional pitches to get him out, and like I've said even if you can't get on base the next best thing to do is tire the pitcher out by forcing him to throw as many pitches as possible, so good on Brett for making such progress from being a bit of a strikeout machine last year. Now while those were great Lawrie did strike out 2 of the 4 times at bat and because of that in conduction with Thole and Goins we had a section that acted again as the 'strikeout alley', where offensive rallies go to die. Basically the inability of Goins and Thole to actually make an offensive impact often ended up ending innings where we had multiple men on base, which is why we should have been looking for a 2nd base option during the offseason, I'm not knocking Goins' defensive prowess but he needs more time in the minors to develop his offence before he'll be an impact player. On the other side Thole came as expected, we notched him as Dickey's personal catcher and he came to us as an offensive mess so can't expect much but you would think that Kratz might get a little more of a nod since he's much better with the bat (hell he was responsible for 2 of their 3 runs). Now my argument when they sent him down was because his ability to catch Dickey wasn't as good as Thole, but on the other hand if we stretch out their spring training both to 51 innings Kratz would have allowed less stolen bases and caught more players stealing, in addition his range is better than Thole. It seems to me after that display today Kratz should get a shot over Thole.
Grade: Pitching - D, Hitting - C, Overall - D+
Like I said that pitching was some of the ugliest I've seen in recent memory (though it looked like the Rangers v. Phillies game was worse) the reason the pitching didn't get an F was because there was some good pitching by Esmil Rogers who held the Rays to their current score for 2 innings and struck out a pair on the way. Hitting wise I'm sure some would think that it should be lower but again people got on base, some strikeout heavy players last year had better use of their eyes in this game and overall it showed the team has at least progressed a bit and it's hard to doc their score that much do to the shitty performance of 2 players.
-Eric
Baltimore:
Pitching - Ok so looking at the score initially we can tell this was a prototypical Orioles game as the score was low and the margin they won by was only 1 run (they had the most of those wins last year in I believe the entire MLB). Anyhow you had Chris Tillman taking the hill against Jon Lester and in both cases each pitcher performed very well, Tillman isn't known as a strikeout pitcher so his 4 K's on the game is pretty typical of him and he managed to stay in control of his pitches and only allow 1 run and 1 walk, which is good in my book (especially if you watched the Blue Jays pitching). Additionally surprisingly Tillman only allowed 7 hits, I say that because he pitches to contact so you would expect the potential for more hits but since there isn't that means the Orioles defence was obviously on the ball today. As the Orioles usually do they had Tillman handle the first 5 innings of work then turned their bullpen on the Red Sox and again worked out fantastically, together all 4 pitchers only allowed 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2 as well. Now Tommy Hunter did get into a bit of bind in the 9th inning when he hit Will Middlebrooks and then one out later allowed Pedroia to single and get 2nd and 1st base full with David Ortiz coming up thankfully he was able to get out of it and get the next 2 outs. Overall the pitching in this game from the Orioles was solid, not perfect but definitely solid, the type of play that would ensure you get into the playoffs if you can repeat it at least every 2nd game.
Hitting - Ok on the hitting side theres not a whole lot to talk about, mainly because the game was so low scoring, however it is telling that about half of the batting order got on base at one time or another, and like I said in the last post about the Jays the Orioles had the hits dispersed throughout their lineup allowing to keep an offensive wave going. On the other hand however the people who didn't get on base did strikeout a fair bit like Chris Davis (and Matt Wieters to a lesser extent), now while Wieters is expected since you don't really associate catchers with high averages Chris Davis, one of the 2 big hitters for the Orioles, is expected to have an AVG in the high .200's so this start is not necessarily good for him. As well their team batting AVG with RISP (runners in scoring position - a runner at 2nd or 3rd base) was 0-1 so that tells me that despite having several hits and getting people on base not many times only once did someone get over the 2nd base. Now a surprise show was the home run from Nelson Cruz in the 7th that ended up being the game winning run. I'll be honest that I've been down on Nelson Cruz and it's mainly because 1.) his skill set is declining and 2.) the timing that showed he could finally stay healthy coincides with when he started taking PEDs leading me to believe health could be a risk for him again. However he surprised me by hitting a home run off of Jon Lester a tough opponent.
Grade: Pitching - A-, Hitting - B-, Overall - B+
An overall quality job pitching and about average performance from the offence, though I' m skewing this grade a bit considering that the Orioles have been geared for these types of games for the last couple seasons.
St. Louis:
Pitching - Ok so this was a pitchers duel if I've ever seen one, both guys went 7 innings and allowed only 3 hits a piece, unfortunately for Cueto one of those 3 hits was a home run that cost them the game. On the other side Wainwright issued 4 walks throughout the game, now I guess I could call that 3 since he intentionally walked Brayan Pena, however 2 of these walks were almost right next to each other in the 6th inning and could have cost him. To make up for it Wainwright was dominant the rest of the time striking out 9 over the 7 innings he did pitch, now I think that I can't really fault him that much for the walks when he puts up stats that basically show he more than doubled his walks in strikeouts, allowed less hits than walks and didn't allow a run. After the 7th they threw in the bullpen and just like in the Baltimore game the St. Louis bullpen cleaned shop with Trevor Rosenthal ending it with 2/3 strikeouts in the final inning, Pat Neshek did allow 1 walk in the 8th, however thanks to the Cardinals having a very smart manager they continued with their patented match ups on pitching and continued to dominate on pitching.
Hitting - The Cardinals had the same problem on offence that the Orioles had only to a bit more of an extreme, their team RISP was 0-4 again showing us that they managed to get guys on base but just couldn't get them home, and because of that they were lucky to get the home run from Yadier Molina or it would have just been a war of attrition. As well if you were to look at the box score of the game those times when players got on base it was narrowed down to just 3 players (Kolten Wong, Yadier Molina and Matt Adams) now thats not good, yes it's a positive that the guys in the lower to middle area of the batting order got hits because thats usually where the offence weakens in a typical batting order, however in this case the guys in 3 and 4 positions who are supposed to be the power hitters who drive base runners in didn't get a single hit, and even worse their lead off man, Matt Carpenter, was only able to get on base once. Now just as a side note I'll include defensive flops in here because the Orioles had 3 errors on the game by Boujos, Wong and Adams another unsightly issue during the game and again something they were lucky didn't cost them the game.
