Monthly Archives: June 2010

BST guide to this week’s early MLB games: Strasburg, King Felix, and a Windy City Friday

Leave a reply

I’m reverting to publishing my ‘early game’ guide in a separate post this week, rather than including it in WHGB.  Let me know if you’ve got a strong preference for publishing this separately or not. 

We’ve got nine early games to enjoy this working week.  All times are in BST.

Monday 21 June

No early games

Tuesday 22 June

No early games

Wednesday 23 June

20.35. Cincinnati at Oakland (Johnny Cueto – Vin Mazzaro)
21.35. Kansas City at Washington (Brian Bannister – Stephen Strasburg)

After watching a transformed England side play with magical flair and ambition to beat Slovenia comfortably and qualify for the second round of the World Cup on Wednesday afternoon, you can celebrate by taking in a Stephen Strasburg start against the Royals in the evening.  Or it will be something to cheer us all up. Some have questioned the Nationals’ handling of Strasburg and whether he should have been called up earlier.  I think the way they’ve handled it has been fine, not least in making the transition to the Majors as simple as possible: facing the Pirates, Indians and Royals in three of his first four starts.

Thursday 24 June

17.10. San Diego at Tampa Bay (Wade LeBlanc – Matt Garza)
18.05. Cleveland at Philadelphia (Fausto Carmona – Joe Blanton)
19.05. Atlanta at Chicago White Sox (Derek Lowe – Gavin Floyd)
19.05. San Francisco at Houston (Matt Cain – Wandy Rodriguez)
19.10. Minnesota at Milwaukee (Nick Blackburn – Manny Parra)
20.40. Chicago Cubs at Seattle (Ted Lilly – Felix Hernandez)

Thursday’s slate of games includes an intriguing encounter from Safeco Field as King Felix, who looked in top form against Cincinnati on Saturday, matches up against the returning Carlos Silva.  Looking at the schedule at the beginning of the season, most M’s fans would have expected Silva to have been cut from the Cubs’ roster by the time this series came along. Instead, he leads the Cubbies’ pitching staff in wins and ERA. UPDATE: Silva has a mild hamstring strain so he will not make this start after all.  Ted Lilly will be moved forward to take the mound instead.

Friday 25 June

21.05. Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox (Carlos Zambrano – Jake Peavy)

We end the working week, and begin the weekend, with the latest Windy City encounter and it looks like being a good one from the Cell as Lilly and Peavy are scheduled to take the mound. UPDATE: As Lilly is pitching on Thursday now, Carlos Zambrano will pitch in his place.

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv), while ESPN America’s MLB schedule can be found here. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Searching for starters

Leave a reply

WhgbHlSqWe’re not quite halfway through the season, but teams are already taking stock of how 2010 is shaping up for them.

Some teams are on the right course for a playoff place, many others can paint scenarios that will see them breaking into the October club, while several teams already have one eye on 2011.

Whichever group a team is in, they will be looking at their roster of players, looking at the other twenty-nine teams and giving serious thought to making a deal or two.  The initial trade deadline is six weeks away and a lot can happen in that period.  A good or bad run of form can turn a team from being a buyer to a seller and back again, while the ever-present shadow of injuries can force a team’s hand into going out and replacing a key player. 

Acquiring a new starting pitcher in particular can make all the difference, either by acquiring an ace, such as the Phillies did with Cliff Lee last year, or getting a guy off the scrap heap as the Dodgers did with Vicente Padilla. 

You can never be certain how a deal is going to work out.  Jarrod Washburn went 8-6 with a 2.64 ERA for the Mariners during the first four months of the 2009 season and was much sought after on trade deadline day.  Detroit won the battle to acquire Washburn, but he was hampered by a knee injury and ended with a 7.33 ERA in his eight starts with his new team and is now a free agent and contemplating retirement.

