Monthly Archives: April 2016

BaseballGB Fantasy League 2016 Week 3

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There were some superb offensive numbers in week three of the BaseballGB Fantasy League. Which team would take over at the top of the standings, and who was lucky enough to have Jake Arrieta’s no-hitter?

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
22
4
23
6
.253
.664
2
3
48
2
4.79
1.44
0
38
20
51
7
.314
1.014
4
5
53
2
2.02
0.80
11
What a week for Norwich. An offensive explosion saw them sweep the hitting categories in an 11-0 win over the Maltsters, belting an incredible 20 homers in a week. Castillo and Rizzo each hit five homers, with Anthony knocking in 10 to Welington’s nine. Franco hit three homers and drove in eight while Braun went deep twice and batted .520 for the week. Odor swiped three bases. On the mound, Maeda, Walker, Salazar and the now-injured Carrasco all pitched excellent, taking care of wins, strikeout, ERA and WHIP. Allen had three saves. The Maltsters had two homers and six RBIs apiece from Goldschmidt and Segura, while another Dback, Clippard, had two holds.
Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
27
5
26
1
.260
.730
2
3
36
3
7.02
1.56
3
34
11
43
5
.279
.863
1
6
34
2
2.41
1.16
9

The Bombers also enjoyed a very nice offensive week, sweeping all six categories on the way to a 9-3 win against Iron Men. Bryant batted .355, homered twice, knocked in 10 and scored six while Perez homered three times, driving in eight. Seager scored and knocked in six runs apiece. Cishek had three saves and the bullpen joined Syndergaard in taking ERA and WHIP. For Iron Men, Verlander struck out 10, Gomez and Feliz each picked up a win. Neftali was one on three relievers with a hold, but rough outings for Eickhoff, McHugh and Scherzer saw the ERA creep over seven.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
32
8
28
4
.325
.923
3
2
40
2
3.17
1.02
2
43
9
29
6
.298
.885
4
2
57
2
1.99
0.95
8
The Knights are the new leaders after they got the better of my Isotopes 8-2 in a matchup which went back and forth all week, as three categories were decided by one. A monster week from Betts saw him score ten runs, homer twice, knock in five and steal two bases. Desmond also homered twice, knocked in five and stole three bases while Duda hit three homers and knocked in seven. A superb week for the pitchers saw Hammel win twice and strike out 13, while Strasburg struck out 20. They helped take ERA and WHIP too. My Isotopes salvaged average and OPS thanks to Gonzalez, Trout and Lindor. A 1.02 WHIP would usually be good enough to win the category, but not this week.
Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
28
6
23
3
.264
.738
3
2
57
2
4.07
1.27
4
26
7
29
6
.275
.797
6
2
63
1
4.36
1.41
7
The Lollygaggers keep rolling with a 7-4 win against the Slugs. Three was the magic number for Becknam’s offense, as Sano hit three homers, Cervelli, Davis, Altuve and Tomas all knocked in three and Altuve also swiped three bases. Santiago was the pick of the pitchers, with two wins and 17 strikeouts. Harper scored five runs for the Slugs, while de Grom helped take ERA and MadBum made the difference in WHIP.
Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
38
6
25
3
.283
.785
4
4
34
6
1.90
0.89
7
23
9
27
4
.235
.735
4
3
52
0
2.57
1.07
4
The Chasers came out on top against the Riverkings, winning 7-4. Donaldson scored seven runs while Pedroia and Gordon crossed home six times each. Bogaerts batted .368 for the week. Jansen had four saves, Cecil three holds and Kluber made the difference in ERA and WHIP in a very well pitched battle. Stanton, Dickerson and Dozier each homered twice for Jesmond, while Heyward swiped three bases. Smyly struck out 17.
Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
25
5
20
5
.233
.708
3
1
63
3
4.45
1.45
6
20
10
25
1
.245
.739
2
2
26
0
4.44
1.68
6
The Sox and Riverkings could not be separated, finishing in a 6-6 tie. The Sox had the better of the offense, as Walker homered four times and Ozuna knocked in six. Papelbon had two saves and Zimmermann helped take ERA by 0.01. The Riverkings took runs and steals thanks to Owings and Bruce, while Ventura won twice, Fernandez struck out 14 and Watson had two holds.
Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
27
7
28
4
.264
.809
0
4
24
0
3.30
1.07
5
33
6
27
2
.286
.823
2
4
48
0
5.17
1.34
5
Finally, Batteries Essential and the RBIs finished level at 5-5. Batteries Essential had the edge in homers, RBIs and steals thanks to Cruz, Wright, Cespedes and Wong. Tanaka made the difference in ERA and WHIP. The RBIs took runs, average and OPS thanks to Fowler, Granderson and Machado. Pineda struck out 16 while Arrieta threw a no-hitter but his side didn’t take ERA or WHIP. that’s head-to-head matchups for you!

