Tag Archives: 30 Teams

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2016): The Giants Will Win Because It’s An Even Year

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post (of varying amounts of seriousness) about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2016 season. Last year’s installments can be found here. Today, we get the easy part out of the way, with the sure-to-be-2016 champion San Francisco Giants.

The San Francisco Giants have won the World Series in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

They did not win the World Series in 2009, 2011, 2013 or 2015. In fact, they didn’t even make the playoffs.

So, clearly, history tells us that there is no way that the Giants don’t win the World Series this year. It is inevitable, like the sun rising in the east or a spring training report that somebody is in the best shape of their lives.

Why have the Giants done so well in even years? Maybe it’s just random circumstance. Maybe it’s some strange effect related to President Obama being in office, and it will end once his second term is up. Maybe the Giants like Olympic years.

But for whatever reason, every even years has ended with Buster Posey giving a big hug to somebody. That will, clearly, happen again this year. The only question is who he will be hugging and what team they will be beating.

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): A request to the Minnesota Twins, from a Rochester Red Wings Fan

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, in the final installment, an open letter from a Rochester Red Wings fan to their parent club.

TO: Minnesota Twins

CC: General Manager Terry Ryan, CEO Jim Pohlad, Director of Minor League Operations Brad Stell, Manager Paul Molitor

SUBJECT: Sano and Buxton

Hello,

I am writing as a fan of the Rochester Red Wings, your AAA club. You’ve been good to us over the years. We’ve made the playoffs twice and come close a few other times since this affiliation began, and we’ve been lucky enough to see Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Brian Dozier, Francisco Liriano, Denard Span, Grant Balfour, Glen Perkins, and many other fine players. We even got to have Joe Mauer and Joe Nathan stop by briefly on rehab assignments, which was nice.

But, not to sound ungrateful, we have a simple request for this coming season: Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton. We very much would like it if you had them stop here before you inevitably call them up in September (if not earlier), perhaps never to grace minor league fields again.

Now, we understand. Neither of them have been able to put much time in AA yet, and with a new affiliate in the Chattanooga Lookouts, you no doubt are looking to make a good first impression. And, what’s more, Chattanooga’s climate is probably way better for a young baseball player in April and May than Rochester’s is.

Seriously, the weather here in April can never seem to remember what season it is. Yesterday, I was in shorts, but this weekend, it could snow.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that, come June, Rochester would be the perfect place for Minnesota’s two biggest prospects since Mauer to prepare for the big leagues. The weather will be getting warmer, schools will start letting out, and Frontier Field will start getting packed. By the 4th of July, the stadium will be full basically every Friday night, with some fans packing cowbells and giveaway thunder-stix, much to the annoyance of some people.

And it’ll be even more special if we have Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano to cheer on. Some of us have been waiting for years to see them. So, please, if at all possible, don’t make them bypass AAA.

Thank you, and good luck on your upcoming season,

-A Rochester Red Wings Fan

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): The Cubs won’t be boring

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, the Cubs.

There is a saying that a work of fiction can be good or bad, but the worst thing it can be is be boring. The same could be said for baseball teams. And, well, the Cubs may be many things this season, but they will not be boring.

After all, this is a team with Joe Maddon as manager. He’s never boring. He’s always doing crazy shifts, having his team do themed road-trips where they dress up as 1890s gentlemen or Hawaiian beach bums or whatever.

They have wonder-prospect Kris Bryant. Or, at least, they will. It’s complicated, but basically they’ll call him up within a few weeks, when they’ll be able to start his service clock late enough where they’ll be able to keep him from free agency for an extra year.

They have Wrigley Field still under heavy renovation. The bleachers won’t be done for at least two months. What the heck! How does this happen? Still, not boring.

And, of course, they have their endless quest to finally win their first World Series since 1908, and, perhaps more importantly, the quest to prove Back To The Future II correct.

So, yes… the Cubs are not going to be boring this year. That is for sure.

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): The Padres do exist! Let’s remember when we thought otherwise!

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, the Padres.

