Tag Archives: San Francisco Giants

On to the offseason

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MlbHlSqAfter the 2014 MLB season was brought to a close by the San Francisco Giants enjoying a title-celebrating parade for the third time in five years, attention immediately switches to the offseason and the hopes of players, managers and teams eager to put themselves into a situation where they could be spraying the champagne at this time next year.

Recent history suggests the Giants will take 2015 off to give the other teams a chance and offseason activities could have a strong bearing on which team takes the opportunity before handing the trophy back to San Francisco in 2016.

Scherzer leads the pitching class

This year’s pitching free agent market is topped by Max Scherzer, Jon Lester and James Shields. Scherzer will be the most important domino to fall as, rightly or wrongly, it’s assumed that Lester is most likely to head back to Boston after a brief spell in Oakland, whilst Shields – a very good starting pitcher – doesn’t quite have the elite-level performance of the other two pitchers.

Talks of a contract extension between the Tigers and Scherzer ended prior to the 2014 season with a proposed six-year, $144m deal not being agreeable to one or both parties. From the pitcher’s perspective that’s likely to be the lower end of his expectations now, meaning that whoever wants the dominant right-hander is going to have to make an enormous investment.

Whilst the usual suspects (Dodgers, Tigers, Yankees, Red Sox) will be in the mix, the Mariners’ signing of Robinson Cano last year showed that other teams can emerge ready to spend big to take advantage of an increasingly rare opportunity to sign a premium player.

Hitters hitting free agency

As for position players, the list is led by two Venezuelans (Pablo Sandoval and Victor Martinez) and an infielder from the Dominican Republic (Hanley Ramirez).

There are doubts about Ramirez’s abilities at shortstop, yet his contributions at the plate are there for all to see and he will be in demand by any team wanting to upgrade the left-side of their infield. Sandoval also comes into that equation too. He is understandably a fan favourite in San Francisco and you would expect his offseason to begin with talks on a potential new contract to remain a Giant. If that doesn’t come to fruition then plenty of teams will be quick to act.

As for Martinez, he will be in much demand after an exceptional 2014 season and would be a welcome addition to any lineup, although you would expect him to land with an American League team where he can spend a good proportion of his time as a Designated Hitter.

Trade targets

The starting point with potential trade targets is always players who are currently scheduled to become free agents after the upcoming season. Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes is on that list and, if the rumours are to be believed, he could be on the move again only a few months after being traded from the A’s to the Red Sox.

In contrast, Jason Heyward has known nothing else than playing for Atlanta so far in his Major League career; however his status as one of the few Braves players that hasn’t signed a contract extension in the past 18 months puts his future with the team in question. The Braves will see what offers are on the table for Heyward if they aren’t confident of being able to keep hold of him beyond 2015.

On the pitching side, the key team may be the Cincinnati Reds would had a disappointing 2014 season and will need to assess what their plan should be over the next few years before deciding what to do with Johnny Cueto and Mat Latos, who both have one year left under contract.

Away from those candidates, the most exciting name that keeps cropping up is the Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton. We all know the Marlins are a team that trades players away and Stanton is exactly the sort of talent that a team would be prepared to part with a bundle of valuable prospects for. Whether there is any real possibility of him changing teams this offseason, or if it’s just reporters and fans having fun dreaming up potential blockbuster trades, will be one of the key storylines over the next couple of months.

Cubs on the up?

The 2014 season was the Chicago Cubs’ fifth consecutive losing year, but there were signs that the rebuilding project set in motion by Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer is starting to have a positive – rather than depressingly negative – effect on the Major League team. Top prospects Jorge Soler, Javier Baez and Arodys Vizcaino all got some Big League playing time and others will soon be joining them, not least third baseman Kris Bryant (arguably the best prospect across all 30 teams) and shortstop Addison Russell.

So, there was already reason for optimism when looking ahead to 2015, but the confirmation on Friday that Joe Maddon has been installed as their new manager will raise expectations even further. It says a lot about the Cubs’ ambitions that they weren’t going to let the fact that they already had a manager, Rick Renteria, get in the way of grabbing one of the most high-profile managers in the Majors.

It will be interesting to see if the Cubs continue that aggressive approach and decide to jump into the free agent market to add a few experienced players to help jump-start their return to being contenders.

Motor City moves

Recent offseasons would suggest the Detroit Tigers will be one of the more active teams. The presence of two of their best players now sitting at the top of the free agent lists makes that a certainty, whether that’s in spending large sums to bring Scherzer and/or Martinez back or in replacing them.

David Price was acquired at the trade deadline in July and they may look to sign him to a large contract extension if Scherzer looks like he will be out of reach. Torii Hunter is also a free agent so another outfielder will be on the shopping list as well as a few more darts being thrown at the reliever dartboard in the hope that they might finally hit a bullseye (or even a double) after too many years of failing bullpens in the Motor City.

Opportunities for all

Whilst the Cubs and Tigers will be two teams worth watching in particular, in truth every team must be looking at the current MLB landscape and weighing up the increased odds of having a successful season. The Giants and Kansas City Royals proved that coming through the Wild Card route doesn’t put you at a significant disadvantage against the division winners.

