AL East
1. New York Yankees (100-62)
2. Boston Red Sox (92-70)
3. Baltimore Orioles (80-82)
4. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (70-92)
5. Toronto Blue Jays (68-94)
Revised
1. Boston Red Sox
2. New York Yankees
3. Baltimore Orioles
4. Toronto Blue Jays
5. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
The Yankees are just simply the best team in baseball, end of story. Their only weakness last year was pitching, and they substantially upgraded their bullpen and rotation.
The Red Sox improved too, but losing Pedro Martinez will be more of a loss than Boston faithfull want to believe. The Red Sox essentially dealt Martinez and Derek Lowe for David Wells, Matt Clement and Wade Miller, while that upgraded thier depth, it took away two "stoppers" and guys you could really count on. I'm not sure thats the case with any of those three.
The Orioles upgraded an already good offense, but again have very little pitching, stop me if you've heard that before. The Devil Rays should be fun to watch, their managed well and have a lot of young guys on the horizon. I'm not saying anything about the Blue Jays because they don't even deserve that much recognition.
Okay, so I was way off on the Yankees synopsis, but I did pretty well on the Orioles. My appologies to the Blue Jays, I thought you would be one of the worst teams in baseball, man was I wrong.
AL Central
1. Minnesota Twins (89-73)
2. Cleveland Indians (85-77)
3. Detroit Tigers (78-84)
4. Chicago White Sox (72-90)
5. Kansas City Royals (63-99)
Revised:
1. Chicago White Sox
2. Minnesota Twins
3. Detroit Tigers
4. Cleveland Indians
5. Kansas City Royals
This division improved, well two teams did, but the Twins are still the class of the Central. I like the Indians a lot, but didn't have the guts to pick them ahead of the Twins. They have a good young offense (Boone, Haffner, Martinez, Bard) and a good young staff which got the addition of Kevin Millwood, but the Twins are solid.
Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer will be the best players at their respective positions in the next few years, Santana is one of the best pitchers in the league, and Lew Ford is the best player you've never heard of.
The Tigers will be interesting to watch. For the second straight year they made a big splash in free agency (last year it was Ivan Rodriguez, this year it's Magglio Ordonez). They have a very good offense and now a good bullpen to match (Ugeth Urbina, Kyle Farnsworth, Matt Ginter and Troy Percivil). Too bad they don't have good starting pitching, or they'd compete for the division crown.
The White Sox took a big step back by trading Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik (Don't you have to get more for a young power hitter than a journeyman minor leager who is a one trick p0ny?) They also brought in Jermaine Dye, good luck with that. A.J. Pierzynski is one of the most hated teamates in the league and the Sox are embracing him with open arms. Mark Buhrle, Freddy Garcia, Jose Contrares and Orlando Hernandez (besides being the top 4 guys in their rotation) are all Jeckyl and Hides, Frank Thomas is hurt, Paul Konerko wants a new contract, the bullpen is shaky, I could keep going on. Sounds like a long year for Ozzie and the southsiders.
Man was I way off on that one, but in fairness, did any of you expect the White Sox to play like they have so far? No, you didn't. You thought they would be as bad as I thought they'd be. I may have overhyped the Twins and especially Indians a bit, but hey, I was dead on when it comes to the Royals.
AL West
1. Oakland A's (88-74)
2. L.A. of Anahiem Angels (87-75)
3. Seattle Mariners (81-81)
4. Texas Rangers (70-92)
Revised:
1. Oakland A's
2. L.A. of Anahiem Angels
3. Texas Rangers
4. Seattle Mariners
It would be too easy to pick the Angels to win this division, plus I have a hard time picking against Billy Beane. The A's pitching is still good, They improved their offense, and the bullpen will get a big shot in the arm when Huston Street becomes the closer at midseason.
