Saturday marks the start of the college basketball season and I'll have a 4 part college basketball preview. Part 1 is a breakdown of the Little east Conference (LEC) women's schedule, part 2 is a breakdown of the LEC men's schedule, part 3 is a predicted order on the men's side and part 4 is a predicted order on the women's side. On the scheduling breakdown I give each team a grade A to F, 1 non conference (OOC) game to watch, and 1 conference game to watch. The LEC is made of 8 colleges in 5 New England States: Eastern Connecticut, Western Connecticut, Rhode Island College, UMass-Dartmouth, UMass-Boston, Southern Maine, Keene State & Plymouth State. With that said:
Eastern Connecticut: http://gowarriorathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 win loss record 198-123 (61.7 winning percentage). The Colonials getting a big bite out of the NESCAC this year as they face off against 5 of the 10 teams in the conference (could be 6 however) including the powerhouses if Amherst (26-4 last season), Tufts (30-3 last year) & Williams (20-6 last year). Also have their annual game against GNAC power Emmanuel (19-8 last year). Of their 10 scheduled OOC games only St. Joseph’s (12-14), Clark (11-14) and Newbury (5-19) finished under .500 last year. They could get a 6th NESCAC team as Wesleyan (12-12 in ’14) faces off against Framingham State (18-12) in the other game at the Eastern Conference. Four of 11 oppoents finished with a winning percentage of 70 or above last year so the Warriors will be tested before LEC play. However, that could work one of 2 ways (and I’ve seen it happen both ways): 1) the tough schedule, especially if you don’t win can take it’s toll towards the middle of January, so even though they won’t see as good of a team after December 4 when they play Amherst, the losses can pile up. I think that happened to them last year. 2) Even if you win those games vs. a Tufts, a Williams, Emmanuel, etc you can lose momentum from them. Their schedule in November-December could be one of the hardest in the Northeast: in a 4 game stretch they play Tufts, Williams, Amherst & the LEC opener @ RIC all in a row. They won’t have a 4 game stretch even as remotely tough as that was, but the 4 game stretch could really take it’s toll win OR lose. I’ll give the Warriors an A in the scheduling department
Most important non LEC game: November 30 vs. Williams. Williams struggled on the road last season, but is still a quality NESCAC team and would be a nice win for the Warriors. The game preceding that they play Tufts and the next 2 games are @ Amherst and @ RIC. I doubt they win either of the 2 road games and Tufts will be tough.
Most important LEC game: January 13 vs. Dartmouth. Between December 1 and January 23 they have 7 of 10 games (4 of 6 LEC games) away from home. They finish up with RIC relatively early once again and have the Maine trip to USM after the Dartmouth game so they get those 2 trips out of the way. Dartmouth has always been a bad road team and Eastern has a challenging opening slate to the year.
Keene state: http://keeneowls.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 221-135 (62.1 winning percentage). Much like the Warriors, the Owls are preparing themselves well. Unlike the Warriors, however, the Owls are still a relatively young team, so I’m not sure this is quite the schedule you want the kids to jump into. I doubt they’ll be favored in many of these games against the likes of Tufts, Amherst, or Smith (18-12 last year). The Owls are participating in 2 tournaments this year and each is packed with talented ball clubs. They open the year in the UNE tournament taking on a Tufts team that finished with 30 wins last season and is ranked in the top 5 preseason this year then either the host squad UNE (27-3 last season; ranked top 20 this year) or Wellesley (who ONLY finished 16-10 last season). They host their own tournament taking on Anna Maria in the first game (11-14 last season) and then either William Paterson (18-10 last year) or Regis (23-5 last season). Even the 2 potential gimme’s on the Owls schedule RPI (7-18) and Middlebury (7-17) aren’t gimme’s because both take place on the road. 8 of the Owls potential 13 opponents finished 2013/14 with at least 16 wins. Tough hill to climb and even though I don’t think they should be doing it, they are so the Owls get an A+ in the SOS department.
Most important non LEC game: December 2 @ RPI. The Owls could very well be winless heading into this matchup, but this game could give them some momentum. RPI finished 7-18 last year, and their next 2 games are both home LEC dates, and as we all know the only thing that matters is winning the conference and the more conference games you win during the season, the more likely you are to win the conference tournament.
Most important LEC game: December 6 vs. Boston. They open up with 2 straight at home and 4 of their first 6 LEC games are at home before ending with 4 of 5 on the road. Boston’s only won twice in the last 8 years in Spaulding, and even though USM is the next weekend, the Owls usually play them well at home and aside from 2 seasons ago when the Huskies ran out to an undefeated record and number 9 in the country, they seem to start the LEC season slow; last year the Owls beat them in Maine in the LEC opener, and the Huskies open up @ Western before traveling to Keene. 1-1 seems more likely, but 2-0 really isn’t out of the question for the Owls.
