BGB Fantasy League 2018: Week One

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The 2018 fantasy season is under way. Which teams are off to flying starts and which are in extended spring training?

 

Team R HR RBI SB AVG OPS W SV K HLD ERA WHIP Score
Mighty Slugs 41 12 39 6 .241 .778 3 4 68 2 4.99 1.32 1
Norwich No II 53 16 49 5 .258 .844 4 7 104 3 3.20 1.14 11

We begin with the biggest winners of the week, as Norwich got off to a hot start with an 11-1 win against the Slugs. Bryce Harper launched six homers, scoring 10 times and knocking in 12 while batting .357 while Freeman also hit double digits in runs and RBIs.

The decision to pick Corbin is paying dividends too, as the Arizona pitcher won twice, striking out 20 and helping to take ERA and WHIP. Osuna and Rivera combined for seven saves and Hader had two holds. Hoskins stole two bases for the Slugs while batting .440, Miguel Cabrera drove in nine and Donaldson scored nine times.

 

Team R HR RBI SB AVG OPS W SV K HLD ERA WHIP Score
Newcastle Knights 41 14 37 12 .232 .734 5 4 62 0 3.33 1.30 2
Weston-Super-Sox 45 13 51 3 .276 .833 7 5 85 0 2.36 1.00 9

The Sox are second in the standings after defeating the Knights 9-2. Polanco scored eight runs, knocked in 12 and hit .364 while the pitchers impressed. Ohtani won twice, as did deGrom, while Kershaw struck out 19 and Cole helped take ERA and WHIP. Nine different Knights hitters went deep in a matchup full of power, including three from Encarnacion. Trea Turner stole five bases and Pollock swiped three. The Knights also pounced to pick up Greg Holland after he joined St Louis, which could prove to be a very wise addition.

 

Team R HR RBI SB AVG OPS W SV K HLD ERA WHIP Score
Orpington Isotopes 45 12 40 5 .253 .749 5 2 86 2 2.96 1.22 8
Batteries Essential 32 6 17 2 .258 .740 2 6 51 0 2.87 1.02 4

The Isotopes begin 2018 with an 8-4 win against Batteries Essential. Sano and Upton, who knocked in nine runs, each homered three times and scored seven runs while Lindor swiped three bases. Devenski and Lyons had a hold each while Morton won twice and Greinke struck out 14. Cano hit .440 for Batteries Essential and Sale helped take ERA and WHIP. Batteries Essential also have some injured players who haven’t been put on the DL, so are playing short-handed.

 

Team R HR RBI SB AVG OPS W SV K HLD ERA WHIP Score
Durham Riverkings 36 7 32 5 .241 .674 0 7 76 3 4.13 1.13 4
Richie’s RBI’s 53 14 49 3 .257 .795 4 0 76 0 2.81 1.19 7

The RBIs slugged their way to a 7-4 win against the Riverkings. Gregorius scored 10 runs, hit three homers, knocked in 10 and batted .375 for the week. Eaton also scored 10 runs and Gallo launched three homers against the shift. Severino won twice while Clevinger and Price helped take ERA. Inciarte stole two bases for the Riverkings while Boxberger had four saves, Edwards Jr collected a pair of holds and Kluber made the difference in WHIP.

 

Team R HR RBI SB AVG OPS W SV K HLD ERA WHIP Score
Cheshunt Maltsters 26 7 31 4 .242 .717 3 5 77 3 2.48 1.16 5
The Bath Bombers 44 15 46 8 .232 .725 5 2 92 1 5.17 1.42 7

The Bombers picked up a 7-5 win against the Maltsters, with Trout leading the hitters win nine runs, three homers and two steals. Bogaerts knocked in nine runs. Ray won twice and was one of three starters with 17 strikeouts, although Hamels led the staff with 23. Devers helped the Maltsters take average while Kimbrel had three saves, Madson picked up two holds and Bundy helped take ERA and WHIP.

 

Team R HR RBI SB AVG OPS W SV K HLD ERA WHIP Score
Beckenham A&E Dept 42 10 38 4 .262 .801 5 5 69 5 4.46 1.27 5
The Cheddar Chasers 34 10 33 11 .226 .707 5 6 82 0 2.73 1.20 5

Finally, the A&E Dept and Chasers could not be separated, finishing 5-5. Smoak was the star Beckenham batter, scoring eight runs, homering twice, knocking in 10 and batting .351. Bradley notched five holds on an injury-ravaged pitching staff. In fact, Beckenham are living up to their name, with six players currently on the DL. The Chasers had four homers from Dozier and Cain and Dee Gordon stole three bases each. Taillon won twice, striking out 16 and helping to take ERA and WHIP, while Treinen and Brach had two saves each.