Grade: Pitching - A, Hitting - C+, Overall - B+
Now the Cardinals had a DOMINANT game on the mound however the offence was not what we expect from them on a regular basis and the defensive errors they made were pretty bad and they got lucky it didn't cost them a run or just like the Orioles game it could have moved into extra innings and given that the Cardinals had used double the relievers that the Reds used could have made it difficult.
Toronto:
Pitching - I'll be honest I was excited to see/listen to this game because despite the lack of movement from AA in the offseason Dickey had a decent spring and said in his last outing he was working on other pitches to throw into games to throw hitters off balance and McGowan and Hutchison looked great in spring training as well, there still was hope. Or so I thought, this game pretty much embodied everything that was bad about last season. Now the pitching, if you can call it that. Was just like what happened early last year, Dickey's pitching was wild as hell he allowed 5 hits, but topped that off with a 666 line, 6 runs, 6 earned runs and 6 walks, with only 4 strikeouts to write home about. Now the issue here is that this is EXACTLY what Dickey was like last year, I think most attributed his bad start to him rushing through spring training to open for the World Baseball Classic and the back injury he played through the first half of the season. However if this is whats going to be coming out every time he takes the mound I'm really worried. Now things smoothed out when Esmil Rogers got the ball as he cleared through the following 2 innings with a couple of hits, a walk and a pair of strikeouts fairly typical performance by him but then things were handed to Jeffress in the 8th (who honestly I don't think should be in the bullpen) and he proceeded to allow another 3 runs on 1 inning. Oh man that pitching was BAAAAD today.
Hitting - Ok so unfortunately just like how Dickey's pitching today was pretty reminiscent of his pitching last season the offence had the same problems as last year as well, first off we lost Reyes to injury in the first inning (god damn it, was after the first 10 games not soon enough?!?!?!!?), then the same usual hitting happened, the front of the batting order got on base but as soon as we moved down the order everyone ceased to be able to hit leaving the team with a RISP of 0-5, which again is pretty atrocious. Now I did see some glimmers of hope in this game, Izturis managed to get on base even against David Price, Navarro got on base as well (which was a nice surprise to see our crap acquisition from last year and this years acquisition were productive against a heavy handed pitcher). As well Rasmus and Lawrie were both MUCH more patient at the plate, hell I saw Lawrie take balls and force Price to throw 10 additional pitches to get him out, and like I've said even if you can't get on base the next best thing to do is tire the pitcher out by forcing him to throw as many pitches as possible, so good on Brett for making such progress from being a bit of a strikeout machine last year. Now while those were great Lawrie did strike out 2 of the 4 times at bat and because of that in conduction with Thole and Goins we had a section that acted again as the 'strikeout alley', where offensive rallies go to die. Basically the inability of Goins and Thole to actually make an offensive impact often ended up ending innings where we had multiple men on base, which is why we should have been looking for a 2nd base option during the offseason, I'm not knocking Goins' defensive prowess but he needs more time in the minors to develop his offence before he'll be an impact player. On the other side Thole came as expected, we notched him as Dickey's personal catcher and he came to us as an offensive mess so can't expect much but you would think that Kratz might get a little more of a nod since he's much better with the bat (hell he was responsible for 2 of their 3 runs). Now my argument when they sent him down was because his ability to catch Dickey wasn't as good as Thole, but on the other hand if we stretch out their spring training both to 51 innings Kratz would have allowed less stolen bases and caught more players stealing, in addition his range is better than Thole. It seems to me after that display today Kratz should get a shot over Thole.
Grade: Pitching - D, Hitting - C, Overall - D+
Like I said that pitching was some of the ugliest I've seen in recent memory (though it looked like the Rangers v. Phillies game was worse) the reason the pitching didn't get an F was because there was some good pitching by Esmil Rogers who held the Rays to their current score for 2 innings and struck out a pair on the way. Hitting wise I'm sure some would think that it should be lower but again people got on base, some strikeout heavy players last year had better use of their eyes in this game and overall it showed the team has at least progressed a bit and it's hard to doc their score that much do to the shitty performance of 2 players.
-Eric
Monday, March 31, 2014
What If I Was The Blue Jays GM For The 2013/2014 Offseason
Alright so if your a Jays fan, or just a baseball fan in general you'd know that Alex Anthopolous, the Jays GM, made next to no moves during the offseason, which in all honesty is likely to hamper the teams progress this year and let's face it if your in win now mode you have to spend money to improve the team otherwise you could fall a couple steps behind and make it more difficult the next year or two. Anyhow lets see what I would have tried to spin in order to make the offseason successful
1.) Signing Dioner Navarro - Now I did not think this was a bad signing by any stretch of the imagination, it seemed like a very AA type signing, taking in a player who has shown promise in a part time role and convert him to the position full time and see how he does. All in all Navarro has the chops to pull off a good year behind the plate offensively and his solid defence is a HUGE upgrade from what we had last year.
2.) Sign Masahiro Tanaka - Now I know plenty of people would say 'But The Jays Don't Have That Kind Of Money'. WRONG that is bullshit. And you know why? Well it's because Rogers Communications, the owners of the Blue Jays, have one of the highest incomes for baseball owners (right up there in the top 4 or 5), which means they DO have the money the ownership just needs to step up and offer it. As for what I'd offer I'd go for a similar contract to what the Yankees offered him because you need to indicate to him that the team is serious about winning and that spending spree by the Yankees likely attracted him there but on the other side if he got the same offer from Toronto and saw all the big name players we acquired last year he might've changed his tune a bit. Additionally I believe that AA made a HUGE mistake by not going beyond 5 years, and that is because Tanaka is only 25 and a 7 or even 8 year deal would only take him to age 32-33, which is pretty much statistically the end of a players prime, which means you wouldn't really be eating any of the players downhill performance from getting 'over the hill'. Now I'm not writing any other pitchers in case we lose Tanaka because in my mind it's Tanaka or bust, because time and time again we heard over the offseason we need a front of the rotation starter, but outside of Tanaka every other FA pitcher was at best a 3rd spot in the rotation player.
