30 Teams in 30 Days: Chicago Cubs

Wrigley field will have someone else roaming right field when the 2005 baseball season gets underway. In a move that was long over due, the Cubs shipped Sammy Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles for Jerry Hairston Jr. and prospects. The move allows the Cubs to shift the face of the team onto one of their younger position players or pitchers. Sosa is one of the greatest power hitters of our generation, and was one of the most beloved Cubs ever (during his hey day) but those days passed a few years ago. Chicago must now find a new identity.

The Sosa trade is a good thing, no matter how you look at it. The Cubs needed to tailor this team more towards their pitching than offense. Last years Cub offense was a feast or famine. They would strike out or hit a two run home run. Their was no manufacturing runs, no steals, no hit and run. No small ball. That’s not how you win when you have the pitching staff the Cubs have. The Cubs have a pitching staff that doesn’t require them to outscore teams, so in that case why would you play for the home run?

It’s something we have heard for the past few years, but this year more than ever, the Cubs need Corey Patterson to have an All-Star type season. And do it as a table setter, not run producer. The ability of Patterson and Hairston Jr. or Nomar (who ever it is that hits in the two hole) to get on base will determine the success of the Cubs. If they can get their, they will score. There is no doubt that Ramirez, Burnitz and Lee can drive them in.

The infield is set, and arguably the best in the National League. All members from last years team return, with Nomar back to play a full season in Wrigley. The Sosa trade allows the Cubs to make Nomar the face of the team. A lot of people have argued that this title should go to one of the pitchers, but Nomar has the ability to make this his team and serve as it’s leader. Although the leader role may fall in his lap by default.
The big question facing this team is it’s outfield. Can Jeromy Burnitz have a good season not hitting in Coors Field? And can Jerry Hairston Jr. play everyday in the outfield? More than likely Hairston will split time between second base and left field, but who will the fourth outfielder be? Thirty-one year old Todd Hollandsworth and Rookie David Kelton are both options, or the Cubs could make a move to bring in an everyday player.

The Cubs lost Matt Clement to the Red Sox in the off season, but that loss allows them to plug one of their younger pitchers into the rotation and see if they can swim. Is that something you want to do, no. You would rather bring them a long slowly, but the Cubs have had a lot of success recently with young pitchers they called up. Prior, Wood and Zambrano will anchor the top half of the rotation with Greg Maddux serving as the fourth starter. The fifth spot is the one that is up for grabs.

After a nightmarish 2004 season in Milwaukee, Glendon Rusch turned in a solid season with the Cubs last year as a long reliever. Pitching in 129 2/3 innings, Rusch went 6-2 with a 3.47 era. Given the success he had last year, and the fact that he is left handed and the Cubs have an all right handed rotation, Glendon Rusch is the early favorite to replace Clement. Two other names to keep an eye on however are Young Sergio Mitre and Ryan Dempster. Mitre appeared in 51 innings last year, and struggled with an era over 6. Ryan Dempster has started in this league before, and has recently been viewed as a bullpen guy because of how hard he throws and injury concerns.

The Bullpen is interesting because the cubs have a few guys who could close, but no one stepped up to take the job last year. Joe Borowski struggled with injuries and had a bad 2004 season. LaTroy Hawkins was given the opportunity to close and did a fairly decent job at it. Ryan Dempster is another guy who gets mentioned as the possible closer too. Borowski did an excellent job as the closer in 2003, and early indications out of spring training say he looks very good. Hawkins is a guy who is better suited as a set up man, and I’m not sure Dempster can close.

5 Burning Questions

5. Who do we turn to?
Who will end up winning the closer’s role in this bullpen? History shows you cannot expect to have a lot of success if you attempt a closer by committee approach, so someone needs to step up and take this job.

4. Oh no
When Kerry Wood left the game on Wednesday was that a reason to be concerned, or will he bounce back and remain healthy this season.

3. The leftfielder is…
Is Jerry Hairston Jr. going to play left, is David Kelton, is Todd Hollandsworth, or are the Cubs going to make a move. This position cannot be a revolving door if they wish to compete for the division crown.

2. I got five on it
Who is the fifth starter on this team? Will they keep Glendon Rusch in the pen as their long relief guy, or will he start. Or will they give the job to a young guy like Sergio Mitre?

1. Seriously, Is there really a curse?
The Cubs were so close in 2003 before Bartman struck, then last year just spiraled downward with injuries and the whole Sosa incident in the final regular season game only to have the Cubs see the other “cursed” franchise win the World Series.

Fearless Predictions

Joe Borowski will win the closers job.
Jerry Hairston Jr. will see most of his playing time at second base, beating out Todd Walker.
The Cubs will make a move to acquire another bullpen guy.
David Kelton will see a lot of playing time.
Sergio Mitre and Ryan Dempster will both see time as the fifth starter.
The Cubs will make a mid-season move to solidify their bench.
The Cubs will win the NL Central.

30 Teams in 30 Days: St. Louis Cardinals

For most of the 2004 season, the St. Louis Cardinals looked like the team to beat in all of baseball. They steamrolled through the National League Central division while most people, myself included thought they would place third at best in that division. The offense was just too much for teams to handle, and for the first half of the year the Cardinals got by with suspect pitching, but it caught up to them in the end.

Albert Pujols (.331, 46, 123) and Jim Edmonds (.301, 42, 111) had their standard seasons, but the biggest surprise came from third baseman Scott Rolen. Rolen has always been a nice player, and perennial All-Star threat, but last year he was the MVP of the National League and team. Rolen ended up batting .314 with 34 homers and 124 RBI, with most of that damage done before the All-Star break. The Cardinals also got solid contributions from Tony Womack, Reggie Sanders and Edgar Renteria, and added Larry Walker to the lineup before the playoffs,

The offense took three hits this off season when it lost Womack, Renteria, and backstop Mike Matheny. Matheny will be the biggest loss of the group. The loss of Womack hurts because he was the only “speed” guy they had on the team and lead off most of the year. Replacing Womack is Mark Grudzielanek. In limited action with the Cubs last year, Grudzielanek batted .307 and scored 32 runs. Backing up Grudzielanek is last years Rule 5 pick Hector Luna. Luna played in 83 games last year, but is still very raw, and not someone the Cardinals hope will see extended playing time this season.

Another Rookie from last year, Yadier Molina takes over as the starting catcher. Molina appeared in 51 games last season and batted .267 with an on base percentage of .329. Molina will be a very good catcher in this league, but probably not quite yet. Backing up Molina is former Ranger, Expo and Indian Einar Diaz. Diaz will bring them a quality veteran defensive catcher who can spell Molina every few days.

Filling the void left by Renteria at short is former Angel David Eckstein. Eckstein is a hustle guy who fits in great with this lineup and with their fans. He won’t hit a lot of home runs, but this club doesn’t need that, what he will do is get on base, steal some bases, and work hard in the field.

This offense really shouldn’t miss a beat, sure they do have those three new guys in their lineup, but Pujols, Rolen, Walker, Edmonds, and Reggie Sanders all return. Will the offense fall off a bit, maybe, but the Cardinals still have enough to go around, especially if former pitcher Rick Ankiel can contribute in the outfield. I won’t make any Ankiel jokes because I’m sure you already heard them all, and secondly because I feel bad for the guy. Ankiel always had a nice stroke, even as a pitcher. In the minors he averaged a home run every ten at-bats. If he can produce like that then he’ll be a solid bench guy for this team.

The pitching was this team’s Achilles heel last year. I won’t say it cost them the World Series (even though it may well have) because I honestly don’t think anyone was beating the Red Sox last year. One of the biggest “what ever happened to that guy” seasons was turned in by Matt Morris last year. Morris was once a promising young pitcher, with a great curve ball and the ace of the staff. He comes into spring training as the projected fifth starter after turning in a bad 2004 season. He did win 15 games, but a lot of that was due to his offense. Morris had an era of 4.72. His career era is 3.53.

