Tag Archives: 2014

Yesterday’s Mr. Octobers (October 1, 2014)

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Brandon Crawford hit a game-changing grand slam- the first in postseason history hit by a shortstop. Madison Bumgarner controlled the game from the mound, becoming the first LHP to have a complete game shutout on the road in a winner-take-all game since one “Sandy Koufax” in 1965.

So, needless, to say, they are yesterday’s Mr. Octobers!

Standings so far (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher, * means eliminated from playoffs):

PP Brandon Crawford 1

P Madison Bumgarner 1

PP Brandon Moss 1*

P Brandon Finnegan 1

Yesterday’s Mr. Octobers (September 30, 2014)

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It’s time for the MR. OCTOBERs of Yesterday.

Here’s how it goes: instead of going by day, we’re going by game. Each game will have an MVP position player and an MVP pitcher. The amount of points given are as so: the MVPs of a Wild Card game get one point, MVPs of an LDS game get three points, MVPs of a LCS game get five points, and MVPs of World Series games get ten points. Points are doubled if it’s in a Game 5 in the LDS or Game 7 of the LCS or WS.

So, last night’s Mister Octobers were position player Brandon Moss (despite losing, he was clearly the best offensive player of the game) and young Brandon Finnegan, who’s extra-innings pitching were a revelation.

Standings so far (PP= Position Player, P= Pitcher, * means eliminated from playoffs):

PP Brandon Moss 1*

P Brandon Finnegan

Your 2014 Baltimore Orioles, AKA “Where The Hell Did These Guys Come From?”, a Q&A

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Last night, the Orioles won, walking off the Yankees in the 9th to lower their magic number to 3. It seems all but inevitable that they will clinch their first AL East pennant since 1997 within the next few days, perhaps as early as tomorrow.

And yet, many are likely asking: “Where the hell did these guys come from?”

It’s not a bad question, as the Orioles have continued to win, even after losing not one (Matt Wieters), not two (Manny Machado), but three former or current All-Stars to either injury or, in Davis’ case, suspension. In fact, if anything, they seem to have gotten better with every big player they’ve lost.

So, to answer some questions about the Orioles, here’s a Q&A:

Okay, so, the Orioles do still have Adam Jones and Nick Markakis, right?

Yes. They do.

And both of them were actually developed in the Orioles farm system?

Only half correct. Markakis was 100% home grown, but Adam Jones was originally in the Mariners system and was acquired in a trade for Erik Bedard back in 2008.

Oh, bummer for the Mariners. Anybody else from that trade on the Orioles roster?

Chris Tillman. Currently 12-5 with a 3.29 ERA.

Wow, the Mariners really screwed that up, didn’t they?

Yes, yes they did.

By the way, alongside Tillman, the Orioles rotation has done pretty good this year, what’s their story?

Wei-Yin Chen, a lefty who is currently 15-4 with a 3.59 ERA and some of the best control in the league (he has had the 5th lowest percentage of BB/9 in the AL this year), was acquired from Japan, where he was a member of the NPB Chunichi Dragons. Before that, he played in his native Taiwan.

Ubaldo Jimenez was acquired as a free agent this last offseason, and has not lived up to his $50 million dollar contract, with a ERA approaching five. It’s highly unlikely he’ll be a starter during the postseason.

Bud Norris was acquired from Houston in 2013 in a trade for L.J. Hoes and a minor leaguer.

Miguel Gonzalez was signed as a free agent in 2012, having never reached the Majors during his time in the Angels or Red Sox systems. He’s 9-8 with a 3.28 ERA.

And, finally, there is Kevin Gausman, the lone member of the starting rotation who is 100% Orioles. Although he was up and down between Baltimore and AAA Norfolk this year, at least some of that had more to do with taking advantage of MLB service time rules than his actual performance (he has a perfectly respectable 3.57 ERA). Only 23 and one of the top prospects for Baltimore, he loves powdered donuts and has a fastball that can hit triple digits at times.

Hang on, so those five guys and Chris Tillman have been the Orioles rotation this year? It looks like a bunch of guys who’d be mid-rotation guys on other teams.