San Francisco’s success may suggest they have a winning formula, but it feels more like we’re now moving into a climate where there aren’t any truly dominant regular season teams on a consistent basis and, with a few exceptions (Colorado being the most obvious), there is genuine reason to believe that a team can make a playoff bid and then go all the way.

World Series Rules

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MlbPostseason2014The American and National League setup in MLB takes a bit of explaining to Brits new to the sport.

There are two leagues, but they’re not different leagues in the sense that we’re used to in British sports, where the league denotes a different level of competition.

Despite there being two leagues, it’s still all a single level of MLB and teams from the different leagues do play each other during the regular season.

Finally, even though the two leagues come together as MLB, they actually play under slightly different rules.

When this is all new to you, no single aspect really stands out. You learn how it all fits together and accept it as the way it is. However, it seems that the different rules is still an aspect that raises strong feelings Stateside.

From a logical standpoint it makes complete sense to have one set of rules that everyone plays by, yet the opposing view of the interest created by having different brands of baseball is one that really demonstrates itself during the World Series. It adds an extra element to the home field advantage and gives the managers something else to think about too.

MLB has brought in various changes in the last 20 years, but it’s unlikely that a standardisation of the rules across both leagues is going to be added to the list. Both sides have strong proponents and there’s no compelling reason to pick one over the other and create a boatload of unnecessary grief.

Despite being a fan of an American League team, if a choice had to be made then I would opt for the National League rules holding sway and Game Four of the World Series was a perfect example of why I hold that view.

It’s quite common in North American sports for players to specialise in distinct roles, but I’m a fan of top athletes having to work on the weaker parts of their game. Pitchers, for example, largely live and die on their ability on the mound, but in both leagues the ability to field their position is also important and working hard on this side of the game, or not, can sometimes be the difference between a win or a loss.

The San Francisco Giants got into trouble in the top of the third inning when pitcher Ryan Vogelsong was unable to find first base to make an out. It wasn’t the easiest of plays as Vogelsong initially tried to field the groundball, so didn’t take the usual pitcher path to the bag; however not making that out helped to set up a four-run inning for the Kansas City Royals.

The National League rules then added to the strategy of the inning as the pitcher’s spot in the Giants’ lineup was due up first in the bottom of the third inning. Under American League rules it would have been easy for manager Bruce Bochy to pull Vogelsong out of harm’s way. Instead, he had to weigh up the benefit of doing so against the negative impact of using up a pitcher by having to pinch-hit for them so early in the game.

The top half of the third inning was also bookended by the Royals’ pitcher Jason Vargas standing in the batter’s box. The biggest criticism of the NL rules is that pitchers as a group struggle to hit effectively and the result is two or three cheap at-bats per team in every NL game.

The additional strategy that this creates more than makes up for this in my view and if there are nine pitcher at-bats that don’t lead to much, there will be one in which a pitcher works hard to put down a good bunt or gets the runner over and that side of the game is important too.

It’s sometimes easy to forget that baseball is a game; it’s there as a form of entertainment and is meant to be fun. The strictly analytical view would see Kelvin Herrera’s at-bat in Game Three as a shocking waste of an out and that’s a perfectly valid conclusion. Looking at it from any other view and it was one of the more memorable moments in a good game, just as seeing the joy of Yusmeiro Petit getting a rare hit in Game Four couldn’t help but bring a smile to your face.

Personally, I’m fine with carrying on as we are and having two different sets of rules. Far from causing problems, it makes the World Series even more enjoyable.

Three games in

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MlbPostseason2014Three games into the World Series and it’s shaping up to be the close battle that we all hoped for (aside from Giants and Royals fans dreaming of a 4-0 sweep in their favour, of course).

The possibility of a six or seven game classic appeared to take a big hit when the San Francisco Giants won the series opener in Kansas City 7-1.

The Royals had been on such a tremendous roll that it was easy to fear an early win for the Giants might be a fatal blow.

Instead, the loss prompted KC to prove that they had plenty of battling qualities too and now that they’ve taken a 2-1 series lead they are in the ascendency. They know they can head back home with the series alive even if the Giants win the next two games at AT&T Park.

Starting the World Series on a Tuesday night creates a good sequence for those of us wanting to follow the action outside of the U.S. timezones.

Friday evening could serve as a break to re-live the key moments from Games One and Two before heading straight into Game Three in the early hours of Saturday.

The third game brought us a new batch of impressive fielding displays, not least some good catches out in right field by Lorenzo Cain and Hunter Pence and then bare-handed plays by Salvador Perez and Pablo Sandoval, whilst the Royals’ devastating relief corps took over once again.

The Giants will be looking at Game Four starter Jason Vargas and Game Five starter James Shields (more ‘shaky Shields’ than ‘Big Game James’ in Game One) and thinking that those are the pitchers they need to attack. Expecting to get anything out of Herrera, Davis and Holland will be expecting too much.

Game Four can be enjoyed tonight knowing that an extra hour of sleep can be recovered tomorrow morning with the clocks going back (in the U.K. at least, not in the States).