Chris Carpenter was the best pitcher on this staff last year. Carpenter has always been a guy with good stuff, the only question was could he stay healthy. Last year he did, for the first time in his career. Carpenter went 15-5, with a 3.46 era and looks very good in the early going so far this year. Jeff Suppan and Jason Marquis are back in the rotation, but Woody Williams is gone. The loss of Williams would have hurt a ton had the Cardinals not brought in the guy they did.

Knowing they had to bolster their pitching staff, the Cardinals added a young, left handed ace pitcher in Mark Mulder. It cost them Kiko Caliero and some young prospects, including lefty Dan Heren, but it was worth it. Mark Mulder makes this team better than it was last year, even if the offense does fall off a bit.

The bullpen has it’s same cast of characters,. Jason Isringhausen is back closing games, and setting it up for him are still Julian Tavarez and Ray King. Caliero started to come on as a good set up guy last year, and Steve Kline signed with Baltimore. The Kline loss especially hurts now that Ankiel is moving to the outfield. Al Reyes was brought in from Tampa Bay, and Mike Myers from Seattle. Myers will now be looked at as the guy to replace Kline.

All in all this is still a very good team. I think they improved their team this season, but they won’t win as many games as they did last season (as strange as that sounds). The offense is still tough, and the rotation now has a good 1-2 punch of Mulder and Carpenter, and if Matt Morris can pitch more like his career record rather than last season’s the Cardinals have three good pitchers in their rotation.

5 Burning Questions

5. Yadier Molina
Mike Matheny was a great defensive catcher, and did a great job with pitching staffs. Can Yadier step in to replace Matheny, or will the change take it’s toll on the pitching staff?

4. Where’s the Catalyst?
Edgar Renteria and Tony Womack are gone, and they helped set the table. Can Mark Grudzielanek and David Eckstein do enough to admirably replace them? The transition from Renteria to Eckstein won’t be as rough as
that of Womack to Grudzielanek.

3. Bullpen
Besides Izzy, is there enough? Ray King is good at facing lefties and Julian Tavarez is often hit or miss. Are Mike Myers, Cal Eldred and Al Reyes good enough for Jason Isringhausen to rely on?

2. Carpenter and Morris
Can Matt Morris bounce back form an atrocious 2004 and give this team a second ace? Can Chris Carpenter stay healthy for two seasons in a row. I couldn’t believe he did it for one, so two may be too much to ask.

1. The Ace
Is Mark Mulder good enough to carry a staff by himself. In Oakland he was part of the big three, which meant no one out of the three had a ton of pressure place on them, they all shared it. In St. Louis big things are expected from him.

Fearless Predictions

Mark Mulder will win 20 games.
Chris Carpenter will once again have shoulder problems.
Matt Morris will win 18 games this season, and return to form.
The Cardinals will miss Tony Womack, but they’ll miss Mike Matheny a lot more.
The Cardinals will be temped to move Rick Ankiel back to pitching.
The bullpen will miss Steve Kline and Kiko Caliero a lot.
The Cardinals will finish in second place in the NL Central.

Panthers Celebrate with Champagne

For those of you who don't know the story, click on the link above to read about it. Basically, the UWM Panthers celebrated their victory on Tuesday night by cracking open bottles of champagne and spraying it on each other. Do I have a problem with this? Maybe. Do I think it is a big deal? No.

Let me explain that I only have a problem with it if the players were consuming the champagne, and only if the players who may have been consuming the alcohol were underage. Simply spraying the champagne on each other is not a big deal to me. The NCAA does not have a policy against this type of thing, so I don't have a problem there either.

College arenas are not allowed to sell alcoholic beverages at games; so there is reason to be upset that these young men had champagne in the locker room.

I understand that players want to celebrate. Like I said, I only have a problem if underage people were consuming the champagne. By the way, why do I keep writing consuming instead of drinking?

Coach Bruce Pearl reported the incident right away and told his players he was disappointed with them. This was a good move, and since the NCAA does not have any rule against this sort of behavior, so I don't think any suspensions are in order or anything like that, unless the school itself has rules against athletes and alcohol. If underage players were found to be drinking the champagne, they should be suspended. Read the article to get the story and form your own opinion.

-Until next time...

Favre Back in '05

Brett Favre is returning for another season in 2005. He told Coach Mike Sherman the good news today. This should keep some Packer fans from making a run on razor blades for at least one more season. Clinck on the headline to go to the Packers site or here for the ESPN story.

-Until next time...

Tom Crean

I wanted to write more about Crean yesterday, but forgot in my original column, tried writing this last night, but it wouldn't publish, and haven't been able to get online today until about 15 minutes ago. I remembered what I wanted to write after one of our good friends out in Cali had the following to say:

Marquette blows and Tom Crean is overrated. The only reason they had success a few years back was because
Crean took a flier on an academic non qualifier that everyone passed on and it ended up being Dwayne Wade. They
will be perennial cellar dwellers in the Big East from here on out.

VinDigiorgio better known as Justin (not Garcia) is very much correct. After having Dwayne Wade lead the team to a Final Four, the team has gone 19-12 (8-8) and 19-11 (7-9) in the two years Wade has been gone. Sure they were nice to watch at times this year with Travis Diener at the point, but most of the time, it was unbearable. Dameon Mason has not lived up to expectations, and Justin (Garcia) is right when he says people can stop comparing him to Dwayne Wade. Since Crean apparently has a top 20 recruiting class coming in, I will give him three more years to get to the NCAA Tournament twice and make at least one sweet sixteen, otherwise I will be signing the fire Tom Crean petition and starting firetomcrean.com if it isn't up already. The reason I say three years instead of two is because he is moving to a new conference, needs to learn how to win in that conference, how to recruit for the style of play, and has NO ONE I have faith in for next season.

That is what I wanted to write. Also I must say that I didn't think UWM looked like a tournament team on Tuesday, meaning that when I saw them, they didn't look like a tournament team at that time. I did enjoy watching them during the season and thought they would be another tough draw for a 5 or 6 seed, but like Justin said, they will probably get a 13 at best.

I was going to do my NL West preview today, but won't because of lack of time. I have a meeting tomorrow and will then be getting ready to go down to Chicago with Gaddis and another good friend of ours, so you may not even get it tomorrow. If not tomorrow, I will definitely have it on Monday, along with the NL East preview later in the week.

-Until next time...

UWM and Marquette

After reading Nate’s thoughts on UWM and Marquette this morning, I had to give my two cents on the topic. I strongly disagree with you when you said you didn’t think UWM is a tournament team. The Panthers put together a 24-5 record while playing a tough schedule. In fact their schedule was far tougher than Marquette’s schedule. The Panthers beat Air Force and St. Louis, Manhattan, Purdue and Hawaii all on the road, had a one point road loss to Valparaiso, and gave Kansas all they could handle in Kansas (Kemper Area, not Phog Allen) before folding down the stretch and losing 73-62.

Having attended a few home games this season, including Tuesdays Title game, and watching nearly every televised game I can confidently tell you they are not they team they played like on Tuesday. You were right, they did play very poorly in that game, which was disappointing to see because they did the same thing in last years title game, but this year they got away with it.

Bruce Pearl summed it up perfectly after the game when he said “Detroit deserved to win that game, but we deserved to be conference champions!” You can’t argue with that, because this team was by far the class of the Horizon league. I know the league is not all that strong, but UIC, Detroit and UWGB (before they folded in the final five games) were all very strong teams. The Panthers ended the season going 16-2 in conference, losing to Green Bay on the road and suffering a tough home loss to Detroit early in the season. UWM ended the season winning 15 of their final 16 games.