Yeah. Feels that way, doesn’t it? In fact, if you were to look at FanGraphs’ pitching WAR leaders, you don’t see an Oriole until you get to 47 on the list- Tillman, who’s just ahead of Kyle Gibson of the Twins. If you were to look at the rotation’s FIP (Fielding-Independent Pitching, basically what a pitcher’s ERA would be like if they were pitching in laboratory settings with average fielding, luck, etc.), you’d see none of them have one under 4.

So, perhaps the Orioles’ rotation is playing over it’s head, getting lucky and taking advantage of the offense supporting them and the defense behind them. Another way to look at it, though, would be that perhaps having 5 steady mid-rotation guys is better than having one or two aces followed by more questionable pitching. I don’t know.

Okay, enough about pitchers? How about the long-ball?

Nelson Cruz was probably among this past off-season’s best free agent signings, as he’s worked his way from PED-suspended disgrace and poor fielder to dinger-pounding DH (currently 39 on the season), although he has cooled off significantly in the second half of the season, only hitting 11 of the 39 after the All-Star Break.

Go on…

The next highest number of home runs on the Orioles is 26, by Chris Davis, who isn’t available. Adam Jones has been having a good power year, though, and is currently at 25 homers for the year. Steve Pearce, a super-utility/backup 1B/backup OF, has been having a career year at the plate with 17 HRs. He’s another good free agent signing.

Say, where did the Orioles get JJ Hardy, again?

They acquired him from the Twins in 2010 for such immortals as Jim Hoey and Brett Jacboson.

Who?

Exactly.

So, who is Jonathan Schoop and how do I say his last name?

He’s a international free agent signing from Curaco, a member of the WBC Honkballers, long one of the top infield prospects in the Orioles system, and his last name is pronounced like “scope”.

Thank you.

You’re welcome.

Now, where’d the bullpen come from?

The bullpen is basically made up of failed starting pitching prospects. Closer Zach Britton? He was a starter coming up. Same for Brian Matusz, Tommy Hunter (Hunter was initially a starter for the Rangers, and was acquired in the same deal that brought Chris Davis to Baltimore) and Andrew Miller (who the Orioles acquired in July from Boston). Only Darren O’Day has never started a game in the big leagues. He, by the way, was taken off waivers from the Rangers back in 2011.

So, anybody else notable?

Delmon Young. David Lough. Ryan Flaherty. The Orioles have plenty of guys who you know you remember still being in the league but can’t quite remember much about. Well, Ryan Flaherty has been with the Orioles since he was acquired in the 2011 Rule 5 draft, but still.

So, really, how are the Orioles doing this?

They made some good acquisitions, a good bullpen and lineup, and the pitching is good enough. Also, they sacrificed Wieters’ UCL and Machado’s knee to the baseball gods. Only rational explanation.

2014 Rochester Red Wings in Review, Part 2: Five Things We Learned

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Apologies for being late, but here are five things we learned from the 2014 Rochester Red Wings season:

1. It is possible to throw a No-Hitter in two different states and two different months

2. Geography is Destiny

3. As always, the fate of a Minor League Team is in large part outside of it’s control

Make no mistake, the purpose of AAA baseball teams is, and always will be, to provide a place for future MLB players to get ready for The Show. Winning is of only secondary importance, and, with rare exception, no AAA team will go the season with all of their key pieces untouched. What’s more, there are still the other hazards that haunt every baseball club: injuries, slumps, players that just don’t work out or underperform.

This year’s Red Wings were a perfect example of that. The Red Wings played 144 games this season. Only six position players were in at least 100 of them, only four were in at least 120 of them, and only two (Eric Farris, who’s “get to know your Wings” scoreboard segment was by far the best, and Aussie infielder James Beresford) were in at least 130 of them. Danny Santana, who many thought would be in Rochester for a good chunk of the season, ended up only playing 24 games, while Darin Mastroianni was lost to first the Majors and then to the Blue Jays through waivers after just four games. Chris Parmelee, the leading power threat through the first month of the season, was also gone early. The vaunted opening-day rotation of Alex Meyer, Trevor May, Yohan Pino, Logan Darnell and Kris Johnson saw all but Meyer spend at least some time in Minnesota, and the loss of May and Pino down the stretch especially hurt. If Rochester had all five of them all season, I see almost no way that they miss the playoffs, but, again, those are the breaks that come with being a AAA franchise.