The Week Four matchups

Knights (1st) v Slugs (9th)
Essential (2nd) v Isotopes (12th)
Riverkings (3rd) v RBIs (7th)
Norwich (4th) v Iron Men (11th)
Lollygaggers (5th) v Bombers (10th)
Chasers (6th) v Sox (13th)
Maltsters (8th) v Jesmond (14th)

 

MLB This Week: 6 to choose from

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CovMLBUK2014It’s a relatively slow week for early MLB games to watch at a convenient time in the UK.

Still, the Padres-Giants and A’s-Tigers games, on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, are available to watch for free online at MLB.com (and are both on BT Sport/ESPN) and we’ve got an always-welcome Cubs home game on Friday.

All times are in BST.

Monday 25 April

No early games

Tuesday 26 April

No early games

Wednesday 27 April

20.45. San Diego at San Francisco (Cashner – Samardzija) *BT Sport/ESPN, MLB.com Free Game

Thursday 28 April

18.10. Oakland at Detroit (Bassitt – Sanchez) *BT Sport/ESPN, MLB.com Free Game
19.20. Milwaukee at Chicago Cubs (Davies – Lester)
20.10. Pittsburgh at Colorado (Nicasio – Chatwood)
21.05. Philadelphia at Washington (Nola – Gonzalez)

Friday 29 April

19.20. Atlanta at Chicago Cubs (TBA – Lackey)

All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription. TV coverage of MLB comes courtesy of the BT Sport channels and these are highlighted above, as are any games that are available to view online for free via MLB.com. The above list of games just shows those starting before midnight UK time. The full schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Cubs and Arrieta getting even better

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WHGB11My start to the day involves making some breakfast, turning on my iPad and then clicking on MLB At Bat to start reading and watching what happened overnight in MLB.

If your At Bat is set to default to the scoreboard, as mine does, there is a handy feature in which a special event gets flagged so you know which game to start at. That was the case when checking the scores on Friday morning and the ‘No hitter’ sign was there in red next to the game between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds.

It wasn’t as surprising as most no-hitters because the match-up suggested it was more than a possibility. Jake Arrieta no-hit the Dodgers on the way to a Cy Young Award last season and the rebuilding Reds are not in great shape, so put the two together and the odds of Cincinnati coming out on top weren’t great.

No-hitters don’t happen every day though and as the innings roll on the pressure builds.

In some ways they’re a bit like a 147 maximum break in snooker, appropriately enough with the World Championships currently ongoing in Sheffield. As the feat comes into view, pots that otherwise would be approached with ease suddenly become more difficult because of what’s at stake.

The difference with a no-hitter is that it’s not just the pitcher that’s under pressure as the outs start to mount, but all of the fielders behind him too. It’s an individual achievement but one made possible due to the work of a team.

Arrieta’s performance against the Reds was an escalation of excellence following his first three starts. He held the Angels score-less over seven innings in his season-opener on 4 April, went seven innings again in his second start against the D-Backs where he did allow three runs but got the win all the same, and then pitched eight score-less innings against Colorado.

The signs are ominous for the rest of the National League. It couldn’t be denied that the Chicago Cubs had an excellent squad of players heading into the season and to argue against them meant somehow trying to construct plausible scenarios in which things could go wrong. The season-ending injury suffered by Kyle Schwarber early in April was one example of how the best-laid plans could come undone, but the depth that the Cubs have meant that their opponents needed several players either not to take a step-forward (such as Kris Bryant and Addison Russell) and/or others to take a step back.

Arrieta was the highest profile name among the latter group. It was not that you could reasonably hope for him to suddenly become an average pitcher, just that he might regress from being ridiculously good to merely good.

Four starts into his 2016 season and Arrieta looks determined to match, if not somehow better, what he did in 2015.

His complete dominance of the Reds came after the Cubs took two from three in St Louis in what was arguably the first strong test they’ve had so far this season. It must have been galling for the Cardinals to have former teammate John Lackey come back and beat them 5-0 not only with the ball but with the bat as well and even more so when they lost the second game of the series 2-1 with both of Chicago’s runs being batted in by pitcher Jason Hammel.

