Half Assed Preview: AL Central

I know that I put a certain number of wins on each team. I personally feel that's the lowest win total they will get by the end of September. For example, I predicted the Boston Red Sox would win 90 games, I think it could be 90-95 because if you add all the teams up it might not equal correct amounts. I might be doing my best Ted Mosby by over-thinking this, but like a lot of things I do on here, I don't care what you think. So let's get to the AL Central.

1.) Chicago White Sox:
Player I Love: Alex Rios (OF)- He hasn't put together a full season yet, but I think this is his year. Rios sprayed the ball throughout Comiskey in the beginning of the year, then fell off in the second half. I don't see that happening this year. Player I Hate: Jake Peavy (SP)- A softball response, but Peavy has to be considered a bust for the Sox. He has had injury trouble during his time on the Southside, and the White Sox gave up four players plus I believe they signed him to a big contract. Prediction: 92 wins, the Sox have a great middle of the order and even without Peavy, they have a strong pitching staff.

2.) Minnesota Twins: Player I Love: Brian Duensing (SP)- The young Twins' pitcher came on strong at the end of the year getting 11 wins. I know by advanced stats terms he got a bit lucky, but he does a great job keeping the ball inside the park. Player I Hate: Justin Morneau (1B)- I am starting to worry about him, it's hard to put your chips in severe concussed basket. He could have a good year, but I don't think he will ever be the player he once was in years past.  Prediction: 88 wins, this is your Wild Card team. They need the Two Joes (Mauer/Nathan) to stay healthy because if Mauer does, everything works offense. If Nathan does, they have a great bullpen.

3.) Detroit Tigers: Player I Love: Rick Porcello (SP)- He struggled a bit last season, but do people realize he is only 22 years old?  I think he can have a huge year for 8 Mile this summer.  Look for a bounce back year as he started to figure things out in August/September. Player I Hate: Miguel Cabrera (1B)- My fantasy baseball team is named Drunk at Miggy's but I worry he might have more personal issues that you or I know about. I said when he got the DUI, if he is the star of my team I would be worried sick.  Prediction: 84 wins, they have a stacked lineup and a pretty good pitching staff if a couple things work out. One, Brad Penny plays at a high level and Jose Valverde stays healthy.

4.) Kansas City Royals: Player I Love: Alex Gordon (LF)- Everyone rode this guys jock a couple years ago, and now he has moved positions. This could be a breakout year for him, or just another bust for the Royals. Gordon had an encouraging Spring Training though.  Player I Hate: Kyle Davies (SP)- There some funny names on the Royals roster like Jason Kendall and Melky Cabrera that I could make fun of, and I know Davies is a young pitcher but I see no upside. Prediction: 71 wins, the Royals are a year away from being the Tampa Bay Rays. Ned Yost is good for the job with all their farm talent coming up in the near future.

5.) Cleveland Indians: Player I Love: Carlos Santana (C)- No, not the one that plays guitar .When Santana came up last year, he lived up to the high expectations and then got his knee wrecked in Fenway. He will be the AL Rookie of the Year, no question about it. He is the next great catcher. Player I Hate: Chad Durbin (SP)- I don't know many guys on Cleveland so that might be a bad sign in the first place. But this joker is listed as a starter, and barely has any experience in this role, not good. Prediction: 67 wins, I believe this team will have a fire sale to try to get more young talent. Trade Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore if they are healthy by July.

-Charlie.

Miguel Cabrera Loves His Scotch

Last night, Detroit Tigers star first basemen Miguel Cabrera pulled his car over after his engine was smoking and Miggy also enjoyed a present from Ron Burgundy. As the deputy started to approach his car, he took a swig of his James Buchanan scotch which costs 75 dollars a bottle for a 750 ml bottle by the way. Then he told the officer... the chorus line of the hit Cee-Lo Green song.  Never a good move.  


After that Cabrera had the classic athlete/celebrity line that we hear all the time,  ":You know who I am? You don't know anything about my problems."   I have images of Cartman on the Maury Show.. YOU DONT KNOW ME WHATEVER YOU DON'T KNOW ME!   Cabrera received three knee thrusts and put in the cop car.  He ended up testing with a .26 BAC which means he got pretty Sheen'd up before he started to drive his car. 


This is a real problem with the Detroit Tigers.  They invested a bunch of money in Cabrera and he is the face of the franchise. The Tigers now deal with questions about his attitude for the next three weeks, and if he has a drinking problem, which I think we can all agree he does. It will also be interesting to see how Cabrera deals with it because I could definitely seeing him having some issues with all the new questions.  


