Colorado Rockies

In the National League, the elongated double switch shows again why pitching statistics are quite poorly attributed.  A traditional double switch involves the manager inserting a position player into the game  for the current pitcher and a new pitcher for a position player--typically one who just made an out, so that the new pitcher won't be batting for nearly a full trip through the lineup.

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With World Baseball Classic ads starting to be run of ESPN, talk about starts to fire up. You’ll start hear U-S-A, olé olé olé, my country his better than your country, but seeing as how I was born and raise in the good old US of A, that’s is the team that I will be talking about. The 2006 World Baseball Classic team looked like it could prove that baseball was America's past time. You had the king of Swing in Ken Griffey Jr., two captain of their respected team in Derek Jeter and Jason Vartex. You have a batting title winner in Derek Lee, and a soon to be Homerun king in Alex Rodriguez. You had a loaded pitching rotation with Rodger Clemens, Dontrelle Wills and Jake Peavy and a dominating closer in Brad Lidge. USA was going in with a “this is going to be so easy” kind of mentality. But that wasn’t the case. Team Mexico and Team Canada proved that they could play with the big boys, and the USA struggled against Pacific Ocean rivals Team Japan and Team South Korea. But this year is different in different ways. Team USA will bring in a Mark Johnson, who helped lead the USA Olympic baseball team to a Bronze metal. But that’s not going to be the only difference. The king of swing Kin Griffey Jr., who lead the team in batting average and tied for first in homerun, won’t be playing of team USA, as well as the man he tied for Homeruns Derek Lee said that he won’t be playing either sighting that Red Sox’s Kevin Youkilis would be getting most of the action at first. A-Rod, coming o ff steroid problems, as said that he won’t be playing for the USA, but he will play for the Dominican Republic (maybe he’ll get more steroids, ha). Derek Jeter has said the he’s game for the classic and is the captain of team USA. Veritex, who played but did suffer and injury, won’t be playing after struggling to land a job back with the Red Sox’s. Rodger Clemens has retired and face a crap load of legal stuff, so don’t look for him to pull a Brett Favre, and the WBC was the down fall of the D-Train, who after being traded to the Tigers was given a hug contract and then sent to Single-A ball. The 2009 team will have a veteran pitching staff with such aces as Padres Jake Peavy, Astros Roy Oswalt and the Orioles young ace Jeremy Guthrie, as well as Cubs control pitcher Ted Lilly. Added to the Bullpen are lefties John Grabow (Pirates), J.P. Howell (Rays), and Matt Thornton (White Sox) as well as the guys that set the big men up; LaTroy Hawkins (Astros), Scot Shields (Angels), and Brad Ziegler (Athletics). And there is a frenzy of different player that could take the closers role left by the withdraw of Twins pitcher Joe Nathan, Blue Jays B.J. Ryan, and Angels new comer Brian Fuentes, but there are still several pitchers that could get the nod when it comes time. Heath Bell, Matt Lindstrom, and Jonathan Broxton could get start on closing games early as both are being handed the closing job because of the departure of the past closers, Bell for Trevor Hoffman, Lindstrom for Greggs, and Broxton for Takashi Saito. Joel Hanrahan for the Nationals did well the few times that he was called on, but I don’t see him as the guy manager Davey Johnson will turn to. And that leave only the big apple’s J.J. Putz, who before being traded to the Mets was a dominant closer for the Seattle Mariners, and is the person I see getting the nod for the ninth inning. Catching will be an area to watch during this World Baseball Classic because manager Mark Johnson is only bring two young catchers with him, Brain McCann and Chris Iannetta, compared to the team before that brought three. While Brain McCann has been in the league for several years he is mostly know for his bat than his game calling and Chris just finished his first full season duty as a catcher. While both of these catchers are young they aren’t fast and they are inexperienced when it comes to game calling. The Infield has been re-vamped from the 2006 team, which really didn’t have much speed but they hit for a high average. This year there are players with crazy speed, such as Jimmy Rollens, who stole 47 bases for the world champs (Phillies), and AL MVP Dustian Pedroia, who swiped twenty bases (Red Sox’s). But those aren’t the only players that will run, there isn’t a player that is on the infield roster that doesn’t have a stolen base, and we all know that Derek Jeter (Yankees), and David Wright (Mets) can run, but not as fast as Rollins and Perdoia. The corners will be guarded well with David Wright, a two time gold glove, Kevin Youkilis winner of the gold glove in 2007, and finally Chipper Jones, who hasn’t earned a Gold Glove yet, but has never had a fielding percentage below .950 since 2002. If someone were to go down Indians Mark DerRosa has experience at every position on the field (ok, well not pitcher and catcher but I’m sure if they asked he would do it) and can serve as a solid back-up. The Outfielder has changed from what it was in 2006. The 06 team had good players but they never really came out and showed who they were. The team had some speed with Randy Winn and Vernon Wells and there was defense but that in Wells, who’s a three time Gold Glove winner and Francoeur who the pervious season season lead the league in outfield assists. Other than Griffey the outfield really struggled with its hitting. This year you won’t have Vernon Wells returning to hold down the fort but you will have the Tigers’ power hitting, fast running centerfielder in Curtis Granderson, the Brewers young kid Ryan Braun, who didn’t commit a single error in the outfield last year, the Nationals new power house Adam Dunn, as well as the Phillies hard noised flying Hawaiian Shane Victorino . With everything being added up the road to reclaiming baseball as America’s past time won’t be as easy as pie. Team USA has first to go though team Canada, Team Italy, and Team Venezuela, all have several players with major league talent. Team Canada gave team USA fits which lead to the early exit. Team Venezuela won’t be any easier seeing as how they too have many good major leaguers on their roster. Team Italy, while wanting to prove that they have talent, I don’t see them being a hug threat to team USA. Overall, team USA wants to show that they can win, and I will predict an advance to the second round where they will take on the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico. There who know what will happen. It will be a though road from them, but in the end it will depend on how well team USA’s pitching will do against power house countries.

