Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Nothing in Life is Free and that Includes Domination

A couple of years ago it was the year of the pitcher, with pitchers dominating hitters making professional hitters look silly, but now it's the year of the Tommy John. With an insane number of pitchers being put on the shelf with the surgery it has become the price of the year of the pitcher. Nothing is free and that includes domination. When hitters were going off hitting home run after home run the price was the steroids aftermath with a whole generation of hitters ruined by suspicion on steroid use with hitters like Mike Piazza (the greatest offensive catcher) still standing with his hat in his hands waiting to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. And now it's the pitchers' turn to pay. The price is high with several pitchers bound to lose a whole year while they're in recovery mode and teams are left to scramble around to find a replacement.

Tommy John surgery will forever be an issue for baseball because it's not normal for a human arm to constantly throw baseballs at 95mph plus and it always seems like teams have 3-4 pitchers in their bullpen and/or rotation that throw flames. Usually it's the hard throwers that end up getting the surgery. The price of domination is costly and teams are finding out how expensive it is because with the amount of players on the disabled list because of surgeries there can be rotation after rotation of all star pitchers. So here's to the year of Tommy John and no I don't mean the old pitcher.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Are the Angels hurting Trout?

Anaheim Angel outfielder Mike Trout is the best overall player in the majors, but the Angels are doing him a disservice by batting him in front Albert Pujols. Mike Trout has all the tools needed. Since being brought up he has hit for average, has hit for power, played a magnificent center field, has the arm to play any of the outfield positions, and where the Angels are messing up with having Pujols bat behind Trout is his speed. With every season since his call up Trout's stolen bases have dropped from 49 in his first full season to on pace for 18 this season. So what Pujols have to do about this? With a power hitter batting behind Trout there is less of a chance that Trout is giving the steal sign because then the opposing pitcher is just going to walk Pujols.

So Trout is sacrificing one of his tools to help Pujols see more pitches. Sure Trout would or should see better pitches with Pujols batting behind him, but is it worth watching a phenom like Trout having to go station to station (or base to base) just so that Pujols gets more pitches? There was nothing better than watching Mike Trout steal second. There was something special of watching Mike Trout use them wheels to turn a single into a triple because he has the skills to steal second and third. The season is still in it's early phases, let's see when the Angels get healthier and the lineup gets closer to where manager Mike Scioscia dreamed it up at the end of Spring Training whether Trout is going to be able to unleash them wheels from the garage they're in now.

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

It's Tough to Ruin a Perfect Thing

Brad Ausmus is the new manager of the Detroit Tigers. How lucky is he? Talk about hitting the lotto Ausmus has Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Max Scherzer, and let's not forget Justin Verlander in his rotation/everyday lineup. Oh, plus Ausmus has kept pretty much the whole coaching staff that his predecessor the great Jim Leyland put together. There is no easier job in the majors than the one Brad Ausmus was hired for. They're good and ready for a World Series, all Ausmus has to do is let the coaches coach and let his former MVPs and Cy Young winners do their thing and with Dave Dombrowski running the show they'll always have the parts needed like Ian Kinsler and Joe Nathan who were brought in to sure up the two glaring needs the Tigers had this past offseason.

Ausmus shouldn't be in consideration for manager of the year. He's like Joe Torre toward the end of his run in New York when Brian Cashman loaded up those Yankee rosters with all stars and Torre let his coaches coach and let the stars shine. The Tigers are loaded. The Red Sox, Yankees, Athletics, and any other team that is ready to compete for the AL crown are going to have to deal with the Tigers and at this point in time I'll take the Tigers and not look back. The Tigers are the best team in the majors at this point in time and they should there throughout this long season and Ausmus is just going along for the ride.

Monday, May 19, 2014

To Melo or to Love?

This offseason there's going to be two key potentially available players who can change the faith of several different NBA franchises. Once Carmelo Anthony opts out of his deal with the New York Knicks Carmelo will lead the free agent class until the Minnesota Timberwolves decide to put Kevin Love on the market. Of course it isn't going to be easy to reel in either of these stars considering that there is still a very small chance that both Carmelo or Love won't get to change jerseys since Carmelo can opt back in for his last season in New York and the Timberwolves can decide that they're going to give their GM one more chance to build a contender around Kevin Love before he's able to opt out of his deal.

Already there are rumblings that Kevin Love's "people" are asking the Timberwolves to trade Love and already there has been whispers about how Love would (no pun intended) love to play in Los Angeles (where he's from) and how he would be interested in playing in New York. 2015 will be interesting if both of these players are still on their respective teams since they could, in essence, team up on one team. The impact of Carmelo and Kevin on one team would make any one team an instant title contender, but in reality these two guys will be in different jerseys to start the upcoming 2014 season.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Second Not Gonna be as Close as the First

The first round of the NBA playoffs was full of dramatic games. Game 7 after game 7 overtime game after overtime game, but I don't think this second round is going to be as dramatic. The Wizards are better than the Pacers (especially since the Pacers have found a way to collapse) the size in the paint by the Wizards is going to overwhelm the lackluster Roy Hilbbert and the undersized, but huge hearted, David West. The Clippers, ever since the fiasco with Donald Sterling have been playing with the support from fans everywhere and have used that as motivation and the Oklahoma City Thunder with the recently dubbed MVP of the NBA just doesn't have enough to keep up with the Clippers. The Portland Trailblazers laid an egg against the San Antonio Spurs last night ands that's what I expect of that series to be like.

The closest possible series in the second round is going to be the Brooklyn Nets against the Miami Heat. These two teams match up much pretty well, but LeBron James is going to be the difference maker since the Nets don't really have anybody who can stop him when he turns it on like he did in game 1. The Nets with Joe Johnson has someone who can keep scoring with LeBron, but Johnson can be stopped faster than LeBron can. The drama is gone for this round of the playoffs in my opinion, but the next round should be much more entertaining when the Clippers face the Spurs and the Wizards face the Heat.