Tag Archives: MLB

June 1, 2011

Some Love For Matt

By chappy81

No, I’m not talking about MCeezy. There’s another Matt out there that is tearing up Major League pitching this year, and it seems like nobody is talking about him. Maybe one of the only reasons I’ve noticed his existence is because he’s on two of my fantasy teams, but there’s good reason to take notice of what he’s been doing this year. While others try to figure out if Jose Bautista is “for real” or not, nobody is really talking about ML leader in batting. Matt Joyce is hitting a ridiculous .370 this year. I’m not so sure he’ll keep that up, but it definitely should warrant some more attention than it has received. Maybe it’s because he’s in his fourth year as a pro making him slide under the radar in a time when people are more excited about a rookie sensation like Eric Hosmer. His career normals are in the .250/10/40 range, but then again, Joyce was always in a platoon situation or just a substitute when someone got injured. Fortunately for the Rays, Manny Ramirez decided to call it quits, errr, fail a drug test, and open a spot in the lineup for Joyce. He’s probably already done as much as Manny would’ve done at the plate this year, and plays some really good defense to boot.

With 3 more homers, 10 more RBI’s, and 6 more runs this season, he will have career highs in all categories (already has career highs in doubles and SB’s). At his current pace he’ll have those well before the All-Star break. Can you label this a fluke? I wound’t, because looking at his games played each season as he’s never played over 92 games in a season. He’s always hit for power, but the average has never been there like it has this year. If you had to pick an MVP for the Rays this year, it would be Joyce hands down. Longoria, Damon, and Zobrist have been good on and off, but the rock in the lineup that’s been hot all year long is Matt Joyce. What I can’t figure out for the life of me is why Maddon puts Joyce so far down in the lineup. Sometimes he has his .370 hitter in the six or seven slot. A guy that hits with power and average should be in the top three hitters or protecting Longoria. I know we have one Rays reader, so maybe he can explain Maddon’s theory of putting him so far down in the lineup half the time.

If you didn’t know it’s all-star voting time, and there’s sure to be some bad picks as there are every year. Here’s how I feel like the AL outfield should look. Joyce, Bautista, and Granderson. Too bad it will probably be something like Crawford, Ichiro, and Hamilton or something like that…

16 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Sports

May 20, 2011

Elephants and Seals

By chappy81

As always, By is covering the Giants portion, and Chappy is covering the A’s portion for this post.

San Francisco Giants (1st, 24-19) Oakland Athletics (2nd, 22-22)

Three Up

Oakland Athletics – They swept the Angels in a quick two game series, and also swapped positions with them to be in a tie for first place in the AL West for the first time this season. That didn’t last long as they lost two straight to the struggling Twins and were promptly sent back to 2nd place. Their offense has gotten progressively better over the last week and a half. They’ve actually averaged nearly 5 runs a game over their last 10. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Coco Crisp has been getting on base, stealing bases, and scoring runs. When he does well, they seem to score a lot more runs. Their pitching has still been their crutch to lean on. They lead the majors in ERA at 2.68, which is the only sub-3.00 ERA in all of baseball besides the Braves 2.88 team ERA. Andrew Bailey is getting closer to returning, and will be a welcomed addition to an already great bullpen.

San Francisco Giants – Giants are sitting pretty at first place despite playing average ball.  So there’s not much to complain about here, furthermore, they just did a mini sweep of division, no everything rivals LA in LA.  So a major f**k yeah for that.  The Mark DeRosa injury could be looked at as a down, but I see the positive in it.  For one, he was hitting like s**t.  Second, we’re too deep not to circulate other players in and out of the lineup, giving tough-minded guys like Mike Fontenot a shot at some p.t.  Hopefully DeRosa takes this time to clear his mind, and find his swing.  Finally Madison Bumgarner finally got his first win of the season, the Giants are on the up and up from here on out.

Three Down

Oakland Athletics – Hideki Matsui hasn’t really shown much promise thus far in the season. Maybe the inconsistent playing time has something to do with it, but I feel like there’s a chance he might just be old. Dallas Braden had season ending shoulder surgery, which was a downer but not unexpected. I’m a huge Tyson Ross fan, and he’s done admirable filling in since Braden went down, but he got injured, and apparently Brandon McCarthy did too, so that’s a hole in the rotation. Maybe Harden will eventually not be hurt or maybe another round with Outman wouldn’t be terrible. Bob Geren is still making questionable lineup/bullpen changes and tinkering that seems to prevent the team from keeping their continuity, but the players seem to be overcoming the handicap of having him as a manager, which must be one tough obstacle.

San Francisco Giants – I can’t complain about much these days, perhaps the injury to Pablo Sandoval has put a damper on our inconsistent hitting.  I’m not satisfied with Tim Lincecum’s 3-4 start.  I was hoping for him to be blazing toward another Cy Young early on.  But those are all ‘whatevers’ in my book.  The Giants are in first in the NL West, and this should lead to an interesting series with the A’s.

Next Up – The battle of the bay. Inter league play starts and the battle for bay area bragging rights is on the line.

Win or lose Chaps, we’re still friends o.k. !?!?

Yeah, no hard feelings a quarter of the way through a season!

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Sports

May 19, 2011

Can Jaime McCourt Save the Dodgers From Frank?

By chappy81

Surprise, I actually took this picture...

For some strange reason Frank McCourt has been trying to sell to the fans that he actually cares about the team. He’s been making appearances on local TV as well as radio shows. The callers have been funny as they tell him how much they dislike him, and all the questions on his moves being for the “best interest of the team” usually net a comical response from Frank. I understand the team has gotten to the playoffs 3 of 4 years under his rule, but the players that got them there were in LA before he took over, so I’m not sure why he keeps playing that card. He overpaid for Manny, but that’s the only guy I can think of that he really brought in. It’s painfully obvious to a non-financial guru like myself that he has been in over his head since he bought the team, and NOTHING he does will ever get the fans to trust him again.