Still, that uncertainty is part of the fun as a fan (not so much for the General Managers).  Here are a few starting pitchers that could be joining contenders over the next six weeks.  Continue reading →

Sunday’s early MLB games: Subway Series special and more

Leave a reply

I haven’t written a Sunday preview post for a few weeks, but the uninspiring World Cup so far and the presence of several marquee pitching match-ups in MLB today has encouraged me to get back into the routine.

A Subway Series special starring Santana and Sabathia really stands out, as does the match-up in Florida pitting David Price against Josh Johnson.  Roy Halladay makes a start for the Phillies against the Twins, while Carlos Zambrano continues his return to the Cubs’ rotation against the Angels. 

Elsewhere, the Strikeout Machine Max Scherzer faces the D-Backs, the latest reclamation project for Dave Duncan in St. Louis, Jeff Suppan, takes the mound against the A’s and promising prospect Jake Arrieta makes his third start for the Orioles after greatly impressing in his first two outings. 

The ESPN Sunday Night game, available on ESPN America, is Dodgers-Red Sox with first pitch set for 01.05 a.m.  ESPN America is also showing Game 3 of the College World Series from 19.00, if you want to watch something a little different.  All times are in BST.

18.05. Arizona at Detroit (Ian Kennedy – Max Scherzer)
18.05. NY Mets at NY Yankees (Johan Santana – CC Sabathia)
18.07. San Francisco at Toronto (Jonathan Sanchez – Shaun Marcum)
18.10. Tampa Bay at Florida (David Price – Josh Johnson)
18.35. Kansas City at Atlanta (Kyle Davies – Kenshin Kawakami)
18.35. Chicago White Sox at Washington (Freddy Garcia – John Lannan)
18.35. Minnesota at Philadelphia (Carl Pavano – Roy Halladay)
18.35. Cleveland at Pittsburgh (Justin Masterson – Brad Lincoln)
19.05. Texas at Houston (C.J. Wilson – Felipe Paulino)
19.15. Oakland at St. Louis (Trevor Cahill – Jeff Suppan)
19.20. LA Angels at Chicago Cubs (Joe Saunders – Carlos Zambrano)
20.10. Milwaukee at Colorado (Randy Wolf – Aaron Cook)
21.05. Baltimore at San Diego (Jake Arrieta – Jon Garland)
21.10. Cincinnati at Seattle (Aaron Harang – Ryan Rowland-Smith)

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv). 

Saturday’s early MLB games: World Cup? What World Cup?

Leave a reply

As Steve wrote earlier today, if you’re an England fan then it’s times like these when you are all the more grateful than usual that you’ve got another great sport to take your mind off things.  And frankly, even non-England fans would probably sooner watch the baseball; the World Cup has been depressingly mediocre so far in all but a few exceptions.

Never mind that, we’ve got an excellent selection of games this evening.  All times are in BST.

18.05. NY Mets at NY Yankees (Mike Pelfrey – Phil Hughes)

We start with the Subway Series and a New York Mets team that has now won eight in a row after Hisanori Takahashi and the bullpen shut-out the Yankees’ batting lineup last night in a 4-0 win.  Pelfrey has been the Mets’ best starter this season, while Phil Hughes has really settled into his role as a starter after being so impressive as Mo Rivera’s set-up man last season. 

18.05. LA Angels at Chicago Cubs (Jeff Weaver – Ted Lilly)

If you were watching the first game of this series yesterday evening, not only would you have missed England’s non-performance, you would have also seen the Cubs go deep three times, commit three errors and fall one short of a dramatic comeback when they scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth in a 7-6 loss.  Slightly more action than England-Algeria then, although the same would have been true if you had been watching paint dry.  Ted Lilly’s 2-5 record obscures the quality of his pitching since making his season debut on 24 April and he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning of his previous start, while Weaver has assumed John Lackey’s role as the Angels’ ace this year.