ESPN UK generally runs the MLB International coverage with Gary Thorne and Rick Sutcliffe on commentary so MLB.TV will be the place to go if you want to catch the Fox coverage that’s seen Stateside.

The main feature of Fox’s coverage this year is the new commentating crew following Tim McCarver’s retirement after last year’s Fall Classic. Joe Buck is now joined by Harold Reynolds and Tom Verducci and they are an acquired taste, although it seems that the only major sport commentators that don’t divide opinion are those that make the masses unite against them.

Commentary aside, Fox’s in-game graphics have impressed me. Simple things like the way fielding positions are displayed normally only stand out when they’re down badly, but neat little touches like this all add up to a well-presented game. Features like the strike zone replays and slow-mo cameras work best when they are not over-used and Fox have got the balance just about right in these opening games; not an easy thing to do in the World Series where there must be a tendency to throw every bell and whistle in as much as possible.

One thing that they could do even better is showing fielding shifts during at-bats. Shifts are becoming an ever-increasing part of the game and it’s something  TV broadcasters need to adjust to as it’s one part of the experience that those at the ballpark currently see much better than us armchair viewers. The MLB Network coverage this postseason added a Shift Trax box in the top right-hand corner of the screen and what it lacked in style it made up for in terms or providing a quick reference point without the director needing to switch between different camera shots.

Sky Sports’ cricket coverage has used a fielding box like this for several years (albeit in a larger more stylish way) as one of the key aspects of cricket is the setting of different fields. Seeing how a captain is adjusting his field for different batsman or to try a different tactic of getting the same batsman out is a fascinating part of the strategy of cricket.

Whilst fielding positions in baseball probably will never be quite so fluid, it would be great to be able to see when the fielding positions change even for more subtle changes like a slight shift in the outfield alignment for a specific hitter, or when the third baseman plays close to the third-base line at certain strategic points. MLB Network’s Shift Trax is definitely a step in the right direction.

For now we’re left Shift Trax-free with Fox and the MLB International feeds but that’s only a minor issue. We’ve got two good teams battling it out in a close series and that counts for far more than any graphic or commentator (good or bad) ever will.

2014 World Series preview

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MlbPostseason2014This year’s World Series pits a team that is gunning for their third title in five years against a team that is making its first postseason run since winning the Fall Classic in 1985.

The good thing is that doesn’t mean there is a clear favourite. Far from it, in fact.

Neither the San Francisco Giants nor the Kansas City Royals won their respective divisions this season, making this only the second occasion that the World Series has been contested by two Wild Card teams since they were introduced in 1995.

This has prompted some onlookers to question the quality of this year’s season finale and based on the regular season it is a fair line of questioning to pursue. Six teams won more regular season games than the Royals’ 89 this year, whilst the Giants’ total of 88 was joint-eighth best.

However, this is the nature of any competition that uses a playoff format to determine the ultimate season victors. Earning the best win-loss record in the Majors doesn’t crown you as champions so there’s no great value in knocking a team for making the World Series without doing so.

All you have to do is make the playoffs and once you’re there it all comes down to taking the opportunities that come your way. No one can question that the Giants and Royals have done that brilliantly so far and the result is a World Series between two teams in great form.

Kansas City have provided a remarkable story this season and their World Series appearance is exactly what the expanded playoff format is designed to help create. A fan base that has had precious little to cheer about for nearly 30 years suddenly has a team that seemingly can do no wrong. After squeaking past the Oakland A’s in the Wild Card game, they have swept away the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Orioles and come into the Fall Classic having won all eight postseason games they have played so far.

As for the Giants, manager Bruce Bochy is looking to guide his team to yet another World Series title and it will be fascinating to see how the experience they have gained in recent years works out against a team that is playing in such an uninhibited fashion. The Royals are yet to freeze on the big stage and we’ll soon find out whether that’s because they haven’t quite realised just how big a stage they are on.

There’s possibly a parallel here with the 2007 Colorado Rockies who won a Wild Card spot and then swept their way through the Division and Championship Series only to find that when their winning run ran out, they couldn’t recover. It was as if they had been swept along on a magic carpet ride until they lost the first game of the World Series against the Boston Red Sox, at which point they were reminded that magic carpets aren’t real and subsequently went into free-fall. Maybe all the Giants need to do is burst the Royals’ bubble?

Kansas City shouldn’t be too concerned about that though. The Rockies had to sit about for several days whilst the Red Sox completed their epic seven-game series against the Cleveland Indians, potentially leaving them slightly undercooked when they had to get back to the action. And, more than anything, the Red Sox were clearly the better team that year. They won 96 games compared to the Rockies’ 90 and Boston’s Phythagorean win-loss record (their expected win-loss record based on runs scored and allowed) was 101; the best in the Majors and ten clear wins better than the Rockies.

Baseball-Reference puts the Giants’ Phythagorean win-loss record this year at 87-75, three wins better than the Royals’ 84-78. That seems about right, San Francisco being just slightly ahead but there not really being much between them that would swing a short series.

What should we make of the expectations on San Francisco? They have been there and won it twice in very recent memory. Typically you would expect there to be some extra dynasty-making pressure on a team in this situation, but that doesn’t seem to be a part of this story, fairly or not.

