How Many Years Will It Take Of The AL Clubbing The NL In Interleague Before Things Change?

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With a modest 4 – 3 lead in the season series heading into today’s action. the National League is in foreign territory by leading the Interleague yearly contest.  However I remember the the NL taking a decent lead in the 2014 campaign – before the American League trounced the Senior Circuit the rest of the way – and edged them out by a few games for the entire year..

The Junior Circuit has won the last 12 years of play, and own a decisive .552 win percentage since 2004 (when the 1st 8 years were split 4 – 4 in the seasons, with the NL holding a 30 games wins lead) in that time frame.

I am a bigger fan of the American League game over the National League, yet I am torn because if these splits continue for more seasons, we will never have more Interleague ever. We may stay the same – or god forbid, eliminate Interleague altogether if expansion leads to 32 clubs (16 in each league) and negating an odd amount of teams per league, not necessarily needing to play it anymore.

Right now there are 20 games for each club against the other League. It boils down to just one division playing another division, and then in most cases, a natural geographical rivalry.

Determining how many games there ought to really be, I turn to the “Team Fatigue card” a lot of my fellow westerners have expressed in so much out this way over the years.

I am close enough to see both NL and AL parks play, but there are several cities that are without a league park of the other for hundreds of miles (like Seattle, Arizona, Colorado, Minneapolis), then KC and St. Louis to a lesser extent, but far away enough to classify a full road trip should you partake in a journey to see.

You can add Texas and Houston, with Tampa and Miami in that mix as well.

BBBA Audio/Video Casters Week In Review:

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We have an outstanding amount of baseball fans that are doing audio and video presentations for the game of baseball that are not even being paid for it.

I would put the content of these shows up against a lot of the paid professionals of the MLB – or any other entity that possesses the wherewithal to be able to do that.

If you want to keep scrolling down, all of the information listed below is all of the shows for the week from all, or maybe you have a favorite, then you can just click on one of the highlighted shows. 

In this opening week we had Sully Baseball talk a lot about the Pirates, D’Backs, Cubs and the Cardinals in opening week.  He keyed on where Tim Lincecum may end up, and the opening start for Zack Greinke.  Like everyone else, he also submitted his yearly predictions.

Sully also delivered an emotional podcast where he implores everyone to love their extended family more on April 2, 2016 – because you don’t know when you may lose some one.

BBBA Audio/Video Shows

Sully Baseball April Podcasts

The “BBA” Live  guys talked about the opening week, and a lot about what the NL East will look like this year.

The Hall Of Very Good Interviewed Kato Kaelin.

The Jays from the Couch guys continued to kill it on their coverage of Canada’s only team.

The Pirates Breakdown was happy to see their club begin 3 – 0 after sweeping the Cards after giving their predictions.

Seamheads (Gateway To Heaven) wondered if anyone was going to make it through the week for St. Louis in light of the Tommy Pham injury.

MLB This Week went through their season picks – and also talked about some of the technology of the game as a fan.

Past here is how to subscribe and listen to these shows. 

Odds To Win The MLB Divisions In 2016: Best Value Bets

It seems about once every 3 years Ubaldo Jimenez puts together a Cy Young caliber type of year. If he can find all the stars aligned in the right direction he could throw like a suitable #1 pitcher in the league. The problem with the rotation is that Jimenez and Tillman are up and down – while Gausman and Bundy are unproven at the big league. At least the potential is there for one year.  Decent Innings were thrown by both starters this week, and Bundy worked a nice frame out of the Bullpen last night.

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So less than a week of play has occurred and we are seeing some early trends.  They jumped from +1300 to +900 in 3 games, and I still believe that is great value.

1st impressions are I am glad I bet a lot of money on the Baltimore Orioles for the Division and the American League Pennant overall.  Yes they swept a Twins club at home, and  have yet to play on the road, but the pitching looks decent.

