Surprise Teams

The MLB season is almost 25% complete and there are a couple teams that are hanging around that nobody thought would.  It’s time to give these teams some love, because we may not be able to speak highly of them in a couple more weeks.  Quick note, don’t expect to see the Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Indians, L.A Dodgers or Washington Nationals mentioned here.  I expected them to be at or near the top of their divisions going into the season:

·         Baltimore Orioles:  Who would of guessed this?  Buck Showalter and the fighting Orioles have shocked us all with their start to the season.  They are currently tied at the top of the AL East with Tampa Bay sporting a 22-14 record.  Matt Wieters is finally living up to the hype and is now the best offensive catcher in all of baseball and Adam Jones is also finally living up to his hype as well.   This one-two punch has been scary for opposing pitchers.  Nolan Reimold and Chris Davis were also out to very hot starts, but Reimold is hurt and Davis starting to cool off.  The offense has scored the 6^th most runs in all of baseball with 168 and lead all of MLB with 57 home runs.  It’s not just the offense either.  The pitching staff has been very good.  Jason Hammel, rookie Wei-Yin Chen, and Jake Arrieta have all pitched well.  The bullpen, led by closer Jim Johnson and his 0.57 ERA has one of the lowest bullpen ERAs in all of baseball.  How much longer can these guys last?  The division is very good, but they might stick around longer than some think.   However by the end of June my guess is that they drop down to 4^th in the division and then end the season in last.

·         Oakland Athletics:  Not even I expected this kind of start.  At 19-17 and fresh off their MLB leading 5^th shutout last night, a 5-0 win over the Angels, the A’s sit only 4 games back of division leading Texas.  Billy Beane stole Josh Reddick from the Red Sox and his .289 batting average and 9 home runs lead this team offensively.   The offense as a whole is terrible, as they are last in MLB with a .218 team batting average, but they do like to run and are currently 2^nd in MLB with 36 stolen bases.  With how terrible the offense is, the pitching is what wins games for them.   The pitching staff ranks in the top 10 in all of the major pitching statistics in baseball and leading the way is Brandon McCarthy, sporting a solid 2.56 ERA and 3-3 record.  The signing of Bartolo Colon has been a huge success so far.  He got lit up his last start, but his 3.96 ERA is still solid.  All this guy does is throw strikes and get people out.  Tommy Milone has also been a very nice surprise and rookie Jarrod Parker looks like his hype is worth it as he has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of his 5 starts this season.  The bullpen has been shaky to put it nicely, but rookie setup man Ryan Cook is lights out with his 0.00 ERA in 17 2/3 innings which includes 17 strike outs.  So far, the Trevor Cahill trade this winter for both Parker and Cook looks like a win for Billy Beane and the A’s.  How long can this last?  A 2 game series this week in Texas will be a good test.  Considering they haven’t gotten anything from Jemile Weeks yet, and Coco Crisp and Yoenis Cespedes have been on the DL and Manny Ramirez returns the first week of June, this team might actually hang around a lot longer than anyone would of thought.  No chance at playoffs this year, but being in a relatively easy division this team will hang around until the end of July and then finish the season in 3^rd place.

·         New York Mets:   I didn’t think this team would win its 20^th game until mid-June.  At 20-15, the Mets have been a big surprise and are only 2 games out of 1^st place.  David Wright is a beast this season.   He missed a few games already this season, but he is currently hitting .398 with 4 HR’s and 21 RBI’s.  Kirk Nieuwenhuis has also been a nice find for the Mets this year.  His .302 average and energy he provides has been a nice spark plug for them.  The team is 6^th in all of baseball with a team batting average of .266 and are 12^th in runs scored.  The pitching has been inconsistent to put it nicely, and Frank Francisco and the bullpen is a mess.   Johan Santana and his 2.92 ERA leads the way here.  He has gotten no run support this year but he is the early season favorite for comeback player of the year in the NL.   R.A Dickey and Jon Niece are both off to solid starts to the season but have been a little inconsistent at times.  If this team had any kind of bullpen help they would probably be in 1^st place right now.  How long can this last?  The division is tough, the Phillies are struggling, and a lot of what the Mets have accomplished so far seems like smoke and mirrors, which speaks highly of the job manager Terry Collins has done.  Looking at the stats, everything is at or below average other than David Wright.  They might stick around until end of June, but a drop to 4^th or 5^th in the standings is inevitable.

On the Homefront…

·         Today is opening day for Tuesday night softball at Reservoir Park.  I’m very excited to get on the new fields to see the improvements.  The weather in western New York today is amazing with sunny skies and a high of 74 forecasted.  A great day for opening day!  A full recap of the game will be written tomorrow.

That’s all I have for now.  Until next time…

MLB and NBA Talk...

It's been a little while since my last post.  Lots of changes in MLB since then.  Let's get right to the rundown...

On the Diamond...