The Cubs have won two of three against the Reds heading into the final game of the series on Sunday and they will then start a home-stand including 3 games against the Brewers and 3 against the Braves. If the Cubs win today and then go 4-2 in their six-game stay at Wrigley – a quite reasonable projection – they’ll be on an 18-7 record at the end of play on 1 May.

The month of May will bring sterner tests, not least six games against Pittsburgh and series against the Nationals, Giants, Cardinals and Dodgers, but the Cubs are doing exactly what the pre-season projections suggested they might.

Although no team wins a division in April or May, opponents may already be raising the spectre of the Billy Goat Curse as the only thing that could prevent Arrieta and Chicago from making a return to the play-offs this season.

BGB Fantasy League 2016: Week Two

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Two teams are level at the top of the standings after week two of the BaseballGB Fantasy League. Read on to find out who the early pacesetters are.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
26
8
32
2
.250
.748
4
4
39
0
2.44
1.06
11
24
7
20
0
.246
.723
2
2
12
0
2.82
1.21
0

What a week for Batteries Essential, who fell a hold shy of a clean sweep against the Sox. Cespedes, McCutchen and Castellanos each homered twice and led an offensive sweep. Tanaka had a win and 12 strikeouts, while Cueto helped take ERA and WHIP. Familia and Street had two saves each. Encarnacion, Walker and CarGo had nice offensive weeks for the Sox, who will feel hard done by to take a heavy loss and many categories were close.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
19
6
21
2
.227
.717
4
3
49
3
3.52
1.12
9
18
4
20
2
.206
.560
4
2
71
0
4.88
1.18
1

The Riverkings continued their fine start with a 9-1 win against Jesmond. It wasn’t a vintage week for the hitters, but Carpenter homered and drove in six and Yelich and Beltran helped take average and OPS. Rodon, Ventura and Kershaw helped take ERA and WHIP and Kimbrel had three saves. Jesmond took strikeouts as four pitchers racked up double-digit Ks, led by Nola with 15.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
28
9
26
7
.219
.700
3
4
36
0
3.75
0.96
3
44
10
28
6
.320
.978
4
3
48
2
2.12
1.10
9

The Lollygaggers handed my Isotopes a 9-3 loss with a very impressive offensive show. Altuve hit .407 for the week and joined Davis in belting three homers and scoring eight runs. Davis knocked in eight, Altuve seven. Andrus hit .471. Wacha had a win and 12 strikeouts and teamed with Wood and Kennedy in taking ERA. My team salvaged steals thanks to Lindor and Marte, while Sale helped take WHIP and Jepsen had two saves in a week which saw Perkins and Romo lost to the DL.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
30
10
35
4
.255
.775
6
5
67
1
2.62
0.79
8
27
9
28
4
.270
.794
1
4
40
1
3.33
1.22
2

The Knights begin the season in good form, defeating the RBIs 8-2. Arenado was the star hitter with a monster week, scoring seven runs, homering four times and driving in 12. Kinsler went deep three times and scored six runs. Price had a win and 17 strikeouts, Hammel and Garcia made the difference in ERA and WHIP and Robertson had three saves. The RBIs salvaged average and OPS thanks to JD Martinez and Machado.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
26
6
29
4
.254
.703
1
3
60
4
3.36
1.12
3
28
9
29
2
.257
.750
3
5
58
2
1.24
0.82
8

Norwich drew level with the Chasers in the standings after an 8-3 win. Grichuk scored eight runs and joined Braun and Springer in homering twice. Maeda, Salazar and Carrasco each picked up wins and helped take ERA and WHIP while Allen and Miller had two saves each. The Chasers took steals thanks to Bogaerts while Lester (15) and Kluber (14) helped take strikeouts and Dyson collected a pair of holds.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
17
2
14
4
.218
.574
4
5
57
1
2.74
1.11
4
24
7
30
7
.249
.726
4
2
52
3
5.01
1.58
7

Iron Men recorded their first win of the season, defeating the Maltsters 7-4 thanks to an offensive sweep. Pujols homered twice and knocked in seven, while Harrison and Ellsbury each stole three bases and Calhoun led the team in average and OPS. Scherzer had two wins and Storen collected a pair of holds. The Maltsters took strikeouts, ERA and WHIP thanks to a magnificent effort from Velasquez, while Davis had three saves.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
32
8
34
6
.262
.819
1
2
41
3
2.54
1.33
7
35
7
28
1
.260
.756
2
3
40
4
2.57
1.29
5

Finally, the Slugs batted their way to a 7-5 win over the Bombers. Harper was the star man, belting four homers, driving in 12, scoring six runs and batting .346. Not too shabby. In a very close pitching matchup – one of the closest I can remember – Lackey and Bumgarner each struck out seven and Odorizzi helped take ERA. The Bombers took runs thanks to Hosmer, Rendon and Polanco, who each scored five times. Cishek had a win and a save, Wilson had three holds and Stripling helped take WHIP.

