Curveballs and Sliders 04.16.08: Early MLB Surprises, All-Star Game Roster Predictions, More
Posted by Jared Marcus on 04.16.2008
Curveballs and Sliders returns from vacation with a loaded edition. Thoughts on my trip to Orlando, Wrestlemania and Opening Day as well as the Top 10 Early Surprises from the MLB Season. We also have All-Star Game roster predictions plus the all-time greatest lineups and rotations for all five NL East teams!!!!
LEADING OFF
Hello all and welcome back to Curveballs and Sliders. I am back from my trip to Orlando/Miami and I have to say that it was FANTASTIC!! I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it, well every moment except for getting to and into the Citrus Bowl for Wrestlemania which was an absolute disgrace. But I am sure anyone who follows wrestling or was interested in Wrestlemania at all has already heard about that debacle so I want go into it any further. I will say that Wrestlemania was a great event and the fact that it was outside added tremendously to the enjoyment. The card seemed pretty good and most of it was enjoyable, but I was pretty drunk and I haven't watched it back yet on tv. It's quite possible that for all I know, outside of the Flair/HBK match that it was one of the worst Manias of all-time. On the subject of Flair, I also thoroughly enjoyed the Hall of Fame ceremony and Ric Flair's seven hour speech. My only complaint is that I can't for the life of me understand why these people can't help themselves but to take shots at each other. There was absolutely no reason for Flair and or Triple H to take shots at the Rock or Hulk Hogan, and to me it just makes them come off looking like the lesser men. Last week I thought I was going to write a whole diatribe about Flair versus Hogan this week but have since calmed down and decided to back off. For one, this is a baseball column and there are plenty of people who handle wrestling on this site, the best wrestling site on the web. Second, writing a detailed account of why Hulk Hogan is the greatest pro wrestler of all-time and not Ric Flair is something on this site that would probably either lose me a ton of readers or get me scathing reviews from fellow columnists. I guess most people just don't like the truth. But perhaps I will write that column one day. More than anything else, and I promise this is the last thing I will say on the subject before I move on to baseball, what really bothers me is the way that all of these wrestlers try to cut down the other, and that definitely includes Hogan at the top of the list, when they are all exactly the same. I can't understand why they can't see that, it drives me absolutely crazy. It's one thing if you just don't like a guy, but they all call each other out for being a "politician" or refusing to do "jobs", WHEN THEY ALL FRIEKING DO IT!!! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!!!! Triple H calling Hulk Hogan a "politician" is like Barry Bonds calling Mark McGwire a steroid cheat. And Triple H always backing Ric Flair because he's one of the boys is even more ridiculous. Trips actually thinks he is a man of the people and the leader of the boys. He is no more one of the boys than Hogan ever was. Saying Triple H is one of the boys is like saying that Idi Amin was a man of the people. IT'S INSANE!!! Every last one of these people is insane. Triple H loves Ric Flair because he became his lackey and kissed his ass in his later years and I don't think that's something that everyone should be looking up to the way they do. Take nothing away from Flair, I love the guy, that's one of the reasons I went to Orlando, but please lets just take it easy. And lastly (yeah, I know I said I would move on, but I lied, get over it), the most despicable part of the entire trip for me was listening to an arena full of people cheer when Flair mentioned Chris Benoit's name. I understand things happen and no one can be anyone else's judge and jury. I understand that the past is the past and we have to move on. I am not saying the crowd should have booed, they shouldn't have, but show a little class. I guess people feel it's "cool" to cheer for him in protest of the WWE disassociating with him? Let's not forget that they didn't disassociate with him because he stole some money, he murdered two people. It's fine if you want to remember him for who he was before that, but please don't turn the guy into a martyr, it's absolutely ridiculous.
Ok, had to get those things off my chest. I apologize, I promise, all baseball from here on out. Which brings me to the other half of my trip which was Opening Day in Miami for the Mets and Marlins. I watched Johan make his Mets debut and pitch a very good game and get a big win to start to season. Unfortunately since then the Mets have been inconsistent and already look lost at times, but there is no reason for panic just yet as many Mets fans already seem to be doing. It is a long season and there are a lot of games left, I am sure the Mets will be fine. A beast-like friend of me always used to say "it's a marathon, not a sprint". Of course he was talking about fantasy baseball, but the sentiment applies to the real baseball as well.