• For the first time in more than 15 years, Mariano Rivera is not the Yankees closer.  I think the Yankees will still be okay without Mo, but not having him is going to put some added pressure on an already average starting pitching staff to go deeper into games.  I still think this team can make the playoffs, but in October is when the Yankees are going to miss Mo the most.  The addition of Andy Pettitte to the rotation on Sunday is going to be huge for this team. 
• Jered Weaver threw a no hitter against the Twins.  It surprises me that when people talk about some of the best pitchers in the game that Weaver is sometimes not even mentioned.  This guy is lights out, and if he did what he is currently doing in NY, Boston, or Philadelphia, the guy would no doubt be a top 5 starter in the league.  Congrats to him on the no-no. 
• Josh Hamilton had himself a pretty good series against the Orioles this week.  He hit 6 home runs, which included 4 in one game, to raise his total to 15 for the season.  He currently is hitting .395 and slugging an amazing .825.   If he is able to stay healthy for the entire season, expect a triple crown watch.  This guy is something special. 
• The best series this weekend has to be the Angels vs Rangers series taking place in Texas.  This is their first time playing each other this season, and the Angels, at 7 games back need to win this series.  If they get swept and drop to 10 games out, close the book on the AL West.  Tonight's game is by far the best matchup of the series, if not the entire season so far.  It's Yu Darvish versus CJ Wilson.  CJ Wilson, making his return to Texas, is pretty much only a member of the Angels because Texas preferred Darvish this off-season, and had to spend approximately $35 million more for Darvish than what the Angels signed Wilson for.  Once Wilson signed with the Angels, Mike Napoli said that he couldn't wait to take Wilson deep this season.  In response, CJ Wilson tweeted Mike Napoli's phone number to his twitter followers (more than 100,000).  Napoli was obviously not happy about it and they exchanged words in the media over it.  All the off-season happenings has created a pretty good rivalry between the two teams.  I'm pretty excited to see the response the Rangers crowd gives CJ tonight and to see how the Mike Napoli at-bats turn out.
• Don't look now, but some of the surprise teams of the early season, Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets are not going away.  The Orioles had a rough week versus the Rangers, but they are still 20-12 and tied for the AL East lead.  The Mets swept the Phillies this week and currently stand at 18-13 and are in 3rd place in the NL East.  I didn't think the Mets would win their 18th game until June, so their start is very surprising. 
• There are some rumors that the Blue Jays are calling the Phillies about Cole Hamels.  Ruben Amaro, the Philles GM has already said that if the Phillies continue to struggle, they will become sellers at the trade deadline.  The Phillies being sellers at the deadline will be a news story all by it self, but the package that the Phillies would get for Hamels would be huge.  He is probably not returning to the Phillies next year, so it will be interesting to see if the Phillies do trade him.  This is definitely a story worth following.
• The Red Sox, currently with the 4th worst record in all of baseball has some more controversy to deal with this week.  Josh Beckett, after he was scratched from his start due to an injury was found golfing with Clay Bucholtz despite not being healthy enough to pitch.  He could get away with something like this in Oakland, but in Boston, this has created a media fire storm.  After the terrible start last night by Beckett in his return, and his comments afterward saying that he can do what he wants on his off days has only added fuel to the fire.  It's about time that this team gets rid of Beckett.  He has been terrible since September.  Him and Bucholtz currently have the two worst ERA's in the American League by all starters who qualify.  The Red Sox need to get rid of him, ASAP. 

On the Hardwood...

• Some entertaining series going on right now in the NBA.  The Lakers/Nuggets series heads back to LA for game 7.  The comments by Andrew Bynum about close out games in series being easy prior to game 5 has fired up the Nuggets.  Game 6 last night was a blow out from the start.  Somebody better put Pau Gasol's face on the side of a milk carton because he has been terrible this series.  Metta World Peace returns from his suspension for game 7.  It will be interesting to see if they throw him back out there after being away for the past 2-3 weeks.  My guess, Kobe doesn't let this team lose a game 7 at home. 
• I love the Kevin Garnett comments last night after the Celtics eliminated the Hawks.  He thanked the Hawks owner for giving him some added motivation after the owner said KG was old and the dirtiest player in the NBA.  KG responded by having his best game of the series.  I'm hoping to see a Celtics/Heat eastern finals.  It might remind us all of the Knicks, Pistons, Bulls, and Sixers defensive battles from the early 1990's.  Bill Laimbeer and Dennis Rodman will love to watch that kind of series.
• Are the Knicks going to try and trade Carmelo this off-season?  I don't think they are, but they should.   Like I said before, no team will ever win a championship with this guy on it.
• I hate that some of the best playoff games so far have taken place at 12:30 at night on the east coast.  The Lakers/Nuggets, Clips/Grizzlies, and Thunder/Mavs games were all entertaining and most of the games that came down to the final minute were games that ended at 1:00AM. 

On the Homefront...

• This is an exciting time of year for softball players in WNY.  The start of the regular season is right around the corner.  The reconstructed Reservoir Park is ready to go and the Tuesday night league is starting up this coming Tuesday.  I can't wait to get out there and play on the new diamonds.  The only question is, how many games will Donnie Joyce allow everyone to play under the newly installed lights? 
• "I'll Have Another" won the Kentucky Derby and became the first horse to ever win coming from the #19 pole position.  Too bad I didn't follow the advice of Nick Martino and Steve Penale and bet this horse to win.  Can he be a triple crown winner though?  The next leg in the triple crown is May 19th at the Preakness. 

That's all I have for now.  Until next time...