It’s nice to see that San Diego, one of the most beautiful cities in America, has finally gotten a MLB team again. I mean, maybe they’ve had one the last few years, but I honestly can’t remember. After all, the Padres were like extras in a movie: there, but unnoticed.

So, let’s remember the years where San Diego only technically had a Major League team, because we all forgot they existed:

2007: The last year I can truly remember the Padres existing before this year. They got into a tie-breaker playoff against the Rockies and lost in 13 innings. The age of darkness began.

2008: 63-99 and last place. America only recognized their existence when Jake Peavy or late-career Greg Maddux pitched, along with the occasional Trevor Hoffman milestone.

2009: 75-87, 4th place. The most notable thing listed about them on their Wikipedia page is that Jody Gerut became the first player in history to have a lead-off home run in a new stadium when he led off the first game at CitiField with a homer off of Mike Pelfrey. Jake Peavy was traded this year and Trevor Hoffman had gone to the Brewers. The sinkage into obscurity seemed to be in full swing.

2010: Actually a pretty good year, as they went 90-72 and finished in second place, a beacon of relevance in a ocean of meh. Oh, but they blew a 6.5 game lead late in the season and lost the division to the Giants, and then Adrian Gonzalez was traded after the season. And then they returned to obscuresville.

2011: 71-91, last place. I cannot remember a thing about this team.

2012: 76-86, 4th place. This was Chase Headley’s breakout year, if I remember correctly. Other than that, I can’t think of anything special about the Padres in 2012.

2013: 76-86, 3rd place. Was this the year they had the fight with the Dodgers? I think this was the year they had a fight with the Dodgers. Otherwise, I can’t remember a thing about them.

2014: 77-85, 3rd place. Tony Gwynn died and everything was terrible. Otherwise, I can’t remember much about them.

…And then there is 2015. I guess we’ll see how that turns out, huh?

Next time: The Cubs.

 

 

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): Reds October? Unlikely.

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, the Reds.

There is a lot of parity in baseball these days. Few teams can truly be said to be totally out of it. However, when you look at the NL Central, you can’t help but feel like the Cincinnati Reds have missed their chance, at least for this year:

  • They are in a deep division with four teams that could conceivably win the division, and are certainly in better shape to do so than the Reds are.
  • They did nothing to significantly improve over the winter.
  • While the lineup is great, the starting rotation is very iffy, especially if Homer Bailey has more health issues. They don’t have Mat Latos anymore.
  • Oh, and Johnny Cueto is headed to free agency soon, so it’s likely the Reds are going to have even more pitching depth issues in the future.
  • Some members of the line-up are coming off of off-years (or, at least, what the Reds hope were just off-years and not starts of a trend) or, in some cases, just getting old. They’ve added Marlon Byrd as their big off-season addition, and he’s 37, for pete’s sake!
  • With the ticket sales and excitement that come with hosting the All-Star game this season, it’s less likely that Reds brass feel the need to add anybody during the year to spice things up and get more butts in the stands in the short-term.

So… sorry, Reds fans, but you won’t be seeing a Reds October this year.

Next Time: Padres.

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): Fun Times in Cleveland Again!

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, Cleveland!

Sports Illustrated has predicted that the Cleveland Indians will win the World Series this season, breaking the Curse of Rocky Colavito and bringing (depending on how the Cavaliers do) possibly the first “Big Four” title to Cleveland since the 1964 Browns*.

I don’t agree with them, but I can sort of see where they are coming from- the Indians are one of those teams that are way better than many people think.

After all, they have some of the most underrated players in the game. Michael Brantley came in third place for MVP last year, and yet he’s most anonymous. Yan Gomes is becoming one of the best catchers in the league. Jason Kipnis and Carlos Santana are good and sometimes great, although Santana had a bad year batting average last year (he made up for it, some could argue, by leading the league in walks). New addition Brandon Moss has pop.