And, of course, there were injuries, both in the majors (which led to certain players getting called up to replace the injured Twins) and down in the minors. The loss of Meyer to injury early in the third-to-last game of the season may well have doomed the Red Wings, as it forced them to burn Mark Hamburger, who was expected to pitch a must-win game against Pawtuckett the next day. Instead, the Red Wings had to have Jose Berrios, a 20-year-old (albeit one of the top prospects in the system) pitch that game, where he was beaten up on in a loss that ended the Wings’ playoff chances.

Health problems below AAA also put a wrench in the Wings’ season. At the start of the year, it was considered possible that top prospects Miguel Sano and (although more of a longshot) Byron Buxton could join by the end of the year. Sano got hurt and missed the whole season, and Buxton got a concussion in his first game in AA (although by that point it was clear he was probably not going to end up in Rochester by the end of the year).

Speaking of prospects, I think it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that Rochester will ever see Kennys Vargas, who has gone .314 in 140 AB for the Twins since getting the call-up from AA. Prospects jumping from AA to MLB is less frequent in Minnesota’s system than it is in some others, but it does happen: Joe Mauer would never have played in Rochester if not for a injury so early in his rookie season in MLB, for example.

4. Of course, the above thing also can go the other way.

After the first month of the season, I don’t think anybody expected that Chris Colabello would be back in Rochester. He’d done great early in the year, after all, even winning AL Player of the Week at one point. Then he crashed back to earth and ended up spending more games in Rochester this season (61) than he would in Minneapolis (59). He did not receive a call-up at the end of the year and it’s almost certain that his time with Minnesota- and maybe even affiliated baseball in general- is at an end. But what must have been a horrible disappointment for Colabello was good news for the Red Wings, as he ended up leading the team in HRs. In his two seasons with the Red Wings, Colabello ended up batting .319 in 551 ABs, with 34 HRs and 114 RBIs. His OPS of .966 was spectacular. He will be missed, but hopefully he gets another shot at a permanent place in the Majors.

Similarly, Chris Herrmann was originally with the Twins to start the year, but ended up playing sizable time in Rochester, where he became one of the Wings’ best hitters. He’s now in Minnesota again as a September call-up.

The same sort of thing will no doubt happen next year, just as it happens every year.

5. The Mario-Coin Sound Is An Excellent Sound Effect For Scoring A Run

This season, when the Red Wings scored a run, the sound from Super Mario Brothers when you got a coin would play. They aren’t the only team that does it- I believe the Cleveland Indians do the same, and the Twins use the 1-Up Sound from SMB. It’s great, funny, and is also a good reminder that ultimately baseball is a game.

In fact, it even inspired me to try my hand at some artwork:

marioredwingsThat’s Mario in a Rochester Red Wings jersey. I’m not entirely sure why I made it, but I find it funny and I’m glad I made it. Let’s just hope they don’t change the sound effect next year, otherwise this will just be ridiculous.

 

…

So, the 2014 season is over in Rochester. It’s far too early to guess what the 2015 season may bring: Will Gene Glynn return as manager? Will some players be lost to free agency or by making the jump to the big leagues? Will next year by the year that Sano and/or Buxton make the jump to AAA?

Only time will tell.

 

2014 Rochester Red Wings in Review, Part 1, AKA “The IL North is Tough”

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If there is one lesson to be learned from the 2014 Rochester Red Wings, it is that minor league baseball is perhaps even more cruel than Major League Baseball, and perhaps even more unforgiving, at least to teams.

