2018 Baseball Predictions

AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Cleveland Indians
AL West: Los Angeles Angels
AL Wild Card: Houston Astros over Boston Red Sox
ALCS: New York Yankees over Los Angeles Angels

NL East: Washington Nationals
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wild Card: Arizona Diamondbacks over Philadelphia Phillies
NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers over Arizona Diamondbacks

World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers over New York Yankees

AL MVP: Mike Trout
NL MVP: Bryce Harper
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale
NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
AL Rookie of the Year: Vladimir Guerrero Jr
NL Rookie of the Year: Scott Kingery
Manager of the Year: Aaron Boone
Manager of the Year: Gabe Kapler
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Michael Brantley
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Matt Harvey

Playoff Predictions

AL Wild Card:
Yankees over Twins

AL Division Series:
Astros over Red Sox
Indians over Yankees

AL Championship Series:
Astros over Indians

NL Wild Card:
Diamondbacks over Rockies

NL Division Series:
Cubs over Nationals
Dodgers over Diamondbacks

NL Championship Series:
Dodgers over Cubs

World Series:
Dodgers over Astros (6 games)

She Loves My Smile, No Matter How Chipped My Tooth Is

We finally found Aaron Judge's Achilles heel. And it's not his achilles heel, it's his tooth.
Judge, who is about a foot taller than Brett Gardner, took Gardner's helmet right in the kisser during the celebration after Gardner homered in the bottom of the 11th to give the Yankees a 6-5 walkoff win against the Rays.



Judge is all right and will resume his duties as the face of baseball just as soon as he gets back from the dentist.

If You Don't Expect Too Much From Me, You Might Not Be Let Down

The first time Dwight Gooden let me down I was 8 years old. He missed the 1986 World Series victory parade and subsequently got suspended for the first two months of the 1987 season.
30 years later, he's still a disappointment.

I signed Chase up for a pitching clinic with Dwight Gooden. It was supposed to be one hour of instruction, and one hour of meet and greet.

Gooden never showed up. We got a refund and since we were there anyway, their instructors worked with the kids, so Chase got some free pitching lessons.

And he also got a life lesson, if you don't expect too much from people, you might not be let down.

Big Bart's Belly

Bartolo Colon left his start against the Blue Jays after five innings with a stomach ailment.
“It’s been kind of a head cold, headache-type thing and today my stomach was really ill as well,” Colon said through an interpreter. “We’re not really sure what’s going on.”

2017 MLB Season Predictions

NL East: New York Mets
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
NL Wild Cards: Washington Nationals over Colorado Rockies
NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers over Chicago Cubs

AL East: Boston Red Sox
AL Central: Cleveland Indians
AL West: Houston Astros
AL Wild Cards: Seattle Mariners over Texas Rangers
ALCS: Boston Red Sox over Cleveland Indians

World Series: Boston Red Sox over Los Angeles Dodgers

NL MVP: Kris Bryant
AL MVP: Mike Trout
NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
AL Cy Young: Chris Sale
NL Rookie: Tyler Glasnow
AL Rookie: Andrew Benintendi
NL Manager: Bud Black
AL Manager: AJ Hinch
NL Comeback: Matt Harvey
AL Comeback: Michael Brantley

Their Mothers Were So Proud

The good boychicks on the World Baseball Classic teams representing Israel had us all kvelling after they removed their caps for Hatikvah and put on kippot.

They also won their first 2 games, against South Korea and Taipei, making it very likely they will advance to the second round of pool play.



Readers of this blog will be most familiar with current Met Ty Kelly and former Met Ike Davis. Staten Island's own Jason Marquis is the ace of the pitching staff.

