Another NL Win in 2013? (Joey Almars)

Looking at the AL and NL All-Star Rosters for the 2013 All-Star Game, for the most part it was what I expected. Although I didn’t put Bryce Harper on my roster, I am not shocked that the fan favorite got picked. Giants Nation came out last year and made a big push to get there players in. Coming off of another World Series win I assuming that the same deal would happen this year. Although 3 Total is not as significant as 4 starters in the 2012 All Star game, the fans did there job at getting them in there. I was also very happy that Glen Perkins got a spot. He has been a bright spot on my Twins and glad to see he got recognized. The final thing that caught my eye was that not as many Cardinals made it. Quite a few did, but guys who deserved to go in my mind were Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller. With their wins and strikeout counts I was bummed that they missed the cut. But then again each team has to be represented by one player so I guess I am not surprised.

Looking at both of the lineups, I have to say that this is going to be another NL win. Both Starting lineups look solid. I feel like the best were chosen from the AL and NL for pitching. Verlander was not at his best this year but it wasn’t like Detroit fans were going to forget about him. But where the big difference comes in is the Reserves. Looking at the AL, I had the mentality of who made the list? But when I saw the NL Starters, I knew exactly who would be on the bench, because there are so many NL players having a good year. You knew Buster Posey wouldn’t get snubbed, but he would probably go behind Yadi. Then you got guys like Cuddyer, McCutchen, Goldschmidt, and right down the list who could have easily gotten the nod for the starting spot. Managers generally do a good job at cycling players out so that everyone can get in on the fun night. And when we get into the second and third subbing action, the AL pitchers are still going to have their hands full.

All these players are All-Stars but if the benches played each other I would put my money on the NL.

This is one of my favorite nights of the year and I am excited to see if the game plays out the way I think it will, or if I will be surprised.

All-Star Roster Reactions

As I'm sure most of you are aware, the 2013 All-Star game rosters were released on Saturday. With the release of the All-Star game rosters inevitably comes a whole lot of discussion. Fans discuss which players were snubbed, which players undeservingly made the team, and which player from each league deserves the "Final Vote" to make the roster. For today's column, I will highlight some reactions of my own that I had when looking at the all-star game roster:


1. Voters love the home run:

The first thing that popped out to me while looking at the all-star rosters is just how much fans love the home run. Of the 18 position players elected starters by the fans, 13 of them are in the top-two of their respective position in home runs (top-six for outfielders). It is clear that fans are enticed by the home run. That is why Jose Bautista was elected a starter over Jacoby Ellsbury and why Robinson Cano was given the nod as the starting second baseman over Dustin Pedroia. Home runs are exciting to watch, and fans would rather see home run hitters start the all-star game than scrappy base stealers with sky-high on-base percentages.

2. The Baltimore Orioles are taking the MLB by storm: 

It seems like just yesterday that the Baltimore Orioles were the laughing stock of Major League Baseball. Having not made the postseason in 15 years and spending more time at the bottom of the AL East standings than Jose Canseco spent at the pharmacy, no one took the Orioles seriously. After nearly taking the AL East least season and securing a playoff berth, the Orioles are now no team to be joked with and the all-star roster reflects just that. Having one third of the starting lineup being Baltimore Orioles players and yet another Oriole coming off the bench, it is safe to say that the Orioles are the real deal.

3. The American League is loaded with depth at the 3rd base position:

The fact that Evan Longoria (.280/.366/.525 with 17 HR and 49 RBI), Adrian Beltre (.308/.350/.524 with 18 HR and 47 RBI), Josh Donaldson (.319/.388/.536 with 15 HR and 57 RBI), and Kyle Seager (.286/.348/.478 with 13 HR and 41 RBI) all missed out on making the all-star roster really points to how strong the 3rd base position is in the American League right now. Looking at those stats, the casual baseball fan would say that it is an outrage that these players were left off of the all-star roster. However, when you look at the two third basemen that made the all-star game roster over these studs, you can understand how they were left out. Miguel Cabrera is a freak of nature. He is on pace to hit .368 with 52 home runs and 168 RBI. We could potentially be looking at the best offensive season by a single player in the history of the MLB. The other AL 3rd baseman to make the all-star roster is Manny Machado. He is only 2nd in the AL in hits, 1st in the AL in WAR, and 1st in the AL in doubles as he is on pace to break Earl Webb's record for doubles in a single season. To put it simply, the American League is stacked with third basemen and it is fun to watch.

Despite what many others think of the all-star game, I always look forward to watching the game. I love seeing the best batters going against the best hitters on prime-time television under the big lights. It's always a fun time. I expect this years game to be just as fun as ever.

Is Puig an All-Star?

It is rare that a single player can capture the attention of America the way that Yasiel Puig has through the first month of his MLB career. The unbelievably excellent play of Puig has brought about a heated debate as to whether or not Puig should make the all-star game roster after playing only a month of baseball. This debate got even more heated after the comments of Jonathan Papelbon when he said that the idea of Puig making the all-star game is "an absolute joke", "kind of stupid", and "an injustice to veteran players". I'm here to tell you today that Puig definitely deserves to be an all-star.

First of all, let's remember what the all-star game is all about, and that is the fans. The all-star game has long been a game for the fans and a time for fans to come together and enjoy a baseball game featuring 60 of the best players in the country. Keeping that in mind, can you come up with 30 national league players who are more exciting to watch or more captivating than Yasiel Puig? Puig has the country talking and is actually causing ESPN to open SportsCenter with baseball rather than the Dallas Cowboys. Yasiel Puig is an all-star.

Secondly, you simply cannot deny the statistics that Puig has put up in his first month of baseball. The .440 average. The .466 on-base percentage. The 8 home runs and 17 RBI. Anyway you spin it, Puig is putting up all-star caliber numbers through his first month. In fact, Yasiel Puig is the only player with at least 40 hits and four home runs in his first month in the majors since Joe DiMaggio in 1936. If you are into WAR, you can look at that statistic and see the impact that Puig has had on the Dodgers as he is leading all Dodgers position players in WAR after only playing one month! Yasiel Puig is an all-star.

If you are still doubting the impact that Puig has had, look no further than the Dodgers position in the NL West with and without "Brute 66". After the completion of their June 2 loss to the San Diego Padres the Dodgers found themselves with a 23-32 record, in last place in the NL West, and 8.5 games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the division lead. Things were looking bleak for the Dodgers. Everyone was calling for Don Mattingly's head, and criticizing the likes of Magic Johnson for some awful baseball decisions.   It was after that game that Yasiel Puig was called up to the big leagues and he made his debut the following night against the same San Diego Padres game. The Dodgers won that game and have gone 17-11 since Puig was called up. The Dodgers have won 10 out of their last 11 games and are now only 2.5 games back of the Diamondbacks for the division lead. As I noted in my June 3rd column, Yasiel Puig was a sign of hope for the Dodgers. He gave fans something to get excited about players someone to rally around. There is no doubting that Puig has been leading the charge for the escalation of the Dodgers in the NL West. Yasiel Puig is an all-star.

Lastly, let's not forget that the all-star game decides home field advantage for the World Series. With that in mind, it is very important that both teams feature the best players in their respective leagues to have as good a chance as possible of winning the all-star game and securing home field advantage in the World Series. Puig is a spark plug and with his 5 tools Yasiel would help the National League greatly in the all-star game. The most talented players should be in the all-star game and Puig is one of the most talented players. Yasiel Puig is an all-star.

While I don't believe that it should become a regular thing for rookies with such little playing time to make the all-star game, I also don't believe that someone with the impact of Yasiel Puig will come around for quite a long time. When you're dealing with history and chasing the likes of Joe DiMaggio for historical rookie seasons, you deserve to be an all-star. I can tell you this for sure, if Yasiel Puig makes the all-star game, expect television ratings to be sky high.

YASIEL PUIG IS AN ALL-STAR. 