If you want to know what I mean, take a look at the standings of the International League this year. You’ll see on them a horrible unbalanced league, where one division clearly was better than the other two. That division was the IL North. Take a look at the near-final (there were one or two games still going on when I posted this) standings here:

Screen Shot 2014-09-01 at 4.04.16 PMNow, as you can see, the North simply owned the other divisions. The four teams with the best records in the league were in it (meaning the playoffs will consist of the first, second, fifth, and sixth best teams), and it’s two worst teams (Scranton and Lehigh Valley) would have been in a three-way fight with Gwinnett for second in another division (the South).

Sadly for the Red Wings, they were in the North. And, sadly, they were unable to win the Wild Card. To be sure, there were times this season where it could be said they blew their chance at the postseason: a horrible 0-for-Ohio road trip, a few blown games by the bullpen here and there, and some games where they got plenty of men on base but never got enough of them home. But, ultimately, the Red Wings were just unlucky victims of geography, stuck in what may have been the best division in all of baseball (relative to the rest of it’s league).

That said, despite the disappointing ending, it was a ton of fun, so on Wednesday, I’ll have a second part, a retrospective on the 2014 Red Wings season, complete with photos!

 

2014 SEASON PREVIEW (PART 8): Everything you wanted to know about the opening series in Australia but didn’t ask

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So, it won’t be long before the 2014 MLB Regular Season starts… in Australia. Yes, this year, it starts in Sydney, Australia. You may or may not have questions about this, but I don’t particularly care what you think, so for our latest preview, we look at these two games that will start off the season.

Okay, first thing’s first, give me the basic details of this thing again?

The LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks are going to play a two-game series at Sydney’s Sydney Cricket Grounds. These are regular season games that count in the standings.

Okay, so when are they taking place?

Game one takes place around 4 AM Eastern (1 AM Pacific) on March 22nd, with the second game taking place later that date at around 10 PM Eastern (7 PM Pacific). The reason for that is due to the international date line- locally the first game takes place a bit past 7 PM on the 22nd and a bit past 1 PM on the 23rd. Fun fact: Due to these games being in the Southern Hemisphere, the MLB season will, for the first time, START in Fall, as opposed to merely ending in it.

In addition, both the Dodgers and Diamondbacks will have exhibitions against the Australian National Team on the 20th (Dodgers) and 21st (Diamondbacks).

Who’s the home team here?

The Diamondbacks will be the “home” team.

Is it on TV here in America?

Yup. They’ll be on MLB Network, with Matt Vasgersian and Tom Smoltz calling it, with Ian Chappell providing further commentary.

The games will also be on the local TV broadcasts in Arizona and LA. The games about the Australian National Team should be available online, for example on MLB.TV.

Who’s Ian Chappell?

One of the greatest Australian cricketers of all time and a major fixture of Australian TV coverage of Cricket, Chappell has a baseball pedigree, and his son had a brief stint in the minors. Presumably he will be there to provide some local flavor, such as information on the Sydney Cricket Ground, some Australian traditions, etc.

Speaking of which where is this being played, again?

The Sydney Cricket Ground, established in 1848 (although renovated and/or rebuilt several times since then), is one of the world’s most storied cricket venues. It has also been used for both rugby union and league, the Commonwealth Games (at the time called the “British Empire Games”), Australian Rules Football, soccer, concerts, and, yes, at one point baseball- the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants played there during their 1914 world tour.

For baseball, the fences have been set up as 328 down the lines, 370 in the gaps and 400 to straightaway center. Here’s how they changed it from cricket to baseball:

So, who’s pitching?

Game 1: Clayton Kershaw vs. Wade Miley (filling in for Patrick Corbin, who is hurt)

Game 2: Hyun-Jin Ryu vs. Trevor Cahill

Where’s Zack Greinke?

Partially not there because an injury screwed up his throwing schedule, partially not there because his rather… unfiltered… thoughts about how he felt about starting the season in Australia. Carl Crawford and Matt Kemp also didn’t make the trip due to injury.

Are there even any Australians on these teams?

Sort of. Ryan Rowland-Smith. AKA “Hyphen”, is fighting for a spot in the Diamondbacks bullpen. He definitely will be playing in the exhibition games- in fact, the Diamondbacks have given him permission to pitch for Team Australia against the Dodgers.

