Featuring Colin Hecht & Trevor Utley
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Featuring Colin Hecht & Trevor Utley
Featuring Colin Hecht & Trevor Utley
Featuring Colin Hecht & Trevor Utley
Featuring Colin Hecht & Trevor Utley
Featuring Colin Hecht & Trevor Utley
Featuring Colin Hecht & Trevor Utley
By Trevor Utley Since yesterday's technological mishap, I've become incredibly paranoid about writing this piece again. In fact, this is being typed in a word document and also being transferred onto a NotePad. The computer NotePad not pen and paper, yet some of you know my affinity for writing every inane detail down. To avoid the near psychological break I underwent yesterday, I am just going to combine all five articles into little blurbs and be done with it. Opening Day's already come and gone so you already know who's down what and where with the four teams left. I've already been proven way off base with some of my other 26 previews. Without further adieu, or catastrophic mental meltdown, the top four of 30 Teams In Under 30 Days as well as our picks for the 2015 MLB awards, pennants, and World Series champions. #4- Los Angeles Dodgers: My beloved boys in blue are the class of the NL West. They'll win the division going away and showed yesterday that they have a pretty damn resilient team even with that pesky Matt Kemp going all ghost of Christmas past on them. I swear to you I had Jimmy Rollins listed as an All-Star before that three run home run gave me a chub in the middle of my weeping. In the end, how far the Dodgers will advance will depend on whether or not old #22 can stop being #2 come postseason. LAST YEAR'S RANKING: #3 (DOWN 1) PREDICTED RECORD: 94-68 PREDICTED ALL-STAR REPS: Clayton Kershaw (starting pitcher), Zack Greinke (starting pitcher), Adrian Gonzalez (first baseman), Jimmy Rollins (shortstop), Yasiel Puig (outfielder) #3- Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: They may have lost on Opening Day, but it was to King Felix so don't read too much into it. The Angels flipped the switch in the middle of last year and I think it will have a carry-over effect into 2015. Mike Trout will probably finish Top 3 on the AL MVP ballot for the next ten years barring a contraction of Ebola or a fling with a Kardashian. Garrett Richards will be even better than last year when he recovers from surgery. It is World Series or bust this year. Scroll down to see if I busted them or not. LAST YEAR'S RANKING: #9 (UP 6) PREDICTED RECORD: 95-77 PREDICTED ALL-STAR REPS: Mike Trout (outfielder), Garrett Richards (starting pitcher), Albert Pujols (first baseman), Huston Street (relief pitcher) #2- Baltimore Orioles: We all slept on the Orioles last year and all ended up looking like fools. If I am going to look like a fool, I'd rather it be because I overrated a team rather than underestimating them. The Orioles have already started their baseball bashing ways and none of yesterday's three homers even came from Chris Davis or Adam Jones. There is a good chance when you drafted your fantasy baseball team, you bypassed every Oriole outside of the aforementioned duo or Manny Machado. The Orioles will be living the real life fantasy though as they cruise to the division title once again. LAST YEAR'S RANKING: #19 (UP 17) PREDICTED RECORD: 95-77 PREDICTED ALL-STAR REPS: Adam Jones (outfielder), Travis Snider (outfielder), Zach Britton (relief pitcher) #1- Washington Nationals: By process of elimination you knew this was going to be Washington. Everybody picked Washington. Why should my dumb ass be any different? They have an All-Star team for a starting rotation. They have a dynamic lineup. They also trotted out Dan Uggla as their Opening Day second baseman. The Giants had Dan Uggla on their team last season. The Nationals are winning the World Series. LAST YEAR'S RANKING: #6 (UP 5) PREDICTED RECORD: 98-64 PREDICTED ALL-STAR REPS: Max Scherzer & Stephen Strasburg & Jordan ZImmermann & Doug Fister (starting pitchers), Bryce Harper (outfielder), Ian Desmond (shortstop) 2015 BLEEDING YOUR COLORS AWARD WINNERS AND PENNANT SELECTIONSThanks to all that came along for another journey through the 30 Major League teams in under 30 days time. Special thanks to Josh Souza, Colin Hecht (even though he picked an ineligible ROY in Mookie Betts), Matt Sieczkiewicz, Andrew daSilva, and Andrew Sanford (who picked Joe Kelly for all he could) for making picks. Give those fine gentlemen a follow on Twitter. Check back throughout the 2015 Major League Baseball season for more from me, and hopefully others, here on