Mass-Boston: http://www.beaconsathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 131-178 (42.4 winning percentage). Really, THIS is the schedule Keene should be playing and Boston should be playing Keene’s schedule. There’s really only one good team on here and that’s Bridgewater, but they only finished 16-12 last season. Luckily for the Beacons all the tough games: Salve Regina (14-13 last year), Brandeis (14-13), Bridgewater, Westfield (15-11) and Suffolk (16-10) are at home, so pretty much that’s the only positive but it downgrades the SOS even worse than it was already. Out of that foursome I’d say Bridgewater is the only legit NCAA tournament team. Last year’s 16-12 was a disappointment. They had 4 starters back from 2013’s 27-4 team but lost 1 with via injury halfway through 2014, never recovered after that, and lost 3 others to graduation in May, so they’ll have to implement pretty much an entire new starting 5. Brandeis is stuck behind Wash U, Rochester & Emory in the UAA and if NYU or Chicago can put together good squads that’s 2 others they have to jump. Add in the fact there’s no conference tournament in the UAA for Brandeis to steal a win or 2 puts them even further behind the 8 ball. Likewise, Suffolk is stuck behind GNAC monster Emmanuel in that conference. Even though they do have a conference tournament unlike the UAA they only play 1 conference game each, and the GNAC game between the 2 this year is @ Emmanuel. To add onto this trio Salve is stuck behind perennial CCC power UNE in that conference. Unless UNE or Emmanuel finish with 0 or 1 losses in their conference regular season, neither of those 2 conferences is getting a pool C slot, and the MASCAC is usually another conference where the tourney winner is the only one advancing to the NCAA tournament. Powder puff schedule with all the good games at home leaves the Beacons with a D in the SOS department.
Most important non LEC game: tough to say with all the cupcakes here but I’ll go with January 6 vs. Brandeis. Last year they lost by almost 40!
Most important LEC game: December 13 vs. RIC. RIC got hit with graduation & player loss, so it's a good chance for the Beacons to get a leg up on the rest of the competition, especially Eastern, Western (probably my preseason pick), Boston (volleyball team got eliminated in the LEC semi’s over the weekend so Morrison has basketball only now, and her & Olivia Murphy can still form a dynamic duo that will be tough to stop especially since Dartmouth lost all their height.) Just checked the Beacons roster and found out Colleen Moriarty is now an assistant coach, bodes even better for them. Actually, Mattingly put together a pretty impressive coaching staff for this year: Moriarty to work with Morrison, Murphy (I’m still going by what I’ve been saying the last 2 years she’d be unguardable with an outside shot) and the rest of the bigs and recent graduates Shelby Buck & Andrea Suffredini to work with the guards. The OOC schedule still sucks, but I think they can compete this year.
UMass-Dartmouth: http://www.corsairathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 144-125 (53.5 winning percentage). Blah is all I’ll say. Obviously better then Boston’s is, but not quite as good as Keene’s or Eastern’s is. Williams is their marquee game, but even on the road it’s still a game the Corsairs can win. They have another full season of Kelsey Garrity who with McNamera from USM gone is the best PG in the conference if she wasn’t already. Meghan Ronagan was the LEC rookie of the year, and Colleen kane, Beth Constantini & Erin Fahey are good in spurts. Mentioned Bridgewater above with Boston a team that was better than their 16-12 record showed but is implementing an entire new starting lineup. Take Coast Guard out of this, who had a career year last year finishing 19-7 and this is about a .500 schedule (123-118), Colby-Sawyer (18-10 last year) is another good team out of a bad conference, but overall I give the Corsairs a C+, right at average.
Most important non LEC game: @ Williams January 5. Most of the teams are still on holidays, so this will be bright and center. In the 4 years I’ve been at Western and started following the conference, the LEC has been looking for that marquee non-conference victory. Even if the Corsairs do manage the victory it’s probably still not enough to lock them into a pool C spot, but would definitely put them on the track and put that losers mentality on the road behind them. Obviously since it’s Christmas break Williams won’t get as many students as they would if the game was on December 5 or February 5, but would still be an excellent win!
Most important LEC game: January 8 vs. Western Connecticut. Dartmouth starts off the LEC season with 4 of 5 on the road with this being the lone home game. The Corsairs went 0-3 vs. the Colonials last season, and in the home meeting blew an 8 point halftime lead to a Western that finished in the bottom 3 in points scored. They ultimately ended up tied for 4th, that golden spot between playing the 4/5 game at home and playing the 4/5 game on the road, lost the tiebreaker due to the 0-2 head-to-head season series record and lost the 3rd matchup in the 4/5 game of the first round of the LEC tournament. This wouldn’t be revenge entirely, but it will probably be pretty big for Dartmouth regardless as the road trip to start the year takes them to Plymouth (tough trip and even though they’ll still be terrible may actually get a couple wins), Eastern & USM so could be must win. Even though they’ll finish with 6 of 9 at home they’ll still have the road game @ Western and 2 games each against Boston & RIC. 2-3 after those first 5 and going home for 6 of the last 9 is a lot better than 1-4 or 0-5 and going home. Pretty much you’re done if you start 1-4.