As a Warriors fan, I know about battling an owner, and I battled with deciding what degree of support to give the Warriors for years under Cohan rule. It’s almost impossible to abandon your team, but once fans start the revolution there’s no going back. Just like the Warriors fans did with Cohan over his final couple years, Dodgers fans are starting to do the same. I guess it helps that both owners were on the verge of being broke. I feel like it’s way past the tipping point when fans pleading with anyone and everyone that will listen to buy their beloved team. Some Dodgers fans have even started sites like this one, which is begging Mark Cuban to buy this team. I’m sure Cuban is probably into the idea, and has been in the running for purchasing a few baseball teams, so if you can get one at a discount why not try. Maybe he’ll wait till after the Mavs are done with their season.

All in all it’s been a wacky year for the Dodgers. Aside from Kemp and Ethier there haven’t been a ton of bright spots for them, until today. Ethier might have even made a salute to the owners during batting practice yesterday. Jaime McCourt decided to sound off for the first time in awhile. Today she requested that the Supreme Court look into a forced sale of the team to prevent the MLB from seizing the club. It’s not a shocking move by any means, but it is a huge step to getting the Dodgers back to their normal selves. It would be great to see more talk about their on-field product instead of what Frank messed up on in the news headlines. The MLB looks like it’s almost assured to seize the team, so if Jaime can get the court on her side which she’s been trying to do for months, it will speed up the process of getting a new owner in there that would be a relief to all Dodgers fans. I highly doubt anyone wants the league running their team, unless you’re the Hornets and are being saved.

Obviously Jaime has been against the big Fox television deal that Frank keeps insisting will save this team financially. I have one reason to side with Jaime, and that reason is you’re never in a good position when you’re broke. It sounds like $3B would be a huge TV contract and would relive some debt for the short term, but I’m almost positive they could do better than the deal offered. Fox probably smells blood and wants to take advantage. Here’s a good quote from Jaime that really shows the differences between the two sides as in I don’t think Frank really has the best interests of the team in mind.

“As I’ve said all along, my goal is to resolve this situation for my family in a way that also advances the best interests of the Dodgers fans, players and franchise. This motion will hopefully provide some momentum in the right direction.”

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

May 6, 2011

Let’s See How Far We’ve Come

By mceezy

So I heard that song while doing a little grocery shopping at my local Nugget Market. It always takes me back to my time working for the Sacramento River Cats. It’s probably the only place I ever heard that song, but for some reason they put it on every single promo dvd that I was forced to see thousands of times. Anyway, switching the big league baseball, we’re basically a month into the season, so it’s time to see where we’re at it… who’s overachieving, who’s underachieving, and most importantly, will it continue?

The first guy that jumps out at me is Lance Berkman. I never doubted the guy’s credentials, but it seemed like he was on the decline the last two years. He got off to a slow start last year in Houston, and then after being traded to the Yankees, he never got it going, and quickly became an afterthough. He was far from the most attractive free agent out there, but St Louis was quick to snatch him up. I believe the A’s made a phone call that was never returned, if I remember correctly. (sounds about right). Through 10 games, Berkman has 10 home runs and 32 rbi. In his 39 games as a Yankee, he had just 1 home run and 9 rbi. WILL IT CONTINUE? I doubt it, but NOT because Berkman will fall off, rather as a result of Pujols catching fire and carrying the team for a while, and then Holliday, and maybe Berkman again. The point is, there’s not enough RBI to go around for any of these guys – even Pujols – to have a monster season.

The next thing that jumps out at me is the fact that Alfonso Soriano leads the Major Leagues in home runs, with 11 through 29 games. If he can manage to stay on the field for an entire season… I WON’T say he’s on pace for 59 home runs! But I WILL say it’s not too far-fetched that he could flirt with his career high, his lone year in Washington where he hit 46 bombs. WILL IT CONTINUE? I don’t know, you kinda learn to bet against anything going right for the Cubs. It’s hard to imagine Soriano staying focused, or healthy, or both, for an entire season. What he may be able to do is build up some value to become a trade deadline asset.

Jered Weaver could win 30 games! Okay, it’s highly unlikely, but when you win your first six starts, one can’t help but think about a guy racking up 30 of em. He finally lost a game this week, blemishing his record to the tune of a 6-1 mark. Still, all he has to do is win just 24 out of his remaining 27 starts. WILL IT HAPPEN? F*** no, but as long as you play for my favorite team’s archenemy, anything’s possible. I’ll say this much, if he did win 30, I guarantee four of them would have been against the A’s.

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Sports

May 3, 2011

Elephants and Seals

By chappy81

This is our second installment of Elephants and Seals. And just like last time Chappy will be covering the A’s, and By will be covering the Giants.

San Francisco Giants (13-15) Oakland Athletics (15-14)

Three Up

Oakland A’s – They lost two of three in LA, but came on strong over the weekend to take 3 of 4 from Texas to bring themselves over .500.  Their bats seemed to wake up against what we all kinda knew was some weak starting pitching out in Texas. Kurt Suzuki hit two bombs after having his newly born daughter. Willingham hit a game tying homer, and Matsui hit a walkoff in yesterdays series winning game, so there’s some reason for optimism for the offense. Andrew Bailey is throwing again, and should be back sooner than later as he’s set to face some live hitting this week. That is a big relief because Fuentes is about as scary a ninth inning as you’ll get. He doesn’t throw hard, and puts guys on base giving A’s fans a heart attack every time he’s on the mound. Bailey we need you back! Coco Crisp’s bat is as lively as his hair these days, and when he’s on, he scores lots of runs. Oakland pitchers still lead the league in ERA at 2.76. They are did pretty good in April for their standards, because April is a month they almost always have a losing record in. You don’t win a division in April, but you can be far enough behind to lose it if you aren’t careful. I mean, we could be the Twins with only 9 wins.

