MLB Predictions

Hello all,
Here are my predictions for the 2013 season of Major League Baseball. This season, all of the divisions are looking wide open at the beginning of the season. The Yankees are in decline ( :D ), and the Blue Jays are on the rise because of a major fire sale by Miami. The Reds look like the top of the class in the NL Central but you can never count out the Cardinals. And the AL West looks to be wide open again, with the exception of the Mariners and Astros. So, without further adue, here are my predictions for this season.

AL East
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
Tampa Bay Rays
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees

The AL East is a fight between two teams, the Orioles and the Jays. The Rays should be competitive throughout most of the year, but I don't think they will be in the thick of the division race when September comes around.

AL Central
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins

The Detroit Tigers are at the top of the class in the AL Central. With a pitching staff consisting of Justin Verlander the Tigers should be able to keep AL Central offenses at bay at least once every five days. But, the Tigers offense with Prince Fielder and the Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera should be enough to carry the team those other four days. The White Sox, Indians and Royals all have a shot at second place with the Twins doomed to the cellar.

AL West
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland Athletics
Texas Rangers
Seattle Mariners
Houston Astros

This division could come down to the final day of the season... again. I expect Albert Pujols to actually show up in April and help out the newly acquired Josh Hamilton in the offensive department. The A's will have the upper hand when it comes to the pitching staff due to Zack Greinke's from Los Angeles to Los Angeles. The Rangers, with the losses of Michael Young, Josh  Hamilton and Mike Napoli seem to be assured the third place finish for the second straight year. And there seems to be no need to mention how bad the Astros will be this year, which means that the Mariners may finally rise out of the cellar.

NL East
Washington Nationals
Atlanta Braves
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Miami Marlins

The NL East will be a fight between two teams, the Nationals and the Braves. The Nationals will bring back almost the same team as last year while the Braves made the Uptons their big free agent acquisitions. The Mets, without R.A. Dickey seem to be stuck in third place with Philadelphia and Miami bringing up the rear.

NL Central
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Pirates
Chicago Cubs

The NL Central will be won by the Reds this year. Joey Votto and company are too good not to. The big fight will be for second place with Milwaukee, St. Louis and Pittsburgh vying for that spot and a probable spot in the playoffs. With the offseason upgrades in the bullpen that allowed 29 blown saves for the Brewers and their acquisition of Kyle Lohse, I believe that the Brewers have gon from 83 wins last year to a 88-89 win season assuming the bullpen can be much better than last year's awful performance. I am not going to count out the Cardinals because they are always a dangerous team to play. The Cubs will almost certainly remain the lovable losers for the foreseeable future.

NL West
San Francisco Giants
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies

The NL West is essentially a two team race this year. Last year, the San Francisco Giants came out on top of the division and the MLB by winning the World Series. This offseason, the Dodgers started spending like the Yankees usually do. I am rather skeptical of how well teams that spend that way fare. We saw this formula fail the Red Sox a couple of years ago and the Marlins last year. The Giants brought the majority of their players back from last year's championship team which is why I am picking them to win the division.

AL MVP: Miguel Cabrera, Detroit
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander, Detroit
AL Rookie of the Year: Wil Meyers, Tampa Bay
AL Manager of the Year: Bob Melvin, Oakland
AL Champion: Baltimore Orioles

NL MVP: Ryan Braun, Milwaukee
NL Cy Young: Stephen Strasburg, Washington
NL Rookie of the Year: Tyler Skaggs, Arizona
NL Manager of the Year: Bruce Bochy
NL Champion: Washington Nationals

World Series Champion: Baltimore Orioles

MLB Bold Perdictions

I have not posted on my blog in a while but here is the next episode... my MLB bold perdictions! I will make one bold prediction per division.
AL East: Ivan Nova will win the most games in this division.
Why this is bold: The AL East's pitching is very deep. Besides having CC Sabathia to compete with on his own team, he also has David Price, Matt Moore, Josh Beckett, Brandon Morrow, and Clay Bucholz in his division. This will make for a very interesting prediction.
AL Central: The Tigers will win less than 90 games.
Why this is Bold: The Tigers, with the addition of Prince Fielder, now has one of the best 1-2 punches with Miguel Cabrera. The one issue I have with the Tigers, and the thing that could cost them, is there infield defense. With the addition of Prince, there defensive talent at 1st base had diminished, which is saying a lot. Miguel Cabrera has had some trouble fielding ground balls this spring training. There infield defense is one of the worst.
AL West: The Texas Rangers will repeat.
Why this is Bold: The Angels have had a lot of buzz this offseason with the acquisitions of Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson, they will be the favorite this season from that division. But the Rangers are still up there in the race, but there offense will have to carry them due to the loss of CJ Wilson. They will still have a solid pitching staff but I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't as good as it was last year.
NL East: It will take 96 wins to win the NL East.
Why this is bold: This division will be tough to win with the Phillies, Mets, Marlins, and Nationals all fighting for the division title and a bye in the 1-game playoff come October. This division could either be really good or really bad. The Phillies are a older team but they still have a lot of talent; the Mets do need some work but this division is wide open; The Marlins have a lot of talent... but so did the Heat and how did that turn out in their first year? The Nationals have a very good shot, I think. With lots of young talent and some solid vetrans, they would be my pick... if they can stay healthy.
NL Central: Mat Gamel and Aramis Ramirez will make up for Prince Fielder and Casey McGehee's numbers and help the Brewers repeat as Division champions.
Why this is bold: Going into this offseason the two biggest hitting talents in the division left, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder. When that happend, the division swung wide open. With Mat Gamel getting the oppoutunity to play every day at first base he will have a lot to prove. He has been mashing everything in Triple-A, but hasen't had the same success in the show. He has had limited ABs in the show, but I think a full season will help him gain some confidence in his stroke. Aramis Ramirez is the other big piece that came to Milwaukee. He is a better fielder and hitter than McGehee will ever be. The infield defense will have a much needed upgrade this season, which will help them defend their division crown.
NL West: Clayton Kershaw will repeat as the Cy Young winner.
Why this is bold: The NL Cy Young race will be a very good race this year. With Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke, and Adam Wainwright to compete with for the Cy Young. This could be one of the better Cy Young races in recent history.