Can you give me a brief history of baseball in Australia?

From my 2013 WBC preview:

The first baseball in Australia was played by American expats and their friends in the 1850s, but it wasn’t until the 1870s that the first organized teams were formed. The sport received more attention during the World Tours of barnstorming MLB players in the 19th and early 20th century and by the time American servicemen arrived in Australia during WWII there was a small but devoted amateur culture of baseball, one that has survived to this day. However, baseball has not yet been able to get permanently get past that amateur status, with two professional leagues (the Australian Baseball league of 1989-99 and the International Baseball League of Australia of 1999-2002) failing and a complete lack of professional baseball until the new Australian Baseball League was formed with MLB help a few years ago.

What will the crowds be like? I mean, you just said that professional leagues have struggled to survive and that it’s amateur baseball is simply “small but devoted”.

Well, they’ve sold out (or come very close to selling out) both games. It’s also likely, if reports are anything to go on, that they are going to be Diamondbacks fans.

Is this going to be one-off, or a regular thing?

Well, baseball has becoming increasingly driven in expanding the game’s reach internationally, and just having the WBC and the occasional opener in Japan isn’t going to be enough. Already there is some talk that MLB could return to Australia in 2018 if this series is a success, and there have also been rumblings about games in the Netherlands. And, just this year, there have been exhibition games in Panama City and, later in the spring, a return to Montreal. So, yeah, this is going to be a regular thing. Maybe it won’t be in Sydney, maybe it won’t even be a return to Tokyo, Mexico or Puerto Rico (although all of those are certainly possible), but there will be more openers overseas in the future.

Like where?

Besides obvious suspects like Korea, Taiwan or the Dominican Republic (none of which, amazingly, have ever hosted an official MLB game), I wouldn’t be surprised if you see rumblings about maybe doing series in other countries that play cricket, since it’s a lot easier to turn a cricket ground into a baseball field than, say, a soccer pitch. So, don’t be surprised if we end up seeing games in New Zealand (where baseball is the fastest-growing team sport) and the United Kingdom (although the weather there could be a problem) in the not-that-distant future.

Can I see the picture of Vin Scully holding the Koala Bear?

Okay.

Next time: More baseball previewing!

2014 SEASON PREVIEW (PART 7): Best Case/Worst Case for… the NL EAST (with Getty Images)

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We reach our last installment of Best Case/Worst Case… with, of course, sometimes irrelevant images from Getty.

Here we go:

Atlanta Braves:

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Best-Case Scenario: World Series. I mean, look at that pitching staff! Look at the young hitters! They should at least make the playoffs, right.

Worst-Case Scenario: Well, unless their pitching gets hurt. If that happens, there could be big trouble.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: Whoops. It’s already happened.

Washington Nationals

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Best-Case Scenario: The World Series comes to Washington for the first times since the 1930s, while Bryce Harper makes a great leap forward into near-Trout levels of awesomeness, bro.

Worst-Case Scenario: Stephen Strasburg’s arm spontaneously combusts during a game.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: Harper stagnates, Strasburg and Friends get hurt, Matt Williams is not a good manager, etc.

New York Mets

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Best Case Scenario: Everybody stays healthy and they don’t embarrass themselves too much before Matt Harvey returns next season from Tommy John. Maybe some of the prospects, like Noah Syndergaard, make their first appearances.

Worst Case Scenario: This is the Mets, so you should imagine your worst case scenario for them then multiply it by 500.

Worst Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: This is the Mets, so you should imagine your worst case scenario for them then multiply it by… 499.

Philadelphia Phillies

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Best Case Scenario: The Fountain Of Youth hits the Phillies and they do one last run.

Worst Case Scenario: They are a bunch of old guys who play like it, and Ruben Amaro still acts like it’s the last years of the previous decade.

Worst Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: See above.

Miami Marlins
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Best Case Scenario: Giancarlo Stanton hits lots of dingers, Jose Fernandez is awesome.

Worst Case Scenario: The above doesn’t happen….