I don't know what it is, but I just don't buy the Angels. The pitching staff is still suspect, they lost some key guys in the bullpen and are replacing the left side of their infield and their centerfielder. Yes, the new starters are better than what they had last year, but you still have adjusting to do. That, and I'm waiting for Steve Finley to break down.
The M's offense will be very good, but just like the Rangers and Orioles, they don't have any pitching to keep them from getting into 10-8 games.
This division was my work of art, I may have nailed it including the records. Not much to add besides that, you can't really argue with anything in the above paragraphs.
Wild Card: Boston Red Sox
Playoffs
ALDS: Yankees over A's
Twins over Red Sox
ALCS: Yankees over Twins
AL MVP: Eric Chavez
CY Young: Johan Santana
R.O.Y.: Nick Swisher (OF Oakland A's)
First Player Traded: Ugeth Urbina
First Manager Fired: Tony Pena
Don't Be Surprised If: The Royals are retracted during the season
Revised:
Wild Card: Angels
Playoffs
ALDS: Boston over A's
Angels over White Sox
ALCS: Boston over Angels
AL MVP: Manny Ramirez (who knows, Chavez does have a legitimate shot)
AL CY Young: Mark Buehrle
AL R.O.Y.: ? (Gustavo Chacin, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Rubin Gotay, all these guys have played well, but I can't really name any AL Rookies besides them)
First Player Traded: I think it may have been Urbina, who knows
First Manager Fired: Technically he resigned, but Pena was the first gone
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Daily Brew 7/27
The Brewers picked up another big win last night, and Rookie shortstop JJ Hardy is really starting to come around offensively. Where are all those "Bill Hall should start over JJ," or "Send JJ down to AAA" naysayers now? Hardy has been on an absolute tear as of late, he homered to give the Crew the lead on monday and then singled to give them the lead last night. His batting average has raised to .214, not great but considering where he was two months ago I'll take it. You had to expect some early offensive troubles from him, the guy basically missed a full year of baseball. Even when he was struggling the encouraging thing was he was never overmatched. He didn't look bad at the plate, and rarely struck out. He is going to be a .280 hitter and will probably replace Ricky Weeks in the two hole next year.
Greg Maddux picked up his 3000th career strikeout last night. He became the 13th member of this elite club, and it couldn't have happened a more appropriate way. Called strike three.
The Red Sox beat the Devil Rays 10-9 in 10 innings last night, but a real scare came in the third inning when Carl Crawford drilled a line-drive off the right side of Matt Clement's head. The game was delayed for 11 minutes while Clement layed on the mound only blinking his eyes. This is the scariest sight in baseball, and it's truely remarkable that it doesn't happen more often.
Sammy Sosa blasted his 586th career home run last night tying him with Frank Robinson for fifth place on the all-time list.
Larry Brown will be introduced tomorrow as new coach of the Knicks. It's still uncertain where this leaves Herb Williams, and why the two had lunch the other day. Why Larry? I understand this is who he is, but you leave the Pistons for the Knicks? Isiah Thomas has no idea what he's doing, the roster is in bad shape, and theres no real possibility of improving it anytime soon. There you go Larry, you got what you wanted.
I had the chance to see "Real Sports" on HBO last night and they ran a feature on our favorite agent, Drew Rosenhaus. It was on this taping where he announced that Javon Walker would not report, and where he spelled more ludacris statements. While asked by Bernard Goldberg "If you can hold out for more money when a player overperform their contract, what about when they underperform thier deal, will you give back money?" Good question, an argument all of us have made. Rosenhaus' answer was absolutely not, that player deserves that money, he worked for it. What? Isn't that a double standard? He also tried to make the arguement that no one cares when Tom Cruise makes $25 million for a movie but when TO wants to renegotiate his contract he's a villan. Well maybe becuase Tom Cruise isn't threatening to hold out and breaking his contract with MGM to make that movie, TO meanwhile is holding out and breaking his contract. He also said the longer this goes on with TO and Javon, eventually the teams will break because the games start to count and their jobs are on the line. The longer it goes on, the more I get the impression the teams will defeat Rosenhaus. If you're so highly underpaid and not making that much money, then it's really going to hurth when those game checks aren't coming in and you're still getting fined for breach of contract, isn't it?
