Post by Ken Rosenthal on Apr 25, 2016 10:30:07 GMT -5
NEW YORK - Ken Rosenthal here, bringing you all the action from Week 3 around the league.
Week 3 has us taking a second look at some teams. Whether it's Baltimore's emergence as the top team thus far in the American League, or Pittsburgh and Detroit's difficult starts to the season. The most incredible thing through three weeks is that Cincinnati leads the league in scoring, yet hasn't won a game. You've gotta love baseball... unless you're from Cincinnati.
So as always, take a seat, grab a snack, and enjoy some (occasionally very) opinionated writing about your team. Previous rankings will be noted in parenthesis.
Group 5: The Next Year's Draft Prospects Fan Club
#30: New York Mets (0-3)
The Committee of One was a bit concerned when the Mets were actually negative in points during the middle of the week. New York is tanking, but negative points? It seems to have sparked league discussion about tanking and could have an impact on teams like New York and Toronto in the future.
#29: Toronto Blue Jays (0-3)
Expect Chase Utley (27 points in Week 3) to perhaps find a new home in the coming weeks. While there's nothing else to see really on this roster, Utley has quietly been solid at second despite getting up there in years. With his affordable contract, he's a perfect trade candidate.
#28: Chicago White Sox (1-2)
Chicago couldn't quite hang with the Indians, and they lost a game that could have put them in a tie for first place in the AL Central with a win. Outfielder Dexter Fowler has been a pleasant surprise thus far. He's 5th in scoring among all players with 103.
#27(26): St. Louis Cardinals (0-3)
The Cards are the latest victim of the buzzsaw that is the Milwaukee Brewers. With Clayton Kerhsaw, Zack Greinke, and Jose Fernandez at the top of the rotation, one might suspect that St. Louis might try to break up that trio eventually in hopes of getting some help at other positions where they are in need.
#26(27): Cleveland Indians (1-2)
Cleveland pulled off the victory against Chicago, putting them in the large tie for second in the AL Central. Corey Kluber was magnificent, going 8 innings and striking out 10 for 27.8 points. Don't count any team in the AL Central out too early... especially with Detroit struggling.
#25(23): Atlanta Braves (0-3)
For a few days, it looked like Atlanta might be on their way to an upset against division rival Washington. Then, alas, Thursday brought a 91-28 advantage to the Nationals, who never looked back. The National League is incredibly talented this season, so this likely isn't the year that a mediocre team like Atlanta sneaks in the playoffs.
#24(25): San Francisco Giants (1-2)
San Francisco followed up their victory over Atlanta last week by nearly knocking off San Diego. Melky Cabrera and Todd Frazier were terrific, scoring 37.5 and 36.5 points respectively. This team could be closer to maybe... 7 wins by the season's end once some of these prospects start to come up. A great improvement for San Francisco.
Group 4: The So-So's... The Not-so-great's... the Okay's
#23(22): Boston Red Sox (0-3)
Through his first four starts, Jason Hammel is 3-0, with 22 strikeouts, and a 0.75 ERA. In two starts against Oakland, Hammel had 45.3 points. Boston gets three straight divisional games against New York, Toronto, and Tampa Bay. Taking two of three would be a best-case scenario for Boston.
#22(20): Colorado Rockies (1-2)
Colorado hung with the D'backs for awhile, but eventually were overtaken by the division leaders. A great start for young ace, Aaron Nola. He went for 7 innings, gave up one run, and struck out seven. Colorado will need him to continue to blossom at the top of the rotation. The team gets San Francisco next week.
#21(24): Kansas City Royals (1-2)
The Royals picked up their first win of the season, defeating the New York Yankees, who as I said last week, they'll play again soon. For now, the Royals have a huge game against the Minnesota Twins in Week 4. In a division where anyone could potentially take it and run with it, all of these AL Central games are big.
#20(19): Pittsburgh Pirates (1-2)
The bottom fell off for Pittsburgh in Week 3 against the Astros. Houston clobbered them, winning by nearly 200 points. This is a new low for Pittsburgh, as things were trending upwards until this season. It's a difficult situation to be in with all of the great talent that the Pirates still have.
#19(18): New York Yankees (1-2)
Corey Seager is here. The Yankees prized rookie put up his best week as a pro to date, scoring 34.5 points in the loss against the Royals. New York has two big games against Boston and Baltimore coming up. With the American League experiencing a down year, there's a chance for New York to sneak in. Wins here at the beginning of the year will be crucial.