Transactions

The Riverkings have suffered a couple of injuries at catcher, losing Schwarber and now Hundley, but are dangling starting pitching on the trading block. If you are after a boost to your pitching staff, take a look and see if there’s potential for a deal.

Week three matchups

Batteries Essential (1st) v RBIs (11th)
Riverkings (2nd) v Sox (14th)
Knights (3rd) v Isotopes (10th)
Maltsters (4th) v Norwich (6th)
Lollygaggers (5th) v Slugs (11th)
Iron Men (7th) v Bombers (13th)
Chasers (8th) v Jesmond (12th)

MLB This Week: Blue Jays-Red Sox, Cubs-Cards and more

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CovMLBUK2014There are pre-midnight UK time starts on Monday to Thursday inclusive this working week.

Monday’s game is the traditional early contest coinciding with the Boston Marathon, with the Blue Jays and Red Sox finishing off their four-game series. Boston are in early action again on Thursday and, if things stay on the current schedule, that should see David Price making a start against his former team the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Wednesday line-up includes a game from the first Cubs-Cardinals series of the 2016 season, whilst on Thursday currently Clayton Kershaw is due to be pitching for the Dodgers against the Braves. That could be something of a mis-match and an early start (17.10) could also lead to an early finish if Kershaw is on form.

All times are in BST.

Monday 18 April

16.05. Toronto at Boston (Happ – Buchholz) *BT Sport/ESPN

Tuesday 19 April

18.10. Milwaukee at Minnesota (Peralta – Santana) *BT Sport/ESPN
23.10. Seattle at Cleveland (Miley – Carrasco)

Wednesday 20 April

17.35. Colorado at Cincinnati (Bettis – Melville)
18.45. Chicago Cubs at St Louis (Hendricks – Martinez)
19.10. LA Angels at Chicago WS (Richards – Sale)
23.1o. Seattle at Cleveland (Walker – Salazar)

Thursday 21 April

17.1o. Seattle at Cleveland (Karns – Anderson)
17.10. LA Dodgers at Atlanta (Kershaw – Perez) *BT Sport/ESPN
18.10. Washington at Miami (Scherzer – Koehler)
18.35. Tampa Bay at Boston (Odorizzi – Price)
18.40. Minnesota at Milwaukee (Nolasco – Jungmann) *MLB.com Free Game
19.10. LA Angels at Chicago WS (Weaver – Quintana)
20.45. Arizona at San Francisco (Miller – Cueto)

Friday 22 April

No early games

All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription. TV coverage of MLB comes courtesy of the BT Sport channels and these are highlighted above, as are any games that are available to view online for free via MLB.com. The above list of games just shows those starting before midnight UK time. The full schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: 0-10 Avoided

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WHGB11Friday was a night of relief for the Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins.

They were both staring at the indignity of beginning the MLB season with ten consecutive loses and managed to avoid that fate with timely victories. Both teams also followed up their first wins with a second on Saturday to start bringing some semblance of hope for their fans.

The terrible 0-9 start was no surprise for the Atlanta Braves who have specifically designed this team to be close-to-hopeless.

For all of the good that MLB has done in recent years to bring parity and hope to many teams, the rewards (never mind lack of penalties) that incentivize teams to completely blow up their Major League roster to build for the future is one that needs addressing.

There is a clear logic to what they’re doing, as there was to the way the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros broke everything down to start again a few years ago, but with so much money flowing into the sport it’s difficult to justify teams charging fans Major League ticket prices, and earning Major League revenue from national and local TV networks, whilst fielding Triple-A teams.

A balance needs to be struck between helping teams to rebuild and not encouraging teams to deliberately field poor teams. One way would be to strip teams of early first round draft picks if they are not within a certain percentage of the wins amassed by best team in their league, or at least in their division. That would be a good way to avoid the unappealing race to the bottom where teams want to have the worst record so that they get the number one pick in the following year’s draft.

