How to win

   With how hectic this past winter was, some teams may have forgotten how to win. While some moves may seem smart at the time, when the person you gave up your first overall pick for gives up the most home runs in baseball, it's important to remember a few simple steps.
 
1. Trade away all of your good players:
  I know what you are thinking. Why? Why would you give away all of your good players? For talent, of course. If you have forgotten how to win, chances are you pulled a Yankees and signed the thirty five year old all star team of 2010. If you trade away all of those guys, then you will have extra room in your budget, but you will be TERRIBLE for the next couple of years or so, getting you top draft picks and future all stars. Know what you will need. Pitching and people who can play defense is a good place to start.

2. A free agent budget of 75 million:
  Free agents will never pan out how you think. If you overpay for your free agent, then you will have no money to pursue any other players, and when your shiny new player gets old in three years and your paying someone thirty million a year so sit at home, you will deeply wish you had gone for someone else. Instead, get a veteran like Kendrys Morales, someone who won't cost you that much and can guide your younger players you got from the draft.

3. Trade. A lot:
  There is no downside to trading, if you play smart. This will be where you get your best bullpen guys (who better be under 26), along with your backup catcher that will be your starting catcher in two years. As long as your not idiots like the Diamondbacks, you should be fine.

4. Have a good manager:
  Your manager should be able to fire up a team, employ unorthodox methods, and love to run. Seriously, a stolen base can save a game. Don't let your manager be Matt Williams, who let a fight happen in his dugout.

If you follow those steps and get lucky with injuries, you should have a winning team. For a more in-depth look at how to win, copy the Kansas City Royals. Bye!

The Rockies Will Never Win

   The Rockies play in Coors Stadium, one of the best offensive parks in baseball. The air up there is thin, so the ball travels much farther, making homers much easier to hit. They moved the fences way back to combat this, and now extra base hits are much easier to come by, and bloop singles will drop. This is why Colorado has one of the best offenses in baseball. But that's not always a good thing. The Rockies will always be in the bottom five in pitching, for three reasons. The first is that because of the thin air, pitches don't break. A straight pitch is much easier to hit. You will always have bad pitching in Denver. The second is because of how big Coors is. Fly outs turn into bloop singles, and singles turn into doubles, into triples, and so on. The third is a result of the previous two. Because of the bad conditions of location and the size of the stadium, good free agent pitchers won't want to play there. You might think "Well, they could make up for the lack of pitching with hitting." They can't. They can't default onto Coors for the half of the season they're on the road, and when they are at Coors, and the matchup is Clayton Kershaw versus Jorge De La Rosa, which team do you think will come out on top? Sure Kershaw will be affected by Coors, but so will De La Rosa. Furthermore, teams coming in are used to hitting in pitcher's parks, especially in the Rockies own division, the NL West. What do you think will happen to their bats when they walk into Denver? I'll give you an answer: Mike Piazza.  When Piazza was on the Roids back in the late 90's, he was hitting massive homers at Dodger Stadium. Four hundred fifty foot moon shots. When he went to Coors, he would hit the ball five hundred feet the other way. Teams can beat the Rockies very easily. They will never be able to win until they either move, or build a dome.

The First Two Weeks of Baseball

      The slow starts have been really slow. So far, the Braves and Twins are an MLB worst 3-9. While the Braves are deep in the rebuilding process and should be expected to be absolutely abysmal over the next couple of years, the Twins are actually in wild card contention, and are not doing themselves any favors by digging such a big hole so early in the season, especially since they are in the same division as the reigning champs, the Kansas City Royals. On the flip side, the Cubs are enjoying a 10-3 record,  cashing in on offseason acquisitions like Jason Hayward, John Lackey, and Ben Zobrist. With young talent like Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo to back them up, the Cubs are looking good for the NL Central championship. One team that everyone thought would do poorly, the Colorado Rockies, is actually doing well, behind a historic rookie performance from shortstop Trevor Story and RBI leader Nolan Arenado.

Bullpens

   While starting pitching is the most crucial aspect of a winning team, they often can't finish the entire game. When the starter is done, a reliever will enter to finish out the games. But what happens when your bullpen is bad? You lose three games you should win within the first week! It happens so often, a reliever will come in and give up the lead. Teams seem unwilling to spend money on their bullpen, why? The bullpen is becoming more and more valuable as starters are unable to go more innings. Most teams have a dependable closer, but what about the rest of the game? Without solid middle and late relief, a lot of unneeded stress is placed on the starter and the closer. Teams seem to think that the bullpen should be made of young kids, and no money should be spent on the pen, because relievers are to inconsistent year to year, but closers that do get some money are often dominant (Andrew Miller, Dave Robertson). Make the bullpen more of a career position, and secure more victories for your team. Dodgers, I am talking to you.