Outside of their own fan base – who are in dreamland and have no reason to care what anyone else thinks about their team – they are a team that is admired without being feared in the way that, for example, the New York Yankees of the 1996-2004 era were.

Perhaps it is the way they win a third title that might allow them to attain ‘greatness’ status? They will have to achieve the feat first before any such deliberations can be considered.

What we do know is that these are two teams capable of producing a different hero every night. The fact that there isn’t a dominant team in the World Series may marginally reduce the hype leading into it, but it also makes it all the more likely that this will be a very evenly-matched series with the potential to go six or the full seven games.

There is no real favourite here and that should make it a memorable Fall Classic.

Schedule

The series starts in Kansas City due to the American League winning the mid-season All-Star Game and it follows the standard best-of-seven game format: two games in one city, three games in the other, then two back where we started.

All of the games begin at 8.07. p.m. Eastern Time in the States so they take place in the early hours of the following morning from a U.K. perspective. The one thing to be mindful of is that we move out of British Summer Time a week earlier than Daylight Time ends in the States, so whilst the start times are the same throughout from an American standpoint, they are one hour earlier for us from Game Five onwards. That does at least mean we get an extra hour in bed to catch up on sleep from Game Four.

Tuesday 21st – Game One. SFG at KCR – 01.07. BST on Wed 22nd. *BT Sport1

Wednesday 22nd – Game Two. SFG at KCR - 01.07. BST on Thurs 23rd. *BT Sport1

Friday 24th – Game Three. KCR at SFG - 01.07. BST on Sat 25th. *BT Sport1

Saturday 25th - Game Four. KCR at SFG - 01.07. BST on Sun 26th. *ESPN

Sunday 26th - Game Five. KCR at SFG - 00.07. GMT on Mon 27th. *BT Sport1

Tuesday 28th - Game Six. SFG at KCR - 00.07. GMT on Wed 29th. *BT Sport1

Wednesday 29th - Game Seven. SFG at KCR - 00.07. GMT on Thurs 30th. *BT Sport1

Division Series done, Championship to come

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MlbPostseason2014The Division Series round of the 2014 postseason was brought to a close on Tuesday.

The San Francisco Giants’ closer Sergio Romo got the Washington Nationals’ Wilson Ramos to ground into an out to finish off a 3-1 series victory for the NL Wild Card winners.

It came a few hours after the St. Louis Cardinals completed their own 3-1 series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The National League Championship Series lineup was therefore set two days after the American League version with both the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals completing swift sweeps over the Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels respectively.

As there were a potential 20 games to enjoy from the four best-of-five series, seeing it all wrapped up within just 14 was a tad disappointing. It’s the quickest that the division series round has been completed since the 13 games of 2009 and is the first time since then that there wasn’t at least one series that went the distance.

We were definitely spoiled by the four 3-2 thrillers in 2012.

Looking through the Division Series match-ups of recent years was a reminder that this year’s NLCS has a very familiar feel to it.

The Cardinals and Giants faced each other at the same stage in 2012 as San Francisco prevailed 4-3 on their way to a second World Series in three years. St. Louis had won the Fall Classic the previous year and have now made it to four consecutive NLCS appearances. Both teams know what it’s like to play in these pressure games and that could make it all the more difficult to split them.

Meanwhile it couldn’t be more different in the ALCS. Never mind a Championship Series, the Royals hadn’t been anywhere near a playoff game since 1985 before making their Wild Card bow a week ago. The Orioles were dumped out of the Division Series by the Yankees two years ago, but had last made the playoffs before that in1997.

In short, there’s is a series full of players on the big stage either for the first time or only the second. Based on the quick work the two teams made of their Division Series opponents, they are revelling in their new-found status.

So far the only Championship Series start times confirmed are from Friday and Saturday, as follows in BST:

Friday 10 October
01.07. KC at BAL (early hours of Saturday for us) *ESPN

Saturday 11 October
21.07. KC at BAL *BT Sport 2
01.07. SFG at STL *ESPN

At this stage of the postseason, there really is little to choose between the teams so predicting the winners is a guessing game. I had Baltimore and Washington as my World Series picks heading into Division Series, so I’ll stick with Baltimore and then San Francisco as the team who knocked out the Nationals.

Let’s hope the Championship Series makes up for the brief Division stage with two contests going either six or the full seven games.

A Friday filled with Division Series drama

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MlbPostseason2014We are only a few days into the 2014 postseason, but it’s safe to say that when we look back over the offseason Friday’s bonanza of baseball will turn out to be one of the most memorable days from it.

It was the only day on the Division Series schedule in which we were guaranteed games from all four series – Monday could provide that too if the two American League series both go to a fourth game – and all four served up the sort of drama and excitement that playoff baseball is all about.

The MLB.com Game Recap videos combined provide a great way to spend 15 minutes re-living the action from the four Friday contests.

Detroit and Baltimore got the day underway with Game 2 of their series starting at 17.07 BST. The Orioles staged an incredible comeback to turn around a 5-1 deficit and to put themselves in the best possible position of a 2-0 series lead heading to Detroit.