Standings

Which means the standings look like this:

Rank Team W-L-T Pct GB Last Week Waiver Moves
1   Norwich No II 11-1-0 .917 – 11-1-0 6 5
2  Weston-Super-Sox 9-2-1 .792 1.5 9-2-1 5 2
3   Orpington Isotopes 8-4-0 .667 3 8-4-0 10 4
4  Richie’s RBI’s 7-4-1 .625 3.5 7-4-1 12 7
5   The Bath Bombers 7-5-0 .583 4 7-5-0 11 1
6  Beckenham A&E Dept 5-5-2 .500 5 5-5-2 9 4
7   The Cheddar Chasers 5-5-2 .500 5 5-5-2 1 –
8  Cheshunt Maltsters 5-7-0 .417 6 5-7-0 3 2
9   Durham Riverkings 4-7-1 .375 6.5 4-7-1 2 3
10  Batteries Essential 4-8-0 .333 7 4-8-0 4 –
11   Newcastle Knights 2-9-1 .208 8.5 2-9-1 8 4
12  Mighty Slugs 1-11-0 .083 10 1-11-0 7 4

 

Week Two match-ups

Norwich v Knights
Sox v Batteries Essential
Isotopes v A&E Dept
RBIs v Slugs
Bombers v Riverkings
Chasers v Maltsters

Remember to make full use of your DL spots and scour the waiver wire for free agents. Alternatively, if you have a need and/or a surplus, you can always talk trade.

MLB This Week

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It’s another good week for watching MLB at a convenient time in the UK.

We’ve got day-games every day this working week.

The Rays-White Sox series will be a good example that even if the teams involved in a game aren’t likely play-off contenders, there will be some good players on show to enjoy, not least Chris Archer taking the mound on Monday.

The Chicago Cubs have three day-games, with two against the Pirates and then a traditional Friday day-game at Wrigley. The latter is the start of a series against the Atlanta Braves and, on the current schedule, will see Yu Darvish starting for the Cubs; however that does come on Friday 13th, so look out for strange goings on there.

All four games from the Tigers-Indians series are pre-midnight starts, although they only dip into that bracket by a bit less than an hour.

It’s worth noting after last week that the Brewers-Cardinals game on Wednesday is only available online via Facebook, albeit that it’s available for free to anyone that has a Facebook account. If you’re not on Facebook, you do at least have the chance to watch it live in the UK on BT Sport.

All times are listed in BST.

Monday 9 April

19:10 Rays at White Sox (Archer (0-0), Gonzalez (0-1))
19:20 Pirates at Cubs (Nova (0-1), Chatwood (0-1)) *BT Sport/ESPN
23:10 Tigers at Indians (Liriano (1-0), Kluber (0-1))

Tuesday 10 April

19:10 Rays at White Sox (Snell (0-1), Fulmer (0-0)) *BT Sport/ESPN
23:10 Tigers at Indians (Boyd (0-1), Tomlin (0-1))

Wednesday 11 April

18:05 Braves at Nationals (McCarthy (2-0), Cole (0-1))
18:10 Astros at Twins (McCullers (1-1), Gibson (1-0))
18:15 Brewers at Cardinals (TBD, Wainwright (0-1)) *BT Sport/ESPN, Facebook Game
19:10 Rays at White Sox (TBD, Shields (1-0))
19:15 Mariners at Royals (Paxton (0-1), Duffy (0-2))
20:10 Padres at Rockies (Perdomo (1-1), Marquez (0-1))
20:45 D-backs at Giants (Ray (2-0), TBD)
23:10 Tigers at Indians (Zimmermann (0-0), Carrasco (2-0))

Thursday 12 April

19:20 Pirates at Cubs (Williams (2-0), Hendricks (0-0))
23:10 Tigers at Indians (Fulmer (1-1), Bauer (0-1)) *MLB.com Free Game
23:40 Cardinals at Reds (TBD, Romano (0-1))

Friday 13 April

19:20 Braves at Cubs (TBD, Darvish (0-0)) *BT Sport/ESPN
23:40 Cardinals at Reds (TBD, TBD)

All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription, other than the Facebook live game. TV coverage of MLB in the UK 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: Boos, Cheers and Chocolate Bars

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The first full week of the MLB season is now in the books and it’s starting to feel like we’re getting into the swing of it.

Every team has at least one win, albeit still only one win for the Tampa Bay Rays heading into Sunday’s games, whilst every team has at least one loss, albeit still only one loss in the case of the Boston Red Sox (linked to the Rays’ situation) and the New York Mets.

Among the expected favourites, the LA Dodgers have had the slowest start in losing six of their first eight games, with the Cleveland Indians going 3-5 through their first eight games.

But it is still only eight games.

We have to wait for what seems like an eternity for the baseball season to start again and that means it’s difficult to avoid the temptation to draw conclusions from what we’ve seen. Whether good or bad, it’s going to take a couple of months to really get a feel on how teams and players are shaping up this season.

Boos Turn To Cheers

That’s being rational about it, though. It’s easy for fans to lose perspective in the early days of the season, forgetting that a 162 game regular season brings with it plenty of ups and downs.

Giancarlo Stanton got his first taste of the difference between playing in Miami and playing in New York when he was booed in the Bronx on Tuesday for striking out five times. He gave the perfect response the following day by hitting a home run.

Similarly new Phillies manager Gabe Kapler had a rough first few days on the job with his unconventional bullpen management coming under all sorts of scrutiny. Some fans booed him at their Citizens Bank Park home opener on Thursday, partly in jest (I think), but wins like the one they had on Saturday (20-1 over Miami) will soon change that.

The simple rule is that some fan bases are quicker to boo than others and the best way to respond is to give them something to cheer about.

#BonusBreakfastBaseball

In last week’s column I referenced the 17-inning slog between the Cubs and Marlins and that the push for extra inning rules in the Majors may gain momentum over the next ten years.