Maybe ‘tanking’ as it’s known will be addressed in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement? For now though, the Atlanta Braves will spend their final season at Turner Field putting out a team that only diehard fans will have the least bit of interest in watching.

The Minnesota Twins have been on a similar rebuilding project, yet their surprising second-placed finish in the AL Central last year raised hopes that a return to the good times may be closer than was predicted.

We’ve not seen much evidence to support that just yet, even though there is a group of young players there that can help to turn things around to a certain extent and give Twins fans a reason to watch – and enjoy – their team this season.

Gaining wins when the going’s good

We should also be mindful of the quality of opposition different teams face in the early going, particularly when it comes to the pacesetters.

In the American League, both the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox have started well and both have done so in part by winning games against the Twins and Tampa Bay Rays. Five of the Orioles’ 8 wins so far have come against those two teams, whilst the White Sox swept the Twins in a three-game series and are 1-1 against the Rays heading into Sunday’s series decider.

Baltimore will live and die by the longball this season and we saw how effective a plan that can be on Friday when they clubbed five against the Texas Rangers in an 11-5 victory. Whether they can mount a challenge in the AL East for the whole season will come down to how many of their homers are of the one-run variety.

The Orioles placed a large bet on ‘hack and hope’ by adding Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez this off-season to a lineup not blessed with much patience as it was and their 8-4 loss to the Rangers on Saturday – when they out-homered their opponents 3-0 – showed the other side of their approach.

Equally in the National League, the Washington Nationals’ 9-1 start, with a seven-game winning streak on the go, has been fueled by going 5-0 against the Braves and taking the first two games of this weekend’s series against the similarly-rebuilding Philadelphia Phillies.

Every win counts the same in the standings and the Nationals can only beat the teams put in front of them, but it was always likely they would get off to a good April based on the strength of the schedule they would be facing.

After today’s game against the Phillies they travel to Miami for four-games and then have three against the Twins and three more against the Phillies. By the 29th it’s quite likely that Washington will have a win-loss record of something around 15-6. They’ll then start a 10-game road trip against the St Louis Cardinals (3 games), Kansas City Royals (3) and Chicago Cubs (4) and we’ll have a better handle on their early season promise once they’ve faced some sterner opposition.

Equally the 4-6 New York Mets will have an opportunity to gain ground on their rivals during the same period. After finishing their series against Cleveland today, they have three games in Philadelphia, three in Atlanta and three at home against Cincinnati. The reigning NL Champions need to follow Washington’s lead in taking advantage of three of the weakest teams in the league this season.

BGB Fantasy League 2016: Week One

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The 2016 BaseballGB Fantasy League is under way. Which teams are off to a flying start and which teams have been bitten by injuries already?

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
26
7
29
5
.288
.863
5
4
54
1
2.50
1.15
11
28
2
22
2
.253
.752
4
1
37
0
3.29
1.25
1
The biggest winners of the opening week were the Maltsters, who defeated the Bombers 11-1. So who led the Maltsters in homers? Goldschmidt? Fielder? Gomez? Murphy? No, it was Jean Segura, who hit three and also stole two bases. Goldy and Prince each knocked in seven, while Murphy joined Segura in driving in five. Segura, Murphy, Eaton and Gordon all hit over .400 for the week.Liriano was one of five pitchers with a win, striking out 13. Davis had a win and joined Gregerson with two saves. The Bombers salvaged runs thanks to Bautista, who homered twice, and Corey Seager. Iglesias had a win and 12 strikeouts.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
25
10
32
1
.272
.869
1
1
70
6
3.33
1.02
9
22
7
23
3
.187
.620
2
4
36
1
4.37
1.34
3

The Riverkings are also off to a flyer, defeating Norwich 9-3. Jay Bruce was the star batter, hitting .391 with two homers and nine RBIs, while Abreu and Moustakas each had multi-homer weeks. The pitching staff racked up an incredible 70 strikeouts, including 14 from Kershaw (who helped take ERA and WHIP), 13 from Jose Fernandez and 10 from Volquez.