The loss for Detroit highlighted the flaws of a team containing several outstanding players, yet having weak links in other parts of their roster despite it being put together at considerable expense. Although a home win for the Tigers in Game Three will put a completely different spin on the series, you would expect the Orioles to complete the job based on their regular season performance and the first two games of the series.

San Francisco and Washington went next and the Giants showed the World Series-winning magic of 2010 and 2012 may still be with them by grabbing the advantage by winning Game One.

One big change from those two title triumphs and this year is the introduction of the Video review challenge system. We saw the huge benefits of that in the third inning when the Giants’ Travis Ishikawa was called out on a close force-out play at second base only for the review process to prove that he was safe.

Ishikawa came around to score the opening run of the game two batters later and that’s exactly why replay is so important; getting potentially crucial calls right rather than relying on the hoary old tosh of ‘luck evening itself out’. Just as importantly, the umpire was able to come out of the game knowing that even though his professional pride may have taken a very slight dent by getting a tricky call wrong, the mistake didn’t cost the Giants and he didn’t have to deal with a bunch of reporters and irate fans.

Two other things stood out from the game for me. Firstly, there was the monumentally important bases-loaded strikeout by Hunter Strickland to end a Nationals threat in the sixth inning. Save-compiling closers apart, relief pitchers tend to fly under the radar until the playoffs come along. Strickland’s 100MPH punch-out pitch will certainly have gained him some attention last night.  Secondly, the Bryce Harper hype is something I’ve written about before, but even the naysayers have to admit that he has enormous talent. Mark down his gargantuan moonshot in the seventh inning – off Strickland, such is the hero/zero highwire act that relievers walk – as his first real playoff highlight.

Then came the ding-dong drama of the series opener between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Cards beat Clayton Kershaw in the playoffs yet again and whilst their fans will be desperate to take the next two games in as trouble-free a manner as possible, the rest of us can only look at all that happened in Game One and ask for four more of those, please.

It was a game that had everything, not least the sort of amped-up aggro that looks certain to turn the rest of the series into a passion-filled tussle that may well spill over from a figurative fight to a literal one.

In every best-of-five-game series, the home team that has lost Game One is desperate to win the next game rather than head to their opponent’s backyard in an 0-2 hole, yet it must carry even more weight here. The facts are simple: the Dodgers somehow lost after knocking out the Cardinals’ ace Adam Wainwright and handing a 6-1 lead to Kershaw to protect. If ever a team needed a win to wipe away the memories of yesterday with a win today, it’s these Dodgers.

A small crumb of comfort for the Dodgers is that they’re not yet in as big a hole as their cross-town rivals, the Los Angeles Angels.

After two games at home, they’ve now suffered two extra inning defeats to Kansas City as the completely spurious but always-attractive feeling of a ‘team of destiny’ really starts to take hold around the Royals.

Kauffman Stadium is going to be absolutely electric on Sunday night as Kansas City hosts their first postseason game since 1985. The Angels didn’t win 98 regular season games by chance and so a comeback cannot be counted out, yet they are going to need C.J. Wilson to find a quality start from somewhere after an inconsistent patch of form. Despite his nickname, ‘Big Game’ James Shields hasn’t been particularly impressive so far in his playoff appearances. Sunday night would be the perfect time for the Royals’ starting pitcher to live up to his billing.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: The race is on

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WHGB11After close to thirty years spent languishing between false hope and no hope, fans of the Kansas City Royals have entered this September in an unfamiliar competitive position.

The unfamiliar encourages a sense of excitement but also trepidation.

However much Royals are trying to outwardly enjoy this season, inwardly there is bound to be a sense of foreboding. Good things don’t happen to their team. This isn’t really happening. It’s all about to come crushing down.

Watching Danny Duffy leave the mound at Yankee Stadium on Saturday after throwing a solitary pitch was the moment when those fears were realised.

Look beyond the largely irrelevant 8-11 win-loss record and you’ll see that Duffy has been excellent for Kansas City this season. It’s not just been the way Duffy has pitched but also that he’s finally broken through after years of promise since he was drafted back in the 2007 amateur draft.

He was one of a crop of young players that were hailed as the answer to the Royals’ many years in the doldrums and, up until now, like most of the rest he had failed to live up to the billing. This season, in deed and in the sense of hope, Duffy has personified the way that things have finally turned around for Kansas City.

Seeing him grimace in discomfort and exit early with a sore shoulder was the last thing the Royals needed, again both in terms of actual impact (losing him for the game and potentially the foreseeable future) and the demoralising effect this blow could have on the team.

Kansas City went on to lose that game against the Yankees 6-2 to compound their misery and yet there was a chink of light from Detroit where the Tigers failed to capitalise. Despite having their recently-acquired ace David Price on the mound – an addition thought at the time to hammer another nail into the Royals’ coffin – Detroit lost 5-4 to the surging San Francisco Giants, keeping Kansas City two games ahead at the top of the AL Central.