Group 3: The possible playoff participants
#18(17): Detroit Tigers (1-2)
Detroit needed to get the victory against their division rival, the Minnesota Twins. They didn't. The Tigers rank 21st in scoring compared to the rest of the league. That simply isn't good enough. Still, this team has a lot of talent, and perhaps they've simply been underperforming. Slow starts happen.
#17(21): Seattle Mariners (2-1)
Seattle has now rattled off two straight wins after a huge upset against Tampa Bay this week. The Mariners have a chance to really grab a lot of wins early, as they play Cleveland, Chicago, and then Cleveland again in the coming weeks. If all goes well, we could see the Mariners at 5-1 going into a Week 7 matchup with L.A..
#16(13): Cincinnati Reds (0-3)
The Committee of One is simply flabbergasted as to what the Reds are currently experiencing. Cincinnati is not only a leading scorer compared to the rest of the league, but they've actually scored more points than anyone in the first three weeks... yet they have no wins to show for it. Thankfully, things ease up with a game against St. Louis next week.
#15: Los Angeles Dodgers (2-1)
The Dodgers picked up the "Easy-win-of-the-week" against the New York Mets and moved to 2-1, good for second in the NL West thanks to San Diego's rough start. John Lackey started two games. He pitched 7 innings, giving up no runs and striking out 11 at the beginning of the week. Then, Lackey only went 5 innings, giving up 6 runs and striking out just 5 on Saturday. What happened John?
#14(16): Minnesota Twins (2-1)
Minnesota got a huge victory in Week 3 over the Detroit Tigers. The win puts them at first place, with a handful of teams a game behind them early in the season. Some could begin to see Minnesota, not Detroit, as the front-runner in this division over the coming weeks.
#13(14): Oakland Athletics (2-1)
After a very disappointing showing against Los Angeles to start the season, Oakland is slowly but surely convincing fans that they're still the team that went 16-3 last season. They would certainly convince the Committee of One next week by knocking off the Orioles.
Group 2: The Contenders... They're for real
#12(9): San Diego Padres (1-2)
Despite beating San Francisco, San Diego still under-performed expectations, and the Giants nearly stole it from them. The Padres made a move to acquire starter Jorge De La Rosa from Boston, in exchange for outfielder Matt Holliday. Will the move propel San Diego back towards the top? We shall see. In the Committee's opinion, San Diego needs to win two out of the next three against Los Angeles, Arizona, and Washington.
#11(6): Miami Marlins (1-2)
The Marlins barely lost to their rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies. The final score: 295.4-293.7. What a heart-breaker. While Miami is still scoring well (7th in the league so far), there's still cause for concern in the National League where five teams still remain undefeated through three, putting Miami two games behind all of them.
#10(7): Texas Rangers (2-1)
This was the war of the American League for the week, as Texas and Baltimore put on a show for fans. Ultimately, the Orioles prevailed, and Texas now joins Oakland and Seattle in looking up at L.A. at the top of the division.
#9(10): Washington Nationals (3-0)
Washington took care of business against Atlanta and is one of seven teams remaining in the league with a perfect record after three games. It's been a balanced scoring attack for Washington. No one scored over 30 points, yet the team finished with more than 300 points, which means no one has a usage rate over 10%. A good sign for the Nats.
#8(11): Baltimore Orioles (3-0)
Baltimore picked up a big one against Texas in Week 3, and now is at the top of the AL East division after Tampa Bay fell to Seattle. Bryce Harper has been literally insane... the outfielder scored 39.5 points this past week, and has a league leading 129.5 heading into Week 4. The Orioles get Oakland next week.
#7(3): Tampa Bay Rays (2-1)
The low-point totals caught up to the Rays in Week 3, as Seattle defeated Tampa with only 286 points. The Rays haven't quite been the dominate team they were last season, scoring only 721.5 points so far this season. There's still plenty of time to right the ship, however. A gargantuan matchup against Los Angeles awaits this week.
#6(12): Houston Astros (3-0)
I mentioned that Houston had gone from #20 to #12 in two weeks last week... how about #20 to #6 in 3 weeks. Houston blew out another team with a victory over Pittsburgh. Is it safe to say that this team is for real this season? The Committee of One now thinks so.
