New York Mets

I got into a discussion with Sean yesterday about the post I made a couple of weeks ago concerning when a runner has officially taken possession of a base.  We consulted the rule book (online at baseball-almanac.com, a great site) and found no specific details about the situation.  (Though, admittedly, I did not carefully pore over every bit of it research-style, since we were simply having an entertaining discussion.)  While shifting through various alternative scenarios to try to tease out the answer, this fun one came up:

Continue reading "More Baseball Rules Discussion"

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.

Continue reading "The Ups and Downs of the MLB Playoffs"

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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My attention is divided today, between the two coasts, and between moves major and minor.

Beginning in the East and the earlier time zone is appropriate to the biggest story: the firing of Willie Randolph. Say what you will about Willie, he’s been a classy guy in both New York teams (he earlier served as a Yankees’ bench coach) and deserved better. That Minaya reportedly declined to fire him on Father’s Day, only to axe Randolph in the middle of the night on Monday, replaces a reprehensible act with a cowardly one.

Continue reading "Two Brief Bits"

emy Hermida and Mike Jacobs who are capable of potentially hitting 25 home runs each this season.

New York Mets

What will the Mets get from Pedro Martinez this year?

While Johan Santana gives them the legitimate number one starter they lacked last year and should easily be the most dominant starter in the Majors this season, he can still only take the ball once every 5 games. Pedro Martinez, however, will be the key to the pitching staff. He has shown in the past that he can still be very effective even though he no longer throws 97 thanks to his command and assortment of pitches. Now, though, he will probably have to live in the low to mid 80's and rely even more on guile than he ever has. Pedro remained effective in his brief stint last season and should put up good numbers if he can stay healthy.

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: National League East"

st year when the hitting went bad, it stayed bad, for a very long time.  And, they are not the New York Mets.  After aquiring Johan Santana, they have become World Series contenders and I do not see the Cubs marching pass them in the playoffs.  After their historic collapse from grace, the Mets are out for blood.

Continue reading "Carlos Zambrano Injured!!!"

sion was far superior even with the lack of hitting Diamondbacks had.  All I got to say is the New York Mets are out for blood after their historic fall from grace with their new top gun Johan Santana.  No way is any team going to march pass them.

Continue reading "Is this the year of Dreams? Think ..."