Jeff Dufour's New York Yankees fan blog

Over the past month or so I have taken the time to do some research on every team and break them down.  I pointed out their strengths and weaknesses, discussed which player or part of a team needs to have a big season to push that team to the next level and I made predictions on how every team in baseball would finish.  I talked about how each division would be won and why.  I took the time to look not just as each teams stars but the back end of their bullpen and their bench.  I know we are technically two games into the MLB season but with Opening Day being tomorrow (sorry Braves and Nationals) it is now time for me to tell you which teams will make the playoffs, who will win the awards, how the playoffs will shake up and which team, come October will be on top of the world.

Continue reading "My Baseball Predictions (My brother and dad's too)"

Before I get to the 16 things we all need to know before the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 this weekend I would like to congratulate myself on some of my correct predictions.  I said the games would be much closer than last year and I must say, these games last week were unbelievable.  The scheduling by CBS sucked though because it seemed every good game happened at the same time as another good game and then there would be slots where all four games were blowouts.  This is something CBS needs to look at next year, I don’t want a time slot with two #1’s playing 16’s, a 2 playing a 15 and a 3 playing a 14.  I also said that last weekend would be the best sports weekend of the year and outside of my Giants winning the Super Bowl it definitely was (the Super Bowl has to be put on another level though and doesn’t count).  I also said many people would be throwing their brackets away on Monday morning and assuming many of you had Duke going further then round 2 and didn’t have Davidson or Western Kentucky in your Sweet 16 I feel confident that I was correct.  My final four is also still alive.  I feel very good about my predictions and even better about this tournament being an absolute classic.  All we need is a few great Sweet 16 games and a couple good ones over the weekend, followed by a powerhouse Final Four and we have a tournament to remember, as I predicted.

Continue reading "Sweet 16 Preview"

The American League East has been a two horse race for as long as I can remember but I think this year it becomes three-team battle.  The Toronto Blue Jays are as talented as most teams in the league and if they can stay healthy they can definitely contend.  The Rays and Orioles will again bring up the rear of this division but the top should be a fun and wild ride all year long, beginning with the Yankees-Blue Jays to open the season next week.

The Rays have changed their name this year but I don’t think it will help too much.  They do seem to be focusing more on pitching, finally, which is a good thing.  The Rays traded one of their most talented players, Delmon Young to the Twins for Matt Garza.  The Rays now have three good, young pitchers, with Garza, Kazmir and James Shields.  The offense will still be able to score runs with Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena leading the way but their bullpen will be terrible again this year.  The Rays should win more games and I could even seeing them finishing 4th this year so maybe the change from Devil Rays to just Rays did help a little bit.

Continue reading "Part VI: AL East"

1. This weekend is the best weekend of the sports year.
2. Attendance at work and school will be down Thursday and Friday this week.
3. We should have these days off.
4. I will watch some of every game this weekend.
5. I will eat way too much food too.
6. The Mega March Madness package through DirecTV for 60 dollars is the best deal around.
7. I am counting down the hours until tip on Thursday at 12:20.
8. Indiana will beat Arkansas and take UNC to the brink in Round 2.
9. The ACC was highly overrated this year.

Continue reading "The 64 Things You Need To Know For The NCAA Tournament"

The AL Central is my favorite race in the league this year.  The Tigers and Indians are both stacked this season and I think it will very close all year.  I don’t expect either of these teams to have anymore than a 4 or 5 game lead.  The rest of this division is pretty weak which will help these two powerhouses build up the wins.  Let’s get to the breakdowns.

The Royals will again have a very tough year.  They do seem to be getting better though.  The rotation has a few good arms with Gil Meche, Brian Bannister and Zach Grienke.  I wouldn’t expect too much from them yet.  Even if the rotation is better this year the line-up will struggle to score runs again this year.  David DeJesus needs to have a bounce back year and Alex Gordan needs to breakout and show people how good he can be.  This team is young and should continue to improve but who knows, they are the Royals.  I can’t understand why they would spend over 80 million on Gil Meche and Jose Guillen in the past two years; it’s a waste of money because they won’t help them win now.

Continue reading "Part V: AL Central"

Moving away from the National League we will turn our attention to the much better American League.  We will start out west which a division that should be a great two horse race.  The Rangers are still struggling; the A’s are now re-building which leaves us with the Mariners and the Angels.  Let’s get to it.