I’m not going to say they will make it out of the first round, you have to wait and see who they draw before you can say anything like that, but the Panthers will be a tough out for any team that draws them. In 2002 they were awarded a 12 seed and as we all know lost to Notre Dame by a point when Dylan Page missed a lay-up as time expired. This season’s version of the Panthers is far superior to the 2002 team, and in my opinion deservingly should be awarded with an 11 seed, but will probably get a 13 or 14.

They have two go-to-guys in senior guard Ed McCants, and junior forward Joah Tucker. McCants was the Horizon League Player of the Year, and is the cousin of UNC‘s Rashad McCants. He is a very streaky shooter, and as most streaky shooters when he is on he can’t miss, but when he’s off he tends to throw up a lot of bad shots. Tucker is an absolute beast, and will follow in the footsteps of McCants this year, and Dylan Page last year by winning the Player of the Year next year. Tucker can shoot, defend, score in the post and take the ball to the hole. It was Tucker who was named the Horizon League Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, as he is starting to really come on as a force lately.

UWM is also blessed with having two very good second options in Boo Davis and Adrian Tigert. Davis is very much in the same mold as McCants. He’s a streaky three point shooter, but he is far more athletic than Ed. Adrian Tigert is the Panthers best low post option. He can score, but often times elects not to, that’s where his one flaw lies. He is too passive. For a big guy he can handle the ball very well, and has great court vision. Tigert is very similar to the player Dylan Page was for the Panthers last year.

The other strength of the Panthers game is their defense. They are a very athletic team who loves to play defense, but they don’t play the same kind of defense you see being played up in Madison. UWM plays a defense more like what you see Rick Pitino use in Louisville and when he was in Kentucky. They are a team who loves to press, and is very good at it. Milwaukee Vincent grad James Wright is arguably their best defender. At 6-6 Wright has an enormous wing-span and is the fastest player on the team. He is great at defending the inbounds pass, making it difficult for opposing players to get the ball in over him, and tremendous on the collapse down when they trap in the back court. Jason McCoy is another good lanky defender they have and use a lot. The Panthers love to get up and down the court, and force a lot of turnovers with their press style defense.

In regards to Marquette, I honestly have to say I no longer like them. I even went as far as rooting against them when they played yesterday. Marquette is a one trick pony, and that pony left the stable a few games ago. By that I think you know I mean Travis Deiner is their whole team. Their play yesterday was embarrassing to say the least. How can a division 1 team not break a press? No one on that team knew what to do when they were trapped.

I will admit I was a big Tom Crean fan in the early years. He did bring some excitement back to college basketball in Milwaukee. I was fully into Marquette’s final four run, I loved it. I loved Dwayne Wade, and loved Tom Crean, and I loved that team. But now, we are beginning to see just what a superstar player can do for your team. Dwayne Wade made a lot of guys look and play a lot better.

My love for Tom Crean is long gone. In fact, I just don’t like him. He is very overrated as a recruiter, and not as good of a coach we thought he was. How did Marquette not bring in any big recruits following the final four run? You went to the final four, appeared to have a young promising coach, you had a superstar like Dwayne Wade, and had good complimentary guys like Deiner and Steve Novak. That is just ridiculous. Ryan Amaroso was their big recruit on this year’s team. Yeah Ryan Amaroso, wow. By the way, can we stop comparing Dameon Mason to Dwayne Wade already.

Speaking of Wade, I’m sick of telling Marquette fans Tom Crean can’t recruit only to hear them say “oh yeah he can, he brought in Dwayne Wade!” STOP IT! He didn’t recruit Dwayne Wade. He took a flier on Wade. Wade was a big question mark academically, and any team who brought him in knew he would be ineligible his first year. He also wasn’t even that good in High School, he wasn’t even the best or most recruited guy on his own team, and I don’t even know where that guy is know. Crean had nothing to lose in taking a chance on him so he did it. It’s like Packer fans saying Mike Sherman made a great move by signing Grady Jackson. He had nothing to lose by trying it because their interior defense was so bad so he figured why not. There is a big difference in going out on the line for someone and taking a chance, and just saying why not, might as well try it.

Marquette in in huge trouble next year in the Big East. First of all they finished in 9th place in Conference USA. Conference USA. Secondly their whole team graduates in May, and by whole team I mean Travis Deiner. Is Wes Matthews going to be ready to contribute next year? Not the way they will need him to. Another problem is they have no big men. All of their incoming recruits are guards. They are going to get hammered in the Big East.

When you compare UWM to Marquette it’s definitely a tale of two very different teams. One is on the way up, and continually getting better, while the other has been on a downward spiral for the past two seasons and it only looks to be getting worse now.

30 Teams in30 Days: Milwaukee Brewers

It seemed like everything the Milwaukee Brewers felt they needed to do this off season, they did. They added a right hander power hitter to the middle of their lineup, they upgraded at the catcher spot, adding a pitching prospect, kept their ace pitcher, and even got a new owner.

It was quite an off season to be a brewer fan, for the first time a while, the club has a plan and a plan they are sticking to. General Manager Doug Melvin knows how to build a successful team, and he is well on his way to doing it in Milwaukee. It is an exciting time to be a Brewer fan, something you haven’t been able to say since 1992.

Last year served as a great springboard for this team. They overachieved and played above .500 for the first half of the season, only to have injuries derail any chance at ending their streak of 11 straight losing seasons. It started in spring training where they won on a regular basis. The winning exhibition season did wonders for improving the club’s morale and confidence, it allowed the Brewers to enter games in the regular season expecting to win.

The biggest development made last year was not the play of Lyle Overbay, or the continuing progression of Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder, it was Ben Sheets. Sheets finally stepped up and pitched like the ace the Brewers envisioned him to be. He set the Brewer record in strike outs, and would have been a serious cy young candidate had his offense not failed him, giving him no run support. Ben Sheets showed last year that he is going to be one of the best pitchers in this league for years to come.

The rotation got great performances from guys other than Sheets too. Mike Maddux, anonymously one of the best pitching coaches in this league, did wonders for the development of Doug Davis and Victor Santos. By going 12-12 with a 3.39 era, Doug Davis proved he can be a legitimate second starter in this league. The Brewers also have a group of young pitchers with the ability of being quality and in one case great starters in this league Jose Capellan, a young hard throwing prospect acquired from the Braves for Dan Kolb could feasibly make his way into the starting rotation to begin the season. Ben Hendrickson pitched in the majors for much of the second half of last season, and struggled much of the way compiling a 1-8 mark with a 6.22 era. He did end the season pitching a lot better and has the potential to be a very good bottom of the rotation guy in this league.

The other young guy they are looking at is Jorge de la Rosa. It was de la Rosa, not Overbay who was viewed as the centerpiece of the Richie Sexson deal. The Brewers made that move and got great production from Overbay, Junior Spivey, Chad Moeller and Chris Capuano when he was healthy. The Brewers made that move then hoping that de la Rosa could be a star in this league, the reality now is any contribution from de la Rosa is just a cherry on top of the Sunday. Much like Hendrickson, de la Rosa struggled in his appearances last year going 0-3 with a 6.35 era, but recent indications reports out of spring training have stated that de la Rosa has looked very sharp in camp (with the exception of his first start) and could push to crack the opening day rotation. One way or another de la Rosa will be on the opening day roster, because he is out of options, and there is no way the Brewers will risk having him claimed off waivers.

The bullpen is where Mike Maddux will have to work his magic once again. Dan Kolb is gone, so is their best set up man Jose Vizcaino and their best long reliever and spot starter Dave Burba. The Brewers signed veteran reliever Ricky Bottalico this off season. Bottalico went 3-2 with a 3.38 era while pitching for the Mets last year. Despite the fact that he has 114 career saves, Bottalico will probably take over the role of set up man for this team.