What I neglected to mention is that for us across the pond there is a perk attached to these long games, especially those on the west coast.

It was about six o’clock on Tuesday morning when I looked at the scores and saw that the game at Chase Field between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks was still in progress. Two hours later and it was still going on. The game lasted 15 innings and took a total of 5 hours 46 minutes to complete, finally being won by Arizona at around 8.25 BST.

That was good fun for neutrals, great fun for D-Backs and quite significantly less fun for Dodgers fans, particularly any that had started watching from first pitch (2.40 am here) and lived through a second Kenley Jansen blow-up early this season.  Again, ‘it’s early’ …

Facebook Freebie that may feel like a blackout

As for watching baseball, a new venture for MLB began on Wednesday when Facebook provided an exclusive broadcast of the day-game between the Phillies and Mets.

Games have been shown live on various platforms before, yet the difference in this case is the worldwide online exclusive part. MLB.TV simply directed you on to the Facebook page where you had to log in to see the game.

It should be said that the Facebook deal isn’t putting anything behind another paywall and MLB will focus on the fact that it makes another weekly MLB live game free to watch.  The issue of course is that you have to sign up to Facebook to watch it and whilst for many people that will be a non-issue, it was coincidental that the Phillies-Mets game was going on precisely when Facebook announced that the number of people affected by the Cambridge Analytica saga totalled a staggering 83 million.

In the UK, we’ve been used to enjoying MLB.TV since its inception without having to worry about any local blackouts that affect subscribers in North America. The Facebook deal is only for one game per week, so it’s not a significant number of games affected over the season, but it is going to be one day-game per week, which has an increased impact on us due to those being the most convenient games to watch live in the British evening.

MLB.TV subscribers are left in the situation of either having to sign up to Facebook – which for many reasons increasing numbers want to avoid – to watch games that they considered they had paid for or miss out. Again, it’s only one game per week, but the concern would be that it sets a precedent that will gradually see more deals being signed that reduce the live action available on MLB.TV.

Twitter are also streaming one game per week live for free again this year; however these are only available in North America so not something we can use to help promote the game in this country.

The Chocolate bars are on Charlie

It’s been a good week for Charlie Blackmon. He signed a new six-year contract with the Colorado Rockies that guarantees him at least $108m.

It’s an interesting deal as it has to be seen in the context of this past off-season’s Free Agent market, with Blackmon’s original contract set to expire at the end of this season. He has decided to work out the best deal he could get with the Rockies rather than test the market and you have to say that seems a wise decision.

Blackmon has been a relatively late bloomer. Whilst his performances over the past few seasons have been excellent, he turns 32 years old in July and so, based on what we’ve just seen, you could imagine teams being wary about offering a contract for more than three years to him, even though his performances would suggest he deserved a bigger investment.

The Rockies don’t have a great track record when it comes to making big signings, from last year’s Ian Desmond deal (that doesn’t make any more sense one year) to the infamous Mike Hampton disaster of December 2000.

In the case of Blackmon, they have been prepared to push the boat out to tempt him away from free agency due to their close knowledge of the player. Come back in six years’ time to see whether it proved to be a wise decision or not.

The Sunday Smasher

The selection here should probably be Shohei Ohtani’s second MLB start on the mound, given how well his debut went and his headline-grabbing, home run hitting we’ve seen this week.

However, I picked his start last week and, as with that one, he’s going to be facing my Oakland A’s so I’ll leave that one alone in the hope that his performance is less eye-catching today.

Instead, I’m going to pick the Marlins-Phillies game that begins at 18.35 BST and is available to watch or listen to via MLB.TV. They may not be teams that neutrals would immediately pick, but I like to make sure I catch a bit of every team early in the season and the reason to choose this one is that it will be Jake Arrieta’s debut for the Phillies.

It looks a very favourable match-up for Arrieta – other than the fear for Phillies fans that they used up all their hits and runs yesterday – and he could do something special.

British Baseball Beat: Ready for the 2018 season

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MLB had their Opening Day last Thursday.  For the top-tier of British baseball, that day will come this Sunday at Farnham Park (as always in Britain, weather permitting).

The London Mets and Southampton Mustangs have been the class acts of the National Baseball League over the past few years, maintaining a stranglehold on the National Baseball Championship final for the past three seasons.

The Mets won the final in 2017 to take their team tally to four and to equal the highest number of national championships won by a team in British baseball history.

In 2018 they will attempt to become the all-time leaders with five national championships and you would have to rank them as the favourites to win the title again this year and to complete that historic achievement.

The Mustangs will be intent on scuppering that story and will have their first chance to put a marker down on Opening Day when they face the Mets in a double-header at Farnham Park near Slough.  First pitch for the opener is set for 11.30.

Azcuy to the Flamingos

Mister-Baseball broke the news back in January that Maikel Azcuy, the modern era home run career record holder in British Baseball, will be leaving the National Baseball League in 2018 and joining the Berlin Flamingos in the German Baseball-Bundesliga.

Azcuy has played in 12 seasons in the NBL, starting with the Croydon Pirates before enjoying success with the Southern/Harlow Nationals, Essex Arrows, Herts Falcons and latterly with the Southampton Mustangs.  Stats from his NBL career can be found on the Project COBB website.

