Coach of the Year

This year, there is once again numerous candidates for Coach of the Year: Doc Rivers (Boston), Jeff Van Gundy (Houston), Mike Fratello (Memphis), Eddie Jordon (Washington), George Karl (Denver), Scott Skiles (Chicago), Rick Carlisle (Indiana), and Nate McMillan (Seattle).

Honorable Mentions:

Doc Rivers has managed 3 huge egos in Payton, Davis, and Pierce while still managing to win games. We have to exclude Rivers simply because Boston plays in such a horrendous division.

Jeff Van Gundy deserves mention simply because he forced management to get the missing veteran pieces he needed and for relaxing his slow down pace. We have to exclude Van Gundy because he still hasn’t figured out how to make McGrady play defense and they lost to San Antonio without Tim Duncan.

When Memphis came stumbling out of the blocks people were ready to throw in the towel. Fratello took over and made the Grizzlies compete without everyone healthy. The only reason he gets excluded is because now that everyone is healthy, the Grizzlies are still mediocre.

Top 5:

5) George Karl has made the Denver Nuggets a playoff team when everyone had counted them out. He only gets bumped to number 5 because he took over mid-season.

4) Eddie Jordon took what had been a woeful Wizards team for years and is on the verge of getting to the playoffs as the 4^th seed in the East. People may claim it’s only because of the acquisition of Antawn Jamison, but the Wizards kept winning when Hughes and the n Jamison went down with injuries.

3) They are the Baby Bulls no longer. Skiles has forced his team to play great defense and the wins have come. Despite starting 0-9, the Bulls look like a great team. In any other he would have won the award hands down.

2) The Indiana Pacers have been decimated my suspensions and injuries. Artest is gone for the season, Jackson and O’neal missed games b/c of the brawl, and O’neal and Tinsley are done for the season, but the Pacers keep winning. The coaching job he’s done has been spectacular.

1) The Sonics are on pace to win a stunning 57 games despite losing their first game in a blowout. He’s dealt with Fortson’s attitude problem and is currently 7-1 without Radmanovic. I, among many others, thought Seattle would come back down to Earth, but they are the real deal.

Firing Coaches Midseason has got to Stop

If you wanted to coach in the NBA you might want to rethink that idea. It now seems that coaches get fired for no good reason or to “inspire” the team. The following coaches have been fired or “quit” this season: Paul Silas (Cleveland Cavaliers), Johnny Davis (Orlando Magic), Maurice Cheeks (Portland Trailblazers), Flip Saunders (Minnesota T-Wolves), Jeff Bzdelik (Denver Nuggets), Lenny Wilkens (New York Knicks), and Hubie Brown (Memphis Grizzlies). This doesn’t even include Rudy Tomjanovich and Don Nelson who both actually resigned for health reasons or their team was hopeless. If you were keeping count that was 7 coaches fired and 2 resignations.

Paul Silas was fired when his team held a 34-30 record with the fifth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Ownership claimed he was fired because the team was slumping, but everyone knows he was sacked because of disagreements with ownership. They simply felt they could use this as an excuse to fire him and might keep Lebron James in Cleveland.

Johnny Davis was fired because the Magic are under performing and are not a current playoff team if the season ended today. This firing solves nothing because it won’t make Hedo Turkoglu heal faster and Steve Francis isn’t a franchise player. It was management’s decision to trade away superstar Tracy McGrady and Davis shouldn’t have been fired for their mistake.

The Maurice Cheeks firing is the second worst in the NBA this season. The Trailblazers have always been a temperamental team and only trading away players can change that. Cheeks did an excellent job attempting to coach volatile players and should have kept his job until at least the season was over. The only criticism of Cheeks could be his reluctance to play the younger players. I truly hope Cheeks gets another shot at being a head coach in the NBA.

The firing of Flip Saunders is totally unwarranted and the Minnesota management should be ashamed of themselves. Yes, the team was underperforming, but getting an aging Sam Cassel and Latrell Spreewell wasn’t the brightest move. Even with the great Kevin McHale, the T-wolves are still floundering, proving the coach wasn’t the problem.