3.) Trade For Chase Utley/Sign Mark Ellis - Ok so early in the offseason the Phillies re-signed Chase Utley along with some of their other aging players, which was confusing as all hell. But given the size of Utley's salary it would have been easy to try and acquire him by offering up some of our major league ready position players since the position players (nearly all of them) on the Phillies were getting to the point where they wouldn't be able to drive the team anywhere close to the post season and Utley was still able to produce at an offensive level that was a fair bit above the average for second baseman and his defensive prowess was still pretty high level as well. As well considering that we traded Brad Lincoln to the Phillies later in the offseason for Kratz and we still have a surplus of relievers we could have likely put together a package of relief pitchers as well. On the other hand if Utley still optioned to resign with the Phillies for whatever ungodly reason I would go after Mark Ellis, and for the same reason as Utley, he's not going to break the bank like signing Cano would have, but he's about average level offensive production wise and defensive wise. Add on the fact that he was playing in a much bigger park the years before, Dodgers Stadium, moving him to the Rogers Centre in the AL East could have very well given a bit of a boost to his numbers.
Ok so those are the signings/trades I would have attempted to make as the GM of the Blue Jays. Now From here we wonder how the line up would be organized.
Batting Order
1.) Jose Reyes
2.) Melky Cabrera
3.) Jose Bautista
4.) Edwin Encarnacion
5.) Colby Rasmus
6.) Chase Utley/Mark Ellis
7.) Brett Lawrie
8.) Adam Lind
9.) Dioner Navarro
Now obviously the batting order isn't changed much from last year, I moved the second baseman up and kept Navarro down at the bottom, the reason for this is because one of the glaring issues for the Jays last year was inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Now if we look at Utley/Ellis and Navarro they have had pretty high batting avg. over the last couple years, what that tells me is if we sprinkle contact hitters in the late end of the batting order we can ensure that players continue to get on base instead of the 'strikeout alley' we had last year when we had Arencibia, Rasmus, Lawrie and Izturis/Bonifacio all lined up in a row.
Starting Rotation
1.) Masahiro Tanaka
2.) R.A Dickey
3.) Mark Buerhle
4.) Drew Hutchison
5.) Brandon Morrow
Now again heres something I actually liked that AA did, put Morrow in the 5th spot, now that doesn't say anything about his ability as a pitcher but what it does do is, because of travelling days and even lengthen road trips, gives him more rest between starts, which will allow the Jays to stretch him out better and keep him in consistently good shape to prevent wearing out his arm. As well Hutchison had a fantastic spring so I gave him the #4 spot to even things out, otherwise the rotation is the same as last year with the addition of Tanaka.
-Eric
1.) Signing Dioner Navarro - Now I did not think this was a bad signing by any stretch of the imagination, it seemed like a very AA type signing, taking in a player who has shown promise in a part time role and convert him to the position full time and see how he does. All in all Navarro has the chops to pull off a good year behind the plate offensively and his solid defence is a HUGE upgrade from what we had last year.
2.) Sign Masahiro Tanaka - Now I know plenty of people would say 'But The Jays Don't Have That Kind Of Money'. WRONG that is bullshit. And you know why? Well it's because Rogers Communications, the owners of the Blue Jays, have one of the highest incomes for baseball owners (right up there in the top 4 or 5), which means they DO have the money the ownership just needs to step up and offer it. As for what I'd offer I'd go for a similar contract to what the Yankees offered him because you need to indicate to him that the team is serious about winning and that spending spree by the Yankees likely attracted him there but on the other side if he got the same offer from Toronto and saw all the big name players we acquired last year he might've changed his tune a bit. Additionally I believe that AA made a HUGE mistake by not going beyond 5 years, and that is because Tanaka is only 25 and a 7 or even 8 year deal would only take him to age 32-33, which is pretty much statistically the end of a players prime, which means you wouldn't really be eating any of the players downhill performance from getting 'over the hill'. Now I'm not writing any other pitchers in case we lose Tanaka because in my mind it's Tanaka or bust, because time and time again we heard over the offseason we need a front of the rotation starter, but outside of Tanaka every other FA pitcher was at best a 3rd spot in the rotation player.
3.) Trade For Chase Utley/Sign Mark Ellis - Ok so early in the offseason the Phillies re-signed Chase Utley along with some of their other aging players, which was confusing as all hell. But given the size of Utley's salary it would have been easy to try and acquire him by offering up some of our major league ready position players since the position players (nearly all of them) on the Phillies were getting to the point where they wouldn't be able to drive the team anywhere close to the post season and Utley was still able to produce at an offensive level that was a fair bit above the average for second baseman and his defensive prowess was still pretty high level as well. As well considering that we traded Brad Lincoln to the Phillies later in the offseason for Kratz and we still have a surplus of relievers we could have likely put together a package of relief pitchers as well. On the other hand if Utley still optioned to resign with the Phillies for whatever ungodly reason I would go after Mark Ellis, and for the same reason as Utley, he's not going to break the bank like signing Cano would have, but he's about average level offensive production wise and defensive wise. Add on the fact that he was playing in a much bigger park the years before, Dodgers Stadium, moving him to the Rogers Centre in the AL East could have very well given a bit of a boost to his numbers.
Ok so those are the signings/trades I would have attempted to make as the GM of the Blue Jays. Now From here we wonder how the line up would be organized.
Batting Order
1.) Jose Reyes
2.) Melky Cabrera
3.) Jose Bautista
4.) Edwin Encarnacion
5.) Colby Rasmus
6.) Chase Utley/Mark Ellis
7.) Brett Lawrie
8.) Adam Lind
9.) Dioner Navarro
Now obviously the batting order isn't changed much from last year, I moved the second baseman up and kept Navarro down at the bottom, the reason for this is because one of the glaring issues for the Jays last year was inability to hit with runners in scoring position. Now if we look at Utley/Ellis and Navarro they have had pretty high batting avg. over the last couple years, what that tells me is if we sprinkle contact hitters in the late end of the batting order we can ensure that players continue to get on base instead of the 'strikeout alley' we had last year when we had Arencibia, Rasmus, Lawrie and Izturis/Bonifacio all lined up in a row.