Plymouth State: http://athletics.plymouth.edu/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 165-148 (52.7 winning percentage). 5 of 12 opponents have 18 or more wins but they likely only play 4 of those games: Suffolk plays Yeshiva (6-12) in the Wheaton tournament and even with Wheaton being 20-8 I doubt both the Panthers & Suffolk have the same result in the first game, so the panthers should get a pass on playing the Rams. Other than that, Castleton (27-4), Rivier (20-8) and Colby-Sawyer (18-10) look to be the only guaranteed losses for the Panthers. The rest of the OOC slate is a bunch of average to bad teams in terrible conferences. Since this is a team that is only 16-82 the last 5 years I’ll be generous and give them a B and say they built their schedule to get some wins early in the season.
Most important non LEC game: January 6 @ Johnson State. Plymouth started the 2013 season 1-1 before losing the final 23 games to finish 1-24 for the year. They weren’t competitive to end the year they lost 23 of 25 by 10 or more and 18 of 25 by 20 or more points. However, the 1 game they were competitive in, was a 63-62 double overtime loss to the Badgers of Johnson state. The Panthers started the 2014 season with 9 straight losses, so dating back to 2013 they had lost 32 straight games AND dating back to the end of 2012 they had lost 36 of their last 37 games. However, they broke the streak defeating the Badgers 89-72 in a laugher. They were able to parlay that into a LEC road win @ Boston the next week, only their second road win in conference since the 2010/11 season.
Most important LEC game: December 6 vs. Dartmouth. The conference opener for both teams. When you are 3-53 in conference in the last 4 games, getting off to a fast start was good. Dartmouth is a good team, but the Panthers had them on the ropes last year in the opener, up 8 with 8 minutes to go before falling in the end. They were competitive in the first half or even first 30 minutes of games last year. Including the Dartmouth Game they had halftime leads on Southern Maine & Western Connecticut last year before faltering in the second half. If they can keep these teams close but than finish the deal unlike last year they could be a surprise.
USM: http://southernmainehuskies.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 178-165 (51.9 winning percentage). B. As usual, the Huskies barely leave Maine in the OOC portion of the schedule. They just lucked out in that all the local area teams were good: UNE, Bowdoin (21-6), SJME (23-6), Husson (15-12) and a tournament at Westfield State. RPI isn’t officially on their schedule, but the Engineers are on the opposite side of the Huskies of both tournaments they are at, so it’s possible the Huskies could end up facing them twice.
Most important non LEC game: November 30 vs. St. Joseph’s (ME). UNE is the ranked team coming into Hill gymnasium, the Bowdoin/USM games are always great, even better between the women’s teams, but the Monks are the true rivalry game of the 3 right up the road. USM has owned the recent history, but the Monks went into Western Connecticut last January and just dismantled the Colonials which started a stretch where the Monks won 17 of their last 20 regular season games to win the GNAC tournament and make the tournament. The Monks 3 regular season losses in that stretch (Scranton, Emmanuel, UNE) came against teams that were a combined 72-15.
Most important LEC game: December 6 @ Western Connecticut. I know it’s a long trip for them, but the Huskies really struggle in Danbury. Western’s been the worst team the last 3 seasons, while even though USM has won 2 of the 3 games, the 2 games were close and the Western win was a blowout. In 2012 the season after Western graduated the big 3 of Karli Spera, Heather Lee & Melissa Teel, USM won by 1 in overtime after Stephanie Slonski missed 2 free throws at the end of regulation which would have won it for the Colonials. In 2013, USM came into the game unbeaten, ranked #9 in the nation and got run out of the building. Last year with Western’s offensive ineptitude, USM won by 2 on two late free throws inside of 10 seconds.
RIC: http://www.goanchormen.com/index.html
Combined 2013/14 record: 202-102 (66.4 winning percentage). Record gets weighed down with Babson (14-13) who struggled at times last year but is usually a quality club. All 11 of their opponents finished with double digit wins last season, and 9 of 11 finished the season with a winning record. They couldn’t get a marquee win last season which would have left them squarely on the fence last year had they lost to USM in the title game or Western in the semifinals. They’ll get ample opportunity to pick up that marquee win or 2 this year, and for that I give them an A
Most important non LEC game: November 15 vs. Williams (@ Babson). They’ll be tested right out of the gate. Getting the Ephs on a neutral court is better than playing them @ Williams, but a win is a win over a quality NESCAC team.
Most important LEC game: February 10 @ Western Connecticut. This is road game number 6 of 7 in the conference for the Anchorwomen, who after this game have 2 straight at home vs. USM & vs. Dartmouth and a road game @ Plymouth to end the season. This could potential decide that coveted 4 spot.
Western Connecticut: http://wcsuathletics.com/sports/wbkb/2014-15/schedule
Combined 2013/14 record: 201-137 (59.5 winning percentage). The overall numbers gets bumped due to a bunch of bad teams in bad conference that had good seasons which are probably unlikely to sustain them the following season: Sage finished last year 17-10, but was only the second season they finished with double digit wins. Another Skyline team Purchase finished 16-10 but Western beat them by almost 40 points on the road! Farmingdale, who’s not officially on the schedule (they play 9-16 NJCU in the other game of the hat city classic) finished 16-9 but took advantage of a down Mount St. Mary in the Skyline. Staten Island was 21-8, but still lost to Baruch in the CUNY tournament. The best team (Regis) comes in February in the middle of LEC play. NYU starts off well, but falters late, Plattsburgh (23-6) is on the other side of the NYU tournament I hope we play them. I know they lost in the first round last year but there has to be someone more competitive than 1-21 Green Mountain to play in the first game of your tournament! C’mon! There’s probably high schools in Connecticut that would give them a better game. C- on the SOS. Would be a C if they replaced Green Mountain with Danbury High school. Would be a C+ if Regis was earlier in the season and or we were guaranteed to play Plattsburgh.
