Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2021: POWER TWOS Part three

 

MARCO’S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2021: POWER TWOS

PART THREE: AMERICAN LEAGUE (contenders only!)*

*if your team is NOT trying to win but is actively embarking on some 3

year plan where you lose as much as you can and collect draft choices why should I rate you? Why should baseball fans watch a team that wants and expects to lose? Go ahead, sell or trade your stars so the fans have nothing and nobody to be loyal too. But watch out...baseball fans are used to watching television and there are some great teams out there to root for. You can live in Pittsburg and root for the Cardinals.

AL EAST:

New York Yankees: Yankees, Yankees, Yankees. It’s all about the Yankees isn’t it? They get more coverage than Sherwin Williams. And the tone of Yankee Press is almost insufferable when the Bombers have, as they now do, a really good team. They are the Annoited Ones! Retaking their rightful place as God-Emperors of Baseball! Hail to the Chief O you Inflated Sons of the Bronx! You are so magnificently obnoxious in your Perceived Superiority!

But wait a minute...didn’t the Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series last season? And wasn’t their opponent the distinctly non-dynastic Tampa Bay Rays? (The one time ‘Devil’ Rays who changed their name rather than admit that they must have sold their souls at the crossroads to the Evil One in exchange for a lifetime of spectacular young pitching draft choices.) And haven’t the Yankees’ favorite doormat, the Boston Red Sox, won a total of four (4!) World Series since the turn of the millenium while the fabled pinstripers have won a total of just two (2)?

Never mind….never mind... say the Yankee punditry. According to them, the over-under for the Yanks this season is a ridiculous 100 games won. Give me a break! I mean, they might actually win that many but the hubris is questionable. The Yankees have holes. They have problems. They have warts. What they don’t have is enough starting pitching, enough healthy ballplayers, enough left-handed hitters and enough extra hockey goalie padding to prevent catcher Gary Sanchez from exceeding the 100 passed balls over-under!

Now I’m sure you remember my latest team evaluation gizmo the Power Twos, in which I predict a teams’ success based on their strength in 4 areas: the presence of 2 terrific hitters in the first five positions of the lineup (MVP votes), 2 Ace starting pitchers, 2 close-down relief pitchers and 4 above average middle of the field defensive players with at least 2 of them being Gold Glove candidates, past winners etc.

These key players are present on every big-time winning baseball team of the century with remarkable consistency. If a winning team is short in one of those areas, they seem to have made up the difference with extra power in one of the other four areas of observation. I assign stars for each “Money” player at one of the key positions and add stars and half stars or take them away for other players who boost the team’s chances or, in some cases, lessen them. But of course, whereas a Gold Glove defender at shortstop might be worth one star, a gold glover in right field would only get a half star because of the relative importance of the position and frequency of fielding chances. (Only a player like Mookie Betts, who had a shocking number of defensive runs saved might qualify for a full star of defensive worth playing right field.)

An average player gets no stars. That’s the given ground floor. Teams are rewarded or punished based on distance from the mean. (“Average” is basically competent. Below average players are replaced rapidly in the Bigs. They bring up somebody else. Below average players are usually guys who are great hitters but disastrous fielders or vice versa. The team pays a price for their competence in another phase.)

All of these observations are supported by examples and explanations found in my previous treatise of last week...POWER TWOS: PART ONE and TWO.

So keeping all that in mind let us evaluate the Yankees:

Bats: The problem here is which players are the Power Two to start with? The Yankees, it’s true, have an astonishing array of power hitters. Normally, you’d look at Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge as your big scary guys. They could be if they stay healthy, but that hasn’t happened since they started playing regularly for this team. Hard to see that changing. These big guys are confirmed injury prones. The Power Two for the Yanks last season were D.J. LeMahieu and Luke Voit*. Let’s give those guys a well deserved 2 stars and make one full-time player out of Giancarlo and Aaron worth 1 star for now. (*late note: Voit down with torn knee meniscus and needs surgery. Out minimum 4 weeks. It begins again.)

Torres, Urshala and the rest of that line-up are worth at least a star (better than average but with reservations: Low batting averages for Hicks and Sanchez, major strike out rates etc..) Total of 4 stars. (note: the Yanks only batted .215 vs. left-handed starters in 2020 with an OPS of .710---a 100 points lower than vs. righties. Their left handed batters only hit .222 against RHPs. That’s not exactly taking advantage of the stadium’s natural bias in favor of left handed hitters.) Still, I think that awarding them 4 stars acknowledges a very potent….potentially devastating... offense.

