Results tagged ‘ Justin Verlander ’
Best Players Going Into 2013–By Age
The first players reported to Spring Training nearly two weeks ago, however, the first official games are taking place today. The Tigers are set to take on the Braves at 1:05 EST, with the Reds-Indians, Royals-Rangers and Padres-Mariners games all beginning at 3:05 EST. The remaining teams are all playing their first game on Saturday.
With the first official baseball games of the season starting up, I wanted to take the time to post a “top players” list, of sorts, but instead of making my own version of a top 10 list, or whatever, I decided to make a list of the top player for each year of age throughout Major League Baseball. Meaning, of the 20 year olds in MLB, I’ll list the player I feel is the overall best of them all. With the same holding true for the players age 21, 22, 23, 24, and so on.
The range of ages runs from 20 years old, with Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, etc., all the way up to age 43, with Mariano Rivera. Just so you know, I’m going by the age each player will be to start the season. Therefore, a few players will be listed a year older than they currently are, due to them having a birthday between now and April 1st.
With there being SO many names, I’m not going to be listing my reasoning behind each pick; just a general list with players’ names. The player I feel is the best for their age category can be either a position player, or a pitcher:
20 years old: Bryce Harper
21 years old: Mike Trout
22 years old: Shelby Miller
23 years old: Giancarlo Stanton
24 years old: Stephen Strasburg
25 years old: Clayton Kershaw
26 years old: Felix Hernandez
27 years old: Evan Longoria
28 years old: Prince Fielder
29 years old: Miguel Cabrera
30 years old: Justin Verlander
31 years old: Josh Hamilton
32 years old: C.C. Sabathia
33 years old: Albert Pujols
34 years old: Cliff Lee
35 years old: Roy Halladay
36 years old: Michael Young
37 years old: David Ortiz
38 years old: Derek Jeter
39 years old: Ichiro Suzuki
40 years old: Andy Pettitte
41 years old: Henry Blanco
42 years old: Jason Giambi
43 years old: Mariano Rivera
So, there you have it. The best players by age, in my opinion, from 20 through 43, going into the 2013 season. Do you agree with my picks? If not, who would you pick to replace the name(s) you disagree with? Let me know in the comments section below.
My Prediction for the 2012 World Series
With last night’s win over the Cardinals, it’s official: The San Francisco Giants will be taking on the Detroit Tigers in the 2012 World Series; which begins Wednesday in San Francisco.
Now that the matchup is set, I wanted to take the time type up a blog post with my prediction of who I think will win the World Series. Though I’m normally way off when making predictions–I had the Rangers and Angels making the World Series in my March predictions–I feel fairly confident this particular time. (After all, I have a 50 percent chance of getting it right.)
With that said, this is how I feel it’s going to play out:
Game 1- Tigers
Game 2- Giants
Game 3- Giants
Game 4- Tigers
Game 5- Tigers
Game 6- Giants
Game 7- Giants
That’s right. Not only do I have the World Series going seven games, but I strongly feel the Giants are going to pull it out–both of which many people disagree with. A lot of people seem to think the Tigers are going to mow down the Giants with little effort whatsoever, and while that’s not out of the question, I just don’t see it happening.
First of all, the Tigers are going into the World Series on five days rest, while the Giants merely have today. While logic would tell you that rest is a good thing, in the case of post season baseball, I see it as working just the opposite. The Giants have momentum that the Tigers don’t, and while the Tigers seem to be the favorite to win the World Series I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people; and not in a good way.
One of the main reasons I think people feel the Tigers are going to be SO dominant against the Giants is because of the way they clobbered the Yankees in the ALCS. Something you have to keep in mind is that the Yankees weren’t themselves during the series. Lets face it: They sucked. That’s about as straight forward as I can put it. The only reason the Tigers were so impressive is because the Yankees played horribly. While I’m not trying to take anything away from the Tigers, I just want to get the point across that had the Yankees of played like THE Yankees, things wouldn’t have gone the way they did; in terms of a sweep.
Now, something the Tigers have that the Giants don’t is Justin Verlander. Every time he’s on the mound, you have to like the Tigers chances of pulling out a victory. But while they have one of the best pitchers in baseball–along with the Triple Crown winner, in Miguel Cabrera–in the end, I don’t think they’ll be able to hold off the surging Giants. The Giants have too much going for them.
In the end, no matter who you have winning the World Series, as a baseball fan, you have to be excited about the upcoming week of Major League Baseball. Anytime you have a couple of teams as good as these going head-to-head in a pressure filled Fall Classic situation, you’re sure to have some incredible games.
So that’s who I have winning the World Series. Who’s your pick?
Leave a comment below with who you have winning, and in how many games.
My Vote for American League Cy Young
This is the second in a series of four blog posts that I plan to type up between now and Friday; all of which will focus on who I feel should win the three major awards of Most Valuable Player (MVP), Cy Young and Rookie of the Year (ROY). (If you haven’t read my posts on who I think should win the AL MVP and NL MVP, go ahead and check those out now.)