#5(8): Milwaukee Brewers (3-0)
Mookie Betts played like a man-possessed against the St. Louis Cardinals, scoring 10+ points on three different days en route to a total of 50 for the week. Things have gone as well as they possibly could have for the Brewers so far. They now gear up for perhaps the biggest game of the week when they play the Houston Astros.
#4: Arizona D'backs (3-0)
Arizona was able to hold off the Rockies and keep their perfect record going. We've yet to see Arizona really flex their muscles and put together a huge scoring week. A big statement win would help instill confidence in their fans in a difficult National League this season. Hats off to Odubel Herrera, who scored a massive 22 points on Saturday, 35.5 over the entire week.
Group 1: The Best of the Best
#3(5): Chicago Cubs (2-1)
Chicago has earned the promotion into the top Group with a thrilling win over the win-less, but great Cincinnati Reds. Chicago led the league in scoring with nearly 400 points in Week 3. Catcher Welington Castillo played like a mad-man, hitting 5 home runs. He finished with the game with 50.5 points.
#2: Los Angeles Angels (3-0)
Enjoy that free win against the Blue Jays, because a big game against Tampa awaits the Angels this week. The Angels look great so far, especially when Ian Desmond (46.5 points) plays at the level he did last week against Toronto.
#1: Philadelphia Phillies (3-0)
The Phillies once again hold the top spot in the league, as they were able to just barely beat the Marlins. The team was led by their closer, Kenley Jansen, who racked up four saves during the week. Philadelphia will certainly be tested in the coming weeks, as they Arizona, Washington, and Arizona in consecutive weeks... all three of these teams are currently unbeaten.
Biggest +: Astros +6
Biggest -: Marlins -5
Week 4 GoTW: D'backs vs. Phillies/Astros vs. Brewers
Week 4 Match-ups & The Committee's Predictions (in bold)
Rockies vs. Giants
Cardinals vs. Reds
Brewers vs. Astros
Cubs vs. Pirates
Dodgers vs. Padres
Marlins vs. Braves
Nationals vs. Mets
D'backs vs. Phillies
Mariners vs. Indians
Orioles vs. Athletics
Red Sox vs. Yankees
Blue Jays vs. White Sox
Twins vs. Royals
Angels vs. Rays
Tigers vs. Rangers
The Committee's record:
Wk. 3: 9-6
Overall: 31-14[/div]
Week 3 has us taking a second look at some teams. Whether it's Baltimore's emergence as the top team thus far in the American League, or Pittsburgh and Detroit's difficult starts to the season. The most incredible thing through three weeks is that Cincinnati leads the league in scoring, yet hasn't won a game. You've gotta love baseball... unless you're from Cincinnati.
So as always, take a seat, grab a snack, and enjoy some (occasionally very) opinionated writing about your team. Previous rankings will be noted in parenthesis.
Group 5: The Next Year's Draft Prospects Fan Club
#30: New York Mets (0-3)
The Committee of One was a bit concerned when the Mets were actually negative in points during the middle of the week. New York is tanking, but negative points? It seems to have sparked league discussion about tanking and could have an impact on teams like New York and Toronto in the future.
#29: Toronto Blue Jays (0-3)
Expect Chase Utley (27 points in Week 3) to perhaps find a new home in the coming weeks. While there's nothing else to see really on this roster, Utley has quietly been solid at second despite getting up there in years. With his affordable contract, he's a perfect trade candidate.
#28: Chicago White Sox (1-2)
Chicago couldn't quite hang with the Indians, and they lost a game that could have put them in a tie for first place in the AL Central with a win. Outfielder Dexter Fowler has been a pleasant surprise thus far. He's 5th in scoring among all players with 103.
#27(26): St. Louis Cardinals (0-3)
The Cards are the latest victim of the buzzsaw that is the Milwaukee Brewers. With Clayton Kerhsaw, Zack Greinke, and Jose Fernandez at the top of the rotation, one might suspect that St. Louis might try to break up that trio eventually in hopes of getting some help at other positions where they are in need.
#26(27): Cleveland Indians (1-2)
Cleveland pulled off the victory against Chicago, putting them in the large tie for second in the AL Central. Corey Kluber was magnificent, going 8 innings and striking out 10 for 27.8 points. Don't count any team in the AL Central out too early... especially with Detroit struggling.