Last year the Denver Nuggets surprised everyone by making the eight seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Hopes were high at the beginning of the year, but the Nuggets stumbled out of the gates. Bzdelik’s firing is one of two I agreed with, he deserved to get sacked. Since taking over, George Karl has the Nuggets back to the eighth seed in the West and should make the playoffs.

The other firing I agreed with was the firing of Hubie Brown, who’s Memphis Grizzlies were underachieving. Mike Fratello took over and now the Grizzlies are rolling, currently holding the sixth spot in the West. The Memphis management could have chosen to be more patient, but their coaching move seems to have paid dividends.

When the New York Knicks held a news conference stating that Coach Lenny Wilkens had resigned, almost everybody laughed at this notion. Any person with half a brain knew Wilkens was probably given the choice of resigning or being fired. Being the classy guy he is, Wilkens resigned as an attempt to make the Knicks management save face. I really don’t care who the Knicks coach was this year, even guys like Phil Jackson and Dean Smith couldn’t get the Knicks to win.

Out of seven firings, two were legitimate and only those two teams improved. What is the point of firing a coach midseason if the team won’t improve? Mostly, a mid-season firing will make the team play worse because they need to adjust to a different coaching style.

In Defense of Bonds

Barry Bonds recently said he was “tired” and might miss the entire 2005 season and perhaps he might never play again. While other teams’ pitchers celebrate the fact they may never have to face Bonds again, fans are also celebrating his demise. People will always remember Bonds for his “tainted” homerun record and his involvement with steroids. Some people seem to have forgotten what Barry Bonds was like prior to turning into a giant from steroid use. He was the only player in baseball history to have 500 homeruns and 500 stolen bases. Even if one wanted to take away his last 200 homeruns, there is no doubt he would have been a Hall-of-Famer. The only reason to deny him entry would be because of his tainted homerun record, and that’s not enough. The media has driven Bonds name through the mud because he wasn’t “media friendly”. Since when has it become ok to ruin a player’s name just because he doesn’t like you? If I were on the voting committee for the Hall of Fame, I wouldn’t hesitate to vote him in.

New York Mets

New York Mets

Outfield:

Cliff Floyd, Carlos Beltran, and Mike Cameron

In 120 games last year Floyd hit .260 with 18 hrs and 63 rbis, but the numbers could have been better considering he was batting around Richard Hidalgo and Mike Piazza. If he can manage to stay healthy, Floyd could hit 25 hrs and drive in 85 runs batting behind Beltran and Piazza. A concern with Floyd is he managed to hit only .239 against left handed pitchers.

Carlos Beltran is coming off a career year in 2004 hitting 38 homeruns, driving in 104 runs and stealing 42 bases. A solid hitter versus both lefty and righty pitchers, the Mets seemed to have finally nabbed a superstar in his prime. Beltran could easily be a 40/40 guy with another 100 rbis thrown into the mix.

Mike Cameron rounds out a solid outfield who like his counterparts can put up big power numbers. In 2004, Cameron hit a career high 30 homeruns and stole 22 bases. While I don’t expect him to hit another 30 homers this year, you could see him hit 25 and steal 25 bases if he manages to raise his batting average.

Infield:

David Wright, Mike Piazza, Doug Mientkiewicz, Kaz Matsui, and Jose Reyes

In the last two months of the season when he was called up from the minor leagues, David Wright looked very good. In 69 games he hit 14 homeruns and drove in 40 while maintaining a .293 batting average, and hit above .300 versus left handed pitchers. Wright has the making of a great hitter and a sleeper in a fantasy baseball league.

Mike Piazza is on the tail end of a great career. His .266 bating average and 20 homeruns were his lowest of his career when he’s played over 100 games in a season. He did however show some good patience at the plate recording an OBP 100 points higher than his batting average. Since there is no DH in the NL and Piazza didn’t play well at first base, he may only appear in 110—115 games this year. His time as a dominant power hitter is drawing to a close.