HR Record and Chris Davis (Joey Almars)

Chris Davis has had an outstanding year so far, as June comes to a close and entering July, he has not seemed to lose a step in his pace. As of 7/2/2013 he sits at 31 HR, with 80 RBIs, and a .332 AVG. What ESPN loves to do in this situation (and me as well) is calculate the HR pace to see if the player has the chance of beating the single season HR record. In recent years this record has been in many ways tarnished, with the McGwire (vs) Sosa steroid fueled HR race in 1998 (McGwire won with 70) and Barry Bonds one-upping them in 2001 (73 HR). Witnessing these events as they occurred represent some of my most favorite times watching sports, but in the years following they have seemed to lose their significance when PEDs surfaced as the root cause. But what Chris Davis has done so far, brings back the excitement that I felt in 1998 and 2001. But this talk comes up more often than it should, because in 162 games any streak, pace, or even slump for that matter breaks and records get either closer or farther from reach.

To look at some players who have come close to hitting this record I want to focus on players from my generation because they provide a closer comparison in my mind. I am skipping over Barry Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, and A-Rod because of the PEDs and focusing on where Ryan Howard, Luis Gonzalez, Ken Griffey Jr., and Jose Bautista were at by this point of the season.

Ryan Howard made a run in 2006 and hit 28 HR by this point and despite picking up his pace in the second half he ended up with a total of 58 HR. In 2001, Luis Gonzalez started off on a strong pace with 34 HRs on July 3^rd, but as the season went on he ended up 4 shy of Roger Maris with 57 HR. One of my personal favorites, Ken Griffey Jr., had 35 HR by July 2^nd but cooled down a little bit and ended with 56. Jose Bautista was a player who only had 21 HR by July 3^rd and went on a tear and ended the season with 54.

All these players had incredible seasons and the problem all these players see is as the end of the season closes the pressure to stay on pace gets higher. With this increased pressure there is also the pennant race that gives teams a greater incentive to pitch around these sluggers in hope that they win the game. Mantle in 1961 got hurt which was the common story for the tragic hero and was unable to finish his race with 52 being his ending total. So many things can happen to throw off the pace but I am hoping that Chris Davis will be able to carry his amazing start into the second half.

One thing that was so significant about Babe Ruth’s mark of 60 HRs was that he didn’t only establish the new single season record but he had more HRs than any team in the American League. Maris beat the record with many people wanting it to remain Babe Ruth’s record. This is a record with historic meaning and if Maris’ ‘61 record can be broken cleanly, it will bring back meaning to a record that has been seen in a negative light as of late. So is it too early to talk about Chris Davis and the record? Probably. But I will still be watching his pace and cheering for him as he inches closer.

Who is Mrs. Brown?! (Joey Almars)

I am a huge fan of fantasy sports. My favorite thing about them is that it makes every game more interesting and engaging and gives games meaning that you would otherwise not care anything about. My favorite sport is baseball and naturally I enjoy fantasy baseball more than football. The only problem is that I have notoriously been the doormat of the league. I have had teams filled with players who have gone to the DL and sure fire players that bust when they switch teams (yes I am looking at you Adam Dunn).

But as it would happen, this year my luck has finally changed (knock on wood). For the first two months I started out really strong and was at the top of the division with the help of guys like, Fielder, Phillips, Wright, Trout, and a very respectable pitching core. But as the month of June comes to a close, I have lost momentum and I lost a large cushion from being in first and am now currently 2^nd in the division to none other than a person I know as Mrs. Brown.

Mrs. Brown (as the story goes) was the former secretary at my High School. By the time I was attending she was long gone but people remembered her love of baseball. When we got closer to fantasy draft day several years later, we needed another person to join the league, and Mrs. Brown got the nod.

Now I am slightly surprised that she wanted to join the league and wasn’t sure if she knew what she was doing. On draft night I was convinced that she in fact had no clue what she was doing. She focused on pretty much all Cardinals players (because that’s her favorite team I guess) with her first round pick being Yadier Molina!! And hey, he has had a great year, but in any draft you don’t pull a guy up in the first round that people are going to leave there till at least the fourth. The other two plus sides to the draft were Verlander, Wainwright, and Harper. With only those 4 bright spots in her draft, I was not to worried about the so called Mrs. Brown.

To clarify some league rules, we have 3 bench spots with only one DL spot so as far as picking up players goes for the so called “trial period” to see if the player pans out, there wasn’t too much of that, and everyone had a set lineup for the most part. Not Mrs. Brown. Looking at her moves since April, she picked up Matt Carpenter (April 10), Paul Goldschmidt (April 27), Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller (May 6), and Patrick Corbin (May 15). Now looking at this list, we are missing one of the biggest surprises this season in Chris Davis who has 30 HR, 79 RBI and a .333 AVG. (Those are totals that the Twins would love to have for a player after 162 games and we aren’t even to the All-Star break). Mrs. Brown did not pick up Chris Davis in free agency… She drafted him!!

Let me just say that I was always picturing Mrs. Brown as a nice grandma like receptionist, but now I am seeing her as a mythical creature that has fantasy baseball as her career and being a receptionist is a side job. One thing that did benefit her was not having a lot of big names in the lineup, which allowed her to drop any player with a cold streak and not worry about the big names that you shouldn’t drop (even when they are slumping). Whether, she actually is a receptionist, a woman, a mythical fantasy god, or if she in fact does have a lovely daughter, this person has been completely dominating Matt Taylor’s league!

All-Star Ballot Reaction Roundtable

Today marks the launch of our first "roundtable" post. In a roundtable, the same question will be posed to both Matthew Taylor, and Joey Almars, and we will both answer them privately without consulting with each other. It's a fun way to get two different opinions and start some debates. Enjoy!

1) What is your main criteria when evaluating which hitters should be all-stars?

Matthew Taylor: I am a big sucker for the RBI. There is a reason that the RBI hitters make the big bucks and that's because they are the ones who get the clutch hits and drive in the runs that win games. It's all fine and dandy if a player can hit .330, but if he isn't bringing in any runs and lighting up the scoreboard, how much is he really helping? I understand that lead-off hitters aren't expected to hit many RBI, but for players who hit in the middle of the order, I think that RBI are much more important than batting average or even walks.  I want my star player to put the team on his shoulders and bring everyone in rather than taking a walk and diverting the RBI opportunity to the player batting behind him.

Joey Almars: For hitters the main stat that I focus on is, OPS. For me it starts out with making the most out of every at bat and that does the best in my mind at translating that as a statistic. It touches on batting average but more so on slugging and it is also a stat that includes walks which can often times be under valued. From there I look at batting average because OPS can be misleading if a player hits a bunch of home runs but has a bad average. Then from there I look at the quantity stats like Runs, HRs and RBIs.

2) What is your main criteria when evaluating which pitchers should be all-stars?

Matthew Taylor: For me it all begins with ERA when evaluating pitchers. If my pitcher is allowing a lot of runs, he's not an all-star. It's as simple as that. From there I go to innings pitched. I want my all-star pitcher to be a workhorse and put in a lot of innings. That takes the load off of the bullpen and puts it squarely on the shoulders of my ace. Just the way I like it. Lastly I look at strikeouts. Pitchers who can get a player out in any situation are invaluable and are extremely important.

Joey Almars: For pitchers I look at quality starts. I would say wins but in the case of James Shields this year, even if you have a good start it doesn't translate into a Win if your team's hitting doesn't do their part. That stat says for me, "the pitcher did his part." He pitched a strong amount of innings and kept his team in the game which on a consistent basis is all you can ask for from a pitcher. After establishing that threshold, I look at ERA, since we covered quality starts we know the pitcher has pitched his share of innings and now we look at how well he shut down the other team. I don't focus on WHIP too much because I tend to look at the scoreboard. If the runners don't cross the plate then you are fine. I look at Innings Pitched and Strikeouts next, these stats are extras in my book but are important when it comes to considered who is the all-star work horse and can blow pitches but hitters.

3) Which player did Matthew/Joey include in their all-star rosters who you most think does not deserve an all-star roster spot?

Matthew Taylor: The biggest issue I had with Joey's all-star ballot is that he has Shin-Soo Choo as a starting outfielder. Choo has had a very solid season with the Reds this year and his .419 on-base percentage is something that certainly can't be ignored however, in my eyes he is not a starting outfielder for the NL all-star squad. He is batting a mediocre .269, has a measly 76 hits (T-27th in the NL), and has only a 0.61 stolen base percentage. He is having a good year, but he doesn't deserve to be a starting outfielder. In his place I would have Carlos Beltran. Beltran is batting .308 with 18 home runs and an impressive .546 slugging percentage. He is having a career year and deserves to be a starting outfielder.

