MLB 1st Month Overlook & 2nd Month Preview

So with the first month of the MLB season almost in the books, there are some surprising and there is some not surprising things I would like to talk about. Like for the Twins. Josh Willingham has basically been the teams whole offense, who would have thought! But then the not surprising thing, the Twins are doing TERRIBLE! Another thing no one thought was possible, Albert Pujols still doesn’t have a Home Run! Or the Red Sox and Phillies are near last in their division. Then there is some not surprising like the Rangers are doing well. Now for some 2nd month predictions. I think the Washington Nationals are going to tank to the bottom of the division where they have been for the last few years, I think that because the Phillies are just too good for a young team like the Nats, even though they are in 1st place in the NL East and have the best E.R.A in the MLB. Now to the worst division in baseball, the NL Central. I believe one or two teams will separate themselves from the other 4 or 5 teams. I think it could be the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals, or the Chicago Cubs.  For the Twins I think they could finish April on a strong note, because they face two teams last in their division. The Angels, and the only team worse than the Twins, the Kansas City Royals, but the Twins will end up being 4th in the division at the end of May. So by the end of next month the Rangers, Tigers, and Yankees will be on top of their divisions in the AL. In the NL the leaders will be the Dodgers, Cubs, and Phillies.

Hank’s Bracket

http://games.espn.go.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/en/entry?entryID=7109269

Manning Mania

Peyton Manning has already visited the Broncos and Cardinals and those two teams are considered the top two candidates to win over Payton Manning. Yesterday he met with the Titans for 8 hours.

According to “sources” Manning has narrowed it down to the Broncos and Titans. On Sports Center they showed commercials of country stars trying to persuade Peyton to come “back home” to Tennessee where he went to college. But the Titans don’t have the slightest bit of a talented wide receiver.

A team I wouldn’t rule out just yet is the Miami Dolphins. I think Peyton Manning would thank the Dolphins front office by trading Brandon Marshall. I think the Dolphins realized that Manning doesn’t want to play with thugs. Marshall proved that on Sunday night in NYC when he allegedly hit a women, and could get suspended.

The Broncos can’t possibly sign Manning. They can’t get rid of Tebow and if they do their fans will do what they did with Kyle Orton last year.

Now the only team I haven’t picked on is the team I think he should land on. That team is the Arizona Cardinals. They have in my opinion the best wide receiver in the NFL in Larry Fitzgerald. They have an okay defense. The only problem is they have to release Kevin Kolb, but that frees up 5 million dollars cause they have would have to pay him 7 mill if he is on their roster next week. And if they do release him they have to pay him 2 million dollars so that’s 5 mil in salary cap.

Post Times

I just want to remind you of my post times. I post on Monday and Thursday, but when I get excited about a post I might just post it early like I did yesterday.

Most Underrated Pitchers

Today, I am going to take a more statistical approach to writing. I am going to compare the AL MVP Justin Verlander’s numbers to some of what I think are the 5 most underrated pitchers in the game of baseball.

My number five and four most underrated pitchers are at number five, Josh Tomlin of the Cleveland Indians, and number four is Paul Maholm for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Neither of these pitchers will be Cy Young winners, but they both minimize mistakes so well have to be viewed as good pitchers. First let’s look at Tomlin. When I was looking what I think is the most important stat for a pitcher, strikeout to walk ratio, last year Josh Tomlin had a slightly worse ratio at 4.24 then Verlander’s 4.39, but that’s still top 10-15 in MLB! Like I said we won’t get 9 plus strikeouts on a daily basis, but we walks so few batters it makes up for it. Another set back is in starting 8 fewer games than Verlander they have both given up 24 home runs. And on to Paul Maholm. Maholm has the exact opposite problems that Josh Tomlin does. He has only given up 11 home runs,but his strikeout to walk ratio os only 1.94. Last year he walked 50 batters is only 26 starts unlike Tomlin who in the same amount of starts only walked 21 batters. So these two pitchers could make good number two pitchers in the MLB.

Now here are my number three and two most underrated pitchers. Number three Brandon Morrow for the Toronto Blue Jays, and at number two is the San Fransisco Giants pitcher, Madison Bumgarner. But let’s start with Brandon Morrow. He doesn’t have very many flaws its just he’s been playing in Toronto where nobody pays any attention to who you are. Morrow had a mind-blowing 203 strikeouts last year. Yeah, he walks more guys then he should, and he gives up a lot of home runs but, I think he could be an above average player in the MLB. Madison Bumgarner is a young pitcher for the Giants. His main problem is there are two pitchers in Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain who are better than him. Last year his strikeout to walk ratio was top 10 in the MLB at 4.15. There is not much else I can say about him except I think he can be a number 1 starter someday.