18.07. San Francisco at Toronto (Matt Cain – Jesse Litsch)

The Blue Jays got the better of Barry Zito and the Giants last night, edging a close game 3-2.  Litsch made his first start in a year on Sunday after undergoing Tommy John surgery and he lasted only 2.1 innings, giving up seven runs in the process. Matt Cain has been outstanding for San Francisco this season so Toronto will have a tough battle on their hands. 

21.10. LA Dodgers at Boston (Vicente Padilla – Tim Wakefield)

There’s a circus in Beantown and the man portrayed as the leader of the clowns is former Red Sox hero Manny Ramirez.  He got a mixed reception from the Fenway faithful that included Roger Clemens, just to add to the strange occasion.  Away from the soap opera, the Red Sox won the game 10-6.  Padilla is expected to come off the DL to make the start today against knuckleballer Wakefield.

21.10. Chicago White Sox at Washington (Jake Peavy – J.D. Martin)

Something tells me that the commentators will spend more time speaking about yesterday’s game, involving a certain rookie starter for the Nationals, than the one going on in front of them.  Stephen Strasburg struck out ten over seven innings, but the White Sox rode him out and then won the game 2-1 in the eleventh inning.  J.D. Martin will be a very different proposition for the White Sox hitters, while Jake Peavy’s shoulder woes shouldn’t stop him from making the start today.

21.10. Minnesota at Philadelphia (Kevin Slowey – Cole Hamels)

The Phillies pounded Nick Blackburn yesterday in a 9-5 win that made it three much-needed victories in a row for the stuttering NL East side.  As for the scheduled starters: Cole Hamels got a win last time out, holding the Red Sox to five hits and one run over seven innings, while Kevin Slowey lasted just 4.2 innings in a loss to the Braves in his most recent outing.  So everything looks to be in the Phillies’ favour today, but the Twins are a quality team and are more than capable of bouncing straight back.

All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv).  ESPN America is concentrating on college baseball today. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com

Out of Left Field: Reasons to be cheerful

2 Replies

MlbHlSqAfter watching such an appalling performance as England’s against Algeria in the World Cup, it is good to fall back on another sport. Viva baseball! You’ll pick me up when I’m down. You’ll turn my frown upside down. You will, won’t you? Well, let us find out.

Let’s get going with some reasons to be cheerful this week…

The frontrunner of KNUCKLEBALLER~! of the Year, Mr RA Dickey, 35 years young, is the first Mets pitcher in history to be unbeaten with five wins in his first six starts for the team. As a Mets fan this is obviously glorious news for me. But for you, dear reader, this is good news too. This could well lead to a renaissance in the KNUCKLEBALL~! and all will be right with the world. I just can’t get enough of it. Thank you, RA. You give me hope that in five years I’ll be knuckleballing in the majors too. It could happen. It really could happen. Just you watch.

The Florida Marlins are inflicting vuvulelas on their fans. Naturally, this is only good news if you’re not a Marlins fan. Or a fan of the Rays, who are visiting the night the Marlins are handing out those pesky plastic horns. But then again, it’s not as if many people actually watch the Marlins anyway, eh? ZING!

Stephen Strasburg is awesome, to the extent that he is completely baffling the umpires. It appears that Strasburg’s pitches are so out-of-this-world that umpires have been unable to call them accurately. Crazy stuff, but fascinating nonetheless. Also, just as importantly, Strasburg is saving my fantasy team from complete and utter disaster. Thank you Stephen! Long may you continue to dazzle!

The Texas Rangers’ bankruptcy judge clearly has a sense of humour. And I quote from the article, because hey, it’s better written that I can manage, it’s late and I’m lazy:

Lynn conceded at one point that the highest bid was not always the determining factor in selecting a sports franchise buyer. What, the judge asked hypothetically, if organized crime came and said they wanted to buy the team?

Then the robed jurist joked, “This is not the NFL.”

Wezen-Ball continues to push baseball analysis in the kind of direction I like – far, far away from dull number-crunching for number-crunching’s sake. Oh yes. Just what you didn’t realise you always wanted: a ‘Baseball Greats Chess Set’. Now to hunt out Baseball Monopoly. Or maybe even Baseball Cluedo: Steroids Edition.

