Minnesota Twins

The New York Yankees have cruised through the 2009 baseball regular season, destroying teams with their 9 slugger deep line-up that includes not one player having a bad year. While every hitter is having varying degrees of success, not one man in that line-up is performing below their norms (save for mighty A-Rod, who's injury has slowed him down a bit to the tune of only 26 homers and 80+ RBI's). The bullpen has also been stellar, with Mariano Rivera looking as spry as he did in 1996, and with Phil Hughes redefining his 2009 season in the ilk of that very same roie Rivera held in '96- the gutsy set-up man that becomes a dominating extension of the closer. The defense has improved mightily too, especially around the infield, where Derek Jeter has revived his defensive career by extending his lateral range and improving his arm strength. Robinson Cano has looked interested for the first time in the field since his rookie season and Mark Texeira has done wonders for everyone, displaying why he is considered a defensive elite (you can tell Don Mattingly was his favorite player growing up, his range and glove work are superb). 

Continue reading "Joe Girardi- Let the Force Be With You or Else."

I first heard of David Ortiz back when he was with the Minnesota Twins. He totally stunk back then. It just seemed to me that every time he went against Yankee pitching he was an easy out. He was flat. 2004 came around and he just kept getting clutch hit after clutch hit for the Red Sox against the Yankees. I was like, "What's going on here? He totally sucked back in Minnesota. Come on! Get him!" I tell you the last few years, no one has caused me to shut off the TV in the middle of a Yankee game more than this guy. Now Yankee fans don't have anything to worry about. The Red Sox still have a tremendous amount of faith in this guy. They are diluted enough to think that he's going to come out of it. If all goes well tomorrow against the Red Sox with A.J. Burnett on the mound, expect to see David Ortiz somewhere towards the bottom of the batting order and him not able to keep up with any pitches. I mean c'mon, not being able to hit an 89 mph fast ball? My 5 year old son can hit an 89 mph fastball and he plays t-ball. Mr. Ortiz is going to be in trouble. Joba's going to be blowing it by him. Hughes is going to be blowing it by him. Even a slower Mariano Rivera is going to be blowing it by him. So Yankee fans rejoice! Big Sloppy is on his way out.

Continue reading "Scouting the opposition: "Big Sloppy" ..."

(Note: originally posted on February 25.)

Each year, prior to the start of the MLB season, I use a unique mathematical system (one that I will not get into, because it's boring) to project the performance of every player and team. This season, in lieu of their significant offseason additions, I expected the Yankees to come out on top. Surprisingly, my expectations were wrong...

Continue reading "MLB Preseason Predictions: Regular ..."

With the MLB playoffs set to begin, there is a subtle difference in the air compared to start of any other postseason. In the NHL, fans can potentially look forward to a great Canadians/Bruins series that is not only exciting, but has a historical kick to it. Likewise basketball fans always have the chance to see if the Suns can finally get past the Spurs and football fans love seeing the rivalry of the Eagles Vs the City of Philadelphia when the Eagles so much as get tackled for a loss.

Continue reading "The Ups and Downs of the MLB Playoffs"

To add to yesterday's post, neither Ibanez nor Washburn was dealt after they were claimed on waivers. According to the Post-Intelligencer, the Twins put in claims on both, and their waiver number was higher for Jarrod, while the Tigers claim was highest for Ibanez.

Continue reading "Waiver Update"

The Mariners announced today that Jarrod Washburn has cleared waivers, meaning he can now be freely traded to whatever team wants to take on his massive salary. There's no real surprise here, as it's doubtful any other team would want to take on his bloated $9.85M salary. So the failure of Seattle to deal him before the deadline isn't so awful, except that his value seemed to have peaked at that point for a couple of reasons: (1) he'd pitched really well to that point (4 ER in 19.2 IP in the three starts before the deadline, (2) his value diminishes with each day that passes, since that means less time he can spend with a contending team (e.g., the Yanks) starved for starters, which leads to (3) the team in question being more likely to go in another direction.

Continue reading "Washburn is ready to move"

Continue reading "Raul and the Blowout"

For the first time since May 13, the Minnesota Twins--the team that stood pat during the recent Trade Deadline Sweepstakes--assume first place in the NL Central today.

Chicago had been waiting for its bats to heat up all season, and both Swisher and Konerko have had a few streaks of hot hitting, but they couldn't get the whole team hitting at the same time. So they grabbed Ken Griffey, Jr., a move that was part consummation of a long-time love affair with Junior by GM Kenny Williams and part best-choice trade.

Continue reading "Twins in First"

One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.

Continue reading "Second Half Predictions"

Minnesota Twins

Can Francisco Liriano step up and replace Johan Santana as the ace of the staff?

Continue reading "MLB 2008 Season Preview: AL Central"

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.

Continue reading "Part V: AL Central"