San Francisco Giants – 1.  We won the 2010 World Series.  I know that was last season, and that historic event is a thing of the past, but when your beloved team plays as inconsistent as they have been, despite the talent and experience they possess, well then you got to hang your hat on something.  We’re only about 7% into the season, and if they don’t clean up their act by the 20% mark, I’ll throw this trump card away.  Which brings me to my next ”up” ~

2.  We’re only 7% into the season!  It’s still very early and the Giants are much below .500 ball thanks to  taking two out of three in five of the past seven series’.  They’ve been in a lot worse situations, and for them to be even despite not finding themselves is a good sign.

3.  Aaron Rowand is hitting .300 (o.k. .296) and Pablo Sandoval is hitting .313 with five dingers.  These are two players who contributed very little last season.  Aaron Rowand was considered a free agent bust, and Panda was looked at as a fluke.  The Giants are currently 11th in hitting in the N.L. but it’s neither of these two’s fault.  If they keep playing this well offensively, it will almost be like we picked up two solid free agents this year.

Three Down

Oakland A’s – Kevin Kouzmanoff is supposedly on the team more for his defense prowess, yet he’s already made 6 errors on the season. If his bat actually worked, I wouldn’t mind the errors as much, but this is getting ridiculous, and these errors are leading to runs almost every time he kicks an easy grounder. The team as a whole hasn’t been good defensively, but I doubt they will be tied for the lead the league in errors. The offense as a whole is offensive as they’re ranked 27th in the league in runs scored, don’t have a hitter over .300 in the lineup, and swing at way too many pitches early in the count. Pitchers that give up a few runs to us still are in the game in the 7th. Aside from Barton, I’m not sure anyone in the lineup knows how to work a count, unfortunately his working the count has resulted in a high amount of strikeouts. Pitchers are throwing 70 pitch complete games against us. Ok, not really, but you get the point. We have renamed the Oakland Coliseum to the Overstock.com Coliseum or O.co Coliseum. This is in the three down section, because it sounds lame.

1.  We won the 2010 World Series.  I know you’re asking, how can this be an ”up” and a ”down”?  It’s an ”up” from a fans’ perspective, especially someone like me who is grateful he witnessed a World Series championship during his lifetime.  It’s been a ”down” for the actual team.  I tried not to think it, but it’s becoming more and more apparent, the Giants have a World Series hangover.  They’re too busy making music videos with Keenan Cahill that they forgot there’s a season to play.  But then again, this is the reason why we fell in love with these guys, they’re a bunch of goofy clowns and miSFits.

2.  Missing Andres Torres has been a huge downer for the Giants.  He’s a great lead off man, and plays a fantastic center field.  The one thing that’s underrated about Torres is his defense.  Our outfield has been our week spot early on, especially when we threw Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff out there (wtf!) but with Ross back, and Torres on his way, I’ll stop holding my breath on every fly ball.

3.  Pitching and hitting.  If it’s not one, it’s the other.  This is reminiscent of years past with these Giants team.  They’re winning or losing games, 1-0 or 9-8.  Neither side can get it together consistently and act as a cohesive unit.  Like I mentioned earlier, we’re 11th in the N.L. in hitting.  I’m not concerned about average starts from Timmy, Jonathan Sanchez and Matty Cain, but Madison ”Mad Bum” Bumgarner has struggled big time.  Last season he was brilliant in the post season, we’ve only seen one glimpse of that pitcher since.  Could I actually be asking this, but are we missing Barry Zito?  If it’s come to this, then that’s a huge downer.

Next Up

Oakland A’s – Taking on the best team in baseball, Cleveland Indians at home. They found a little groove offensively against Texas, so hopefully that keeps up. I can’t wait for the day when I’m not shocked when they put up 4 runs in a game.

San Francisco Giants got to start doing their best Charlie Sheen impression, winning.  We got the Mets and Rockies next, very winnable series’.

16 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Sports

April 19, 2011

Doin MLB Power Rankings

By chappy81

With two and a half full weeks gone in the MLB season we find ourselves about 10% of the way through the season. It’s time for some waaay too early power rankings! I’ve seen way too many baseball games thanks to the free MLB package preview those first two weeks. Thankfully that’s over, so I don’t find myself watching a Marlins vs. Astros game anymore (which is probably for the better). For some reason I’ve been more focused on baseball more than the opening games this weekend of the NBA playoffs. Anyways, this might be the most accurate power rankings I’ll have all year because I’ve actually seen almost all the teams play. There are some shocking teams already in this young season, and for now this is how the top 16 shakes out!

#1 Colorado Rockies (12-4) – Whoa, I thought they’d be pretty good this year, which is why I picked them to win the NL West, but didn’t see this torrid start coming. Tulo is on pace to hit over 80 homers this year. If he keeps that pace up, they might be able to stay atop these rankings for awhile.

#2 Cleveland Indians (12-4) – Mceezy’s pick to win the World Series. I was very skeptical of this team and his pick, but they’ve got some swagger and confidence early in the year. Also, one guy who always seems to be in the playoffs, Orlando Cabrera is on their team. Wherever he goes, they make the playoffs except when he was on the A’s for half a year and didn’t make it… Grady is back, and that’s only going to help them.

#3 New York Yankees (9-5) – Is there starting pitching ever not a question mark? It doesn’t seem to matter that much when you put up runs like this lineup can. AJ Burnett is off to a good start, so maybe he doesn’t suck after all. Would I move Jeter down in the lineup? Yes!

#4 Texas Rangers (11-5) – They’ve lost two straight series (one to the Yankees), but keep on mashing the ball with or without Hamilton in the lineup. Anytime you are scoring as much as them you have a chance to win in every game. Their starting rotation is a concern, and the bullpen is even more of a concern, we’ll see what happens with that. Hopefully it will spell their doom.