Starting Rotation
1.) Masahiro Tanaka
2.) R.A Dickey
3.) Mark Buerhle
4.) Drew Hutchison
5.) Brandon Morrow
Now again heres something I actually liked that AA did, put Morrow in the 5th spot, now that doesn't say anything about his ability as a pitcher but what it does do is, because of travelling days and even lengthen road trips, gives him more rest between starts, which will allow the Jays to stretch him out better and keep him in consistently good shape to prevent wearing out his arm. As well Hutchison had a fantastic spring so I gave him the #4 spot to even things out, otherwise the rotation is the same as last year with the addition of Tanaka.
-Eric
Saturday, March 29, 2014
A New Year A New Season (NL Breakdown)
Alright, here comes the NL side of things.
NL East:
Atlanta Braves: This offseason the Braves didn't do a whole lot, probably because they spent a lot on the Upton brothers and a couple other things last year, what they DID do, and I applaud them for this, is they have been slowly but surely been extending the current players they have to keep their core group of players together for a longer period of time. This will likely ensure they have a quality team to put out on the field for years to come. On the spring training side however the Braves ended up getting the short stick as both Mike Minor and Kris Medlen went down with injuries and will not be available for long periods of time, severely hampering their rotation. So to counter the Braves signed Ervin Santana, who will likely head up the back of the rotation with new guys like Alex Wood coming in to fill the more top of the rotation spots. All in all a good offseason followed by a bad injury hit spring training.
Philadelphia Phillies: Now I still don't think I understand what Ruben Amaro Jr. is trying to do here, it's like he's in a delusional state that still thinks he can win despite the fact that the core of his team is getting to the point of being a rotten apple and his rotation has been falling apart ever since Oswalt started to fall apart a few years ago. Now they again didn't do much in the offseason, they made a few trades (like for Brad Lincoln), they resigned Chase Utley (huh?) and got some players to fill out their starting rotation. Now like the Braves they took a major hit when one of their ace starters, Cole Hamels, went down with an injury. Now it's not as serious as what happened with Medlen but given the glaring weakness the Phillies have in their rotation behind Hamels and Lee it's likely to make big problems for them for the time he is gone.
Washington Nationals: Now all I can do is say bravo to what the Nationals have done so far, they made an INCREDIBLY lopsided trade with the Tigers for Doug Fister, they've managed Stephen Strasburg perfectly so they can now let him off the leash this year and they could make some potential player moves that could play off (ie. slot in Rendon at 3rd and move Zimmerman to 1st). Their spring training thankful hasn't come with any serious injuries to their team and on the other hand Bryce Harper came into camp looking like a god damn tank. The only thing they didn't do was address their bullpen issue as Rafael Soriano was fairly shaky last year in the closer position, though this isn't a huge worry as they still have Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard, 2 proven closers, ready to take over if he stumbles.
Miami Marlins: Not even going to say anything here, they made more questionable signings, and honestly I think the Marlins franchise will be forever tainted after last offseason because after hearing from the guys who got traded it seemed like Jeff Loria has complete control of the team and has no regard for player's livelihood. This can be further seen by the fact that Giancarlo Stanton doesn't seem to want to sign an extension with them, overall I think Loria has damaged the reputation of the Marlins and they will find it hard to sign players for a while, unless they can show otherwise.
New York Mets: Now the Mets again didn't make any huge splashes, they signed a couple aging players like Marlin Byrd and Curtis Granderson, but again thats just what they are aging players, so don't look for them to make any glaring differences in the teams play. Spring training wise it was a bit odd with the Mets, not so much because of injuries but there was a bit of a spat between the Mets and Matt Harvey about where he would rehab his arm, as well as their GM saying that he believed they were capable of winning 90+ games with their current roster. A bit odd, on the other hand, and it pains me to say this, but ex-Jays prospect Noah Syndergaard, who is with the Mets now looked fantastic this spring and is more than likely going to make the starting rotation in a year or two. All in all the Mets are going to be a force to be reckoned with in a couple years as they have Johnathon Niese and Dillion Gee, coupled with Zach Wheeler, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard all three of which have the potential to be top 10 starting pitchers.
NL Central
Chicago Cubs: Well the cubs again like many developing teams, did not make any big time changes to their roster over the offseason. Luckily they managed to stay rather clean in the way of injuries and have made a good decision to slot Mike Olt in at 3rd base for the season, which will no doubt better integrate their future players and there has been talk about bringing up Javier Baez, their SS prospect. Hell even Starlin Castro even has said he'd be willing to move to 2B to make room for Baez, this is very good to hear, not only do they have one of their biggest prospects close to breaking the major league roster but its good to hear that other stars in the roster are excited and willing to bite the bullet so to speak in order to get him in. Much like the Mets, if the Cubs prospects break out at the same time they will be a deadly team in a few years.
Cincinnati Reds: Again like the Cubs, the Reds didn't make any serious moves during the offseason, though they did say goodbye to catcher Ryan Hannigan, and outfielder Shin Soo Choo. The loss of Choo was a pretty big deal as he has a big OBP and was VERY key as their lead off hitter, losing Hannigan however wasn't as much of a big deal as he hasn't recently been a huge piece on the team defensively or offensively. On the other hand they have made changes using internal options, specifically bringing up prospect Billy Hamilton and Tony Cingrani to cover the holes in the oration and outfield. Now both of these guys tore it up in the minors and are looked at as big time prospects, now Cingrani has proved his talent with about half a season under his belt last year. On the other hand there are many detractors to Billy Hamilton since he isn't really profiled as having very good batting stats and abilities, however he has been fairly good during spring training flashing some good ability to act as the Reds lead off hitter and if he can put that speed of his to use it'll be a big help for the Reds (he can beat out a throw from Yadier Molina, the best defensive catcher in the game)
Milwaukee Brewers: Seems like a pretty common thing in the NL Central but the Brewers again didn't break the bank making any major signings either outside of getting Matt Garza back after their trade of him to the Rangers mid last year. Now again like the Reds the holes that were left after last year have been filled by younger players that many analysts believe have some high potentials, such as Khris Davis (yes different from the Baltimore Chris Davis) and Jean Segura. Both of these guys are expected to be fairly high end players in the next few years and given what has been seen from them in the minors, spring training and their limited last year exposure it is very much possible that they could achieve it.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Now I know this may be a surprise but the Pirates………..DIDN'T make any big moves this offseason! It's get a bit odd typing this over and over but its' the truth, the Pirates lost A.J Burnett but not much else and they had Wandy Rodriguez coming back from injury so they already had a worthy option to fill that void, so no issue. Overall they still have the ability to make a splash in the NL Central and potentially make it to the wild card again this year.