The Brewers acquired Justin Lehr from the Athletics for Keith Ginter in January. Lehr is a young guy who throws very hard, but has a history of command problems. If he can correct his control he could develop into a very good setup man for this team. Middle reliever Matt Wise and middle reliever/pinch hitter Brooks Kieschnick are both back and both pitched very well last season. Last years Rule 5 pick Jeff Bennett may or may not make this team out of camp because of a numbers game. Bennett still has all of his picks left while some others, most notably Jorge de la Rosa are out of options and probably wouldn’t clear waivers.

The biggest question out of camp is who is going to replace Dan Kolb as the closer. Bottalico, Lehr, Bennett and Mike Adams have all been given the chance to win the spot. When it’s all said and done Mike Adams will be the Brewers closer. Adams came on as an unheralded rookie for the crew last year to become one of their better relievers. The 26 year old Adams turned some heads going 2-3 with a 3.40 era. Adams went through most of the season with an era hovering around 1.00 until he struggled in the final month of the season. After watching his progression last year, there is no reason to believe that Adams can’t handle the job as closer.

Offensively the Brewers were inept last year. Aside from Lyle Overbay, nothing stood out offensively on this club, and Overbay even experienced his share of struggles for much of the second half of the season. After dealing Sexson before the beginning of the season Geoff Jenkins was expected to be the offensive leader, but he was anything but that. Jenkins struggled at the plate, hitting just .264 with 27 homers and 93 runs driven in. The offensive disappointments didn’t stop there, the Brewers brought in Ben Grieve and hoped he could add offensive production, but Grieve hit just .260 with 8 home runs and 35 RBI.

Wes Helms and leadoff man Scott Podsednik were both major disappointments in their own right. Helms struggled through most of the season with a knee injury and batted only .263 with just 4 home runs and 28 driven in, after hitting over 20 home runs the previous year. Podsednik was able to steal bases, and still scored 85 runs, but he batted just .244 and had an on base percentage of .313, which is absolutely horrible for a lead off man.

Realizing they needed to do anything they could to add pop to this lineup the Brewers shook things up in December by trading Scott Podsednik and Luis Vizcaino to the Chicago White Sox for right handed slugger Carlos Lee. Last season Lee batted over .300 (.305), had more than 30 home runs (31) and drove in 99 runs. He’s a career .288 hitter and now hitting in a hitters park, so all indications are he will at least equal those numbers this year while sandwiched between Lyle Overbay and Geoff Jenkins in the Brewers lineup. The addition of Lee also allows the Brewers to break up the string of left handed hitters in their lineup, especially if Russell Branyan wins the third base job.

Brady Clark will enter the season in a battle with youngster Dave Krynzel for the centerfielder and leadoff man job. Krynzel is fast, can steal a lot of bases and is a good outfielder, but struggles at the plate. Clark was the Brewers best reserve last year batting .280 with an on base percentage of .385, and is a fine fielder in his own right. Brady Clark will probably end up winning the job, and Krynzel may get optioned down to AAA to begin the season, allowing the Brewers to have Chris Magruder as their fourth outfielder. Magruder can play all three outfield spots and saw some action in Milwaukee last year.

Another young guy fighting for a starting spot is rookie shortstop JJ Hardy. Hardy would have been called up midway through the season last year had he not experienced a shoulder injury. Defensively he is more than ready to play in the majors, but offensively he’s not there yet. The Brewers don’t care so much about that, they have time to allow him to find his swing. JJ Hardy will start the season as the Brewers starting shortstop.

At second base Junior Spivey is back, which is huge. The Brewers struggles both record wise and offense wise came to a head last year when Junior Spivey went down with injury. Spivey was the guy who made that offense go. Spivey batted .272 with 7 home runs and 28 RBI in about half of a season of work. He helped out that lineup by being quality right handed hitter at the top of the rotation. He’s a guy who will bat around the .280-.300 mark with 15-20 homers and about 60 or 70 RBI. He can hit for average, has some decent pop, and can steal some bags when asked to. Rickie Weeks is the future, and will probably be a September call up again, but Spivey is here to stay for another year or two.

The last offensive change made was done when they brought in veteran catcher Damian Miller. Miller is a guy who has played for winners, won a World Series ring with the Diamondbacks, and has caught and helped develop some very good young pitchers. Oh yeah he’s also a Wisconsin native. The Brewers needed to do something to upgrade their catching from last year. Chad Moeller did a great job defensively, and calling games, but Miller and Gary Bennett both left little to be desired offensively. Miller is a guy who can bat about .280 for you, and provide good clutch hitting and good protection down at the end of the lineup.

The last position battle the Brewers have on their hands is the battle for the third base job. Wes Helms, Russell Branyan and former Brewer All-Star Jeff Cirillo will all be in competition for the job. The Brewers invested their future and quite a bit of money in Helms, but are very intrigued by Branyan’s power. Jeff Cirillo was brought in to compete for a bench job. There is pretty much no chance that he wins the starting job now, but he could be a Brady Clark type infielder off the bench that the Brewers are in need of. I think Branyan will probably end up winning the job here, and the Brewers will explore any trade options for Helms. There is one rumor out of Chicago that would have them sending Helms to the White Sox for Willie Harris, which would make sense, but I don’t see it happening.

5 Burning Questions

5. Who’s on Third?
Wes Helms or Russell Branyan? They are nearly identical players, they both have some pop (although Branyan has a lot more) neither guy is going to bat over .300, and both guys are going to strike out a lot. I think the one advantage Helms holds is he is right handed in a left handed heavy lineup, that and he’s Ned Yost’s guy.

4. Keep it Up
Can Doug Davis and Victor Santos turn in another performance like they did last year? If one of them would fall off a bit you’d think it would be Victor Santos.

3. Back at it Again
Ben Sheets was great last year, but pitched most of the second half of the season with a back injury and it started to show the last few starts. Back injuries are serious, especially for pitchers. Hopefully it was just a minor injury that’s behind him now.

2. Back-to-Back
Can Geoff Jenkins bounce back from a bad 2004, or will it be back to back bad seasons. If Jenkins can have an offensive year he is capable of having (.300, 30 and 100) then Lee and Jenkins back to back in the lineup, with Overbay in front is a very dangerous lineup.

1. The Fireballer
Is Jose Capellan major league ready, and if does he start, does he close, is he a set up man? All signs form spring thus far have Capellan ready to contribute to a major league team. He throws hard consistently and looks to have controlled his command issues he had early on in the Braves organization. If he progress to his potential this year he could become the Brewers third starter before the All-Star break.

Fearless Predictions

Carlos Lee will have a monster year (40 home runs) and make the All-Star team.
Mike Adams will win the closers job.
Russell Branyan will win the third base job, and Wes Helms will get shipped out of town.
Jose Capellan will start the season in the Brewers starting rotation.
Jeff Cirillo will make a solid bench contribution to this team.
Ben Sheets will have another tremendous year.
Doug Melvin will win executive of the year.
The Brewers will finish above .500 for the first time in 12 years.
The Brewers will finish in third place in the NL Central.

30 Teams in 30 Days: Atlanta Braves

Once again I have to file two reports in one day to make up for a missed one yesterday. I had class in the morning and then a friend of mine made a three hour trek to Milwaukee to take in the Horizon League Championship game. I didn’t get back until about 6 pm today, so needless to say I haven’t had the time yet. But anyway.

The Atlanta Braves underwent Extreme MLB Team Makeover this past off season, bringing in two new corner outfielders, a new ace, and a new closer. They also moved two current team members to a more familiar spot.
For the second year in a row, the offense has been tweaked with, but this year not as much as the overhaul they went through last year. J.D. Drew left to sign with the Dodgers, and 90 year old Vinny Castilla signed with the Nationals.