Most important non LEC game: November 15 @ NYU. Like Boston, not a lot of good options to choose from. It was basically between this game & Regis. However, Regis on February 3 when they each should be more concerned about their respective conference play than notching a win against a good New England team, that gets downgraded a notch.
Most important LEC game: January 20 @ RIC. Western starts with 4 of their first 5 LEC games at home, so they can get out to a nice clubhouse lead in the early going. However, this is the start of 3 straight road games: @ RIC, @ USM @ Eastern and then a home game vs. Dartmouth ends the 4 game stretch.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Winners and losers from MLB trade deadline
4 PM today, July 31 concluded MLB's done waiver trade deadline. Players can still be traded after today, and are eligible for the playoffs as long as they are on a roster by August 31, and lately there are a lot of big trades that happen after today. The biggest in recent memory occurred just 2 seasons ago, when the Boston Red Sox started there run to the 2013 World Series by sending Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett & Adrian Gonzalez to the Los Angeles Dodgers. That freed up money they had allowed the Sox to get high energy reserve players like Johnny Gomes and Shane Victorino which were a big part of the worst to first run the Red Sox in 2013 had. After today it is harder to trade players because each player has to pass through waivers. If a team puts in a waiver claim for that player you can ONLY negotiate with the team that claimed him. The reason this makes trading after July 31 is harder is that sometimes a contending or rival team will put a block on a player to avoid that player going to the team that needs him. If a player clears waivers (unclaimed) that player can be traded to any team in the league without restrictions. August will probably heat up with waiver wire deals especially when middle of the pack teams (New York Mets, New York Yankees, Kansas City Royals) either go on a hot streak and get in the race or go on a cold streak and play themselves out. With that said, I'm just going to grade on what's happened in July and not predict what may or may not happen in August.
Winners:
Oakland Athletics. They have made the playoffs the last 2 seasons. They have taken the Detroit Tigers to 5 games in the ALDS each of the last 2 seasons, however they lost each time to the Tigers, mainly because their starters couldn't quite match up to the front line Tigers sent out. So, what did the A's do to counter the Tigers rotation? In early July, they traded top prospect Addison Russel to the Chicago Cubs for 2 starters Jeff Samardjiza and Jason Hammel. Neither are doing that well in Oakland however. Samardjiza has a 3 era through 5 starts, but has given up 5 home runs already even though Oakland is a pitchers park while Hammel has been dreadful so far. Yesterday's loss sent him to 0-4 in 4 starts with an era around 9. That reason, and the fact this is Jesse Chavez's first full season might have put more pressure on Oakland to get a top of the rotation guy, and that's actually what they got in Boston ace Jon Lester. They had to sacrifice offense and cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes to grab him, but they now have 4 proven starters in the playoffs: Lester who has 2 World Series rings to his credit, Samardjiza, has pitched in no big games in baseball, but was a WR @ Notre Dame, so he has plenty of big game expierence, Sonny Gray, the pitcher Oakland used in games 1 and game 5 vs. Detroit last year and finally the rejuvinated Scott Kazmir.
Detroit Tigers: The Tigers countered the A's move by pulling off a move of their own: after Lester, the next best starting pitcher on the market, also out of the AL East like Jon Lester, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price. What separates this deal from the Lester deal is that the Tigers still have Price through 2015 while Lester is a free agent after this season and likely won't resign in Oakland no matter how well he does or how much he likes the city, team, fans, mainly because the team won't be able to match what Lester wants. Price likely takes the rotation spot of 2013 Cy Young winner Max Scherzer next year, but at least there's still the chance (albeit small) that Scherzer re-ups with Detroit in the off season. Like Oakland, had to give up a regular every day player (leadoff hitter Austin Jackson went to Seattle while pitching prospect Drew Smyly went to the Rays in this 3 team trade). They also shored up a suspect bullpen with the acquisition of Rangers closer Joakim Soria, though that hasn't planned out as the Rangers have planned.
Seattle Mariners: Like Oakland & Detroit have a great starting staff with Felix Hernandez, Hishashi Iwakuma & Chris Young, but with the worst offense of the 3. The Mariners are sitting on a 12 year playoff drought and currently hold down the second Wildcard spot, but also have good prospects that they didn't want to surrender even though they needed the offensive help. So, they were part of that 3 team deal with the Rays & Tigers and ended up with Tigers lead off man Austin Jackson, and only had to give up middle infielder prospect Nick Franklin who wasn't even with the major league team or had much of a future with them anyway this year. Earlier in the day they acquired Padres OF for marginal prospects and last week picked up Minnesota DH Kendrys Morales. All 3 of these acqusistions will shore up a suspect lineup, and hopefully having the Mariners play meaningful games in late September this season.
