Results tagged ‘ Braves ’
The Marathon Begins:Happy Baseball New Year!
After 141 years since the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was established as America’s first professional “major league”, America’s love affair with the sport has been rekindled once again for the start of the 2012 season. And with just a slew of games Thursday, it was great to be reminded once again why the game of baseball is great, especially when the new (old) look Toronto Blue Jays outlast the Cleveland Indians. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch this game, but judging from the highlights of the longest Opening Day game in the history of the sport (which is amazing in itself) it was a well played game. Indians ace Justin Masterson pitched like an ace by tossing 8 innings of 2 hit ball, 10 strike outs, while just giving up one earned run. Unfortunately for Masterson, Chris Perez was unable to protect the Indians three run lead as the Blue Jays put together a late game rally to tie the game. After a battle of the bullpens, JP Arencibia blasts a 3 run homer in the top of the 16th inning, giving the angry birds from the Great White North their first victory of the season.
Mets Win!
After all the gloom and doom I heard from Mets fans during the spring, the Mets opening day victory should be a reminder of every fan of the sport, not just Mets fans, that anything is possible this game. Although I don’t consider the Mets to be playoff contenders on the one hand, I don’t believe this team is as bad as some columnists and baseball pundits think it is on the other hand. Johan Santana’s first start since 2010 was encouraging to see. Although not vintage Johan, he was still good enough to hold the Atlanta Braves to only 2 hits in 5 innings of work and the Mets bullpen (which is a solid group) finish the job as Frank Francisco gets his first save as a member of the Metropolitans.
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
It’s a new season and Justin Verlander picks up where he left off by tossing 8 innings and striking out 7 Red Sox batters. Although he didn’t get the decision in the Tigers 3-2 win over the Red Sox, the reigning American League Cy Young Award and MVP winner made it clear that the Tigers will be one of the heavyweights in the American League this season.
As for the Red Sox, well…they pick up right where they left off last September by losing again in the latter stages of the ballgame. Not that I feel sorry for them as a Yankees fan, but I hope that their collapse continues right through June. It’s only fair!
Predictions…..N.L
I’m not good at making predictions since it seems that every year I pick the Yankees to win the World Series (I know I’m biased). However, I have decided to put aside my bias for the moment and objectively look at the season that is almost upon us. So, as we bid farewell to the month long Spring Training interlude before the beginning of the marathon–and to the players who unfortunately will not be in the Show–it is time to make brief but objective prediction for the upcoming season.
After an exciting and surprising post-season, the off season had its share of excitement and surprises. The biggest surprise and excitement this past winter undoubtedly has to be Cliff Lee’s rejection of both the Yankees and Rangers in favor of the Philadelphia Phillies. By taking less money to be a member of the Phillies Lee joined a team that already had three legitimate aces. Now that Lee is part of the Phillies rotation the Four Horsemen (and Joe Blanton) made the Philadelphia the early winter favorites to win the National League and the World Series. In Boston, the signing of Carl Crawford and the trade for Adrian Gonzalez made the Red Sox the early winter favorites to win the American League and represent it in the World Series…of course losing to the Phillies in 7 games (when a Jimmy Rollins slow roller gets through the legs of Gonzalez, allowing Shane Victorino to score the game winning and Series ending run…hahaha).
But those were the few predictions of the winter. How do these predictions and among the others made but not mention above hold now that Spring Training is over? Well, time will tell. Here are now my National League predictions.
N.L East Champions: Atlanta Braves
Yes, I’ll admit it, it seems insane for me to pick the Braves over the Phillies especially when the later have the Four Horsemen at the top of their rotation. However, there is a method to my madness and I believe the reasons I am about to give will be correct by the end of the year. At the moment, the Braves lineup is a tad better than Phily’s lineup. The veteran Chipper Jones will be the anchor of this lineup and if he stays healthy, he could very well have a productive season since he will have protection in the lineup that will include Dan Uggla, Brian McCann and Jason Hayward. Although the Braves do not have the rotation that the Phillies possess, they still have a formidable rotation with Tommy Hanson, Tim Hudson, Derek Lowe and Jair Jurjens. What will help these pitchers out will be Atlanta’s tough lineup. However, there is an achillies hill on this team and that is their defense. If they want to win the division, the Braves have to improve.
