Halfway Over Already???

Happy All-Star break, my friends!  As we look back on the first half of the 2014 baseball season, we Washington Nationals fans should be pretty pleased with our team.  Not only are the Nationals in first place in the NL East (percentage points above the Atlanta Braves); the Nats have won 10 of their last 14 games, their bats have come alive, and their pitching continues to be solid.  And I have to mention the Baltimore Orioles too - just because Chris Davis isn't hitting doesn't mean the team doesn't deserve to be in first place in the AL East - go Os!

While some ESPN critics claim that the Nationals have “under-performed” during the first half of the season, I have to say that these people are idiots and are only looking at statistics on paper.   The Nationals are tenth in the National League in batting with a team average of .246, and their best average is held by cutie Anthony Rendón, who is batting .287 (number 22 on the NL list).  But that doesn’t tell the whole story.  The Nationals lead the NL in pitching, with a 3.08 team ERA, starter Stephen Strasburg leads the league with 149 strikeouts, and closer Rafael Soriano has 22 saves with a 0.97 ERA.

And how about all those guys on the Disabled List?  Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman, and Wilson Ramos all spent most of the first half of the season on the DL, and as far as pitchers, Doug Fister and Gio Gonzalez also had short stints on the List.  So chill out, critics; the Nationals are right where they need to be at the halfway point of the season.

But what do the Nationals need to do to remain on top?  First, Bryce Harper needs to do some hitting.  Since his return from the DL, Harper has gone 6-40 with one home run.  Bryce is a talented kid – I know he can hit!  Hopefully he can analyze his swing during the break (isn't that what they all do - "review the tapes?"), take some pitches from his dad, and come back ready to do some damage.  Just think about your parents, Bryce; you're embarrassing them!

The Nationals also need to get rid of Danny Espinosa.  Don’t send him down to the Minors – trade him for some prospects or some cash or for a nice hand-made Amish quilt.  He calls himself a switch hitter but can’t hit from either side, and just being a good fielder is not enough if you can’t hit.  Danny has to go - he plain old sucks.

Finally, the Nationals HAVE to beat the Braves.  They have nine games left to play against the Braves this season, and they need to win at least 5 of them.  The Braves aren’t all that – their hitting has been up and down and their pitchers aren’t as dominant (except for that Craig Kimbrel guy with his weird pitching stance) – so there’s really no reason why the Nationals can’t win most of their remaining games against the Braves.  If anything, they need to win the games in Atlanta so I don’t have to hear that annoying “Tomahawk Chop” that their fans do when their team is winning. 

How about the rest of the teams in the Majors - any surprises during the first half?  Well I'm glad you asked!  I'm surprised to see the World Champion Red Sox on the bottom of the AL East; I'm a little surprised that the Oakland A's have the best record in baseball; and I'm saddened that the Cardinals' Yadier Molina is going to be out for a while with a torn thumb ligament.  Ouch!  I was even sad to see a Yankee go down (and that's rare for me!) when rookie pitcher Masahiro Tanaka suffered a partial tear of the ulnar ligament in his pitching arm.  He had my vote for Rookie of the Year, but now he has to undergo all sorts of aggressive rehab which will sideline him for a while.  Luckily, he may be able to avoid Tommy John surgery because he had platelet-rich plasma injected into his elbow, and that's supposed to make the tear heal itself.  Let's hope it works, but not if the Yankees make it to the post-season. :-)

So, my friends, the second half of the season should be a good one.  Enjoy tonight's Home Run Derby (I'm rooting for Giancarlo Stanton) and tomorrow's All-Star Game (National League fan, obviously!), and may the second half bring good health and many home runs to the Nationals and Orioles.  I, for one, would love to see a "Battle of the Beltways" World Series-style!

"Gettin' Jiggy" with Miggy :-)

Opening Day is finally here, my friends!  Actually, the season began last night with the San Diego Padres hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers in a game that was blown by Brian Wilson (you know, the hairy guy who has been struggling for the past couple of years).  The Padres scored 3 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to beat the Dodgers 3-1.

