Al Central

Albert Pujols and Joey Votto are having monster seasons.  Not only are the sluggers leading their teams in the playoff hunt – the Cardinals are 1.5 games back in the Wild Card race while the Reds lead the NL Central – but Pujols (.321, 34 HR, 93 RBI) and Votto (.326, 31 HR, 90 RBI) are the top two National Leaguers in each of the Triple Crown categories.  Both have strong cases for the MVP award, but if either one wins the first Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski in 1967, it would be awfully hard for the voters not to choose him as the league’s Most Valuable Player.

Continue reading "Pair of Triple Crown candidates duel it out"

Thank goodness Joey Votto (.314/.422/.589 with 22 home runs) was elected to the National League All-Star team via the Final Vote.  Billy Wagner, Carlos Gonzalez, and Ryan Zimmerman are great players and were all worthy of roster spots, but Votto should have been the NL’s starting first baseman over Albert Pujols, and it would have been a travesty had he not made it in the end.  Votto leads the NL in both On-Base Percentage and Slugging Percentage and is tied for the lead in home runs; if the season ended today, he’d likely be voted the league’s Most Valuable Player.  It’s too bad, then, that Votto went 0-2 and did not make an impact in the game.  (Each of the other first basemen on the National League side – Pujols, Ryan Howard, and Adrian Gonzalez – went 0-2 as well.)

Continue reading "All-Star Game thoughts"

Today’s post is brought to you from Toledo, Ohio.  With Spring Training wrapping up in just over a week, every team has reason to be hopeful that this will be their year.  Though it is widely accepted that exhibition games are meaningless, the Giants should feel good about their 18-7 record this spring, and the Indians are certainly pleased that they have won 13 of their first 19 games.  The reigning World Series champion Yankees, meanwhile, can shake off their 9-12 record as rustiness.  It may not have the excitement of October, but April is when everyone’s glass is half full; no one has ground to make up or nagging injuries to play through.  Every team has a share of first place, and that’s what makes it the most promising time of the year.

Continue reading "The most promising time of the year"

So, yesterday, I mention how the Orioles get a rare well-pitched game from Radhames Liz, and I wrote up my recap on the AL East. Then, Chris Waters goes out and throws a complete game shut-out last night. So, that forces me to mention it, and to do the AL Central wrapup today. By my logic, that means Brian Bass should be lights out tonight. (Or, maybe what I do has nothing to do with how the Orioles play. We'll see.) Anyways, on to the AL Central.

Continue reading "It's AL Central Time"

It's easy when you're blogging every day and playing fantasy baseball to neglect the big picture of where the teams are and why. On the one hand, I'm annoyed by fans who start moaning that their team is two games back of first when only a week's worth of games have been played. But the time is nigh to pull my head out of the everyday grind and take a peek at the standings, which are starting to settle in, and see what stories are out there.

Continue reading "Time to Take a Step Back"

Major League, one of the funniest baseball movies around, told the tale of the woeful Cleveland franchise, so mired in mediocrity that their owner sought to cash in on them finishing in the cellar. It seemed like a good bet. The hapless Cleveland franchise hadn't tasted the postseason since 1954, and hadn't won a world title since 1948, one of the longest pennantless streaks in baseball. But ever since that 1989 movie--wherein, of course, the built-to-fail Indians defied their owner's devious plans--their consistent failure hasn't been a good bet. 

Continue reading "Those Amazing Indians"