DUCKS ON THE POND: 3/7/05 Baseball musings... - 2005-03-07 11:32 AM
Well, here we are. It's MLB 2005! You know we're gonna be in for one of the more talked about, controversial pro baseball seasons EVER that doesn't involve labor negotiations. I thought about kicking things off with the latest about the whole 'roids controversey, but I'm sick of it already and I know we're gonna be debating that back and forth all season.
So let's start off with some predictions:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
East: Yankees, Red Sox (Wild Card), Orioles, Blue Jays, Devil Rays
Central: Twins, Indians, White Sox, Tigers, Royals
West: Angels, Mariners, Rangers, Athletics
NATIONAL LEAGUE
East: Braves, Phillies (Wild Card), Marlins, Mets, Nationals
Central: Cubs, Cardinals, Astros, Brewers, Reds, Pirates
West: Giants, Padres, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Rockies
World Series: Yankess over Cubs
jafabian's fantasy player to watch this week: Jeremy Reed, OF, Seattle
Okay, I'm a homer. I went for a player off my home town team. But he's already been pencilled in as the Mariners #2 hitter and starting CF for opening day. This kid is a contact hitter and with Richie Sexson, Adrian Beltre and Bret Boone behind him he's gonna have opportunities to score runs. He was very impressive in the call up last season, hitting .397 in 18 games, and it will be interesting to see what he can do over a full season this year. Each time I do this I'm gonna post the name of a player to keep an eye on for all those fantasy baseball participants out there.
I do think the AL West might be the only division where all the teams have winning records at the end of the season, barring any mishaps. But I think the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in California on the West Coast of the United States of America in the Western Hemisphere really improved in the off season. However, as always, the Yanks are the teams to beat. Though I expect the Red Sox to pull off a deal to shock the world at the trade deadline.
If the Astros are out of it, would the Red Sox deal for the Rocket? We'll see...
Here's some updates off of
Peter Gammon's column on ESPN:
Quote:
# The Mets are very pleased with the work of Jose Reyes and Kazuo Matsui thus far. "It's early, and I want to watch a lot of games," said Willie Randolph, "but Matsui has showed me great hands, very quick feet which should enable him to make the double play and a lot of agility. I'm impressed. I understand there probably was a big transition coming from the turf in Japan to grass here. Reyes has a world of talent. That arm. Whoosh. He's going to make mistakes, but that's all right." Reyes had five walks in 220 at-bats and an on-base percentage of .271, but hitting coach Rick Down sees progress in his discipline. "In his first game he got to 3-and-1 and swung at ball four," Down said. "But the thing to me is that he got to 3-and-1. He'll learn. He's got more plate discipline than Alfonso Soriano, and he's a pretty darned good hitter."
# The Astros keep pestering the Mets about Mike Cameron, but it is looking less and less likely that New York will move Cameron because they have to get a strong corner bat in return, and right now there may not be any on the market." One possibility for Houston is Terrmel Sledge, as Washington is looking for a bopper and will move Sledge and/or Endy Chavez. Right now, if Craig Biggio moves back to second base, as he would like to do, then until Lance Berkman comes back, the 'Stros outfielders are Jason Lane, Willy Taveras (who has temporarily given up switch-hitting), possibly Chris Burke and Orlando Palmeiro.
# Houston has four bubble pitchers out of options: Tim Redding, Carlos Hernandez, Peter Munro and Brandon Duckworth. … Oh yes. On Friday, the first four Houston pitchers were Clemens, 42, John Franco, 44, Dave Burba, 38 and youngster Russ Springer, 36.
# One watch of Cardinal rookie Anthony Reyes and it's easy to see how he punched out 140 in 111 innings in the Florida State and Southern Leagues. Wow. The veteran pitchers claim he could be a tremendous hitter. "He has a swing like Albert Pujols," Mulder said. Strong words.
# Jose Valentin does not think third base will be a problem. "I played there a lot with the White Sox, so there's no transition." Incidentally, both Puerto Rican League player-owners, Valentin and Carlos Baerga, fired their managers after losing seasons.
# Good news with the Nationals: Tony Armas and John Patterson are both throwing well. Patterson said this is the best the ball has come out of his hand since before he got hurt in the Arizona organization. "John really started to throw well last season when he hurt his groin," catcher Brian Schneider said. "He can be very good for us."
# To not read Will Carroll's spring Team Health Reports and his in-season Under The Knife is to miss perhaps the best column in the business.
# La Russa says "one of my favorite thing is to watch infielders take groundballs. It tells you a lot about them." And who is his favorite of all time? "No question," La Russa said, "it's Alan Trammell. He did everything perfectly. He could and would hit anywhere in the order because all he cared about was winning. How he's not in the Hall of Fame is a mystery." Because nowadays too many people voice -- and in some cases scream -- opinions without seeing players or knowing that they are human. There are numbers players, and there are winning players, and Trammell, who should have been the MVP in 1987, was simply the winning player.
I'll try and put this up late Sunday night, every other week. Animalman should be doing next week's column. Let's talk baseball...