And speaking of fantasy baseball, I am off to a very sluggish start in both my premier league that I run with 13 of my friends and the 411mania league. However, I love both of my teams and am guaranteeing victory in both leagues, especially the 411 league. I know I guaranteed victory in the NCAA pool and only ended up finishing 7th, but my reputation is really on the line here. How can I continue to be the premier baseball voice at 411mania if I can't even win it's fantasy league? I can't. I won't. I must win this league. And I will. I will begin to provide weekly updates of my standing next week, though I am sure none of you really care, I will do it anyway.
LOLOLOL!!! Just kidding around, well except about everything I said above. LOLOL!! Man, I crack myself up. Ohhh, I am the only one laughing?? Ok, onto the column then .
THE TWO HOLE
Well, we are only two weeks into the regular season and it is still waaay too early to really get a handle on any trends, to really know which players and teams are for real and which aren't. However, despite the fact that the first two weeks really mean very little in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean we can't still be surprised or even shocked by some of the events of the opening two weeks. I for one am very surprised by quite a bit that is going on in the early portion of the baseball season and that's what I am going to discuss here today. With that I present ..
Well, we are only two weeks into the regular season and it is still waaay too early to really get a handle on any trends, to really know which players and teams are for real and which aren't. However, despite the fact that the first two weeks really mean very little in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean we can't still be surprised or even shocked by some of the events of the opening two weeks. I for one am very surprised by quite a bit that is going on in the early portion of the baseball season and that's what I am going to discuss here today. With that I present ..
The Top 10 Surprises of the First Two Weeks of the 2008 MLB Season
10) Florida Marlins - The Marlins haven't been a surprise in the sense that we thought their pitching was poor, and it is, and we thought their lineup wasn't that bad, and it isn't, the suprising part has just been that somehow they are winning games. They are losing some too, but so far they have won more than they have lost and most surprisingly, currently sit in first place in the division ahead of the Phillies, Mets and Braves.
09) Ryan Dempster - We all know that Ryan Dempster once had incredible stuff and was supposed to be a superstar, but that was many moons ago. Entering 2008 the man hadn't started a Major League game in over four years and had struggled to keep his ERA under 5.00 the last two years as a closer. He gives up waay too many hits and his strikeout numbers have been declining consistently. In fact he could barely hold onto his job as closer, so it seemed like it a recipe for disaster when Lou Piniella announced he was moving Dempster to the rotation this season. Yet in his first two starts this season he has pitched 13 innings, allowed only four hits and one earned run while striking out ten. More importantly, I happened to have watched each of his first two starts and I can tell you that his stuff has been electric, this is no fluke. It looks like the guy is back and he may be one of the best stories of the 2008 season.
08) Joe Crede - Crede has always put up decent numbers when healthy so this shouldn't seem like that big a surprise, but all things considered, it really is. Last year due to his chronically bad back (or so they thought), Crede only played in 12 games. They kept expecting him back throughout the season, but he was never able to return. The White Sox were so concerned that they had planned to go into 2008 without him, planning to use Josh Fields as their third baseman. If Crede proved healthy in Spring Training they would look to trade him immediately. There were no takers and it was the Sox gain. They kept him around after a strong spring and demoted Fields and now all Crede is doing is hitting over .300 and leading the Majors in RBI.
07) Baltimore Orioles - Pretty much the same story as the Marlins. Pitching looks to be about as bad as we thought and hitting about as mediocre as we thought, yet they too are winning games. They rank even higher on the list though because they currently sit atop a division that features the Red Sox, Yankees and much improved Blue Jays, three of the top ten teams in baseball entering the season. The O's weren't supposed to compete with the Rays this season, much less the other three teams, not even for a day.
