Around the Horn

April 4, 2018

  

I never get tired talking baseball. Although I will be keeping tabs on our local heroes, there are plenty of other interesting story lines to keep an eye on. I will also make some predictions as well. Here is the American League and these are their stories. (My tribute to the TV series Law and Order).

Picking the Cleveland Indians to win the Central Division is a no brainer. At the top of the pitching rotation are studs, Corey Kluber and Carlos Carassco. The other pitchers only need to last 6 innings before turning it over to one of best bullpens to close games. Next is Minnesota who may have overachieved last year. If the White Sox play decent they can end up in third. Maybe they can get participation trophies. 1-Cleveland, 2- Minnesota (wild card), 3- Chicago, 4- Detroit, 5- Kansas City.

In the East, the Bronx Bombers are back. Adding Giancarlo Stanton to Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, they can combine for over 100 home runs. Tanaka, Severino, Sonny Gray and the ageless  C.C. Sabathia are the starters with a lockdown bullpen led by one of baseball’s best closers, Aroldis Chapman. However, I believe Boston will be on their tails. They can hit with the best of teams. The addition of J.D. Martinez makes them more powerful. Chris Sale, Rick Porcello and a healthy David Price tend to pitch deep into games and Craig Kimbrel is a pretty good closer. 1-  New York, 2- Boston (wild card), 3- Toronto, 4-Baltimore, 5-Tampa Bay.

The Houston Astros are young and getting better. Having a rejuvenated Justin Verlander the whole year plus Gerrit Cole improves an already good staff.  There is no better top five line up. Last year they lapped the field. The California-Anaheim Angels improved their line up adding Ian Kinsler and Justin Upton. Add this to the best player in baseball, Mike Trout and Albert Pujois home runs, they could average over 4 runs a game. Too bad the pitchers will allow 5 runs. They also added highly touted Japanese prospect Shohei Ohtani, as pitcher and designated hitter. Aside from Ichiro, I can’t think of any hitters from Japan who have had sustained success. Pitchers have had a modicum effect which is what I suspect here. 1- Houston, 2- Texas, 3- Seattle, 4- California, 5- Oakland.

The National League East is a joke . The Nationals are probably the only team that plays .500. This is easy to accomplish when you play 19 games against teams in that division. 1- Washington, 2- Atlanta, 3- New York, 4- Philadelphia, 5- Florida. From what I’ve seen is Phillies manager Gabe Kapler or Mr. Kotter Gabe Kaplan?

The Colorado Rockies may have the best overall line up in baseball. However, with no pitching they won’t win this division. The Arizona Diamondbacks have pretty good pitching but the loss of J.D.  Martinez leaves them with only one impact player, Paul Goldschmidt. Good pitching beats good hitting (ask the Cubs), therefore the Dodgers once again win this division. They also can hit. 1- L.A., 2- Arizona (wild card), 3- Colorado, 4- San Francisco, 5-San Diego.

The Cubs are head and shoulders better than the rest of this division. The Brewers and St. Louis may have improved over the winter but not enough. Superior pitching and good hitting will make the Cubs Central Division champs. 1- Chicago,  2- Milwaukee (wild card), 3- St. Louis, 4- Pittsburgh,
5- Cincinnati.