Well, it’s not easy to keep your chin up as an Englishman at this time of year, so thank you dear baseball. Now, I have to make some kind of promise to stop neglecting baseball so much. It is there for me all summer, but like the fickle man I am, I abandon it as soon as the World Cup flutters its eyelashes at me. I’m sorry, baseball. I know you are the sport that won’t let me down.

Well, until it all goes horribly wrong later in the season.

Web Pick of the Week: ESPN’s Daily Leaders

Leave a reply

Web-PickThis week’s Web Pick is the Daily Leaders page on ESPN.com.

It can be difficult to keep track of all that happens in MLB on a daily basis, often with 15 games taking place while you are fast asleep in the early hours of the morning. Scoreboards and boxscores are decent sources of info, but the most noteworthy performances don’t always jump out at you if you’ve only got time to skim-read them.

While the free Fastcast video on MLB.com is a nice idea, it covers the games a bit too quickly for my liking so that it’s difficult to take everything in. The free Daily Recap videos on MLB.com are excellent, but I rarely seem to have the time to watch them all.

That’s why I like the Daily Leaders board. It lists the top performers on any given day, ranked by ESPN’s own equation, and provides the relevant stats to show what they did. You can sort it by league and by position player/pitcher, although the one negative about the system is that there isn’t a separate equation and page for relievers and therefore their work isn’t recognised.

It’s a quick and easy way to see all the notable performances, whether you want the info for fantasy baseball purposes or just to keep up with the latest news from on the field.

British Baseball Beat: Perfect records ruined, first wins gained

Leave a reply

bbbHlsqThree teams went into last Sunday’s games in the British Baseball leagues with perfect records, while several teams were still seeking their first taste of victory this season.

Furthermore, there were various contests between teams battling at the top of their respective leagues, most notably in the National Baseball League where London Mets and Bracknell Blazers battled for supremacy.

With so many storylines waiting to be written, it was no surprise that last Sunday produced another round of exciting games.

NBL – Top two teams split a double-header, Arrows get their first NBL victories

Bracknell hosted a top-of-the-table clash on Sunday between the hometown Blazers and the London Mets.  The two teams have appeared to be closely matched over the season so far and that was in evidence on Sunday as they split the double-header.  A 10-3 win in the opener by the Blazers (11-2) set up the possibility of a sweep, but the Mets (13-2)  battled back to take the second game 7-1 and to maintain a one game lead in the standings, having played two games more than their closest rivals. 

The split gave the third-placed Richmond Flames (9-4) a chance to gain some ground and they took full advantage by defeating Croydon Pirates (4-9)  twice to move within three games of the league-leading Mets.  Southampton Mustangs (7-8) continued their recent good form by winning both games of a double-header against Herts Falcons (4-9), while the Essex Arrows (2-11) finally got their first two wins of the season, getting the better of a depleted Mildenhall Bulldogs (4-9) team who have now dropped nine in a row.  Further details about the games can be found in Simon Fitzjohn’s report.

The Arrows will have a tough task to build on their victories as they host the Blazers this Sunday.  The Mets travel to Herts, the Pirates welcome the Mustangs to Roundshaw Field and the Bulldogs travel to Richmond.

AAA – First loss for the Kings, first wins for the Redbacks

Oxford Kings (9-1) saw their unbeaten start to the season come to an end on Sunday as they lost the opener of a double-header against Herts Eagles (7-3) by a score of 7-2.  The Kings quickly put the loss behind them and battled to a 4-2 win in the second game, leaving them two games ahead of the Eagles and Bracknell Inferno (7-3).  Bracknell were swept by the Kings the previous weekend, but they got straight back to winning ways with two comfortable wins away to London Metros (2-6).  Oxford are not playing this weekend, giving Inferno (two games at home to Kent Mariners) and the Eagles (two games at home to Bristol Badgers) a chance to close the gap.