St. Louis Cardinals: Now I don't want to sound like I'm branding over for the Cardinals but in my mind these guys are like the gold standard that every baseball organization should strive to be like. Now I say that because they have made some good moves this offseason (signing Johnny Peralta, trading for Peter Bourjos and signing Mark Ellis). Now the Peralta signing may not be perfect but it will likely help with the offensive hold left by Beltran and trading for Bourjos does the exact opposite that happened with Beltran, it gives them a Gold Glove caliber player who can easily cover the range. Now I'm not saying defence is better than offence, but a highly defensive centre fielder is a HUGE asset when you live in a more pitcher friendly park as they can make the catches a slower more power focused CF might not be able to. The only funny thing is that after signing Mark Ellis to cover 2B they noticed Kolten Wong, who broke camp and took away the 2B position from Ellis as his performance in spring training was great. Now this is very helpful because now they have one of their star infielder prospects in and a very usable defensive and offensive replacement ready to go if anything goes south. Then in terms of pitching they have the return of all of their huge new players who dominated last year in the rotation and hell they even have 2 of them (Rosenthal and Martinez) holding up the back end of their bullpen. With their prospects in more fortified positions the Cardinals are again a HUGE bit of competition.
NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks: Ok so the Diamondbacks did make some moves on the offseason for instance being involved in that 3 team trade with the Angels and the White Sox, however they seemed to get the short stick of the trade as they gave up big prospects like Skaggs and Eaton and only got Addison Reed and Mark Trumbo in return. Now I don't think Trumbo is a bad player but with Goldschmidt at first they have to slot him in the outfield and as he's a slower player he's a bit of a defensive liability and he has been a bit strikeout happy over the last couple seasons, which again is not that great even if he hits 30 or so HR a year. Reed on the other hand is good for a closer but not for the trading away of Skaggs and Eaton. Outside of that they have brought up prospects Chris Owings and Didi Gregorious to play SS and it looks like they will likely platoon those guys against their respective pitchers for the best results, in addition they also signed Bronson Arroyo, which was a bit odd because it fortified the back end of their rotation, which you think they would like to keep open since they have younger players that will or already have come up and need to get experience in those 4/5 rotation spots (Randal Delgado and Archie Bradley). However during spring training they lost their ace Patrick Corbin to Tommy John surgery and will be out for the remainder of this year and will likely not be back not be back to full power until about half to a full yr after that (which is pretty typical of pitchers who undergo tommy john, which is why the Nationals held a innings limit over Strasburg the first year back).
Colorado Rockies: Not much was done here, only real move of any consequence that the Rockies made was trading Drew Pomeranz to the Oakland Athletics for Brett Anderson, who will sit mid way in their rotation, which could help but still moving any pitcher to Coors Field is always a bit sketchy but we'll see.
LA Dodgers: Much like the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers only made a few changes to their roster and they weren't all that significant. They first added the Cuban defector Alexandre Guerrero who was supposed to take the place of Mark Ellis at second, however through spring training it was VERY apparent he had a LONG way to go in order to make the major league roster so he's starting the season in the minors and Dee Gordon is getting a second chance in the roster at second until Alex is ready. The other change they made was signing Dan Haren, now the Dodgers slotted him into the 4th position in their starting rotation, which seems to be about the right spot of Haren, however he is a injury risk given his current injury history, which could pose problems since they have lost some of their starting pitching depth to injury or free agency (i.e.. Capuano, Biilingsley, etc.). As well there have been some minor injuries to Dodgers players that will only really affect the first couple games and likely won't effect their finishing position.
San Diego Padres: Ok so the Padres actually have an interesting team this year, now they didn't many changes outside of grabbing up Ian Kennedy, Josh Johnson and Joaquin Benoit. Now these 3 pitchers might not be huge deals in any team in a VERY pitcher friendly park like Petco it increases their value significantly, now Johnson has gotten injured AGAIN so he is likely not to contribute much during the year however Kennedy could very well help the rotation and Joaquin Benoit is a quality set up man and could be invaluable as a backstop behind Huston Street both to protect the lead or fill in if Street gets injured like he has before. Now the reason I say they have an interesting team isn't because of these signings it's because they have 2 high end prospects who have high upside settling in their rotation, Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross, now Cashner has already proved himself as a top of the rotation starter and can hold his own against most. In addition if Venable, Maybin and Cabrera can continue their production from last year or even make a slight step forward their offence will be in a good spot. Additionally they have their big name catcher Yasmani Grandal back from the DL and again that gives the offence a boost and if Gyorko can keep his production from last year and Headley can step back to his 2011 skill set then the Padres could be a logical postseason candidate.
San Francisco Giants: Much like the Dodgers, the Giants made only a couple of signings under the radar because they weren't high end players, those being Tim Hudson and Michael Morse. Now these two signings are good for the Giants because Hudson may be an aged pitcher but AT&T park is one of the best pitcher friendly parks which should make him a more worth while pitcher and Michael Morse is a good candidate to get his power back given what we saw in Spring Training and at the tail end of last year. Outside of this there wasn't any significant changes mad to their roster and their spring training didn't bring about any serious injuries or prospects that could break camp, overall expect more of the same or maybe a slight improvement for the Giants this season.
Ok so that wraps up the Offseason and Spring Training breakdowns for both the AL and NL. Next I'm going to be putting on my GM hat and letting everyone know what I would have done if I was in the position of Alex Anthopolous over last offseason. Now I don't plan on saying I would sign ALL of the big name free agents, I will give specific players that would make sense and explanations to them all.
