SINCE WE LAST SPOKE: 4-9-15
MLB 2015: With the NCAA Tournament in the rear-view mirror and Tennessee’s annual search for a new basketball coach completed it’s time to turn my attention to MLB. The game has issues such as pace, diminished offensive competence and ridiculous player salaries but I do still love it so. I guess I’m like James Earl Jones’ character Terrance Mann in
Field of Dreams who said:
Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say. It's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they'll walk out to the bleachers; sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.
With that here are my 2015 predictions that I am sure to later be ashamed of and never again mention:
AL EAST
ORIOLES: No one seems to believe in the O’s and other than Adam Jones and possibly Manny Machado there are no big names. They appear to me however to have the best “team” in the division and are responding to Buck Showalter’s leadership
RED SOX: Adding Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez to go with David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia suggests the Red Sox can rake. Clay Buchholz as your #1 starter suggests it won’t be enough
YANKEES: If Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and C.C Sabathia could all stay healthy the Yanks might have the best team in the AL. But they won’t and the therefore they don’t
BLUE JAYS: Every year the Jays roster looks like a sure playoff entrant and this season they have added Josh Donaldson at third and highly-touted Johnson City native Daniel Norris to their staff. Somehow the pieces never fit and Toronto will once again disappoint.
RAYS: Defections –including brainiac Manager Joe Maddon-, injuries at the top of the rotation (Alex Cobb, Drew Smiley) and Tampa Bay management’s seeming lack of urgency to field a competitive team have to be very disappointing to Rays fans. That is if any truly exist.
AL CENTRAL
ROYALS: Realizing Kansas City Management has yet to attempt to fill the void left by James Shield’s departure I can’t understand why NO ONE seems to think last season’s AL Champs can win this division. Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and the rest of the young core learned to win last season and won’t be an easy out this year either.
TIGERS: Miguel Cabrera, Ian Kinsler, Victor Martinez, Yeonis Cespedes and company can hit it like a slow pitch softball team but I have trouble believing they will win anything with a rotation that lost Max Scherzer and relies heavily on a free-falling Justin Verlander
INDIANS: The Indians are the trendy pick to win the AL Central probably due to Ace Corey Kluber’s breakout 2014 season and Carlos Carrasco’s potential to do the same in 15. Keep in mind however these are the Indians and Jake Taylor, Willie Mays Hayes, Pedro Cerrano and Ricky “Wild Thing Vaughn are fictional characters. Fortunately for all of us Harry Doyle is real but is in the booth in Milwaukee and not Cleveland
WHITE SOX Jose Abreu and Chris Sale are special talents and Josh Robertson will close effectively. There isn’t enough talent of that level throughout the remainder of the roster however to reward what a couple of trips to Chicago have convinced me are the REAL baseball fans in the Windy City.
TWINS: Looking forward to someday making it back to Minneapolis to see the new Target Stadium. Just wish I didn’t have to watch the Twins when I do.
AL WEST
MARINERS: This year’s “Beano’s Pick to Click” which unfortunately often turns to “Beano’s Pick is Sick”. For me to avoid wiping Waffle House quantities of egg off my face Felix Hernandez and Robinson Cano have to be the studs they’re supposed to be and 3B Kyle Seager and SP Taijuan Walker must meet lofty expectations.
ANGELS: Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Jered Weaver and company should be the best team in the AL. Much like the Yankees of the 80s however they rarely seem to play up to the level their roster suggests.
A’s: We have Dime Store Dave; Oakland has Bargain Basement Billy Beane. Give the A’s credit they are always in the race because the organization develops pitchers and Beane finds just enough to supplement the staff.
RANGERS: If it wasn’t for the Astros it would seem mandatory to pick a team with a third of their lineup consisting of names like Ryan Rua (LF), Shin-Soo Choo (RF) and Rougned Odor (2B) to finish in the cellar.
ASTROS: Sure would like to watch Jose Altuve play every day…in another uniform… and another ballpark.
NL EAST
NATIONALS: With a rotation of Max Scherzer, Steven Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, Gio Gonzalez and Doug Fister the Nats could use my old man’s softball squad for their everyday lineup and still win the division
MARLINS: With Giancarlo Stanton’s ability to carry an offense and Jose Fernandez’s potential –when healthy- to do the same for the staff the Marlins seem to be blossoming in the Sunshine State as the Rays fade.