Chris Tillman and Ubaldo Jimenez look decent in their limited work, and the offense has come up clutch.

If the O’s are able to get that Cy Young caliber type of chucker Jimenez seems to wharf into for half a year (for once every 3 seasons), than maybe Baltimore has a fighting chance to win the AL East in 2016.

Baltimore was 47 – 31, and played one of the weirdest home games ever in front of no fans after the Baltimore riots.  For those scoring at home too, the Rays hosted 3 games with the civil unrest, and that is why there were only 78 games played at Camden Yards in 2015.

The Orioles were 34 – 50 on the road.  If they are able to win some games away from home cooking, they will compete.

How do you define a sports dynasty?

I’ve been wanting to write this piece for forever – I’ve started and I’ve stopped but this picture is an inspiration to finally write the story I need to write.

The “even year” San Francisco Giants are NOT a dynasty and the above picture illustrates that, but I have examples beyond that, that help prove my point.

DEFINITION OF A DYNASTY:

According to the dictionary this is the definition of a dynasty:

• a succession of rulers who are members of the same family
• the period during which a certain family reigns

That can be applied to sports teams …. I define a sports dynasty as follows:

Dynasties are teams that are DOMINANT over a significant period of time.

For further examples and information on sports dynasties and why they qualify as dynasties ….

Click here to continue reading on BBST

Doubleheader Master Schedule For MLB Parks In 2016 By Ground

Wrigley Field is perfect to double up with games at Miller Park all year. The classic move is the Friday 1:20 game, then head up to Miller Park by ground for a 7:10 contest. You can even catch an Amtrak Train from Union Station that leaves at 5:09 weekdays, and arrives in downtown Milwaukee at 6:35. You avoid the horrible traffic that way.

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As an expert in Major League Doubleheaders (I attended 47 of them in 2015, including one Triple Header, and have gone to 75 overall in the last 7 years), I have to say there is fewer opportunities to see 2 games in one day this year than last years schedule.

In 2015 alone, I started off seeing 37 games in April despite their only being 25 days of game action – as part of my 224 total games seen live.

Some of the previous years I really went all out with crazy flight doubleheader scenarios.. These are not really pragmatic unless you are chasing a world record.

Most of the criteria is to be able to see most (if not all) of both games of the twin bill.

There are 2 New York Doubleheaders on June 30th and Aug 27, and 1 all Chicago Doubleheader move on Sept 15, 2016.

Oakland and San Francisco represent the 3rd closest home parks to the New York and Chicago Parks.  There are 2 opportunities to see the BAY area 2 fer.

On May 21st, the Yankees are in Oakland at 1:05, and the Giants host the Cubs at 5:05 on the ESPN SUNDAY NIGHT GAME.  With a quick run to the BART station after the 1st game, you could conceivably make both contests for the duration.

On June 15th, a more friendly timed doubleheader goes 12:45 at AT & T Park, with a 7:05 start for o.co coliseum.

Several of the doubleheaders with big drives like STL/KC, CIN/STL and CLE/CIN are all feasible to see most of the action  for each, and a quick game may result in every pitch seen.

2016’s 30 MLB Park Home Openers With Local Start Times

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I have been fortunate enough to see home openers in 8 different parks already in the last 4 years.

We have updated the previous article on this because all of the home start times have been posted.

We have also provided 30 links to all of the best chaser guides for the stadiums.  This will aid you in making your travel plans for the 2016 season.

Interleague 2016 Master Schedule

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MLB Scheduling 2016

Day + Date     Away and Home, Times Start In EST

 These are just game times, for full results click here

APR

WEEK 1 (Includes Season Opener Sunday Apr.3, 2016)

Sunday, Apr 3 (1 Game)

Mets @ Royals 8:37

Monday, Apr 4 (1 Game)

Cubs @ Angels 10:05 (Angel Stadium Season Opener)

Tuesday  Apr 5  (3 Games)

Mets @ Royals 4:15

Tigers @ Marlins 7:10 (Marlins Park Season Opener)

Cubs @ Angels 10:05

Who Will Win All Of The MLB Divisions Polls In 2016? Your Chance To Cast Your Vote

It is different when you are the ‘hunted’ instead of the ‘hunters’ and Chicago has many players that could suffer from a sophomore slump in their second go around the Senior Circuit. These guys are still favored heavily to win the NL Central, and are by the far the biggest consensus Division winner pick among experts.