Duffy’s condition will be assessed further over the next few days to determine whether it was a mere blip or something that could see him miss extended time, potentially the rest of the season. If he is out for the year then he’ll be a big loss, yet maybe it won’t be a sign of things inevitably going wrong for the Royals and instead will show that this is destined to be the year playoff baseball returns to Kansas City, regardless of the obstacles that come their way.

The Royals’ emergence in the AL Central, where many – including myself – predicted another season of Detroit domination, is one of many great stories building to a crescendo this month.

Baltimore look set to win the AL East division for the first time since 1997, whilst in the AL Wild Card race the Seattle Mariners may just turn their offseason splurge on Robinson Cano into a first playoff appearance since 2001.

The Mariners are even catching up the Oakland A’s who looked certainties for a third consecutive AL West title before a startling collapse over the last month that has seen a rampant LA Angels team fly past to gain not only a lead in the division but the best win-loss record in the Majors.

The A’s were able to snatch a walk-off win on Saturday against the Houston Astros, turning around a 3-1 deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning, and that’s the sort of win that could spark an all-important change in fortune as we head into the last few weeks of the season. That’s what this A’s is clinging to, at least.

In the National League it’s been the Milwaukee Brewers playing the role of the A’s, plummeting from an unexpected stay at the top of the Central and seeing the St. Louis Cardinals resuming normal service at the summit. The Brew Crew have won only three of their past 16 games and now need to forget about what has gone. They are still firmly in the Wild Card race, a position they would have been delighted with if offered it before the season began, and need to somehow find a way to make that their mindset.

And as the regular season begins to wind down, the Philadelphia Phillies reminded us all on Monday that there’s something to play for every time you take the field. Their combined no-hitter was a rare enjoyable moment in what has been yet another poor season for a team that enjoyed so much success between 2007 and 2011.

The Texas Rangers are another team to quickly hit hard times after a recent run of excellent seasons. They were the first time to be eliminated from playoff contention this season and questions were already being asked about manager Ron Washington’s future before he stepped down for personal reasons on Friday. Wash had his game-management called into question at times, but there’s no doubt he was a manager that his players fought for and it’s one of the harsh realities of sport at the highest level that his time in charge will be remembered for the two World Series championships his time narrowly missed out on, rather than all of the other regular season success they had.

Offseason so far: NL West

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We complete our round-up of the offseason so far in the National League West division, home of the big-spending L.A. Dodgers.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers pushed past the Yankees last season with the highest payroll in the Majors. Their big spending this offseason has largely been based around keeping hold of their Cy Young-winning ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who earned himself a seven-year, $215m contract extension.

Despite the investment in Kershaw, they still pushed hard to sign Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, only for the Yankees to show they’re still the Yankees and to beat them to the punch on Wednesday.

The Dodgers had already added a pitcher to their starting rotation in the shape of Dan Haren who will take over the spot vacated by Ricky Nolasco after he left as a free agent to join the Twins. In the infield, Mark Ellis and Nick Punto have moved on and been replaced by Cuban free agent second baseman Alexander Guerrero.

The pursuit of Tanaka may well have been a case of the Dodgers looking at any opportunity to add a top talent, so they’re not guaranteed to jump back into the market to spend some of that money on someone else. Don’t rule it out completely though.

Arizona Diamondbacks

The D-Backs were another finalist in the Tanaka talks and they are much more likely to get straight back out there to try and add a starting pitcher. They have some good pitchers on the staff, yet it’s certainly an area that they would want to strengthen if they are to make a strong challenge for a Wild Card, let alone keeping up with the Dodgers.

Their main moves so far this offseason have concentrated on the trade market. Mark Trumbo was acquired from the Angels and will take over in left field and Addison Reed was obtained from the White Sox to take on the closer role, with Heath Bell being traded away to the Rays.

San Francisco Giants

The Giants recent form has been to win a World Series, then have a disappointing season, then win a World Series and then, last year, have a disappointing season. Giants fans will be quite happy to have gone through the sub-.500 season of 2013 if that trend continues, although they haven’t made too many significant changes to the roster to bring that about.

Tim Hudson has been added to the starting rotation on a two-year, $23m contract which could turn out to be one of the best value deals of the offseason. ‘Best value’ isn’t something you’d associate with the seven-year, $126m contract the Giants signed with Barry Zito back in December 2006, but mercifully that has now come to an end and Zito’s still looking to catch on with a new team.

They’ll hope for better luck with their decision to keep hold of Tim Lincecum. The fan favourite has been patchy in recent seasons and it looked like his time with the Giants might be up, but they were able to come to an agreement on a two-year, $35m contract.

San Diego Padres

The Padres may have made one of the better one-year deals of the offseason in tempting Josh Johnson to Petco Park. The pitcher had another injury-hit season in 2013, his one year with the Blue Jays before becoming a free agent, and that made it likely he’d be available on a short-term deal. Johnson gets a chance to get his career back on track in a good pitcher’s ballpark, whilst the Padres could get an impressive return on an $8m investment.

San Diego have also added Joaquin Benoit on a two-year deal to serve as set-up man for closer Huston Street. He’ll take over from Luke Gregerson who was traded to the A’s for outfielder Seth Smith.