To fill the void left at third base, the Braves have elected to move Chipper Jones back their to his natural position, rather than calling up young corner infielder Andy Marte. Surrounding Andrew Jones in the outfield now are Raul Mondesi and Brian Jordan. Jordan played in just 61 games last year and batted only .222 with 5 home runs and 23 RBI. Although his best days are far behind him, he wouldn’t be a bad 4th outfielder, but Atlanta is expecting him to start.

Mondesi appeared in just 34 games with the Pirates and Angels last year, due to personal issues. Mondesi is still a great talent, but personal issues and a lack of motivation have derailed his would be promising career. I think ESPN’s Tim Kurkjin said it best, “If you can’t play for Bobby Cox, you can’t play for anyone.” So in that case, maybe Mondesi has a chance at resurrecting his career. If an injury should occur, the Braves are in trouble. Dewayne Wise was picked up off waivers, and Charles Thomas was moved in the deal for Tim Hudson leaving them with only Ryan Langerhans and young phenom Jeff Fancoeur. Langerhans can rake it and has some good potential as a hitter in this league, but he’s one of those guys who you hear that about year after year but they always disappoint. Whether it’s giving one of these two playing time, or moving Chipper back to the outfield, the Braves will need to do something to address the depth issue in the grass, because Jordan and Mondesi won’t play in over 150 games combined this year.

The infield looks much the same. LaRoche, Giles, Furcal and Estrada return as starters with Chipper Jones back at third. The infield is solid without any real holes. Despite his continual progression, I wouldn’t expect to see Andy Marte called up until the end of the season. I think he’s ready to play now, but it wouldn’t do him any good sitting on the bench every four days behind Chipper Jones.

Pitching is where the Braves had made their mark during much of their 13 year run as division champs, and this year they made moves to get back to that. After losing Glavine and Maddox, they relied on offense for two years but now they appear to be building the pitching back up. The Braves made a move for a young ace this winter and brought in Tim Hudson to anchor their staff. They also sent young fireballing prospect Jose Capellan to the Brewers for closer Danny Kolb. The move for Kolb allows John Smoltz to move back into the starting rotation. Kolb had a good two year and a half closing in Milwaukee, but he closed a lot of meaningless games with minimal pressure on him.

The new rotation looks very good, much like a Braves rotation from the mid 90’s. Hudson, Smoltz, Mike Hampton (13-9, 4.28), John Thomson (14-8, 3.72) and Horacio Ramirez (2-4, 2.39) is the projected rotation. Ramirez looked very good early last year, but broke down with injuries mid way through the season. Hudson and Ramirez could be the best one two punch of the future in this division.

The bullpen is where the concerns lie on the pitching staff. Dan Kolb was solid in his time spent in Milwaukee, but again he wasn’t pitching in a lot of pressure games. Kevin Grybowski and Tom Martin and Gabe White are veteran quality middle relievers, and Chris Reitsma is a guy who with the help of Leo Mazzone could be a good power guy in the set up role. Once again the Braves are a really good team, but not quite good enough to challenge for a World Series. If they can add another bat off the bench and a proven set up man, then they could possibly win the NL, but this team just isn’t deep enough.

5 Burning Questions

5. Kolby Cheese
Can Dan Kolb prove the last year and a half wasn’t just a good run, but rather a sign of things to come? The Braves cannot afford to have Dan Kolb struggle in the closers role. Their bullpen isn’t that deep as it is, and moving Smoltz back to the closers role is not anything they want to think about doing.

4. Breakdown
Can John Smoltz handle moving from starter to closer to starter? If his stamina is still there, and the elbow can hold up pitching in more innings he still has the stuff to be a good starter and borderline ace.

3. Crazy in Love
Are the Braves nuts? What is it about Raul Mondesi that makes you think “oh yeah, I can get that guy to play for me?” They are putting all their eggs in the Mondesi/Jordan basket, which could prove to be disastrous.

2. Ace of the Place
Is Tim Hudson a major league ace? The Braves hope so, they can get by without him being an ace but they won’t go anywhere in the playoffs if that’s the case.

1. Is it the End?
Is this the year? Is this the end of the Braves run as NL East champions? The question comes up year after year, and year after year the Braves prove all of us wrong by winning the division.

Fearless Predictions

John Smoltz will win 18 games.
Horacio Ramirez will be the best left hander on the staff, and end up being the third starter.
Jeff Fancoeur and Ryan Langerhans will see a lot more playing time this year than the braves would like.
Adam LaRoche will bat over .300.
Dan Kolb will save 40+ games this year.
The Braves run as division champs will remain intact.

Marquette and UWM

I don't know which game was more painful to watch, the UWM one point victory over Detroit last night or the Marquette three point loss to Texas Christian University today. I guess it would probably be the Marquette game because at least UWM won and is now headed to the NCAA Tournament, but if they play like they did last night, there's no way they're getting out of the first round. As for MU, they looked horrible. I know they were without leader and point guard Travis Diener, but a division one basketball team should not look this bad.

For those of you who weren't able to see the Marquette game, let me sum it up; they went down 10-0 within the first 2 minutes because they couldn't get the ball up-court against the TCU press, they battled back and were only down 6 at the half, TCU wasn't pressing, Todd Townsend and Joe Chapman led MU to a 49-42 lead with 3:35 left in the game, TCU started pressing again and took a 50-49 lead, the game went to overtime when MU couldn't get a decent shot of in the last 20 seconds of the game, TCU pressed in the overtime and MU turned the ball over when they were tied at 57, TCU hit a three, and MU's last attempt was a three by Steve Novak which he lost on the way up; 60-57.

First of all the players on Marquette didn't even seem to want to throw the ball into guys who were open, but instead waited for someone to almost be double teamed and then threw the ball into him. After the ball was in the hands of a player who was double teamed; they could barely get the ball across half court. The team really missed Diener and didn't have a suitable backup for him. If this is what we are to expect from Marquette in the near future, the Big East will not be a pleasant home for them.

As for the UWM game, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be by the Panthers. This was the third or fourth game I saw them play all season and they looked much better in each of the previous games. I thought they would look outstanding in this game, seeing as how it was for a conference championship, berth in the NCAA Tournament, and on their home court, but they looked like a high school team at times. I will have to say they looked like they could beat Marquette if they pressed all game, but nothing about the way they played stood out for me, except how the Panthers don't look like an NCAA Tourney worthy team. But, they're in and I hope they do well.

I'm going to close this post by making a Rick Ankiel joke. For those of you who don't know, Ankiel is the Cardinals pitcher who once threw 5, that's right FIVE, wild pitches in one inning during a playoff game in 2000. Well, he is moving to outfield in the hopes he can make the Cardinals team this season. Here's the joke: Hey did you hear Rick Ankiel is moving from pitcher to the outfield for St. Louis? Yeah, I guess this way they figure if he misses his target, there are 6 other people who can catch it! Thank you, I'll be here all week at 3:00, 7:00, 7:15, and the adult show at 10:00pm, remember to tip your waitresses.

-Until next time...

Greatest Quarterback Ever and other Tid-bits

Well after a week and only a few responses by our lazy readers, I have the list of who we think were the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Sorry AndDro, but Iowa is getting no love in the final outcome. To determine who overall was number 1, I gave each person points based on what position they were in on the lists (5 points for 1st place, 1 for 5th). Here it is:

1. Joe Montana
2. Johnny Unitas
3. Brett Favre
4. Tom Brady
5. John Elway

Others receiving votes were; Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham, Steve Young, Dan Marino, and Bart Starr.

Thanks to all of you who voted, Spaeth had a great pick with Young, and my dad obviously brought in the likes of Baugh and Graham. If anyone else wants to add more names to the list or still vote, feel free.

For all of you Packers fans out there, my friend John asked me this question yesterday, which was on his Green Bay Packers off-the-wall calender, "From 2001-2003, the Packers used a draft pick on a member of that year's National Championship team, who are the players?" The answer will be at the end of this post.