Greg Maddux picked up his 3000th career strikeout last night. He became the 13th member of this elite club, and it couldn't have happened a more appropriate way. Called strike three.
The Red Sox beat the Devil Rays 10-9 in 10 innings last night, but a real scare came in the third inning when Carl Crawford drilled a line-drive off the right side of Matt Clement's head. The game was delayed for 11 minutes while Clement layed on the mound only blinking his eyes. This is the scariest sight in baseball, and it's truely remarkable that it doesn't happen more often.
Sammy Sosa blasted his 586th career home run last night tying him with Frank Robinson for fifth place on the all-time list.
Larry Brown will be introduced tomorrow as new coach of the Knicks. It's still uncertain where this leaves Herb Williams, and why the two had lunch the other day. Why Larry? I understand this is who he is, but you leave the Pistons for the Knicks? Isiah Thomas has no idea what he's doing, the roster is in bad shape, and theres no real possibility of improving it anytime soon. There you go Larry, you got what you wanted.
I had the chance to see "Real Sports" on HBO last night and they ran a feature on our favorite agent, Drew Rosenhaus. It was on this taping where he announced that Javon Walker would not report, and where he spelled more ludacris statements. While asked by Bernard Goldberg "If you can hold out for more money when a player overperform their contract, what about when they underperform thier deal, will you give back money?" Good question, an argument all of us have made. Rosenhaus' answer was absolutely not, that player deserves that money, he worked for it. What? Isn't that a double standard? He also tried to make the arguement that no one cares when Tom Cruise makes $25 million for a movie but when TO wants to renegotiate his contract he's a villan. Well maybe becuase Tom Cruise isn't threatening to hold out and breaking his contract with MGM to make that movie, TO meanwhile is holding out and breaking his contract. He also said the longer this goes on with TO and Javon, eventually the teams will break because the games start to count and their jobs are on the line. The longer it goes on, the more I get the impression the teams will defeat Rosenhaus. If you're so highly underpaid and not making that much money, then it's really going to hurth when those game checks aren't coming in and you're still getting fined for breach of contract, isn't it?
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
A case for Doug Melvin
Ok, so it's now no secret that JG is a large fan of the Oakland A's GM, Billy Beane, often referring to him as the smartest man in baseball. Now while I am in no way questioning his sports intelligence, I'd simply like to make a case for Milwaukee's own Doug Melvin as being mentioned in the same paragraph as Mr. Moneyball.
In case you don't know by now, the Brewers jetisoned utility man Keith Ginter last winter to the A's in exchange for two minor league prospects, OF Nelson Cruz and P Justin Lehr. Lehr was recently called up to the big leagues by the Brewers and after tearing up the AA league and appearing in the Futures Game, Cruz is now tearing up AAA. In fact, I don't think it's an exageration in the slightest to call Cruz the Brewers top prospect in their entire minor league system for anyone whose last name is not Fielder. Believe me, Cruz will be amongst the players called up when rosters are expanded in September.
Since being called up to the Nashville Sounds, he is batting .358 with four dingers and 10 RBI's in 67 AB's. The one big peg against him is that he apparently likes to strike out a lot, being K'd 16 times against drawing only 12 walks.
While Lehr certainly hasn't looked like a lights out hurler in the big leagues, as of yesterday he is carrying a 4.50 ERA through only 2 IP. He appears to have some decent stuff and is earning his stripes at this point. I don't think any Brewers fan is grumbling over having Lehr, someone with a fair amount of upside, in the bullpen instead of Tommy Phelps.