Starters: Gerrit Cole is 1 ½ stars by himself. (Only somebody like Koufax or Gibson at their best would get two full stars. Steve Carlton in 1972, Guidry in 1978 etc. In other words, a one-man pitching staff.) Their other starters are all question marks. Corey Kluber is coming off major injuries. If he’s right he’s great. ‘If’ being the key word. James Taillon (2 TJ surgeries) and Jordan Montgomery (TJ) have only pitched a few innings of major league ball. Domingo German is a force both on the mound and in the home (where he battered his spouse and then resented being called out for it and said he was quitting baseball...Hmmm.) Let’s be generous and say 2 of those guys pitch well, 1 is average, and one is a bust… 1 star. Severino may or may not come back from surgery. Can’t give him any assumptions. 2 ½ stars

Bullpen: Used to be the class of baseball. But now Aroldis Chapman is older and not throwing 100 much any more. Zach Britton went down for the bone chip count this spring. They traded Ottovino to the Red Sox (interesting to see if that comes back on them). They still have Chad Green, Darren O’Day and other good arms out there… 3 stars (used to be more like 4 ½ )

Middle Defense: LeMahieu is a gold glover second sacker. Bret Gardner won one when he was younger. Hicks has a great arm but limited range and takes bad angles to the ball. Shortstop Gleyber Torres...minus 1/2 star. Catcher Sanchez...minus a full 1 ½ star at the essential defensive position for really execrable catching. The pitchers are afraid to throw a low breaking ball because they know he won’t block it. (Too bad because Scary Gary has one of the best throwing arms in the game.) Total -1 star

Team TOTAL: 8 ½ stars...you can’t base your predictions on hopeful assumptions. The Red Sox are better this year, the Blue Jays are a lot better, the Rays beat the Yankees like a red-headed step child last year and they play interleague with the loaded NL East this season. I think the Yankees’ over under should be about 93.

Toronto Blue Jays: The weirdest, most unpredictable thing about the Jays this year is how they will react...and the teams they play will react...to playing in the Jays spring home at Dunedin or their minor league park in Buffalo. There has been scuttlebutt about outfielders not seeing fly balls because there is no third deck to give them perspective. (So how did they make the team in the first place...weren’t they playing on those fields then?).

The fences are short, so will the powerful Jays set the new home run record or give up a record number? Just another strange asterisk in the Covid Era Almanac. Maybe Canada might remove their travel restrictions on teams crossing the border by mid season. Nobody knows. Play Ball.

Personally I think the young Blue Jays will get a kick out of the eyes of the baseball world being trained upon them for a change and rise to the challenge, wherever they play. I look for big doings from Springer, Bichette, Guerrero and company. It’s their pitching that might be the Achilles Heel.

Bats: Whoa! Is it Bichette and Guerrero? Gurriel and Teoscar Hernandez? George Springer and Rowdy Tellez? All of these guys have already proven they can do big things. If they all do it at once you’re about to witness a Big Bang. 4 ½ stars...conservatively.

Starters: Too bad they couldn’t entice Tweetin’ Twerkin’ Trevor the Terror Bauer up to Ontario… Hyun Jin Ryu, Robbie Ray, Steven Matz, Tanner Roark, Ross Stripling and injured Nate Pearson and Thomas Hatch looks like 1 Ace (Ryu) and a lot of average pitchers but I will give them a half star for depth. 1 ½ stars.

Bullpen: Kirby Yates is out for the season after his ‘strained forearm’ turned into the predictable ‘Tommy John surgery needed.’ That leaves the Jays with a whole lot of unproven relievers. Pitching in short-fenced ballparks. 0 stars.

Middle D: Whole kerfuffle with signing Marcus Semian, moving Guerrero to first, Bichette to third, signing Joe Panik to play second and floating Cavan Biggio as a super utility guy leads one to believe that Bo Bichette must have some kind of limitations as a major league shortstop. But with a week left before they break camp the Blue Jays still have Bichette at shortstop. I think he’s comfortable there and God knows he’s been hitting so well, they probably want to keep the kid happy. Lucky Blue Jays...they have a player who wants to do as much as he can on the diamond.