Why I Am Rooting Against the Cubs

The Chicago Cubs are in the World Series for the first time in 71 years and they have a good chance to win the World Series for the first time in 108.
And everyone will be rooting for them. Except me.
Why? Because as someone who is not a Cubs fan, the streak is fun. It adds to the mystique of baseball. And every year is a new chance for them to either win it all. Or lose in painful fashion and add another chapter to their painful lore.
Haven't the Red Sox become a lot less fun now that they have won 3 World Series titles in your lifetime, instead of 0 in an octogenarian's?
Of the 7 billion people on Earth I'd bet few than a couple thousand were actually alive in 1908.
There's the Billy Goat curse, Leon Durham's glove and of course Bartman, you want all that history to end just so the nickel dime people who don't even work can celebrate and get drunk in some bar?

Note: The only good thing that would come out of a Cubs win would be the absolution of Steve Bartman. The poor guy was treated horribly. Yes, he made a mistake, but it's one many of us would have made in the same circumstance. His biggest problem is that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And for that he was ostracized from his community? I don't want to the assholes who threw beer on him and threatened his life celebrate a World Series title.

Another note: At least Bill Buckner was on the team. He was reasonably expected to field that ground ball.

One more note: There is one other good thing. If Theo Epstein is the general manager who breaks the curses for the Red Sox and the Cubs and he does so this time with Joe Maddon, maybe some people around baseball will start to do things differently. Instead of doing things the way they've always been done, because they've always been done that way, maybe people can look at how the Cubs became a model franchise (they built from the farms, and added key pieces once they were close, spending a lot of money on defense) and stop making the same mistakes they've been making for years.

It Worked for Curt Schilling

Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer cut his finger on the propeller of a drone he was working on and needed 10 stitches in his pinky finger.
The stitches didn't hold and he was bleeding like a stuck pig, blood literally dripping off his hand during Game 3 of the ALDS. He didn't even survive an inning before the gaping wound forced him out of the game.

The Indians held on in that game and the Series and will now seek to win their first World Series in 68 years, and to deny the Cubs their first in 108.

By the way, the Red Sox streak was exactly 68 years in 1986. And it took them another 18 to finally get there, ending their streak at 86.

Bauer says his finger is patched up and ready to go for the World Series. So we won't see anymore items joining Curt Schilling's sock and OJ Simpson's glove and the most famous blood-soaked items in sports.

Outdueled

I got to witness an all-time great pitching duel in a winner-take-all wild card game.

Unfortunately angry and ornery Madison Bumgarner

beat our lovable Thor who was equally as awesome, but a little less efficient, and therefore only pitched 7 innings.

I blame Terry Collins only slightly here, I would have given Thor a chance against the bottom of the Giants order in the 8th, even though he struggled in the 7th, because I knew Bumgarner would keep putting up zeroes.

I don't however blame the Mets strategy of swinging early in the count. They knew Bumgarner was going to throw strikes. If you don't swing, you're in a hole against a great pitcher. If you swing at least you have a a chance to get a hit on a good pitch.

It sucks to lose, and not have another crack at the Cubs, and it sucks to watch a team celebrate on our field for the second year in a row.
But it was a difficult season with a lot of injuries and realistically, they didn't have a good chance of beating the Cubs anyway.

But the hurt is still very real right now.
I suppose Noah Syndergaard put it best when he said on Twitter "Baseball has a way of ripping your heart out, stabbing it, putting it back in your chest, then healing itself just in time for Spring Training."
And I can't wait for spring training because maybe, just maybe, next year will finally be our year.

Buck Blew It

In one of the worst managing decisions in recent times Buck Showalter allowed his team to get knocked out of the playoffs with Ubaldo Jimenez on the mound, while Zach Britton watched. 

Britton is having on of the best years a closer has ever had. And when a fly ball will beat you, you need a strikeout or a weak ground ball. Britton was eminently more likely to get one of those results than Ubaldo.  Britton had the highest rate of ground balls per batted ball of anyone ever. 

But those are the specifics. Let's address the broader issue:  you need your closer to protect a lead of you get one. 

No you don't. 

The way closers are used in baseball is terrible and counterproductive in many ways. But that's the way it is. 