Joey Almars: I really liked Taylor's list and I was on the fence about one. Nelson Cruz has had a large amount of RBIs but the .268 average is a little too low for my cut (By that some principle I should have picked him over Bautista, but I think that he'll get more votes either way). In place of Cruz I would say Nate McLouth, having an OBP of .361 and having the second most steals in the AL I think that he deserves a nod.

4) Which players were snubbed by Matthew/Joey of an all-star roster spot?

Matthew Taylor: I think Joey really snubbed Shelby Miller of an all-star roster spot. Miller is having an excellent season. He has a stellar 2.35 ERA. He is 3rd in the NL with a 9.88 K/9. He is anchoring the staff along with Adam Wainwright of a St. Louis Cardinals team that has the best record in baseball. Shelby Miller is an all-star.

Joey Almars: I really like Jay Bruce, but for me it came down to him or Shin-Soo Choo. Bruce had the RBIs and slightly better AVG and Choo had the Runs a better OPS. For me I saw that Choo being at the lead off position allowed Bruce to get those RBI chances when we was batting the fourth spot. And Bruce did his job fantastic thus far. But when picking between Reds outfielders, I had to go with Choo and his Run production.

5) Which 8 players (4 from the AL, 4 from the NL) would make for the most exciting home run derby?

Matthew Taylor: AL: Chris Davis, Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout, and David Ortiz
NL: Yasiel Puig, Bryce Harper, Carlos Gonzalez, and Pedro Alvarez

Joey Almars: AL: Miguel Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Chris Davis, and Prince Fielder
NL: Domonic Brown, Paul Goldschmidt, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Gonzalez

NL All-Star Ballots

Matthew Taylor:

Starting Lineup:
Catcher: Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
First Base: Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
Second Base: Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati Reds
Third Base: David Wright, New York Mets
Shortstop: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies
Outfield: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies
Outfield: Michael Cuddyer, Colorado Rockies
Outfield: Carlos Beltran, St. Louis Cardinals
Designated Hitter: Carlos Gomez, Milwaukee Brewers

Reserves:
Catcher: Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
First Base: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
Second Base: Matt Carpenter, St. Louis Cardinals
Third Base: Pedro Alvarez, Pittsburgh Pirates
Shortstop: Jean Segura, Milwaukee Brewers
Outfield: Allen Craig, St. Louis Cardinals
Outfield: Domonic Brown, Philadelphia Phillies
Outfield: Jay Bruce, Cincinnati Reds

Pitchers:
Matt Harvey, New York Mets (Starting Pitcher)
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals
Jeff Locke, Pittsburgh Pirates
Patrick Corbin, Arizona Diamondbacks
Jordan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals
Cliff Lee, Philadelphia Phillies
Shelby Miller, St. Louis Cardinals
Travis Wood, Chicago Cubs
Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
Jason Grilli, Pittsburgh Pirates
Mark Melancon, Pittsburgh Pirates
Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves

Joey Almars:

Starting Lineup:
Catcher: Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
First Base: Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
Second Base: Brandon Phillips, Cincinnati Reds
Third Base: David Wright, New York Mets
Shortstop: Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies
Outfield: Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies
Outfield: Shin-Soo Choo, Cincinnati Reds
Outfield: Michael Cuddyer, Colorado Rockies
Designated Hitter: Domonic Brown, Philadelphia Phillies

Reserves:
Catcher: Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
First Base: Paul Goldschmidt, Arizona Diamondbacks
Second Base: Marco Scutaro, San Francisco Giants
Third Base: Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco Giants
Shortstop: Jean Segura, Milwaukee Brewers
Outfield: Carlos Beltran, St. Louis Cardinals
Outfield: Carlos Gomez, Milwaukee Brewers
Outfield: Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers

Pitchers:
Matt Harvey, New York Mets (Starting Pitcher)
Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers
Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals
Patrick Corbin, Arizona Diamondbacks
Jordan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals
Cliff Lee, Philadelphia Phillies
Mat Latos, Cincinnati Reds
Lance Lynn, St. Louis Cardinals
Stephen Strasburg, Washington Nationals
Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
Jason Grilli, Pittsburgh Pirates
Edward Mujica, St. Louis Cardinals
Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves

AL All-Star Ballots

For the next three days the "Stand Up Double" will be releasing its all-star ballots for both the American League and the National League. Joey Almars and myself both filled out our ballots without conversing with each other. Today we will post our AL ballots, tomorrow we will post our NL ballots, and on Thursday we will feature our first "roundtable" post where we will discuss why we made the decisions that we did on our ballots. Without further ado, here are our AL All-Star Ballots:

Matthew Taylor:

Starting Lineup:
Catcher: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
First Base: Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles
Second Base: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees
Third Base: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
Shortstop: Jhonny Peralta, Detroit Tigers
Outfield: Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles
Outfield: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Outfield: Nelson Cruz, Texas Rangers
Designated Hitter: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox

Reserves:
Catcher: Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians
First Base: Edwin Encarnacion, Toronto Blue Jays
Second Base: Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox
Third Base: Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays
Shortstop: J.J. Hardy, Baltimore Orioles
Outfield: Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays
Outfield: Nick Markakis, Baltimore Orioles
Outfield: Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox
Designated Hitter: Billy Butler, Kansas City Royals

Pitchers:
Clay Bucholtz, Boston Red Sox (Starter)
Hishashi Iwakuma, Seattle Mariners
Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
Chris Sale, Chicago White Sox
Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers
Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers
Anibal Sanchez, Detroit Tigers
James Shields, Kansas City Royals
Ervin Santana, Kansas City Royals
Hiroki Kuroda, New York Yankees
Bartolo Colon, Oakland Athletics
Glen Perkins, Minnesota Twins
Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees
Joe Nathan, Texas Rangers

Joey Almars:

Starting Lineup:
Catcher: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
First Base: Chris Davis, Baltimore Orioles
Second Base: Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox
Third Base: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit Tigers
Shortstop: Jhonny Peralta, Detroit Tigers
Outfield: Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Outfield: Nick Markakis, Baltimore Orioles
Outfield: Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles
Designated Hitter: David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox

Reserves:
Catcher: Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians
First Base: Prince Fielder, Detroit Tigers
Second Base: Robinson Cano, New York Yankees
Third Base: Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays
Shortstop: Jed Lowrie, Oakland Athletics
Outfield: Coco Crisp, Oakland Athletics
Outfield: Jacoby Ellsbury, Boston Red Sox
Outfield: Nate McClouth, Baltimore Orioles

Pitchers:
Clay Bucholtz, Boston Red Sox (Starting Pitcher)
Max Scherzer, Detroit Tigers
Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners
Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers
Justin Verlander, Detroit Tigers
Justin Masterson, Cleveland Indians
Bartolo Colon, Oakland Athletics
Hisashi Iwakuma, Seattle Mariners
Anibal Sanchez, Detroit Tigers
James Shields, Kansas City Royals
Mariano Rivera, New York Yankees,
Jim Johnson, Baltimore Orioles
Joe Nathan, Texas Rangers

Ready or Not...Here They Come! (Matthew Taylor)

The AL East has been praised for a long time as being the toughest division in baseball and as possibly the toughest division in all of sports. First of all you have the vaunted Yankees who have won an MLB-high 27 world championships. Then you have the Boston Red Sox who have won 2 world championships in the past 10 seasons. There's the Tampa Bay Rays who have a habit of doing more with less thanks to a great farm system and a great manager, Joe Maddon. The Baltimore Orioles team who has been laughed at for many years can't be laughed at any longer as they finally broke through and clinched a playoff birth last season for the first time since 1997 and are now only 1.5 games back of the AL East lead. Lastly you have the Toronto Blue Jays who, while disappointing this year, are only one game below .500 with Jose Reyes returning to the lineup next week. There's no denying that the AL East is a great division and while I do still believe that the AL East is the best division from top to bottom, I think that the NL Central is closing the gap as the best division in baseball thanks to the extraordinary play of 3 teams.

