"The Stack" 4-8-17
Kris Bryant and the Chicago Cubs are back with another loaded team ready to win a second consecutive World Series championship.
Edwin Encarnacion left Toronto for Cleveland. Can he be the one piece to lift the Indians to their first World Series championship since 1948?
Can Bryce Harper and the Washington Nationals finally reach the World Series? The 2017 MLB season is underway.
The Stack is back and so is America’s pastime or former pastime as it may be called now. That of course would be baseball and MLB’s season has begun. Not going to lie, it kind of snuck up on me and I’m sure others as well with March Madness going on. This preview will be a little shorter than what we have done in the past and we will try to do better next year. As I was working on my podcast “The Sports Block” with my good friend Travis Kriens, I realized that I don’t know as much about the upcoming season as I thought I did or have in previous seasons. That shouldn’t deter you from reading this post. If anything you can look at my predictions and then go the other way on them. Now let’s get right to the 2017 MLB season preview we hope you demand even if it is a almost a week late in “the stack” for today, Saturday, April 8th:
2017 MLB Season Preview
Yes you can believe it Cubs fans. Your team won the World Series last year. They have another loaded roster still with plenty of big bats and some fantastic starting pitching. The 108-year nightmare is now over. Can they go back-to-back this year? That remains to be seen. They are now the hunted and not the hunters. Still though, this remains one of the top two or three teams in baseball if not the best team. No reason to think that they are going to slump this year barring some significant injuries.
As is with every season, there are quite a few new faces in new places this season. Chris Sale is with the Boston Red Sox now after the Chicago White Sox traded their ace pitcher for what they hope are a lot of good prospects. They also traded outfielder Adam Eaton to the Washington Nationals. The White Sox are going to be bad this year. The Cincinnati Reds are going to be really bad this year as well. They traded second baseman Brandon Phillips to the Atlanta Braves. One of the Kansas City Royals fantastic bullpen pitchers, Greg Holland, left for the Colorado Rockies. The Cleveland Indians bolstered their offense by signing Edwin Encarnacion from the Toronto Blue Jays. Closer Mark Melancon was traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Washington Nationals during the season last year and he left Washington for San Francisco. Dexter Fowler left the World Series champion Chicago Cubs (yes that is still difficult to believe sometimes) for the rival St. Louis Cardinals. Aroldis Chapman is headed back to the New York Yankees bullpen after they traded him to the Chicago Cubs last year. Bartolo Colon is still pitching. He is now in the Atlanta Braves starting lineup after being with the New York Mets last year. There are of course many other moves that were made and other players in new places or who signed with their same teams like Yoenis Cespedes staying with the Mets, but these are a few of the more notable ones.
I’m not going to get into all of the analytics or statistics like WAR and all of those useful, but odd statistics. They are very important to baseball, but now let’s take a look at the divisions.
American League
East
The American League East from top to bottom is the best division in baseball. The Boston Red Sox have a tremendous one-two combo with their starting pitching staff with Chris Sale and Rick Porcello. Can’t imagine Rick Porcello is going to duplicate what he did last year and win twenty plus games again this year, but he’ll be good. Can David Price regain his form? They already have a tremendous offense with guys like Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Dustin Pedroia, but they may have someone even better than all of them in left fielder Andrew Benintendi. This team is the clear team to beat in the division.
I like the New York Yankees this year, perhaps more than most people with some good young bats and a phenomenal bullpen thanks to the reacquisition of Aroldis Chapman, but their starting pitching raises some concerns and they may still be a year away from making it back to the playoffs. Have to let some of these young guys mature just a little more.
Baltimore hit a lot of homeruns last year. Mark Trumbo was a big part of it. He was a terrific signing. Chris Davis is good and Adam Jones is also a star player. The big question with them is their starting pitching, but they proved last year that they can overcome it. Can they do it again this year? Speaking of starting pitching, both the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays have great starting staffs. The Blue Jays have quietly put together led by J.A. Happ, Francisco Liriano who is a little bit of a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are great as well. Can they hold up and make it back to the playoffs? Troy Tulowitzki and Jose Bautista will help lead the offense. The Rays have Chris Archer in their starting staff and Alex Cobb, but their offense isn’t much outside of Evan Longoria. All of the teams in the division are good and all will win at least 70-75 games. That’s how stacked this division is.