One infield star for Semian, wherever he winds up playing, 1 for Springer in center, 1 for depth and versatility and Joe Panik’s gold glove. Total of 3 for Middle D.

Total: 9 stars ...and they’re comin’ to GIT YA!

Boston Red Sox: Here’s where I have to watch out for those pesky ‘Hopeful Assumptions’.

Being a Red Sox fan, I want to assume that leftie Eduardo Rodriguez is going to pick up where he left off in 2019 before he got the pestilence that left him with damage to the lining of his heart. I want to assume that Chris Sale will come roaring back to Ace-hood in the middle of the season and start whiplashing strikes passed hitters. Nathan Eovaldi is ready to have that classic year and be the Ace he was always meant to be. Nick Pivetta’s 8.22 ERA last year was misleading...everybody knows that.

Yes...if I can just BELIEVE...the Sox will rise again!!! (And maybe flying ring-tailed lemurs will emerge from my gastric regions.)

Bats: J.D.Martinez gets to look at videos of his swing in the dugout this year after it was being banned last year. So hot damn, write him down for .320/44/135 or so. And Devers will surely get a hundred extra base hits and drive in another 120. Put Bogaerts at about .340/25/110. Don’t you think Bobby Dalbec looks a lot like Tony Conigliaro? Alex Verdugo will make fans forget what’s his name….Mooch, or something like that. Franchy Cordero is Mo Vaughn reborn! Kiki Hernandez has been a 30 home run guy in disguise all this time! Can you Feel the Love!...Oh Hell. It’s starting again...

Reality Check: 2 ½ stars

Starters: Come the Sober Dawn...1/2 star

Bullpen: Matt Barnes? Still?...Why O Lord...Why?? 1/2 star.

Middle D: 2 stars.

Total: 5 ½ stars….can I buy my Playoff tickets yet?

Tampa Bay Rays: I keep thinking why it is that I don’t like the Rays. Sure they used to fight with the Red Sox all the time, but everybody fights with the Red Sox. (Something about the atmosphere in Beantown. Irish pugilism is frequently required.) Maybe it’s that terrible ballyard they habitate, or the lazy ex-Yankee fans who moved down there to Florida to play shuffleboard instead of going to the ballpark and supporting a really excellent team. I keep thinking of all the cities in America that would love to support a perennial playoff team like the Rays.

But the truth is that the Rays are an admirable baseball organization. They have less money than almost any other team and yet you never hear them whine. They just go out and find the best young players in the game. Their winning percentage on picking young pitchers is astounding.

They put their young players into the lineup immediately. None of this “waiting to start the arbitration eligiblility clock” for the Rays because when their young players are eligible to make more money they’ll be let go or traded.

Maybe it’s that I resent the way the Rays have turned baseball on its ear with the whole “opener” pitching gimmick. Throw a relief pitcher for one inning, then bring in a 3 inning starter who won’t have to go through the order twice. Stuff like that has eliminated the twenty game-winning Ace Stud starting pitcher from the game. No more shutouts or one-pitcher no hitters. It sucks.

But it works, which is even worse. And other teams have copied them because it works and now we have teams playing 1 game for 4 hours and each one uses 7 or 8 hurlers. Boring! And the hitters have to face fresh arms throwing the ball 101 mph all the time. More and more Ks….less and less hits...Boring! And it’s all the Rays fault.

Okay, now I remember why I don’t like them…

Bats: Randy Arozarena... Brandon Lowe…? I guess so. Put them down for 30 homers each and 100 rbis. The rest of the Rays don’t hit much...but they hit in the clutch. 2 stars.

Starters: They have Tyler Glasnow and he is bona fide. The rest are a bunch of reclamation projects. Michael Wacha, Chris Archer, Rich Hill? Somehow the Rays coaches will miraculously turn them all into big winners again. I’m breaking my own rule by assuming, but it’s happened too many times to be a coincidence. The Rays WILL have good pitchers on the mound. Always. 2 ½ stars.

Bullpen: They lost Nick Anderson for awhile but they are deep with no- name guys who have good arms and will respond to the coaching. 2 ½ stars.

