Injuries are Part of the Game

August 23, 2017

You often hear managers and coaches say if we stay healthy we can compete for a championship. Injuries are just part of the game. Who’s to say if the Cubs would have beaten the Indians if Cleveland’s number two and three starters were available?

Heading into September it seems with the exception of the American League wild card, all the playoff teams are set. Let’s look at injuries that have occurred and may not be resolved by playoff time.

 In the American League many thought Boston had a good shot with their top three starting pitchers. Porcello is now the same ordinary pitcher he was prior to last year. David Price has been more out of than in the rotation. Chris Sale is the only pitcher you count on. Their saving grace is they can hit and score loads of runs.

Houston has managed to dominate their division despite a rash of injuries.  Ace Dallas Keuchel has been on the 10 day disabled list three times. Pitcher McCullers is currently on DL. They lost their first and second string catchers for a stretch but McCann is back.  All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa has been out for a long time and is also currently on the DL.  Houston if healthy…

Cleveland has remained relatively healthy. What matters most is they can score enough runs for a great starting rotation. However, with Andrew Miller on the DL the bull pen is not as strong as it could be. When he is healthy it is the best in baseball.

In the National League the Dodgers have the best record in baseball without staff ace Clayton Kershaw. He should return and make the Dodgers the favorites to reach the World Series.

The Nationals are also dominating their division. They may have the most serious injury problems. Their best player, Bryce Harper, is currently on the DL and the Nats are hoping he can be back for the post season. Stephen Strasburg had a successful return from the DL. Then their number one, Matt Scherzer, goes on the DL. They need their full complement of pitchers to have a chance of beating the Dodgers.

The real question is will the players currently on the DL be as good as they were before they got hurt?

Chicago Cubs – The Cubs also have been stung by injuries. Their hottest hitter since the All Star break, Wilson Contreras, is currently slated to be out until the middle of September, How good does the Quintana trade look with Lester on the DL? Despite how bad Lester had been going he still is the number one post season pitcher. The standings say the Cubs are 2 ½ games up. However,  they are 4 up in the loss column. With the Brewers playing like the real Brewers and the once hot Cardinals fading, no one will catch the Cubs. Especially now as the Cubs are playing the woeful Reds and then have 3 games against the more woeful Phillies.

Chicago White Sox - Why keep watching such a lousy team? Abreu is having another great season. Avi Garcia is among the top average hitters. Carlos Rodan is showing why he will be the backbone of the starting rotation for years to come. These are the only 3 veterans who will be with the team when the rebuild is fully in place. You can also watch the future starting rotation, although they not be quite ready. You may be better off watching the Bears.

The Dog Days of August

August 9, 2017

Football is right around the corner. The exhibition games are a waste of time so we’ll look into the dog days of baseball. Although much is decided there are still things to talk about. For instance, did you ever think that there would be a day when the White Sox would beat the Astros? And the Cubs would lose to the Giants?

Chicago Cubs – Wilson Contreras has elevated his game and if he’s not the best catcher, he’s in the picture. He plays great defense and is carrying the club offensively. Add great pitching and you have a division winner. However, there are 4 other reasons explaining why they will enter the playoffs. The over achieving Milwaukee Brewers, the middling Cardinals, the going nowhere Pirates and the terrible Reds. As evidenced by their 2-4 home stand, the Cubs may be good but not the elite team it was last year when everything went right. Even when not facing one of the Nationals top three pitchers they still lost 2 of 3. Their record against .500 or better teams is 8-15. If you add the games to the over .500 American League teams it gets worse. The rest of the month should not make fans overly confident. After this weekend series against Arizona (which could be tough) you have a plethora of games against Cincinnati with a little bit of Philadelphia thrown in, which just about clinches the division.

Chicago White Sox – Rick Hahn did a great job trading everybody who was not part of the future. His tenure as a general manager will be defined by the development of these young top notch prospects. If things go well, they should be ready by 2019 or 2020. Only about 5 players will remain: Abreu, Moncada, Anderson, A. Garcia and Rodon. Matt Davidson will be a stop gap at third base until top pick Jake Burger is ready (that’s because he strikes out in over 40% of his at bats). Aside from seeing other prospects get promoted, even the lousy football exhibitions will be more watchable…

I want to end by giving out White Sox season rewards:

The Mat Latos reward goes to James Shields. Pelfrey gets some consideration, as he has been awful. Shields who allows multiple runs (many which come via the home run) and can’t get through the fifth inning has been vomit inducing.