Kela, Giles and Watson had two holds each. Odor, Springer and Grichuk each had a steal for Norwich, while Rizzo homered twice and knocked in 10, but the team struggled to hit for average. Salazar and Maeda each had a win while Tolleson collected a pair of saves.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
35
6
34
4
.314
.866
5
4
53
4
5.06
1.43
8
28
12
33
2
.280
.907
3
3
77
2
3.83
1.44
4
My Isotopes managed to defeat the Slugs 8-4 in a matchup which went back and forth all week. David Peralta scored seven runs, while Adrian Gonzalez hit .429 and knocked in six runs and Teixeira knocked in seven. Marte swiped two bases. Sale had two wins, Casilla and Britton collected two saves each and Romo racked up four holds. Archer (17), Odorizzi (14) and Bumgarner (14) racked up the strikeouts as the Slugs’ staff posted 77, while de Grom and the bullpen helped take ERA.The star player was Trevor Story, who batted .333 with seven homers and 12 RBIs – what a savvy pick-up he could prove to be.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
34
8
26
5
.264
.791
2
2
40
3
4.89
1.39
8
30
10
33
3
.238
.730
0
3
25
4
5.59
1.52
4

The Chasers also picked up an 8-4 win against Iron Men. Donaldson scored eight runs, homered four times and knocked in nine, teaming with Posey to take average and OPS. Lester picked up a win and helped take ERA and WHIP while Shelby Miller struck out eight. Iron Men saw Cano homer four times and drive in seven, while Correa hit three homers and joined Ellsbury in driving in four. Jeffress had three saves and Storen three holds.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
30
6
21
1
.265
.755
4
2
65
1
3.75
1.22
7
22
6
19
2
.227
.673
3
4
46
0
3.70
1.05
4
Batteries Essential started with a win, beating Jesmond Dennings 7-4.Brandon Crawford scored five runs while Span knocked in six and Castellanos and McCutchen helped take average and OPS. Cueto had a pair of wins and struck out 12, while King Felix (16) and Richards (13) also racked up the strikeouts. Dickerson hit three homers and Heyward swiped a base in an otherwise quiet offensive week for Jesmond, while Osuna had three saves and the trio of Nicasio, Joe Ross and Nola helped take ERA and WHIP.
Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
20
3
13
7
.213
.603
3
3
60
2
5.09
1.37
4
29
9
27
2
.290
.851
3
2
32
0
3.86
1.21
7

Another matchup, another 7-4 as the RBIs defeated the Lollygaggers. Fowler scored seven runs and hit .526 while Machado hit three homers and Castro hit two homers and drove in eight. Arrieta won twice and helped take ERA and WHIP. Altuve stole four bases for the Lollygaggers, while Hamels and Nelson each had 12 strikeouts, McGee had two saves and Hernandez two holds.

Team
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
33
9
31
4
.255
.793
4
3
41
0
2.23
1.10
6
22
10
38
0
.280
.822
2
3
25
0
3.15
1.34
4

Last, but by no means least, the Knights collected a 6-4 win against the Sox. Puig scored seven runs and was one of four players to steal a base for the Knights. Price had a win and 10 strikeouts, teaming with Hammel to take ERA and WHIP. The Sox had the better of the offense, as CarGo homered three times, as did Kemp, who also knocked in 10. Papelbon had three saves.

Early injuries a factor

Batteries Essential suffered an early slice of bad luck after AJ Pollock was sidelined after the draft and before Opening Day and looks likely to miss most, if not all, of the regular season. The Riverkings also had to deal with Schwarber’s season-ending injury. Remember you can make trades straight away, so if you think you have a surplus in one position, have a look at other teams’ rosters and see if there’s potential for a deal. Or keep your eye on the waiver wire for the next Trevor Story…

Week Two Matchups

Maltsters (1st) v Iron Men (12th)
Riverkings (2nd) v Jesmond (10th)
Isotopes (3rd) v Lollygaggers (9th)
Chasers (4th) v Norwich (13th)
Batteries Essential (5th) v Sox (8th)
RBIs (6th) v Knights (7th)
Slugs (11th) v Bombers (14th)

 

MLB This Week: 18 early games to enjoy

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CovMLBUK2014It’s a bumper working week for MLB day-games.

There are 18 in total, at least one every day, and there’s a game on BT Sport and a free game online at MLB.com on Monday to Thursday evening UK time inclusive.

The games include three from the interleague series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers, a David Price start for the Red Sox against Baltimore, Kenta Maeda’s first start at Dodger Stadium and a Friday day-game from Wrigley Field.

All times are in BST.