But in these special circumstances (it wasn't just a playoff game, it was a single-elimination playoff game, in extra innings), you need your best pitcher to pitch one or two innings to maximize the chances your offense will get to win the game. 

You just cannot get beat without using your best relief pitcher. It's a terrible mistake and it cost the Orioles a chance to win the game. 

Postseason Predictions

National League
Wild Card
Giants over Mets

Division Series
Cubs over Giants
Nationals over Dodgers

League Championship Series
Nationals over Cubs

American League
Wild Card
Blue Jays over Orioles

Division Series
Rangers over Blue Jays
Red Sox over Indians

League Championship Series
Red Sox over Rangers

World Series
Nationals over Red Sox

I Think She Held It Together Quite Nicely

Trey Mancini hit his first Major League home run for the Baltimore Orioles, and his mom Beth was there to see it.
She was shocked, amazed and tearful, the exact reaction I would expect a mother to have. It was very similar to the reaction of Grandpa Matz when Steven had 3 hits in his Major League debut.



I promise you if any of my kids ever homer, majors, minors, high school or Little League, I will make her reaction look subdued in comparison.

Mets Sign Tim Tebow

The Mets signed Tim Tebow to a minor league contract in a completely irrelevant, inconsequential and strictly PR move.
He will never make the major league roster and it would be a shock if he was even good enough this year and in the Arizona Fall League, to get a spring training invite.
That is unless, of course, he gets help hitting a curveball.



"Are you trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball.
Let's not start a holy war Harris."

I Guess We Weren't The Only Ones

As troublesome high school Spanish students, Reissberg, myself and others used to translate people's names from Spanish to English and vice versa.
We loved the 49ers dynamic passing duo, Esteban Joven a Jerry Arroz (Steve Young to Jerry Rice).
We delighted at soccer player Charles Blackmouth (Carlos Bocanegra).
And our favorite player ever was Seattle Mariners pitcher Joe Breadandwater (Jose Paniagua).
The tradition continues to this day as we lamented the season-ending injury to Vikings quarterback Teddy Puenteagua (Teddy Bridgewater).
Evidently, we are not alone, as another of our translations, this one for Cleveland Indians closer Jose Mesa, is actually listed as his nickname on his baseball reference page, and his Wikipedia entry.

Cubs Fire Wrigley Field DJ

The Cubs fired the Wrigley Field DJ who played an inappropriate song after Aroldis Chapman's appearance during Sunday night's game.

The '90s song, "Smack My Bitch Up" by the English band the Prodigy, came on the PA system after Chapman left the mound in the top of the ninth inning.

Chapman served a 30-game suspension after an alleged domestic-violence incident in which Chapman was accused of choking his girlfriend and firing eight bullets in his garage.

Thing is, Chapman is a member of the home team. It wasn't like they were taunting an opposing player. Although maybe this DJ was taking a principled stance about not rewarding perpetrators of domestic violence no matter how hard they can throw a baseball.

I Don't Hate It

Maybe I am just tired of getting angry and upset at every trade the Mets make, I just can't take the pain anymore, but I don't hate the deal for Jay Bruce.
Yes, I think it's mostly bad, and shows a lack of understanding in two key areas by the Mets front office, but I think Bruce is actually an excellent player, and a major improvement over what he Mets have right now.
And I don't think the two prospects offered, Dilson Herrera and Max Wotel, are likely to develop into above-average major leaguers.
First, the Mets are way out of the divisional race, and have to catch two teams to get the second wild card. So it doesn't make sense to trade to young players when they have only a 26% chance to make the playoffs according to FanGraphs.
Second, Bruce plays right field. And not very well. He is an absolute butcher out there. And he replaces Curtis Granderson who is also bad. And Yoenis Cespedes has been bad this year (likely attributable to injury and playing out of position). And if Cespedes is not healthy enough to play left, Granderson and Conforto will split time in center, meaning the Mets are supporting a great pitching staff, with the worst outfield defense in the majors. Not smart.
Third, they failed to look to next year, when they will have Bruce and Granderson under contract and Cespedes will likely return, unable to best his contract coming off this injury-plagued season. That means delaying by a year (Bruce and Granderson both have contracts that expire after 2017) the Conforto-Lagares-Nimmo triumvirate that should be the outfield of the future.