06) Japanese Imports - There was another influx of Japanese players this season and it always seems to be a crapshoot how they will perform once they actually make the jump to the U.S. This season they have shot out of the gate though and most look like they may be key contributors to their new teams. Masa Kobayashi has been excellent so far as a setup man for the Indians, and his role looks like it will increase even further with the injury to Joe Borowski. Hiroki Kuroda has made two very solid starts for the Dodgers and looks like the real deal. And Kosuke Fukudome is leading the pack with his .320 batting average and game winning homer on Opening Day. The lone exception at this point seems to be Kazuo Fukumori of the Rangers who got kicked around in all three of his appearances and has already been sent down. Leave it to the Rangers to find the stinker in the group.
05) Gabe Kapler - In 10 plus MLB seasons Kapler has been nothing more than a journeyman, part-time starter. He had some success early in his career, but never anything spectacular. Over the past six seasons he hasn't topped 6HR or 34 RBI in any of them. So who could have possibly seen it coming that Kapler would start of the 2008 season the way he has. He received playing time only as a stopgap in Center Field for the Brewers while Mike Cameron serves out his 25 game suspension, but he is making it very difficult for the Brew Crew to ever remove him from that spot. In 11 games and just 26 at bats this season Kapler already has 4 HR and 11 RBI and is batting an astounding .423 and slugging a PRESPOSTEROUS .962. You would think it would only be a matter of time before Kapler comes back to earth, but in the meantime, it's quite a fun story to follow.
04) Pirates Outfielders Not Named Jason Bay - Myself and a lot of people were predicting a big bounce back season from Jason Bay after last year's disappointment, and that still might come, however, right now anything he does will be completely dwarfed by the play of his fellow outfielders. Xavier Nady and Nate McLouth are currently two of the hottest hitters in all of baseball and people that are watching them hit all seem to think that both are for real. Nady has put up decent numbers the past two seasons in limited at bats and many have always wondered what he could do with a full healthy season. Well maybe 2008 is the year we find out. He already has 4 HR and 14 RBI and is hitting close to .350 with no signs of slowing down. McLouth was supposed to be just a temporary starter for the Buccos in Center until Top Prospect Andrew McCutchen is ready. Now it looks like they may have to find another spot for Mr. McCutchen. McLouth also already has 14 RBI and hitting close to .400, and in Monday night's game he hit a game winning three-run homer in the 9th inning.
03) St. Louis Cardinals - What I thought was going to be the worst Cardinals team in three decades is off to the second best start in all of baseball. Boy is my face red. I picked the Pirates to finish above them. All the talk about an injured Albert Pujols and he comes out of the gate as good as ever, helping to lead the Cardinals to the third best offense in the NL so far. Even more surprisingly is the fact that the Cards are tied with the D-Backs for the best pitching in the league to this point. I couldn't be more shocked by any of this, I don't think it will last, but hey, what do I know? Clearly not very much.
02) Slow Starts - I know that every April a bunch of players get off to slow starts due to the cold weather and the need to get back into the swing of things, literally. But I don't ever remember a season where so many big name players have struggled out of the gate. It's absolutely killing some teams and more importantly, it's having a drastic effect on fantasy teams. David Ortiz is hitting .104 with 1 HR. Prince Fielder is hitting .222 with 0 HR. Troy Tulowitzki only has 7 hits and is hitting .159. Despite 3 HR, Ryan Braun is hitting just .226. Mark Teixiera is hitting .213 and Justin Morneau .222. Jose Reyes and Miguel Cabrera are both hitting .205. And hitters aren't the only ones affected. C.C. Sabathia has an 11.57 ERA and a WHIP of 2.36. Justin Verlander's ERA is 6.52 and Roy Oswalt's is 9.00. And that is just to name a few. We could be here all day with this. Of course it is still very early and most of these guys will quickly begin to turn things around, but at what point does one being to worry? Odds are a few in this bunch are in for very long seasons.