My number one player is the only player that I think someday can be a star pitcher in the MLB. It’s Brandon McCarthy of the Oakland A’s. I know some of you guys are like what? Who is Brandon McCarthy? Well, I would learn his name if I were you. He will be the opening day starter this year for the A’s because they traded Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez. I’m only going to say two things about him. His strikeout to walk ratio was 5th in the MLB at 4.92. That’s almost every 5 strikeouts he walks somebody that’s amazing. And in 25 starts he had 5 complete games, 5 complete games! That’s one in every five games! I think he will be a star in the future.

And the last thing I’m going to say is, today I’ve compared a lot of pitchers stats to Justin Verlander’s stats, well I’m not saying any of these guys will be the next Justin Verlander. There might never be a pitcher again who starts throwing faster and faster as the game gets later like Justin Verlander, he is the real deal.

Vikings Win!

The Vikings beat the Washington Redskins on Christmas Eve this week, which automatically eliminates them from getting the number 1 overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. Joe Webb played great in Saturday’s win. He had 3 touchdowns (1 running) when he replaced Christian Ponder in the 3rd quarter who had concussion symptoms. I say you don’t take chances with Christian Ponder (concussion symptoms) in the final game of the season on New Year’s Day against the Chicago Bears and start Joe Webb at quarterback instead. Another devastating injury was in the 3rd quarter when Adrian Peterson tore his ACL and MCL in a collision that looked very painful. Peterson won’t be healthy for the beginning of the 2012 NFL season, so now what do you do? Stick with Toby Gerhart, draft a player, or go with the speedy Percy Harvin? I say combine the second and third options. You put Percy Harvin at running back and if he’s available I think you could think about getting Notre Dame wide receiver Michael Floyd. That could give them options. They could keep running wildcat with Percy or Webb, and they could keep running the option like they did on Saturday. Or they could pick a no name cornerback like they did two years back with Chris Cook, but look how that worked out. (BAD!)

Lose For Luck, Or At Least the First Overall Pick

It looked bad for the Vikings again this week against the Drew Brees and the Saints. The good news is the Colts won for the first time giving the Vikings a chance for the number one overall pick. But it doesn’t look good for the Vikings, this week the Colts play the Texans who won the AFC South. The Rams who have the same record as the Vikings play the 49ers this week and the tough Pittsburgh Steelers next week. If the Vikings somehow get the first pick I think they trade for some young, established talent. If they get the second pick, I think they take USC offensive linemen Matt Kalil. If they get the third pick I think they should still take Kalil, because I don’t think the Rams or Colts need o-line.(the Colts kind of do,but they have way bigger needs, quarterback).

Twins BIG Off-Seasons Problems

I know I had an earlier post titled Twins Off-Season Problems, but the problems have turned BIG. They lost Michael Cuddyer to the Colorado Rockies,he was the guy I thought they needed. They did replace him with Josh Willingham and saved 10 million dollars in cap space. Then we lost the guy I wanted to have replace Cuddyer, Jason Kubel. He singed with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Where to go from here? To be honest with you there aren’t many options, what I think they have to do is go young by trade. I think you need to trade Justin Morneau for young talent, pitching would be good. Maybe they could get a young pitcher like the Brave’s Jair Jurrjens and some other talent. Maybe somehow we could have enough cap space to sign a big money free agent like Prince Fielder.

Minnesota Timberwolves

I’ve been asked by a reader to talk about the Minnesota Timberwolves. They are a young team, and that could help them with the new 66 game schedule, because games are so compact that they will have more stamina then a team like the Spurs or the Celtics, but back to the actual team. Obviously Kevin Love is the star and he lost 30 lbs. and will be as ready as ever. Michael Beasley is a nice complement to Love’s awesomeness. They also have some new additions, like Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio who last year didn’t want to play for the T-Wolves (I don’t think anyone did last year). He is not a scorer, but he is a great passer. It is opposite for the other new point guard the T-Wolves have J.J. Barea. He was lighting it up in the playoffs for the Dallas Mavericks, but I don’t see him having as good of a year, but he’ll be good. Now I talk about the little the Timberwolves had to show for their 2010-2011 season, the second over all pick in this year’s draft small forward out of Arizona University, Derrick Williams. He is a beast yeah I said it BEAST in the lane near the basket! So on to my predictions, I think they will actually make the playoffs at a 7 seed and lose in the first round.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=40mhBE5MpbA

Sorry

Sorry I didn’t post on Friday, I had some things to do on Friday. On Friday I had surgery on my knee so I was occupied.