Doug Mientkiewicz is another reason why Piazza is unlikely to switch to first base. Mientkiewicz is a gold glove first baseman which makes his slightly below average hitting bearable. Any offense that Mientkiewicz generates is just a bonus. If the Mets don’t like his offensive production, they can always stick Andres Galarraga to play first.

It’s hard to see how Kaz Matsui wasn’t a bust during his first year in the Majors. He wasn’t very productive batting leadoff and his fielding at shortstop was downright awful. The Mets are hoping he will perform better at second base and will adjust to major league pitching after playing for years in Japan.

Jose Reyes was hyped up greatly, and projected to be a great player. All this came crashing to Earth when he kept getting injured. If he could manage to stay healthy, he would be a very dangerous leadoff hitter with his speed and ability to make contact.

Pitchers:

Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Kris Benson, Victor Zambrano, and Kaz Ishii

Pedro Martinez was the other major superstar added by the Mets during the off-season. Despite posting a career high 3.90 ERA (which isn’t that awful) Martinez had a solid year in 2004. Without having to face the New York Yankees this year, Pedro should be back to his dominant self. Pedro will give the Mets 15-20 wins, 200+ strikeouts and an ERA under 3.50.

For years, Glavine was part of the second greatest 1-2 pitcher combo in history, the first being RJ and Schilling. When the Mets signed him 2003 they expected much of the same, but have received only 20 wins to date and an ERA around 4.00. While he did pitch better in 2004, 11 wins won’t cut it for the money he makes. Maybe being dropped back to the number 2 starter in the rotation will help his pitching.

How or why anyone expects Kris Benson to be good escapes me. Have any of these people bothered to look at his statistics? Only once has me managed to win 12 games, has a career ERA of 4.28, and recorded only 134 K’s last year. If he manages to win 13 games this year I would be shocked.

Victor Zambrano showed flashes of brilliance when pitching for Tampa Bay and was the reason they traded away a top prospect for him. Then came the boos when like many Met player before him, got injured shortly after being acquired. Zambrano could be a great steal for the Met s or a giant bust.

In a recent move, the Mets traded away backup catcher Jason Phillips for Kaz Ishii. For the Dodgers last year, Ishii had a great first half, but a woeful second half. His first half last year was good enough to impress people and convince them he could really pitch well. If Ishii can finally manage to have a decent second half, he could prove to be invaluable to the Mets.

Bullpen:

Braden Looper saved 29 games last year with an ERA of 2.70. While you might want a lower ERA from your closer, I believe he could save 40+ games for the Mets this year.

The NL West: Part I

Los Angeles Dodgers

Outfield:

Jayson Werth, Milton Bradley, and J.D. Drew

Bradley played decently in 2004 hitting .267, with 19 hrs and 67 rbis. Most people feel with his combination of line drive hitting and speed would be best utilized at the lead off position, but looks like he’ll bat somewhere in the middle this year. Bradley will put up numbers similar to last year, but there are two concerns. A) He struggled in the last two months of 2004 and B) He has anger issues and could be a clubhouse distraction.

Werth was injured last year, but hit .262 with 16hr and 47 rbis in 89 games. In just his second plate appearance of the season he broke a bone in his arm when he was struck by a pitch. Werth is a young player who’s looked great when healthy. I would expect 25-30 hrs and 80-90 rbis.

Drew played a career high 145 games and it showed in his stats ah he posted a .305 average with 31 hrs and 93 rbis. If he puts up the same numbers in 145 games again the Dodgers should be satisfied with Drew. If by some miracle he stays healthy the whole season, Drew could hit 40 dingers with 110 rbis.

Infield:

Hee-Seop Choi, Jeff Kent, Cesar Izturis, Jose Valentin, Jason Phillips

Choi is a young first baseman that shows promise, but has trouble when pitched inside and driving in runs. Despite hitting 15hrs, he only managed to drive in 45 runs and batted only .251. Choi has struggled thus far in Spring Training and it would seem likely his struggles will continue into the regular season.

