April 24th: Contenders and Pretenders

The Major League Baseball season is wrapping up it’s third week, and teams are beginning to realize that the pleasant optimism of March doesn’t always carry over into the season. Some teams have come out as surprises, while others have faltered to a disappointing open. Which teams are legit? Which teams will fade down the stretch? The ZP: Left Fielder looks at which teams will continue as they are and which will turn things around, whether for the better or not.

Real Contenders:

American League - Detroit Tigers

This offense is terrifying. Yoenis Cespedes looks to be a perfect addition to a lineup that already included Miguel Cabrera, J.D. and Victor Martinez, and Ian Kinsler. The pitching has also been stellar, as Alfredo Simon looks to be continuing to develop into the All-Star he was last season. A healthy Justin Verlander would be the icing on the cake. Also, is Jose Iglesias even human? His defense is some of the most fun to watch in baseball.

National League - San Diego Padres

I’ve had issues with the revamped Padres, who have a lineup that, while daunting, doesn’t necessarily look like it will gel together. San Diego has come out looking strong, though, and seem to be in contention for the West. Most importantly, the pitching staff has the potential to be filthy dominant, with Tyson Ross as a nasty game-changer.

Pretenders:

American League - Houston Astros

Raise your hand if you expected the Astros to be leading the division after the first three weeks? I thought not. Unfortunately, this isn’t going to continue very long. As the rest of the division heats up and the young Astros squad comes back to earth, this team will fade out a bit. This might be a sign of things to come, though, and a reason to get excited in Texas for the future.

National League - New York Mets

The Mets are baseball’s hottest team, with a long win streak under their belts. The excitement surrounding this team is huge, and will definitely drive them forward. Unfortunately, like the Astros, the rest of the division will soon heat up, and the loss of David Wright (again) leaves New York vulnerable to a downward spiral. It won’t be devastating, but this team is gearing up for a drop-off.

Real Bad:

American League: Chicago White Sox

The White Sox were supposed to be the greatest thing to ever happen to baseball after a busy offseason, but that hasn’t been the case. They were absolutely knocked around by the Royals early on, and haven’t gotten their feet set. The return of Chris Sale will help, but this team is not the powerhouse many expected. Expect us to be talking about this team as the biggest disappointment of the year come the offseason.

National League: Milwaukee Brewers

We knew the Brewers would fall from their pedestal after last season’s epic run and eventual fall. But did anyone see this coming? The Brewers can’t seem to win anything, and they have been the punching bag for an angry Cincinnati team this week. Don’t expect things to get any better now that Jonathan Lucroy is out with foot injury.

Slow Starts:

American League: Los Angeles Angels/Seattle Mariners

These two are expected to be the clash of titans on the West Coast deep into September. That being said, both have records with something left to be desired. The Angels’ Tuesday night beatdown of the As is a big sign of things to come, though, while the Mariners have a long list of perennial All-Stars that just haven’t heated up yet (yet being the key word). These two will turn into everything baseball fans expect, and leave their slow starts behind them.

National League: Washington Nationals

The Nationals were supposed to be unbeatable, and yet they sit just around .500 at the 10% mark of the season. Denard Span and Jayson Werth have come back from injuries, though, and a big walk-off win on Tuesday night could be enough to get the swagger going in D.C. This team is going to be formidable, it is just a matter of when.

April 3rd: MLB Playoff Preview

Before we’ve played a single game, I’ve predicted the final standings for all six MLB divisions. Now, I take a look at the way the postseason will shape up. Who wins the World Series? You’re about to find out!

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AL Wild Card:

Mariners over Indians - A faceoff between last year’s Cy Young finalists, Kluber is going to be enough to get the Tribe to the game, but the Mariners lineup will be able to get Seattle into the next round.

NL Wild Card:

Pirates over Cubs - The Cubs squeak in on the last day of the season, while the Pirates cruise to the postseason, only barely falling short of St. Louis. While Chicago owns the hearts of the country, the Pirates own the talent, and a third straight WC game gives Pittsburgh the edge.

AL Division Series:

Angels over Mariners - A division showdown in the Division Series. The Mariners will try to seek their revenge after losing out on the division crown, but the Angels will be out for blood after their embarrassing loss to Kansas City a year ago. Angels will win it in four.

Red Sox over Tigers - The matchup of the two best lineups in the American League will be a slugfest, especially if the pitching staffs limp into the postseason. This is totally dependent on who’s hot as the season expires, but the Red Sox have Kung Fu Panda, who knows how to get it done in October.

NL Division Series:

Nationals over Pirates - The Nationals will have an absolutely unbeatable staff, built for a long postseason run. The Pirates will, for the third straight year, draw a bad matchup in the postseason, and be headed home early. Luckily, they will have proven their intent to compete, so free agents will flock to Pittsburgh in 2016.