Worst Case Scenario That Might Actually Happen: See above.

 

Next Time: The Previews Continue…

2014 SEASON PREVIEW (PART 6): Best Case/Worst Case for… the NL CENTRAL (with Getty Images)

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Oh, boy, the NL Central! It’s time for another round of Best Case/Worst Case. And, since the Cubs are in this division, you know there’s going to be a worst case. And, of course, they all have at least vaguely-connected images from Getty on them. Yeah!

(Sorry, Cubs fans)

St. Louis Cardinals

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Best-Case Scenario: World Series title, obviously. They aren’t that different a team from last year aside from losing Carlos Beltran and Edward Mujica as well as trading the not-what-he-used-to-be David Freese.

Worst-Case Scenario: The Rally Squirrel returns… rabid and with a taste for human flesh.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: Injuries to the pitching staff, particularly Adam Wainwright.

Pittsburgh Pirates
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Best-Case Scenario: .500 again! The playoffs again! And this time, going further than the LDS, but all the way to the World Series.

Worst-Case Scenario: Scurvy.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: The rotation and bullpen regress while Andrew McCutchen has a post-MVP hangover.

Cincinnati Reds

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Best-Case Scenario: It’s a team that’s good enough to win the World Series if their pitching works out… but that’s a big if. Still, best-case scenario remains World Series.

Worst-Case Scenario: Billy Hamilton runs so fast that he breaks the sound barrier, making everyone in the stadium go deaf.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: The pitching doesn’t do it, and the Reds go nowhere in the playoffs, if they make it at all.

Milwaukee Brewers

Best-Case Scenario: Ryan Braun comes back from his Steroid-related… break… and returns to form despite the fact he, presumably, is no longer… doing the thing he was suspended for. The rotation does well and the Brewers stay in it for awhile before fading late in the season.

Worst-Case Scenario: Prohibition.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: More-or-less what happened last year, only with Ryan Braun playing the whole season. Well, okay, it could get worse: they could be worse than the cubs.

Chicago Cubs

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Best-Case Scenario: Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro continue to develop, nobody gets hurt, and Theo Epstein’s Master Plan (C) continues.

Worst-Case Scenario: The Brewers try to bring Hank the Dog into the stadium. The Cubs refuse his adorableness. Angered, Hank casts another curse upon the Cubs. Soon, Rizzo and Castro are hurt, Jeff Samardzija has decided to go back to football, the Cubs are spiraling to one of the worst records ever, and Theo Epstein runs away screaming “NO! NO! NEVER! THERE IS NO HOPE! NONE!”

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: Injuries and being in a tough division lead to the team being one of the worst in Cubs history. Rizzo and Castro have slump seasons, too.

 

Next time: The NL East!

2014 SEASON PREVIEW (PART 5): Best Case/Worst Case for… the NL WEST (with Getty Images)

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We went from East-To-West for the AL, but we’ll be going West-To-East for the NL, so… who is ready to learn what could go right and wrong in the NL West? And who wants to see some vaguely-related images from Getty, too?

Thought so.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Best-Case Scenario: The season begins in Australia and ends with Commissioner Selig handing the World Series trophy to Magic Johnson (or some other representative of the ownership group) in October. Clayton Kershaw wins CYA.

Worst-Case Scenario: Dingos eat their babies.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: Injuries. It’s unlikely that a healthy Dodgers team can be beaten in the NL West.

Arizona Diamondbacks
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Best-Case Scenario: The Diamondbacks get their vengeance, kick the Dodgers out of their pool, and then make a playoff run.

Worst-Case Scenario: Mark Trumbo and Paul Goldschmidt get their butts kicked by a group of angry kangaroos.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: Things go horribly wrong, injuries and steps-back to and by key players send the Diamondbacks tumbling into the cellar of the NL West. The Dodgers again celebrate in the Diamondbacks’ pool.

San Diego Padres

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Best-Case Scenario: People actually remember that they exist come September. Because, really, the Padres may well be the most anonymous team in baseball, and they are going to have to do well if they are going to change that.