#5 Philadelphia Phillies (10-5) – Not an exciting offense anymore, but you only need to score a few runs with that pitching staff. I might have underestimated how good they are with or without Chase Utley and Jayson Werth. I guess I should’ve probably picked them to win the NL East…  Continue reading

8 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Sports

April 8, 2011

Elephants and Seals

By chappy81

We sometimes neglect our teams in writing posts since we follow them so closely that we feel like everyone probably already knows what’s going on with them, in reality, that’s probably not true. Now that we have a Giants fan in the mix in By, I figured it would be fun to do an overview of our two favorite bay area teams from our homer perspectives. I’ll be writing up the A’s portion and By will be doing the Giants portion for this season.

Oakland 2-5

San Francisco 3-4

Three Up

Oakland A’s – Our starting pitchers have picked up where they left off last season, and by that I mean dominating the first six innings of their games, and only giving up two earned runs or less in all but one appearance. The new offensive guys (Dejesus, Willingham, and Matsui) in the heart of the order aren’t producing much, and unfortunately the other guys in the lineup are doing what they did last year, which is leaving runners in scoring position. They have had the lead at one point in every game this year, but can’t seem to keep it for too long in most cases. We still seem to have a heavy handicap in the home run department, but we seem to be getting more guys on base than last year, so there’s a little hope on the horizon. They’ve been close in every game late, because of that great starting pitching. If it weren’t for them thinking they were playing soccer to the tune of kicking 9 fielding errors, they could easily be .500 on the year. Somewhat concerned about this start.

San Francisco Giants – This is simple.  One, Lincecum, Sanchez, Cain, Zito & Mad Bum.  A solid bull pen, and the game’s real life version of Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn to close it.  I’m not worried about a 3-4 start.  Perhaps I’m being a little generous when mentioning Zito in that list, but I can’t uninclude him when he’s rockin’ the new ‘stache.  Two, we have a group of loveable guys who all play hard together and get along with each other.  Yes, Aubrey Huff in the outfield scares me, but the young studs in Buster Posey and Brandon Belt in our every day lineup more than make up for it.  Do not sleep on Miguel Tejada, by the way.  And three, we are still the defending champs.  This season is (now) seven games in for the Giants.  I’m not worried about a 3-4 start.

Three Down

Oakland A’s – Their bullpen is already injured like it’s mid-season. It was supposed to be a heavy strength for the team coming into the season, so far all we’ve been left with is blown leads. Balfour and Fuentes our big acquisitions in the pen this off-season both blew saves in their first tries as Athletics with Bailey on the DL. Their fielding was never a problem last year, but with 9 errors in only six games this year they are dead last in that category. Their last two games in Toronto that were errorless, and same with the day game in Minnesota today, so that has me feeling like it was just a little early season rust. Hopefully that’s the case. Maybe all the talk of needing to upgrade at third got to Kouz’s head as he’s tied for the team lead with three errors. Lastly the A’s have been terrible with runners in scoring position this season only logging three hits when that chance arises.

San Francisco Giants

1)  We got smoked by L.A.

2)  Duck the Fodgers.

3)  We haven’t produced runs consistently, spoiling some good outings by our starting pitchers.  Add to that, our bull pen hasn’t looked as crisp as they did during last season’s historic playoff run, so I guess there’s some cause for concern there.

3a)  It would be nice to have Cody Ross back.


5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Sports

March 25, 2011

Doin MLB Predictions

By chappy81

For every sport, we make our predictions on how they will play out for the season. Last year By nailed it picking the Giants to win the World Series. We all got some right here and there last season making us feel like our predictions should hold some weight. Even if some of them seem laughable, just remember we did get a lot of stuff right last year!

AL East Winner

Chappy picks Boston Red Sox. If they aren’t the favorite in the AL, I don’t know who is. No need to rattle off their acquisitions because all of them were frontline news with each 9 or 10 figure contract that was signed. This team could set some records on offense. I hope the Rays somehow beat them out, but I’m less than confident that will happen.

By picks Boston Red Sox. Not sure how I feel about the BoSox after this past off-season.  Although the Red Sox have never shied away from spending a boat load of money on their players, they have always been second fiddle to the Yanks in the “shoving dollars down a free-agent’s throat” department.  But not this time.  Chappy won’t mention the names, but I will.  Carl “Freakin'” Crawford and Adrian “God Damn” Gonzalez.  You don’t need much else to say here.  Bahstan takes the AL East.

MCeezy picks New York Yankees. I know Boston looks sexy on paper with Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez in tow, but I see huge question marks in their pitching staff and that’s what may very well kill them. Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon had pretty demoralizing seasons last year. The Yankees on the other hand added the AL leader in Saves last year as their setup man.

AL Central Winner

Chappy picks Chicago White Sox. Chicago came on strong at the end of the year, but their sluggish start killed them. I don’t see that happening this year with basically the same team in tact, and an addition of Adam Dunn to the middle of the order. I picked them last year, and think they got better than they were last year over the off-season, so no reason not to pick them again.

By picks Minnesota Twins. I have to go with Minnesota here.  Joe Mauer and the Playstation guy are at it again, and when those two get together (and are both healthy) the Twins are tough to beat.  All jokes aside, remember, if Justin Morneau doesn’t suffer a season ending injury just prior to the post-season, the Twins could have very well beaten the Yanks in the ALDS last season.  O.K. maybe not.

MCeezy picks Cleveland Indians. Yes, I’m dead serious. Research shows that 1 in 7 division winning teams were not very good the year before. This year, that team will be the Indians. Everybody knows that owner Rachel Phelps just wants the team to tank so they can move to Anaheim with the Kings. But in 2011, the year of winning, how can the Tribe not win the whole f***in thing? Charlie Sheen is going to come back as Ricky Vaughn, whether producers allow him in Major League 3 or not. Since they most likely won’t, we may be lucky enough to see Sheen run onto the field with the Wild Thing hairdo just cause he feels like it.