Monday 11 April

18.10. Pittsburgh at Detroit (Niese – Greene) *BT Sport/ESPN
19.05. Baltimore at Boston (Gallardo – Price)
20.05. San Diego at Philadelphia (Cashner – Nola) *MLB.com Free Game
21.10. Chicago WS at Minnesota (Quintana – Gibson)
21.15. Milwaukee at St Louis (Jungmann – Wacha)

Tuesday 12 April

18.10. Pittsburgh at Detroit (Nicasio – Sanchez)
21.10. Arizona at LA Dodgers (Corbin – Maeda) *BT Sport1, MLB.com Free Game

Wednesday 13 April

18.10. Miami at NY Mets (Chen – Verrett)
20.35. LA Angels  at Oakland (Shoemaker – Surkamp) *MLB.com Free Game
20.40. Texas at Seattle (Griffin – Walker) *BT Sport1

Thursday 14 April

17.35. Detroit at Pittsburgh (Pelfrey – Cole)
18.05. San Diego at Philadelphia (Pomeranz – Velasquez)
18.10. Chicago WS at Minnesota (Danks – Santana)
18.10. Cleveland at Tampa Bay (Salazar – Smyly) *BT Sport1, MLB.com Free Game
18.45. Milwaukee at St Louis (Peralta – Garcia)
20.10. San Francisco at Colorado (Cain – De La Rosa)
21.05. Atlanta at Washington (Teheran – Ross)

Friday 15 April

19.20. Colorado at Chicago Cubs (Bettis – Hendricks)

All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription. TV coverage of MLB comes courtesy of the BT Sport channels and these are highlighted above, as are any games that are available to view online for free via MLB.com. The above list of games just shows those starting before midnight UK time. The full schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Opening week stories

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WHGB11Whether it was Rajai Davis battling the snow to make a catch in the outfield, Tom Wilhelmson getting smacked around by his former teammates – and then thrown out of the game for throwing at one of them – or Kyle Schwarber suffering a season-ending knee injury, the Opening Week of the 2016 MLB season has not been easy for some, but it’s certainly been eventful.

Story of the week

Where else could we start than Trevor Story’s first four games in the Major Leagues. Whilst his home-run hitting streak came to an end on Saturday, his six long-balls had already made him the big story of the week, all the more so thanks to him having a surname ripe for puns and headlines.

It will be said time and time again this month that we should not get caught up in April performances. Players and teams can get hot for days or a few weeks at any point during the season and it’s easy to exaggerate the real significance of this when that hot streak comes so early in the season.

We saw a similar event ten years ago. Then it was the Detroit Tigers’ Chris Shelton who hit five home runs from the first four games of the season. He hit only 11 more across the rest of the season and played just 50 further Big League games across 2008 and 2009 before his Major League career came to an end.

Later that same month, the Texas Rangers’ Kevin Mench hit a home run in seven consecutive games and left some wondering if the streak would ever come to an end. It did, of course, and he subsequently hit only five more bombs across the rest of the season with the Rangers and Milwaukee Brewers before playing out the final 179 games over the next four years during which he hit eight home runs in total.

Not much was expected of Shelton or Mench. In Story’s case, it was already thought that he could provide some legitimate power to the Rockies’ offence. His Baseball Prospectus 2016 capsule noted that he had amassed some high strikeout totals in the minors that could carry across the Majors, but “in between some awkward flails at wayward breaking balls he’ll inflict serious damage”.

Six homers in four games certainly falls under the definition of “serious damage”. Like all young players he will go through some growing pains as pitchers learn and exploit his weaknesses and he will then have to adjust his approach, but there’s reason to believe that Trevor’s story won’t end on these first four games and there will be plenty of chapters to enjoy in the years ahead for him at Coors Field.

Slide rule

After Chase Utley broke Ruben Tejada’s leg in the high-profile 2015 NLDS game between the Dodgers and Mets it was inevitable that a new rule would be introduced.

It was also inevitable that it would cause some problems early in the season; however, few could have predicted those problems would come in two game-ending plays during the first week.

The first occasion between the Rays and Blue Jays was more clear-cut once the emotion of the game was removed and John Gibbons’ embarrassing ‘wearing dresses’ comment was rightly condemned. Jose Bautista made his slide into second base and then clearly went to grab Logan Forsythe’s leg with his hand. That’s not breaking up a double-play, that’s intentionally interfering with a fielder.

 

The ruling that ended the Houston Astros’ ninth-inning rally against the Brewers on Friday night was not so clear-cut. It was clear in the sense that Colby Rasmus broke the new rule by sliding past second base, but not in the sense of complying with the reason for bringing the rule in. The infielder was at no risk and had no intention of trying to turn a double-play, yet the umpires correctly applied the rule as it’s now worded and awarded the Brewers a double-play to end the game.