And, oh, right, they have the reigning AL Cy Young in Corey Kluber, who may be the most anonymous Cy Young Award winner ever. I’m reasonably sure that if you asked 100 baseball fans who won the AL Cy Young last year, most of them would think it was Felix Hernandez or Chris Sale or that Clayton Kershaw was so good they just gave him the AL Cy Young based on his interleague games. And it’s not just Kluber- SI noted this:

“After last year’s All-Star break the rotation led the majors in strikeout rate (9.33 per nine), home run rate (0.56 per nine) and FanGraphs’ WAR (11.0), while trailing only the Nationals in ERA (2.95).”

 

Hmm… maybe SI is on to something.

If they are, LeBron James really is going to have to win the NBA title this season, otherwise his title as Cleveland’s savior might end up taken by Terry Francona (who, of course, has a habit of breaking curses). I mean, damn, he comes back to Cleveland and it ends up that the Indians end the city’s long championship drought? And what if they beat the Yankees on the way? Oh, the awkwardness!

Next Time: The Reds

*Football note: It is a cruel irony that all of the Browns’ titles came before the Super Bowl was instituted, as the Super Bowl ended up becoming such an institution that the NFL’s pre-Super Bowl champions have become almost afterthoughts in the sport’s history. The Browns won 4 pre-Super Bowl NFL championships and four title in the All-America Football Conference, a sort of proto-AFL that was partially absorbed into the NFL in 1950. However, their total lack of titles- even conference titles- in the Super Bowl era have turned them into a joke amongst football fans. A similar cruel fate has befallen the Detroit Lions and the Buffalo Bills’ AFL championship teams.

 

 

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): A’s eras, ranked

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, I rank the three eras of Athletics history- Philadelphia, Kansas City, and Oakland.

The A’s are cool because they have kept their identity despite moving twice. I mean, yeah, the Braves have done it too and have the bonus of being the spiritual successor to the 1869-70 Cincinnati Red Stockings (many of the members of that team moved to Boston and formed the nucleus of the the Boston Red Stockings), but they haven’t always been the Braves. The Athletics have always been the Athletics.

So, today, I’m ranking the variation incarnations of them:

3. Kansas City Athletics (1955-1967)

Kind of a transitional piece between Philly and Oakland, but there were notable things. For the first few years, for example, the Athletics, who were owned and run by a close associate (Arnold Johnson) of the Yankees ownership of the time, traded Roger Maris, Bobby Shantz, Clete Boyer, Ralph Terry, Hector Lopez and Art Ditmar to the Bronx Bombers, leading to Hank Greenberg (a GM at the time) to say that the Yankees had a farm team playing in the American League.

After Johnson died, Charlie Finley took over. Now, nobody has ever matched Bill Veeck for wacky ownership, but Charlie O. came close. He bought a bus, pointed it towards New York, then burned it to symbolically show that the A’s would no longer be a farm club. He made uniforms more colorful. He made a mule the mascot. He built a shallower temporary fence to mock the short porch at Yankee Stadium. Hilarious.

Still, nowhere near as successful or long as the stints in Philadelphia and Oakland.

2. Philadelphia Athletics (1901-1954)

Yes, the Philadelphia A’s had more World Series titles and AL pennants than Oakland has had, and they were the club of Connie Mack, young Jimmie Foxx and young Lefty Grove, but what’s often forgotten is that when the Athletics weren’t good, they were really, really bad. They finished last 18 times while they were in Philadelphia. The only reason Connie Mack was never fired was because he owned the team. Three times, Athletics teams in Philadelphia had winning percentages below .300. Eight of the ten and 13 of the 15 worst seasons in A’s history came in Philadelphia.

Ugh.

1. Oakland Athletics (1968-Present)

The Oakland Athletics have been many things over the years. But they have almost never been boring. They have always had SOMETHING that demanded people pay attention to them. The A’s of the 70s were a dynasty. The A’s of the 80s and 90s brought forth the Bash Brothers. And the A’s of the aughts and the 2010s have had the whole Moneyball mystique about them.

Also, no Oakland team has had a sub-.300 winning percentage, so advantage Oakland.

Next time: Cleveland

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): The Darvish Lament

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today…. the Rangers.

This WOULD have been a post about Yu Darvish, the number one reason to watch the Texas Rangers.

And then he got hurt.