So what about Ginter you ask? Well the man Billy Beane acquired from Doug Melvin in exchange for two very legit prospects has already been sent down to AAA once this season, and is currently back with the A's, batting a paltry .168. Advantage Brewers...Big time. Keep in mind that Ginter was dead weight, pure and simple. Where would he have fit into this teams season/future in an infield already with a few log jams featuring Billy Hall, Russell Branyan and Jeff Cirillo at 3B, J.J. Hardy and Hall at SS and Rickie Weeks at 2B? Exactly, he doesn't. He probably would have been sent packing or designated for assignment at the end of spring training. How Melvin parlayed so much in return is case in point that Melvin could very well be the top GM in the game.
Now, before you all go frantically hitting the "post a comment" button, let me state that I fully understand every GM, no matter how great will take his share of lumps along the way, and that appears to have been the case here with Beane. His shrewd deals far outweigh his blunders, but make no mistake about Melvin getting so much in return from such an established baseballman.
The A's RF Swisher was batting .245 through yesterday's games. Don't you think Billy Beane might think of how nice Nelson Cruz might look in a white and green uniform right now with his team leading the AL Wild Card?
Time after time while overseeing the Milwaukee Brewers, Doug Melvin has proven his worth as one of the top men in the sport at this GM game. This trade might prove that to me more so than anything else he has done while at the helm of the Crew save the Richie Sexon deal.
I for one, am extremely excited for when Cruz is brought up to the big leagues.
In case you don't know by now, the Brewers jetisoned utility man Keith Ginter last winter to the A's in exchange for two minor league prospects, OF Nelson Cruz and P Justin Lehr. Lehr was recently called up to the big leagues by the Brewers and after tearing up the AA league and appearing in the Futures Game, Cruz is now tearing up AAA. In fact, I don't think it's an exageration in the slightest to call Cruz the Brewers top prospect in their entire minor league system for anyone whose last name is not Fielder. Believe me, Cruz will be amongst the players called up when rosters are expanded in September.
Since being called up to the Nashville Sounds, he is batting .358 with four dingers and 10 RBI's in 67 AB's. The one big peg against him is that he apparently likes to strike out a lot, being K'd 16 times against drawing only 12 walks.
While Lehr certainly hasn't looked like a lights out hurler in the big leagues, as of yesterday he is carrying a 4.50 ERA through only 2 IP. He appears to have some decent stuff and is earning his stripes at this point. I don't think any Brewers fan is grumbling over having Lehr, someone with a fair amount of upside, in the bullpen instead of Tommy Phelps.
So what about Ginter you ask? Well the man Billy Beane acquired from Doug Melvin in exchange for two very legit prospects has already been sent down to AAA once this season, and is currently back with the A's, batting a paltry .168. Advantage Brewers...Big time. Keep in mind that Ginter was dead weight, pure and simple. Where would he have fit into this teams season/future in an infield already with a few log jams featuring Billy Hall, Russell Branyan and Jeff Cirillo at 3B, J.J. Hardy and Hall at SS and Rickie Weeks at 2B? Exactly, he doesn't. He probably would have been sent packing or designated for assignment at the end of spring training. How Melvin parlayed so much in return is case in point that Melvin could very well be the top GM in the game.
Now, before you all go frantically hitting the "post a comment" button, let me state that I fully understand every GM, no matter how great will take his share of lumps along the way, and that appears to have been the case here with Beane. His shrewd deals far outweigh his blunders, but make no mistake about Melvin getting so much in return from such an established baseballman.
The A's RF Swisher was batting .245 through yesterday's games. Don't you think Billy Beane might think of how nice Nelson Cruz might look in a white and green uniform right now with his team leading the AL Wild Card?
Time after time while overseeing the Milwaukee Brewers, Doug Melvin has proven his worth as one of the top men in the sport at this GM game. This trade might prove that to me more so than anything else he has done while at the helm of the Crew save the Richie Sexon deal.
I for one, am extremely excited for when Cruz is brought up to the big leagues.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)