N.L Central Champions: Cincinnati Reds
Adam Wainwright’s season ending injury early this Spring has definately opened the door for the Reds to continue what they started last year, as they surprisingly took the Division title over the St. Louis Cardinals. And this year, I look for the same thing to happen. The core of this team is built around NL MVP Joey Votto. With Votto leading this team, the Reds didn’t do much this winter to improve, but they didn’t need to. The Reds pitching is also deep with no shortage of arms in the rotation and in the bullpen. However, don’t count out the Cardinals yet, or dismiss the Brewers. I think this will be a close three team race and in the end, the Reds will come out on top.
N.L West Champions: San Francisco Giants
This is an easy pick, but which other team in the NL West has the pitching rotation the Giants possess? It was the pitching of Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez and especially Bumgarner that carried this team through the first two rounds of the playoffs and in the World Series. And it will be this rotation that will carry the Giants back to the post season and possibly back to the World Series. The Giants however need to improve their on their lineup since they could face a much tougher opposition in the post season this time around after the improvements made by the Braves and Phillies.
N.L Wild Card: Philadelphia Phillies
They stole Cliff Lee away from the Yankees so the Baseball Gods will punish them this season. But to be serious, I think the Phillies will have the best rotation in the NL, but a substandard lineup that will struggle to score runs. The injury this Spring to Chase Utley doesn’t help and the fact that Jayson Werth left town for DC will have a major impact on the Phillies ability to score runs. Jimmy Rollins has to be the most overrated short stop in the league and since his MVP year (which he won on the strength of a Spring Training prediction..hmm), Rollins has been on the decline. In 2011 Rollins’ decline will continue. Moreover, will Ryan Howard’s power numbers decline again this year? If they do, how can this lineup score runs to support their pitchers?
The Phillies pitching staff looks great on paper, but in reality, there are some issues. Leave Roy Halladay aside, Cliff Lee is not a great regular season pitcher as he is in the post season. His only dominant regular season came in 2008 for a very poor Cleveland Indians club. Moreover, Lee is injury prone and it wouldn’t surprise me if he spent sometime in the DL this year. As for Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, I believe that both will have good years, but will only win 12 to 14 games each. The only pitcher in this rotation which could win more than 15 games is Roy Halladay.
NLCS: Giants over Phillies in 7 games: Giants have the younger pitching staff that has come a long long way after their success last year. With that experience and confidence, they will take down the Phillies again to earn another trip to the World Series.
Post season…
Let the (Post-Season) games begin. Tomorrow the road to the World Series begins for all 8 teams still alive this baseball season. As the other 24 teams in the league make plans for next year, the final 8 prepare to battle it out for baseball’s ultimate prize: A World Series Championship. So here are my short predictions.
American League Prediction:
Rangers v Rays:
I say the Rays win this series in five games. In the end, I do believe the Rays will do enough to manufacture enough runs to beat Cliff Lee, CJ Wilson and Colby Lewis. I also expect a big series from BJ Upton who will have to pick up the slack if Longoria doesn’t play. But even if Longoria plays, the Rays won’t win if Upton doesn’t produce. So the key for the Rays to win this series is simple: jump all over Cliff Lee in game one, and out pitch the rest of the Rangers staff. James Shields will have to be Big Game James and Matt Garza has to repeat the post season performance he put together in 2008.
Of course, just because I think the Rays could win in five doesn’t mean that the Rangers won’t surprise me and win this series. Cliff Lee has emerged as a dominant post-season pitcher, and I don’t expect that to change tomorrow. He will be tough on the Rays lineup and if CJ Wilson and Colby Lewis pitch well, the Rangers could beat the Rays. But I don’t expect to see Wilson and Lewis pitch well.