01) Detroit Tigers - Not sure if I ever remember anything like this in any sport, ever. Sure there is a lot of time left and I feel pretty confident the Tigers will still be one of the better teams, but still, no one saw this coming. After a winter in which the Tigers made several enormous moves followed by nearly everyone picking them to win at least the division if not the World Series, they have stumbled out of the gate to the game's worst record. Again, I can't remember a team that was soo hyped and soo anticipated, faltering so much right out of the gate. Its one thing to underachieve, but how could this be so far off the mark. We knew they had terrible bullpen problems and that that could be a problem (and it has been a big one), but still, their rotation and incredible lineup was supposed to overcome that. Instead this very good rotation ranks last in the majors in ERA and the best lineup since the '27 Yankees currently ranks 26th in runs scored. Go figure. That's why they play the games.
That will do it for the Top 10 Early Surprises, let's move on to the all-star rosters .
BATTING THIRD .
As promised two weeks ago, since there was no space for it in the MLB Season Preview column, this week I present my predictions for the NL and AL All-Star teams. These predictions are not based on who will be voted in as starters but they do take into account the requirement for every team to have at least one representative. Of course we will go through the more detailed process of selecting these all-star teams a few more times between now and July, but for now this is just a simple listing of the guys I think will be the best players this season, or for at least the first half of the season.
I did in fact actually make these lists before the season started and did not want to be influenced at all by what has happened in the first two weeks of the season, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't. I didn't change too much, but things such as injuries or really hot starts have led me to make some minor changes. Off the top of my head, I had Pedro Martinez and Rich Harden as all-stars two weeks ago but have since removed them and Justin Upton was not originally on the team. I am sure there were a few other tweaks, but for the most part I tried to keep it the same as you can see by the inclusions of guys like Troy Tulowitzki who right now look like they will have no business even being in the stands at Yankee Stadium during the All-Star Game later this summer. Take note though that guys like Geovany Soto and Johnny Cueto were absolutely on my original all-star roster and have not been added based on hot starts. Anyone in any fantasy league with me can attest to this with Soto as I drafted him in every league I am in. Anyway, enough with the blah-blah, onto the rosters
National League All-Stars
C Russell Martin, Geovany Soto
1B Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard, Mark Teixeira
2B Chase Utley, Brandon Phillips
SS Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins, Troy Tulowitzki
3B David Wright, Chipper Jones
RF Justin Upton, Matt Kemp, Corey Hart
CF Carlos Beltran, Lastings Milledge
LF Matt Holliday, Carlos Lee, Ryan Braun
SP Johan Santana, Cole Hamels, Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, Jake Peavy, Johnny Cueto, Tim Lincecum, Adam Wainwright, Ian Snell
RP Billy Wagner, Matt Capps, Kerry Wood
American League All-Stars
C Victor Martinez, Joe Mauer
1B Justin Morneau, Carlos Pena
2B Robinson Cano, Ian Kinsler
SS Derek Jeter, Michael Young
3B Alex Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera, Alex Gordon
RF Vlad Guerrero, Nick Markakis, Alex Rios
CF Ichiro Suzuki, B.J. Upton, Vernon Wells
LF Manny Ramirez
DH David Ortiz, Travis Hafner
SP Daisuke Matsuzaka, C.C. Sabathia, James Shields, Rich Harden, Justin Verlander, Erik Bedard, Felix Hernandez, Roy Halladay, Shaun Marcum
RP Jonathan Papelbon, Joba Chamberlain, Bobby Jenks
There you have it, my predictions for the all-star rosters, most of which will be DEAD wrong. Once again though, we will go through this at least a couple of more times before the game and will break it down more in depth once the season is farther along and the voting totals start to come out. Now let's move on
CLEANING UP
After a brief hiatus we now we will resume the greatest lineup and rotation feature for each MLB franchise. This week we look at the NL East which has an interesting mix of new and old teams. The Phillies are one of the oldest franchises in baseball and one of the few to have stayed in the same city for over 100 years. Despite that incredible history, the Phils surprisingly don't boast that many all-time great players. Sure they have the all-time greatest third baseman as well as one of the greatest left-handed pitchers of all-time, plus a few other Hall of Famers, but not nearly as many top 100 all-time players as compared to other franchises that have been around just as long. Perhaps this is because for the first half of the 1900's most of the top stars in Philadelphia played for the A's.