It’s safe to say that some clarification on how the rule should be interpreted will be provided by MLB in the next couple of weeks to bring it more in line with expectations.

It’s equally safe to say that having games end on a replay review is one of the most jarring compromises to be accepted alongside the benefits of the replay system.

DH in the NL? Not for MadBum

The debate around whether the Designated Hitter rule should be extended to the National League has some very entrenched views on either side.

Personally, I like to see professional athletes having to work on different facets of their chosen sport – skillful rugby players needing to get their tackling and positional sense up to a level where they’re not a liability etc – and I’m quite happy to live with pitchers getting over-matched if that means they have to develop their ability to get a good bunt down.

It also means that the pitchers that can hit get to enjoy themselves occasionally. Madison Bumgarner did just that against Clayton Kershaw yesterday with a home run to left-field, the second time he’s taken Kershaw deep.

MadBum won that battle, but Kershaw and the Dodgers won the war that day with a tenth-inning 3-2 victory.

MLB This Week: Opening Week

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CovMLBUK2014Sunday was Opening Day; Monday is Opening Day.

The MLB season gets going in a slightly confusing way, but why have one Opening Day when you can have several?

Sunday’s three games were all good contests. Pittsburgh immediately gave everyone a reminder that there’s a third competitive team in the NL Central with a win against St Louis, Chris Archer and Marcus Stroman duelled at Tropicana Field with the latter taking the honours, and the Mets-Royals opener went the way of the World Series, right down to including a fielding clunker from Yoenis Cespedes.

Opening Week is a real celebration of baseball being back as the starting rotations are normally aligned so that aces or near-aces match-up against each other. It’s even better for us as teams schedule plenty of day-games this week making them perfect viewing for us.

As a reminder, every Monday I round-up all of the pre-midnight BST starts for the traditional working week ahead. This is on the basis that these are the games that you don’t need to sacrifice too much sleep to watch.

The games that are on the BT Sport channels are listed, as are any of the early games selected to be the MLB.com Free Game (available to watch online via MLB.TV without a subscription). MLB.com only seems to list those three days ahead, so it’s possible an early game on Thursday or Friday may be available to watch free too.

Monday 4 April

18:00. Houston @ New York Yankees (Keuchel – Tanaka) *BT Sport/ESPN
19:10. San Francisco @ Milwaukee (Bumgarner – Peralta) *MLB.com Free Game
20:05. Minnesota @ Baltimore (Santana – Tillman)
21:00. Seattle @ Texas (Hernandez – Hamels) *BT Sport/ESPN
21:10. Boston @ Cleveland (Price – Kluber)
21:10. Washington @ Atlanta (Scherzer – Teheran)
21:10. Philadelphia @ Cincinnati (Hellickson – Iglesias)

Tuesday 5 April

21:15. New York Mets @ Kansas City (Syndergaard – Young) *BT Sport/ESPN

Wednesday 6 April

18:10. Toronto @ Tampa Bay (Sanchez – Moore)
18:40. San Francisco @ Milwaukee (Samardzija – Garza)
19:05. Seattle  @ Texas (Miley – Lewis)
20:40. Colorado @ Arizona (Chatwood – Corbin) *MLB.com Free Game
21:55. Detroit @ Miami (Zimmermann – Fernandez)
23:10. Boston @ Cleveland (Buchholz – Carrasco)

Thursday 7 April

17:35. Philadelphia @ Cincinnati (Morton – Stephenson)
20:35. Chicago WS @ Oakland (Latos – Graveman) *MLB.com Free Game
21:05. Houston @ New York Yankees (Fiers – Eovaldi)
21:05. Miami @ Washington (Conley – Gonzalez)
21:35. Los Angeles Dodgers @ San Francisco (Wood – Peavy)
23:10. Boston @ Cleveland (Kelly – Salazar)

Friday 8 April

18:10. New York Yankees @ Detroit (Severino – Sanchez)
18:10. Philadelphia @ New York Mets (Eickhoff – deGrom)
21:10. Cleveland @ Chicago WS (Anderson – Danks)
21:10. San Diego @ Colorado (Rea – Lyles)

All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription. TV coverage of MLB comes courtesy of the BT Sport channels and these are highlighted above, as are any games that are available to view online for free via MLB.com. The above list of games just shows those starting before midnight UK time. The full schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com