Colorado Rockies

The Rockies have been quite busy over the offseason, although they haven’t looked like they’ve had much of a plan in recent years to make their fans feel confident that the team is going in a defined direction.

Their pitching additions include Franklin Morales and Brett Anderson slotting into the rotation, whilst LaTroy Hawkins and Boone Logan will join the bullpen. Dexter Fowler has been traded to the Astros, with Drew Stubbs being acquired from the Indians to take his place in the outfield mix. The biggest change will be at first base as Todd Helton decided to retire after playing his entire 17-year career with the team. Justin Morneau will take his place on the roster.

Rounding the Bases: Deals being made

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One week ago I stated that we may be waiting a few weeks before the MLB Hot Stove started to heat up and teams began making significant roster additions.

It turned out that this past week was in fact quite a busy one, with several free agent signings being completed and one major trade.

Fielder and Kinsler swap teams

At breakfast time on Thursday morning I was tucking into a bowl of porridge and enjoying watching the highlights of Day One of the first Ashes Test on Sky Sports News (enjoy the good times while they last, comes to mind) when I noticed that an MLB news item was about to scroll across the bottom of the screen. I expected it to be news of a minor free agent signing, but instead was taken aback to read that the Texas Rangers had swung a trade to acquire first baseman Prince Fielder from the Detroit Tigers for second baseman Ian Kinsler.

Just two years ago, the Tigers caused a major shock by coming out of nowhere and signing Fielder to a nine-year, $214m contract. Despite having a disappointing 2013 season, Fielder appeared to be set to stay in Detroit for years to come and yet all of a sudden the long-term commitment between player and team had been broken.

At first glance it looks to be a trade that should benefit both teams handsomely, not just in the player each team has required but the knock-on effects for their respective rosters.

The Tigers can now move Miguel Cabrera over to first base, where his limited fielding skills are better suited, and create an opening for their best prospect, third baseman Nick Castellanos. Kinsler will add a combination of some power and speed to the lineup and moving the majority of Fielder’s hefty contract (the Tigers have given the Rangers $30m as part of the deal to cover some of the remaining $168m) gives them some financial flexibility potentially to add another player or two or to add to the pot for a contract extension for Max Scherzer and, down the line, Miguel Cabrera.

As for the Rangers, they were desperate to make a big move after suffering late season heartbreak in the last two seasons. Acquiring a premium slugger is a statement of intent and moving to the homer-friendly confines of Rangers Ballpark should suit Fielder down to the ground. Moving Kinsler also frees up some space for the Rangers to let top prospect Jurickson Profar settle in at second base.

Angels and Cardinals

The Rangers’ AL West rivals the Los Angeles Angels also completed a trade this week, acquiring third baseman David Freese from the St. Louis Cardinals for centre fielder Peter Bourjos, with a couple of young prospects thrown into the deal too.

Freese will forever be a hometown hero in St. Louis for his 2011 World Series heroics, yet it looks like a good time for him to move on to a new challenge with the Angels. The Cardinals will probably move their infield players around so that Matt Carpenter shifts over to third base and Kolten Wong moves into second base full-time, potentially with former Detroit Tiger Jhonny Peralta joining the team as their new shortstop if the rumours from Saturday night are accurate. Bourjos, if he can stay fit and on the field, will be a better option in centrefield than the disappointing John Jay for the Cards, whilst Mike Trout will no longer be moved aside to the Angels’ left field and will instead be the number one centre fielder.

Pitchers getting paid

David Freese should be a good addition for the Angels, but their most pressing need over the offseason is to bolster their pitching corps. Another opening in the rotation has been created by Jason Vargas departing as a free agent as he agreed a four-year, $32m contract with the Kansas City Royals.

The signing was met by a fairly lukewarm response. In part this was because of the Royals rumours swirling in the hour before it was announced:

A “major-baseball announcement” immediately created visions for some of Carlos Beltran donning the ‘KC’ cap once again, so when the reality was a player you can neatly file under the words ‘solid’ and ‘dependable’ there was bound to be some disappointment.

Giving a four-year contract to a less-than-spectacular player also raised a few eyebrows, yet $8m per year for a good starting pitcher looks like being a good deal for the Royals on the current pitching market.

The San Francisco Giants spent $23m this week to sign 38-year old Tim Hudson on a two-year contract (£137k per week). Hudson’s 2013 season was ended by a horrible freak accident when the Mets’ Eric Young accidentally landed on the pitcher’s right ankle as he was covering first base. The Giants are confident that Hudson will come back from his fractured ankle as good as new and if he does then he should help the team in their attempt to get back to the postseason and to win a third World Series in five years.

Elsewhere in the NL West, the San Diego Padres have also signed a pitcher whose 2013 was impacted by injury. Josh Johnson has spent most of his career so far battling the tag of being an ace when not injured. Recently he’s spent more time injured than being an ace but the Padres have little to lose in signing him to a one-year contract worth $8m and, with Petco Park being a great place for a pitcher to ply his trade, it’s also a good setting for Johnson to have a good year and then earn a more lucrative contract in a year’s time.