Predicted AL East standings
1. Boston Red Sox
2. Baltimore Orioles
3. Toronto Blue Jays
4. New York Yankees
5. Tampa Bay Rays
Central
If the AL East is the most difficult division this year, the AL Central is the worst. Though the Central has one of the best teams in baseball in it, the Cleveland Indians, the rest of the division stinks. As mentioned, the Indians got Edwin Encarnacion in the offseason from Toronto. He’s a great addition and a steady bat for that lineup. Their starting rotation has Corey Kluber and Danny Salazar. They battle throughout the playoffs and still found a way to make it to the World Series. This team is poised to do big things again this year.
The rest of the division I cannot say the same for. The Detroit Tigers are getting older and who knows if they will be able to keep some of their young guys off of the free agency market. They may be the second best team in the division this year. If the Minnesota Twins can get some decent performances out of their bullpen and their starting lineup, they have enough good young guys throughout the field and in the lineup to be a surprise team this year. The Kansas City Royals are dealing with the devastating loss of Yordano Ventura who died in the offseason. That is something that may hang over this team. That won’t be why they fail though. They have lost guys like Greg Holland out of their bullpen and since their World Series win a couple of years ago, they just haven’t been the same. Hopefully they can get it all back together. The White Sox have traded just about anyone who is any good it seems and while they have some pretty good players and a lot of talent in the minors right now, that won’t help them this season get a lot of wins.
Predicted AL Central standings
1. Cleveland Indians
2. Detroit Tigers
3. Minnesota Twins
4. Kansas City Royals
5. Chicago White Sox
West
Houston was our pick last year. They disappointed. Remember when Sports Illustrated said they would be in the World Series in 2017 though? This was back when the Astros were terrible. Dallas Keuchel is a dominant pitcher. The rest of the staff is somewhat questionable. Jose Altuve is a great bat and Carlos Correa is good as well. With the Astros adding veterans like Carlos Beltran and having Josh Reddick will really help this team outlast the likes of the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners.
Outlasting the Rangers and Mariners won’t be easy. The Rangers have a strong pitching staff in Yu Darvish and Cole Hamels and some good players in Rougned Odor and Elvis Andrus. Their bats will help Texas produce a lot of runs. Oh yeah, they also have one of the best catchers in the game in Jonathan Lucroy. The Mariners are going to give them a run for their money. King Felix can still be one of the best pitchers in the game. Robinson Cano can still do his part since his contract is so big. The Mariners have been building their lineup for ballpark. They were close last year to making the playoffs. They are going to be in the mix again this year.
As for the Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the United States of America it’s going to be a long year for them. The Angels are letting Mike Trout waste away and the Athletics have a lot of players that could prove to have great years. If there is going to be a surprise team in the division this year it will be the Athletics.
Predicted AL West standings
1. Houston Astros
2. Seattle Mariners
3. Texas Rangers
4. Oakland Athletics
5. Los Angeles Angels
AL Playoff matchups (sure to be wrong)
Wild card: Seattle Mariners vs. Baltimore Orioles
Wild card winner vs. Cleveland Indians
Houston Astros vs. Boston Red Sox
ALCS: Boston Red Sox vs. Cleveland Indians
AL Cy Young winner: Chris Sale, Boston Red Sox
AL MVP: Mike Trout
AL Champion: Cleveland Indians
National League
East
The New York Mets have fantastic pitching with the Dark Knight in Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard (aka Thor) and Jacob DeGrom, but their offense stinks. Apart from Cespedes, there is no one that screams fear like Jay Bruce and Curtis Granderson. They aren’t what they used to be. I like the Miami Marlins a lot with Giancarlo Stanton being one of the best players in the game. They have other good players as well and Edinson Volquez is a good pitcher, but he can’t replace Jose Fernandez. They’ll play the season for him, but I just think there is going to be a cloud hanging over them all year.
The Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves will both be better this year. The Phillies have some good arms in their pitching staff and the Braves have some exciting young guys like Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson plus they added Brandon Phillips to help the offense and their defense, but both the Phillies and Braves are still a year away or so from truly contending.
That leaves us with the Washington Nationals. They’ve got great starting pitching with Max Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg. That’s a great one-two punch if Strasburg can stay healthy. They have one of the best young players in the game in Bryce Harper. They acquired Adam Eaton in the offseason. Can Daniel Murphy keep up his play? This team is poised for a World Series run if they can get by the Chicago Cubs.