Yankees v Twins:
I’m biased, so the Yankees will win..enough said. However, could this be the year the Twins finally get over the hump? For all the Yankee fans who wished for a Twins/Yankees series, all I have to say is..be careful of what you wish for…
National League Prediction:
Phillies v Reds:
The Phillies are the class of the National League and will begin the road to their second World Series championship in the last three years (it makes me sick just typing that) tomorrow at home against the Reds. I expect Doc Halladay’s first post season game to be a great one. Halladay has always been a great regular season pitcher, and tomorrow I expect him to become a great Post-Season pitcher. Roy Halladay could be this year’s Cliff Lee for the Phillies. And unlike last year, the Phillies will have two top pitchers to ride this post season, and Roy Oswalt, a veteran post season pitcher will provide that Phillies staff with the experience and the arm they so miserably lacked last season, especially during the World Series. Moreover, the Phillies lineup is stack and could be a nightmare for the Reds starting rotation.
Where the Reds have a slight edge over the Phillies however, will be in the bullpen. The Reds have three tough lefties that could shut down Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez. Now that Travis Wood will be in the bullpen, along with Rhodes and Chapman, the Reds could steal a few games, or maybe even the series from the Phillies if any of the games come down to a big at-bat in the late innings by any of Phillies three top left handed hitters. However, the Reds will need a big performances from Arroyo, Volquez and Cueto and frankly, against this Phillies lineup that would be too much to ask for.
Giants v Braves:
I predict that the Giants will win in four games. San Francisco’s pitching will be too much for the Braves to handle, and the poor defense of the Braves infield will be a liability throughout the series. Derek Lowe had a great September and he has the post season experience to come up big, but the idea that Hudson and Hanson outpitching this formidable Giants staff is unrealistic.
Hoping for Chaos in the NL Wild Card
Wouldn’t it be great if the Giants, Padres and Braves end up with the exact same record on Sunday night? Well, maybe not for the fans in those respective cities, but it would certainly be great for me. Nothing is more exciting than watching two teams fight for that last playoff spot, yet watching three teams potentially fight for two spots would be even better. Alas, it is wishful thinking on my part. Either the Padres or Giants will put enough wins together to either win the division, or clinch the wild card. As for the Braves, I don’t believe they will be in the Wild Card race by Friday night. For a team that was leading the NL East most of the summer, their fall from the top of the division has to be hard to see.
Will 2010 be remembered as the other year of the pitcher?
For those that love reading baseball history, and for those that love watching Baseball Seasons on the MLB Network, now that 1968 will always be remembered as the Year of the Pitcher. That season was the culmination of advantages that the pitchers began to receive after the offensive explosion at the beginning of the decade that saw, among many other things, the fall of Babe Ruth’s single season homerun record to Roger Maris.
That season, Bob Gibson set a modern season ERA record of 1.12 and a World Series record of 17 strike outs. The last 30 game winner in baseball pitched in 1968 as Denny McLain won 31 games for the Detriot Tigers, and was the first 30 game winner in baseball since Dizzy Dean last did it for the St. Louis Cardinals. The rised mound, the wider strike zone helped the pitchers and curbed hitter’s offensive production. After that season the trend began to reverse itself and the hitters were once again given the advantage as the mound was lowered, and strikes zone began to shrink.
During the 70′s all the way through the Steroid Era, there has been a renewed offensive explosion. People have blamed everything from baseball expansion, new friendly hitter ball-parks, a smaller strike zone, juiced baseballs to juiced players. All these factors could explain why there was an offensive explosion since the late 60′s, but in no way could they explain why all of the sudden the tide is once again turning to in the pitcher favor.
In 2010 there has been…
five or six near no hitters or perfect games that were broken up in the late innings. It all started with CC Sabathia in Tampa Bay when he threw 7.2 innings of no hit baseball against the Rays. Later that week, Ricky Romero, of the Blue Jays, took a no hitter into the 7th inning against the White Sox before giving up a two run homer. Phil Hughes of the Yankees had a no hitter in the 7th inning before losing it in Oakland. Last week, both Jared Weaver and Scott Olsen almost achieved baseball immortality before giving up late hits. And I know there has to be more near-no-hitters that I have certainly missed.