-Eric
NL East:
Atlanta Braves: This offseason the Braves didn't do a whole lot, probably because they spent a lot on the Upton brothers and a couple other things last year, what they DID do, and I applaud them for this, is they have been slowly but surely been extending the current players they have to keep their core group of players together for a longer period of time. This will likely ensure they have a quality team to put out on the field for years to come. On the spring training side however the Braves ended up getting the short stick as both Mike Minor and Kris Medlen went down with injuries and will not be available for long periods of time, severely hampering their rotation. So to counter the Braves signed Ervin Santana, who will likely head up the back of the rotation with new guys like Alex Wood coming in to fill the more top of the rotation spots. All in all a good offseason followed by a bad injury hit spring training.
Philadelphia Phillies: Now I still don't think I understand what Ruben Amaro Jr. is trying to do here, it's like he's in a delusional state that still thinks he can win despite the fact that the core of his team is getting to the point of being a rotten apple and his rotation has been falling apart ever since Oswalt started to fall apart a few years ago. Now they again didn't do much in the offseason, they made a few trades (like for Brad Lincoln), they resigned Chase Utley (huh?) and got some players to fill out their starting rotation. Now like the Braves they took a major hit when one of their ace starters, Cole Hamels, went down with an injury. Now it's not as serious as what happened with Medlen but given the glaring weakness the Phillies have in their rotation behind Hamels and Lee it's likely to make big problems for them for the time he is gone.
Washington Nationals: Now all I can do is say bravo to what the Nationals have done so far, they made an INCREDIBLY lopsided trade with the Tigers for Doug Fister, they've managed Stephen Strasburg perfectly so they can now let him off the leash this year and they could make some potential player moves that could play off (ie. slot in Rendon at 3rd and move Zimmerman to 1st). Their spring training thankful hasn't come with any serious injuries to their team and on the other hand Bryce Harper came into camp looking like a god damn tank. The only thing they didn't do was address their bullpen issue as Rafael Soriano was fairly shaky last year in the closer position, though this isn't a huge worry as they still have Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard, 2 proven closers, ready to take over if he stumbles.
Miami Marlins: Not even going to say anything here, they made more questionable signings, and honestly I think the Marlins franchise will be forever tainted after last offseason because after hearing from the guys who got traded it seemed like Jeff Loria has complete control of the team and has no regard for player's livelihood. This can be further seen by the fact that Giancarlo Stanton doesn't seem to want to sign an extension with them, overall I think Loria has damaged the reputation of the Marlins and they will find it hard to sign players for a while, unless they can show otherwise.
New York Mets: Now the Mets again didn't make any huge splashes, they signed a couple aging players like Marlin Byrd and Curtis Granderson, but again thats just what they are aging players, so don't look for them to make any glaring differences in the teams play. Spring training wise it was a bit odd with the Mets, not so much because of injuries but there was a bit of a spat between the Mets and Matt Harvey about where he would rehab his arm, as well as their GM saying that he believed they were capable of winning 90+ games with their current roster. A bit odd, on the other hand, and it pains me to say this, but ex-Jays prospect Noah Syndergaard, who is with the Mets now looked fantastic this spring and is more than likely going to make the starting rotation in a year or two. All in all the Mets are going to be a force to be reckoned with in a couple years as they have Johnathon Niese and Dillion Gee, coupled with Zach Wheeler, Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard all three of which have the potential to be top 10 starting pitchers.
NL Central
Chicago Cubs: Well the cubs again like many developing teams, did not make any big time changes to their roster over the offseason. Luckily they managed to stay rather clean in the way of injuries and have made a good decision to slot Mike Olt in at 3rd base for the season, which will no doubt better integrate their future players and there has been talk about bringing up Javier Baez, their SS prospect. Hell even Starlin Castro even has said he'd be willing to move to 2B to make room for Baez, this is very good to hear, not only do they have one of their biggest prospects close to breaking the major league roster but its good to hear that other stars in the roster are excited and willing to bite the bullet so to speak in order to get him in. Much like the Mets, if the Cubs prospects break out at the same time they will be a deadly team in a few years.
Cincinnati Reds: Again like the Cubs, the Reds didn't make any serious moves during the offseason, though they did say goodbye to catcher Ryan Hannigan, and outfielder Shin Soo Choo. The loss of Choo was a pretty big deal as he has a big OBP and was VERY key as their lead off hitter, losing Hannigan however wasn't as much of a big deal as he hasn't recently been a huge piece on the team defensively or offensively. On the other hand they have made changes using internal options, specifically bringing up prospect Billy Hamilton and Tony Cingrani to cover the holes in the oration and outfield. Now both of these guys tore it up in the minors and are looked at as big time prospects, now Cingrani has proved his talent with about half a season under his belt last year. On the other hand there are many detractors to Billy Hamilton since he isn't really profiled as having very good batting stats and abilities, however he has been fairly good during spring training flashing some good ability to act as the Reds lead off hitter and if he can put that speed of his to use it'll be a big help for the Reds (he can beat out a throw from Yadier Molina, the best defensive catcher in the game)
Milwaukee Brewers: Seems like a pretty common thing in the NL Central but the Brewers again didn't break the bank making any major signings either outside of getting Matt Garza back after their trade of him to the Rangers mid last year. Now again like the Reds the holes that were left after last year have been filled by younger players that many analysts believe have some high potentials, such as Khris Davis (yes different from the Baltimore Chris Davis) and Jean Segura. Both of these guys are expected to be fairly high end players in the next few years and given what has been seen from them in the minors, spring training and their limited last year exposure it is very much possible that they could achieve it.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Now I know this may be a surprise but the Pirates………..DIDN'T make any big moves this offseason! It's get a bit odd typing this over and over but its' the truth, the Pirates lost A.J Burnett but not much else and they had Wandy Rodriguez coming back from injury so they already had a worthy option to fill that void, so no issue. Overall they still have the ability to make a splash in the NL Central and potentially make it to the wild card again this year.