The Flamingo’s website includes a news story about the signing too, including a photo of Maikel in his new uniform. His comments on the move, according to Google translate at least …

“With the change to the Berlin Flamingos I say the 1st League in the UK after 12 years, Good bye ‘. I am very excited and would like to support the flamingos in their great success story. They are the only club in eastern Germany playing in the first Bundesliga, and are currently building something great in the German capital. I have been training with the team for a few weeks and have been able to get a very good impression of the players and the club management. The boys are all highly motivated and full of energy. I would like to support the flamingos with all my know-how in order to master the league season goal preservation in the 1. Bundesliga. Baseball always happens to me at the highest level – preferably every day. It’s an honor to give the flamingos 100 percent for our common goal, “said Maikel Azcuy.

The Flamingos came through the play-offs in 2017 to earn promotion to the Bundesliga 1 and clearly the hope is that Maikel and other new recruits can work with the existing players to retain their place in the top-tier of German league baseball.

It looks like a wonderful opportunity for Azcuy and whilst it’s always a shame to see good players leave the NBL, at the same time it’s great to see British players furthering their baseball careers in other European leagues.  The Flamingos will have a few more British fans following their progress in 2018.

Birmingham Bandits join the NBL

Since the turn of the millenium the top-tier of British baseball has had a strong southern England flavour. Following Menwith Hill capturing three titles in four years between 1995 and 1998, all of the national champions have come from greater London, Essex and the south coast.

A Midlands threat to that dominance has now arrived in the form of the Birmingham Bandits. They last competed in the top-tier back in 1998 and having dominated at Double-A last year (a 22-0 regular season) their application to join the NBL was accepted by the BBF over the off-season.

The BBF news article about the move highlighted the importance of getting top-tier baseball into the UK’s second largest city and the hopes of widening the reach and appeal of the NBL. It will be something of a leap for Birmingham this year, but their successes of recent seasons show that there is a lot of potential at the club and hopefully they will be able to grow even more over the next few years in attracting more players and onlookers.

The club will also be fielding the Birmingham Outlaws in Single-A this year to give newcomers and less-experienced players that chance to develop their baseball skills.

Six-team top-tier

London Mets, Southampton Mustangs and Birmingham will be joined by hold-overs the Essex Arrows, Herts Falcons and London Capitals for a six-team top-tier this year.  The Arrows have started the year off in a positive way by winning the NBL division of the Herts Spring League.

Last year’s wooden spoon winners the Brighton Jets will take that team name to Single-A for 2018, with the club also fielding the Brighton Brewers in Double-A.

Up to Double-A

There will be 48 teams competing across four levels of play in the BBF leagues this year. Among them, three teams will be making the step up from Single-A to Double-A.

Norwich Iceni had the perfect debut BBF season last year in going unbeaten and capturing the Single-A title at their first attempt. They’ll be looking for back-to-back titles as they move up to Double-A South, being joined there by Bracknell Inferno.

Cambridge will also take a team up to Double-A, with the Monarchs going to AA-Central and the Royals staying in Single-A.  The Monarchs will be joined in the AA-Central by Bristol Badgers who are returning to the BBF fold having won the South West Baseball League title last year. Bristol will maintain a presence in the SWBL with their Bristol Bats team.

South West Baseball League

On the independent scene, the SWBL will welcome the Weston Jets to their league for the first time this year.

The SWBL will be competed by seven teams this year:

  • Bristol Bats
  • Taunton Muskets
  • Exeter Spitfires
  • Newton Brewers
  • Plymouth Mariners
  • St Austell Claycutters
  • Weston Jets

Their league will get going on 22 April.

Northern Baseball League

The independent Northern League will consist of 13 teams this year, including the newly-merged Robots of Doom outfit that brings together the former Bolton team and Halton Jaguars.

  • Cartmel Valley Lions
  • County Durham Spartans
  • Harrogate Tigers
  • Hull Scorpions
  • (Hull) Scorpions 2
  • Liverpool Trojans
  • Liverpool Twojans
  • Manchester A’s
  • Manchester Torrent
  • Nottingham Rebels
  • Robots of Doom
  • Sheffield Bladerunners
  • Sheffield Bruins

Their season gets underway this Sunday with five double-headers. The Liverpool Trojans were the odd team out on the original fixture list and the games between Torrent and Bruins have had to be postponed due to the condition of the former’s field following recent weather.

Scotland League already started

They’re not hanging around in Scotland though as their league began last Sunday with an Edinburgh clash between the Giants and Diamond Devils.

It will be a six-team league this year:

  • Edinburgh Cannons
  • Edinburgh Diamond Devils
  • Edinburgh Giants
  • Glasgow Comets
  • Glasgow Galaxy
  • Granite City Oilers.

The Oilers in Aberdeen lodged an early contender for photo of the season with this view of their field.

Thank You For The A’s: A Frustrating Opening Series

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Having won on Opening Day in walk-off fashion, for the Oakland A’s to lose the four-game series 3-1 to the LA Angels was a big disappointment.

It’s only four games, nothing is decided and we shouldn’t be quick to draw too many conclusions; however even a ‘Desmond’ 2-2 series split would have felt a lot better.

It was a good series from a UK point of view in that three of the four games were 21:05 BST starts so we could get the season off to a flyer by catching the team live at a relatively convenient time.

