Predictions and Midseason Awards

Well, everyone, today is the All Star Game: the unnofficial halfway marker of the baseball season. So I thought it would be a good idea to look back at my preseason predictions and see how accurate I've been so far.

AL East winner: My preseason pick-Yankees Leader-Red Sox
Though, in my opinion, the Yankees made some questionable offseason moves, I don't think many people predicted this much of a dropoff. At this point, the Yankees don't have many offensive problems, but the pitching has been atrocious. They decided to trade for old star in Randy Johnson, who they are now paying a lot of money to only to see him be mediocre at best. Before the season, I though that Mussina and Pavano would be good, Johnson and Jaret Wright would be decent, and then they'd have the miserable Kevin Brown at the back end of the rotation. While that wouldn't be a great rotation, I thought that the Yankee offense would bail them out of some bad performances. However, the staff has been much worse than I predicted, and the Yankees will continue to be inconsistant for the rest of the year.
Winner of the AL East: Red Sox

AL Central winner: My preseason pick-Twins Leader-White Sox
Before the season, I wasn't very excited about the White Sox. It didn't seem like they made any significant changes to make themselves better than they have been the last few years. However, with Scott Podsednik leading their new smallball style along with fantastic pitching from Buehrle and Garland, the Sox have been the most successful team this year. I think the Twins will still make it to the playoffs as the wild card, but, even if Chicago doesn't play as well as they have so far, it would still be tough for them to lose their current lead.
Winner of the AL Central: White Sox
*Twins win the wild card

AL West winnner: My preseason pick-Angels Leader-Angels
Both at the beginning of the season and now, the Angels arethe clear cut favorite in this division. They have an offense well balanced with speed and power and, though the rotation isn't that great, they're one of the few teams in baseball with a very solid bullpen. We all know that the Rangers have fantastic offensive ability and, this year, they are showing improvement in the pitching staff, but they still are not at the point where they can beat out the Angels in the divisional race. The Angels continue to be the best team in the division.
Winner of the AL West: Angels

NL East winner: My preseason pick-Marlins Leader-Nationals
Nobody in the right mind could've predicted that the Nationals would be leading this division at the All Star Break. However, even with a mediocre offense, they've managed to climb to the top of the most competitive division in baseball. I can't say that I think the Nationals are a fluke, but I just can't imagine them continuing be this successful in the second half. Even if they continue to be as successful as they are now, I've always thought this year that the Marlins were the best team in the east, and I trust them to come out on top (as long as their pitching stays healthy).
Winner of the NL East: Marlins

NL Central winner: My preseason pick-Cardinals Leader-Cardinals
I never doubted that the Cardinals were one of the best teams in baseball. However, I thought that the Cubs would make things much more interesting during the regular season and that they'd make the playoffs as the wild card. However, once again riddled with injuries, they haven't shown yet that they can be a playoff team. The Cards have built up a substantial lead and will not lose it down the stretch. However, if, by some miracle, the Cubs can stay healthy for the rest of the year, look out.
Winner of the NL Central: Cardinals
*Cubs win the wild card (I'll go out on a limb here)

NL West winner: My preseason pick-Padres Leader-Padres
This hasn't exactly panned out to be the most exciting of divisions. San Diego is the only team with a record above .500 while the rest of the teams in the division have been dissapointing. The Dodgers have tapered off immensely after their early season hot streak, while the Giants, who many predicted to win the west, have 50 losses. The Padres have had their problems, but in such a bad division, I don't think they have much to worry about.
Winner of the NL West: Padres

World Seires: Preseason pick-Yankees over Cubs Now-Cardinals over Red Sox

Midseason Awards
AL MVP: Miguel Tejada
NL MVP: Derek Lee (but he won't win the Triple Crown)
AL Cy Young: Roy Halladay
NL Cy Young: Dontrelle Willis
AL Manager of the Year: Ozzie Guillen
NL Manager of the Year: Frank Robinson
-Adam

PLEASE COMMENT

Kenny Rogers at the Midsummer Classic

I'd just like to comment on Kenny Roger's decision to go to the All Star Game this year. I don't care how sorry he is or how much he wishes he could redo what happened with the cameraman, he should not go the the game. Let's establish this first: no matter where Rogers goes on the road this year, including the All Star Game, he will get booed. The fans will continue to give him a hard time through the rest of the year. Kenny might regret getting angry, but no matter how many apologies he gives, he will continue to be booed by fans away from Arlington.