Middle D: Catchers: Zunino and Mejia are average and below average respectfully. Neither hits which makes it worse. No stars. Shortstop: Willie Adames is a human wind turbine at the plate...you know...he makes big breezes and scares birds. But in the field he is first rate. 1 star. Second: Brandon Lowe. 0 stars. Will probably turn into a utility guy when Uber-Phenom Wander Franco arrives from the Minors. Wander will play second or third because he’s young and probably not as good on D as Willie Adames. But Wander Hits... Oh Yes He Does. Center field is top five. Kevin Keirmeyer...3 Gold Gloves. 1 ½ star. Total Middle D 2 ½ stars.

Team Total: 9 ½ stars...so guess who is rated first in the AL East?

AL CENTRAL:

Minnesota Twins:

Bats: It was Nelson Cruz and Eddie Rosario in 2019, then at various times Cruz with Donaldson, Miguel Sano, or Max (“Launch Angle”) Kepler. All of those guys except Rosario (Cleveland) are back. Sano batted .204 last year. (with a 40% K rate.) Kepler and Donaldson were in the .220s. The Twins offense is not built around batting average or on-base percentage. They like to send 7 guys a day up there who can wind up with 25-35 homers for the season. Cruz is the only true blue all-around hitter. 3 stars for depth and sheer power. If that seems low for the team that set the new home run record, just remember that most of their lineup spent time on the IL last year. It’s hard to see Buxton, Polanco or Donaldson making it through a whole season.

Starters: Kenta Maeda almost won the Cy Young last year throwing only 26% fastballs. 0.750 WHIP! Think the league might adjust a little bit this time around? Maeda even being on the Twins is mainly a testament to the incredible depth of the Los Angeles Dodgers staff. Who let him go? Jose Berrios is on his way up. Then they have some decent but inconsistent men like Michael ( “Pine Tar”) Pineda who will try to keep the Twins in it. I have major concerns with this staff. 1 ½ star.

Bullpen: Their closer is Taylor Rogers and batters have learned to expect the slider. It could get ugly. Not much help other than Tyler Duffy and his curve ball. 1 star

Middle D: One of the best. Start with Byron Buxton and his 3 gold gloves in center. He can run down a cheetah. Andrelton Simmons at short has 4 GGs and pretty high MVP votes based on his defense alone. Luis Arraez is at second and he’s solid both defensively and offensively. Young catcher Ryan Jeffers has people muttering about Carlton Fisk. That’s encouraging for the Twinks. Buxton and Simmons together are worth 3 stars. 1 for the rest of the middle and another ½ for solid help in Kepler and Donaldson. 4 ½ stars

Total: 10 stars...you think it’s all about the homers for the Twins but it turns out the defense is the backbone of their strength. I don’t see their pitching holding up however.

Cleveland Indians: Trying to do the best they possibly can to win something before they lose all their current stars. I love the Indians...they compete. No more Lindor, no more Carlos Santana. No more Carlos Carrasco. Adios closer Brad Hand. But nobody is talking rebuild. They seem ready to die with their boots on.

Bats: They have to have somebody to protect Jose Ramirez in that lineup and they might have come up with something special in Franmil Reyes, a huge guy with 40-50 home run a year power. Think Cecil Fielder in a little better shape. Eddie Rosario gives them an outfielder who can actually hit for a change. Those 3 are worth 2 ½ stars.

Starters: Shane Bieber...Cy Young...14 Ks per 9...1.63 ERA...0.87 WHIP

… 1 ½ stars. Zach Plesac, Triston McKenzie, Aaron Civale et al...1 ½ stars. A very strong looking group. 3 stars

Bullpen: James Karinchak struck out 50 of 106 hitters as the setup man when Brad Hand was the closer. Nick Wittgren great changeup. Emmanuel Clase triple digit fastball. And manager Terry Francona is the best bullpen handler of all. 3 stars.

Middle D: They got two young shortstops from the Mets for Francisco Lindor. That wasn’t enough because they’re not that good. Amed Rosario has not shown chops at all. But he’s their shortstop. Andres Gimenez is a good defender but will start at second for the Tribals. If Rosario flunks, they’ll move Gimenez to short and put Yu Chang or somebody at second. Until the dust settles, no stars. Bradley Zimmer and Oscar Mercado will platoon in center. Mercado has the glove but zilchoid with the bat. Zim is coming back from surgery. The only star the Tribe will get for Middle D is catcher Roberto Perez, the Fielding Bible and Gold Glove award winner two years running.