St. Louis Cardinals: Now I don't want to sound like I'm branding over for the Cardinals but in my mind these guys are like the gold standard that every baseball organization should strive to be like. Now I say that because they have made some good moves this offseason (signing Johnny Peralta, trading for Peter Bourjos and signing Mark Ellis). Now the Peralta signing may not be perfect but it will likely help with the offensive hold left by Beltran and trading for Bourjos does the exact opposite that happened with Beltran, it gives them a Gold Glove caliber player who can easily cover the range. Now I'm not saying defence is better than offence, but a highly defensive centre fielder is a HUGE asset when you live in a more pitcher friendly park as they can make the catches a slower more power focused CF might not be able to. The only funny thing is that after signing Mark Ellis to cover 2B they noticed Kolten Wong, who broke camp and took away the 2B position from Ellis as his performance in spring training was great. Now this is very helpful because now they have one of their star infielder prospects in and a very usable defensive and offensive replacement ready to go if anything goes south. Then in terms of pitching they have the return of all of their huge new players who dominated last year in the rotation and hell they even have 2 of them (Rosenthal and Martinez) holding up the back end of their bullpen. With their prospects in more fortified positions the Cardinals are again a HUGE bit of competition.
NL West
Arizona Diamondbacks: Ok so the Diamondbacks did make some moves on the offseason for instance being involved in that 3 team trade with the Angels and the White Sox, however they seemed to get the short stick of the trade as they gave up big prospects like Skaggs and Eaton and only got Addison Reed and Mark Trumbo in return. Now I don't think Trumbo is a bad player but with Goldschmidt at first they have to slot him in the outfield and as he's a slower player he's a bit of a defensive liability and he has been a bit strikeout happy over the last couple seasons, which again is not that great even if he hits 30 or so HR a year. Reed on the other hand is good for a closer but not for the trading away of Skaggs and Eaton. Outside of that they have brought up prospects Chris Owings and Didi Gregorious to play SS and it looks like they will likely platoon those guys against their respective pitchers for the best results, in addition they also signed Bronson Arroyo, which was a bit odd because it fortified the back end of their rotation, which you think they would like to keep open since they have younger players that will or already have come up and need to get experience in those 4/5 rotation spots (Randal Delgado and Archie Bradley). However during spring training they lost their ace Patrick Corbin to Tommy John surgery and will be out for the remainder of this year and will likely not be back not be back to full power until about half to a full yr after that (which is pretty typical of pitchers who undergo tommy john, which is why the Nationals held a innings limit over Strasburg the first year back).
Colorado Rockies: Not much was done here, only real move of any consequence that the Rockies made was trading Drew Pomeranz to the Oakland Athletics for Brett Anderson, who will sit mid way in their rotation, which could help but still moving any pitcher to Coors Field is always a bit sketchy but we'll see.
LA Dodgers: Much like the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers only made a few changes to their roster and they weren't all that significant. They first added the Cuban defector Alexandre Guerrero who was supposed to take the place of Mark Ellis at second, however through spring training it was VERY apparent he had a LONG way to go in order to make the major league roster so he's starting the season in the minors and Dee Gordon is getting a second chance in the roster at second until Alex is ready. The other change they made was signing Dan Haren, now the Dodgers slotted him into the 4th position in their starting rotation, which seems to be about the right spot of Haren, however he is a injury risk given his current injury history, which could pose problems since they have lost some of their starting pitching depth to injury or free agency (i.e.. Capuano, Biilingsley, etc.). As well there have been some minor injuries to Dodgers players that will only really affect the first couple games and likely won't effect their finishing position.
San Diego Padres: Ok so the Padres actually have an interesting team this year, now they didn't many changes outside of grabbing up Ian Kennedy, Josh Johnson and Joaquin Benoit. Now these 3 pitchers might not be huge deals in any team in a VERY pitcher friendly park like Petco it increases their value significantly, now Johnson has gotten injured AGAIN so he is likely not to contribute much during the year however Kennedy could very well help the rotation and Joaquin Benoit is a quality set up man and could be invaluable as a backstop behind Huston Street both to protect the lead or fill in if Street gets injured like he has before. Now the reason I say they have an interesting team isn't because of these signings it's because they have 2 high end prospects who have high upside settling in their rotation, Andrew Cashner and Tyson Ross, now Cashner has already proved himself as a top of the rotation starter and can hold his own against most. In addition if Venable, Maybin and Cabrera can continue their production from last year or even make a slight step forward their offence will be in a good spot. Additionally they have their big name catcher Yasmani Grandal back from the DL and again that gives the offence a boost and if Gyorko can keep his production from last year and Headley can step back to his 2011 skill set then the Padres could be a logical postseason candidate.
San Francisco Giants: Much like the Dodgers, the Giants made only a couple of signings under the radar because they weren't high end players, those being Tim Hudson and Michael Morse. Now these two signings are good for the Giants because Hudson may be an aged pitcher but AT&T park is one of the best pitcher friendly parks which should make him a more worth while pitcher and Michael Morse is a good candidate to get his power back given what we saw in Spring Training and at the tail end of last year. Outside of this there wasn't any significant changes mad to their roster and their spring training didn't bring about any serious injuries or prospects that could break camp, overall expect more of the same or maybe a slight improvement for the Giants this season.
Ok so that wraps up the Offseason and Spring Training breakdowns for both the AL and NL. Next I'm going to be putting on my GM hat and letting everyone know what I would have done if I was in the position of Alex Anthopolous over last offseason. Now I don't plan on saying I would sign ALL of the big name free agents, I will give specific players that would make sense and explanations to them all.
-Eric
Thursday, March 27, 2014
A New Year A New Season (AL Breakdown)
So it's less than a week until opening day for baseball and several teams look quite sharper than they did at the end of last year, let's tale a quick look at the changes to each division over the offseason and subsequent spring training.