When making a pick for American League Cy Young, I feel I can rely on stats (and not just personal opinion) more so than I did with Most Valuable Player. Unlike with MVP–where I didn’t let stats influence my decision–stats played a big role in my decision making for AL Cy Young; as the numbers don’t lie.
But don’t get the impression that the decision was an easy one. There are SO many good candidates for AL Cy Young that it made it impossible for me to choose just one player. So I ended up letting the stats do the deciding for me.
I took the American League starting pitchers with ERA’s below 3.00 (Price, Verlander and Weaver) and compared them from 20 different statistical angles. (I chose to use so many different stats to compare them because I felt that using Wins, ERA and strikeouts alone didn’t tell the whole story of how good a particular pitcher was.)
My method works as follows: The pitcher with the best numbers in a given category receives 1 point; with the 2nd and 3rd place pitcher receiving 2 and 3 points, respectively. (The occurence of a tie in a particular category results in the tied players receiving the same point amount.) In the end, the pitcher with the lowest combined total would be my pick for the Cy Young award.
It took me awhile to crunch all of the numbers, but once I finally finished, this was the result:
As stated earlier, the pitcher with the lowest combined total is declared (by me) as the winner. Which makes Jered Weaver the statistical choice (as well as my pick) for AL Cy Young.
I’m a bit shocked by the results, but not THAT shocked. (It’s not like Jered Weaver doesn’t deserve it.) Posting a record of 20-5, with a 2.81 ERA, Weaver is definitely worthy enough. He led the league in opponent batting average (.214), as well as WHIP (1.02), and in addition, pitched a no-hitter on May 2nd against the Twins.
Just icing on the cake for Jered Weaver–my pick for 2012 American League Cy Young.
Do you agree or disagree with me?
As always, feel free to leave a comment below.
Justin Verlander Wins AL MVP
I was looking to go 6 for 6 with my predictions that I made a week ago today. Through the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young awards, I was right on, going 4 for 4. I was feeling good about my AL MVP prediction, of Jacoby Ellsbury. I didn’t think Justin Verlander would recieve enough votes
to win, given the fact that he’s a pitcher, but I was wrong. It was announced earlier this afternoon that Verlander was in fact the winner of the MVP award. The first starting pitcher to win it since Roger Clemens, back in 1986.
You’re probably wondering–or maybe you’re not, I don’t know–about how I feel about Verlander’s recieving of the AL MVP award. First of all, I have nothing against a pitcher winning. Considering the fact that there was a 25 year drought between starting pitchers, it’s not like any starting pitcher can win it. They have to have an incredible season–as Verlander did. Another thing that put Verlander over the top for me, is the fact that he became the first pitcher since Sandy Koufax, back in 1965, to record 24 wins and throw a no-hitter in the same season. Anytime your name is included in the same sentence as someone as great as Koufax, you know you had a special year.
The results of the AL MVP voting (top 5) are as follows:
1) Justin Verlander- 280 Votes
2) Jacoby Ellsbury- 242 Votes
3) Jose Bautista- 231 Votes
4) Curtis Granderson- 215 Votes
5) Miguel Cabrera- 193 Votes
Although I didn’t predict Verlander to win, I didn’t think that the results would come out the way they did. I thought for sure that Curtis Granderson would finish either second or third, but he came in fourth–with Bautista beating him out. That’s the only part of the MVP voting that I question. But whatever. It is what it is. Congrats to Justin Verlander.
There is a lot of controversy as to whether or not a pitcher should be allowed to win the MVP award. I say absolutely, but you may think otherwise. So, what do you think?
Who’s The Better Starting Pitcher?
JUSTIN VERLANDER
2011 Stats (Through June 15th)
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Wins- 8
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Losses- 3
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ERA- 2.66
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Complete Games- 3
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Shutouts- 2
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Strikeouts- 105
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Hits Allowed- 73
ROY HALLADAY
2011 Stats (Through June 15th)
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Wins- 9
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Losses- 3
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ERA- 2.39
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Complete Games- 4
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Shutouts- 0
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Strikeouts- 106
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Hits Allowed- 97
CC SABATHIA
2011 Stats (Through June 15th)
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Wins- 8
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Losses- 4
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ERA- 3.28
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Complete Games- 1
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Shutouts- 0
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Strikouts- 81
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Hits Allowed- 104
JOSH BECKETT
2011 Stats (Through June 15th)
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Wins- 5
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Losses- 2
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ERA- 2.06
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Complete Games- 0
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Shutouts- 0
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Strikeouts- 73
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Hits Allowed- 54
So there you have it. The 2011 stats of 4 of baseballs best pitchers. Cast your vote for who you think is the better pitcher, in the poll below:
I’ll post the results in a future blog entry, so come back to see how other readers felt………..
Matt Huddleston