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Odds To Be The 1st MLB Manager Fired In 2016: Who Is On The Hotseat?

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21

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Every year there are certain managers that have a ton of pressure to win.  This is always a tough process to think of who will be nixed first.

On one hand, many clubs that should be in contention for the playoffs will see an axe come to their tenure, however sometimes clubs are so bad record wise (even though they were projected to be) that the franchise will just slay the field general in the name of mercy.

As far as under the gun goes. guys like Brad Ausmus, John Farrell and John Gibbons.  are tops on the list. 

Ausmus doesn’t have a track record of any postseason series wins like the latter two here, so he is going to be the #1 favorite out of this group of skippers that could go fast with playoff aspirations if their teams struggle out of the starting block.

Gibbons did a great job with Toronto in 2015, but a slow start would really put his name on the block. Say if they are 6 or 7 games behind the playoff bar near Memorial Day.

Farrell has put up back to back 5th place finishes in the AL East after winning the World Series Title in his 1st year of being the skipper in 2013.

Then there is a perennial bad losing club that have long tenured coaches like Walt Weiss and Robin Ventura. I am not sure they should not have been shown the door following last years campaigns. 

Weiss has losing years for every year under his belt, and Ventura rode out 2013 with his late season collapse, but his club has underachieved in every other year.

Still the two most managers on the hot seat are Fredi Gonzalez of the Braves on top of the favorite list at +331, followed by Bryan Price at +441. But I hate putting money on either of these gentlemen with their clubs both being on track to challenge for the worst record in the Majors this year.

Heck, Gonzalez’s predecessor Bobby Cox was the well into his 3rd decade with the “Tomahawk” Choppers when he finally stepped down to a front office job. Gonzalez at least had the Braves in the playoffs in 2012. 

Price can’t really be expected to do anything with this anemic Pitching Staff, and all veterans except for Votto may be available for trade at any point.

Baseball’s Biggest “Get Out Of Jail” Financial Contracts Over The Last Few Years

Several players have either retired for various reasons, or have served suspensions in which their organization has received an unexpected benefit of salary relief for it in recent years. This will need to be addressed in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement to be forthcoming after this next season.

Hunter Stokes (BBBA Featured Writer) Follow @stokes_hunter21

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The new CBA forthcoming should be addressing on how player contracts work towards team salaries when it is due for suspension or retirement.  Last week’s sudden packing in the cleats from Adam LaRoche will actually benefit the White Sox with $13 MIL in salary relief.

It is not the 1st time a guy has retired during a contract, and it is the latest where a team may be drawing a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t even the 1st instance of the winter.  Earlier this off year, Mets OF Michael Cuddyer retired with one year of service left on his deal.  This move led the Mets to have a few extra dollars in their seat cushion to re-ink Yoenis Cespedes to a 1 Year $27.5 MIL deal

Cuddyer was still expensive for New York with a 1sr RD Draft pick forfeit, but at least he only cost the club $8.5 MIL on 1 season, as opposed to an additional $12.5 MIL this upcoming campaign.

If the Mets are still under contract with this guy it makes re-signing Cespedes a tougher deal.  Not only cash wise, but it was also clogging up another spot on the Roster if  New York had to keep the under-performing former Rockies and Twins player.

Instead, all of the fans wishes were granted when Cespedes came back to Flushing Meadows, and you can add the fact they also re-upped with Bartolo Colon for another year as yet another extension of the Cuddyer decision.