The greatness of the NL East starts with the team with the best record in baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals.s Cardinals. Most everyone expected the Cardinals to be good this season, but no one could have expected the insane numbers they have been putting up. What makes the Cardinals so great is that they are perfectly balanced with great hitting, great fielding, and great pitching. You can see this by simply looking at the stats as the Cardinals are 2nd in the MLB in runs scored (355) as well as 2nd in the MLB in ERA (3.28), and 1st in the MLB in fielding percentage (.991). They do everything extremely well, and is easy to see why they have the best record in the Majors.

The team with the 2nd best record in the big leagues also is a member of the NL Central. The team I'm talking about, of course, is the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds have also benefited from great balance as they have outstanding both great bats and great arms. Joey Votto is having another all-star season, Shin Soo Choo has proven to be a great acquisition, Brandon Phillips is leading all second basemen in RBI, Mike Leake has finally been that ace the Reds have been looking for, and Aroldis Chapman is Aroldis Chapman. They are getting production from multiple guys and are seeing results.

Being a Pittsburgh Pirates fan hasn't been easy the past few decades. They currently have the 2nd longest playoff drought in the MLB as they haven't made the playoffs since 1992. All those die-hard fans are finally being rewarded as things are finally looking up in Pittsburgh. The Pirates are only 4 games back of the St. Louis Cardinals for the NL Central lead and are currently locked into a wild card spot. The man leading the Pirates to a return to their glory days is Sir Andrew McCutchen. The 26-year old center fielder can do it all. He can field, he can hit for average, power, and he has speed. He's currently batting .287 with 7 home runs, 35 RBI, and 15 steals. He's the leader for this team and has them going in the right direction. He's not the only one producing for the Pirates, however. Their pitching for Pittsburgh has been great this year despite what they were labeled before the season. "Young and inexperienced" Jeff Locke, at 25-years old, has a 2.01 ERA and is 6-1. "Old and washed up" A.J. Burnett is sporting a 3.12 ERA and is 6th in the MLB with a 9.97 K/9. "Injury prone and overrated" Francisco Liriano is 5-3 with a 2.44 ERA. "Prehistoric and wrinkle laden" Jason Grilli has a 1.10 ERA and is leading the MLB with 25 saves. I think it's fair to say that the Pirates pitchers don't care about how they have been labeled, and I think it's fair to say that the Pirates aren't the embarrassing franchise that they have been labeled over the bast 20 years, either.

While the Brewers and Cubs are keeping the NL Central from being the best division in baseball, we all need to take notice of what the top dogs in the division are doing. All three teams are currently projected to make the playoffs and I think it's safe to say that the division race will be a good one when September rolls around.

Shift in Power in New York? (Joey Almars)

When David Wright signed the extension that pretty much locked him up as a Met for the rest of his career, I thought it was pretty cool that he decided to stay. I really like the guys that stay in one place and become the face of the franchise like Joe Mauer and Chipper Jones. Not necessarily the case for Jones but Wright appears to have picked a path that is closer to Mauer’s. You have a guy who could have gone to a strong contender but decides to finish where he started his career. While I think that team loyalty is hard to come by in the game, and I love when it shows up every once in a while, in the back of my mind I wish that a player of that caliber could have gotten a better shot at winning a World Series.

One thing that David Wright said in his interview following his extension with ESPN was that he wanted to have an inside look on where ownership will be taking the Mets in the future (an important question given the trouble that ownership has had in the past with Bernie Madoff). This was a pretty vague statement that apparently played some role in keeping him in New York. Looking at where the Mets are today being 14.5 games out of first I wondered what David Wright was talking about, and decided to dive into who is currently in their minor league system.

To start things off they have the number 1 ranked catcher coming up through their system in Travis d’Arnaud. He was acquired from Toronto in the R.A. Dickey trade and if it hadn’t been for injuries he would be ranked higher than number 6 overall. Then you have pitchers like Jenrry Mejia. He made his debut in 2010 and held a respectable ERA of 2.74 while he was healthy. Jeurys Familia is a prospect with a strong arm and a lot of potential but will need to learn control before he makes his jump the show (MLB ERA was 4.76). Then we have Matt Harvey who is a minor leaguer no more. He showed promise last season and has established himself as the anchor of the rotation this year with an incredible 2.04 ERA. So that covers the birth year of 1989.

Moving on the players born after 1989, we have Zack Wheeler who is 23 years old. In the Pacific Coast League he has a 3.93 ERA with 73 strikeouts to his name in 2013. For RHP he is ranked number 3 among prospects and is ranked number 7 overall. He is a player whose fastball is clocked at 98 mph and can provide great movement and command to his pitches. Next to him you have Noah Syndergaard, who at 20 years old has a fastball that consistently hits 96 mph and a strong curve and changeup that can still be improved. He is ranked #8 for RHP and #27 overall for prospects.

These are just some of the players they have coming up. Others include Brandon Nimmo (OF), Gavin Cecchini (SS), and Wilmer Flores (3B). I mainly focused on pitchers because I believe that is where the Mets are focusing most of their attention. Harvey is among the first wave, and with these new names coming up we might see a shift in power in New York.

The Yankees have some players coming up in the minors but it could be a while before we see them, and they don’t have any prospects that currently sit in the top 30. On top of that you have commitments to A-Rod through 2017, Sabathia through 2015, Teixeira through 2016, the expensive Vernon Wells through 2014, and Jeter who will need to be resigned after 2014 (if he decides not to retire). Then you got the younger talent in Granderson and Cano who will be free agents after this year. What it comes down to is that Karma may have caught up to the Yankees, and we will be seeing how deep their pockets really are in the upcoming years.

So in conclusion, we have seen good moves from the Mets management as of late including not resigning Dickey and getting d’Arnaud and Syndergaard in return. Wright appears to have faith in what they are doing, so depite being 14.5 games back in the division, in years to come we might see a different looking Mets team and a shift in power for New York baseball.

Eye on the Ball

For today's post I'll be highlighting the match-up of the day for Friday, June 14 in a column entitled "Eye on the Ball". Today's match-up of the day:

Boston Red Sox (Ryan Dempster 4-6, 4.40) @ Baltimore Orioles (Chris Tillman 6-2, 3.89)

The American League East is once again as tightly contested as any division in the MLB. Four teams are within 5 games of first place and you can bet your money that it will be equally as close as the season wears on. This is the 2nd of a 3-game series between the first place Boston Red Sox and third place Baltimore Orioles who are only 2.5 games back of Boston for the division lead, after winning a 13-inning thriller on a walk-off Chris Davis single on Thursday.

While we all love great pitching, nothing beats watching two teams who can absolutely crush the ball. Boston and Baltimore are two of the best hitting teams in the MLB as they are both top-5 in the majors in batting average and runs scored. With two teams putting mediocre pitchers on the mound, I fully expect these two teams to light up the scoreboard tonight.

Another reason that this is a great match-up is because of how similar these two teams are. Some of the similarities:

• Boston is #1 in the MLB in runs scored. Baltimore is #4.
• Boston is #3 in the MLB in team batting average. Baltimore is #4.
• Baltimore has a .562 winning percentage at home. Boston has a .606 winning percentage on the road.
• Both teams are 6-4 in their last 10 games.

To me this game is really a toss up. It'll be a slug-fest and I think that the team that makes doesn't strike out at the plate and that can make the plays in the field will be the team that wins and that is why I'm going with Baltimore. Baltimore is the best fielding team in the major leagues and is also extremely disciplined at the plate with only 430 strikeouts which is the 3rd least in the big leagues, while the Red Sox are the most struck out team in the majors. I think that Baltimore will ride their momentum from last night's victory and secure a series win while inching to only 1.5 games behind the division lead.

Prediction: Baltimore Orioles (8-5)

The Third Wheel

With all of the talk of the brilliance of Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, there is no doubting that one other second year player has been forgotten. You have to give Harper and Trout credit, after all they have been nothing short of spectacular, but this one player deserves to be in the same conversation as Trout and Harper as he has more hits per game than both Harper and Trout and is arguably the best defensive player in the big leagues. The player that I am talking about is Manny Machado.

Manny Machado is a 20-year old third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles and in 116 games has already compiled 138 hits. Machado was selected by the Orioles with the third overall selection in the 2010 MLB draft after Bryce Harper and Jameson Taillon (Who?!) went 1st and 2nd respectively. Since being called up to the Major Leagues on August 9, 2012 Machado has been nothing short of incredible. He has been the firecracker that has helped bring the Orioles back to relevance in the Major Leagues by ending a 15-year playoff drought last season and being right in the thick of the AL East this season, only 3.5 games back of the division leading Red Sox.