The only night-game came on Friday and that meant I missed Sean Manaea’s excellent performance. He quickly became one of my favourites soon after his A’s debut in 2016 and whilst his overall numbers in 2017 were good rather than great, that was predominantly due to a rough spell in and around August.  Although I don’t see him becoming an ace, he’s got more potential than your average MLB fan would realise and his first start of 2018 bodes well for him having a breakthrough year.

What didn’t bode well was the general sloppiness in the field and also occasionally on the basepads.

Use what fielding metrics you like, none of them made for pleasant reading for A’s fans last year. Matt Chapman proved again in this series that he can make a big difference with that all on his own, yet overall there were too many moments when extra bases, or even extra outs, were handed to the Angels. You can’t afford to do that against good teams and expect to get away with it.

Halos hype

I’m not sure we learnt all that much new about the Angels; they don’t look like world-beaters yet should be a solid enough outfit and in play for the second Wild Card.

Zack Cozart looks a good signing for them especially as he gives them flexibilty to cover for other players if needed, as has happened with Ian Kinsler lasting all of one start before knackering himself. It’s not exactly the same situation, but you can draw some parallels with the A’s putting Khris Davis in left field to cover for Matt Joyce’s ankle soreness as an example of how things can go wrong when shifting players around to cover for injuries.

Shohei Ohtani’s debut got a huge amount of fanfare yesterday and, Chapman’s three-run jack aside, his performance showed why as his pitching arsenal looks formidable. It’s worth remembering that the A’s hitters hadn’t seen him before and that, whilst it was his MLB debut, this isn’t your typical rookie as he is an experienced professional pitcher.

The A’s should face Ohtani again in their three-game series with the Angels over the coming weekend, probably on Saturday, so it will be interesting to see how they get on having faced him once and with the opportunity to review footage of him from his first start.

Coming up

The A’s welcome the Texas Rangers into Oakland for four games before the next Angels series. The final game on Thursday is a 20:35 BST start, with the others all being in the early hours. Their Game One starter tonight is Bartolo Colon, so that’s got to be a good opportunity to get back to winning ways.

And Another Thing

It was great to watch A’s baseball again with Glen Kuiper and Ray Fosse and first impressions of Dallas Braden being added to the NBC Sports California announcing crew were very positive.

His hiring started off on a bad note with Mark Mulder, who was excellent in his work replacing Fosse for some games last season, being messed around and not brought back (that’s how it looked from the outside at least), but you can understand it more in some ways now as the role Braden is playing is different to that of your usual announcer.  He’s down at field level chipping in with thoughts and that worked really well in this opening series.

Braden is a character and adds some humour to procedings, but he knows when to reign it in and adds real insight into the game with his comments. Hopefully the recently-acquired sun shade will save him from getting burned to a crisp and he will continue to add something extra to the coverage over the course of the season.

MLB This Week: The first full week of the 2018 MLB season

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The first full week of the 2018 MLB season offers up a whole host of day-games that are perfect for us to watch during the British evening.

There are 27 games scheduled to start before midnight UK time this working week, including today’s ‘glorious’ Bank Holiday Monday.

Heading into the week there are four teams still searching for the first victory. The Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres know that their first W is just around the corner, but they would like to get it sooner rather than later.  The Royals and Tigers know that one of them will definitely get that monkey off their back today as they meet at Comerica Park.

There are some good teams on show in the early games on BT Sport this week, although unfortunately neither of the two 9 o’clock games on Friday are being broadcast. Tuesday’s game should see Chris Sale taking the mound at Marlins Ballpark for the Red Sox in an early interleague series for Boston (also available to watch for free on MLB.com), whilst Thursday should be an excellent game from Nationals Ballpark as Stephen Strasburg is in line to face Jacob deGrom and the Mets.

There is also a good group MLB.com Free Games in the early slots, not least on Wednesday when Dylan Bundy and Dallas Keuchel are the probable pitchers for the Orioles-Astros game.

All times are in BST.

Monday 2 April

18:05 Twins at Pirates (Lynn (0-0), Taillon (0-0))
18:05 Rays at Yankees (Pruitt (1-0), Montgomery (0-0)) *BT Sport/ESPN
18:10 Royals at Tigers (Hammel (0-0), Liriano (0-0))
19:10 Cardinals at Brewers (Mikolas (0-0), Davies (0-0))
21:10 Cubs at Reds (Chatwood (0-0), Mahle (0-0)) *MLB.com Free Game

Tuesday 3 April

18:10 Royals at Tigers (Junis (0-0), Boyd (0-0))
21:35 Mariners at Giants (Gonzales (0-0), Blach (1-0))
23:10 Red Sox at Marlins (Sale (0-0), Urena (0-1)) *MLB.com Free Game, BT Sport/ESPN
23:40 Cubs at Reds (Lester (0-0), Reed (0-0))

Wednesday 4 April

17:10 Nationals at Braves (Scherzer (1-0), TBD)
18:05 Rays at Yankees (Archer (0-0), Severino (1-0))
18:10 Royals at Tigers (Duffy (0-1), Norris (0-0))
18:10 Phillies at Mets (Pivetta (0-0), Syndergaard (1-0))
19:10 Orioles at Astros (Bundy (0-0), Keuchel (0-1)) *MLB.com Free Game
20:40 Dodgers at D-backs (Wood (0-0), Corbin (1-0)) *BT Sport1
21:07 Indians at Angels (Kluber (0-1), Skaggs (1-0))
23:05 Twins at Pirates (Odorizzi (0-0), Nova (0-0))