Continue reading "2009 Team USA World Baseball Classic"

With the MLB playoffs set to begin, there is a subtle difference in the air compared to start of any other postseason. In the NHL, fans can potentially look forward to a great Canadians/Bruins series that is not only exciting, but has a historical kick to it. Likewise basketball fans always have the chance to see if the Suns can finally get past the Spurs and football fans love seeing the rivalry of the Eagles Vs the City of Philadelphia when the Eagles so much as get tackled for a loss.

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For some time now, no pitcher worth his spikes wanted to pitch in Coors Field. Teams scored in the double-digits, and so did pitcher’s ERAs. Some said that the thin air meant the ball would travel farther—which, as we’ve all seen, it does. Others say that the ball breaks differently in the thin air, that curves and sliders hang, that cutters don’t cut—that’s likely true, too.

Continue reading "Ubaldo Jimenez: the Anti-Coors Pitcher"

One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.

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It’s the All-Star Break once again, that mythical halfway point in the season (I say “mythical” because most teams have played 95-96 games, more than the 81 that’s the true midway mark). Traditionally, it’s time for the teams to take a breath, collect themselves and iron out any kinks in their batting stroke or the pitching rotation—several starters made relief appearances or threw out of turn in the past game or two, knowing that three or four days of rest was coming for all of them.

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All right. Are you ready for this? As the All-Star break approaches, the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball. That’s right. At 49-32, they’re a half-game ahead of Boston, the Cubs, and Anaheim. Whoa. Is this one of the signs of the apocalypse?

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Colorado Rockies

Are the Rockies the real thing?

The Rockies miraculous run to the World Series was well publicized last year as they won 21 of 22 games before getting swept by the Red Sox in the Fall Classic. Many feel that they just got hot down the stretch and were a fluke team in 2007. That couldn’t be further from the truth and the Rockies will be contenders in 2008. The heart of the lineup that scored the second most runs in the National League last season returns with MVP candidate Matt Holliday, Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe and Troy Tulowitzki. While anyone would expect a team in Colorado to score plenty of runs, it is always pitching that becomes the question. The Rockies’ pitching staff posted a very respectable 4.32 ERA last season, but what may be surprising to many, is that their road ERA was better than that of the vaunted San Diego pitching staff (4.29 to 4.42). With young fireballer Ubaldo Jiminez joining the rotation full time, a solid staff led by Jeff Francis becomes even better. Colorado may miss the playoffs this year due to a competitive division, but they will be one of the teams right there at the end battling for a berth.

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Preview Part One: National League West"