There you have it! Ty's Bold Predictions...

Greinke to Brewers

This is a trade that the Brewers needed. As a Brewers fan, I think Cain, if he continues to develop, could be a future all-star. Escobar will never have a bat, but he has a pretty darn good glove. Greinke gives the Brewers, in my opinion, the 3rd best starting rotation behind Philadalphia and San Fransisco. Sure, Betancourt isn't a very good defensive short stop, but everyone in the majors has flaws. He has a better bat than Escobar, which I think will help the offense this year. Betancourt had 16 HR last year with a .259 BAA. But, with most players, when power comes average leaves. He is a career .274 hitter, which is nothing special. It is about average for a SS. Enough about Betancourt, now to Greinke. He is a former Cy Young winner... with the Royals. Which means he must have been doing something right. Also, most pitchers going from the AL to the NL do better in the NL due to lack of the DH position. According to sources, Greinke liked the idea of pitching in Milwaukee, which bodes well for his future in Milwaukee.  All in all I think this was a pretty good move by Doug Melvin. We will just have to wait and see on Escobar and Cain.

Football @ Wrigley

This Saturday, Illinois and Northwestern will play their football game on Wrigley Field. There is one problem with this... the field isn't big enough to play with two end zones. The east end zone only has one foot of space between the back of the end zone and the outfield wall. They tried to pad the wall, but Big Ten officials said today, backed up by NCAA rules, "Limit lines shall be marked ... 12 feet outside the sidelines and the end lines, except in stadiums where total field surface does not permit. In these stadiums, the limit lines shall not be less than six feet from the sidelines and end lines". Since there is only one foot of space, Big Ten officials have said only the west end zone will be used. Twitter users then sarcasticly posted, "Will they use an alltime QB?", or my personal favorite, "What happens if someone's Mom calls him in for dinner?". Yes, this is the Big Ten we are talking about here. The last time a college football game was played on Wrigley Field was 1938. The players must have been tougher then, because as far as I know, they played with two end zones. I guess safety has become a major issue in today's sports, but if they had known about the safety issues in 1938, would they have done the same thing? We will never know. All I know is this will be and interesting game.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/11/19/wrigley/index.html#ixzz15mTLNodF

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/11/19/wrigley/index.html#ixzz15mScm2uT

Michigan dareing Wisconsin to run up the score?

According to SI's truth & rumors, Michigan cornerback James Rogers said, "I guarantee they're [Wisconsin] not going to score 83 points on us,". Now as much of a Michigan supporter I am, I wouldn't suggest going to reporters saying that Wisconsin isn't going to score 83 points on us. This is the same defense that gave up 35 points to Indiana and UMass, the same defense that gave up 65 points to Illinois in a triple OT win. They are giving up 32 points a game. I still think they have a chance of winning this game, but I won't be because of our defense. Wisconsin's backfield is one of the best in the country, and we won't stop them. I just hope Shoelace can stay in the entire game, because he is the only reason we have won 7 games this season. All in all Michigan needs to work hard on our defense or we will be giving up 40+ points a game, which means we will have to score 40+ points on the opposing team. This is not good when you have one weapon and some good supporting players, and no one on defense. It is almost like we aren't putting anyone on the field when we are on defense. That is the biggest problem with this years Michigan team. Rich Rodriguez is a offensive genius, and we have a good d-cordinator but he can't do anything if all Rodriguez cares about is offense. He needs to start caring about this defense or he will be out of Ann Arbor by the end of next year.

Read more: http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/248950-michigan-cb-daring-bucky-to-run-up-score?eref=fromSI#ixzz15bGtWO53

Second Chances

As most of us know, a few years back Michael Vick was arrested and put in prison for running a dog fighting ring at his Virginia home. But last night in front of the whole United States he put on a show during Monday Night Football. He had 6 TDs (4 passing, 2 rushing), and over 400 yards of total offense. But with out the Philadelphia Eagles giving him a second chance at football and life, we may not have seen that game. He may have been putting on a show like some other "talents" with behavior problems in the USFL or Canadian Football League. To be honest, I thought he should never have had another chance, and I thought he should have been backing up Kevin Kolb. But last night he proved something to me... Everyone Deserves a Second Chance.

My First Post

My life has, is, and always will revolve around sports. From baseball in the spring to football in the fall and every other sport in between. From college football and basketball to soccer. I have played and follow many sports. Ever since I started high school, tennis has become a big part of my life. I watch it on TV, and play it whenever I can. In this blog I will be posting daily to weekly on the big stories in sports, and my thoughts on them. I hope you enjoy reading them and also commenting on my posts. I would love to hear your thoughts as well.