What makes Machado so good? Two things stand out to me for Machado. The first is that Machado knows how to put the bat on the ball. Manny is currently in second place in the MLB in hits, trailing only Miguel Cabrera by 1 hit and is 4th best for qualified 3rd basemen with only 42 strikeouts this season. The fact that he is putting up such great numbers at such a young age is a great sign. In the month of May Machado had 44 hits which is the most ever in a month by a player under the age of 21. Manny Machado also holds the record for most multi-hit games for a player under the age of 21, and he still has a little less than a month to build on the record!!

The second thing that makes Machado so good is his glove. He can make the routine plays, along with the spectacular plays as you can see here...

and here...

These two gifs are just a small portion of Machado's extremely impressive defensive portfolio. So far in 2013, Fangraphs has evaluated Manny as the best defensive third baseman in the MLB as he has saved 15 more runs than the average 3B.

I'm not saying that Machado is better than Trout and Harper, but with all the stats and cool moving pictures that I have showed you, there is no doubt that he deserves to be in the conversation. 

Recognizing Brandon Phillips (Joey Almars)

Being a Twins fan I have always been jealous of teams who have a strong middle infield particularly on the right side. The names that get most of the attention in the media revolve around guys like Pedroia, Kinsler, and Cano. But one guy who does not receive as much credit as he deserves is Brandon Phillips.

To start out, all these players are great at what they do, they deserve to be in the spot that they are at and I would be thrilled if any of them ever ended up with the Twins (one can always dream). But there is a reason why I think Phillips deservers more credit for his play, and that is consistency. Robinson Cano is a phenomenal player and he is consistently healthy throughout the year, which allows the Yankees to benefit even more from having this power hitting second basemen. This is where Pedroia and Kinsler have had their struggles. While they have been playing at such a high level when they are healthy, it is always in the back of my mind that they are going to get hurt. Kinsler has only gone over 130 games in a season 3 times due to injuries. Pedroia has not been as injury prone as Kinsler but he had 75 game season in 2010 due to a broken bone in his foot.

Brandon Phillips, upon arriving to the Reds in 2006 has never played less than 141 games in a season. With that health consistency he is also a stellar fielder with 3 Gold Glove Awards. He is one of those players, that when you watch him you can tell how much fun he is having playing baseball as his career. He is always smiling and this attitude provides a strong locker room presence and helps the fans (and I am sure the team) rally around him (kind of an infield version of Kirby Puckett to draw a comparison). He lights up the twitter world and is so open to giving fans an inside look at some of the behind the scenes in the life of a baseball player (Follow him @DatDudeBP).

On Monday Night he was responsible for hitting in all the runs in the Reds victory over the Cubs 6-2. With the grand slam in this game, he is one home run shy of passing Joe Morgan for most HR hit by a Reds second basemen. This was a night that highlights how strong of a year Phillips is having. He is top 3 for second basemen in Runs (38) and Home Runs (10) and is leading in RBIs (52). He is bringing extra power to a strong Reds team and is rocking a .293 Batting Average. He is having a great year and with these numbers I think that #4 will make a lot of people think about who they would rather have at the second base position. For me it is Dat Dude!

Twins Tuesday - Where Are They Now? (Matthew Taylor)

For this week's issue of Twins Tuesday I thought it would be fun to take a look at some former Twins players and see where they're playing and how they are doing. There are tons of players to choose from, and if I were to choose every player this column would be way too long. So, if you like the idea, we can definitely continue the idea and do more Twins Tuesdays checking in on former Twins players. For the inaugural "Where Are They Now?" post I will focus on 2 Twins players who are having exceptional seasons with their new clubs. So without further ado let's get started...

Carlos Gomez - Remember Carlos Gomez? The speedy, young gun who was the main piece the Twins received when they traded away Johan Santana? Gomez played for the Twins for two season in 2008 and 2009. He was regarded by many as being the fastest player in the MLB and was actually clocked with a 4.29 40-yard dash time (for perspective, the fastest 40-time ever recorded in the NFL combine was a 4.24 by Chris Johnson, so Gomez wasn't far off). Gomez started off his tenure as a Twins with a boom going 2-for-3 with two stolen bases and two runs. Gomez became the third-youngest player to hit for the cycle when he did so on May 7, 2008. In his two seasons with the Twins Gomez hit .258 with 10 home runs and 47 stolen bases. Gomez didn't end up being the player the Twins thought he could become and ended up trading him to the Milwaukee Brewers on November 6, 2009 in exchange for J.J. Hardy and $250,000 in cash.

After three continued seasons of struggles for Gomez in 2010, 2011, and 2012 Gomez is having an outstanding season for the Brewers and is looking like the team MVP thus far. Through 63 games Gomez is hitting .316 with 11 home runs, 31 RBI, and 12 stolen bases. He is finally developing into the 5-tool player that the Twins thought he could become and it is a shame that he isn't giving this same productions to the Twins that he is giving to the Brewers.

Francisco Liriano - The story of Francisco Liriano is somewhat gut-wrentching for Twins fans everywhere. After being acquired from the Minnesota Twins in addition to Joe Nathan and Boof Bonser in exchange for A.J. Pierzynski, Liriano was a highly touted prospect in the Minnesota Twins organization. And in his rookie season, Liriano exceeded any possible expectations that could have been put before him. Midway through his rookie year of 2006 Liriano had a 12-3 record with a Major League leading 2.19 ERA. The comparisons to Johan Santana were inevitable; a hard-throwing lefty who could anchor a rotation and get any guy out with any number of pitches. The 1-2 punch of Liriano and Santana was unstoppable and the Twins looked primed to make a deep playoff run. Everything changed on August 1, 2006 when Liriano's elbow problems first began. Liriano didn't pitch again in 2006, and missed the entire 2007 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. After the surgery, Lirano was never the same pitcher. He showed some bright spots (a 15 strikeout game against Oakland, a no hitter against the White Sox), but overall Liriano wasn't the same pitcher after elbow surgery. After his brilliant 2006 season, Liriano posted an ERA over 5 in 3 of the next 5 seasons and Minnesota quickly ran out of patience with Liriano.

After being traded to the White Sox in 2012 and having similar struggles (5.40 ERA in 11 starts), Liriano was acquired by the Pittsburgh Pirates. To say that Liriano is having a good season with the Pirates would be selling him extremely short. What Liriano has done through 6 starts this season has been nothing short of spectacular. Liriano currently has a 1.75 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, and a career best 11.75 K/9. Liriano has 5 quality starts out of his six appearances and has yet to allow a home run this season. He has been a pleasant surprise for a Pirates team that is only 4 games back of the NL division lead. It should be fun to see if Liriano can keep up this insane pace that he is on. For what it's worth, I'll be pulling for him as he is now the ace of my fantasy baseball pitching staff.

That's all I have for you today. Even though they aren't on the team anymore, I always like to see former Twins players do well. Thanks for reading.

It's Time to Crack Down on PED Users (Matthew Taylor)

Assuming you don't live under a rock in the middle of the Mojave Desert, I'm sure you've heard about the recent advances in the Miami PED scandal involving Dr. Anthony Bosch with Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun at the forefront of it all facing the possibility of a 100-game suspension for doping. Because of the recent events I'll be giving you my two cents in this column about how I think MLB should change their drug testing policy.

In case you don't know how the drug testing policy works in the MLB, I'll explain how it works. Upon reporting to Spring Training all players are tested for PEDs. In addition to the initial testing at Spring Training, every player is tested once at an unannounced, completely random date. And for the most part, that is all of the testing that goes on.

Even though there aren't tons and tons of tests for each player, it would SEEM as though this testing procedure would still be effective because it is completely random and unannounced so players will never know when it is coming. However, there is one glaring problem to this drug testing procedure. Let's use Ryan Braun as an example since he is at the forefront of this whole scandal. Let's say that Braun passes his drug test at Spring Training and then his random drug test is on May 23, which he also passes. That's great. Braun passed his test, he's clean. The problem is that his random drug test was conducted so early on in the season that he now has May-October to juice the crap out of himself without fear of another drug test.