Washington Nationals: Only made one trade, but that trade was much needed. With the hamstring injury to Ryan Zimmerman, they had a hole to fill at 2b. Fill-in Danny Espinosa plays great defense, but just cannot hit RHP, so the team went out and got Asdrubal Cabrera from the Cleveland Indians. Even though Cabrera is much worse on defense than Espinosa is, at least he is a power bat and can hit RHP.
The NL Playoffs: Currently, the largest division lead in the NL is 3 games (Giants lead the Dodger by 3 games in the West). There were talks of Lester or Price ending up with an NL Central team which would have easily shifted the balance of power to whichever team picked him up (3 teams are within 2.5 games of each other in the division: Brewers lead, Pirates are 2 back and Cardinals are 2.5 back. A 4th team Reds are only 6 back as well) or the Dodgers which would have made them the team to beat in the NL. As it stands, the 2 impact players ended up in the AL with minor moves in the NL which'll make the NL races and the NL playoffs more exciting to watch then the AL counterparts.
Losers:
Philadelphia Phillies: This is an old team, with a lot of money and a lot of bad and questionable contracts. A lot of their players will be able to clear waivers in August because of these bloated salaries, but there were some teams that were questioning Marlon Byrd an guy that is 36 years old, makes $8 million this year & next and has a ridiculous vesting option for 2016. SP Cliff Lee making about $20 million were getting offers as well. It doesn't seem like much but for a team that seriously needs to rebuild from it's core that made back to back World Series in 2008-09 and has seen all 4 teams in the division completely blow past them in the fast line $30 million would've been a lot. As I said they will likely be the busiest team in August, but they could have and should have easily expediated the process beginning with a couple players in July.
Los Angeles Dodgers: They are owned by Magic Johnson. They have their own TV deal, and a Spanish TV deal coming in the next few seasons. They have a plethora of outfielders on their major league roster and 3 great prospects in the minor leagues. They lead MLB in total payroll. They refused to include any of their top 3 prospects (Henry Urias, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson) in any deal for Lester or Price. Either one would have instantly catapulted the Dodgers to favorites out of the NL. They may still be the best team in the NL with Clayton Kershaw & Zach Grenike leading the rotation and with Matt Kemp heating up, but they'll be in a dog fight now with the Giants, Nationals, Pirates, Brewers, Cardinals & Braves.
St. Louis Cardinals: Another team that needed starting pitching help, that refused to include any of their big prospects (Randall Gruichek, Oscar Tavarez, Shelby Miller) in exchange for Lester or Price that would have easily changed the balance of power in the NL Central. They picked up 2 good innings easters in Justin Masterson and John Lackey giving up minimal in return, however neither one is a game-changer like Price would have been.
The American League Division Series: The Oakland Athletics are playing to win a World Series this year and traded for Lester. Their biggest challenger the Tigers matched them and acquired Price. The Los Angeles Angels have a good back end of the bullpen with Joe Smith & newly acquired Houston Street, have a good 1-3 with Jared Weaver, Tyler Skaggz, and Garrett Richards and have a good offense with Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Josh Hamilton. However, the rest of the rotation & bullpen is subpar. Seattle made themselves a tad better. The Baltimore Orioles lead a watered-down AL East, and the Toronto Blue Jays, once they get injured starters Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind & Brett Lawrie back from injury (all could be by the end of August) they'll turn it around. However, the rest of the league is mediocre to bad. The AL Wildcard game (Likely the Angels playing the Mariners or Orioles/Blue Jays (whichever team doesn't win the East will challenge the Mariners for second Wildcard). However, the winner of that game has virtually no match for the A's & Tigers. The A's/Tigers ALCS will be awesome, but unfortunately each team will have their ALDS opponent for dinner!
Winners:
Oakland Athletics. They have made the playoffs the last 2 seasons. They have taken the Detroit Tigers to 5 games in the ALDS each of the last 2 seasons, however they lost each time to the Tigers, mainly because their starters couldn't quite match up to the front line Tigers sent out. So, what did the A's do to counter the Tigers rotation? In early July, they traded top prospect Addison Russel to the Chicago Cubs for 2 starters Jeff Samardjiza and Jason Hammel. Neither are doing that well in Oakland however. Samardjiza has a 3 era through 5 starts, but has given up 5 home runs already even though Oakland is a pitchers park while Hammel has been dreadful so far. Yesterday's loss sent him to 0-4 in 4 starts with an era around 9. That reason, and the fact this is Jesse Chavez's first full season might have put more pressure on Oakland to get a top of the rotation guy, and that's actually what they got in Boston ace Jon Lester. They had to sacrifice offense and cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes to grab him, but they now have 4 proven starters in the playoffs: Lester who has 2 World Series rings to his credit, Samardjiza, has pitched in no big games in baseball, but was a WR @ Notre Dame, so he has plenty of big game expierence, Sonny Gray, the pitcher Oakland used in games 1 and game 5 vs. Detroit last year and finally the rejuvinated Scott Kazmir.