Despite getting even older, Kent’s numbers went up from 2003 in 2004. He hit 5 more homeruns and drove in14 more runs. Like Clemens and Randy Johnson, Kent is still playing superbly at an older age. The only negatives on Kent are his speed and he's an average fielder at best.

Iztirus won a gold glove lat year for his spectacular fielding, and any offense he generated was just a nice bonus. His fielding also makes his teammates fielding better leading to a great defense. Oh, did I mention he’ll also steal bases to help ignite the offense? He could easily steal 30 bases this year.

Despite playing in only 125 games, Valentin hit a whopping 30 hrs and driving in 70 runs. The only knock on those numbers are his low .216 batting average. If he stays healthy, he could hit 35-40 hrs and drive in 100 runs.

In a surprise move, the Dodgers traded Kaz Ishii to the Mets for catcher Jason Phillips. Like most catchers, don’t expect Phillips to be running anywhere quickly, but has a solid arm to partly control the running game. He has hit really well during Spring Training and could be a force at the plate.

Starting Pitchers:

Derek Lowe, Jeff Weaver, Odalis Perez, Brad Penny, Edwin Jackson

Lowe is a sinkerball pitcher who produces many more grounders than fly balls. In Boston a weak infield hampered his success. With Izturis anchoring the infield with his gold glove, you can expect more success this year from Lowe. I would expect 15 wins from Lowe with an ERA slightly above 4.00.

Weaver has been consistent in his mediocrity and continued it last year going 13-13 with an ERA of 4.01. Despite the 13 wins tying a career high, don’t hold your breath waiting for Weaver to pitch well consistently. If anything, his wins could drop this year instead of going up.

Ignoring his win-loss record, Perez pitched great last year posting an ERA of 3.25 and had an ERA less than 3.00 in three different months last year. Perez should pitch well this year and should hit 15 wins with an ERA around 3.00 and a low WHIP.

Brad Penny posted a career low 3.15 ERA last year, but only had 9 wins to show for it. When the Dodgers acquired him from the Marlins, they expected great things, but he only lasted one outing before his season was ended by a shoulder injury. If he manages to stay healthy in 2005, you could easily see 10-15 wins with an ERA of 3.20.

With the trading of Kaz Ishii, it seems like Edwin Jackson will start the season in the starting rotation. Very unproven, what he does this season could be good, bad or just mediocre.

Bullpen:

Eric Gagne is perhaps one of the greatest closers in the game and is the only pitcher I know of who received a standing ovation after blowing a save. Besides for his 45 saves last year he also won 7 games. Good? No. Great? Yes.

The AL West: Part IIII

Seattle Mariners

Outfield:

Ichiro, Randy Winn, Jeremy Reed

Ichiro is hands down the greatest leadoff batter in them majors right now. He batted an abnormal .372, and drove in 60 runs while stealing 36 bases last year. People have begged Ichiro to use some power; he seems content to only hit singles all over the diamond. There is no way to predict where the ball is being hit to when he’s at the plate. He should hit .345, drive in 55, and steal 30 bases.

While his batting average went down in 2004, Randy Winn made up for it with career highs in homeruns (14) and rbis (81). Winn is having a strong Spring Training and should translate to a strong regular season. He should have a .280 batting average, 10-15 hrs, 75 rbis and 20 stolen bases.

In his rookie season, Reed only appeared in 18 games, but did bat .397. He is having an average Spring Training and should translate to an average season. I would expect 10 homeruns, 55 rbis and 20 stolen bases.

Infield:

Richie Sexson, Bret Boone, Adrian Beltre, Pokey Reese, Miguel Olivo

Adrian Beltre posted career highs in homeruns (48), rbis (121), and batting average (.334) with LA in 2004. I would highly doubt that Beltre could put up those numbers again. I would say 35 hrs, 110 rbis and a batting average of .310.

Sexson only played 23 games last year but still hit 9 hrs and 23 rbis. I would expect a solid season from the healthy first baseman and to produce numbers similar to 2003. I would predict 30 hrs and 110 rbis despite a not so great Spring Training.