METS: The Mets everyday lineup is nothing to envy but as a Yankee fan I would love to have youngsters Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom (only the Mets could have two players whose last name starts with a lower case “d”) to anchor a staff with Noah Syndergaard waiting his turn to be an ace as well.
BRAVES: Julio Teheran and Alex Wood are a pair of 24 year old horses that can anchor a staff for years and Shelby Miller has huge upside as well. The lineup is in transition however with Freddie Freeman being the only hitter capable of striking any fear in opposing pitchers
PHILLIES: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Cliff Lee seemingly got old overnight, Jimmy Rollins is gone and the GM Tony affectionately refers to as Ruin Tomorrow (aka Ruben Amaro) doesn’t seem capable of being the architect of the required rebuild.
NL CENTRAL
CARDINALS: The antithesis of the Phillies’ (and I’m afraid the Steinbrenner boy’s Yankees) organizational ineptitude? The St Louis Cardinals, who scout, sign and develop quality players and only use free agency for necessities. The addition of Jason Heyward should prove beneficial and if Adam Wainwright is breaking down, Michael Wacha, Carlos Martinez and Marco Gonzalez –all 23- appear ready to step up.
PIRATES: After a couple of dreadful decades Pittsburgh appears to have returned to being a franchise their deserving fan base can be proud of. Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco are the finest young OF in MLB and Gerrit Cole has the potential to be a long-term horse for the pitching staff
REDS: Unlike the Pirates Cincinnati’s high ceiling players seem to be underachievers. With Joey Votto, Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey too often underperforming a division title seems unlikely. If you’re a Reds’ fan I guess you can always look forward to a Johnny Cueto start or an Aroldis Chapman opportunity.
CUBS: Looks like the Cubs may finally be ready to be more than lovable losers shortly as well. Anthony Rizzo is the player the organization hoped and if Kris Bryant misses it will be a bigger surprise to Cub fans than a World Series appearance
BREWERS: The everyday lineup is solid especially with Jonathan Lucroy at catcher and an outfield of Ryan Braun, Kris Davis and Carlos Gomez. Like many clubs however the Brewers #1 pitcher Kyle Lohse is closer to a #3 than an ace.
NL WEST
DODGERS: If only the Dodgers could perform in April, May and October the way they do from June through September even glitzy Los Angeles might take notice. The lineup doesn’t overwhelm but Clayton Kershaw, Zach Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu taking the hill 60% of the time makes them hard to beat over 162 games
PADRES: By the time the Padres can put away the name tags and learn to play together a fast starting team would probably have put them away. Fortunately for the Pads the Dodgers aren’t that team. Justin Upton, Will Myers and Matt Kemp make up an entirely new OF, Derek Norris takes over at catcher, Big Game James Shields is the new #1 and latest acquisition Craig Kimbrel is the best closer in baseball. All are clear upgrades but is it too much change too quickly?
GIANTS: It’s an even year and like my advanced age employment schedule the Giants only show up half the time. It’s a shame because Madison Bumgarner is everything that Kershaw is not under the white-hot postseason spotlight.
ROCKIES: Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez have superstar ability but Colorado will be lucky to get 162 combined games out of the duo. The strongest of staffs would have difficulty pitching 81 games in Coors Field; and the Rockies’ hurlers are far from that.
DIAMONDBACKS: A couple of things to know about the D-Backs; Paul Goldschmidt is a really good hitter and…Paul Goldschmidt is a really good hitter.
DOING IT THE FEN-WAY: The Fab-5 Freddy and Beano tour heads to Boston this spring so I can check the last must-see Baseball Cathedral –Fenway Park- off my bucket list. Freddy has spent many days in Boston and many of those nights in Fenway but it will be my first venture into such enemy territory. I made too many trips to The Swamp in the 90s to be foolish enough to ruin the experience by watching my beloved Yankees take on the hated Red Sox. Instead we will see the best player in baseball –Mike Trout- and I will cheer under my breath for the Angels without a thread of Yankee apparel on my body. Cowardice? Guilty as charged. Wise? For this rare instance, yes.
ON TO THE COLLEGE DIAMOND: The baseball Vols injected a small dose of hope into a theretofore dismal season by taking two out of three from Ole Miss in Oxford last weekend. With the Vols win in the opener of a crucial home series versus the Missouri Tigers –who entered the game sporting the third best conference record in the SEC with LSU at 8-4- an opportunity to turn the season around is staring them in the face. The Vols have done what they needed thus far on the road winning a game at Florida and planting one of only two league losses Vanderbilt has suffered on the Commodores. The recipe for success is usually don’t get swept on the road and win your home series. Ohhh that “win your home series” part. The Vols were swept by a Georgia team that has won only two SEC games away from Lindsey Nelson Stadium this season. That has left the Vols with a huge hill to climb with the conference season reaching its midway point at the conclusion of this weekend’s play.
