AL Central Trouble

Focus on the American League Central

 

The American League Central is a toss up at the moment with almost all teams stumbling out of the gate.  With un-winning beginnings and Royal success, the central has become the surprise of the league.  The departure of stars from teams has affected it somewhat but teams that picked up superstars aren’t doing the best they can.  The Royals, Indians, Tigers, White Sox and Twins have become the laughing stock of the Majors this season.

            The first place team as of April 29 shows the Chicago White Sox in first place.  They have a winning percentage of just over .500 and are the only team in the central with this mark.  They have gotten off to success, if that’s what you would call it, from their pitching mainly with Javier Vazquez throwing gems in each of his starts.  Their hitting has yet to reach its potential but players like Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye and Orlando Cabrera have heated up in the past eight games.  The Sox will have a tough schedule coming up with games against the Orioles and Angels coming up.

            Coming in behind the White Sox is a tie between the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians.  WHAT?!?!?!?!  Are the Royals really in second?  I thought the Royals would come around soon after so many years of “rebuilding.”  With loads of young talent, I expect them to finish like usual but they will end up in fourth at the end of the season.  Who are some of these players?  Have you ever heard of Alberto Callaspo or Jimmy Gobble?  Although they are 2-8 in their last 10 games, they will rebound and become the Royals of old real soon.  The Cleveland Indians at their new Progressive Field are failing to be resilient from last seasons collapse may I say, to the Red Sox in the ALCS.  They will make the playoffs with their pitching from CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona who are struggling to pick up wins, will come around and be themselves.

            The Twins follow them and they have nothing to look forward to with their losses of Johan Santana and Torii Hunter.  They have traded away their only real talent in order to become the Royals and rebuild.

            Looking at the Detroit Tigers off-season transactions you would think they would have possibly undefeated start.  With the additions of players such as Miguel Cabrera, Edgar Renteria and Jacque Jones and phenomenal pitching from Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander, and Jeremy Bonderman, you would expect them to be winning constantly.  Well that happened, after they lost seven in a row to start the season.  The Detroit Tigers have gotten off to their worst start in years. Yes and even this seasons beginning is worse than their 119 loss season in 2003.  The Tigers turned the corner and won a couple games and are wiggling their way into third, but they are only 12-15.  They will finish second in the division as I predicted and have a good second half of the season.

            The AL Central shake up was unsuspected by many with three great teams and two mediocre ones.  With an average winning percentage of only .474, the central is a joke and will not have two wild card teams like they have had in past seasons.

Baseball Television Viewing

Blog Entry #3

 

          Last night I was watching the Red Sox play the Yankees as I always do, and was pondering how long baseball games have become.  I was thinking about both the lengths of games and the intensity of rivalry games.  I know there are the simple games in which pitchers pitch gems and end up winning 1-0 or 2-1 games.  But then there is always that game, cough cough Red Sox Yankees cough cough that end up play for four, maybe even five hours.  Last night the defending NL Champion Colorado Rockies defeated the Padres in twenty-two innings! Twenty-two innings!  The score was 2-1.  This has to stop ASAP.

          I can understand that rivalry games go on a little longer due to a good ole brawl or maybe even some ejections.  The Red Sox and Yankees played last night with first pitch at 7:05 and last pitch around 11:35.  The score was 7-5 but with all the commercial advertising during pitching changes and inning swaps it became out of control.  I don’t need to know that Verizon is running a phone special or that Applebee’s has a new appetizer on its menu.  I am about to lose my mind over all of this.

          Rivalry games continue to show friction whether it be visual or in the air.  The Sox and Yanks showed tension last night when on the first pitch of the game, Jacoby Ellsbury was hit by Mike Mussina.  Two innings later, he was hit again and that’s when I began to become suspicious.  Later in the game in the seventh inning, Kyle Farnsworth had just come into the game and he threw behind Manny Ramirez who had hit two homeruns and a single.  Manny dropped his bat and took a long stare out at the pitcher as both teams and the pitcher were warned.  I felt that that in what seemed as Josh Beckett’s last inning of work that he would hit either Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez.  That didn’t happen and he pitched another inning actually with no harm done.  The same things happen when the Cubs and White Sox have their Southside vs. North side battle of inter-league play.  Even in different sports like football with the Colts vs. Patriots, there are feuds.  Honestly, rivalry games make sports make sports.

          On the contrary, the long lasting division games between the Orioles and the Rays are no fun.  Those games give nothing to viewers wanting to learn more of the sport where each team has 45 walks and they score 25 runs each.  I turn on these games and have to shield my eyes because our JV baseball team is playing better then they are.  I understand that these games need to be played and should be treated like all other games, although they don’t offer as much, you never know when something spectacular is going to happen.  As much as I love to play baseball, the length and mediocre intensity of games need to be changed to enhance the viewing experience and possibly bring in more baseball fans.