Brett Boone’s numbers took a major dip in 2004 and the reason could be his age and nagging injuries. It is highly doubtful he will produce another such woeful season and his numbers should crawl back up to 25 hrs with 85 rbis.

Pokey Reese will not put up numbers at the plate, but will be amazing in the field. He also possesses great speed and should steal when he does reach base. He could have won a gold glove if he could just hit a little better.

Olivo was brought to Seattle in a trade from the White Sox and performed horribly. Pitches were bouncing by him and he could hit anything. This Spring Training he’s showing why the Mariners traded for him. Despite a woeful batting average of .200, pitches aren’t getting by him. His one passed ball was off an uncalled foul tip according to the Seattle manager.

Starting Pitchers:

Jamie Moyer, Joel Pineiro, Bobby Madritsch, Gil Meche, Ryan Franklin

In 2003 Moyer was great posting a 20-7 record with an ERA of 3.27, but in 2004 was a dismal 7-13 with an ERA of 5.21. I expect Moyer’s struggles to continue as he’s an old pitcher who doesn’t know when to quit. Expect his ERA to be high even though Seattle plays in a big park.

Pineiro got injured at the end of the 2004 season, but appears healthy in Spring Training despite getting rocked. I would expect 15 wins with an ERA slightly under 4.00 who pitched well in 2002 and 2003.

Madritsch pitched well in 11 stars for Seattle in 2004, his rookie season. His 3 losses are deceiving because the Mariners couldn’t hit last year and his ERA was 3.27. I would expect a 10-15 win season from the late blooming pitcher. The criticism of Madritsch is he has no breaking ball, but should still pitch well.

Gil Meche looked absolutely horrendous in 2004 until he hit his last 10 games where he went 5-2 with an ERA slightly over 4.00. I expect Meche to be the best pitcher on the Seattle staff and should go 15-20 with an ERA of 4.00.

Ryan Franklin posted an eye popping 4-16 record last year with a 4.90 ERA. While some feel he would pitch better as a reliever, he will still be part of the starting rotation. He was very mediocre and I would expect much of the same in 2004.

Relief Pitcher:

Eddie Guardado was having a solid season until he went on the DL with a shoulder injury. In 02-03 he had 40+ save seasons and would expect nothing less than 42 in 2005

I Just want the Game to be Played Fairly

The issue of steroids in baseball has become a major distraction and black eye for a sport which I and many others enjoy watching. First Jose Canseco published a book saying steroids were the only reason he was an adequate player and accused current players of using steroids. Pudge (Ivan) Rodriguez, a player accused in Conseco’s book of taking steroids, reported to Spring Training a mysterious 20 pounds lighter. One of my favorite players, Todd Helton, has just been accused of taking steroids. Then, to top it all off, Canseco, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Palmeiro, Commissioner Bud Selig, Player’s Association Rep Donald Fehr, and Baseball Executive Vice President Rob Manfred were all called before Congress to testify about steroid use. From the meeting before Congress, the only valid point brought up was why do players only get a 10 day suspension for something that’s illegal in the United States. The BALCO case still hangs around with Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi testifying they used steroids. Alex Rodriguez shows up to Spring Training 15 pounds heavier and steroid rumors went swirling around. You can’t even listen to a sports radio show without steroids coming up about 8 billion times.

I have the perfect solution for the “rampant” steroid use in baseball (around 2%) and it addresses numerous issues. 1) No asterisks allowed in the record books. If Major League Baseball cared if people were using steroids they would have tested for them. You allowed them to play juiced up; their records get to stay unblemished. 2) Mark McGwire should be a Hall-of-Famer for the reasons stated in point 1. 3) You get caught three times using steroids, you get kicked out of baseball and all your stats are voided, past and present. 4) Fine the players when their caught. Don’t let them get away with just losing part of their paycheck when they miss games because of suspensions.

One knows that the all powerful players union would never go along with my plan, but how effective will their 4 strike punishment system really be?