How to Construct a Championship Caliber Core

   Some teams are undoubtably under a lot of pressure to win, and whether the pressure comes from a new owner, a TV deal, or simply need more money, a good way to get started is to build up your core (group of four or five players that are the force behind your team). Here are the essentials to build a great start for any team.
 
1. The Outfielder(s):
   The Outfielder(s) are going to be your main offensive catalysts. While normally there is only one, some teams, like the Giants, have two (Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence). These will either hit third or fourth in your lineup, and will knock in most of your runs (ex. Mike Trout and Bryce Harper). The Outfielder often be your "franchise player" have the most merchandise in his name, as he will be the most recognizable.

2. The Pitcher:
    The Pitcher is your ace, your bulldog, and will be the one you most want with the ball in their hands when the game is on the line. Everyone knows that good starting pitching is the foundation for success, but an ace is the foundation for good starting pitching.

3. The Infielder(s):
    There can be two kinds of infielders, and most teams do have both. A leadoff hitter who does whatever he can to get on base, and then steals the next one will often play in the middle infield. Players like Jose Altuve, Xander Bogarts, and Accedes Escobar are all great examples of this piece of a teams core, and are all leadoff hitters. The other aspect of the infielder part of the core is the corner infield. Essentially acting as a slower version of an outfielder, corner infielders include Paul Goldschmidt, Corey Seager, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, Eric Hosmer, Joey Votto, and Matt Duffy.

4. The Catcher:
    Every team has a catcher, some are even pretty good, but very few have the essential skills to be part of a teams core. They need to be a leader, and a great team player. They need to know how to work with and mentor pitchers. Some catchers that are a core part of their team are Yadier Molina, Buster Posey, and.... I honestly can't think of anymore. Core catchers are so rare.

5. The Closer:
    While the closer is not essential, it helps to have someone you trust out there at the back of the bullpen. You can have a good closer, but one who is part of your core is someone who is consistent for a couple of years at a time, and is young. Old relievers burn out after a couple of months.

 

The Meaningless of Spring Training Results

    Until the regular season starts and statistics matter, I think I'm going to stick to rant about how certain extra functions in America's pastime are stupid.
    Spring training is halfway through! As always, the "experts" are bursting to the seems with meaninglessness like "Jason Hayward isn't hitting as well as he should, the Cubs are done for the year." As baseball is moving into a more saber metrical phase statistics seem more and more important. Not just the important ones either. I'll give you five dollars if you can tell me what WAR, OPS, or BABIP is. That is all fine, it gives a more sophisticated approach to the game. But when the players have only been hitting for two weeks, statistics might just stress them out. A great example: Clayton Kershaw had a ERA over four in the spring training of 2014, but he went on to have one of the most dominant seasons in the past decade. If a rookie is playing with the team for the first time in spring training and he isn't doing so well, broadcasting all over the news isn't going to help. In fact, statistics often aren't what coaches are looking for in these younger guys. They're looking for how they adjust to MLB pitching, so why bother stressing them out? It doesn't help anyone, and the stats are often meaningless. It's okay to collect stats, but don't make such a big deal. Som,ones career might depend on it.

The Meaninglessness of Pre-Seaon Predictions

    Spring training is under way! In less than a month, the baseball season will begin, and all of the predictions made by the "experts" will come true, right? In actuality, the predictions are meaningless. They just pick whoever made the flashiest deal or pick up and bandwagon on them, to try and make people think they will win. Because more people will go to games if their team is "destined" to go to the World Series, the "experts" often just pick the team that needs a financial boost, or to encourage teams to spend more money. This would be fine, making more teams spend money, but most of the time they're wrong, which can hurt the financials of the teams that aren't predicted to win. In fact, "destined" teams have only won once in the past decade, in 2009. Other than that, most have just been a sort of advertisement to teams. "Hey, spend more money and we'll tell your fans you're destined to win. Never mind your team probably  won't make the playoffs because you just spent the most amount of money possible! You'll "make" that money right back off a more deserving team. Another example: Hey did anyone enjoy that Dodgers-Mariners World Series? No? What about the secondary choice, the Nationals-Indians Fall Classic? What! Only one of those teams made the playoffs? What! What about the thrilling seven-game NLCS between the Padres and Dodgers? What! The Padres were barely over 500? Ridiculous! The Royals won? I knew it. The Cubs signed two people! They automatically win! No one else should even bother playing!
    If you don't understand what the problem is by now, you should read my other blogs. And all my classmates!