Another big problem with the MLB drug policy is that the penalty is hardly strict. First time juicers receive a 50-game suspension without pay, second time juicers receive a 100-game suspension without pay, third time juicers receive a lifetime ban from MLB. If I'm a baseball player, the reward from juicing and getting away with it far outweighs a measly 50-game suspension in which I can still return to play in the same season.

How can MLB fix this problem and come up with a better drug policy? My idea is that Major League Baseball adopts the Olympic drug testing policies. The Olympic committee is widely regarded as being the toughest on all competitors and time and time again catches those who are wrongly trying to advance themselves in their respective sport.

What two things does the Olympic committee do that MLB doesn't that would greatly help prevent steroid use in baseball? The first thing is that the Olympic committee is CONSTANTLY testing athletes. They don't simply test each athlete twice a season and then move on. They test the top-5 finishing athletes immediately after each event to ensure that they won in "clean" fashion. This ensures that all athletes are clean, and if they aren't, it ensures that they won't be awarded a medal. The second thing the Olympic committee does to ensure fair competition is that their penalties are FAR more sever than those of the MLB. A first time offender of the Olympic drug policy receives a 2 year ban from all Olympic competition. A second time offender receives a lifetime ban from the game. This is a HUGE deterrent from using drugs, and it is why the Olympic committee is being praised for cracking down on doping.

So how can Major League Baseball use the Olympic drug testing policy as a model and tighten up their drug testing? First of all, MLB needs to adopt mandatory MONTHLY drug testing along with 3 completely random drug tests throughout the season. It might cost MLB some extra money, but they will lose much more money if these drug problems continue and people lose all credibility in the game. Secondly, MLB needs to use the exact same penalties as the Olympic committee uses. There is no reason to have such skimpy suspensions for steroid users. Crack down on them, and create a suspension that will actually ruin their careers and create an actual deterrent.

These are my thoughts on what Major League Baseball needs to do to improve their drug testing policy, and if implemented, will greatly reduce the number of steroid users and restore credibility in the league.

Who’s Hot and Who’s Not! (Joey Almars)

For Who’s Hot and Who’s Not. I just wanted to focus on two players that are having a positive or negative impact on their teams this week.

Who’s Hot:

Domonic Brown: This guy bailed me out in fantasy baseball last week and helped me cut my losses in an overall bad hitting week. In the last week, this Outfielder for the Phillies, is ranked 2^nd in Runs scored (9), 1st in HR (5), and 2^nd in RBIs (12) in the last seven days. And during this past week he has held up a batting average of .429. Last week I was looking for a player who was hot that would help get me through the week but since he is still going… I plan to hold onto this guy until this upper trend starts to come down.

Who’s Not:

Andre Ethier: Dodgers are in a tricky spot with both Kemp and Crawford out. As Matthew Taylor showed us in his last post for NL Thursday, regarding the debut of Yasiel Puig, there have been some who have been helping the Dodgers at this position. Ethier is a former All-Star that should be providing consistent reliability when the team needs it most but instead he is batting .080 with only one scored run to his name. This isn’t just a slump for this week this poor performance goes back 2 weeks and farther. With Puig being the anchor of that Outfield, in the words of Matthew Taylor, “Puig has sustained excellence at every level and I'm sure he has Andre Eithier sweating that his job might get taken once Kemp and Crawford come back.”

NL Thursday (Matthew Taylor)

If you haven't heard the name Yasiel Puig yet, you're going to be hearing it a LOT throughout the rest of this season and onward. This 22-year old Cuban phenom is taking Major League Baseball by storm, and rightly so. Because of injuries to Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford, Puig was called up and made his MLB debut on June 3. Thus far, Puig has only played in two games but BOY has he made an impact. In his MLB debut, Puig went 2 for 4 with a walk-off defensive assist as he made a catch at the warning track and threw a laser to double up Chris Denorfia at first and secure a Dodger victory.

In case you missed it...here it is:



As if his MLB debut wasn't enough, Puig had an even BETTER game Tuesday night against the same Padres team. Puig went 3-4 with 2 home runs, 5 RBI, and 2 runs scored...all while "trending" trending on Twitter. I think it's safe to say that Puig had a better Tuesday night than you did.

This is all a fluke right? He had two games, there's no way he can actually be this good of a player, right?!?! Wrong. It's not like Puig is surprising himself or the Dodgers. This Spring Training Puig batted .526 in the Cactus League, and in AA for the Chattanooga Lookouts Puig was excellent while posting a .313 average with 8 HRs and 37 RBI in 40 games. Puig has sustained excellence at every level and I'm sure he has Andre Eithier sweating that his job might get taken once Kemp and Crawford come back. The guy has speed, power, a great arm, and a great knowledge of the game that we see in MLB superstars.

What does this mean for the Dodgers? Well, Puig represents hope. This was looking like another lost season for the Dodgers. The money they spent was not translating into wins, and they were one injury shy of calling ME up to play for the club. But with the serious momentum and excitement that Puig has generated in just two games, who knows what could happen. The Cardinals have showed us that know deficit is too large to overcome, and if Greinke can round back to go into form, I think these Dodgers could surprise some people.

Stay tuned, people...Yasiel Puig is here to stay.

NOTE: Stats official as of 6/5/13 at 5:45 PM CST

AL Wednesday (Joey Almars)

One of my favorite teams in the American League is the Texas Rangers. For the past five years they have been a team that has had notable losses in their lineup and for some reason they keep producing solid seasons that are worth any fans time. Looking a little closer at who they have lost in the past 5 years we start in 2007, when Texas decided to clear some cap room by trading All-Stars, Mark Teixeira and Eric Gagne. In return for these studs the Texas Rangers received a handful of unproven talent and not much else. Then we go to a temporary pickup in the middle of the 2010 season, which was the acquisition of Cliff Lee. This was a deal designed to help them make a stronger push into the postseason, and despite going to the World Series, they could not bring him back the following season. After that season they made it back to the World Series again with the help of their star pitcher C.J. Wilson. After losing the World Series for the second straight year, C.J. Wilson followed the money and took his talents to L.A. And if this isn’t a bad enough list already they lost their big bats on the team in Mike Napoli and Josh Hamilton, their MVP.

Looking at where they are at today, it follows the same story for this franchise since the year of 2009. They maintained respectable record in 2009 and in the year of 2010 and 2011, established themselves as a competitive threat in baseball. And even with the losses of this offseason they still remain a competitive threat and currently sit at the top of the West Division.

So how do they keep producing? My answer is their Manager Ron Washington. With all the losses that he has had to deal with as a Manager since signing on in 2007, he continues to make do with what he has and produces a competitive ball club each year. Ron Washington is no stranger to the whole situation of losing players and having to rebuild each year. He was the infield coach for the Oakland Athletics from 1997-2006 (and from there he took the Manager role in Texas). Michael Lewis, the author of the book Moneyball, told of how important Washington was in Billy Beane’s push to make a winning team. Billy Beane describes Washington as having the gift of making players want to be better than they were (Lewis 165). So each year when Beane got rid of a star player in exchange for a bunch of unproven prospects, he knew that Washington had a very good chance at helping them improve and making Beane’s trade a good one. And in the most important time of the year, the MLB Draft where they can get talent for cheap, Washington helps these players develop into the players that Oakland hopes to see them become.

With this background, Ron Washington is perfect for Texas. He is still dealing with rebuilding but he is also dealing with a team that has more money to spread around than Oakland does, which can help slow down the turnover ratio of players leaving. Even with Napoli and Hamilton gone, Washington has made his squad competitive and continues to bring out the best in his players no matter who the General Managers bring in or gets rid of.

Twins Tuesday (Matthew Taylor)

For this edition of Twins Tuesday I'll be discussing Josh Willingham and digging deeper to figure out what exactly is wrong with him and how the Twins deal with him going forward.