But the Mets did get a good hitter, who is not past his prime yet (this is his age 29 season) and he will surely improve the middle of the lineup.
Unfortunately too much stock is placed on his RBI and batting average with runners in scoring position, which is a lot about opportunity and luck.
There is a chance that Cespedes gets healthy, maybe Duda comes back, and some other guys get going (and the RISP bugaboo ends in a flurry) and the Mets get hot and do win the wild card.
And with their pitching, in a one-game scenario, or even a 7-game series, anything can happen.
As long as the other team doesn't hit the ball to our outfielders.

Note: I hate the Antonio Bastardo trade. I know he has been terrible, but his track record and his unusually high home run rate indicate that he should improve either this year, or next. Plus we know what Jon Niese is about and he just isn't any good.

Clubhouse Cutup

White Sox pitcher Chris Sale was supposed to start Saturday's game against the Detroit Tigers wearing those weird collared throwback jerseys the White Sox briefly wore during the 1970s.

Evidently, Sale doesn't like the collared jerseys and believes he has the right to say which uniforms the team wears on days he pitches. But because the jerseys were part of a promotional giveaway, the team refused to budge.

So while the rest of the team was out taking batting practice, Sale was in the clubhouse cutting the collars off, not only his own jersey, but everyone else's too.

With the jerseys destroyed, the White Sox scratched Chris Sale from the game, sent him home and replaced him with relief pitcher Matt Albers. And they were forced to play the game in different throwback uniforms, the 1980s style.

The whole situation is a bit absurd and it seems to be about a bigger issue involving the control over players exerted by management, dating back to this preseason's clash between the front office and Adam LaRoche. It seems like Chris Sale is just being a huge baby here, and of course, no matter what the issue, this is not the place to take a stand. But, there could certainly be a broader issue here that was lingering before this crazy circumstance, best summed up by this intrepid White Sox fan whose sign reads: "You're Right Chris, These Jerseys Are Uncomfortable."

Baseball Been Berry Berry Good to Me

When Roberto Clemente first came up with the Pittsburgh Pirates reporters coined him "Bobby" and frequently tried to embarrass him by spelling phonetically the things he said. Sentences like "I heet the boll..." actually appeared in newspapers.
But that was 50 years ago. That would never happen in our more sensitive culture now.
Astros outfielder Carlos Gomez (whose phantom injury sent the Mets to the World Series last year) did an interview with Houston Chronicle columnist Brian T. Smith in English, even though Gomez doesn't speak the language very well.
Here's what Smith wrote in the newspaper:

"For the last year and this year, I not really do much for this team. The fans be angry. They be disappointed."

Gomez thinks his exact quote was used that way to embarrass him.

You don't need to be an English major to figure that out.

2016 Baseball Season Predictions

NL East: Washington Nationals
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: San Francisco Giants
NL Wild Cards: New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals
NLCS: Washington Nationals over Chicago Cubs

AL East: New York Yankees
AL Central: Cleveland Indians
AL West: Houston Astros
AL Wild Cards: Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Angels
ALCS: Houston Astros over New York Yankees

World Series: Washington Nationals over Houston Astros

NL MVP: Bryce Harper
AL MVP: Mike Trout
NL Cy Young: Max Scherzer
AL Cy Young: David Price
NL Rookie of the Year: Corey Seager
AL Rookie of the Year: Byron BuxTON
NL Manager of the Year: Dusty Baker
AL Manager of the Year: Terry Francona
NL Comeback Player of the Year: Jose Fernandez
AL Comeback Player of the Year: Yu Darvish