Thursday 5 April

18:05 Mets at Nationals (deGrom (1-0), Strasburg (1-0)) *BT Sport/ESPN
19:05 Rays at Red Sox (TBD, Price (1-0))
20:05 Marlins at Phillies (Smith (0-0), TBD)
20:35 Rangers at Athletics (Perez (0-0), Mengden (0-1))
20:40 Rockies at Padres (Anderson (0-0), Lucchesi (0-0))
21:10 Tigers at White Sox (Zimmermann (0-0), Shields (1-0)) *MLB.com Free Game
21:10 Mariners at Twins (Paxton (0-1), Gibson (1-0))
23:35 Orioles at Yankees (TBD, TBD)

Friday 6 April

21:10 Braves at Rockies (TBD, Marquez (0-0))
21:10 Royals at Indians (TBD, TBD)

All of these games are available to watch or listen to live via an MLB.TV subscription. TV coverage of MLB in the UK 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: The first Sunday of MLB 2018

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A new MLB season brings with it a plethora of firsts, but there’s none better than the first full Sunday of the regular season.

Every team is playing and all but the ESPN Sunday Night game (Giants – Dodgers tonight) are day-games for us to enjoy at a convenient time in the UK.  The exception to that today is a Pirates-Tigers game being made up from yesterday’s postponement, yet that just means there’s an extra game to enjoy.

Throughout the season I write a regular Sunday morning column about the past week in MLB. I started it off in April 2007 and wouldn’t have imagined back then that I’d still be doing it eleven years later.  I’ve changed the format around a bit over the years, but I’ve always liked the process of corralling my thoughts and picking out the key topics, or just the ones that caught my eye from the games I watched that week.

I’ll be continuing with that approach for the 2018 season, whilst adding in some regular blogs about the Oakland A’s campaign (which, based on last night, could be a long one).

Happ Happy, Jeter not so much

Like many of you, I settled down in front of the TV at 17.40 on Thursday eagerly awaiting the first game of the regular season between the Chicago Cubs and Miami Marlins. The Cubs’ lead-off hitter Ian Happ wasted no time in getting his season underway by launching the first pitch he saw into the stands for a home run.

I don’t know about the ESPN coverage, but the Cubs’ WGN-TV commentator Jim Deshaies called Happ’s shot and it seemed like the only person who didn’t think Happ would be wailing on the first pitch if it was close was the Marlins’ pitcher José Ureña.

Unsurprisingly the cameras immediately picked out new Marlins head honcho Derek Jeter (not AKA Mr Popular) watching from the stands. The good news for Jeter was that there was a decent crowd on hand – in Marlins terms – and they were in good spirits. The bad news was that most of those in attendance were Cubs fans on vacation.

The only positive for Jeter is that the Cubs fans presumably were less bothered about him than the fans of the next visitor to Marlins ballpark will be: the Boston Red Sox.

Extra thoughts on extra innings

Fears of a 0-162 season in Miami were instantly dispelled on Friday when the Marlins won the second game 2-1. The 17 inning marathon lasted 5 hours 18 minutes and after Miami levelled the scores at 1-1 in the bottom of the third inning, there were 13 and a half score-less frames until Miguel Rojas hit a walk-off single.

Coincidentally the day before this the Guardian had published an article about a brief period in the 1940s when some football competitions adopted a ‘play to a finish’ rule. “Nothing could be more absurd” was how the Guardian put it in 1946 in response to one game lasting nearly 400 minutes and the rule was shelved soon after.

The decision to introduce an extra-innings rule to Minor League baseball this year, with a runner being placed on second base to start each inning, did not go down well among many in the States, albeit with most seemingly oblivious (or not caring) that variations of the rule have been used in international competitions since 2008 and are already used in other leagues around the world (including the leading European leagues).

Outside of MLB, the only argument against some sort of extra inning rule is one governed by tradition as the impact on small playing staffs and other people that are employees or volunteers at the respective game is considerable. There’s more of an argument that the impact can be managed in MLB; the Cubs’ manager Joe Maddon made the sensible suggestion that teams should be able to call-up an extra reliever the day after, for example.

I don’t have a strong view against playing normal rules until you get a winner in MLB; however, I wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of rule is brought in within the next ten years to bring games to a swifter conclusion. How many people actually sat through every pitch of the additional eight innings that were served up on Friday?  Very, very few is the likely answer.

Home runs and more home runs

MLB always does a good job with their Opening Day video package although this time around pitchers would have been given cause to moan even more than usual. Other than a couple of passing shots of hurlers, the video showed a succession of blasts by the likes of Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Kris Bryant and more.

Coming after all the cricket kerfuffle around ball-tampering, it was almost as if MLB was trolling everyone whilst denying that the baseball has changed at all in recent seasons.

George Springer followed Ian Happ by launching his own lead-off home run on Opening Day, doing so for the second year running.  WGN-TV’s Jim Deshaies didn’t just say Happ would hit the first home run of the season, he also predicted he would hit the last one in the World Series too.  Keep a note of that if we end up with a Cubs-Astros World Series and have both Happ and Springer in with a chance of starting and ending the year on a home run.