Week 1 Surpises

Blog Entry #2

Week 1 Surprises:

          Opening days have occurred in numerous cities and even three countries this past week into last.  Multiple teams opened in the United States, the Blue Jays in Canada, and the Red Sox and Athletics in Japan.  Daisuke Matsuzaka opened in his native country and was welcomed like a rock star by the Japanese spectators.  The Red Sox opened in four different cities in those three different countries and had ceremonies at five places.  The jet lagged Sox flew from Florida to Japan to Los Angeles to Oakland to Toronto and finally back to Boston.  They opened in each of these cities with a ceremony.  The trip seemed to affect their start as they stumbled out of the gate and started 3-4 through seven games.

          Within the first games, there have been surprise teams that have done well and others, not so much.  Rival in the AL East to the Red Sox, the Baltimore Orioles found themselves on a six game winning streak after losing their home opener.  They found themselves 6-1 and show a much improved line up and bullpen which had a measly 5.17 ERA last season.  The Yankees start off slow, just as last year.  The Rays, wow that’s going to get hard to get used to, continue to be the Devil Rays of old and well lose just like they have since 2000 when they entered the MLB.  Expect the Rays to be good in a couple years as their farm system is constantly getting better.

          The Detroit Tigers will start off well and finish even better.  If you were one of the people who said this, you may want to re-think your logic.  The Tigers have fallen flat on their faces and are skidding along the pavement.  They started the week un-winning at 0-0 and also finished the week un-winning at 0-7.  They have lost seven in a row to the Royals, White Sox and Red Sox.  Also in the Central, the Royals get a sweep for the first time in god knows when.  This was an outstanding accomplishment for a struggling team of the past ten seasons.  Everything is normal in the AL West as the Angels are hot, the Rangers are not, and the A’s and the Mariners are in the middle.

          In the west, the New York Mets have become a force to recon with over the past three seasons and definitely improved with Johan Santana. Yeah right. Johan is a stunning 0-2 with an ERA of over 5 and the Mets have struggled at the plate.  Both the Braves and the Nationals look to have up seasons and have started out on the right note.  Ryan Zimmerman has stood out at the plate and has a walk off homerun already.  In the NL Central, the Cardinals aren’t being their normal selves and neither are the Chicago Cubbies.  Instead, it is the Brewers, my season prediction to win the central, who take the lead at the moment.  The NL West is a toss up and can go to any team that plays a couple games.  This division is a train wreck and no one has taken a charge to win this division.  Hopefully my NL favorite Padres will win the division and I will be pleased.

          At this moment I am puzzled as to how this chaos has arisen and when the turbulence will end.  Hopefully soon or else I will look like a fool with a majority of my predictions.  The first week was a crazy one and I want to see if the madness shapes up a little down the line.

2008 Begins

The Major League Baseball regular season is back in swing after a long winter of waiting and then into Spring Training of boringness.  The regular season brings more of an experience and not as much of watching paint dry for a month and half.  Although Spring Training offers a fresh start to the players who hadn’t done anything all winter, I feel that Spring Training games do not need to shown on the television wasting time for great shows on ESPN such as First and Ten or Around the Horn.  With all the new packages that cable providers offer, I feel as though the games should be offered on only the purchased packages. The idea of Spring Training is great although it offers just more time for players to get hurt, just like the Bowl Championship Series NCAA system, which needs to be dropped, but that’s another story.  Newly loaded teams like the Detroit Tigers and the Los Angeles Dodgers hope to make a splash in their already tough divisions.
            As a member of Red Sox Nation I hope annually that the Yankees fail miserably and the Sox do well.  I feel this will be the case this season as the Yankees headed by new manger Joe Girardi, will finish third behind the first place Sox and the surprise second, the Baltimore Orioles.  Finishing behind the Yanks will be the Blue Jays and as usual, the Tampa Bay Rays.  The AL Central will be won by the Cleveland Indians who went home disappointed after a blown lead in the ALCS to the Red Sox.  The newly reloaded Tigers will finish second and the White Sox third and the Twins finishing just slightly behind them.  As usual, the Royals will have a disappointing season although they will finish better than their 68 win season last year.  Moving to the west, the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim with new players such as Torii Hunter will help them win their division.  Following will be the Athletics, Mariners, and Rangers respectively.  This season the wild-card team will be from the central division in the Tigers due to the struggles of the east teams and the seemingly constant downfall of the AL West.
            The National League hasn’t had great seasons in general but this season will be the year where that all comes to a close with the magnificent Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers under new manager Joe Torre.  In the east, the Mets will reign over the division following the pick up of Johan Santana and their complete collapse to the Philadelphia last season.  The Nationals will be a surprise of the year finishing second and winning the wild card.  Following them will be the Braves, Philly, and the Marlins.  The strength of the NL is in the central and the standings will be a little surprising.  The young Brewers will finish first with Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder as their power sources.  Finishing behind them is the St Louis, Chicago, Houston, Pittsburg and Cincinnati.  In the completely changed National League West from last season, they became the strongest conference in the NL.  Two teams from that division made the playoffs, one to the World Series, and a third team would have made it if not for the extra game having to be played to determine who made it in.  This season the Dodgers will be resilient and come back from last years disappointing year.  Followed by them will be the Rockies, Padres, Diamondbacks and Giants respectively.
            The new season in spring will bring its surprise teams and of course the no doubters but will of course bring all the satisfaction of baseball season back to the hearts of many Americans.