Total: 1 star.

Grand Total for the Cuyahogas: 9 ½ stars... Surprise surprise. If they can score enough runs, the pitching may carry them to victory.

Chicago White Sox: Along with the Toronto Blue Jays, the most interesting team in the majors going into the 2021 season. They were favored to finish on top in the division before they lost outfielder Eloy Jimenez to a torn chest tendon on a wall collision. Here’s what they look like to me:

Bats: Bats and more bats! The Sox have righty sluggers Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu and Luis Robert...all of whom hit for power. Then they have rookie boppers Andrew Vaughn and Yermin Mercedes who were launching baseballs all Spring. From the left side the Sox can serve up Adam Eaton and Catcher/DH Zack Collins and they feature Yasmani Grandal, Leury Garcia and Yoan Moncada as everyday switch hitters. Sliding Billy Hamilton is another switch hitter who can help outfield defense and the running game. And don’t forget second sacker Nick Madrigal, a .340 singles hitter.

So even without Jimenez the Sox have a batting champ (Anderson) and the MVP (Abreu) backed up by rookie hotshot Luis Robert and Yoan Moncada who did some serious raking this Spring. With their depth, versatility and variety of offensive styles... On base guys, high average guys, home run threats and a bunch of fast runners...the White Sox are loaded. Period. They also have veteran leadership in Abreu, Eaton and Grandal to temper all that youthful enthusiasm. I put them down for 5 stars. Best offense in the game.

Starters: Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, Lance Lynn… all Aces at one time or another, they stack up well against any of the other American League rotations. Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodon back them up and the 100mph boys, Michael Kopech and Garret Crochet start out in the bullpen but are assumed to be future rotation horses. 4 stars.

Bullpen: Liam Hendricks...may be the best in baseball right now. The Sox also have Aaron Bummer, Evan Marshall, Cody Heuer and the luxury of Kopech and Crochet in reserve. 3 stars...(I counted Kopech and Crochet as backup Starters.)

Middle D: Robert is the Gold Glove winner in center. Tim Anderson is top five at shortstop. Grandal is GG finalist. Only Nick Madrigal is a question mark because he’s coming off shoulder surgery and hasn’t played a lot. Leury Garcia and Danny Mendrick back him up. The rest of the defense averages out. 3 stars.

Total: 15 stars...Whoops! The Southsiders are looking very strong here. They look capable of sweeping the table unless injuries mount. You’re looking at a team ready to win it all this season...at least as I read the signs. This is potentially a 105-110 win club.

Can a team this young really keep it together? That depends on Tony LaRussa, Jose Abreu and Lucas Giolito. As a manager, Tony’s got to bring his Jim Leyland/Joe Torre with him and leave his Leo Durocher/Hal McRae at home. Nurture first...cuddle those young Cubanos and eat Ropa Vieja with them.

Jose Abreu is the Willie Stargell Daddy to a whole team of Caribbean Dandies. He’s been in the US awhile and has to keep his herd in line with all the distractions of this country. Unlike, say, Cleveland...the White Sox don’t depend on one or two hitters to provide all the noise. They have 6 or 7 guys who can deliver big offense. Abreu is the Bell Cow that will keep them ambling contentedly up the road to a championship.

As far as Giolito goes, all the signs are there. Last year was just to get your attention going into a possibly epic year. His ERA was a little high for an Ace...3.48. But he struck out 12 per 9 innings and had a WHIP of 1.04. He threw a no-hitter in the regular season and 7 perfect innings in a Playoff game. He just looks like a Big Time Number One Hurler. Like Cole in 2019, Bieber last season or somebody on that level. We’ll see.

A young team like this needs the confidence a real Stopper brings. The Sox bullpen is lights out. If their starters stay healthy and if Giolito leads the way... it’s a hot time in the Old Town tonight.

HONORABLE MENTION: THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS

I say honorable mention because unlike some of those OTHER teams, KC hasn’t packed it up and stopped competing. Sure, they had to trade some guys or let them go via free agency like Eric Hosmer. But they made some shrewd trades and recruited some good guys and used the draft and got back to being competitive asap. Now they are in position to maybe make a run at a wild card if everything goes right. That’s asking a lot of course and the Royals probably won’t win anything this season. But by Gosh they seem to have a little pride over there in KC and we should applaud that.