We all remember the Josh Willingham of 2012. He set career highs in runs, home runs, RBI, walks, and slugging percentage. He produced a glimmer of hope during the train wreck that was the 2012 Minnesota Twins. One thing the Twins have been lacking is that consistent home run hitter who can turn the game around with one swing of the bat. Justin Morneau was that guy for a few years, but injuries have slowed him down greatly and he hasn't played in over 135 games since 2008. Finally, in 2012 Willingham became that guy for the Twins, slugging 35 home runs and 110 RBI while maintaining a respectable .260 batting average. 2013, however, has been a completely different story for the man previously known as "Hammer". Through 50 games this season Willingham is batting .211 with 10 home runs and 29 RBI. Not the kind of production that the Twins are looking for and it is worth asking the question, WHAT'S WRONG WITH WILLY?!

To me Willingham's struggles come down to three main problems:

1) Injury problems. Willingham has struggled with a wrist injury all season.
2) Strikeout problems. Willingham is on pace to strike out 171 times. Which would shatter his previous high of 150 strikeouts in 2011.
3) Age problems. Like it or not, Willingham is getting old. He's 34 years old, and let's face it, he's not getting any younger.

Because of these three problems contributing to Willingham's early season struggles the Twins are at a crossroads and are probably asking themselves, WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH WILLY?!

Since lists of threes are easier to remember, let's keep it going. Here are three options the Twins have for dealing with Willingham.

1) Keep him. He's still on pace for 30 home runs. Fans love watching home runs. We don't have many better options. The team needs to act like we're still trying to compete now, so why not just keep him?
2) Send him to the minor leagues for a few weeks. It sounds ridiculous to send a 34 year-old veteran to Rochester, but it might be exactly what Willingham needs to find his swing again and get out of this brutal slump he's swung (or not swung) himself into. It would give us a chance to bring up some young talent to get some invaluable major league experience for someone like Eddie Rosario.
3) Trade him. While he isn't having a great season here in Minnesota there are plenty of guys who only need a change in scenery to get out of their slump. We could trade Willingham to a contender at the deadline, get some young talent (middle infielders or pitching preferably), and shed $14M in cap space while we are at it.

So what do I think the Twins should do with Willingham? I think we should do a mixture of numbers two and three. I think that two weeks in the minor leagues could do wonders for Willingham. Going against inferior pitchers to get his confidence back could do wonders. Then we bring him back. If he is still struggling, I have no problem at all trading him for whatever we can get. Even if we don't get much in return for him, dumping his contract would be fine. And if he comes back from his minor league stint and gets back to his 2012 form I still think we should trade him. This would increase his trade value greatly, and we should get much more in return.

Weekly Preview (Joey Almars)

For the weekly preview of June 3^rd – June 9^th I wanted to look at a teams that have a good chance to take the division by this weeks end, I’ll start with The New York Yankees.

Sadly, New York’s DL just got a little smaller with one of their stars, Mark Texiera, making his return to the Yankees starting lineup. I have enjoyed this long run of him, Jeter, A-Rod, and Granderson all out for the Yankees, but they have held themselves to 2 games out of first in the division, and have a good schedule coming into this week. They start out with Cleveland who has been holding their own this season but has struggled in the East with a 6-14 record. After Cleveland comes to the Bronx for 3 games, New York goes to Seattle, who has made the Houston Astros not feel so bad about themself. They play four games in Seattle, which gives them a lot of optimism going into this week. The fact the Yankees have hung in there through injuries this season, the addition of Texeira back in the lineup will only help them make a push for the top of the division. Sad day.

In addition to a relatively soft Yankee Schedule we got a pretty tough schedule for the division leader, The Boston Red Sox. They start out with the division leader of the West, Texas, they play them for 3 games and play the Los Angeles Angels for 3 games (who have been struggling but have an explosive lineup either way). It helped that Boston did well against the Yankees over the weekend, but with the opposite kinds of schedules, this could be the week that we see a new leader in the East.

Looking to the National League, we have Cincinnati facing off against St. Louis in a 3 game series. They are close in their division with Cinci only 2.5 games back and could creep closer to claiming the top of the Central. They start out with Colorado who has been playing decent this year, but if they can win that series and get momentum going into the division rivalry series they have a chance to change up the standings. Brandon Phillips (Dat Dude) is out with a bruised forearm for 3-4 days, but in his words from 2010, “I’d play against these guys on one leg. We have to beat these guys. All they do is b**** and moan about everything, all of them.” His feelings haven’t changed much and I believe that we will for sure see him at the start of this series no matter what. This is a strong division and these are the games that these teams need to win. So this will be a good closer to another week of baseball.

Who's Hot/Who's Not (Matthew Taylor)

Every Friday here at The Stand-Up Double we will be compiling a list of "who's hot" and "who's not" in Major League Baseball. Pretty much anybody can fall under each category; a player, a team, a coach, etc. All selections are certainly up for debate, and certain teams/players/managers will certainly be missed or forgotten. Here we go...

Who's Hot:

• Chris Davis - I bet a grand majority of baseball fanatics had never even heard of Chris Davis before this season. He's a guy who hasn't had much of an eye-popping career up to this point. He's never hit better than .285, he's never hit more than 85 RBI in a season, and he has such a common name that he is easily forgotten. Then there's 2013. With as terrific a season as Miguel Cabrera is having, you could easily make the case that Chris Davis is having a better season. As of 5:30 PM on May 5th, Chris Davis is 3rd in the majors with a .359 average, leading the majors with 19 HRs, and is 2nd in the MLB with 50 RBI. He is leading the charge for the dynamic Orioles offense that has more runs and home runs than any other team in the big leagues, and they are right in the thick of the AL east. In his last 10 games Davis is batting a whopping .541 with 7 home runs and 10 RBI. If that's not "hot", then I don't know what is. 
• Oakland Athletics - Is there a more likable team in the MLB than the Athletics (other than the Twins, of course)? They do things the right way year after year and seem to always compete despite significant disadvantages. The most obvious of those being their payroll. The A's entered this season with the 3rd lowest payroll in the major leagues with a $60M payroll (2.45 times LESS than the payroll of the Los Angeles Angels). While the Angles were busy digging into their pocketbooks to sign guys like Josh Hamilton and Joe Blanton (will be making a combined $31.5M this season), the A's were signing the likes of John Jaso and Jed Lowrie (will be making a combined $4.2M this season). Yet when you take a look at the standings in the AL West, there the A's sit..in 2nd place..5.5 games better than the Angels. The Athletics are currently tied for first place in the AL Wild Card race and seem primed for another playoff run. They are 8-2 in their last 10 games and seem to be just hitting their stride now. Why are they so hot? you may be wondering..well look no further than their stellar bullpen. The Oakland bullpen is 2nd in the MLB with a 2.84 ERA which has also helped them in 1-run games (.625 winning % in such games). Watch out for this team come playoff time.

Who's Not:

• David Price - First of all, keep in mind that I have David Price on my fantasy baseball team. So I am extremely biased to begin with, because I spent a 4th round pick on the guy and have seen little to no production thus far. That being said, let's remember the season that Price had last year. 20-5 record. 2.56 ERA. 205 strikeouts. CY YOUNG. Sounds like the real deal, right? Now, through 9 starts, Price is boasting a 5.24 ERA and a WHIP of 1.44. There are two things that are noticeably different between Price's 2012 Cy Young season and this young 2013 season. These two things are the amount of both hits and home runs allowed. Price is on pace to allow 30 more hits and 9 more home runs than he did last season. To get even more geeky on you, Price is allowing a BABIP (batting average on balls in play) of .314, up from .285 last season and a career .280 BABIP. This is what is leading to the unusually high number of hits that Price has allowed thus far. What does this mean? Basically it means that Price is getting extremely unlucky. You would expect his BABIP to dip down to his average and the number of his hits allowed to go back down to the norm. In regards to his high number of home runs allowed (allowed 16 all of last season and has already allowed 8 this season), look no further than his HR/FB% (Home run/fly ball percentage). Last season Price had a HR/FB% of 10.5% and he has a career HR/FB% of 9.5%. This season? In 2013 Price is allowing a home run on 15.1% of all fly balls that are hit off of him. Once again, one would expect this to be an outlier and that this number will dip back to his career norm. Price has had a very disappointing 2013, but after spending a couple weeks on the DL I fully expect him to come back strong and his hits and home runs allowed numbers to go back to normal and him to get back to his Cy Young form.
• Kansas City Royals - This was supposed to be the year that the Royals FINALLY put everything together. They have the young talent, the beautiful stadium, and their owner finally decided to put some money into the team by signing big name pitchers in James Shields, Wade Davis, and Ervin Santana. They were finally going to have the arms to combine with the big bats of Billy Butler and Eric Hosmer. And they started off the season as well as they could have hoped. Through 27 games (May 5), the Royals were 17-10 and in first place in the AL Wild Card standings. Would this finally be the season the Royals figured it all out and made the playoffs for the first time since 1985? Maybe it's fitting that after 27 games the Royals all but ensured they would extend their 27 year playoff drought. Because since el cinco de mayo the Royals are 4-19 and now find themselves on the bottom of the AL central, on an 8 game losing streak, and with no signs of finding their way out of this massive hole they've dug themselves in.

