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MLB reports Monthly Power Rankings: May 2012

Tuesday May 8th, 2012

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)-We are going to bring you a monthly power rankings every month of the season. There will be a few verses for each team. Please feel free to let us know your thoughts.

May Power Rankings

Texas (19-10) Josh Hamilton is clubbing the ball at his 2010 like AL MVP clip. Yu Darvish appears to be the real deal. Mike Napoli hits 8^th on most nights. Michael Young might be the most under-appreciated hitter in the last decade. Ian Kinsler is on pace for 162 runs. If Nelson Cruz starts hitting and or Nathan rounds into form, than this team may blitz by every one.
Tampa Bay (19-10) The pitching staff is incredible right now. David Price is asserting himself as one of the premier left-handed pitchers in baseball. Strong starts from Evan Longoria, Luke Scott and Carlos Pena have helped. Joe Maddon may be the best ‘in-game manager’ of baseball now with Tony La Russa out of the Majors.
Atlanta (18-12) The reason I have Atlanta rated so high is they are not even having a good year from Tim Hudson yet and Jair Jurrjens has been atrocious. Still they sit near the top of the standings. Chipper Jones has 21 RBI and Freddie Freeman has taken the next step so far with 26 RBI. Last year the team had a lot of players with career worst years and they were only eliminated on the last day of the season. This year may be different.
St. Louis (18-11) You lose a franchise player like Albert Pujols and you spend half the money for Carlos Beltran and Rafael Furcal, who are finally hitting the numbers like the back of their bubble gum cards from 5 years ago. Are we giving enough credit to Mark McGwire here? Lance Lynn has morphed into Chris Carpenter with his 6-0 start.
LA Dodgers (19-10) Matt Kemp is the best player in baseball right now and may walk away with the triple crown this year. Andre Ethier has matured into the RBI guy he needs to be. Solid pitching by Clayton Kershaw, Chris Capuano and Ted Lilly have this team looking solid. Dodgers look good in the future when the new ownership takes over. (more…)

Posted on May 8, 2012 | Image

Ask the Reports: ATR Answers Your Baseball Questions – April 23rd, 2012

Apr 23

Posted by Jonathan Hacohen

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Monday April 23rd, 2012

Jonathan Hacohen: Posted every Weekend: Your top baseball questions from the past week are answered. E-mail all questions to mlbreports@me.com, message us on Twitter and post on our Facebook Wall!

Let’s get to your top questions of the week:

Q: When do the WBC Qualifiers begin? When does the WBC itself begin? William

JH: Starting off with one of our most loyal Twitter followers. A great question Williams, you know we love talking WBC! In fact, we love the World Baseball Classic so much, that we have a dedicated site for it: wbcreports.com. Keep the page bookmarked for all the latest WBC info! To answer your question, the WBC Qualifiers begin September of this year. With the MLB playoffs just about to begin, tensions and debates will begin as playoff-bound teams are unlikely (will not) send their players to the qualifiers. One or two missing players could mean the difference between a WBC berth…or elimination. The tournament itself begins in March 2013. Debates have also raged as to when the World Baseball Classic should be held. Some feel mid-season to replace the All-Star Game. This will NEVER happen, as Major League Baseball depends on the All-Star Game to appease sponsors and is one of the biggest events on the MLB calendar. Some others feel that the WBC should be held after the World Series. This creates issues with players that are tired and worn out from a gruelling MLB schedule…which would likely result in low participation rates. Thus during Spring Training was deemed as the lesser of all the evils as to when to hold the tournament. The start of the tournament has led many to believe that pitchers participating in the tournament run the risk of arm injuries- as they are not prepared and warmed up sufficiently to go all out in March. I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. But it is what it is. Fortunately though we are only several months away from the qualifiers. I for one can’t wait! Read the rest of this entry →

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Jack Morris: It Is Time To Elect This Winner Into The Baseball Hall Of Fame!

Apr 22

Posted by chuckbooth3023

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Tuesday, January.08/2013

Jack Morris led the Major Leagues for Wins in the 80's by posting a 162-129 Record (.556). He was a 5 Time ALL-Star and had 6 Top 10 Finishes for AL Cy Young. He also hurled 175 Complete Games. He won 20 Games 3 separate years, 16+ Wins in 9 Years and 15+ Wins in 12 of his 17 full years and 18 seasons overall.

