Baseball Reflections on the Rangers
The Texas Rangers finished the 2008 season with a 79-83 record, finishing second in the AL West behind the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. During the season, the Rangers finished first in all offensive categories, while finishing last in all but one category in pitching. It is no secret the Rangers need to focus on […]
The Giants pitching needs to be perfect in 2009
Pitching is the strength of the 2009 San Francisco Giants. It’s the one hope they have for being competitive this season. Well, that’s at least what’s been bought and sold thus far by the organization and the media. Truth is the staff could be pretty good. But the Giants may be in for a surprise […]
Welcome to Mannywood 2009
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The frustrating courtship between Manny Ramirez and the LA Dodgers is finally over. Manny’s a Dodger again, signing a contract on Wednesday. The slugger with Predator hair is expected to be in uniform and on the field by Friday (editor’s note: this was written on Thursday). Frank McCourt flew […]
Reflections on the Mariners Part 2: Pitching
Starting rotation 2008: Felix Hernandez, Erik Bedard, Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn, Miguel Batista, R.A. Dickey, Ryan Feierabend, Ryan-Rowland Smith 2009: Hernandez, Bedard, Silva, Washburn, Brandon Morrow, Rowland-Smith This time last year people were talking about the M’s rotation being one of the best in baseball until everything went haywire. Felix stagnated, Bedard gave a career-low […]
Reflections on the Mariners
Last October, Jack Zduriencik was anointed Seattle’s next GM after a ton of success in Milwaukee as Special Assistant to the GM for Player Personnel and Director of Amateur Scouting (and you thought his name was a mouthful, whew!). He may come in with a scouting background to bolster Seattle’s already-strong scouting department, but his […]
February Diamondbacks Reflections
Image via Wikipedia Generally speaking, when a team enjoys a productive offseason, you should predict good things for that team in the following season. Conversely, a team’s poor offseason will lead to pessimism for the upcoming campaign. Seemingly simple enough, it doesn’t always work that way. Last winter, the Detroit Tigers acquired Miguel Cabrera, Dontrelle […]
SF Giants Offseason Report Card
Image via Wikipedia This is why I’m not a teacher; I’m sort of a pass or fail guy. So since the Giants seem destined to have Bengie Molina bat cleanup for the second year in a row, I suppose they have failed (or at least come close) in their off season mission to improve the […]
San Francisco Giants Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up 2008 saw the Bond-less Giants tied for the 6th worst record in baseball at 72-90, but I actually thought they had a chance of reaching 100 losses so they did better than I thought they would. They went into the year without a solid closer, which effects the rest of the bullpen, […]
San Diego Padres Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Like most of the NL West, the Padres had a disappointing 2008 season going 63-99, the third worst record in baseball last season! Who would have thought that the Giants would finish higher than San Diego at Spring Training last year? I for one did not even think it possible. Granted, 2008 […]
Colorado Rockies Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Like most of the NL West, the Rockies had a disappointing 2008 season going 74 and 88 after being in the World Series the previous October. On top of that, they lost second year SS Troy Tulowitzki to injury for a big part of the year, missing 61 games and 1B Todd […]
Arizona Diamondbacks Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up After a red hot start to the 2008 season, the team in the desert cooled off come June and never really struck fear into anyone in the NL West from that point forward, but theacquisition of LF Adam Dunn must have turned a few heads though. April did show a look into […]
Los Angeles Dodgers Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Although the Dodgers had the worst record in the 2008 playoffs it was mainly a byproduct of their poor first half. The acquisition of Manny Ramirez from Boston in a three way deal at the deadline rejuvenated this young team, giving them the experience and the potent bat they were missing up […]
Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim off Season Report
Season Wrap Up The Angels no doubt have the blue print for making the playoffs memorized. The only problem is that in the past few seasons, when they get there, they are unable to get out of the Divisional round where they were the victim of the Boston Red Sox this season in just four […]
Texas Rangers off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Despite finishing under .500, the Rangers still finished second in the American League West, although they were about a mile behind the Angels at the top of the division. Their 79-83 record was not by any means impressive, but with the expectations that were in place for the Rangers before the season, […]
Seattle Mariners off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Despite having the ninth ranked payroll in the major leagues at $118 million (and bringing the face of their franchise, Ichiro Suzuki, back in the off season), the Mariners still managed to lose 101 games and finish in last place in 2008. Prior to the season, many believed that the Mariners had […]
Oakland Athletics off Season Report
Season Wrap Up It seems that general manager Billy Beane has no problem finding pitching for his team and even when he trades away his best pitchers, he always has some waiting in the wings. The problem for Beane is finding proven hitting that can produce on a daily basis without needing much in the […]
The Baseball Reflections Annual Team Analysis
This off season Bill and I will tackle the task of analyzing the needs of each team going into the 2009 season. Last year I did it all myself and I think I forgot 1 or 2 teams along the way. Plus, I went overboard with details and the task took me two days worth […]