The Braves were a very interesting team in that their strengths are condensed into a few positions. In other words, they are incredibly deep with top players at some positions while others it was hard to find anyone at all. The best example of this is the fact that Chipper Jones, probably the third best position players in Braves history, does not even make the team because the second best position player in Braves history was also a third baseman. Meanwhile Joe Adcock and Bobby Lowe end up with places on the team. I came very close to bending the rules on this one and just throwing Chipper in at first or in LF where he actually did play for a few seasons, but as I said in the original introduction to this feature, that would kind of defeat the purpose. Though rest assured, if the Braves went through this exercise, they would find a place for both Chipper and Eddie Mathews. The other tough spot was the rotation where there are so many all-time greats available. It was so deep that Hall of Famer Phil Niekro was left off the squad.
The other three franchises are much younger and they were easier to do as there weren't as many choices, though in some cases that made it more difficult because so many people just blend together. I have a good grasp on the Mets, being a Mets fan, even if I haven't seen all the players with my own eyes, I know the generally opinion of each as actual Mets players. The Marlins were fairly simple, though it hurt terribly to make the catcher Charles Johnson just because its absolutely ridiculous that he has now made two of these all-time lineups (the Rockies being the other) and the Nationals/Expos were probably the easiest team to do so far as all of their best players all fit perfectly into the nine positions. The starting nine are probably their nine best hitters of all-time.
So enough with the intro, onto the lists ..
"The Greatest" All-Time Atlanta Braves (1966-present)/Other Braves teams (Mil, Bos etc. 1876-1965) Lineup/Rotation .
MGR Bobby Cox
C Del Crandall
1B Joe Adcock
2B Bobby Lowe
SS Rabbit Maranville
3B Eddie Mathews
RF Hank Aaron
CF Andruw Jones
LF Dale Murphy
SP Warren Spahn
SP Greg Maddux
SP Tom Glavine
SP John Smoltz
SP Kid Nichols
CL Gene Garber
"The Greatest" All-Time Florida Marlins (1993-present) Lineup/Rotation .
MGR Jack McKeon
C Charles Johnson
1B Derrek Lee
2B Luis Castillo
SS Alex Gonzalez
3B Miguel Cabrera
RF Cliff Floyd
CF Juan Pierre
LF Jeff Conine
SP Josh Beckett
SP Dontrelle Willis
SP A.J. Burnett
SP Brad Penny
SP Ryan Dempster
CL Robb Nen
"The Greatest" All-Time New York Mets (1962-present) Lineup/Rotation
MGR Davey Johnson
C Mike Piazza
1B Keith Hernandez
2B Edgardo Alfonzo
SS Bud Harrelson
3B Howard Johnson
RF Darryl Strawberry
CF Mookie Wilson
LF Cleon Jones
SP Tom Seaver
SP Dwight Gooden
SP Jerry Koosman
SP Ron Darling
SP Al Leiter
CL John Franco
"The Greatest" All-Time Philadelphia Phillies (1883-present) Lineup/Rotation .
MGR Danny Ozark
C Darren Daulton
1B Dick Allen
2B Tony Taylor
SS Larry Bowa
3B Mike Schmidt
RF Chuck Klein
CF Richie Ashburn
LF Ed Delahanty
SP Steve Carlton
SP Robin Roberts
SP Pete Alexander
SP Chris Short
SP Curt Schilling
CL Steve Bedrosian
"The Greatest" All-Time Washington Nationals (2005-present)/Montreal Expos (1969-2004) Lineup/Rotation .
MGR Dick Williams
C Gary Carter
1B Andres Galarraga
2B Jose Vidro
SS Hubie Brooks
3B Tim Wallach
RF Vlad Guerrero
CF Andre Dawson
LF Tim Raines
SP Steve Rogers
SP Dennis Martinez
SP Bryn Smith
SP Pedro Martinez
SP Javier Vazquez
CL Jeff Reardon
That will do it for this week, hope you enjoyed it. We will return next week with more of the all-time greatest lineups/rotations as well as a special feature on the top 25 pitchers of the last 25 years. Don't miss it!!!!!!!!! Until then ..