In 2010 there has also been a no-hitter and a perfect game thrown. Ubaldo Jimenez of the Rockies pitched a no-hitter against against the Braves and Dallas “Get of his mound” Braden threw a perfect game.
In 2010, the best top 5 pitchers (includes both starters and relievers) in the league have ERA’s below 2. The top 13 pitchers in baseball have an ERA between 1.45 and 1.98. At the same time period last year, 2009 the top 13 had ERA’s of 2.15 and above.
Clearly pitchers have done well in the early part of the season. Even if it is too early in the year to say that 2010 could turn out to be the ”other year of the pitcher,” the pitching around the league has certainly improved from the past.
Vazques is dreadful…Pelfrey wins rain-shorten game.
How dreadful has Javier Vazquez been so far this season? The answer is pretty dreadful. On his fourth start of the year, Vazquez once again failed to make it into the 6th inning, just pitching 3.2 innings against the Angels yesterday afternoon. The reason why the Yankees traded for this guy was to avoid the three man rotation during the post season. Unfortunately for the Yankees, it looks like they still only have 3 legitimate pitchers and question marks at the end of the rotation (even though Hughes has pitched well).
Next time, just walk the guy….
Next time Joe Girardi gives the walk sign to either Posada or Cervelli, he should stick with the decision! Girardi’s overmanaging, whether to walk Kendry Moralies or pitch to him, with the Yankees down one run in the bottom of the seventh, cost the Yankees three runs and any potential momentum received after the Cano solo homerun. Girardi, seriously, you made the right call the first time stick with it. Kendry Morales killed Yankee pitching in the two games the Angels won this weekend; on Friday night he hits a two run bomb off Chamberlain, and then yesterday afternoon he victimized Demaso Marte. Clearly the right move was to walk him, but for reasons unknown, Girardi had second thoughts and decided to pitch to Morales. I know it is early in the year, but I hope the overmanaging stops…
Pelfrey…
Unfortunately I missed the rain shortened Sunday night game between the Braves and Mets, but what I have gathered from the game, after watching the highlights on TV, is that Mike Pelfrey was in a jam early in the game and somehow survived by inducing a double play grounder from Jason Heyward. What has to be an encouraging sign to Mets fans everywhere, the fact that Mike Pelfrey, who really had nothing from what I saw, was able to keep it together after two runners reached base, and more importantly Pelfrey was able to retire Jason Heyward, who had a .617 batting average with runners on scoring position. Pelfry is no 4-0 with one save. He is clearly emerging as the Mets second best pitcher behind Johan Santana.
Dallas Braden A-Rod spat….Jason Heyward in New York..
After watching the game yesterday afternoon and listening to all the opinions and analysis of the little spat between the A’s Dallas Braden and Yankees Alex Rodriguez, it is time I offered my 2 cents. First, if there is an “unwritten” rule in baseball which states that a baserunner may never step on the mound during the course of an inning, I’ve certainly never heard about it. But since unwritten rules aren’t real rules, Dallas Braden’s reaction to A-Rod’s trot over the mound was incredibly bush league. The guy has been in the league for only two years and basically didn’t learn any baseball etiquette during his minor league career on how to act or react to another player’s indiscretions. Seriously Braden dude, you’re no Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson or Nolan Ryan, you are just a third year pitcher who hasn’t accomplish much in this league. Therefore Mr. Braden, until you prove you can be an elite pitcher in this league the mound isn’t yours.
As far as A-Rod is concern, he should’ve kept his mouth shut after the game and just dismiss the childish antics of Dallas Braden. A-Rod is a superstar in this league, the last thing he needs to do is pay attention to some 3rd year player who will likely not last that long in this league. Instead, A-Rod has once again put his foot in his mouth by making arrogant remarks after the game. After last year, people would’ve thought that A-Rod had learned something about being humble…I guess not.