AL East
AL East
- Yankees signed McCann, Beltran, Ellsbury, Tanaka, Johnson and Roberts to cover for departures at C, CF, LF, 2B, 3B and SP (I personally think most of these position player signings will come back to bite the Yankees, though I believe thats because most of the position players have shown to be injury risks and have all been signed onto lengthy contracts, so I expect for the first 2-3 yrs they will get what they paid for but then the players will degrade like what happened with Texiera, Granderson and others and the Yanks will be stuck with their dick in their hands once again)
- Red Sox didn't do all that much, signed A.J. Pierzynski and nabbed some other players including Grady Sizemore (whose spring training may indicate he can play up to around the same level he could before, if he manages to stay healthy, which would make the Red Sox a dangerous team again. Although their loss of Dempster in the rotation does put a small hole in their pitching as well)
- Rays, like the Red Sox didn't do a hell of a lot, they re-signed players, snagged some more bargain free agents, which is what they do, and given their ability to develop players, they will undoubtably be a force come postseason time
- Orioles signed some new pitching, specifically guys like Ubaldo Jimenez, now I don't like this guy much (as a pitcher not a person) and thats because he has been incredibly inconsistent bouncing back and forth from good yr to bad yr and on top of that people are over hyping what he did last year since he only managed it for HALF a season. In addition to improvement to their rotation they changed around their bullpen with the departure of Jim Johnson and also filled holes left by Brian Roberts and others as well as finding a temporary fill in for Machado. Like the Rays they have had winning in their eyes and will likely again be a competitive team this year
- Jays, well unfortunately my team didn't do much of anything, they made several rather meaningless minor league deals (except getting Kawasaki back), signed Dioner Navarro (who would be a fantastic signing if he can get to the numbers he had last year in a part time role with the Cubs. In addition they have taken Happ out of the rotation (mostly due to injury) and slotted in 2 of the 3 returning from Tommy John, Drew Hutchison and Dustin McGowan, both who have had productive spring training numbers. The level of success the Jays see this year will solely depend on 3 things, first the teams ability to stay healthy (while lots of people say the Jays were just bad last year there was not a single game where we fielded the lineup AA had set up and a lot of bad performances can be attributed to injuries, like Melky and the tumour or Dickey and his back issues), second the starting rotation needs to pull it's weight and not fall flat on it's face like last year (while injuries were a big part of it the Jays got off to an incredibly slow start due to the rotation, no pun intended, dropping the ball for most of the year and the depth we used to fill being unable to keep up), and third breakouts or progression from McGowan, Hutchison and Lawrie, we all know that Encarnacion, Bautista, Reyes and Rasmus (to a lesser extent) have the ability to drive this offence but the problem we had offensively last year was an inability to hit with runners in scoring position (in essence our first 4 batters would set the table but everyone after was unable to clear it)
AL Central
- Tigers made one decent to 'meh' trade and one really crap trade, they obtained Ian Kinsler for Prince Fielder (a not so great trade for them since Fielder is obviously the more premium player in the deal and Kinsler's skill set has been declining in recent years and moving him to a less hitter friendly park will hurt his numbers more. Then they also let go of Doug Fister for some prospects from Washington, those of which were not of high quality, this was terrible as they were giving up a very solid #2-#3 starter for no real immediate pay off, which is what they need and given that Fister is a ground ball pitcher he would have benefitted from the better defence provided from the newly acquired 2B and Iglesias once he's back. All in all the Tigers slightly downgraded and since last season showed us Miggy is human as he got injured, now while this open the floodgates for Miggy injuries? Maybe but we'll have to see
- White Sox, now I really like what these guys did, they secured through trade and signing some real stellar young talent and then managed to sign some key young players like Jose Abreu that will hold as the core of their roster for years to come. If their pitching in the minors catches up the White Sox could very well be contenders within the next 3-4 years.
- Royals, now I'm in awe at what they have been able to do, they increased their offensive ability and defensive ability by taking on Norichika Aoki as well as Omar Infante, they re-signed Shields and they are bringing up a fireball throwing youngster in Yordano Ventura to cover the last spot in their rotation and if any of the Cardinals young pitchers have shown us anything, these young guys can be stars right off the bat. The Royals will, in my opinion, likely take the AL Central or at least give a real close chase with the Tigers
- Twins, not much of anything to say. They signed Nolasco, Hughes and other mediocre pitchers who are unlikely to really change their situation, I expect they will still be at the bottom of the barrel
- Indians will be in a similar situation to the Tigers in that they let go some key players and didn't do a hell of a lot to make up for their absence and this year they don't have that ridiculously easy schedule to rely upon to get by. All in all in order for the Indians to replicate their 2013 success all of their players are going to have to play at 100+% and they will need breakouts from some of their younger guys like Danny Salazar, Trevor Plouffe or Lonnie Chisenhall
AL West:
- Athletics, now I love most of these small market teams because they manage to be so damn smart about winning, now the Athletics like many small market teams didn't make much of a splash this offseason, they changed closers to Jim Johnson, which couldn't hurt since Oakland has a smaller ball park and better infield defence. In addition they traded away some guys for some pitching depth. Now recently however a couple of their starters have managed to get themselves injured, specifically Jarrod Parker who is out for the year getting Tommy John surgery, which will undoubtedly hurt them in the long run. However the A's still have a good set of pitchers including one of the star young pitchers from last year Sonny Gray and given that every team in the AL West seems to be getting hit by the injury bug I expect them to be the main source of competition in the AL West.
- Rangers, now on the other side of the Tigers trade, they got the best f the deal and they even managed to sort out issues they would have initially had in their bullpen by bringing back Feliz and setting up Soria as the set up man. Now that was before all the injuries hit, Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and countless others will be out for extended periods of time putting a big dent in their pitching as well as their offence (Profar and Andrus). If these players can come back in good shape in a hurry they will probably finish second in this division
- Angels, made a couple 'meh' trades to increase pitching depth but similar to the Jays if their players can stay healthy, they get breakouts from some of the younger players and these new pitchers deliver then they could be a force to be reckoned with, especially with the potential ceiling with guys like Tyler Skaggs
- Mariners, these were the big guys who signed Robinson Cano to the most ridiculous deal in the history of baseball, in addition they made other additions like Corey Hart to their offence and brought up some of their high end pitching prospects to start the year (Taijuan Walker, James Paxton, etc.). They have the same kind of out look as the Angels, though their offence has several more questions than the other teams so they aren't likely to make the playoffs or anything
- Astros, while they will likely be looking at another at or around 100 loss season looking at the progress of their prospects and how close they are to the majors, the Astros are going to be a very scary team in the next 4-5 years and the addition of Dexter Fowler will help with holding things down now and maybe helping ease in the new kids when they get called up. All in all I look forward to seeing the progression of the Astros as their farm system risings from the grave to take a shot a the post season.
Well thats the run down for the AL, I'll post the NL version shortly they I'm going to go back and let you know what I would have done if I was in Alex Anthopolous' position during the offseason.
-Eric
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