Before the season gets too far underway, I want to address two topics that I've been asked to write about and express my opinion (yes, someone out there is actually reading this blog regularly and wants my expert opinion on a few things!).  First is the $292 million contract that Miguel Cabrera signed with the Detroit Tigers through 2023, and second is my predictions for the 2014 season.

As many of you know, I am a big fan of Miguel Cabrera, and seeing him play in Cleveland last summer was a highlight for me.  The 2012 Triple Crown winner and 2013 MVP is one of those players that only come around once in a lifetime - that kind of player that you tell your grandkids about and whose baseball cards will be worth a lot of money someday.  But Miggy is also getting bigger (now reportedly up to 260 pounds), slower, and more prone to injury (last season he missed several games with back issues).  Ten years is a LONG time for anyone to commit to a player, especially one who is already over 30 years old.  It makes me think of the long-term contract that Alex Rodriguez signed with the Yankees a while back - I forget how that one turned out!  Then there's Albert Pujols - how did he do last year again?  The amount of money the Tigers want to pay Miggy doesn't bother me since baseball players are overpaid anyway; it's the number of years in the contract that I think is excessive.  Yes, he can prolong his career as a designated hitter, but 10 more years?  Really?  A little much, if you ask me.

Now as far as my predictions for this season, this may come as a shock to you, but I don't think I'm going to make any.  I know, it's kind of a cop-out, but with 162 games in a season, anything can happen.  Yes, I would love to say that the Nationals will win the NL East and the Pirates will reach the playoffs again, but so much can happen between now and September.  Look at the Atlanta Braves, who played so well last year and are now starting their season with half of their players on the Disabled List.  And how about the Toronto Blue Jays, who were supposed to be the be-all end-all last season - will they fare any batter than last year?  And without Mariano Rivera, will the Yankees suck this season?  Well they got 4 key players during the offseason - Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltrán, Brian McCann, and Masahiro Tanaka; but they only look good on paper at this point.  I could pull out all sorts of rankings and statistics and SABR-metrics numbers to support my predictions, but all I can do is tell you which team I would LIKE to see in the playoffs - not necessarily the teams that the bettors in Vegas are picking.  And really, after seeing our NCAA basketball brackets ruined after the first round of March Madness, can statistics really tell us everything?  So here are the teams I like and my un-scientific reasons for liking them.

AL EAST:  I'm going to root for the Baltimore Orioles.  They were a mess in the off-season and didn't get their act together until early March, when they signed a bunch of last-minute players and made some impromptu trades.  Yes, Manny Machado is starting the season on the DL, but we all know that one guy does not a team make, so why not root for the team that played so well during Spring Training?

AL CENTRAL:  I want to see the Kansas City Royals play in the postseason.  Really, I do.  They went 86-76 last year, and if it hadn't been for the 12-game losing streak they had, they would have contended.  I'm picking the Royals and I'm not changing my mind.  Sorry, Tigers and Indians!

AL WEST:  This is one division about which I never really cared.  I guess I'll pick the low-budget Oakland A's even though the Mariners now have Robinson Canó and the Angels have hottie Mike Trout.  They have great pitchers and very good defensive players, so they should do well.

NL EAST:  I don't know if this is jinxing my team, but I'm going to go ahead and pick the Nationals.  The Braves annoy me, the Mets are a mess, the Marlins have no one except for José Fernandez, and the Phillies might as well turn their clubhouse into a nursing home.  The Nationals have a solid pitching rotation (even with Doug Fister starting the season on the DL), guys who can hit, and a feisty new manager.  And we're going to 5 games this season, so they better play well!

NL CENTRAL:  How can you not root for the Pittsburgh Pirates?  Those of us who are sick of the Cardinals have embraced the Pirates and their never-give-up attitude.  Plus they're opening the season against the Cubs at home, so what more of a confidence boost does a team need?

NL WEST:  I am determined to not pick the Dodgers (since everyone else is), so I'm going to go with the San Diego Padres.  I don't think they will win their division outright, but I believe they can get a wild-card spot and make the playoffs with their decent pitching.  Now if they could only get rid of those ugly camo uniforms that they wear on Sundays during home games!