-Charlie.

We're Watching You...

A strange thing happened on Tuesday night in Detroit during a game between the Indians and Tigers. During the 8th and 9th innings Indians reliever Rafael Betancourt fell victim to one of baseball's oddest rules:

That this series carries some extra juice was evident in the bottom of the eighth inning when Wedge charged out onto the field and argued with the umpiring crew after a ball was called on Tribe reliever Rafael Betancourt for not delivering a pitch within 12 seconds (after he receives the ball and with the batter in the batter's box) when nobody is on base. It's a rarely enforced rule, and Wedge's tirade stopped just short of getting him ejected. In the bottom of the ninth, the umpires again called a ball on Betancourt for taking too much time.

After the game Indians manager Eric Wedge accused the Tigers of alerting the umpires to Betancourt's slow delivery, an allegation that Tigers manager Jim leyland flatly denied. So how did the umps know about Betancourt's tendency to have a slow motion? According to the chief umpire from Tuesday night, it is because MLB keeps a naughty list of slow players:

DeMuth said Wednesday that Betancourt is on a list, supplied by Major League Baseball to its umpires, that shows which pitchers and hitters take too much time...

"The players (who take a lot of time) are reported by other crews and evaluators in the stands," DeMuth said. "There are names on this list of batters who constantly take a long time getting into the box. There are names of pitchers who don't immediately go out to the mound for the start of the inning. There are names of pitchers who throw a few pitches in the bullpen after they are signaled into the game. There are all sorts of reasons to get on a list of delaying the pace of the game."

What really gets me about this is that MLB is paying people to essentially spy on players during games to see if they are being too slow. Nevermind the abuse of steroids and HGH in baseball, we need to get those dirty rotten SLOW PITCHERS!!! They are ruining the sanctity of the game!!!

On a more serious note, this particular rule was changed just this year. The rule used to be that a pitcher had twenty seconds to throw a pitch once the batter had stepped into the box, which has now been reduced to twelve. The reason of course behind this rule change, as well as the spies and the slow-mo list, is that MLB is trying to speed up games to satisfy its TV partners who were getting fed up with three hour marathons in recent years. This is yet another example of how MLB only cares about the bottom line.

Dice-K is looking like...Jeremy Bonderman Again

Dice-K had his fourth straight quality start last night, outdueling Greg Maddux to lead the Sox to a 2-1 victory over the Padres. Dice-K only gave up one run over six innings and lowered his June ERA to 1.73. Matsuzaka's performance showcased two of the problems he has been dealing with all season, his control and his propensity to give up big innings whn he gets into trouble situations. It seems that Dice-K has begun to improve his pitching in pressure situations, as shown by his ability to get out of a bases loaded jam in the 1st inning while only giving up one run. A month ago Dice-K would have given up three or four runs in that situation, but he seems to have grown more confident pitching in those scenarios. The flip side of that however, is what got Dice-K into that situation in the first place; inconsistent control. He walked five batters last night and if he is ever going to make the transition to being a true ace, that number will surely have to come down. As for the comparison, for the second week in a row Dice-K is looking like...Jeremy Bonderman.

Dice-K 2007:
W%: .64
QS%: .66
WHIP: 1.30
ERA: 4.01
Salary: $6,333,333

Jeremy Bonderman 2006:
W%: .63
QS%: .56
WHIP: 1.30
ERA: 4.08
Salary: $2,300,000

(Photo Credit: AP / Lenny Ignelzi)

Dice-K is looking like...Jeremy Bonderman

Everyone’s favorite roller coaster, Daisuke Matsuzaka, is climbing to the top of a pretty big hill. Boston’s 1-0 win over San Francisco on Friday was Matsuzaka’s 3rd consecutive quality start. Dice-K went 7 innings, didn’t give up a run, and struck out 8. Congrats to Dice-K for the well-earned win, but if the world’s most expensive roller coaster keeps plugging along, he’s in for one heck of a nasty drop. So, we predict that Dice-K will get shelled in his next two starts (at least).

Now that Dice-K’s quality start percentage has continued to climb, it has been a struggle to find a pitcher with a similar QS% and W%, along with an abysmal ERA. Nevertheless, without further ado, we present…Dice-K is looking like Jeremy Bonderman!

Dice-K 2007:
W%: .62
QS%: .64
WHIP: 1.27
ERA: 4.18
Salary: $6,333,333 (In case anyone cares, that's 782,483,292 yen as of June 15)

Jeremy Bonderman 2006:
W%: .63
QS%: .56
WHIP: 1.30
ERA: 4.08
Salary: $2,300,000