Continue reading

10 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Sports

February 1, 2011

Whatever Happened to the Two Sport Athlete? Are They About to Make a Comeback!?!

By chappy81

I was reading this Rob Neyer article, and he was talking about how great Bo Jackson was. To this day he is one of my favorite all time Raiders. I loved his Tiger handheld game as well. He dominated Deion in the battle of the best two-sport athlete by a long shot. Unfortunately for Bo, and for us, his career ended far too early. It got me wondering why there aren’t more two sport athletes these days, but if you look at the salaries back then he wasn’t making close to what guys are today. Granted it was the early 90’s, and with inflation money was worth a little more than it is now, but his final year in Oakland he earned $1.6M, and in Kansas City he pulled in $2.6M.  I’m not saying this is chump change, but the crappy players weren’t quite to the point of getting paid ridiculous amounts of money during Bo’s days, and even the best players weren’t completely paid. So my thinking was that as contracts rose in EVERY sport the need to play more than one sport lessened. The last guy I can even think of that stood out in two sports was Charlie Ward being the general for Florida State’s offense in football and basketball, but even he didn’t play two sports professionally, which I think proves my point that athlete’s don’t need to play two sports anymore because the money is so ridiculously good in whichever one they choose. The closest thing we’ve had recently is a Nike commercial with Lebron blocking a field goal for the Cleveland Browns. With the very real possibility of a lockout for two of our sports (NFL and NBA), I wanted to throw out some ideas for guys and types of players that I think would try to make the jump to another sport either out of boredom or the need to support the $500,000 a month spending lifestyle. Continue reading

25 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Sports

January 24, 2011

Angels $$ in the Outfield

By chappy81

Arte better not expect the second coming of Vlad with Vernon....

Did Arte Moreno ever really buy the Angels from the Disney Corporation? Are the Angels are spending all their money on outfielders in an attempt to bring back the classicly bad movie Angels in the Outfield? At the time the movie came out it was laughable that the Angels would ever win a pennant, and after a head scratching offseason it seems just as laughable right now spending more on their 30+ year old outfield than the movie grossed at the box office. Moreno is making Al Davis look sane these days.

You may or may not have heard they traded for Vernon Wells giving up Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli to the Blue Jays. Wells is a slight upgrade over Rivera, but not a $15M upgrade. Wells had a pretty good season last year, but if you look at his career numbers you will see he has one pretty good year, then a bad one, and the worst part about him is he has continually declined from his career highs he set in 04-06. I’m not saying he’ll be terrible this year, but he will never live up to his contract. Rivera was supposed to make $5M this upcoming season, while Wells is due to make $23M in 2011 with three more years of $21M left on his contract. Both Rivera and Wells are 32 years old, and without PED’s we know that their production will dwindle as time rolls along, unless some crazy undetectable strengthening drug comes along.

The Angels struck out on landing Carl Crawford, and decide to trade for a guy that the Blue Jays have been trying to get rid of for years!?! I even put him on my list of worst contracts in the MLB back in August of 2009. This move makes no sense at all, especially when the reason for them not wanting to sign Crawford was that he wanted too many years. He wanted seven, and that would’ve put him at 35 years old when his contract ran out, coincidentally that is the same age that Wells will be when his contract is done. I’ve got nothing against Vernon, but in two years which player would you rather have? Not a tough choice there right?

With their current outfield alignment, they weren’t especially bad out there, nor were they all that good, but having this be their major upgrade of the offseason seems like a joke. They are still paying for the final year of Gary Matthews Jr.’s ridiculous contract ($11.5M this year), and he’s not even playing anymore. They are spending $63M on the outfield including Matthews Jr. Yup, $63M is not a typo for (Matthews Jr, Wells, Hunter, and Abreu). That’s more than the A’s entire payroll, ok, maybe that was an exaggeration, but it’s close, and they still don’t look like a great team. I know Vernon won’t be labeled as the most overpaid fourth outfielder like Matthews Jr. was, but he could be in four years during the final year of his contract! Was it Torii Hunter’s contract working out that made them pull the trigger? I’ll be the first to admit that I thought Hunter was overpaid when they signed him, but this seems like a twice as risky scenario, since Wells hasn’t had an all-star worthy season since 2006, and Torii is known for his hard work ethic, not the same with Wells. Why wouldn’t they put in a better offer for Beltre since he obviously would’ve come to LA if the price was right since all Boras clients ever want is the most money. It would’ve sured up their worst infield position, and they wouldn’t be stuck with quite as large of a contract. They needed an upgrade at 3B much more than in the outfield. Whatever their reasons, I’m glad they are going to stick with Brandon the .200 hitter Wood at third base, and even happier they have Vernon for the next four years keeping a lot of salary tied up. Just so you know Brandon Wood makes the A’s Kevin Kouzmanoff look like a shoe in All-Star.

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January 19, 2011

Is Oakland Ready to Re-Claim The AL West?

By chappy81

I can’t contain my excitement anymore. This is by far the most excited I’ve been about baseball during the offseason in at least three or four years. The A’s have made a lot of moves that made sense this offseason after last year’s overachieving team went 81-81 showing that sometimes less is more. We had less recognizable names playing for us, but did better than we have for a couple of years. I still can’t quite figure out how they won as many games as they did, but we found out what needed to be addressed, and all knew going into this season that they would finally have some money to spend with expiring contracts. I was skeptical that they would in fact spend that money, but they have shown so far they aren’t scared to make some moves. If they didn’t make the moves they did, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could give them the full on support that I have over the years. Yes, I understand they need a new stadium, and would love nothing more than for them to have a billion dollar state of the art park to call home, but there’s no way that will happen when they aren’t a competitive team. As MCeezy keeps saying build a winner then build a new stadium. Another point I’ll give him credit for, is they needed even more so than years past to make some moves this year since their across the bay counterpart just won the World Series. I mean really how tough decision is it for the fair-weather fans in the bay to make? Go to the ghetto Oakland Coliseum and watch a 2nd place team, or head across the bay bridge to the amazing AT&T Park watching the defending world champs? If I was one of the transplants that overtake the area, I’d be heading to SF. Of course the devil’s advocate would say, Lew Wolffe wants to move this team, and what better way to show the need than to tank in attendance. Thankfully it’s not the latter.

