May 22nd: Playoff Power Rankings

The month of May is a great one for sports fans. Two of the most intense playoffs in professional sports interlace, keeping TV channels stocked every night with a high-intensity, do-or-die game. Picture in picture is a fan’s best friend, flipping between the NBA on TNT and ESPN, and the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs on NBC Sports Net.

With both sports in the Conference Championship round, there are 8 teams still fighting for a chance to hoist their league’s trophy. On some nights, though, how is a sports fan supposed to pick which team to watch? ZP: Left Fielder is here to help. This power ranking of the eight remaining teams will give an insight into not only the most successful teams, but the ones that are the most fun to watch:

8. Canadiens: Poor Canada. Not only can this team not spell (I like to make fun of them for that every chance I get), but their very real chance for a Cup went crashing just like Chris Kreider into Carey Price. Without a strong goalie, this team is just treading water until the Rangers take them down.

7. Thunder: All post-season, the Thunder have been grasping at maintaining any form of dominance. The beginning of the Western Conference Finals doesn’t bode well, and the Thunder will have to find other ways to play than begging Durant and Westbrook to score 50 apiece every night.

Lundqvist is solidifying his role as NHL's top netminder.

 6. Rangers: The Rangers are flying high under the direction of Henrik Lundqvist, who is playing his way into the “best goalie in hockey” title. Unfortunately, though, the team falls in this ranking because of the struggles of the Canadiens. As much as it’s fun to watch a team reach the next level, this particular series is negatively impacted by a one-sided look. If the Canadiens surge, the both of them could rise. I think the Rangers would rather keep things the way they are, though.

5. Pacers: This is the hardest team of the eight to rank. Which Pacers team are we really talking about, anyway? The team that struggled to pull off a seven-game victory in the first round to the lowly Hawks? The team that Stephenson led monsters from the first game and three quarters of the new Heat series? In either case, this is fun to watch. You could be watching the best team in the NBA or a train coming off the tracks. It’ll keep you entertained, that’s for sure.

The Spurs can do no wrong as they take a 2-0 series lead.

4. Spurs: The Spurs are simply making the rest of the league look silly. Their stars are performing at a ridiculous rate, and the word “dynasty” just keeps coming up, as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili just took over the record for the most combined wins in postseason history together. They take a hit in this rankings, though, because, when you’re going this well, you barely need to watch the game anymore. The box score will be a glee-fest all of it’s own.

3. Kings: The Sharks couldn’t beat them, despite a three-game lead in the series. The Ducks couldn’t do it either, despite a home-field advantage for another game 7. How does anybody beat the Kings? Better yet, these Kings are fun to watch, because they make things interesting (sometimes too interesting for LA fans). If the first two games were any indication, the Chicago-LA series will be one not to miss.

The Hawks took game 1, but gave away the 2nd, sending
this series back to LA as the most exciting series in the playoffs.

2. Blackhawks: No team in the NHL is built for success quite like the Blackhawks. Their two young stars (Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane) are the brightest in the business, and their supporting cast shows the depth of a proven winner. While a bad loss last night didn’t look pretty, the Hawks are built to bounce back, especially with some extra rest. This team is the most fun team to watch in the most fun playoffs in the world.

1. Heat: How can you find anything more intriguing than a team trying to go for a three-peat? Miami seems to play the bare minimum intensity level for about 40 minutes, then explode for 8 minutes of absolutely stunning play. There may come a day when that isn’t good enough, but at this point, they have yet to meet their match. Whether you’re hoping for another big win or just begging for the King to fall, the Miami Heat lead the league in intrigue.

May 14th: Gun Slingers Beware

After a Rookie of the Year win and a third place finish in the Cy Young voting, Jose Fernandez was sitting pretty in Miami. The team began the season with the best home record in baseball, and was an overall shock, undoubtedly, at least in part, due to their young stud ace.

That all came to a screeching halt on Monday when Twitter began to blow up with rumors that Fernandez was being put on the Disabled List. What began as an elbow strain eventually became a season-ending possibility. Although the Marlins will continue to evaluate the situation, it looks like they will be without their best pitcher for the year.

Fernandez joins a long list of young flame-throwers who have lost a year to arm surgery, most notably Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals and Matt Harvey of the Mets. In each case, the game’s brightest pitching stars are sustaining arm injuries that require major surgery.

What, though, does this growing trend say about the future of the game? Young guns are an important part of building a dynasty, but the need to wait an extra year can not only cause a pause in a playoff push but can also risk the player not recovering in the ways that the team may want.

Another piece of the puzzle is the ethical issues associated with asking players to give their all in a way that will almost inevitably lead to injury. It isn’t that these players are being mismanaged in the majors. They are being coached to the point of injury from the time they first demonstrate their unbelievable skills. This may be as early as middle school. A kid who can throw the hardest becomes the biggest star of his high school team, his college club, and even his minor league affiliate for the franchise that will be betting the farm on him. This gets to the complexity of the issue: these players are being asked to perform, to play for their team, in ways that will both get them the big contract, but also the big hurt.

Going forward, coaches at every level needed to be trained what to do when they are blessed with talented young men to throw the baseball. While a young kid might want to pitch every inning of the season, it is to a disadvantage for his long-term success to put that much strain on his elbow.

For the Marlins, and all of major league baseball, the best they can hope for is a speedy recovery and a 2015 return of the same dominant star from the past. As eyebrows begin to go up, though, about the new epidemic of elbow injuries, it is clear that something is going to have to change. It might be a new era of hitting dominance. It may be a new era of subtle, finnessed pitching rather than knockdown heat. EIther way, the injury to Fernandez is, quite possibly, the beginning of a change in Major League Baseball.