Meanwhile, there was joy at Melbourne Park as the Essex Redbacks (2-6) won their first ever games in the BBF leagues, beating Kent Mariners (0-10) twice to leave their opponents rooted the foot of the table. 

In the North, Liverpool Trojans (11-5) effectively slipped to third place after they split a double-header against Menwith Hill Patriots (9-5).  The Trojans were missing several players and while starting pitcher Ron Vondy was excellent as ever in the first game, a lack of pitching options in the second saw the Patriots march away with an 18-8 win.  That makes it three losses from their last four games for Liverpool while their conquerors from the previous weekend, Manchester A’s (10-4), made it five wins in a row by taking two wins from Glasgow (1-13).

This Sunday, the A’s host Halton Jaguars, the Trojans host Glasgow and the league-leading Harrogate Tigers (9-3) are away to the Patriots.

AA – Archers hit the target against Poole, Robots of Doom down Manchester

Essex Archers (5-3) completed a memorable day for their ballclub, following up the Arrows’ debut NBL wins by landing Poole Piranhas (7-1) with their first loss of the season.  All signs pointed to the Piranhas making it seven wins in a row after a six run fourth-inning, but the Archers plated four runs in the bottom of the sixth and held on in the seventh to record an 8-6 victory.  The Piranhas responded by taking the second game 13-5.  In the other contest on Sunday, Sidewinders (6-3) took two wins against Croydon Pirates III (4-5).  Poole are scheduled to face the win-less Horsham Hurricanes on Sunday, while Windsor Bears (6-3) host Pirates III and the Pool B leaders, Richmond Knights (5-1), are away to Brentwood Stags (0-9).

In the Midlands, Leicester Blue Sox 2 (2-6) got their first wins of the season although not in the manner they would have hoped.  Mildenhall Bulldogs 2 (2-5) had to forfeit the double-header due to a lack of players, handing Leicester two 7-0 victories.  While their club mates had an unexpected rest, the Leicester Blue Sox first team (4-4) was embroiled in a closely-contested battle against the league-leading Birmingham Maple Leafs (8-3).  Birmingham took the opener 14-6, but the Blue Sox fought back to share the spoils with a 12-4 victory in the second game.  The Blue Sox are scheduled to be back in action again on Sunday, although we don’t yet know whether Bulldogs 2 will be able to field a team at RAF Feltwell.

In the North, Manchester Torrent’s (8-4) two-game lead in the standings following the previous Sunday was wiped away by Bolton Robots of Doom (7-3), who beat Torrent twice at home.  Humber Pilots (5-4)won the only other game by a score of 13-1 over Oldham North Stars (0-11).  It doesn’t get any easier for Oldham as they travel to Bolton for two games on Sunday, while Manchester need to regroup quickly for their visit to Sheffield to take on the Bladerunners (5-3).

A – Dragons drop a game, Pryos win, Raptors’ first win getting closer

With both the Kings in AAA and the Piranhas in AA losing their unbeaten records, it was perhaps already written that the only other team with a perfect record would see their run come to an end as well.  And so it turned out, as Richmond Dragons (7-1) lost 19-10 to Guildford Mavericks (5-2), a result described by the victors as “a fantastic victory, fully deserved”.  While the Dragons lost for the first time, the Bracknell Pyros (1-6) won for the first time in 2010 with a 26-15 win over London Marauders (2-4).  That leaves Herts Raptors (0-7) as the only team in the A League without a win, but they got tantalizingly close on Sunday as they narrowly lost to Chelmsford Clippers (5-3) 24-21.  The Clippers admitted that “it was one to really forget for the neutral, and perhaps for the players too”.

This Sunday is set up perfectly, as the top two teams in both Pool A (Dragons and Mavericks) and Pool B (Clippers and Braintree Rays) are scheduled to meet.