Worst-Case Scenario: You forget the Padres even exist by September.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: See above.

San Francisco Giants
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Best-Case Scenario: The pitching staff is revived as Tim Hudson– now back in the Bay Area- and Ryan Vogelsong have bounce-back years and Tim Lincecum finds his old groove.

Worst-Case Scenario: Godzilla Attack.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: Pitching isn’t amazing. The lineup isn’t good enough. Another middle-of-the-division finish.

Colorado Rockies

Best-Case Scenario: Justin Morneau becomes his old self in the thin (but humidified) Colorado air, and he joins forces with a healthy Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez to bring back the Blake Street Bombers of old. While the pitching keeps them from being a serious playoff contender, they sure end up being fun to watch.

Worst-Case Scenario: The Colorado Rockies organization ceases to exist, since Todd Helton isn’t around playing for them anymore.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: They finish in the basement and aren’t particularly fun to watch, either.

Next Time: THE NL CENTRAL

2014 SEASON PREVIEW (PART 4): Best Case/Worst Case for… the AL WEST (with Getty Images)

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Today, we look at the AL West, and what could go right… and what could go wrong. Complete with Getty Images that may or may not have anything to do with the actual team.

Here we go:

Oakland Athletics

Best-Case Scenario: Billy Beane‘s @#$% finally works in October, the Athletics win the World Series, and their long-term stadium situation is finally solved.

Worst-Case Scenario: Billy Beane’s @#$% doesn’t work very well during the Regular season this year, the Athletics finish third, and finish the season as a barnstorming team when their stadium in Oakland disappears in a sinkhole of bad plumbing and a dark spell cast by Al Davis in the late 1990s.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: See above, but remove the barnstorming, the sinkhole and Al Davis’ dark spell.

Texas Rangers

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Best-Case Scenario: It finally happens, and the Rangers win the World Series with the help of a resurgent Prince Fielder, the ever-underrated Shin-Soo Choo, a breakout year from Jurickson Profar and a Cy Young year from Yu Darvish.

Worst-Case Scenario: Ian Kinsler is a wizard, and his wish for the Rangers to go 0-162 comes true.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: It all falls apart: Fielder continues to decline, Choo has an off-year, Adrian Beltre shows his age, Darvish gets hurt, Profar muddles and the Rangers have their worst year in years. Ron Washington is fired despite his recent extension.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Orange County, California, West Coast, United States of America, North America, Western Hemisphere, Planet Earth, Sol System, Milky Way

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Best-Case Scenario: Mike Trout wins Triple Crown, MVP, All-Star Game MVP, the Home Run Derby title, Sports Illustrated‘s Sportsman of the Year, the AP Male Athlete of the Year, an EGOT, the Nobel Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom as he single-handedly straps the team on his back and brings them to the World Series. Or something like that. In reality, the Angels probably need Trout to keep on Trouting while having both Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton show their old selves and the pitching staff stepping up.

Worst-Case Scenario: Mike Trout gets hurt. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: To be honest, Trout getting hurt is arguably the worst-case scenario, as I find it highly unlikely that both the rest of the lineup can take up the slack AND the pitching takes a step forward.

Seattle Mariners

Best-Case Scenario: Felix Hernandez is still awesome, Hisashi Iwakuma gets better (health-wise), Taijuan Walker gets better physically and on the field, and Robinson Cano… just keeps doing what’s he’s doing.

Worst-Case Scenario: Robinson Cano gets hurt in a money-counting incident, misses rest of the season.

Worst-Case Scenario that could actually happen: Felix actually starts to show that he may be human, Iwakuma and Walker struggle with health problems all year, and Cano has problems playing in Safeco Field all year around.

Houston Astros

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Best-Case Scenario: Ha. Hahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Are you kidding me? Even their best-case scenario sees them, at the absolute very best, in fourth place. In some ways, their best case scenario may actually be for them to have one of the worst records in league, as it’ll let them get better draft picks.

Worst-Case Scenario: 1898 Cleveland Spiders.

Worst-Case Scenario That Could Actually Happen: 1962 New York Mets.