Giancarlo Stanton waited for the second pitch he saw as a New York Yankee before depositing the ball over the fence. That was the first of two long-balls on his debut in pinstripes.

You’d expect such damage from Stanton, but not so much from the Chicago White Sox’s Matt Davidson. He immediately made anyone who drafted him in their fantasy team look clever by launching three home runs on Opening Day, with Chicago adding three more bombs to give the Kansas City Royals a pounding in Game One.

Nick Markakis launched a walk-off home run for Atlanta on Opening Day, as did former Orioles teammate Adam Jones.  The latter plundered his round-tripper off new Minnesota Twins reliever Fernando Rodney. Rodney has continued to pick up saves in closer roles in recent years despite the analytics crowd telling you not to go near him with a bargepole.

He does tend to walk a tightrope in his appearance and the Twins got their first “Rodney, you plonker” experience out of the way early.

Pillar pilfers three bases

It’s not all about the longball though and the Blue Jays’ Kevin Pillar showed that brilliantly on Saturday by stealing second, third and home to beat the Yankees.  That should have gone down well with the Blue Jays’ crowd at the MLB Meet Up in Leeds last night.

The next one takes place tonight in London, so get down to Belushis’ in SH1 if you’re in the area.

Sunday Game To Watch

The MLB event in London was originally scheduled to show three games in Yankees vs Jays, Rays vs Red Sox and Astros vs Rangers, but they’ve added in the Angels vs A’s game too due to it being the pitching debut of Shohei Ohtani.

First pitch is scheduled for 21:05 BST. Naturally, this A’s fan hopes it’s a complete disaster for the Japanese newcomer as the A’s look to split the series 2-2.

Oakland A’s Season Opener: 21:05 on Thursday

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As I’ve got the day off work and can’t think of anything but baseball, I thought I’d do something vaguely useful with my time and look ahead to the A’s opener tonight at 21:05 BST.

After inheriting the Opening Day assignment in 2017 due to Sonny Gray being ill, Graveman will take the mound this time as the A’s nominal ace.

I say nominal ace as even the most optimistic A’s fan wouldn’t really put him in the ace bracket, but he’s the leading starting pitcher among our current crop alongside Friday’s starter Sean Manaea.

Looking back at his Opening Day start a year ago, Graveman did a decent job in limiting the Angels to 2 runs over 6 innings.  He did that throwing his sinker almost exclusively. There were a few cut fastballs thrown in here and there, yet otherwise it was sinker, sinker, sinker.

Athough he does throw his sinker a lot, that was a bit extreme, perhaps with him not quite having a feel for his change and curve in his first start, and more generally over the 2017 season this was his pitch breakdown according to Brooks Baseball:

  • Sinker: 65% of the time (approx 94 MPH)
  • Cutter: 15% (91)
  • Change: 10% (86)
  • Curve: 6% (80)
  • Other 4%: varations of a fastball.

As with most pitchers, the overall numbers obscure the different approaches taken against right or left-handed hitters.  Against righties he went to the sinker almost 80% of the time, then 10% cutter, 10% curve (very occasionally chucking a change into the mix). Against lefties, he significantly increased his cutter (23%) and change-up (22%) usage, bringing his sinker use down to approximately 50% and then throwing a few curves in here and there.

For those new to baseball, that’s quite typical among pitchers. A right-handed pitcher will tend to use a curve against a right-handed hitter and a change-up against lefties, and vice versa for a left-handed pitcher.

The Baseball Savant website does a great job of visualising how a pitcher has approached different hitters and the outcomes of that.  Here’s a link to the page for Graveman’s work against the Angels.

Line-up

The starting line-up hasn’t been announced at time of writing. The A’s are facing right-hander Garrett Richards and faced a righty (Chris Stratton) in their final exhibition game on Tuesday, so if we use that as a guide then it would be:

  1. Joyce (LF)
  2. Semien (SS)
  3. Lowrie (2B)
  4. Davis (DH)
  5. Olson (1B)
  6. Piscotty (RF)
  7. Chapman (3B)
  8. Maxwell (C)
  9. Powell (CF)

I suspect Jonathon Lucroy will be in the line-up instead of Maxwell, but we’ll find out soon enough.

21:05 BST

The game is scheduled to begin at 21:05 BST and is available to watch online for MLB.TV subscribers. Join myself and the rest of the OaklandAUK fanbase on Twitter tonight.

 

2018 MLB Opening Day

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There is baseball today, there will be baseball tomorrow, and the day after that.

And the day after that.

That’s what makes MLB Opening Day the best unofficial holiday. It isn’t just one day and then it’s over, it’s the start of a 2,430 game regular season.

Unfortunately fans of the Nationals and Reds are going to have to wait an extra day for their season to begin as their scheduled opener has been moved to Friday due to ‘inclement weather’. That scuppered the plan for all 30 teams to start their season on the same day, something that might sound like an obvious thing to do but hasn’t been the norm in recent history.

Still, Cincinnati and Washington fans can enjoy the rest of the games, as can we all.  Whilst seeing your chosen team in action for the first time is the priority, it’s impossible avoid the temptation to catch a glimpses of other games too. Here’s the full list of Thursday games with first pitches listed in BST.