With four of the remaining six SEC series in the friendly confines of LNS the opportunity is there for the taking. Not to mention the rest of the league is not exactly leaving the Vols in the dust with 10 of the 14 teams sporting conference records with 6 wins or less. Following the Tigers visit the Vols have home series remaining with South Carolina, West-leading Texas A&M and Mississippi State. They will travel to only Kentucky and Arkansas who currently are tied and 1/2 ahead of the Vols respectively in the race for a spot in Hoover. In Dave Serrano Year-4 that certainly shouldn’t be the goal… but at this point in time it is sadly the immediate realistic target.
AURIEMMA IS RIGHT ON: Geno Auriemma is a locally despised and universally polarizing individual. I agree completely however with his recent scathing comments about the state of men’s basketball. Forget for a second that he coaches a sport that pales in comparison to the version male collegians play and other than deciding that players should be allowed to traverse the half court line hasn’t become a drop more entertaining in the last 40 years. His comments are still spot-on. Auriemma responding to a question from a
Sports Illustrated reporter said:
"It's funny, you asked me that, I just had a conversation with [St. Joe's coach and friend] Phil Martelli yesterday, and I think he's the president on the ABC board of directors or whatever," Auriemma said. "We had this conversation and we talked a lot about where the game is and what the future of the game is. And obviously it's immensely popular. Look at the interest paid on the NCAA tournament. I don't know that it's as immensely popular during the regular season as it used to be, but obviously the tournament is just at another world when it comes to that. Having said that, I think the game is a joke. It really is. I don't coach it. I don't play it, so I don't understand all the ins and outs of it. But as a spectator, forget that I'm a coach, as a spectator, watching it, it's a joke. There's only like 10 teams, you know, out of 25, that actually play the kind of game of basketball that you'd like to watch. Every coach will tell you that there's 90 million reasons for it."
Auriemma continued.
"The bottom line is that nobody can score, and they'll tell you it's because of great defense, great scouting, a lot of team work. Nonsense, nonsense. College men's basketball is so far behind the times, it's unbelievable. I mean women's basketball is behind the times. Men's basketball is even further behind the times. Every other major sport in the world has taken steps to help people be better on the offensive end of the floor. They've moved in the fences in baseball, they lowered the mound. They made the strike zone so you need a straw to put through it. And in the NFL you touch a guy it's a penalty. You hit the quarterback, you're out for life. You know, in the NBA, you touch somebody in the perimeter, you whack guys like they used to do when scores were 90 to 75, they changed the rules.
"This is entertainment we're talking about. People have to decide, do I want to pay 25 bucks, 30 bucks to go see a college scrum where everybody misses six out of every 10 shots they take, or do I want to go to a movie? We're fighting for the entertainment dollar, here, and I have to tell you it's not entertainment from a fan's standpoint. That's just, I'm talking as a fan, not as Geno, Auriemma, the basketball coach."
Instead of portraying Auriemma’s viewpoint as the rantings of a jealous opponent of the men’s game College Basketball’s powers-that-be better take heed. Their game is quickly becoming soccer with the regular season morphing into 30 “friendlies” and the NCAA Tournament becoming the all-encompassing “World Cup”. I can’t be any more critical of the game than that.
BLOGGER’S FINAL SHOT AT WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (FOR THIS WEEK): One thing Geno said combined with a stat I heard did make me chuckle. In Geno’s rant on the men’s game above he said
There's only like 10 teams, you know, out of 25, that actually play the kind of game of basketball that you'd like to watch. My question is are there anywhere close to 10 teams in the Women’s game that anyone who doesn’t have a friend or relative participating or is younger than 75 years old could watch for 5 minutes without frantically searching for the remote? Here’s a stat for you: U-Conn could have lost 192-0 to Notre Dame Tuesday night and still set the record for highest average margin of victory for a season (U-Conn finished at 41.9 ppg). Now THAT is quality entertainment.
IN A PERFECT WORLD: Every spot on the calendar would be as pleasing as the start of spring with the culmination of college basketball and the beginning of the MLB season.