Speaking of vomit inducing, the John Danks reward goes to Derek Holland. With Jennings gone, this was a no brainer. Another pitcher who can’t go more than 5 innings. His crowning moment was giving up back to back to back home runs.

The Tim Beckham award. This is someone called up and has a good ½ season then sucks the next year. This goes to Tim Anderson.

By the way, last time I looked Frazier was batting .206.

Baseball leaders as predicted

July 24, 2017

Things are settling into the norms fort the current baseball season. The leaders in all divisions were considered the favorites to start the season. The Cubs, who inexplicably lost to the White Sox are ½ game out. Don’t worry Cub fans they will run away with the division. Therefore, strike out the words "I think" from my last post.

Chicago Cubs – With a strong start after the all- star break, the Cubs are in position to take hold of their division. As of this writing they have 3 more games against the hapless White Sox. Then they play a three game series against the slumping Milwaukee Brewers. After a surprising start, the Brewers are just not as good as they were playing. So what's next? The addition of Quintana, along with Lester, a rejuvenated Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks they are poised to make a playoff run. Hendricks in particular should get better as the season progresses. Rizzo, Bryant, Contreras should anchor an improving offense. Aside from the first White Sox game, the hitting with runners in scoring position has greatly improved. The only thing that can derail the Cubs are injuries. They also need their middle relief to be better. 

Chicago White Sox – Bases loaded, no outs, ground ball, force out at home. Bases loaded, no outs, ground ball double play.  Thanks for the memories Todd Frazier. As constituted now, this team will lose at least 100 games. There can’t be a worse starting staff in all of baseball. They have four starters that can’t make it to the fifth inning. The bullpen is in shambles. Clippard, obtained from the Yankees, has been brought into two games and has not recorded an out except for a game winning sacrifice fly, so he fits right in. This team won’t be much better next year. Hopefully they can be competitive in 2019. This will happen if their young pitching prospects are ready. You will also need put together a good bull pen.

If you are a Sox and Chicago sports fan, Bears training camp starts August second. However, it won’t take long to get frustrated and dejected about football. For me I’m a University of Illinois grad so I’ll see a lot of bad football this season.

White Sox trade Quintana to Cubs for prospects Win win for both teams

July 14, 2017

There is an old adage in baseball that says good pitching beats good hitting.  I tuned into the all-star game to see some of the great young hitting talent. However, the veteran starters dominated, making this game a snooze fest.  After watching Garcia line out, I had seen enough and switched the channel. Now about that trade…

Chicago Cubs – Theo Epstein pulled off a great deal acquiring Jose Quintana from the White Sox. He is a great fit for a team with a long window for World Series championships. Lester maybe your number 1 starter with Quintana not far behind. In fact, Quintana may be much more effective facing lesser line ups in the National League. As for this year, there are more things the Cubs need to do to win this division. Hendricks returning to 2016 form will help.  You hope the hitters return to form as well. They have 10 games left with the first place Brewers. They have to go b winetter than .500 in these games. Another encouraging thing is a majority of games are against opponents with records under .500.The Cubs are also under .500 but maybe they are the best of these lousy teams. I still think the Cubs will win this division. This is the first time I have made this statement using the word think.

Chicago “loyalty trumps winning” White Sox – Rick Hahn pulled off a great deal acquiring great young players in this rebuilding era. They now have 10 of the top 100 prospects in baseball, including no. 5, Eloy Jimenez, obtained in the trade. The other main piece is Dylan Cease (no. 83) who could be a top of the line starter. Looking to the future with Robert and Jimenez coming up in a year or two (hopefully), is Avi Garcia available at the right price? When will they call up Moncada?  These questions and others may be answered as the trading deadline nears.  Can Rick Hahn find new homes for Robertson and Cabrera? Will any team be stupid enough to trade for Frasier? Are there any relief pitchers that other teams would want? You might not get much in return however, these players are not a part of the future.  So get whatever you can and consider it addition by subtraction.  Finally that loyalty thing may be fading and I’ll be happy to let it go.