Something in the chicken?: Kenny got a little upset with a cameraman earlier this season.

Alright, now that that's out of the way, take this into consideration: despite the MLB trying to make the All Star Game more important, it will always be viewed as just a worthless exhibition game, by both the players and the fans (most of them at least). This is also why I don't mind players refusing to go to get rest. Instead of making the game count, the MLB should market it as a celebration of baseball and its best players for the fans to see. After all, that's really what it was meant to be at first. If you see a baseball official say that it's important for Kenny to play because he's one of the best pitchers and the All Star Game is important so he needs to pitch for his team, don't believe the official, because I'm sure that the MLB is more concerned with public relations than the outcome of the game when it comes to the All Star Game.

The other Kenny Rogers would be none too happy.

I think that both the MLB and Rogers should've looked at the situation and came to the realization that, if and or when Kenny comes to the mound during the game, he will get booed immensely, making the MLB look pretty bad. Of course, the MLB wouldn't want that, so I can't see them wanting Rogers to play. However, he was chosen, so I think the MLB and Terry Francona did a good job in telling him that it's his choice to decide if he wants to go through that. So at this point, the ball was in Kenny's court. I think he should've realized that, not only was an appearance at the All Star Game going to hurt his image, it was also going to make baseball look bad. Thus, he should've taken it upon himself to save himself and the MLB of this embarassment.

However, of course, Kenny wants his All Star bonus money, so of course he'll go! Thank's Kenny.
-Adam

The All Star Game: A Joke?

Well, it's that time of year again: the All Star Game is just a few days away. I could sit here and talk about how Hideki Matsui got snubbed by the players and the voters on the last man vote. I could say how Scott Podsednik doesn't belong anywhere near Detroit during the All Star Game. I could tell you a lot of things about how some players got snubbed and about how some All Stars shouldn't be playing. But I'm not going to. Why, you ask? Because the MLB has managed to turn the All Star Game into a big joke.

The All Star Game will be played in Detroit this year.

What the All Star Game should be is a celebration of the game; a place to see a friendly game between the best of the best in the MLB. However, through a few bad gimmicks, the game has become very uninteresting. First of all, the rule about how each team has to have at least one representative is proof, if there isn't enough, that the game has become purely about making money for the MLB. They want every MLB city to have a reason to watch the game and buy hats, memorabilia, etc. If it's supposed to be a game consisting of the best of the best, don't have worse players play just for the sake of each team being represented.And, of course, you can't go without mentioning the fact that "this time, it counts." This was probably the worst way possible that the MLB could've gone about trying to get better ratings for the game: make it have playoff implications. Now, just to get more people to watch what, in my opinion, is a rather boring game, they say whoever wins the All Star Game gets homefield advantage for the World Series. This game is supposed to be a friendly exhibition for the fans to see, and now it has an effect on the World Series? Come on.

The fact is that the All Star Game is supposed to be purely for the fans' enjoyment. In my opinion, and I'm sure in the opinion of many others, the game has become not that enjoyable to watch. However, that doesn't mean that they need to make these silly changes to attract more viewers. Sure, some changes could be made. I think if they changed it from being AL vs. NL to U.S. vs. World (like what the NHL has), the game might be slightly more interesting to watch. However, just because changes need to be made doesn't give the MLB the right to make the gimmicks of an exhibition game make the game itself worse or affect other aspects of baseball.
-Adam

I'd like to hear your comments!

Can You Spell "Piniella" Backwards?

I was surprised today to find out that Lou Piniella would be making some drastic changes to how he manages a game in terms of his pitchers. He announced today that, instead of going with the norm (starting pitcher starts, relievers follow if necessary), he will start the game with a relief pitcher, then have the starter come in around the 3rd inning. It was very surprising to hear this come from one of the most respected managers in the game. It may sound like one of those "it's so crazy it's genius" things at first, but, when you look at it, it's definitely not.

His decision is a result of his unhappiness with the Tampa Bay front office, which he has been upset with since he

first arrived.