I can't wait for the UW-M vs. Detroit game tonight for the Horizon League Tournament Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Panthers are looking for their second appearance in 3 years. Of course we all remember the 2003 tournament when the Panthers were defeated by Notre Dame after some costly misses on close shots by a certain Panther forward. For a preview of tonight's game and a recap of Detroit's win at the Arena on January 3rd, click here. Also, hopefully our good friend and resident UWM expert over at Brew City Beat, Todd, will have a preview of the game or at least a recap of it, as he will probably be there.

Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, there is a great site you can check out which gives the winners of every NCAA Tournament Championship since Oregon started it all back in 1939, along with who they played, who else was in the Final Four, and the location. Before checking it out, I challenge all of you to bo back to 1963 to beat how far back I could go, naming all of the champions. I stopped by getting UCLA in 1964, couldn't get the 1963 winner, anyway, click here, or for just champion, runner-up, year, and location here. If you're like me and want to see who won every game of every tournament, and have been searching for a website where you could find this, here it is, the winners of every game in NCAA Tournament history. Simply click on the year and see the results of every game (by the way, if I still don't have a job in the next couple of weeks, I will be putting all of these seasons into bracket form, I'm bored).

I watched the Gonzaga game last night and was quite impressed with this team. We all remember last year when some people were picking them to reach the Final Four and at least one analyst picked them to win the Championship, but this year they are flying under the radar for the most part (as I write this, Around the Horn is having a segment on the Zags). Everyone is talking about Illinois and North Carolina, and for good reason, but with Ronny Turiaf down low and Adam Morrison playing like one of the best players in the country, this is a Zags team which could do some damage in the tourney. Some other teams which could cause damage which people aren't talking about;

Arizona- A tough, well coached team with the best shooter in the country in Salim Stoudamire, and serviceable Channing Frye in the middle
Utah- The team no one ever believes in is back
Kentucky- Not talked about much because they don't have a superstar, but almost went undefeated through the SEC
Florida- Another team which people were high on in the past few years looks like they may have found stride against the Wildcats
Finally, UCONN- Weren't really looked at as a legit contender until recently and their stock went way up after huge win against Syracuse.

That's it for today, here are the answers to the Packers trivia question, I got the first two correct, couldn't think of the third:

2001- Torrance Marshall- MLB- Oklahoma
2002- Najeh Davenport- RB- Miami
2003- Kenny Peterson- DT- Ohio State

-Until next time...

What a Weekend

Since so much happened this weekend, especially between 2 and 9pm yesterday, I will be spitting out some short little bits we have all come to know as the ramblings. Some may be a little longer than normal, but that's how it goes.

The stat of the weekend: The last three teams in college basketball to have their first loss of the season on the final day of the regular season have not made it to the sweet sixteen in the NCAA Tournament, including Stanford last season, who lost to Alabama in the second round.

Speaking of the Illinois loss at Ohio State yesterday, I was watching that game unitl Illinois went up 6 with under 4 minutes to go. I thought, here we go again, Illinois is about to pull away. I didn't even know what happened in the game until a friend called and told me. Congratulations to Ohio State for being the team to finally defeat Illinois, and also to the Fighting Illini who have had and still will have a great season.

More on Illinois... I am so sick of hearing people say things like, "This is the best thing which could have happened to this team", "the loss is a blessing in disguise", "they might have tanked this game on purpose". All of this is crap. No one, no team ever has wanted to lose a game. As Herm Edwards once said, "You play to win the game!" Why on Earth would Illinois want to lose this game? It doesn't make any sense. They were 10 games away from history, there is no reason this loss is a blessing in disguise. For once I agreed with Woody Paige who basically said the same thing today. There is one goal for every team in every game, and that is to WIN.

Can you say SI cover jinx Illinois?

The golf on Sunday was awesome. Just indredible golf. My television was focused on what I will be speaking of next, but Tiger vs. Phil was outstanding and I watched it during commercials of the Duke game. Usually Tiger would go up 2 on anyone after the 12th hole, and the other person would fold. Not Phil, he came back and tied Woods, and if not for a weekend warrior-esque type putt, he would have had the lead going into 17. Instead, the two were tied, and Phil darn near brought the tournament to a playoff with a great chip shot on 18. A little too much energy for Phil on his putt on 16 and approach on 18, otherwise he probably would have won. Congratulations to Tiger, though who regained his number one ranking in the world. Hopefully the Doral will give us a glimpse as to what we can expect for the rest of the season; the two most popular players in golf playing together in the final pairing. This is a great rivalry. While it isn't Duke/UNC, Texas/OU, Red Sox/Yankees, or even Gonzaga Pepperdine, it is still an outstanding rivalry. These two men bring out the best golf in each other, and the fans are the winners. I would compare Phil vs. Tiger and the two of them playing in the final pairing on Sunday's all summer would be like if Gary Cooper and John Wayne were in the same western, two great actors, not friends, not enemies, bringing out the best in each other.

What I watched mostly while the golf was on was Duke at UNC. There really aren't any words which can be written about this series which would do the level of competition justice. Duke had a big lead, then Carolina had a big lead, then it was close, then it was halftime, then Carolina had a lead, then Duke had a big lead, then Carolina scored the final 11 points in the game and won by 2. You don't even need to have a vested interest in either of these teams to enjoy the games when they play. Sean May had one of the best games I've seen out of a big man in a while with 26 points and 24 rebounds. Unfortunately for UNC, I am still going to hold by my statement that Roy Williams won't win a National Championship until Martin Scorsese wins a Best Director Oscar, so they won't win the title again this year (I may be ammending this statement on April 4. I am not writing any more about the game because I wouldn't be able to express the greatness which was displayed in it.

Duke looks like a team which could make a run all the way to the title, or could lose in the second round. If they play a team with great guard play and hustling defense (Louisville) in the second round, they could be in trouble.

Wake Forest came back and won by two points on a buzzer beater by Chris Paul last night. Another great game on a great day of college basketball. Unfortunately Paul has been suspended by Wake Forest for a low blow he threw on North Carolina State's Julius Hodge.

Kansas lost again and people are beginning to seriously doubt how far this team can go in the tournament. However, you must remember that teams do well in the tournament with seniors, good guards, and an inside presence; this is Kansas. That being said, they haven't played like a senior led team in about 2 weeks. Aaron Miles and Keith Langford aren't playing particularily well right now. The Big XII tournament will tell a lot about this team and if they are ready for another Final Four run.

I was up early this morning and was able to listen to a morning radio show for the first time in a long, long while. I was listening to Bob & Brian on Lazer 103. The time I was listening to the show allowed me to listen to their sports segment with sports "expert" Steve Czaben. I used to love the show and especially when Czaben came on. However, over the years I began to grow tired of their schtick. Bob & Brian and hard-core Republicans, and while I have no problem with anyone's political views, they don't even want to hear anything about what the left thinks. Anything the left thinks is automatically wrong, anything either of them says is law, Republicans don't do wrong, and anyone who didn't vote for Bush is a donkey. I can't stand people who don't appreciate what a democracy is. Czaben is the same way, and aside from their political views, they think anything they say about sports is right and funny. This morning I almost drove my car off the road when Bob suggested that Illinois tanked the game on purpose and that it was the best thing which could have happened to them going into the tournament and wouldn't get off the subject about how great a loss this was. I have already been over this and you know my feelings. After this, when talking about the Carolina game he didn't know anything about it, other than the fact the Tar Heels won. Bob mentioned he couldn't watch any of the golf becuase he had projects to do, so how could he have possibly seen the UNC/Duke game? He said that UNC's only lead of the game was when they went up 75-73 to win, and everyone agreed with him! Anyone who watched the game knows the Tar Heels had the lead with about 3:40 to go in the first half and held it until about 11:00 left in the second half. A small detail, but know what you're talking about.