#25(23): Atlanta Braves (0-3)
For a few days, it looked like Atlanta might be on their way to an upset against division rival Washington. Then, alas, Thursday brought a 91-28 advantage to the Nationals, who never looked back. The National League is incredibly talented this season, so this likely isn't the year that a mediocre team like Atlanta sneaks in the playoffs.
#24(25): San Francisco Giants (1-2)
San Francisco followed up their victory over Atlanta last week by nearly knocking off San Diego. Melky Cabrera and Todd Frazier were terrific, scoring 37.5 and 36.5 points respectively. This team could be closer to maybe... 7 wins by the season's end once some of these prospects start to come up. A great improvement for San Francisco.
Group 4: The So-So's... The Not-so-great's... the Okay's
#23(22): Boston Red Sox (0-3)
Through his first four starts, Jason Hammel is 3-0, with 22 strikeouts, and a 0.75 ERA. In two starts against Oakland, Hammel had 45.3 points. Boston gets three straight divisional games against New York, Toronto, and Tampa Bay. Taking two of three would be a best-case scenario for Boston.
#22(20): Colorado Rockies (1-2)
Colorado hung with the D'backs for awhile, but eventually were overtaken by the division leaders. A great start for young ace, Aaron Nola. He went for 7 innings, gave up one run, and struck out seven. Colorado will need him to continue to blossom at the top of the rotation. The team gets San Francisco next week.
#21(24): Kansas City Royals (1-2)
The Royals picked up their first win of the season, defeating the New York Yankees, who as I said last week, they'll play again soon. For now, the Royals have a huge game against the Minnesota Twins in Week 4. In a division where anyone could potentially take it and run with it, all of these AL Central games are big.
#20(19): Pittsburgh Pirates (1-2)
The bottom fell off for Pittsburgh in Week 3 against the Astros. Houston clobbered them, winning by nearly 200 points. This is a new low for Pittsburgh, as things were trending upwards until this season. It's a difficult situation to be in with all of the great talent that the Pirates still have.
#19(18): New York Yankees (1-2)
Corey Seager is here. The Yankees prized rookie put up his best week as a pro to date, scoring 34.5 points in the loss against the Royals. New York has two big games against Boston and Baltimore coming up. With the American League experiencing a down year, there's a chance for New York to sneak in. Wins here at the beginning of the year will be crucial.
Group 3: The possible playoff participants
#18(17): Detroit Tigers (1-2)
Detroit needed to get the victory against their division rival, the Minnesota Twins. They didn't. The Tigers rank 21st in scoring compared to the rest of the league. That simply isn't good enough. Still, this team has a lot of talent, and perhaps they've simply been underperforming. Slow starts happen.
#17(21): Seattle Mariners (2-1)
Seattle has now rattled off two straight wins after a huge upset against Tampa Bay this week. The Mariners have a chance to really grab a lot of wins early, as they play Cleveland, Chicago, and then Cleveland again in the coming weeks. If all goes well, we could see the Mariners at 5-1 going into a Week 7 matchup with L.A..
#16(13): Cincinnati Reds (0-3)
The Committee of One is simply flabbergasted as to what the Reds are currently experiencing. Cincinnati is not only a leading scorer compared to the rest of the league, but they've actually scored more points than anyone in the first three weeks... yet they have no wins to show for it. Thankfully, things ease up with a game against St. Louis next week.
#15: Los Angeles Dodgers (2-1)
The Dodgers picked up the "Easy-win-of-the-week" against the New York Mets and moved to 2-1, good for second in the NL West thanks to San Diego's rough start. John Lackey started two games. He pitched 7 innings, giving up no runs and striking out 11 at the beginning of the week. Then, Lackey only went 5 innings, giving up 6 runs and striking out just 5 on Saturday. What happened John?
#14(16): Minnesota Twins (2-1)
Minnesota got a huge victory in Week 3 over the Detroit Tigers. The win puts them at first place, with a handful of teams a game behind them early in the season. Some could begin to see Minnesota, not Detroit, as the front-runner in this division over the coming weeks.
#13(14): Oakland Athletics (2-1)
After a very disappointing showing against Los Angeles to start the season, Oakland is slowly but surely convincing fans that they're still the team that went 16-3 last season. They would certainly convince the Committee of One next week by knocking off the Orioles.
Group 2: The Contenders... They're for real
#12(9): San Diego Padres (1-2)
Despite beating San Francisco, San Diego still under-performed expectations, and the Giants nearly stole it from them. The Padres made a move to acquire starter Jorge De La Rosa from Boston, in exchange for outfielder Matt Holliday. Will the move propel San Diego back towards the top? We shall see. In the Committee's opinion, San Diego needs to win two out of the next three against Los Angeles, Arizona, and Washington.