There are so many different ways that this can go terribly terribly wrong. First of all, the reason he's doing this is because the bullpen has been completely unreliable this year (remember the 13 run inning by the Yankees?). I don't understand how he plans to fix this by making the relievers start the game. I mean, if a player stinks in the late innings, then he'll stink in the early innings, right? So instead of blowing leads late in the game, they'll dig themselves into an early hole. What fun! Secondly, lets say that the starting relievers do pitch well, and the starter comes into the game around the 3rd or 4th inning. Then lets say the starter starts to lose it around the 6th or 7th inning. Well, normally, the manager would bring in his relief pitchers to bridge the gap between the starter and the closer. Well, his best relievers (who aren't very good anyways) have already been used, so now they have to hold a thin lead with 3 or 4 really bad pitchers. I just lost my appetite.

To be honest, I think Lou knows that this is a pretty stupid idea. I think this is just another of the many ways that he has shown disgust towards the Devil Rays' front office. When Piniella agreed to come to Tampa Bay, he was told by the front office that they would increase their spending over the years, but they have not, of course. This is Lou's way of saying, "Well, what the heck am I supposed to do?" Don't take Lou for a fool in this case, because I think that he knows that the move is silly. However, a bad move is a bad move. I certainly do understand why he's disgruntled in Tampa, but I can't say that I agree with what he's doing.

The moral of the story: Piniella wont spend any more time with the Devil Rays than he has to.

-Adam

COMMENT

Gary Sheffield=Pete Rose?

As you know, several days ago a deal involving Mike Cameron and Gary Sheffield was being discussed. During the day, Sheffield had an interview with WFAN New York, in which he basically warned the other 29 teams in the league that he can be a lot to handle. His tirade brought up talk of his history of being disgruntled throughout his career. While listening to the Mets pregame show later that day, Howie Rose brought something up that I had never heard before: Sheffield admitted to this announcer that he had purposely played poorly in an attempt to get himself traded. Everyone around baseball certainly knows Sheffield as being a selfish guy, but purposely playing poorly is no small thing.

Rose made the point that this is just as bad as Pete Rose (no relation to Howie that i know of) betting on baseball. Naturally, I was a bit surprised at first, considering that I had never even heard about Sheffield doing this until now. However, after thinking about it for a while, I realized that Howie Rose was completely right. The biggest problem with betting on baseball is that, if the person bets against his own team, he's going to try to play or manage worse to try to win that bet. Although Rose denies betting against the Reds as a manager (this is when he was betting), I don't believe him, especially after lying about betting on baseball for about 14 years. On days that he bet against the Reds, it's logical to think that he would purposely make worse decisions in order to win his bet. Looking at what Sheffield did, he played worse to get what he wanted: a trade out of Milwaukee. In both cases, the person (either Rose or Sheffield) sacrificed their team's chance to win because of selfishness.

As we all know, Sheffield isn't exactly the number one nice guy in baseball. It seems that he always finds away to get into contract disputes with his team and is constantly seeking a trade (or, in the most recent case, denouncing any trade involving him). Not to mention, he got a complete free pass during the debates on steroids this off-season. Because his name was linked with BALCO and he is still one of the best hitters in the game though getting old, he should've been one of the main players on which the talks were centered. However, he recieved almost no attention during the talks. If you don't remember, several weeks before the whole BALCO thing boiled over, Sheffield did an interview with ESPN, saying that he unknowingly took steroids; he said that his trainer told him it was arthritis cream and that he trusted his trainer. First of all, this is nonsense. He wouldn't take something without knowing what it was. Second of all, this is basically the same thing that Barry Bonds told the court in San Francisco. While Bonds was the complete center of the steroid debate, Sheffield got no flak. I'm not trying to make Bonds out to be innocent. In fact, I dislike him the most out of all the steroid guys. However, the fact that Sheffield and Bonds admitted to the exact same thing and only one of them got flak for it seems silly, doesn't it?

While with the Yankees, Sheffield has been decently quiet with the exception of the interview. However, it's time that we identify him as being in the same class as the Barry Bonds' and the Mark McGwire's of baseball. After all, that's where he belongs.
-Adam

Sheffield, as a Dodger, with Bonds. Sheffield said that it was Bonds who got him involved with BALCO.

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(Note: this will be my last post until Wednesday at the earliest)