Dodgers over Cardinals - Clayton Kershaw will be begging for the ball in this series, and he will get his revenge. The Cardinals won’t have the pitching depth to make this year their year, and will watch as the Dodgers take their place in the next round.

AL Championship Series:

Angels over Red Sox - The cross country series will feature two teams with question marks at pitcher but rosters so deep, they will score by the truckload. I’m going with my gut and picking the Angels, who feel like they are ready to make the jump to postseason elite.

NL Championship Series:

Nationals over Dodgers - The pitching matchups in this series will make anyone drool. Look for Kershaw to square off against Scherzer, leaving Strasburg to make his October name for himself the following night. In the end, the Dodgers won’t be able to compete offensively with the Nationals, and Washington will visit the Fall Classic.

World Series:

Nationals over Angels - Baseball’s greatest pitching staff will face off against the greatest offense, in a baseball version of the Denver-Seattle Super Bowl. The matchup between Mike Trout and now MVP favorite Bryce Harper will be an epic battle that will set the tone for the future of the game. In the end, masterful pitching will once again decide the outcome of the game, and Harper’s Spring Training predictions will come away looking prophetic. The World Series Champions will be the Washington Nationals!

That’s how the ZP: Left Fielder sees the Major League Baseball season shaping up. Will it end the way we predict? Probably not. Don’t worry, though. I’ll be here in October to pick them again!

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March 31st: MLB East Division Predictions

The greatest day of the year is fast approaching: Major League Baseball Opening Day! As we start the season, every team believes they are about to embark on a playoff chase, and hope is in the air.

There is an old saying: Everyone is going to win 54 games. Everyone is going to lose 54 games. It is what you do with the other 54 that really counts. This week, the ZP: Left Fielder is going to attempt to decide how each team will fare in the coming season. Division by division, we will break down the playoff predictions and final standings, attempting to guess at what the next six months have in store for us.

Today, we will take a look at the East divisions in the American and National Leagues. Tomorrow we will tackle the Central, and, finally, on Thursday the West. Friday will feature the final playoff predictions.

Let’s get started!

American League East:

1. 

   Old and new faces will help lead Boston back to contention.

   Red Sox

The Red Sox have made a habit out of going from worst to first and back again. After an abysmal 2014, Boston went out and spent the money to revamp the team. The outfield is not only crowded but abundantly talented, and Dustin Pedroia anchors a solid infield. This team is deep, and, despite the lack of a single, dominant ace, the pitching will keep the offense in ball games.

2. Orioles

The offseason was not kind in Baltimore, as the team struggled to replace the big bats that departed. The pitching remains to be an area of strength, and the Orioles maintained their centerpieces with Adam Jones and Manny Machado, but there should be a little bit of a slip for the defending AL East Champs.

3. Yankees

Now that the Derek Jeter festivities are over and gone, the Yankees will have to find a new way to entertain fans. Winning would be a nice place to start. The team has some of the best talent in baseball, but age and health are problems that leads the Yankees to be one of the most polarizing teams to predict. They will either be great or terrible, and it’s hard to tell which.

4. Blue Jays

Things were finally looking up for Canada’s team. The signing or Russell Martin made it seem like they were finally serious about winning. The young guns in the system were looking like they were ready to have an impact. Then, Marcus Stroman went down, and gloom set in. This team will be in the hunt until the first week of August, and slowly start to sputter from a lack of experience in a playoff race. Maybe next year, Blue Jays fans.

5. Rays

If any team can make something out of the nothing going on in Tampa, this may be the one. That being said, it is impossible to have too much faith in a team that looks like a minor league spring training team forgot to head north. This will be a rebuilding year, but that could mean big things for the future Rays. The future looks bright, just not in 2015.

National League East:

1. Nationals

The Nationals had one of the best rotations in baseball last year. Then they added Max Scherzer. This team will be absolutely dominant in the National League, and an overall weak division will lead Washington to the playoffs by a wide margin. Expect Bryce Harper to bounce back and have an MVP-caliber season.

2. Marlins

The Marlins are a popular pick for a team looking to hit it’s stride. It may be a little early yet, though. Stanton had a monster year last year, and Dee Gordon was a good addition to the infield. Overall, the Marlins are intriguing, but a young team is bound to have growing pains, so we might need to keep our expectations reasonable.

3. Mets

The Mets look to be a shortstop away from contention. Well, that shortstop has proved elusive, and David Wright has proven that, despite flashes of brilliance, his health is the thing standing between him and leading this team to the promised land. The young pitching will make this team interesting, but the Mets need to keep adding to the mix at a little more aggressive of a pace.