Detroit Tigers: The Tigers countered the A's move by pulling off a move of their own: after Lester, the next best starting pitcher on the market, also out of the AL East like Jon Lester, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price. What separates this deal from the Lester deal is that the Tigers still have Price through 2015 while Lester is a free agent after this season and likely won't resign in Oakland no matter how well he does or how much he likes the city, team, fans, mainly because the team won't be able to match what Lester wants. Price likely takes the rotation spot of 2013 Cy Young winner Max Scherzer next year, but at least there's still the chance (albeit small) that Scherzer re-ups with Detroit in the off season. Like Oakland, had to give up a regular every day player (leadoff hitter Austin Jackson went to Seattle while pitching prospect Drew Smyly went to the Rays in this 3 team trade). They also shored up a suspect bullpen with the acquisition of Rangers closer Joakim Soria, though that hasn't planned out as the Rangers have planned.
Seattle Mariners: Like Oakland & Detroit have a great starting staff with Felix Hernandez, Hishashi Iwakuma & Chris Young, but with the worst offense of the 3. The Mariners are sitting on a 12 year playoff drought and currently hold down the second Wildcard spot, but also have good prospects that they didn't want to surrender even though they needed the offensive help. So, they were part of that 3 team deal with the Rays & Tigers and ended up with Tigers lead off man Austin Jackson, and only had to give up middle infielder prospect Nick Franklin who wasn't even with the major league team or had much of a future with them anyway this year. Earlier in the day they acquired Padres OF for marginal prospects and last week picked up Minnesota DH Kendrys Morales. All 3 of these acqusistions will shore up a suspect lineup, and hopefully having the Mariners play meaningful games in late September this season.
Washington Nationals: Only made one trade, but that trade was much needed. With the hamstring injury to Ryan Zimmerman, they had a hole to fill at 2b. Fill-in Danny Espinosa plays great defense, but just cannot hit RHP, so the team went out and got Asdrubal Cabrera from the Cleveland Indians. Even though Cabrera is much worse on defense than Espinosa is, at least he is a power bat and can hit RHP.
The NL Playoffs: Currently, the largest division lead in the NL is 3 games (Giants lead the Dodger by 3 games in the West). There were talks of Lester or Price ending up with an NL Central team which would have easily shifted the balance of power to whichever team picked him up (3 teams are within 2.5 games of each other in the division: Brewers lead, Pirates are 2 back and Cardinals are 2.5 back. A 4th team Reds are only 6 back as well) or the Dodgers which would have made them the team to beat in the NL. As it stands, the 2 impact players ended up in the AL with minor moves in the NL which'll make the NL races and the NL playoffs more exciting to watch then the AL counterparts.
Losers:
Philadelphia Phillies: This is an old team, with a lot of money and a lot of bad and questionable contracts. A lot of their players will be able to clear waivers in August because of these bloated salaries, but there were some teams that were questioning Marlon Byrd an guy that is 36 years old, makes $8 million this year & next and has a ridiculous vesting option for 2016. SP Cliff Lee making about $20 million were getting offers as well. It doesn't seem like much but for a team that seriously needs to rebuild from it's core that made back to back World Series in 2008-09 and has seen all 4 teams in the division completely blow past them in the fast line $30 million would've been a lot. As I said they will likely be the busiest team in August, but they could have and should have easily expediated the process beginning with a couple players in July.
Los Angeles Dodgers: They are owned by Magic Johnson. They have their own TV deal, and a Spanish TV deal coming in the next few seasons. They have a plethora of outfielders on their major league roster and 3 great prospects in the minor leagues. They lead MLB in total payroll. They refused to include any of their top 3 prospects (Henry Urias, Corey Seager, Joc Pederson) in any deal for Lester or Price. Either one would have instantly catapulted the Dodgers to favorites out of the NL. They may still be the best team in the NL with Clayton Kershaw & Zach Grenike leading the rotation and with Matt Kemp heating up, but they'll be in a dog fight now with the Giants, Nationals, Pirates, Brewers, Cardinals & Braves.
St. Louis Cardinals: Another team that needed starting pitching help, that refused to include any of their big prospects (Randall Gruichek, Oscar Tavarez, Shelby Miller) in exchange for Lester or Price that would have easily changed the balance of power in the NL Central. They picked up 2 good innings easters in Justin Masterson and John Lackey giving up minimal in return, however neither one is a game-changer like Price would have been.
The American League Division Series: The Oakland Athletics are playing to win a World Series this year and traded for Lester. Their biggest challenger the Tigers matched them and acquired Price. The Los Angeles Angels have a good back end of the bullpen with Joe Smith & newly acquired Houston Street, have a good 1-3 with Jared Weaver, Tyler Skaggz, and Garrett Richards and have a good offense with Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Josh Hamilton. However, the rest of the rotation & bullpen is subpar. Seattle made themselves a tad better. The Baltimore Orioles lead a watered-down AL East, and the Toronto Blue Jays, once they get injured starters Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind & Brett Lawrie back from injury (all could be by the end of August) they'll turn it around. However, the rest of the league is mediocre to bad. The AL Wildcard game (Likely the Angels playing the Mariners or Orioles/Blue Jays (whichever team doesn't win the East will challenge the Mariners for second Wildcard). However, the winner of that game has virtually no match for the A's & Tigers. The A's/Tigers ALCS will be awesome, but unfortunately each team will have their ALDS opponent for dinner!
