2014 Season Predictions For The MLB

Standings:
NL West Standings:
1. Los Angeles Dodgers, 2. San Francisco Giants, 3. Arizona Diamondbacks, 4. San Diego Padres, 5. Colorado Rockies...As long as health can hold up, the Dodgers will be the favorite. With Kershaw helming the pitching staff, they are favored over the Giants and the Diamondbacks who were dealt a blow when Patrick Corbin went down. Arizona has enough offense to win the division, but with a staff anchored by Wade Miley, it won't be enough.

NL Central Standings:
1. St. Louis Cardinals, 2. Pittsburgh Pirates, 3. Cincinnati Reds, 4. Milwaukee Brewers, 5. Chicago Cubs...The Cardinals hold on to the division this year with the Pirates and Reds right behind them. Despite the loss of power (Beltran and Freese), the Cardinals will hold off the Pirates who are only a strong ace from taking the division. The Reds are right behind and only a couple of injuries away from taking the division themselves.

NL East Standings:
1. Washington Nationals, 2. Atlanta Braves, 3. Philadelphia Phillies, 4. New York Mets, 5. Miami Marlins...The Nationals will not disappoint this season. A strong pitching staff that only got stronger and an offense that is the strongest in the east, will let them coast to an easy divisional win. The Braves have the offense to have a strong season, but with injuries to key pitchers, they drop into the second place slot. The aging Phillies will try to make one last hurrah as veterans Utley, Rollins, and Howard will try to stay healthy through the season.

NL Wild Cards: Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates
NL Champions: Washington Nationals

AL West Standings:
1. Oakland A's, 2. Texas Rangers, 3. Seattle Mariners, 4. ANAHEIM Angels, 5. Houston Astros...The A's are a season older and are ready to take the west. A strong pitching staff followed by the comeback of Reddick should hold off the Rangers, but barely. The Rangers lost power in Cruz, but gained Choo, a better fit with the current roster. They also bolstered their power with Fielder and found a spot for Profar, which will make them the favorite for the division if the A's starting pitching runs into injuries. Despite the fact that they will end up in last place, the Astros core has actually improved and will be a factor around 2016.

AL Central Standings:
1. Detroit Tigers, 2. Kansas City Royals, 3. Cleveland Indians, 4. Chicago White Sox, 5. Minnesota Twins...The Tigers will take division again as Verlander will regain form and the defense improves with Cabrera moving back to first base. The Royals will be behind them by a few games with the offense coming together and their pitching staff producing top three results in the American League. The Indians will fall just short and will need to add more talent to their bullpen to ever climb higher in the central.

AL East Standings:
1. New York Yankees, 2. Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays, 3. Boston Red Sox, 4. Baltimore Orioles, 5. Toronto Blue Jays...The Yankees will take the top spot once again with improvements to their pitching staff. CC Sabathia leads this staff, but Japanese stars Kiroda and Tanaka and the emergence of Nova and comeback of top prospect Michael Pineda will lead one of the best pitching staffs in baseball. The Rays weren't able to move Price, so in the short term, combined with Alex Cobb, they have a potent one-two punch. The Red Sox will drop off as holes opened up in their roster, but they weren't able to sufficiently plug them.

AL Wildcards: Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals
American League Champions: New York Yankees

World Series Champions: Washington Nationals

Seasonal Award Winners:
NL Awards Winners:
MVP-Bryce Harper, Cy Young Award-Jose Fernandez, Rookie of The Year-Archie Bradley, Comeback Player of The Year-Curtis Granderson, Manager of The Year-Matt Williams
Silver Sluggers- Catcher Yadier Molina, 1B Paul Goldschmidt, 2B Aaron Hill, 3B Ryan Zimmerman, SS Troy Tulowitzki, OF Andrew McCutcheon, Bryce Harper, Carlos Gomez

AL Awards Winners:
MVP-Miguel Cabrera, Cy Young Award-Felix Hernandez, Rookie of The Year-Masahiro Tanaka, Comeback Player of The Year-Grady Sizemore, Manager of The Year-Ned Yost
Silver Sluggers- Catcher Brian McCann, 1B Miguel Cabrera, 2B Robinson Cano, 3B Evan Longoria, SS Elvis Andrus, OF Mike Trout, Shin-Soo Choo, Adam Jones

When Greed Conquers The Fans

Every year since the mass production of television, Americans have been able to watch the Opening Day in the MLB. In recent years, it possible required having cable television to do so, but still accessible to one hundred percent of people. Unfortunately, this year, things have changed.