Bleeding Your Colors. PLAY BALL! Image Credits: All team logos (sportslogos.net); Trout, Kelly, Hernandez, Kershaw, Cueto, Puig, Stanton, McCutchen, Kluber, Soler, Bryant, Lindor, Betts, Sanchez, Harper, Scherzer (espn.com); Souza Jr. (statliners.com); Rodon (southsideshowdown.com); Francona (hardballtalk.nbcsports.com); Gibbons (jaysjournal.com); McClendon (seattlepi.com); Maddon (thebiglead.com); Williams (pixshark.com) By Trevor Utley The fans of the Tampa Bay Rays haven't had a season like last year in quite some time. Since they excised the Devil from their moniker after the 2007 season, the Rays hadn't been an under .500 club. They won 90+ games five times and had become perennial contenders in the difficult American League East. However, their past three trips to the playoffs have ended in the Division series and it seemed the organization was ready to hit the reset button and try to rebuild again the team that had arisen from the ashes seven years earlier. They shipped out David Price at the trading deadline to Detroit as well 2013 AL Rookie of the Year Wil Myers to San Diego and team leader Ben Zobrist to Oakland this winter, all for peanuts. Long time manager Joe Maddon left for Chicago and team architect Andrew Friedman bolted for the money laden Dodgers. Time will tell if new GM Matt Silverman's early wheeling and dealing will produce results commensurate to his predecessor's. As for 2015 though, the Rays are going to struggle to both score as well as put butts in the seats. I can't stress this enough: The Rays are really going to struggle to score runs in 2015. If you look at their lineup from 1 to 9, you are hard pressed to find anyone not named Evan Longoria that may break double digits in home runs. The "crown jewel" from the Wil Myers trade is new catcher Rene Rivera. Yes, they traded the 24 year oldMyers and the main cog that came back from San Diego was out of the league for FIVE YEARS. You shouldn't be netting anybody of value for somebody with a stint on the Camden Riversharks on their resume. Former Ray John Jaso, the main piece in the Zobrist deal, may spell Rivera some but will primarily DH. James Loney will once again man first base. The lefty has always been a consistent hitter, hovering around .300 without striking out an egregious number of times. Nevertheless, he is on the wrong side of thirty and I feel his power numbers will just continue to dwindle. With the departure of Zobrist, second base is a toss-up between two players that both should probably be battling over the last bench spot than a starting position. Logan Forsythe and Nick Franklin have shown over the past several years that they are not Major League caliber players. Franklin is just 24 but he fell out of favor in Seattle so precipitously that he couldn't even get pinch running duties. Forsythe is 28 but had the same thing happen to him in San Diego two years ago. Both may end up making way eventually for a man whose been a bit of a forgotten figure himself, 2008 #1 pick Tim Beckham. Shortstop isn't looking much brighter. Asdrubal Cabrera comes in on a one year deal to add another veteran presence. He doesn't add much else as both his defense and offense have eroded since his All-Star days in Cleveland. It is hard to believe he is only 29 because seeing Cabrera on the diamond gives you the impression that he is much older than that. Third base will probably be Evan Longoria's until he retires. He has been the brick in the foundation of the Rays organization that has stood firm as the rest of Tampa's stars have blown away in Tampa's penny pinching hurricane. Longoria is locked up through 2022 at least and has been the lineup's only consistent source of power and run production during his tenure. I know the last time Tampa blew it up they ended up building a team that made a remarkable run to the World Series. It is just disappointing that they are going to waste a half decade of a potentially great player to do that again. Longoria will get his dingers but his peripheral numbers will suffer once again with the pieces surrounding him. The outfield is just as unpalatable. Desmond Jennings has five tool talent but is all too often susceptible to brain vacations which make fans and managers go gray rapidly. His speed is being sapped by injuries and his power and average are dwindling because of poor plate discipline. Jennings may not get to see another arbitration hearing in Tampa if he keeps this up. In right field, there is yet another new face in Steven Souza Jr. The main get from Washington in the Myers trade, Souza did very little in his month with the Nationals in 2014. The Rays liked what he did enough the past two years in the Minors though to give him a shot out of Spring Training. If he can stop swinging at everything, he may actually be a bottom of the order asset. From what I've read, scouts are loving themselves some of Rays' centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier. A throwback hustle guy who is comfortable in all three outfield spots is a good hand to have. I just personally believe that having the everyday gig under the Trop catwalks may be too much for him to handle. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of reinforcements coming from within to help the lineup either. All of Tampa's top prospects are at least a year, probably more, away from entering the fold. If you look at the potential of this pitching staff, the lack of offense shouldn't worry you as much. Alex Cobb, Chris Archer, and Drew Smyly all have impressive pitching arsenals and have shown that they can handle the toughest opposition the American League can offer. Nevertheless, Cobb has dealt with freak injuries more than the other two but time off is time off regardless of how you end up on the disabled list. Fully entrenched as the team's ace, Cobb must prove he can pitch every fifth day for an entire season. Archer nearly pitched 200 innings last year but was hit own worst enemy most nights. His record could have been much better than 10-9 if he didn't take himself out of games with walks in droves. His 72 free passes last year were the sixth worst mark in the American League. Smyly was Tampa's immediate return in the David Price deal and was more impressive than the departed ace in his time in Tampa. Some say that a full season with a guaranteed rotation spot will only help to improve a pitcher like Smyly, who has faced uncertainty and a constant shuffle between starting and relieving his entire career. I am intrigued to see if he can handle the pressure of being a top of the rotation guy, even more so if he has to be bumped up if Archer or Cobb go down. Jake Odorizzi in the four slot is something American League teams need to worry about. He took some lumps in 2014 but he struck out more than a man an inning and started towards the end of the season to mix his pitches better and better. Having Odorizzi and former All-Star Matt Moore, who should return from Tommy John surgery as early as May, at the back of the rotation gives Tampa one of the deepest rotations in the American League. They will need all five at their absolute best to compete. The bullpen is fairly solid as well. Grant Balfour is temporarily reinstated as the team's closer. That is only the case currently because the man he lost the job to last year, southpaw Jake McGee, is trying to regain full fitness while battling an elbow injury. When McGee returns, the back end of Tampa's pen is strong. Outside of the hard throwing left hander, the duties of the eighth inning will be handled by Brad Boxberger. Boxberger showed promise in two seasons in San Diego. He took it to a whole different level in 2014, striking out 104 in just 64 2/3 innings with a great fastball/changeup combination. Jeff Beliveau (from PROVIDENCE, RI!) stamped himself as the other trusted left hander in the late innings. He doesn't blow people away like his teammates, but he is real tough on left handers and hammers the strike zone. Former Angels Kevin Jepsen and Ernesto Frieri provide depth and much needed contingency plans if injuries occur. Tampa's pitching is too good to have them ranked this low. If you look at that lineup however, they shouldn't be ranked this high. It is the job of rookie manager Kevin Cash to try to balance out his team's overwhelming strengths versus their severely glaring weaknesses. Joe Maddon's shoes are big ones to fill. If Cash can somehow pull out even a Wild Card bid with this impotent offense, he should win American League Manager of the Year without challenge. Either way, there is going to be a whole lot of zeroes on the Tampa Bay scoreboard this season, for both the Rays and their opponents. LAST YEAR'S RANKING: #12 (DOWN 10) PREDICTED RECORD: 76-86 PREDICTED ALL-STAR REPS: Evan Longoria (third baseman), Chris Archer (starting pitcher), Brad Boxberger (relief pitcher) Trevor Utley is just glad that the Dodgers trade for David Price wasn't accepted. It was a whole lot more than Tampa actually got. Image Credit: Rays logo (sportslogos.net)
Featuring Trevor Utley, Lou Kessler, and Al deCiutiis
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