Okay enough ranting and onto the real reason for this post was why I can’t wait for this MLB season to start. First off another reason I’m looking forward to it is because there won’t be a lockout, so it might be the only sport to follow unless you love the financials of CBA’s. The A’s started the offseason by trading for David Dejesus, which shouldn’t be mistaken for a huge trade, but was an upgrade in the outfield getting a career .318 hitter, and a guy that usually stays healthy. Can’t say the same for any of the other 15 outfielders we have on the roster.

Our second signing will probably get some of the Asian demographic on board getting Hideki Matsui for a reasonable price. He’s not the most exciting signing in the world, but he does bring something that we clearly lacked, a player that can hit 20+ homers without striking out 300 times a season. He’s been a workhorse throughout his career, and is the opposite of the constantly complaining Jack Cust. He’s also not completely falling apart like some of the guys we’ve signed over the years with the exception of Frank Thomas during his resurrection.

Just days after the Matsui signing we picked up Josh Willingham in a trade. I loved this move as I’ve always liked Willingham. He’s a powerful guy when he gets the atbats, and with two powerful bats in the lineup, maybe they will produce enough to avoid those 1-0 2-1 losses they seemed to frequently have last year. It also gives us a little hope in those extra inning games of a walkoff homer instead of waiting for three singles to get that run. For an A’s fan, it felt like we signed Carl Crawford and David Ortiz this offseason. Not because we think they are THAT good of players, but because they never sign or trade for guys that aren’t over the hill (sans the Holiday deal). We still have some big holes in the lineup, and I’d like to see an upgrade at SS or 3B, but if this is all we do, I’m still happy with it.

The second wave of signings were all for the bullpen, which was a great idea backing up the awesome starting pitching they already have, and possibly one of them will end up being their 5th starter. When you lead the AL in ERA, you think there must not be much that needs to be changed. That could be the farthest thing from the truth, as their bullpen wasn’t actually that strong last season. The first addition was the return of Rich Harden. A’s fans have always had a soft spot for him, and it’s really the only place he’s had any success. This time around he’s going to be in the bullpen though hopefully keeping him off of the DL. They also signed Brandon McCarthy, who I’m not sure if they are trying him out for the 5th spot in the rotation or a long reliever.

They officially signed Grant Balfour yesterday, and I thought this was a GREAT signing. No longer will we have to rely on Michael Wuertz’s roller coaster rides to set up the end of the game for Bailey. I’ve never heard a bad thing about the guy, so no reason to not like the move. He also said of the team that they remind him a lot of the 2008 Rays, hopefully he’s right about that! He struck out the most hitters of any reliever last year against the AL East, so there’s no reason to think he can’t do it against the AL West. I have a feeling that Braden and Balfour are going to get this pitching staff fired up regularly.

Today they signed lefty Brian Fuentes. I’ll be honest, I don’t really like Fuentes. I loved it when he was on the Angels, and every time he came in the game there was a chance they’d lose. I’m okay with Fuentes in a set up role, let’s just hope he’s our lefty specialist and not pitching full innings, because I don’t want to be on that roller-coaster regularly.

All in all, this has been a great offseason, and there’s still a few months left to make some more moves. Do you see these moves making the A’s take over the AL West? I sure do, but I’m bias as hell…

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January 7, 2011

Doin Cali Storylines

By chappy81

Jim Harbaugh is going to be the 49ers new coach for the next five years. Great signing for a guy who is forever embedded in California going all the way back to High School, to coaching Stanford, and now his newest job as the 49ers head coach. Solid move by the coach for choosing the Niners over the Dolphins. It was a great move to stay where his family is, and even more so because he decided to go with the NFC West over the AFC East. I think he liked beating Pete Carroll so much in college in Pete’s last year at USC, he wanted the chance to do it twice a year in the pros. I’m not a big Niners or NFC fan, so that’s all I have to say about that, maybe By will have a post on it sometime later breaking it down, because it is the biggest thing they’ve done since they beat the Giants in the playoffs.

The Raiders fired Cable a couple of days ago as Mceezy already told us. I’ve let the feelings I had on the firing set in a little more over the last couple of days, because originally, I was pretty mad since the Raiders players seemed to respect Cable so much. Now, I’m not quite as mad as the initial shock of the announcement. I’m thinking that Al hired on Hue Jackson as the OC last year, because he wanted to groom him into the next HC. Hue improved the offense by leaps and bounds this year by actually getting them into the endzone last season. I remember last year, we went through a three game stretch where all we managed were field goals, and watching the offense was painful more times than not. They might have scored a TD in that three game stretch, but it was a defensive one.

Anyways, my theory goes like this. Al was going to roll with Cable this year, and see how Hue did with getting the offense functioning like a real offense again. Both were reasonably successful, so no changes were made for the first half of the season. Al probably would’ve kicked Cable to the curb if had a crappy record at the bye week, but that wasn’t the case. Since they were still in the hunt, Al decided to let the year play out and waited through December to see if Cable could get them to the playoffs. He didn’t, and when Cable emphatically said after the season finale win over the Chiefs “we aren’t losers anymore”, that probably pissed Al off more than anything, and was the final straw in a tenure that had him switching QB’s, punching assistants, and receiving battery charges from ex-girlfriends. If they don’t hire/promote Hue Jackson who has the players respect already, then it will be another one of Al’s crazy decisions that I will never understand. The players overall were outspoken against the firing, but I think having a familiar face leading them next year would negate some of that negative energy. So the moral of this rant, if Al hires Hue then I’ll believe he really had a plan. If Al hires someone else, he’s should be checked back into the insane asylum.

