Baseball Etcetera...Spring Leaders....2007 Outlook

by user Niteowl049

Baseball Notebook

13 Hours, 26 Minutes, 28 Seconds, till First Game of Season!!!!!!

Last Minute Moves

Randy Johnson was placed on disabled list as expected by the Diamondbacks. Curtis Pride was reassigned by the Angels and they also sent Kendry Morales to the minors....Sidney Ponson will start the season with the Twins after being signed and Ken Harvey the former Royals player will be sent down....NL batting champion Freddy Sanchez will start the season on the disabled list....In a major surprise the Devil Rays sent down Jorge Cantu. Knew his stats were on a downward trend after he hit 28 homers in 2005 then only hit 14 homers last year but part of that was due to injuries sustained last season.

Bruce Chen, Sammy Sosa and Matt Kata were purchased by the Rangers along with pitcher Mike Wood. Kata will be an extra infielder after an excellent spring....Eric Gagne will start the season on the disabled list for the Rangers....Steve Finley and John Mabry were added to the Giants roster as they will go with an older roster again in 2007.

Spring Leaders Batting

Hits Derrek Lee 32 Todd Linden 30

Doubles Derrek Lee 12

Triples Carl Crawford 5

Home Runs Aramis Ramirez 8 Scott Hairston 7

Runs Batted In Derrek Lee 22 Aramis Ramirez 21 Greg Dobbs 20 (Phillies)

Total Bases Scott Hairston 58 Aramis Ramirez 57

Batting Average (At least 28 at bats) Hunter Pence .571 (Astros) Placido Polanco .491

Extra Base Hits Scott Hairston 16 Derrek Lee 16

Pitching

Wins Edgar Gonzalez 5 (Diamondbacks)

Losses Javier Vazquez 4 Scott Olsen 4

ERA (At least 20 innings) Adam Wainwright 1.10 Kip Wells 1.16

Strikeouts James Shields 30 (Devil Rays) Rich Harden 29

Hits Aaron Harang 46 Jon Garland 45

Outlook for 2007 Season

AL East

Yankees will have to start season without 17 game winner Chien-Ming Wang which could help the Red Sox start off well if Daisuke Matsuzaka can translate his spring training success into regular season wins. Gary Sheffield will be missed by the Yankees but they still have enough firepower if Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez can hit the way they are capable of hitting. J.D. Drew will be the one to watch for Red Sox. If he hits well and stays healthy he will make the middle of the Red Sox order more potent than last season.

Blue Jays, Orioles and Devil Rays will fight over the remaining 3 spots in standings with Orioles possibly passing the Blue Jays with their revamped bullpen and Leo Mazzone seems to be working his magic with the starters.

AL Central Tigers should be even better on offense with the addition of Gary Sheffield. The loss of Kenny Rogers is a huge setback to the pitching. Justin Verlander will be watched closely to see if he can come close to his numbers of last season. Twins could have problems with pitching with Francisco Liriano probably out for the season. Carlos Silva and Sidney Ponson could be weak links in starting pitching. Indians could jump to first or second this season as they had an excellent spring. White Sox need to regroup if they are to recover from a disastrous spring training. Royals seem poised for another last place finish even with overpaid Gil Meche who was 0-3 in spring training in rotation.

AL West

Might be one of the closest races this season. Angels have the hitters but the pitching is a question mark with Bartolo Colon and Jered Weaver starting season on disabled list. This could be a breakout season for Howie Kendrick. A's pitching was looking good until Esteban Loaiza told Bob Geren he may not be able to pitch to start the season but as of right now has not been placed on disabled list. The addition of Mike Piazza and Shannon Stewart should combine to come to close to replacing the stats of departed Frank Thomas. Rangers and Mariners as usual should battle it out for last place.

NL East Braves have strengthened their bullpen which kept them out of NL East race last season despite hitting more home runs than any other team in baseball. They gave up 32 of those homers by dealing Adam LaRoche for Pirates closer Mike Gonzalez. If you go by spring training stats Mets would be picked to finish low in standings but they start all over tonight. Phillies have been getting good hitting from Glen Dobbs who was third in RBI's this spring and his offense could help the team this year. Marlins and Nationals haven't changed drastically over the offseason so should battle for last place.

NL Central

This division is up for grabs unless Cardinals pitchers pitch all season like they have this spring. Joe Morgan said yesterday working so many new pitchers into rotation in one season may backfire later in season since they are not used to pitching the innings that are required of a starter over a full season. Offense looks good as Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and Scott Rolen return in middle of lineup. Cubs have their offense healthy again with Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez having great springs and have now added Alfonso Soriano to make the offense even stronger. Astros will be hurting with the loss of Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte but will have more power this season with the addition of Carlos Lee. Brewers may surprise this season if Ben Sheets and Chris Capuano can match their best years. Reds have done well this spring but can't see them contending for title but wouldn't be surprised if they did. Pirates should contine their string of last place finishes.

NL West

Pitching is strong point of Dodgers and the outfield has been improved with the addition of Juan Pierre and Luis Gonzalez. This could be the year the Diamondbacks break through and become serious contenders in the division. Their pitching has been great this spring with Edgar Gonzalez leading all spring pitchers with 5 wins. Randy Johnson is gradually getting ready and should join the team later this month. They have so many young star players in the field it would take too long to name them all. I don't look for Padres to win the division this season because the other teams seemed to have improved more than they have. If anything happens to Bonds that would cause him to be out of lineup for an extended time the Giants will fold since they don't have that much in the way of offense. Rockies could even pass the Giants this season. Don't expect Barry Zito to pitch any better than Jason Schmidt did last season so can't see paying him all that money to win a game or two more than Schmidt.