Jason Heyward in New York…
I’m anxiously awaiting to see how the Mets pitch to the Braves Jason Heyward. Heyward, so far, has been a streaky hitter, who has gone through bad at-bats and moved on to have great at-bats. I wonder how he will do this weekend against the Mets…..
I’m angry tonight..
ESPN was supposed to air the Phillies/Braves game tonight, instead I get stuck with ESPN news. Last time I checked, Northern New Jersey is not subject to a Phillies or Braves blackout. Terrible job by the powers that be at MLB and ESPN. Because of this blackout I missed quality start by Roy Halladay tonight, who was the beneficiary of great defensive plays. Halladay is now 4-0 with a miniscule 0.82 ERA.
I’m sure Roy Halladay will lose a game this year, but the way he is going, he could be the first 25 game winner in the MLB since Bob Welch did it in 1990, when I was a 10 year old!
Early season no-hitter! And the Mets win in 20….WHAT?!?!
In a week that saw CC Sabathia just 4 defensive outs away from pitching a no hitter; a week that included a brilliant performance and a no-hit bid by Blue Jays pitcher Ricky Romero (Not J.C Romero..oops), Ubaldo Jiminez becomes the first pitcher this season to throw a no-hitter. Not only is Jimenez the first pitcher to throw a no hitter this season, he is the first pitcher in Colorado Rockies’ history to accomplish that feat.
128 pitches
128 pitches is what took Jiminez to accomplish baseball immortality. The high pitch count could be of some concern for the Rockies as it was for Yankees last Saturday when Sabathia’s count reached 111 pitches. However, the high pitch count didn’t seem to affect Jimenez’s velocity. All game long his fastball was consistently clocked at 95 to 97 mph. When a pitcher is throwing that type of cheese, off speed and breaking ball pitches become a deadly weapon; on that note, Jimenez change up and slider pitches were responsible for 12 outs. Jiminez did a good job mixing his off speed pitches and breaking pitches with his fastball, which kept Braves hitters off balance and probably thinking a little too much up at the plate.
Congratulations to Ubaldo Jimenez on his brilliant performance last night.
Mets Win, Mets Win!!!
It took them 19 innings before they could score a run, and 20 innings before they could win the game, but the New York Mets somehow found the way to win this great marathon of a game against the St. Louis Cardinals! The best part of this game is that the decisions that beleaguered manager Jerry Manuel made actually worked. The best decision of the game came when Manuel substituted Alex Cora for pitcher Pedro Feliciano in the 10th. Alex Cora didn’t come in to pitch, but came in as a defensive replacement at first. With two outs in the 10th, and the bases loaded with Cardinals and Matt Holliday up at the plate, you would’ve thought the Mets were a pitch away from losing this game; instead the baseball gods were on the Mets side all day long, as Matt Holliday popped up to the first base foul area and Alex Cora made an unbelievable, incredible, diving into the stands catch to retire the side! Had Cora not caught that ball, Matt Holliday’s at bat would’ve been extended.
The Mets were also lucky last night. They got a double play in the bottom of the 16th thanks to a baserunning error by Ryan Ludwick after he and Albert Pujols got on base with no one out. The Mets survived that inning, and in the 19th scored the first of their 2 runs and somehow survived a blown save by Francisco Rodriguez to get the win.
Omar Minaya said that one win in St. Louis is good enough for him. Well, the Mets got their win…
Jason Heyward is back on track..sorta.
On his first MLB at bat, Jason Heyward hit a three run bomb that basically put him on the road to stardom. But in his last three games, Heyward has gone 1-for-12 with seven strike outs and that road to stardom quickly became a dead end. That is until last night when Heyward took a new approach to his at bats and it worked as he belted three hits, one of them a solo homerun to left field, in a Braves 7-2 win over the Giants.
I guess Heyward found out that hitting MLB pitching won’t be as easy as it was for him on opening day. MLB pitchers make mistakes and often pay for it, but they also know how to pitch, as Heyward quickly found out in the last three games before last night.
David Veloz
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