The Guggenheim Partners whom are the owners of the Dodgers, signed an exclusive contract with Time Warner Cable. Unfortunately over seventy percent of the Southern California market that would be considered the Dodgers regional area, don't have Time Warner Cable. What is worse, is that is many of these cases, the Dodgers fan doesn't have a choice to even switch over to Time Warner cable.

As many people know, cable television distributors sign exclusive contracts with cities in particular, which means you only have one choice to receive your tradition cable in your city. Your only other options would be if you live in an area that can be served by Verizon Fios or AT&T U-Verse (which aren't that many) or if you sign up for satellite cable such as DirecTv or The Dish. Problem is all those other options are also not Time Warner, which means no Dodgers baseball for you.

In signing this contract, a city such as Long Beach, which is the second largest city within Los Angeles County's own limits, doesn't have the ability to even watch the Dodgers baseball. That's approximately 478,000 Los Angeles County residents within one city, who cannot watch Dodgers baseball unless the leave the city and go to a sports bar in a city that does have Time Warner Cable. How ridiculous is that?

This year's Opening Day for baseball was even more special because it was in Sydney, Australia. The MLB Network itself had a countdown clock on the bottom right of their screen and even though it was at 1am Pacific time (Dodgers' time), many fans were willing to stay up late and watch the Dodgers face division rival Diamondbacks. Unfortunately, even though the MLB Network is a subsidiary of Major League Baseball, even they weren't allowed to broadcast the game to non-Time Warner Cable subscribers and instead fans got to watch Intentional Talk with Dan Plesac and Chris Rose, talking about how great Opening Day will be.

When your average fan is denied the chance to watch Opening Day baseball, which even has a petition going around to declare this a holiday, you irreparably hurt your fan base. You can't expect local Southern California kids to grow up and become Dodgers fans if they can't even watch them on television. Best case scenario, these kids will become Angels fans, whom broadcast to the same television market. Worst case scenario, you lose your fans completely, hurting the growth of baseball within the most populated region in the country.

Unfortunately, for the next twenty-five years, this will be the new way of Southern California baseball. Seventy percent of fans won't get the chance to hear Vin Scully's voice announce a game. In a case of irony, even Vin Scully couldn't watch a Dodgers game now. Scully is a resident of Malibu, California, which is covered by Charter Cable. It would appear that if Vin wants to watch Dodgers baseball, he'll have to keep announcing for them no matter what.

Time For Fantasy...Baseball

It's that time of year again. The weather is getting warmer, the rain is going away, and the grass seems a little greener. You guessed it...fantasy baseball is about to start. Unlike Major League Baseball, fantasy baseball starts as early as March.

Actually, if you're in a keeper or dynasty league, it's probably started years before. This is the time of the year where your average baseball fan becomes a general manager of his own team of players he wished he could manage in real life. It lets every Joe Schmo out there get to act out his dreams, even if only in a simulation world, by starting and benching players, trading a player to upgrade their team, and dropping aging veterans for recently called up rookies on a hot streak.

There are various ways a fantasy team could be created. Snake drafts tend to be the easiest to understand, especially for newcomers. That's where players pick in a predetermined order and then the person with the last pick in a particular round becomes the first pick in the next with others following in the reverse order of the previous round.

I particularly prefer live auction drafts. This is where you start with a budget and have to fill a roster within that budget by bidding on players called out during the auction. Without proper planning, a fantasy player could make or break his team before the season even starts. This is almost a game within a game, getting the players you want to build a team to your liking.

Unlike snake auction drafts where your only real strategy is having a back up if a player you wanted is drafted before you can get to them, a live auction draft has multiple strategies that players use. Some up bid on players they don't want, so their opponents have to spend more money on players they wanted. Some players sneak bids in at the last second to steal players they were hoping for. Other strategies exist, but every player has their own method.

Keeper and dynasty leagues give a real sense of ownership. Owners get to keep a predetermined amount of players for multiple seasons. Hit it right with a rookie and you could be set at a particular position for years.

Fantasy baseball may seem silly to some, but for others, especially the hardcore types, it's a way to stake a form of ownership on your favorite players and feel like you're a part of the game itself. Bonus for those who earn money at the end of the season in rewards for placing in their league.