The Oakland A’s seem to have traded away every major player from their last handful of years and are now in complete re-building mode.  The A’s have a very weak line-up with a few players most people have never heard of.  The people that we have heard of, Eric Chavez, Jack Cust and Mark Ellis will need to stay healthy if this team has any chance at winning a few games.  Their starting rotation is not very good either, unless Rich Harden stays in it and realizes his potential.  And their bullpen isn’t even good.  They have moved Justin Duchscherer to the rotation which thinned out the ‘pen.  It will be a long year in Oakland but there is something to be excited about, they got some good young talent for their veterans that they traded so they could be building up again and be competitive sooner rather than later.

Continue reading "Preview IV: AL West"

I wanted to get this out before the tournaments began butbecause of schoolwork I did not have the time so please forgive me.  I am watching the Syracuse-Villanovagame right now (I tivoed it) so I do not have any extra information than Iwould have had last night.  Let’sget right to it, just a quick preview of the six major conference tournaments(ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Big East, SEC and PAC-10) and my predictions for themall.

SEC- it is a very down year in this conference, which is toobad because after the football season this conference has you expect more.  The major story going on during thistournament is whether Florida can do enough to get themselves into the NCAATournament.  Tennessee should withthis tourney; they are the best team in the SEC and have dominated all yearlong.  I think Kentucky willcontinue to play well and assure themselves the NCAA Tourney bid by getting tothe finals before losing to the Vols. I have Florida winning one game and in the end, probably not doingenough to get into the big dance next week.

Continue reading "Getting Mad for March"

Someone forgot to tell the NL West they were supposed to be the worst division in baseball last year.  Out of nowhere this division became arguably the best division in the league and had one of the most fantastic finishes in recent memory.  That play-in game was a game I will be talking about for years and I will never forget the Rockies historic run to the World Series.  This year promises to be another great race in this division.

The Dodger may have made the biggest change in the off-season when they fired Grady Little and brought in Joe Torre.  Joe should be able to bring this clubhouse together and keep everyone on an even level.  It should go along way to helping this starting rotation.  Brad Penny should be fine but after that all they have are questions.  Derek Lowe needs to have a good year and Jason Schmidt must get healthy and stay healthy this year.  The line-up should be fine this year.  They are getting older but still have some very productive bats, Nomar, Jeff Kent, Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre.  Russell Martin is a stud at catcher and should really take off this season.  The bullpen has some great arms and one of the better closer in the game, Saito.  My only worry here is the way Joe Torre manages bullpens, he may overuse a lot of these young guys.

Continue reading "Part III: NL West"

Why is that whenever someone retires or is having a great career, the first question we all ask is, “where does he rank among the all-time greats?”  Why must we always be looking at the historic side of things?  LeBron is not the next Michael Jordan and we don’t know if he will be a better all-time player so why worry about it.  Can’t we just enjoy LeBron for what he is?  Alex Rodriguez is on pace to break every major home run record but I don’t understand why we always have to look at the big picture.  From now on I am going to watch A-Rod for today and that’s all.  When he hits a homer I am not going to wonder if that was 530 or 531 for his career, I will only care about it how many he has hit that season and if it helped the Yankees win.  That is why I will not worry where Brett Favre ranks among the best quarterbacks in NFL history.  No, I will just remember the career of Brett because whether you think he is better than John Elway or not you must admit, he was special.

Continue reading "Remembering Greatness"

Time to move on from the rough and tough NL East and we head into the middle of the country and into the weakest (and saddest) division in baseball.  It should be fun though, however bad the baseball might be.  This race is wide open with four or five teams that could honestly win this division.  The NL Central has many newcomers to the division and has some very important people spread throughout the six teams.  But I will discuss that later on.  First, the team-by-team breakdowns.

Let’s begin with the Cincinnati Reds.  This team continues to sputter along and I just don’t understand it.  They are at a very in between stage right now and are not making a move one-way or the other.  This team has some wonderful pieces in place.  Brandon Phillips is a stud at second base, Adam Dunn can hit 40 homers, Ryan Freel is a spark plug and Ken Griffey Jr. can still play a little bit.  Aaron Harang is a top-notch pitcher who has continued to stay under the radar somehow and Bronson Arroyo can win some games.  Chad Cordero is a very productive closer and they have a solid bullpen other than him.  But then they sit around and play people like Scott Hatteberg, Alex Gonzalez and Edwin Encarnacion.  I don’t get it, either sell high on your studs and get some prospects and more young players or you go out and spend the money and really make your team a contender.  I don’t get it; they have had this core of players for a few years now and have done nothing with it.  Boggles my mind, I guess that’s why they are the Cincinnati Reds.

Continue reading "Part II: NL Central"