Sunday, July 20, 2014
Washington Nationals game 96 recap
Overview: Nats survived a sluggish outing from Gio Gonzalez (3 runs, 5 strikeouts and only 4 hits in 3 1/3 innings) but finished with 3 walks and needed 88 pitches to record a total of 10 outs, and the 3rd blown save from closer Rafael Soriano who gave up the tying run on a single by Rickie Weeks, but got out of the inning without any further damage due to Weeks getting caught stealing second and Ryan Braun ended the threat with a deep flyout to Denard Span in CF.
In the bottom half of the inning, after a Nate McClouth strikeout (pinch hitting for Soriano), Span, playing on his bobble head day singled, All Star snub Anthony Rendon reached on a force out, and scored the winning run on a Jayson Werth double to LF to give the Nats a 5-4 walk off win.
Nats got on the board first with a single by SS Ian Desmond, but had the inning flushed out after Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo made a great snag on a come backer off the bat of catcher Jose Lobaton and doubled Bryce Harper off the bat. Brewers scored the next 3 runs; 2 in the top of the 3rd, 1 in the 4th and the Nats came back in the bottom half with 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the 4th inning, and it stayed that way until the 9th.
What it means: The walk off victory gives the Nats an overall record of 53-43 (.552); percentage points over the Atlanta Braves (54-44; .551) for top spot in the National League East division, and as of this moment, the top spot in the NL, once again percentage points over the LA Dodgers (54-45; .545), San Francisco Giants (54-44; .551), St. Louis Cardinals (54-44; .551), Milwaukee Brewers (54-45; .545) and of course the Atlanta Braves. However, the winner of ESPN's Sunday night baseball game between the Cardinals & Dodgers will leapfrog the Nats for best record at the end of the night (assuming no rainout), so the Nationals will end the day with the NL's second best record and the 4th/5th best record in all of baseball at the end of the day (4th/5th depending on what the Baltimore Orioles do in their game vs. the Oakland A's).
Rally thwarted: After 3 singles in the second gave the Nats a 1-0 lead, they were looking to add more with only 1 out and runners on the corners. However, Jose Lobaton's comebacker was stabbed by Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo, and he doubled up Bryce Harper at 3rd to end the threat and the inning.
That was weird: With Ryan Braun on second base and running on the pitch, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy hit a come backer to Gio Gonzalez. Gonzalez lobbed the ball over to 1st, and Braun, never slowing down scored from second just ahead of Adam LaRoche's throw home.
Brewers aggressive base running: Brewers had 2 stolen bases on the afternoon, and took many extra bases. Brewers added to their lead with another aggressive baserunning in the 4th. With Jean Segura on 3rd, Carlos Gomez hit a grounder to Desmond who was playing in. Desmond made a good play and looked Segura back to 3rd, but Segura broke home as Desmond threw to first to get the out, and slid just ahead of the throw from LaRoche to give the Brewers an insurance run. However, the aggressive baserunning came back to haunt them in the 9th when it counted: after tying the game off of Soriano, the Brewers tried to pull off a double steal. Carlos Gomez was able to get to 3rd, but Weeks, the trailing runner was thrown out at second for the second out. That would loom large as 2 pitches later Braun would fly out ti deep center which would've easily scored Gomez to give the Brewers the lead had that only been the second out. However, it was the 3rd, and it ended the inning.
Nats rally back: After a walk to LaRoche, Ryan Zimmerman connected on a 2 run homer to right center to tie the score at 3 in the 4th. Later in the inning, Lobaton would motor home from 3rd on a wild pitch in another weird play as even though Gallardo was covering the plate, catcher Johnathan Lucroy didn't throw the ball to at least attempt the out on Lobaton.
3rd times the charm: This was only the 3rd save closer Rafael Soriano has blown this year. In the first 2 instances this year (May 10 @ Oakland & June 7 @ San Diego) the team lost the game. Nice of them to take him off the hook this time.
Game MVP: A lot of good choices here. We could have Ryan Zimmerman (2-4, 1 home run, 2 RBI's, 1 run scored), walk off hero Jayson Werth (2-5, 1 RBI, game-winning hit), or all star Tyler Clippard (20th hold of the season, struck out the side in the 8th on 19 pitches) but I'm going to give it long reliever Craig Stammen. Relieved an ineffective Gio Gonzalez and pitched a scoreless 2 and 2/3's innings allowing 0 hits, walking none and striking out two. Also chipped in with the bat which helped set up the Nats 3rd run of the 4th inning. After Lobaton reached second with a double he reached first on a swinging bunt which went about 50 feet and sent Lobaton to 3rd where he scored on the wild pitch.