The A’s new ballpark. The Oakland City Council approved spending  ¾ of a million dollars into looking at a site in downtown Oakland for a new baseball only park for the A’s. I’m not really sure what this means, but I know there isn’t going to be a stadium anytime soon. I think this was a counter to San Jose trying to find a place to put the A’s, which Lew Wolff has longed for. It’s sad that the MLB still hasn’t concluded their research to decide where is the best fit for the A’s new park if there is one, after only two years of research. If they put me on that committee, I bet I could figure it out faster than two damn years!

Speaking of San Jose, how does the San Jose Hornets sound? It wouldn’t be possible till 2014 (when CP3 is gone), but Larry Ellison easily has the funds to buy the Hornets from the league and the wherewithal to make that move happen. He might do it just because he got punked when he was trying to buy the Warriors. It would be a pretty bold move to try to steal them away to San Jose, especially since the Warriors have as strong a fanbase as any in the league. I wonder if he’d just do it to take money and value away from Lacob and Gruber who bought the Warriors? Probably, because I think this guy HATES losing at anything, and I’m sure losing out on buying the Warriors is still eating at him. Five NBA teams in California seems like a little much, especially when three are in Northern California. I guess we will see how it all plays out, but I thought it was an interesting rumor nonetheless. The Kings are the most likely to move of the current teams here, so maybe there would still only be four teams in Cali if Ellison bought the Hornets.

The Lakers shenanigans leading to losing. I always love when Lakers fans start panicking after a few loses. I’m sure if I was a fan of theirs I’d be a little worried, but seriously, they still have the third best record in the west, so stop bitching Laker Nation. Even though their players are missing practices because of their IPhones, Ron doesn’t like the way Phil yells at him, and Odom is convincing teammates to sign waivers to be on his reality show, they shouldn’t be worried. They’ve gone through much worse with Kobe and Shaq, so they will right the ship. Last year just before the playoffs started, they played some of their worst ball of the season, and that sure didn’t seem to stop them from winning a championship. December and January isn’t the time to worry about the Lakers. This is a team that has been to the finals three years in a row. Sometimes you probably get bored during the season. I think that’s what is happening here more than anything…

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December 20, 2010

Trading Weekend…

By chappy81

Wall Street is closed on the weekends, but there were some major trades being made in the sports world over the weekend. The two biggest trades were undoubtedly the Magic getting Gilbert (a long time favorite of mine) from the Wizards, as well as Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, and Earl Clark from the Suns. My first reaction to the trade when I saw it flash up on the bottom line on TV was, what an upgrade! They got rid of Rashard, Pietrus and Vince, which is a win my book regardless of who came in. Nothing against Vince or Rashard, but if the Magic really want to be serious contenders they needed to get rid of both of them for the simple reason that they always choke in the playoffs. Here’s a reminder of how they felt last year about the Hedoless team. (NJ and Toronto fans nodding in agreement) Second, they got rid of Michael (I step out of bounds twice a game) Pietrus. I’m not positive how Air France has done this year since I really don’t follow the Magic that closely, but Pietrus is a guy that frustrated me when he was in a Warriors uniform. I can only assume that those are the same type of sentiments that Magic fans have about him, but maybe not. All in all it was like the how the A’s finally rid themselves of Jack Cust. Addition by subtraction.

How will this new look Eastern Conference beast be with all the new parts? I really can’t say for sure that they will be better than the old group, but since they are taking in veterans that have played in multiple systems, I’m sure integrating them into the game plan won’t take as long as many expect. I also believe that Hedo and Arenas want to prove that they are good again, and will have plenty of reasons now that they will be playing for a winning team. I’m sure both want to revive their image, and winning cures that quickly just look at Vick! A lot of people seemed shocked that they’d blow up their team like this with only a quarter of the season gone by, but my thinking is that all of this seeming panic goes back to the summer of Lebron. The Magic are about to find themselves in a similar situation that Cleveland faced last year with Dwight’s contract expiring in 2012. Feels like a do or die move to try and get a championship. If you are the Magic, you definitely should be scared that if they don’t get a championship in the next two years then their chances to re-sign Dwight will be nearly impossible as he looks to take his talents away from central Florida. They already have experience losing a once in a lifetime center seeing Shaq flee to LA. Centers don’t grow on trees as we’ve seen with guys like Oden and Bynum never really making it to their potential level or staying healthy for that matter. The Magic are now deep into the luxury tax, but it will only be worth it if they can appease their big man to stay, and a championship might be the only way to do that. I hope it works out for them, unless of course Dwight has an aching to come to Golden State! Then I wouldn’t mind watching his “Decision” from the Epcot Center.

Zack Greinke was the other big trade of the weekend. I love reading how the Royals got a good deal out of it. Really!?! You can already tell?!? They traded away their best player and have improved greatly?!? I guess they are like the A’s, but simply never win. The Royals have one of the youngest roster known to man. Aside from Vin Mazzaro who the A’s just traded to them, I don’t really recognize many names. I guess they could be like the Padres and sneak up on everyone, but that’s a laughable statement in itself. If they are a contender in two years I will gladly eat those words. I’d put the chances of them getting a Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Seizmore type haul at 1%.  Personally, I thought the best part about this trade was that the Rangers didn’t end up with Greinke. He was supposedly their second target after they failed to get Cliff Lee. Now it looks like the A’s are still the only team that’s really improved in the AL West, which makes me that much happier. The Brewers get what they were desperately missing with Greinke’s consistent pitching, even if last year he wasn’t as great. Can you blame him? I’d have a hard time getting fired up for starts if I was on the Royals. I think he’s going to tear through the NL lineups and might be somewhat like Halladay was last year for the Phillies, although there’s a huge difference between the AL East and the AL Central. I actually picked the Brewers to win the NL Central last year, maybe I just picked them one year too early! Now that they’ll have Yorvani Gallardo and hopefully a healthy Chris Capuano, so there’s no reason to count this team out. Their young core can put up runs, but now they some pitching to match that powerful lineup. If they can find a way to bridge the gap between their new starters and the Axeman I will be saying I told you so 8 months from now when they are in the playoffs!