4. Braves

I’m not entirely sure what the Braves did this offseason. They looked like they were in full-blown rebuild mode, but also signed Nick Markakis to a relatively large contract. The team has a franchise player in Freddie Freeman, but is going to have to go through a few tough months before there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

5. Phillies

Three years ago, the Phillies were the most terrifying team in the National League. Now, they are scary bad. They did little this winter to help their case, and the rebuilding process doesn’t look to be going very well. The Phillies will have a season to forget, and will try to sell everyone they possibly can come July.

Check back in tomorrow for the Central Divisions predictions!

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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.

February 22nd: National League Preview

The 162 game baseball season is a marathon. Yet, in Spring Training, it is easy enough to let the excitement get the best of you. Everyone is trying to guess where the standings will wind up September 29^th. In this case, the Zoot Perspective Left Fielder will attempt to predict the standings for the 2014 baseball season. This week we’ll tackle the National League, next week the American League.

NL East:

     1,  Washington Nationals: Last year was a season to forget in DC. With their mysterious hitting woes behind them, the Nationals should prove why they were such heavy favorites to win last year. One of the strongest starting rotations allows even a rough start for the lineup to remain a scary threat for the division title.

     2. Atlanta Braves: The first team to clinch last year has a lot of question marks, including which pair of Upton brothers will show up. This team will live and die by the bat of Freddie Freeman, who is out to prove that his big new contract was no accident.

     3.   New York Mets: Young pitching leads another new wave of Mets, led by Dillon Gee and Zack Wheeler. Missing Matt Harvey will hurt, though, and David Wright’s questionable durability may be the difference for a franchise that lacks the offense to put up big numbers. Another mediocre year awaits.

     4. Philadelphia Phillies: The past few years have not been kind to the aging Phillies, as the 2008 World Series is shrinking in the rearview mirror. An identity crisis is in the cards as Philadelphia attempts to decide whether they want to compete now or rebuild for their future.

     5.  Miami Marlins: An offseason of smart moves makes this Marlins team better than the terrifyingly bad on from a year ago. Jarrod Saltalamacchia does not make you a champion, though. This team will be better, but not by much.

NL Central:

      1. St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals are perennial threats to make the playoffs, and this year appears to be no exception. A strong core of talent and some offseason improvements from last year’s NL pennant winners should put them in contention to return to the World Series. The one question mark will be to see how young pitchers Michael Wacha and Shelby Miller respond to their sophomore campaigns.

     2. Pittsburgh Pirates: The loss of some key rentals from last year’s playoff team could bode badly for the Buccos. The taste of victory is on the lips of Pittsburgh fans, though, so the club should be hungry for more. Having defending NL MVP Andrew McCutchen and rising stars OF Starling Marte and SP Gerrit Cole should make this team contenders for quite a few years to come.

     3.  Cincinnati Reds: Two years ago, this team won the division in stunning fashion. Last year, they fell in the Wild Card game. Unfortunately, the slide may continue for a team that is relying heavily on the production of some young stars. This will be a good ball club, but most likely not a great one.

     4. Chicago Cubs: The future looks bright in Chicago. The question is, how long will fans have to wait? Bounce-back years from Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo should lead a young team into a more comfortable place. This year isn’t the year, but it’s going to be good practice for the very exciting 2015 season.

     5.  Milwaukee Brewers: Although stealthily subtle moves to improve the rotation have helped, the Brewers are far removed from the days of competing in the NL Central. This team will most likely flounder unless Carlos Gomez can continue to rise and Ryan Braun can return in full form (minus the steroids).

NL West:

     1.  Los Angeles Dodgers: The biggest question facing the Dodgers is who will be the odd man out in a too-talented outfield. That’s a good problem to have. Starting pitching and young talent headline a team with an expectation for a World Series win. This team looks like the real deal.

   

     2. San Fransisco Giants: A team that wins the World Series and returns almost the whole lineup should do pretty well, right? Apparently not, as last year’s Giants proved. This year, though, things should be back to normal, as the Giants take a stab at the wild card or even a chance to unseat the Dodgers. Either way, that rivalry will be fun this summer.

     3.  Arizona Diamondbacks: This team is going to be hard to predict. The potential is there for a real playoff threat, while there is also the chance for a big flop. The big questions are whether Mark Trumbo can provide some support for Paul Goldschmidt, and whether or not the starting pitching can keep the Diamondbacks going.

     4. San Diego Padres: A very similar group from the 2013 squad, this team is supposed to develop into a solid core of players. Key words: supposed to. Expectations are high and, unless someone steps up as the star of this team, they will most likely not be met.

     5.Colorado Rockies: Some young stars exist in Nolan Arenado and Wilin Rosario, and Carlos Gonzalez will continue to be a yearly MVP candidate, but otherwise this team appears a little lackluster. In an otherwise strong division, this team just doesn’t look to have what it takes to make a big impact on the race come August or September.