Up next: Nats go on the road for 9 straight games and won't be back home at Nats park until the final day of July; July 31. They start the road trip with 3 games in Colorado vs. the floundering Rockies, then go onto Cincinnati for 3 games vs. the Reds, and finish up the trip in Miami with 3 vs. the Marlins. Monday's scheduled pitching matchup has Doug Fister (9-2, 2.90) who was pushed back from Sunday to Monday due to travel problems Gio Gonzalez had for the Nats vs. Franklin Morales (5-4, 5.26) for the Rockies. Game start is scheduled for 8:40 PM Eastern.
In the bottom half of the inning, after a Nate McClouth strikeout (pinch hitting for Soriano), Span, playing on his bobble head day singled, All Star snub Anthony Rendon reached on a force out, and scored the winning run on a Jayson Werth double to LF to give the Nats a 5-4 walk off win.
Nats got on the board first with a single by SS Ian Desmond, but had the inning flushed out after Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo made a great snag on a come backer off the bat of catcher Jose Lobaton and doubled Bryce Harper off the bat. Brewers scored the next 3 runs; 2 in the top of the 3rd, 1 in the 4th and the Nats came back in the bottom half with 3 runs of their own in the bottom half of the 4th inning, and it stayed that way until the 9th.
What it means: The walk off victory gives the Nats an overall record of 53-43 (.552); percentage points over the Atlanta Braves (54-44; .551) for top spot in the National League East division, and as of this moment, the top spot in the NL, once again percentage points over the LA Dodgers (54-45; .545), San Francisco Giants (54-44; .551), St. Louis Cardinals (54-44; .551), Milwaukee Brewers (54-45; .545) and of course the Atlanta Braves. However, the winner of ESPN's Sunday night baseball game between the Cardinals & Dodgers will leapfrog the Nats for best record at the end of the night (assuming no rainout), so the Nationals will end the day with the NL's second best record and the 4th/5th best record in all of baseball at the end of the day (4th/5th depending on what the Baltimore Orioles do in their game vs. the Oakland A's).
Rally thwarted: After 3 singles in the second gave the Nats a 1-0 lead, they were looking to add more with only 1 out and runners on the corners. However, Jose Lobaton's comebacker was stabbed by Brewers pitcher Yovanni Gallardo, and he doubled up Bryce Harper at 3rd to end the threat and the inning.
That was weird: With Ryan Braun on second base and running on the pitch, Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy hit a come backer to Gio Gonzalez. Gonzalez lobbed the ball over to 1st, and Braun, never slowing down scored from second just ahead of Adam LaRoche's throw home.
Brewers aggressive base running: Brewers had 2 stolen bases on the afternoon, and took many extra bases. Brewers added to their lead with another aggressive baserunning in the 4th. With Jean Segura on 3rd, Carlos Gomez hit a grounder to Desmond who was playing in. Desmond made a good play and looked Segura back to 3rd, but Segura broke home as Desmond threw to first to get the out, and slid just ahead of the throw from LaRoche to give the Brewers an insurance run. However, the aggressive baserunning came back to haunt them in the 9th when it counted: after tying the game off of Soriano, the Brewers tried to pull off a double steal. Carlos Gomez was able to get to 3rd, but Weeks, the trailing runner was thrown out at second for the second out. That would loom large as 2 pitches later Braun would fly out ti deep center which would've easily scored Gomez to give the Brewers the lead had that only been the second out. However, it was the 3rd, and it ended the inning.
Nats rally back: After a walk to LaRoche, Ryan Zimmerman connected on a 2 run homer to right center to tie the score at 3 in the 4th. Later in the inning, Lobaton would motor home from 3rd on a wild pitch in another weird play as even though Gallardo was covering the plate, catcher Johnathan Lucroy didn't throw the ball to at least attempt the out on Lobaton.
3rd times the charm: This was only the 3rd save closer Rafael Soriano has blown this year. In the first 2 instances this year (May 10 @ Oakland & June 7 @ San Diego) the team lost the game. Nice of them to take him off the hook this time.
Game MVP: A lot of good choices here. We could have Ryan Zimmerman (2-4, 1 home run, 2 RBI's, 1 run scored), walk off hero Jayson Werth (2-5, 1 RBI, game-winning hit), or all star Tyler Clippard (20th hold of the season, struck out the side in the 8th on 19 pitches) but I'm going to give it long reliever Craig Stammen. Relieved an ineffective Gio Gonzalez and pitched a scoreless 2 and 2/3's innings allowing 0 hits, walking none and striking out two. Also chipped in with the bat which helped set up the Nats 3rd run of the 4th inning. After Lobaton reached second with a double he reached first on a swinging bunt which went about 50 feet and sent Lobaton to 3rd where he scored on the wild pitch.
Up next: Nats go on the road for 9 straight games and won't be back home at Nats park until the final day of July; July 31. They start the road trip with 3 games in Colorado vs. the floundering Rockies, then go onto Cincinnati for 3 games vs. the Reds, and finish up the trip in Miami with 3 vs. the Marlins. Monday's scheduled pitching matchup has Doug Fister (9-2, 2.90) who was pushed back from Sunday to Monday due to travel problems Gio Gonzalez had for the Nats vs. Franklin Morales (5-4, 5.26) for the Rockies. Game start is scheduled for 8:40 PM Eastern.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)