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December 16, 2010

Werthwhile Move For The Nats?

By mceezy

This post isn’t really about Jayson Werth, but his signing did trigger a chain of events that caused me to take notice of the Washington Nationals. In regards to his huge contract, Werth said something to the effect of it shows that the Nats are ready to win. He and Ryan Zimmerman make a solid nucleus. I immediately got curious to see where the Nationals were at in terms of talent on their roster. So I checked out their depth chart, and I’m not impressed. I like to think I’m a pretty big sports fan, but I literally have not heard of half of their roster. Half of the guys I do know are probably just the result of scouring the fantasy waiver wire. I mean, I’ve heard of Nyjer Morgan and Ian Desmond, but I couldn’t really tell you much about them. They have a pitching rotation full of marginal number five starters and I couldn’t tell any of the guys in the bullpen from a group of sales reps at my local Lowe’s. Then today, they dealt one of the few remaining familiar faces, Josh Willingham, to Oakland. Are they really ready to win now, like Werth believes? Hell, if my employer gave me $18mil a year, I’d be unjustifiably optimistic as well. But this brings me to another topic….. the A’s.

We try to not to overdo it with A’s coverage, but Chappy and I are diehards. With the exception of Athleticsnation, there’s not a lot of A’s blogs out there, no matter what Rob Neyer tells us. (Seriously, a blog that’s been around less than two months?) Anyway, people are starting to take notice of the moves the A’s have made this offseason. None are worthy of Carl Crawford or Cliff Lee type press, but Billy Beane is quietly putting together a team that many feel may be able to contend – especially while the Angels, Rangers, and Mariners seem to be hibernating for the winter. So far, they’ve added David Dejesus, Hideki Matsui, Josh Willingham, Rich Harden (pending a physical –  never a sure thing with Harden), and Brandon McCarthy. The only notable prospects given up were Vin Mazzaro and Henry Rodriguez. I liked both of them, but neither were a sure thing in the big leagues. Besides, in typical A’s fashion, there are plenty of young arms in the farm system. I can’t help but wonder if the Giants’ World Series victory has forced the A’s hand a bit. They’ve maintained that they’re waiting for a new stadium before they try to contend again, but clearly they’re getting tired of waiting. While I don’t really expect them to make any more major moves (not that I’d call any of the aforementioned moves major), I’m curious to see what happens with Adrian Beltre. He spurned the A’s original offer, which I’m not really complaining about because it was a lot of money and I’m not sure he’s worth it. But it doesn’t seem like anyone else is really making a play for him. Combine that with the bats they’ve added this offseason, and maybe Beltre is warming up to the idea of playing in Oakland. He may not have any choice, unless he wants to take less money to stay in Boston or go somewhere else. While I don’t think Beltre would single-handedly put the A’s over the hump, his addition would give the team a legitimate big-league lineup, as opposed to the AAA roster they’ve been trotting out for the last two seasons. Perhaps it’s time to take part in a favorite pasttime over at AN, and pleasure myself with a little rosterbation. Let’s say the A’s do manage to acquire Beltre. Here’s what the 2011 lineup would look like…..

CF – Coco Crisp

LF – Josh Willingham

RF – David Dejesus

DH – Hideki Matsui

3B – Adrian Beltre

C – Kurt Suzuki

1B – Daric Barton

2B – Mark Ellis

SS – Cliff Pennington

Rotation: Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez, Dallas Braden, Brandon McCarthy (or Josh Outman, or Tyson Ross, or Bobby Cramer, or Rich Harden)

Suddenly, 2011 is looking A LOT better than 2010!

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December 14, 2010

A’s Make a Ripple in the Free Agent Pool

By chappy81

The A’s are finally starting to make some moves this offseason. Patience is a virtue I’m told, but I wanted to see waves crashing in the free agent pool early and often with the money they had available to spend. We barely missed out on the Crawford and Lee sweepstakes, and according to my insider information, they were in the running for both players, until someone else put in their first offer that we couldn’t quite match. Oh well, today we got a Japanese guy, but not the one I originally thought we would. Initially it looked like Hisashi Iwakuma would be joining the A’s pitching rotation next year, but the talks hit a stalemate, and he decided to stay in Japan or maybe the A’s were just blocking their division opponents from getting him. Today we found our DH for the upcoming season though in Hideki Matsui or as most know him Godzilla. We paid Matsui just under $5M for the up coming season, which is about double what Cust was making last year as our DH. I can tell you for sure that I’d much rather see Godzilla striking out with runners on base than Cust. Maybe the Asian bias comes in a little, but he is a big upgrade over Cust, which MCeezy already expressed. Who knows since the A’s never say anything that was said behind closed doors. It already feels like a much better buy than last year’s acquisition of Ben Sheets who never really saw the mound that much. Matsui at least has a better health track record, and since DH isn’t exactly a strenuous spot I’m not worried. Am I super excited about this signing? Not to the point of writing 1,000 words, but it’s a step in a direction filling a spot that we really needed filled. If he hits 21 homers again like he did last year, he will easily lead the team in that department. Also, I’ve been reading about his signing a lot today, and found out that Matsui has been a longtime A’s fan, and even had their cap back in the 80’s while he was living in Japan. He was really into the Bash Brothers growing up, and that alone just gave me a million extra reasons to like him. Nihon Gambare Godzilla! (Long live Godzilla in Japanese)

12 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Sports