17:40. Cubs at Marlins (Lester, Urena) *BT Sport/ESPN
18:10. Pirates at Tigers (Nova, Zimmermann)
18:10. Cardinals at Mets (Martinez, Syndergaard)
20:05. Twins at Orioles (Odorizzi, Bundy)
20:35. Astros at Rangers (Verlander, Hamels) *BT Sport/ESPN
20:37. Yankees at Blue Jays (Severino, Happ)
21:00. Red Sox at Rays (Sale, Archer)
21:05. Angels at Athletics (Richards, Graveman)
21:10. Brewers at Padres (Anderson, Richard) *MLB.com Free Game
21:10. Phillies at Braves (Nola, Teheran)
21:15. White Sox at Royals (Shields, Duffy)

00:08. Giants at Dodgers (Blach, Kershaw) *BT Sport3
03:10. Indians at Mariners (Kluber, Hernandez) *BT Sport3
03:10. Rockies at D-backs (Gray, Corbin)

You can gorge on MLB on BT Sport for a good 12-13 hours if you so wish over their four games, with MLB.TV subscribers able to switch between any they like.

My initial plan is a few innings of Cubs-Marlins, then watching Noah Syndergaard in action for the Mets, then dipping into the Astros-Rangers game for half an hour before switching over to the A’s opener. In other words, baseball followed by more baseball, followed by more baseball, and then a bit more baseball on top of that.

And that’s exactly what Opening Day is all about.

EDIT: updated to note that Brewers-Padres has been selected as the MLB.com Free Game

Thank You For The A’s: New Season Excitement, but Bad Luck with Puk

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The time difference between the UK and US creates a unique experience in following MLB from these shores.

With many games being played in the early hours for us, breakfast time during the baseball season takes on an added dimension. The tone of your day ahead is set by what appears on your phone/tablet/laptop as you sit down with your cereal and wait for MLB.com to load up on your chosen team’s page.

Yesterday morning I checked MLB At Bat and thought about the daily rollercoaster of emotions that was about to begin.  I didn’t expect that rollercoaster to set off this morning though.

There it was staring straight at me: “TJ surgery recommended for top prospect Puk”.  The shining light during Spring Training, the pitcher we were looking forward to following his progress in Triple-A before a mid-season (or earlier) call-up to the Big Leagues, a potential ace for us to be proud of.

What a way to ruin your cornflakes.

A.J., we hardly knew ye but we had placed our hopes on you as intently as a pigeon sits waiting for a chip to fall to the floor. We’ve had slim pickings for several years now and you offered the potential for something that us A’s fans don’t get to experience all that much: a young pitcher that fans of other teams wish was on theirs.

You weren’t going to be on the Opening Day roster and you were unlikely to lead us to the play-offs this year. In some ways, if your arm was going to give out then better now than in two years’ time when you’d settled into the Big Leagues and had a potential play-off team around you. If you make a full recovery, who knows, maybe you’ll be a bullpen weapon as the A’s make a play-off charge next September before starring in the rotation in 2020?

All is far from lost, but at a time of the year when everything should be filled with optimism and positivity, this news is like being presented with a cake and then someone comes along and takes the chocolate icing bits off it.  It’s still a lovely cake to enjoy, yet you’ll enjoy it knowing that it could have been even tastier.

Here’s hoping the surgery – still not confirmed but seemingly inevitable – and recovery goes well.

Opening Day roster

I’ve said before that the A’s season will come down to how the rotation supports an improved bullpen and very promising batting line-up and that’s coming even more sharply into focus.

Puk looks to be following Jharel Cotton to the operating theatre for Tommy John surgery and Paul Blackburn’s forearm strain seems ominous too. We entered Spring Training with a battle for starting rotation spots and hopes that a few players would put their hand up to grab a place. We’ve ended up with a rotation based on whose arms are physically able to allow them to put their hand up.

I jest, of course, as Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea, Daniel Mengden, Andrew Triggs and Daniel Gossett all have talent and now is the time for them to show it. Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson are waiting in the wings – and wouldn’t it be a great story if they are able to stay healthy and become effective A’s starters once again – so there is a bit of depth there, albeit not depth that comes with any guarantees.

The main position player decision still to be made is in centre field. Reading between the lines I get the impression that whilst the A’s ultimately see Dustin Fowler as the centre fielder, it may make sense to start him in Triple-A after the long lay-off from knee surgery last summer. That would give Boog Powell a chance to show what he can do out there, with Jake Smolinski a right-handed bench option who appears to be something of a favourite of Bob Melvin.

Here come the Halos

Click the thumbnail for the full March/April schedule

It all gets going on Thursday at the wonderfully UK-friendly time of 21.05.  The LA Angels are in town for a four-game series, with Shohei Ohtani scheduled to make his Major League debut (on the mound, at least) on Sunday.

Kendall Graveman will get the Opening Day assignment against the Angels for the second consecutive year and he did a decent job last time, giving up two runs over six innings.

The games on Saturday and Sunday are day-games too so the season will begin in a very convenient fashion for us.  Even the night-game on Friday is a bit more manageable than usual coming in the early hours of Saturday as part of the Easter weekend.

Despite our pitcher injury woes and modest expectations for 2018, nothing can dull the excitement of a new season and the adventure we’re going to go on together over the next 162 games with the A’s.  I’ll be blogging about it all season long and commenting on Twitter via my usual account and at the A’s UK fan account @OaklandAUK.