Predicted NL East standings
1. Washington Nationals
2. New York Mets
3. Miami Marlins
4. Philadelphia Phillies
5. Atlanta Braves
Central
Here’s a sentence that hasn’t been uttered in over a century. The Chicago Cubs go into the season as defending World Series champions. The target is squarely on their back. Their lineup is stacked. They’ll have Kyle Schwarber all season long barring injury. Remember that. He didn’t play apart from the first game last year. Another big weapon for the Cubs to have all year long. They still have Kris Bryant. They still have Anthony Rizzo. They still have Addison Russell. Their starting pitching staff is good. About the only weakness if their bullpen. No team is even going to be close to the Cubs this year.
I do believe that the St. Louis Cardinals make it to the playoffs again. I don’t think there is truly anything special about them this year. They aren’t filled with a lot of all-star caliber players, but all St. Louis does is win. I would love to take say the Colorado Rockies over the Cardinals, but I just can’t. I like the Pittsburgh Pirates a lot too, but they made some moves last year and didn’t get a lot in return. Will they be able to retain starting pitcher Gerrit Cole after this season? I know Cole says he wants a new deal. Will the Pirates deem him worth the money? They tried to look for a trade partner for Andrew McCutcheon this offseason. I feel like the Pirates are going to be right on the playoff line, but probably will miss out. Milwaukee won’t be anything special and the Cincinnati Reds are in full-fledge rebuilding mode. Trading Brandon Phillips and throwing the Opening Day roster out there shows that they are not going to do much of anything this season.
Predicted NL Central standings
1. Chicago Cubs
2. St. Louis Cardinals
3. Pittsburgh Pirates
4. Milwaukee Brewers
5. Cincinnati Reds
West
Last year it was an ever year (2016 if you don’t remember) and the streak finally ended where the San Francisco Giants won the World Series. No worries though. Their starting pitching staff is one of the best in Major League Baseball. Madison Bumgarner not only strikes guys out, but he hits homeruns too. Just look what he did Opening Day against the Diamondbacks belting out two homeruns. Then you throw at opposing teams Johnny Cueto, Matt Moore and Jeff Samardzija. That’s enough for me. Speaking of the Arizona Diamondbacks, they won the offseason last year and I was really tempted to take them and they were one of the biggest disappointments in baseball. They have one of the best hitters in the game that you have never heard of in Paul Goldschmidt. Hopefully they will be better this year.
Tough to go against the Los Angeles Dodgers and ace Clayton Kershaw and shortstop Corey Seager is going to have a second straight really good year. Will Yasiel Puig mature a little more? Hopefully. The Giants are tough, but I think the Dodgers can outlast them. The San Diego Padres are absolutely dreadful. Their entire Opening Day roster makes under $30 million. It’s going to be a long year for the Padres and their fans. At least they have football season to look forward to with the Chargers…oh wait. Way too soon. I’m sorry San Diego. You didn’t deserve to lose the Chargers. They’ll do awful in L.A. That was a cheap shot that you didn’t deserve.
The team I am most intrigued by in this division is the Colorado Rockies. Their offense is going to score so many runs. DJ LeMahieu won the batting title last year. Trevor Story hit a bunch of homeruns early in the season and was going to hit close to forty until he got injured. He was quite the story. Can their pitching hold up? It’s a young staff. Coors Field is a tough place to pitch, but the Rockies are trying to change things up getting Greg Holland from the Royals to help their bullpen. If this team doesn’t make the playoffs they are just missing out. Perhaps they are a year away. They’re close. Very close.
Predicted NL West standings
1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. San Francisco Giants
3. Colorado Rockies
4. Arizona Diamondbacks
5. San Diego Padres
NL Playoff matchups (sure to be wrong)
Wild card: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants
Wild card winner (probably the Giants) vs. Chicago Cubs
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Washington Nationals
NLCS: Washington Nationals vs. Chicago Cubs
NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw
NL MVP: Bryce Harper
NL Champion: Chicago Cubs
World Series: Chicago Cubs vs. Cleveland Indians
A rematch in the World Series? Yes! The Indians have added another piece in Encarnacion. The Cubs are loaded, but they ended their World Series drought last year. It’s the Indians turn to do so for the first time since 1948.
World Series Champion: Cleveland Indians
Enjoy the baseball season everyone. See you in October for playoff baseball!
Coming up Monday: Reaction to top stories in the sports world.
Coming up later next week: NHL and NBA playoff previews