I was able to watch the Cubs' preseason game today and I'm now officially ready for the season to begin.

This week:

NL West Preview
Words on some boys basketball teams
Conference Tourney words
Anything else I feel like writing

-Until next time...

30 Teams in 30 Days: Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays had a fairly quiet off season. The big change made to this team was the departure of first baseman and clubhouse leader Carlos Delgado. The loss of Delgado was inevitable and it will hurt the middle of an already non-threatening lineup. The Jays changed their corner infielders, and are allowing two young guys to play everyday now in the outfield and at short. The pitching staff looks the same as it did last year, and a familiar face was added to the bullpen. All in all this looks like a pretty boring team to cover, and will once again finish at the bottom half of the AL East.

Offensively the Jays lost their leader in Carlos Delgado. Delgado had a bit of a down year last year, mainly due to lingering injuries, but still batted in 99 runs while homering 32 times. Replacing Delgado at first is former starting third baseman Eric Hinske. Hinske struggled much of last year, batting only .246 with 15 home runs and 69 RBI. To fill the void left at third by Hinskes move to first, the Jays signed Corey Koskie from the Twins. Koskie’s numbers last year were nearly identical to Hinske’s, batting .251 with 25 bombs and 71 batted in. The other new face in the lineup is former Red Sock and Diamondback Shea Hillenbrand. Hillenbrand will likely serve as the DH and bat in the 5 hole. A lot of pressure will be on Hillenbrand to duplicate the numbers he put up in Arizona last year when he batted .310 with 15 home runs and 80 RBI.

Reed Johnson is back as the club’s leftfielder and lead off hitter, Orlando Hudson is back at second, and the backstop is still Greg Zaun. Their returning big bat comes from Vernon Wells. Wells will be expected to take over the void left by Carlos Delgado as the clubs best hitter and leader. The two new young faces on this club are shortstop Russ Adams and right fielder Alex Rios. Rios played in over 100 games last year so he isn’t all that new, but he will be expected to play nearly everyday this year. Adams appeared in just 22 games last year but collected 22 hits and batted .310.

The Jays bench is pretty thin. Ken Huckaby, better know for being the guy who sidelined Derek Jeter for most of the 2003 season than anything he has done offensively, Guillermo Quiroz and Greg Myers will all compete for the backup catcher job. Quiroz is only 23 years old, but unless he has a “Bobby Hill” spring (Matt Gaddis) will probably win the job. Infield utility guys John McDonald and Frank Menechino will compete for one job, and outfielders Frank Catalanotto and Gabe Gross round out the bench.

The pitching staff returns all five starters from last year. Roy Halladay had an injury plagued disappointing year, going 8-8 with a 4.20 era in 2004. Halladay will be followed by Ted Lilly, Miguel Bautista, Josh Towers and Justin Miller. The Jays also added former White Sock and Angel Scott Schoenweis. Schoenweis could possibly win a job in the rotation, but will probably serve as long relief and a spot-starter.

Toronto tried a closer by committee last year, really for no other reason than no one on that squad could close. Terry Adams, Jason Frasor, Justin Speier, Vinny Chulk and Kerry Ligtenberg all had a shot at it, and with the exception of Frasor all failed miserably. Frasor did save 17 games for this team and struck out 54 batters in 68 1/3 inning pitched with an era of 4.08. Frasor will get a chance at closing again this spring, but will be in competition with Billy Koch. Koch pitched well in his first go-round in Toronto, but has never been the same pitcher since then. He split time last year in Chicago and Florida and went 2-3 with 8 saves and an era of 4.41 while striking out 50 batters in 49 innings. The Jays better hope the offense clicks, because the starting rotation and bullpen do nothing to strike fear in opposing hitters.

5 Burning Questions

5. Billy Koch
Can Billy Koch be the pitcher he was four years ago? If he can the Blue Jays have finally found a closer. The only problem being he may not get a chance to close if his setup men blow leads of staff doesn’t give him a lead.

4. Hinske on the Brain
Was last year a bad year, or did Eric Hinske overachieve in 2003? Hinske will be heavily relied on to provide some offense to this lineup, if he can’t even more pressure gets put on Shea Hillenbrand and Corey Koskie, and Vernon Wells won’t see anything to hit.

3. Who’s Next?
After Roy Halladay, who scares you? Can Ted Lilly and Miguel Bautista take steps towards becoming a formidable 2-3 punch in the rotation, much like Milwaukee got out of Doug Davis and Victor Santos last year?

2. Going to the Wells
Can Vernon Wells step up and become the leader of this team? He had a great year in 2003 when hitting in a lineup protected by a healthy Carlos Delgado, but last year with Delgado hurt for much of the year Wells batted only.272 with 23 homers and 67 RBI. If Wells turns in another campaign like he did last year then Shea Hillenbrand, Eric Hinske, Corey Koskie and the Blue Jays offense as a whole are in trouble.

1. Gone on Halladay
If Roy Halladay comes back from arm injuries and turns in another year like he did in 2003 it will alleviate pressure form Lilly and Bautista. When 100% Halladay is one of the best pitchers in baseball. His success helps out the guys in the rotation behind him, and the bullpen. Needless to say the Jays need a totally healthy Roy Halladay this year.

Fearless Predictions

Roy Halladay will turn in a solid 2005 season, winning 18 games.
Billy Koch will save 30 games while compiling high strike out totals and era.
Vernon Wells will bounce back and put together a season somewhere in between the stats he had last year and in 2003.
Ted Lilly will win 12+ games.
Gillermo Quiroz will take over the starting catcher’s job from Greg Zaun midway through the year.
Jason Frasor will prove to be a good set up man for Billy Koch.
The Blue Jays will once again finish towards the bottom of the AL East.

30 Teams in 30 Days: Oakland Athletics

Billy Beane was at it again this off season, making moves galore. The “Big Three” was reduced to one when Beane shipped off Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson. Four talented young pitchers will round out the rotation in an attempt to fill the void left by the departure of Mulder and Hudson. The offense also saw it’s share of changes made. Prized prospect Nick Swisher will now get a shot to be their everyday right fielder, an upgrade was made at catcher, and depth was added to the middle infield.

Offensively the A’s did some tinkering too. Damian Miller left in free agency to sign with the Milwaukee Brewers. Miller calls a great game behind the plate, and does a great job with pitching staffs, but he just didn’t fit in with this squad. He wasn’t a “money ball” guy. Jason Kendall on the other hand is. Kendall, brought in to replace Miller is a great offensive catcher, but close to a liability defensively. That fits in with what the A’s do. Kendall can also leadoff, something I don’t think Mark Kotsay was fit to do, so the A’s finally have a leadoff hitter for their offense.

Another move made saw Oakland ship young hard-throwing Justin Lehr, and outfielder Nelson Cruz to the Milwaukee Brewers for Keith Ginter. Ginter was one of the Brewers best hitters last year. He can bat for power, and provides insurance is Mark Ellis is not 100% recovered from his injury that cost him his entire season last year. Lehr throws hard, and could be a potential closer, and Nelson Cruz has the ability to become a five tool player within the next few years, but I still think both teams won in this deal. With Ginter, Ellis, and Marko Scutaro all on the roster, I would expect a deal made by the end of spring training.

Jermaine Dye left as a free agent, signing with the White Sox, and the A’s are rumored to be shopping Eric Byrnes around the league. If Byrnes does get moved Charles Thomas, who was acquired from the Braves in the Tim Hudson deal, will probably replace him.

The biggest question facing the A’s rotation is Barry Zito. Can Zito handle being the staff ace, and can he rebound from an average season last year. Rich Harden, Danny Heren and Joel Blanton all have an exceptional amount of talent, and should be prominent pitchers at the major league level, but if Zito cannot perform as an ace the staff could be in trouble.