Further details

As always, full details on results and fixtures from the British Baseball leagues can be found on the British Baseball Federation website.

BaseballGB Fantasy League – Week Ten

Leave a reply

BgbFantasyWelcome to our weekly round-up of the BaseballGB Fantasy League competition.  This is a mixed Head-2-Head league involving BGB writers and readers. 

There are fourteen teams who pair up in different combinations each week, making for seven match-ups in any given week. The teams battle over twelve statistical categories, gaining one point for each category they win.  All the points are carried over into the season league table at the end of the weekly match-ups. The top six teams with the most points at the end of the fantasy season will go on to the playoffs during the last three weeks of September. 

SWAT were the victors in the inaugural BGB Fantasy League last year.  Will they retain their title in 2010, or will a new champion emerge?

———————————————————————————————

The race for the lead in the BaseballGB fantasy league is really heating up. JJ was leading the way, but how have last week’s matchups affected the standings?   Continue reading →

The “Final Cut” system: Nellie’s big league view

4 Replies

MlbHlSqRob Nelson – or “Nellie” – was a Maverick in the minor leagues and a renegade in British baseball. Now he has a revolutionary idea to reshape Major League Baseball.

Nellie the Maverick

In 1975, a 22-year-old southpaw named Robert C Nelson signed with Portland’s Single-A outfit to become a part of the independent team’s pitching crew. Mavericks by both name and nature, the team were said to have “led the league in umpires terrorized, hotel closets filled with empty beer cans and bar fights never started on purpose.” In the bullpen at the Big Bad Mavs’ Civic Stadium, Nellie and the knuckleballer Jim Bouton dreamt up the idea for Big League Chew, which the latter would later refer to as “the only good idea to ever come out of a bullpen.”

If the author of this article had a time machine – and, even more impossibly, if he could play baseball some way above his current drunken-kangaroo talent level – Portland in the mid-70s is what the dials would be set for. New York in 1927, and murderers’ row, would simply have to wait.

Nellie the renegade

Fast forward two decades, and we find Nellie on the pitching staff of the Enfield Spartans in the renegade league led by the Spartans and the London Warriors as a breakaway from the British Baseball Federation.

In the first two seasons of the breakaway league, the Warriors defeated Enfield in the final, but in 1994 the two rivals met at the semi-finals stage. Nellie was brought in to relieve the Spartans’ starter Iain Lanario in the sixth frame, with London holding a 5-2 lead. Nellie checked the Warriors’ run threat as Enfield’s offensive engine was revved up to seize a 6-5 lead in the eighth. A sacrifice bunt by Nellie in the top of the ninth cashed in Oscar Marcelino’s three-bagger to double the margin he had to work with in the bottom of the inning. The Warriors were able to bring the winning run to bat in the final frame, in the form of the power-hitter Oliver Heidecker. Facing men on first and third but with two outs already registered, Nellie bore down to retire the slugger on “a sharp breaking curveball [that] had him completely fooled for strike three and the end of the game,” in the words of a local scribe.

Enfield programme from 1995

In the final, Enfield faced the Waltham Forest Angels. This time, Nellie was brought in for Lanario in the third inning with their side trailing 5-3. The reliever had excelled in a similar situation against London in the semi-finals, but this time he was going to have to do it with the left side of his face swollen from a wasp sting. (The journalist covering the game was kind enough to resist a reference to Nellie the Elephant Man.) Overcoming the effects of the insect’s injection, Nellie shut down the Angels’ offence for the remainder of the contest, and the Spartans rallied for an 8-5 victory.

In the Spartans’ roster (pictured to the right) for the 1995 season, which was the team’s first year back playing under the British Baseball Federation’s jurisdiction, Nellie is listed along with his entrepreneurial team-mate from Portland. Unfortunately, the Ball Four author was never able to make the trip across the Atlantic.