Baseball at the Midway Point

July 3, 2017

With the first half of the baseball season being over, it is a good time to assess the season. With the exception of the Cubs, the favorites are leading the other divisions. The teams at the top now will probably be there at the end of the year. With the Red Sox, Indians, Astros the American League pennant is up for grabs. The Dodgers seem to be the best in the National League.

What used to be fun is the upcoming all-star game. Still the best of its kind in sports, with inter-league play it has lost a lot of its luster. However, unlike other sports, the essence of baseball remains. Pitcher vs. Batter. Now let’s turn to our local boys of summer.

Chicago Cubs – Still waiting for that hot streak, the Cubs reach the halfway point as a mediocre .500 team. One of the things that can derail a good team are injuries. Bryant, Rizzo Zobrist and Heyward have all missed games, the latter two, several. The most devastating has been the loss of pitcher Kyle Hendricks.  With Arrieta having an off year, the Cubs are down to one reliable starter. Although he did look real good in his last outing against Cincinnati. However, a good team does not lose 2 out of 3 to the Reds. They still have trouble with good teams. If not for a terrible bullpen, they get swept by the Nationals. Meanwhile I’m not hearing about how many wins the great Joe Maddon is responsible for. Leading off Kyle Schwarber didn’t seem to work. To give this responsibility to a guy who hadn’t had a full season of experience was not a good move. He’s not as good as Maddon or Cub fans thought. Despite these problems, a modest win streak will allow them to catch Milwaukee and win this lousy division.

Chicago “loyalty trumps winning” White Sox – This team is as lousy as expected. After spending a majority of the season on the road, they opened a 10 game home stand losing three straight to the just as bad Oakland A’s.  What’s maddening is they then split with the Yankees and won a series against Texas. Renteria has them hustling and installed a never quit attitude. Yet they are still 9 games under .500 and what’s going on in the minor leagues is more interesting. Top prospect, Yoan Moncada should be up after the break. Nicky Delmonico looks good as the third baseman of the future. Frazier should be gone and Davidson strikes out too often. I’m all in for the rebuild. However, obtaining young pitchers is a crap shoot. To this point the ones they traded for are getting pounded in the minors. I’m looking forward to the trade deadline to see if Hahn can acquire position players for the future. Meanwhile relax, laugh, cry and pray. 2019 can’t come too soon.

Busy Times For Bulls and Blackhawks

June 2, 2017

One year ago the Chicago Bulls traded Derrick Rose to the Knicks. The team was now Jimmy Butler’s. This lasted all of one year. In a stunning move the Bulls traded this prima donna to the Timberwolves to reunite with former coach Tom Thibodeau. Not that Jimmy is bad player, he’s just not as good as he thinks he is. He is not a player who takes over and wins a game. Just to be fair, there are only a handful who could have done it with the teammates he had. He’s not Michael, Wilt, Magic, Shaq etc. He is definitely not Lebron, which is why the Bulls are not close to a championship with or without Butler...

There wasn’t much of a market for Butler, so the Bulls took the best offer. The goal is to get young players, develop them, add a few tweaks and maybe in a couple years become competitive. The players they received from the Timberwolves were both lottery picks and have big upsides. Point guard Kris Dunn was the 5^th pick last year and is a work in progress.  Zach Levine was averaging near 20 points per game (39% on 3-pointers) until he came up with a torn ACL.  Being only 22 years old he should be able to come back from this.  I love the draft pick, Lauri Markanen, a 20 year old freshman out of Arizona. Seven feet, shot 42% on 3-pointers and is very athletic. These are the type of players Coach Hoiberg needs for his up tempo offense. The big question is can the Bulls develop these players?

The only downside for the Bulls, even though he said I didn’t want to play for a rebuild Dwayne Wade stays and steals close to the tune of $24 million. The other regret is aside from Lopez, Nikola Mirotic and the rest of garbage return for another year.