#11(6): Miami Marlins (1-2)
The Marlins barely lost to their rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies. The final score: 295.4-293.7. What a heart-breaker. While Miami is still scoring well (7th in the league so far), there's still cause for concern in the National League where five teams still remain undefeated through three, putting Miami two games behind all of them.
#10(7): Texas Rangers (2-1)
This was the war of the American League for the week, as Texas and Baltimore put on a show for fans. Ultimately, the Orioles prevailed, and Texas now joins Oakland and Seattle in looking up at L.A. at the top of the division.
#9(10): Washington Nationals (3-0)
Washington took care of business against Atlanta and is one of seven teams remaining in the league with a perfect record after three games. It's been a balanced scoring attack for Washington. No one scored over 30 points, yet the team finished with more than 300 points, which means no one has a usage rate over 10%. A good sign for the Nats.
#8(11): Baltimore Orioles (3-0)
Baltimore picked up a big one against Texas in Week 3, and now is at the top of the AL East division after Tampa Bay fell to Seattle. Bryce Harper has been literally insane... the outfielder scored 39.5 points this past week, and has a league leading 129.5 heading into Week 4. The Orioles get Oakland next week.
#7(3): Tampa Bay Rays (2-1)
The low-point totals caught up to the Rays in Week 3, as Seattle defeated Tampa with only 286 points. The Rays haven't quite been the dominate team they were last season, scoring only 721.5 points so far this season. There's still plenty of time to right the ship, however. A gargantuan matchup against Los Angeles awaits this week.
#6(12): Houston Astros (3-0)
I mentioned that Houston had gone from #20 to #12 in two weeks last week... how about #20 to #6 in 3 weeks. Houston blew out another team with a victory over Pittsburgh. Is it safe to say that this team is for real this season? The Committee of One now thinks so.
#5(8): Milwaukee Brewers (3-0)
Mookie Betts played like a man-possessed against the St. Louis Cardinals, scoring 10+ points on three different days en route to a total of 50 for the week. Things have gone as well as they possibly could have for the Brewers so far. They now gear up for perhaps the biggest game of the week when they play the Houston Astros.
#4: Arizona D'backs (3-0)
Arizona was able to hold off the Rockies and keep their perfect record going. We've yet to see Arizona really flex their muscles and put together a huge scoring week. A big statement win would help instill confidence in their fans in a difficult National League this season. Hats off to Odubel Herrera, who scored a massive 22 points on Saturday, 35.5 over the entire week.
Group 1: The Best of the Best
#3(5): Chicago Cubs (2-1)
Chicago has earned the promotion into the top Group with a thrilling win over the win-less, but great Cincinnati Reds. Chicago led the league in scoring with nearly 400 points in Week 3. Catcher Welington Castillo played like a mad-man, hitting 5 home runs. He finished with the game with 50.5 points.
#2: Los Angeles Angels (3-0)
Enjoy that free win against the Blue Jays, because a big game against Tampa awaits the Angels this week. The Angels look great so far, especially when Ian Desmond (46.5 points) plays at the level he did last week against Toronto.
#1: Philadelphia Phillies (3-0)
The Phillies once again hold the top spot in the league, as they were able to just barely beat the Marlins. The team was led by their closer, Kenley Jansen, who racked up four saves during the week. Philadelphia will certainly be tested in the coming weeks, as they Arizona, Washington, and Arizona in consecutive weeks... all three of these teams are currently unbeaten.
Biggest +: Astros +6
Biggest -: Marlins -5
Week 4 GoTW: D'backs vs. Phillies/Astros vs. Brewers
Week 4 Match-ups & The Committee's Predictions (in bold)
Rockies vs. Giants
Cardinals vs. Reds
Brewers vs. Astros
Cubs vs. Pirates
Dodgers vs. Padres
Marlins vs. Braves
Nationals vs. Mets
D'backs vs. Phillies
Mariners vs. Indians
Orioles vs. Athletics
Red Sox vs. Yankees
Blue Jays vs. White Sox
Twins vs. Royals
Angels vs. Rays
Tigers vs. Rangers
The Committee's record:
Wk. 3: 9-6
Overall: 31-14[/div]