A Baseball Obsession : CBSSports.com Blogs

Grady Sizemore...Next Member of the 40-40 Club?

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:13:18 EDT

Already this season, Grady Sizemore has 27 home runs, and 27 stolen bases, for second and fifth on the American League leaderboard. He is on pace for a 39-39 season, but who says you can't exceed your expectations? Only four people have previously made the cut for this prestigious "club", including Barry Bonds (1996, 42 HR- 40 SB), Jose Canseco (1988, 42-40), Alfonso Soriano (2006, 46-41), and Alex Rodriguez (1998, 42-46).

My question to you is this: can Grady join the greats in the 40-40 club, or will he fall short?

Comments/discussion is appreciated.

SuperPredictions - Part 2: NL Batting Title

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:25:53 EDT

Here is how I believe the epic showdown for the best batting average in the National League will result...

2008 NL Batting Title: Winner: Lance Berkman..........Runner Up: Chipper Jones

Lance Berkman seems to be one of the top picks for the MVP award, second in the NL in batting average (behind Chipper), and tied for third in home runs, but his amazing season has been distracted by one of the biggest NL stories of the year: Chipper Jones is chasing .400! An feat that easily blows an MVP Campaign out of the water, no one has hit .400 in a season since Ted Williams in 1941. Someone wins the MVP award every year. With that said, it is clear that Chipper is not going to hit .400 in my mind, and although harsher than most people's beliefs, I think he will be under .350 at the end of the season. Berkman is hitting a consistent .355 right now, and it will either remain stagnant or fall very little within the next half.

The Most Entertaining "What if..." Game 2

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 15:41:45 EDT

Taking a break from SuperPredictions for now.

What if I had known who would be good this year before my fantasy draft...

After doing all of the math, here is the team I could have had:

Active Batters:

SuperPredictions - Part 1: AL Batting Title

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:20:42 EDT

Let me just put this right out here: I don't feel like waiting for the season to near its end, or to reach the all-star break, so I am going to give you my picks right now. These will cover National and American League Batting Titles, Most Valuable Players, Cy Young Awards, Rookie of the Year, Gold Gloves, and Manager of the Year Award. Also predicted, how teams will place in their divisions, who will play who in the playoffs, and who will win what.

Today I'll start out with the AL Batting Titles:

2008 AL Batting Title: Winner: Joe Mauer.................Runner Up: Magglio Ordonez

Joe Mauer became the only catcher ever to win an AL batting title when he won it in 2006 over Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano. At the rate he is going at, I would expect him to win it again this year, marking himself as one of the best hitting catchers of all time. He is currently batting .324 (second in the AL), and is behind Milton Bradley (.333), who I would not expect to last there. He is a .314 career hitter, so I'm guessing that his average will not be likely lowered by a lot. He reached a [would be league leading] .335 average on June 6th, but went 2-for-13 in the next four games. He will continue to hit well, and is on the way to a another Silver Slugger if he stays healthy.

The Most Entertaining "What if..." Game

Thu, 29 May 2008 6:51:52 EDT

What if the Detroit Tigers general manager and execs could look into the future...

In this scenario, many various trades would be made, and players would be picked up. Here are my top changes:

Do not come through with the Dontrelle Willis-Miguel Cabrera trade for Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin. Maybin will be a star, and Miller is already better than a few of the Tigers' pitchers. Besides, Dontrelle Willis is a terrible pitcher, and has spent more time on the DL than most others have. Cabrera is either about to reach his best years, or last year was his prime. If the ladder were to be true, the Tigers will most certainly have a hard time getting rid of him.

Edgar Renteria can stay with the Braves, for he has been having an ugly year so far. I would be more interested in Atlanta's new shortstop, Yunel Escobar. In this trade, the Tigers gave up Jair Jurrjens and Omar Infante for Renteria. Infante is unneeded, the Tigers already have a nice collection of utilitymen, but Jurrjens is different. He is an easy rookie of the year candidate right now as he leads the National League's rookies in ERA (2.86), wins (5), and is second in strikeouts (49). He would be an extreme help to the Tigers rotation, in which the ERA leader is Jeremy Bonderman with 4.34.

All Star Voting- My Picks

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:05:43 EDT

The Major League Baseball all-star team voting has been open for a month or two now. Click here to cast your vote. By now, I have a pretty good idea on who's good and who's great. Here are my picks:

American League

AL 1B: Kevin Youkilis- Boston Red Sox

AL 2B: Robinson Cano- New York Yankees

Uggla vs. Utley

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:09:04 EDT

Have you ever wondered: is Chase Utley better than Dan Uggla, or vice versa?

Neither have I. However, with my extreme research powers, I am going to find out. As of now, Uggla is batting .318 with 16 home runs and 37 RBIs. Utley is batting .303 with 15 home runs and 36 RBIs. Uggla is 28 years old and Utley is 29. Over the past few years, these stats have not been so even. In playing less than 33% of the time last year, Uggla has over 50% of the home runs thus far. It seems like an amazing breakout year. Looking at the stats, although it is very vague, it seems that Utley may not have had a breakout. In 2004, Chase Utley hit a home run in about every 21 at bats. The next year, Utley hit one in every 19, and the next, every 21 again. Last year, he hit one in every 24 at bats, and this year one in every 13. Uggla is similar. In 2006, he hit one in every 23 at bats, and last year, one in every 20. This year he hits one every 11` at bats. There seems to be a pattern here. None of this years' great power numbers will stick, though. Neither of these guys hit as well during the second half of the season. Throughout his career, Uggla hit .284 in the first half and .250 in the second half, 44 points lower. In Utley's career, he has hit .306 in the first half and .293 in the second half, only 13 points lower. In the first half, Uggla hits a homer every 18 at bats, and in the second a homer every 21. Utley in the first half hits one out every 20 at bats, but in the second hits one out every 22. If you do the math you'll find that by the end of the year neither will have these great batting averages, (Utley will most likely have the better one), and neither will have the great power, although Uggla will hit more home runs than Utley. If injury occurs, anything can change. My prediction is Utley hits .293 and Uggla hits .289. Also, Utley will hit about 34 home runs, will Uggla will hit 35-39. Both the Philadelphia Phillies and the Florida Marlins lineups have been hot this year, so I would expect similar 115-140 RBI years for both.