Scotty Bowman was pissed. The Blackhawks had been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs two years in a row. He vowed there would be major changes.  What he could do aside from firing an assistant coach? Well he kept to his word with two gutsy blockbuster deals. The “bread man” 30 goal scorer Arteni Panarin was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets to reacquire Brandon Saad. The reasoning is Saad is a better all-around player, while Panarin is more one dimensional. Toews now has his left winger. I think the Hawks believe Kane can make goal scorers with other line mates, maybe Schmatlz. The Hawks also gave up Tyler Motte and received goaltender Anton Forsberg.

The second trade Niklas Hjalmarsson to Phoenix Coyotes for defenseman Connor Murphy and Laurant Dauphin, a forward I don’t know much about. Once again, I think the Hawks wanted a more versatile defenseman and they’ve always coveted Murphy. These players are young and add speed and size, something that was lacking in this year’s playoffs.  Next up, get T.J. Oshie 

American and National League Updates

 June 20, 2017

Although it is still early in the season there is much to talk about with both leagues having something special going on.

In the American League, the Yankees started out like a ball of fire. The lineup is stacked with great hitting. Ellsbury, Sanchez, Castro and Holliday. Add MVP candidate Aaron Judge and you get tons of runs. He might be only the second player since 1967 (Miguel Cabrera 2012) to win the Triple Crown. He leads in all three categories. However, the pitching is suspect and they have been caught by Boston.The Red Sox not only have great hitters, they also have the pitching to win this division, which I and others predicted when the season started.

The Minnesota Twins got off to an awfully good start. The major reason is last year the pitching ERA  was 5.09. They have cut that down to about 3.00 Starters Santana and Berrios have ERA's under 2.75. They rely on Mauer, Sano and Dozier to provide offense and the bullpen has improved. Last weekend the lead was down to two games.  After leading the division for most of the year the bubble may have burst..They got swept in a four game series with the Indians and are now two games out. The Indians are playing like they want to go back to the World Series (unlike their National League opponent). They are clearly the class of this division and should win it easily, just like many thought. The Twins? Third place at best.

I thought Texas was going to repeat in the West Division and Houston would challenge  if they got off to a good start. Well, the Astros are playing .657 baseball and lapping the field. The offense is powered by Altuve, Correa, Beltre and Springer. The pitching staff led by Keuchel (who I think is better than Kershaw or Sale) with a 1.87 ERA is leading a staff who’s aggregate ERA is 3.65. No one will catch them even with Keuchel currently on the DL.

In the National League, one of the biggest surprises is that the Cubs are trailing a rebuilding Brewers team. This won’t last. The Cubs aren’t playing well but will still win the division. Many figured they would once again run and hide from the competition. At this point they are just mediocre at best. An 87-75 record is all it will take to win this division.

In the East Division Washington is running away. Some people thought the Mets might challenge but injuries have really hurt their team. Washington can go far in the post season. They have three of the top ten hitters in the league Murphy, Harper and Zimmerman who is near the top in home runs and RBI. They also have top three real good starters, Scherzer, Strasburg and Gonzalez. What they desperately need to make a run for the World Series is a closer. Just ask the Giants.

The craziest of all the divisions is the NL West. Everyone knew the Dodgers would be good. As of this writings writing this they are in a dog fight but not with the Giants.Instead perennial losers, the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks are playing at a .639 and .629 clip.The Dodgers are at .629. How is this happening? The Rockies have three primary run producers, Arenado, Gonzales and Blackmon. The pitching staff has a is 4.13 ERA,  excellent at Coors Field. The Diamondbacks hitting comes from Lamb, Drury ,Peralta and one of the top hitters in the game, Goldschmidt. The staff is led by Greinke, T. J. McFarland 1.74 and Robbie Ray 2.78. Problem maybe Rodney as a closer. He has 20 saves however, his ERA is 4.23. Playing on the west coast I don’t watch many Dodger games. I do know, they have great pitching .Led by Kershaw, Wood and McCarthy and an excellent  bullpen Baez and Jansen, the team ERA is a meager 3.38. Corey Seager and Yasiel Puig have combined for 24 homers and 75 RBI. Their best offensive player is rookie Cody Bellinger. He hit 21 homers in 51 games, fastest in major league history. Right now he has 22 home runs and 49 RBI. Therefore, the Dodgers will win the division. Colorado and Arizona would be wild cards if the season ended today.