The Royals have to use what their park gives them when it comes to winning edges and what wins at Kauffmann Stadium is defense, pitching and speed. To that end they’ve collected speedy gap hitters like Alberto Mondesi, Whit Merrifield and now Andrew Benintendi (who fits better in their park than did the guy they traded for Andrew, Franchy Cordero.) Now they probably have to think about trading Merrifield and Jorge Soler. Jorge is a great slugger but strikes out prodigiously and is a rotten outfielder. Merrifield is 32. Those two guys could bring the extra prospects the Royals need to complete their rebuild (or close to it.)

Bats: Soler and Merrifield. Maybe transitioning to Mondesi , Sal Perez, Carlos Santana. 2 ½ stars.

Starters: Danny Duffy and hopefully Brady Singer and Brad Keller. For now they don’t scare anybody. 1 star.

Bullpen: This pen only blew one save all season. Greg Holland and his slider still lead the way with Josh Staumont, Wade Davis and Scott Barlow assisting.

2 ½ stars.

Middle D: Nicky Lopez was a Gold Glove finalist last season at second base. Mondesi has outstanding range at short. Michael Taylor is money in center and Sal Perez is a 5 time GG at catcher but a little beat up. Good addition in the outfield with Benintendi and Jarrod Dyson and at first with Santana. 3 ½ stars.

Team Total: 9 ½ stars

AL WEST:

Houston Astros: I don’t think the Astros would have roughed up Yu Darvish as much as they did in the 2017 World Series without stealing signs. I think it’s obvious that they cheated big time on Yu’s pitch selection. His sliders and cutters were moving and the commentators were coming up with wacked out theories about this pitch was flat and that pitch got too much of the plate. Bull Caca. The Astros knew what was coming. They could confidently get the bat started quickly on the fast balls and stay back on the breaking pitches. That’s a tremendous edge. Yu Darvish gave up 9 runs in 3 innings for an ERA of 21.20. He was damned, blamed and traded. Undeserved! And Yu took it like a man. He accepted personal blame for not disguising his pitches. Nope. Not your fault Yu.

And for that reason, those starts by Darvish alone...the Dodgers are the uncrowned champs of baseball in 2017...if you think they could have beaten the Yankees, because the ‘Stros cheated to the max on the Yankees too!

But the Astros were still the best team in the AL West from 2017-2020, cheating or not. And they still are in 2021.

Bats: The whole team melted down stat-wise in 2020. And yet they rallied to win the West and almost knocked off the Rays in the Playoffs. Altuve and Correa and Bregman and Gurriel all were down down down. Springer had a good year. But except for Springer, that bunch is back and they are worth a solid 3 stars. I don’t care what they hit last year. And here’s another clue for you all...they have Mike Brantley, Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez back this year as well. That’s 2 .300+ hitters and 2 30 homer guys! Gotta give ‘em 2 more stars. Total 5 stars.

Starters: Zach Greinke, Framber Valdez, Lance McCullers Jr., Jose Urquidy and Cristian Javier. No Aces but 5 pretty good pitchers. 1 ½ stars.

Bullpen: Ryan Pressly is the closer. Enoli Paredes and Blake Taylor are good setup. 2 stars.

Middle D: Correa is top 10 at short. Altuve is above average at second. Martin Maldonado is a worthy catcher and former Gold Glove winner. Their new centerfielder (if he can get on base enough) is Miles Straw who is quite rapid they say. Bregman is an Ace at third, Gurriel one of the best at first but aging. 3 stars.

Team Total: 11 ½ stars….one of the elite clubs in MLB.

Los Angeles Angels: Somebody tell me why the TV commentators can’t seem to get it through their heads that the Angels are not going to win the West this year or any year unless they come up with some pitchers. They keep saying it over and over. How nice it will be to see Mike Trout in the post season. Anthony Rendon is great and he helps protect Mike Trout and so does Ohtani, but that’s just a drop in the bucket. If offense trumped pitching in baseball the Giants with Mays, McCovey, Bonds, Alou, Cepeda and Jim Ray Hart would have won 4 pennants in the decade of the sixties and the Dodgers with Koufax, Drysdale, Osteen, Podres and Perranoski would have won 1 instead of the other way around.

And besides that the Astros’ offense is about twice as good as the Angels.