Nellie the revolutionary

Today, Nellie is campaigning for a new minor league team in Portland, as well an extension of the replay system. Oh, and a total overhaul of Major League Baseball’s structure. Here, in his own words, is the idea, which has been given the working title of the “Final Cut” system:

Fewer seats in the new ballparks has produced increased revenues. Fewer games will too. It’s the new-look, no-divisions MLB. Here’s how it could work (using the New York Mets as an example team).

Move one NL team to the AL. Two 15-team leagues. Two possible schedule options… Option One: 156-game season – the Mets play two NL teams 12 times each, twelve NL teams 10 times each, and three AL teams 4 times each. Option Two: 160-game season – the Mets play four NL teams 12 times each, ten NL teams 10 times each, and three AL teams 4 times each.

Top five teams in each league play in the post-season. This starts with a Wild-Card Game: the 5th-place team at the 4th-place team. Then the League Semi-final Series (best of seven games); then the League Finals (best of seven games); then the World Series.

Standings during the season are listed in groups of five teams: First Division – the league’s top five teams. Second Division – the league’s middle five teams. Third Division – the league’s bottom five teams.

Standings will include a GB column (games back from the 1st-place team) and a GB5 column (games behind the 5th-place team). So, checking out where your favorite team stands in the scheme of things is real easy. If your team is 21-27 and is 6 games behind the 5th-place team, you have an instant idea what your team needs to do to get back in the post-season hunt.

The nice thing about this format is that the two or four “rivalry” teams – the ones you play 12 times a season – can be changed if MLB decides that’s a good idea. All you need to do is just do it. No new divisional alignment shifts need take place, because there are no divisions. The NFL has used a “floating” schedule idea for some time now, with great success. Also, the NFL format always has at least one inter-conference game being played each weekend. My MLB format would include at least one inter-league game being played each day of the MLB season.

This is a simple and equitable format that players and fans can easily understand and embrace.

The more observant among you may have already noted that Nellie’s proposal of a 15-team AL and a 15-team NL would necessitate the transfer of one team from the senior circuit to the junior circuit. Nellie has suggested that one way to entice an NL team to move over to the AL would be to give them some AL “plum” teams to play 16 times. For instance, Arizona might be more inclined to move to the AL if that shift meant that the D-backs had 8 home games scheduled against the Yankees or the Red Sox each year.

Nellie drew on insight from a couple of his baseball buddies. One is Rob Neyer, who suggested naming the divisions “First”, “Second”, and “Third”. The other is Steve Kanter, who pushed for the 156-game option based on the “less is more” concept.

BaseballGB would really like to hear your thoughts on Nellie’s proposal. Or maybe you have you own plan for an MLB overhaul. In either case, just drop us a message in the comment box below.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Draft works like a dream for Washington

2 Replies

WhgbHlSqMonday and Tuesday last week showed the MLB amateur player draft in all its glory.  The system is not perfect, and maybe a perfect system that meets everyone’s needs is not possible, but you’ll hear no complaints from Washington.

A franchise that has bordered on the hopeless for most of its brief existence now has more hope than most.

On Monday, the Nationals selected 17 year old Bryce Harper, as expected, as the number one overall pick in the 2010 draft.  They still have to agree a contract with his agent Scott Boras, but Washington are unlikely to let him slip from their grasp.  Harper, a Wayne Rooney-esque man-child, is the type of talent that scouts dream of discovering.  His superhuman home-run-hitting feats have already attained mythical status and only injuries seem capable of halting his ascendency to star status once he hits the Majors in three years or so.

Any killjoy wanting to dampen the excitement surrounding Harper (‘wait ‘till he has played in the Majors for a few years’ etc) was soon firmly put in their party-pooping place by the Major League debut of the Nationals’ number one pick from the 2009 draft.  Stephen Strasburg unquestionably lived up to the hype on Tuesday night against the Pirates, which is scary when you consider just how much hype there was.

This is what the draft is designed to do, to take a team that is in the doldrums and give their fans a reason to be excited once again.  Continue reading →