The bullpen situation is a big question, especially now that Chad Bradford will be out until at least late June due to back surgery. Arthur Rhodes, while not that great of a set up man anymore, is gone and will still be sorely missed by this club. Juan Cruz, who was also a part of the Tim Hudson deal, gives them a good long relief guy or spot starter in the pen. If any of those young pitchers struggles Cruz could even step into the rotation. And Kiko Caliero, acquired from the Cardinals in the Mark Mulder deal, gives Oakland a hard throwing dynamite set up man. The two big concerns are depth and Closing.

Aside from Caliero, Cruz and Bradford, who will be out for the first half of the season, the A’s really have nothing in their pen. Octavio Dotel is not a closer. He is a good set up man, but he doesn’t have the mentality to close in this league. The A’s need to do something to address the depth to their pen, and find a new closer. Ideally they would love to do this in a deal involving Eric Byrnes. Ugeth Urbina would be a great fit here, but the Tigers don’t need to bring on another outfielder.

5 Burning Questions

5. Shallow Water
How can or what will the A’s do to address this issue. The ideal situation would be deals involving Eric Byrnes and Marco Scutaro or Mark Ellis for more bullpen depth. Oakland would love to get a real closer and move Dotel to a set up role, but that probably won’t happen.

4. Close but no cigar
Oakland has been close the last five years, but just can’t seem to get over the hump. Are these moves made the right ones? More importantly did they do enough to get Oakland over the hump and into the upper echelon of the American league? Probably not, but only time will tell.

3. The Ace
Can Barry Zito prove last year was an aberration, and more importantly can he be the ace of a major league staff. Until now he’s had the luxury of pitching on a staff with two other very good young pitchers, taking pressure off of himself. A lot will be expected of Zito and Rich Harden this year.

2. Who’s on second?
Keith Ginter, Mark Ellis and Marco Scutaro. Unless both Ginter and Ellis get injured, Scutaro will be backing one of the two up. The real question should be who gets traded, Keith Ginter or Mark Ellis. Considering the A’s traded for Ginter this off-season I guess that makes the question where does Mark Ellis get traded.

1. Ready for Prime Time?
Are Joel Blanton, Danny Heren and Dan Meyer major league ready. Blanton looked very good in limited action last year, as did Heren. This question could partially be answered if Zito and Harden pitch well enough to take pressure off them.

Fearless Predictions

Keith Ginter will win the starting second base job.
Eric Byrnes will get dealt to the Pirates in a deal that involves Craig Wilson.
Octavio Dotel will struggle in the closers role again.
Rich Harden will pitch like the ace of the staff, and Barry Zito will rebound to have a very solid season.
The A’s will have one of the better offenses in the American league.
Jason Kendall, Eric Chavez and Erubiel Durazo will all make the All-Star team.
The Oakland A’s will win the West.

30 Teams in 30 Days: Houston Astros

I know this second look is late, but our friend Gaddis is in town this weekend, and I had to call the West Salem vs. Holmen girls basketball game last night in Chippewa Falls, which is a nice two hour commute from the home. With that in mind we take our next look at the Houston Astros.

The Astros underwent some major changes since we last saw them in the NLCS. Gone are Jeff Kent and Carlos Beltran. Andy Pettit comes back from injury and Roger Clemens resigned a one year deal. The Stros did add some vets to their bullpen, but overall they lost a lot more than they added. They really didn’t add anything at all.

Houston’s lineup took a huge hit with the losses of Kent and Beltran. I thought they had to do anything in their power to resign Beltran. If it came down to not resigned Roger Clemens fine, you bring back Beltran instead. But it didn’t happen that way and the Astros will pay dearly. They showed Jeff Kent the door and are putting all of their faith in Chris Burke, I just hope he’s ready to play. Jason Lane moves to centerfield now, and Orlando Palmeiro will start the season as their starting right fielder until Lance Berkman comes back.

2004 Lineup

LF Biggio
CF Beltran
1B Bagwell
RF Berkman
2B Kent
3B Ensberg
SS Everett
C Ausmus

2005 Projected Lineup

2B Burke
SS Everett
LF Biggio
1B Bagwell
CF Lane
3B Ensberg
RF Palmeiro*
C Ausmus

This lineup doesn’t scare anyone. Even when Lance Berkman comes back, you assume he moves into the 5 spot and bumps Lane down, but still. Bagwell and Biggio are one year older, your asking a rookie to replace Jeff Kent and lead off, and as for Everett bating second, haven’t they already tried this and were forced to find someone else? Houston’s bench is also nothing to write home about. Orlando Palmeiro, Jose Vizciano, Mike Lamb and Raul Chavez?

The pitching rotation should be interesting. Roy Oswalt is the staff ace and fresh off a 20 win season, but after that there are a lot of question marks. Will Roger Clemens break down? Seriously the guy is 42 years old. Forty-two years old. He is an old power pitcher, the odds are he’s gonna break down sooner or later. What about Andy Pettit. The Astros still really don’t know what to expect from Pettit. He was hurt for almost the entire year last, and the question facing him was could he pitch as well as he did in Yankee Stadium where he had the advantage of a short right field porch.

Wade Miller wasn’t himself last year, largely due to injuries so the Astros let him leave, signing with Boston. I think that was a huge mistake, because if Miller can come back and pitch well he’s good enough to be a 2 or 3 of a staff. Without Miller, after Oswalt, Clemens and Pettit the Astros have a group of guys competing for the last two spots in the rotation. Brandon Backe, Carlos Hernandez, Tim Redding, Brandon Duckworth and Pete Munro will all get a shot to win one of those two jobs. None of those guys had an era lower than 4.30, and only one had a winning record (Backe).

Carlos Hernandez is a bit of an enigma, the Astros have been high on him for the past few years, but he’s never able to stay healthy. Brandon Duckworth is not a major league starter, he’s better suited to be long relief out of the bullpen, same thing goes for Pete Munro. I think Tim Redding will win one of those spots, probably becoming the fifth starter, and Brandon Backe will probably be the fourth.

5 Burning Questions

5. Health
Can Roger Clemens and Andy Pettit stay healthy? If not this team is in big, big trouble. The offense is no longer good enough to make up for pitching inadequacies.

4. Where’s the Beef?
Where does this lineup scare you? Jeff Bagwell batted only .266 with 27 homers and 89 RBI, Lance Berkman is hurt, Jeff Kent and Carlos Beltran are gone, and Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane and Brad Ausmus (all played in over 100 games) only combined to hit 19 homers last year.

3. Sitting on the bench
How much can you realistically expect from this teams reserves? Orlando Palmeiro and Jose Vizciano are getting older and are more defensive replacements than offensive. Raul Chavez is another guy who is great defensively, just needs to pick up on the hitting part. Mike Lamb is the one guy who stands out, he can add pop off the bench and could feasibly replace the young Morgan Ensberg in the starting lineup if this offense struggles.

2. Crap-Iron
Are we supposed to believe that ole scrap-iron Phil Garner is that great of a manager and just hasn’t done that well because he was coaching bad teams? Maybe there’s a reason why this guy can only get jobs coaching bad teams.

1. 4 and 5
Who will round out the pitching staff, and how well can you expect them to do? If the bottom two spots struggle, Oswalt, Clemens and Pettit will have pressure on them to win almost every game they pitch in.

Fearless Predictions

Brandon Backe and Tim Redding will win the last two spots in the rotation
Craig Biggio’s play will significantly fall off.
Andy Pettit will have a better year than Roger Clemens.
The Astros will dump payroll at the trading deadline.
Jeff Kent and Carlos Beltran will be sorely missed.
Wade Miller’s play this year will make the Astros wish they retained him.
The Astros will finish in fourth place in the NL Central.