Bats: Trout, Rendon. Maybe the top Power Two in MLB. Plus Shohei if he can stay healthy this year. 3 stars.

Starters: Andrew Heany is pretty good I guess. Dylan Bundy hardly an Ace but better than average.Ohtani still hasn’t shown any control since the operation. Everybody else is average at best so 1 ½ stars.

The Angels were the favorites for Bauer but Trevor didn’t get along with the pitching coach the Angels hired and refused to come to the Angels. So he signed with the Dodgers and then that pitching coach got busted for sexual harrassment and the Angels wound up firing him anyway!

Bullpen: Yay! A bona fide Closer! They got Raisel Iglesias from the Reds. A proven Hoss. Mike Mayers has a cutter that strikes people out. And Felix Pena is a change up pitcher who can spot start. 2 stars.

Middle D: Jose Iglesias is the other Iglesias the Angels picked up and he’s a phenomenal fielding shortstop who occasionally gets hot with the bat. 1 star.

David Fletcher is the second baseman. ½ star. Mike Trout in center gets 1 star. Max Stassi catcher. Good pitch framer. Too easy to run on. His backup, Anthony Bemboom, has a gun and a half. Bem! Boom! Bam!

Team Total: 9 stars...possible if they find a pitcher or three during the year.

Oakland Athletics: Like Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Kansas City they keep on comin’ despite losing their better players to free agency or forced trades. Their ballpark sucks like a taste tester at a lollipop factory.

Bats: The Matts...Olson and Chapman man the corners and swing the lumber for this team, but another five guys in that lineup have major power. Nobody hits for average. It’s the typical team of the 2020s...bunch of .230 hitters striking out all the time (8 men will top a hundred Ks!) and running into one now and then. 2 ½ stars.

Starters: Jesus Luzardo is the Hoped for One. He’s a nifty young leftie with skills. Chris Bassitt, Sean Manaea and Daulton Jefferies all have real upside. Question is…..are they ready this year? I say...maybe. 2 ½ stars.

Bullpen: The stat predictors say Diekman, Trevor Rosenthal, Sergio Romo and Adam Kolarek should be as good as who they lost from last year. (Hendricks and Soria) Seeing is believing and predicting isn’t assuming. 1 ½ stars until they prove something.

Middle D: Ramon Laureano in center: 1 star. Jed Lowrie at second 0 stars. Elvis Andrus at short 0 stars. Sean Murphy at catcher 1 star. Credit for GG/Fielding Bible winners Matt Chapman and Matt Olson net 1 ½ star. Total 3 ½ stars.

Team Total: 10 stars...better than I expected. I figure them for second place.

The size-up:

AL East:

1/Tampa Bay 9 ½ stars

2/Toronto 9 stars

3/New York 8 ½ stars

4/Boston 5 ½ stars

5/Baltimore

AL Central:

1/Chicago 15 stars

2/Minnesota 10 stars

3/Cleveland 9 ½ stars

4/Kansas City 9 ½ stars

AL West:

1/Houston 11 ½ stars

2/Oakland 10 stars

3/Los Angeles 9 stars

4/Seattle

5/Texas

NL East:

1/Atlanta 7 ½ stars

2/Washington 7 ½ stars

3/New York 6 stars

4/Miami 5 ½ stars

5/Phillies 5 stars

NL Central:

1/St. Louis 10 stars

2/Milwaukee 8 stars

3/Cincinnati 7 ½ stars

4/Chicago 7 stars

5/Pittsburgh

NL West

1/San Diego 14 stars

2/Los Angeles 13 ½ stars

3/Arizona

4/San Francisco

5/Colorado

Wild Cards:

AL: Oakland, Minnesota

NL: Los Angeles, Washington

AL Pennant: Chicago

NL Pennant: San Diego

World Series Champ: Chicago

An Opening Day memory for you all:

Opening Day April 8, 1975: Frank Robinson became the first black manager in major league history when the Indians played the Yankees on a cold opening day at Muncipal Stadium. His smartest move as a manager was to insert himself into the lineup as the DH.

On his first at bat, manager Robinson made himself look like a genius by hitting a home run over the left field wall in his first at bat as a Cleveland Indian. The Clevelanders went on to beat the Yanks.

May you all enjoy baseball in 2021!

--Marco Perella