Jack Morris led the Major Leagues for Wins in the 80’s by posting a 162-119 Record (.577). He was a 5 Time ALL-Star and had 6 Top 10 Finishes for AL Cy Young. He also hurled 175 Complete Games. He won 20 Games 3 separate years, 16+ Wins in 10 Years and 15+ Wins in 12 of his 16 full years – and 18 seasons overall.

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024

The debate for whether or not Jack Morris belongs in the Baseball Hall Of Fame has heated up to an ALL-Time high with the big vote going down tomorrow. 575 members of BBWAA fraternity will decide whether or not the big man from Minnesota will enter one of the hardest Hall Of Fame’s to enter in pro sports (if not the hardest). Morris will need a 75% (432 Minimum Votes) of them to write down his name on their ballot for enshrinement into Cooperstown. Last year, Morris received 66.7 % of the writers votes in his 13th year of eligibility. He will have his name on a 14th ballot this year. He has been trending up in recent years, so if he can improve with the same amount of 2011-2012 jump of (+13.2%), then he will make it in. If he fails to reach the Hall this year, 2014 would be his last year of eligibility for the BBWAA Vote. He could still make it via the Veterans Committee after that.

Jack Morris was a winner, a true throwback pitcher who came after hitters with reckless abandon. He pitched based on what the score was – and had no personal regard for his own personal statistics. It is this very reason why the debate has hit epic proportions on social media hubs, amongst bloggers, former players, analysts, broadcaster and statisticians. I intend to prove the case for the guy in a manner that will have some similarities to other pieces you may have read, yet promote a big look into the numbers that I have been bouncing around in my head for months. I even have had a #JackMorrisAwarenessWeek on Twitter and have been having feuds with people on the other side who don’t think he belongs in Cooperstown- while I have been Retweeted by his biggest supporters. Let the battle lines be drawn!

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Tags: 1984 World Series, 1991 world Series MVP, AL East, alcs, ALL-Start Appearances, ALL-Time Innings Pitched Leader Pitching, ALL-Time Strikeout Leaders Pitching, ALL-Time Wins Leaders Pitching, All-Time Wins list, American league, andy pettitte, Atlanta Braves, baseball hall of fame, BBWAA, boston red sox, california angels, chicago white sox, Chuck Booth. fastest 30 ballgames, cleveland indians, cooperstown, CY Young voting, dave stieb, detroit tigers, ferguson jenkins, Greg Maddux, jack morris, jamie moyer, jim kaat, kansas city royals, metrodome, mike mussina, milwaukee brewers, minnesota twins, oakland athletics, randy johnson, roger clemens, roy halladay, seattle mariners, stephen strasburg, tom glavine, tommy john, toronto blue jays, twitter @chuckbooth3024, veterans committee, washington nationals

Yankees Have Decisions to Make in their Rotation

Apr 18

Posted by Bryan Sheehan

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Wednesday April 18, 2012

Bryan Sheehan (Baseball Writer):The New York Yankees have some time to experiment with their pitching rotation. Though their top two starters, C.C. Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda, make more ($33 million in 2012) than half of the salary earned by the Tampa Bay Rays, the bottom three of the rotation may shift based on a few factors. The most important consideration is the fact that the Yankees have two young players, Michael Pineda and David Phelps, that have shown signs that they would be effective in the rotation, when healthy and given the opportunity. Also, one cannot forget that Andy Pettitte, who signed out of retirement in March, has shown signs of strength in two rehab appearances for Hi-A Tampa, throwing a total of seven innings and allowing just one run on four hits while striking out five. The third factor in the potential shake-up of the Yankees’ rotation is the sub-par starts that Freddy Garcia (0-1, 6.97 ERA) and Phil Hughes (0-2, 9.00 ERA) have had this year. If Joe Girardi wants to try something new as the season progresses (he may have to if he wants to keep his job), he will have many key pieces to play with already in the organization. Read the rest of this entry →