NL Thursday (Joey Almars)

One thing that we have been seeing in Major League Baseball recently is the building of super teams being more common. For developing super teams, the concept is simple: bring in established high-grade talent to compliment your current players at whatever cash amount necessary. Seems simple if you have a lot of money, and developing the farm system can drop lower on the to-do list if you have a lot of it.

Of course we have always seen this concept embraced by the Yankees and they have always been the go to team to hate because of it. Believe me, I would always be the first to make their argument that they have bought all their championships, but now I have found a little more respect for the Yankees. As of recent years we have seen teams like the Red Sox, Dodgers, Marlins (yikes!), Toronto (yikes!!!), and the Angels have tried this same method and have yet to find success. Boston had a bright moment in 2007 but in the year of 2011 where they spent big money to bring the hot free agents, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez they have had little luck since.

However, the Red Sox got bailed out of paying $250 million (through 2018) to those two players in addition to Beckett and Punto because it was seen as the Dodgers’ turn to create a super team. The Dodgers took on these players last season in hope to make a playoff run, they were unsuccessful. So the Dodgers simply inherited the troubles of the Red Sox and now Boston is free to use that money in other ways to help their team.

We have seen this more and more in the past 5 years and with little success to follow. After the big deal between Boston and LA, Dodgers co-owner, Magic Johnson said, “We understand that you have to spend money to be good in this league. We understood that before we bought this team.” With that said, may I make the assumption that the Dodgers are spending money in the wrong ways.

Obviously if you bring in that much talent you are going to bring in more interest for your ball club (even if it is in Canada), but if a team goal is winning… they need to go back to the drawing board and realize that the Yankees know something that these other teams don’t know. And creating a super team is harder than it looks. I am Joey Almars and this is the last time you will ever hear me compliment the Yankees.

Now with all that said I tell you my opinion on what teams should do to if they got the cash and want a super team.

1)     Do not inherit other people’s problems: We have seen this with the Dodgers, we have seen this with the Blue Jays and so far they have had roughly the same problems from the other team. If it didn’t work the first time, don’t put more money into it and try it again in a different uniform.

2)     Don’ t buy your team leader: When the Yankees go out and buy talent they know that the captain of their team is still Derek Jeter and no matter who they bring in it will always be his team. In other words there is no question of leadership and any player coming in (know matter what position he held last year) knows whose team it is. I could not tell you if this has been the problem with these teams as of late but it is something that is clear cut with the Yankees team and not so definitive for others. Obviously you get different characters on different teams and there are some people that will mesh and others that won’t but if you have a strong leader to build around I believe that building will be easier.

3)     What to Buy: Obviously the Yankees have pursued the hitting route more exclusively than pitching (although they have not ignored it all together). But for the sake of this analysis lets just say they know something we don’t know (or simply had years of practice). What I think is that anyone creating a super team should start with pitching. We saw this start in 2010 with Philadelphia and reach its peak in 2011. They acquired Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt in 2010 and Cliff Lee in 2011 to accompany the arms of Blanton and Hamels. During this time, they led the MLB with wins in 2010 (97) and 2011 (102). And not to mention San Francisco won the World Series in 2010 and 2012 with one of the best pitching staffs in the league.

So what does all this mean? Pitchers are the safest bet if you are building a super team. In any trade or acquisition, GMs need to be aware of injury history of any player. If you exclude injuries from this equation on both the hitting side and the pitching side, pitchers are a safer bet because they are in their own world on the mound. There isn’t a question of leadership, because they simply go out and pitch their game. We are in the pitching age and it is clear how valuable pitching is once you arrive to the post season. In the market today I believe that there is a draw to getting big name hitters because seeing a HR is more interesting than a strikeout. But if teams are more interested in wins and not about filling seats, this is an option that hasn’t been tried enough and it has shown positive results.

AL Wednesday (Matthew Taylor)

Every Wednesday here at The Stand-Up Double we will have a post highlighting the American League. Whether it is and article on an AL team, an AL player, or discussing the pros and cons of the designated hitter position, you will be able to find it here every Wednesday. This Wednesday I will be focusing on the best player in the American League. This, of course, is Miguel Cabrera.

We all know about what Miguel Cabrera did last season. The Triple Crown, the .330 average, the 139 RBI. There's a reason that Cabrera was the first player to win the Triple Crown since 1967; it is incredibly difficult to do. If I were to tell you this past March that Cabrera would actually have a BETTER season this year than he did last year, you would have told me I was crazy. However, Cabrera is quietly having a better season than he had last season and is on pace to crush his AVG, HR, and RBI numbers that he put up last year. Through 42 games, Cabrera is boasting an insane .337 average with 14 HRs and 57 RBIs. If he keeps up this pace he will surely be right in the Triple Crown Race again which would make him the first player to ever hit for the Triple Crown in back-to-back seasons.

(Completely off topic, but here is an awesome .gif courtesy of fangraphs showing the incredible plate coverage of Miguel Cabrera. This shows six different Cabrera ABs with six completely different pitch locations and Cabrera knocks each of them out of the part. There simply is no way to pitch around Miguel Cabrera.)



Just how great of a career is Miguel Cabrera having? The graphic below shows Cabrera's season-by-season statistics. I have highlighted his HRs, RBIs, and AVGs for each season. Never once (not including Cabrera's rookie season where he was called up midway through the season) has Cabrera hit less than 25 HRs, hit less than 100 RBIs, or hit worse than .290. If you were to take Cabrera's WORST season in the majors (once again, excluding his rookie season) you would be looking at a .294 hitter with 33 HRs and 112 RBIs. Which would still be better numbers than Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew averaged for his career (sorry Twins fans). Cabrera has never missed more than 12 game in a season. He is the definition of consistency. I cannot stress enough how incredible it is what Miguel Cabrera is doing, and he is still only 30 years old!!

What I really appreciate about Miguel Cabrera is that he doesn't demand the limelight. He is one of the greatest offensive baseball players of all time and he seems to slide under the radar year after year. Apart from a 2011 DUI charge, Cabrera has stayed out of the news and merely goes about his business and quietly gives nightmares to pitchers everywhere. He doesn't celebrate after hitting home runs, and he doesn't trash talk. Miguel Cabrera is the best player in baseball right now and we all need to take the time to enjoy what he is doing.

Twins Tuesday (Joey Almars)

When I say that Joe Mauer is my favorite Twins player, I know that I am in a pool with a bunch of different people. He is the consistent All-Star catcher and without him, Minnesota would never have a shot at being chosen for Fox Baseball’s Game of the week on Saturday afternoons.

            The reasons I love Joe Mauer are the same reasons that I love guys like Neal Broten, and new Wild player Zach Parise (welcome home prodigal son), they are from the Greatest State, Minnesota. Despite Joe’s talent, and the possibility of getting more money, he stayed and wanted to finish out his career here in Minnesota.

            There was the hiccup in Mauer’s career that gave me a scare of another “just our look, Minnesota sports” moment. In 2011, he was plagued with injuries and at one point he even started at 1B to give his knees a break. After signing that giant contract, I facing the reality that the twins might have paid all that money for a AVG. specialty, first basemen rather than a power hitter.

            In 2012, we saw the old Joe Mauer return and we continue to see him being a consistent threat for the Batting Title with current OBP and AVG. numbers being in the top 5 or fringe top 5 in the MLB.

            ESPN reporter Jayson Stark, stated in his blog on April 18 that as baseball fans “we don’t know how good we have it.” He focused on the players Cabrera, Kershaw, and Mauer. It reinforced my faith in Joe as a hitter and how blessed the Twins are to have this hometown hero.