As you can see, my picks are purely based on my shallow opinions and do not carry any statistical weight whatsoever.  It took me exactly 20 minutes to come up with my selections - this way if I totally blow it, I won't feel like a total failure who spent way too much time analyzing data.

All I know is that it's finally time to play ball.  Time for seventh-inning stretches, racing presidents (and sausages), and injury reports (short ones, hopefully).  Enjoy the season, and keep checking in for my thoughts, insights, and of course, my unfiltered opinions.  Let's go Nats! :-)

The Off-Season in Review (with my comments, of course!)

Football season is over and the Olympics only go for two weeks – what comes next?  Why baseball season is just around the corner, of course, and for those of us who are tired of these record-cold temperatures, we’re hoping that the start of a new baseball season brings with it some warmer weather.

So once you’re done rooting for Lolo Jones, Bode Miller and Shaun White, it’s time to get geared up for the 2014 baseball season.  Before you don your Orioles shirt, Nationals cap, or Yankee pinstripes (ugh!), you may want to catch up on what went on during the off-season, after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series.  Well here’s a recap of what transpired since November in a nutshell (start your stopwatch – this should only take two minutes to read):

·        Detroit's Miguel Cabrera earned his second consecutive Most Valuable Player Award in the American League, took Players' Choice top honors and added a Silver Slugger as well. 

·        The Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw won his second National League Cy Young Award in three years, and José Fernandez of the Marlins received the well-deserved reward of NL Rookie of the Year award.  (Remember him?  He’s that Cuban kid who spent time in immigration jail before successfully defecting by coming over on a makeshift boat that hit rough waters and a bunch of people fell overboard including his family.  And he can really pitch!)

·        Free agents:  Robinson Canó went to the Mariners, Jacoby Ellsbury is now a Yankee, Shin-Soo Choo signed with the Rangers, and Japanese pitching star Masahiro Tanaka went to the Yankees.  Who didn’t see that one coming?  Oh, the Yankees also signed outfielder Carlos Beltrán and catcher Brian McCann; they’re clearly trying to buy their way to another World Series.  Whatever!

·        Trades: The Rangers acquired slugging first baseman Prince Fielder from the Tigers for second baseman Ian Kinsler, a doozy of a deal featuring All-Star talent and big bucks. The Cardinals followed by sending third baseman David Freese to the Angels for Peter Bourjos.

·        New managers:  Bryan Price in Cincinnati, Matt Williams in Washington (it should have been Sandy Alomar, Jr.), Brad Ausmus in Detroit, Lloyd McClendon in Seattle, and Rick Rentería with the Cubs -- and don't forget Ryne Sandberg in Philadelphia, a late-season addition.

·        Oh, and in case you didn’t realize this, the Orioles lost their closer, Jim Johnson, to the Oakland A’s.  I felt really bad about that one – despite Johnson’s blown saves last season, he was a good pitcher and will be hard to replace.

·        What about my Nationals?  They acquired starting pitcher Doug Fister from the Tigers and were able to avoid arbitration with pretty much every player who was eligible for it.  They also announced “Jayson Werth Garden Gnome Day,” which is pretty exciting.

·        Notable quote:  Curtis Granderson went across town from the Yankees to the Mets, saying “True New Yorkers are Mets fans.”  That one made me smile, since I started out as a Mets fan back in the 80s.  Too bad the Mets will suck again this season.

·        Three of the all-time great managers were honored with their election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame -- Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre, all heading to Cooperstown in July.

·        In an election that again was preceded by considerable debate, the BBWAA elected three first-timers on the Hall of Fame ballot: pitchers Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, and hitting star Frank Thomas.

·        Lucrative deals:  Lefty Clayton Kershaw agreed to the richest deal ever for a pitcher, signing a seven-year, $215 million contract through 2020.  The Tigers then signed AL Cy Young winner Max Scherzer to a one-year, $15.5 million deal, and the Rays signed David Price  to a one-year pact worth $14 million.

So there you have it – now you know what went on during the “Hot Stove” season and you can pretend like you know what you’re talking about when necessary.  Stay warm, enjoy the Olympics, and remember that Opening Day is only about seven weeks away!