Another veteran for the Phillies

The Philadelphia Phillies played at the Veterans Stadium for 33 seasons before moving to Citizens Bank Park in 2004. The team’s General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr has done a good job in recent years of honouring their old home by building rosters dominated by veterans and, just a week after signing 36-year-old Marlon Byrd to a two-year contract, he added another this week with the re-signing of catcher Carlos Ruiz.

Ruiz has spent his whole Major League career with the Phillies and even when his contract ran out at the end of the 2013 season, there always seemed a very good chance that he would carry on with the club.

Amaro’s decision to hand the 35-year-old a three-year contract worth a guaranteed $26m (annual salaries of $8.5m – approximately £101k per week – with a $500k 2017 buyout fee) made sure of that and immediately led to the GM’s thought processes (or more precisely lack of) being questioned.

Giving a three-year contract to a 35-year-old catcher isn’t ideal, but Ruiz is a good all-round player, not spectacular at anything but solid enough at the plate and behind it, at a position where merely being good carries plenty of value. Additionally the risk involved is mitigated slightly by the Phillies’ familiarity with him, from how he fits into the group as a personality to a detailed knowledge of his fitness.

And finally …

The Phillies kept hold of their catcher, but it looks like the Atlanta Braves have lost theirs. Brian McCann has been with the Braves for his entire professional career and his nine-season Major League run with the team always looked likely to come to an end this offseason when he became a free agent. Sure enough, late on Saturday night it was being reported that he has agreed a five-year, $85m contract (just over £200k per week) with the New York Yankees.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Seasons made by trades

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The MLB regular season picks up momentum in July.

Teams pass the half-way mark in regular season games played, inching us closer to the crunch time in the season.  The All-Star break arrives to provide a momentary breather as we all get ready for the second half. The non-waiver trade deadline looms large at the end of the month.

Last year’s deadline carried an extra subplot as many pondered whether the increase in postseason spots, from eight to ten, would affect the trade market.

Theoretically more teams would be in with a shout of making it to the playoffs, but the consequences of that needed to be discovered.

Whilst more teams might be keen to complete a trade that could be a difference-maker, potentially there would be fewer teams with no realistic chance of playing in October and therefore willing to part with a key player.

The trade deadline in 2012 didn’t provide any conclusive answers, although the general impression was that the market was broadly the same as in previous years. Most teams were out there searching to find a player or two who could improve them and that will be the same this year.

What 2012 did show is that it isn’t necessarily the big names that will produce the best returns.

A good example of this can be found in two separate trades completed on 27 July last year: Zack Greinke moving to the Los Angeles Angels and Marco Scutaro moving to the San Francisco Giants

Greinke was the type of ace pitcher that every potential playoff team would love to add down the stretch. He did pitch well for the Angels in his 13 regular season starts (6-2 with a 3.53 ERA), but it wasn’t enough to get them into the playoffs, let alone help them to the World Series, and Greinke then signed with Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent over the offseason.

Even though they had acquired an excellent pitcher, the Angels didn’t get the overall benefit they hoped for. Furthermore, those two months from Greinke will look very expensive if Jean Segura, the young shortstop the Angels traded to the Milwaukee Brewers to sign Greinke, carries on the brilliant form he has shown so far this season and develops into one of the better infielders in the Majors in the years ahead.

The Giants’ signing of Marco Scutaro was the polar opposite of the Angels’ signing of Greinke.

Scutaro was a long way down the list of desirable trade targets. His career prior to 2012 could best be described as solid without coming close to being spectacular and his mediocre first half of last season playing home games in the hitter-friendly Coors Field ensured that his trade to the Giants was little more than a ‘by the way’ news item.

No one could have foreseen just how greatly such muted expectations would be exceeded.

The ‘Legend of Scutaro’ will forever be one of the memorable storylines from the 2012 season. His move to San Francisco suddenly turned him into a hitting machine. He put together a batting line of .362/.473/.859 during his 61 regular season games with the Giants and won the NLCS MVP award as he helped the team win their second World Series in three years.

As the trade rumours go into overdrive in the next few weeks, don’t be quick to overlook some of the so-called lesser deals. You never know when one team might just catch lightning in a bottle.

All-Star rosters

The 2013 All-Star rosters were announced on Saturday and there were not too many shocks, unless you were one of the Yankee fans on Twitter who didn’t think the fact that Derek Jeter has been out injured all season should count against his candidacy.

From an A’s fan perspective, having only one player on the AL roster isn’t a fair recognition of the team’s performances over the past twelve months, but there’s nothing to say the rosters have to be ‘fair’.

Individual fans vote for whoever they want to see in the game, players make their selections too based on their own preferences and the managers then have to juggle the requirements of making sure every team is represented and that the roster has enough flexibility so that no other manager has room to complain about the way their players were used during the game.

There is still one place on each roster that is up for grabs in the Final Vote. There won’t be much interest in either ‘race’ although that will be for completely different reasons in the two leagues.

On the American League side you have five relief pitchers who – team bias aside – will not generate any voting enthusiasm whatsoever.

On the National League side you have Yasiel Puig who, judging by the MLB.com promotional campaign, is sure to win in a landslide.