I would have probably posted this GIF.

But then he got hurt.

I would have predicted that Yu Darvish would win the Cy Young Award this season.

But then he got hurt.

So, instead, I’ll talk about how this is the year the Jurickson Profar finally arrives and lives up to the hype.

Oh. Wait.

Crud.

Tomorrow: The Athletics.

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): The ABCs of the Colorado Rockies

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, the Colorado Rockies.

 

A is for Altitude, of which Denver is quite high.

B is for Blackmon, who had six hits in a game, oh my!

C is for CarGo, coming off a down year.

D is for Dickerson, CarGo’s outfield peer.

E is for Eddie Butler, of whom I know little, see?

F is for Fourth, in the NL West they will be.

G is for Galarragga, who had quite the hitting niche.

H is for Hawkins, one final year to pitch.

I is for Isotopes, home of their AAA players.

J is for Justin, of the Canadian Eh-ers?

K is for Kendrick, formerly of the Phillies.

L is for Low April temperatures, which can give you the willies.

M is for the Mahieu, that comes after Le.

N is for Nolan the Arenado, not Ryan the P.

O is for Ottavino‘s beginning and end.

P is for Power-hitting, which the humidor tries to mend.

Q is for Questions, of which the Rockies might have many.

R is for Rex Brothers, not as tall as Brad Penny.

S is for Stubbs, who was not a Sooner.

T is for Tulo, who’s trade is ever rumor.

U is for Uniforms, occasionally purple.

V is for Vinny Castilla, because nothing rhymes with purple.

W is for Weiss, the Rockies’ skipper.

X is for Xylophone, there are instruments that are hipper.

Y is for Ynoa, Rafael to be exact.

Z is for Zobrist, an A just to keep the alphabet intact.

Tomorrow: Texas Rangers.

 

 

“30 Teams, 30 Posts” (2015): For the Dodgers, there is no kill like overkill

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In 30 Teams, 30 Posts, I write a post about every MLB team in some way in the lead-up to the beginning of the 2015 season. Previous installments can be found here. Today, the Dodgers.

Today, the Dodgers reportedly signed Cuban 3B defector Hector Olivera for six years and 62.5 million dollars. Now, they have a 3B currently in Juan Uribe, and his secondary position of 2B has Howie Kendrick there, but this is the Dodgers, and for them, there is no kill like overkill.

Flush with cable cash (despite the fact that, ironically, most of LA’s population is unable to watch due to carriage issues) and the fact they are in Los Angeles, and with star power on the field, in the stands and in the owner’s box (when Magic Johnson calls to see if you are interested in playing for the Dodgers, you listen), the Dodgers have, in some ways, taken over for the Yankees as the team for which money is no object.

For example, the Dodgers certainly could have been fine if their rotation was Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu (who is currently hurt) and then two other guys, but, nope, they go ahead and give Brandon McCarthy 48 million dollars, despite the fact he struggled with the Diamondbacks last year, only to inexplicably turn it around after going to the American League with the Yankees. Because they are the Dodgers, and if they want the best Twitter-user in baseball to be their number four starter, they will do it. It wouldn’t be shocking at all if they add somebody else, like Cole Hamels, sometime during the season, thus pushing McCarthy to fifth on the depth chart, should Ryu be healthy by that point. Oh, and they also have Brett Anderson and Brandon Beachy (who should have recovered from Tommy John surgery by mid-season), too. And, while I’m no expert on the Dodgers’ farm system, I’m sure they have somebody at AAA who is willing to step up if anybody gets hurt or underperforms.

And then, of course, there is the lineup. Here’s what the opening-day lineup for the Dodgers will likely be:

1. Jimmy Rollins

2. Carl Crawford

3. Yasiel Puig

4. Adrian Gonzalez

5. Yasmani Grandal

6. Howie Kendrick

7. Joc Pederson

8. Juan Uribe

9. Pitcher

That’s a good lineup. But, don’t worry, if that lineup doesn’t work, it’s nothing that money won’t fix. Because there’s no amount to high, and no kill like overkill.

Tomorrow: The Rockies