Tagged: Boof Bonser

April 12, 2011

New York Mets Offseason Recap and Preview

Normally I provide a picture at the beginning of an entry to describe the team’s last season. The Mets are no exception:

Grade: B-

Notable Additions:

Chris Young, Chris Capuano, Boof Bonser, Chin-lung Hu, and Scott Harriston.

Notable Subtractions:

Oliver Perez, Luis Castillo, Pedro Feliciano, Hisanori Takahashi, Sean Green, Henry Blanco, John Maine, and Fernando Tatis.

Why?: Had I done this entry when I planned, I would have given them a C. With the subtractions of Oliver Perez and Luis Castillo they actually did not hurt their chances of winning this year by that much. It also set them up for the future rather well not having to worry about the contracts of those two.

The only thing that it could be interpretted negatively as is, as a declaration of defeat by the Mets (that would be Mets fans that say this). Yes, it is a declaration of defeat, but come on, did Mets fans really expect them to get to the playoffs this year (some do).

Maybe this is just my talk radio trained ear overreacting to Mets fans expecting their team to do well. I wish them well for all the Mets fans in New York (Although, a worse team does mean more empty seats) but I just don’t see it this year… at all.

Predicted Record Range: 65-70 wins maybe they go on more extended versions of the tears last year because of injured players coming back but I also see two players in contract years that could act as trade bait. This number is assuming either Calos Beltran or Jose Reyes gets traded mid-season. If not, see this number go up maybe even by double digits.

Up Next: Washington Nationals

To try and hide this entry (as to not get hate mail from Mets fans) quickly I will try and get the Nationals Recap and Preview up ASAP.

February 21, 2011

Oakland Athletics Offseason Recap and Preview

¿Well, I’m reporting from my country of Colombia and this might take a while, have you ever seen these keyboards? Anyway, fantasy people know what I’m talking about when I say that you will be hearing a whole lot from this guy this year:

For the baseball elitists, (which I am sometimes a part of) this is Trevor Cahill who was the best pitcher on the best staff in th American League.

I personally saw him bomb on August 30 at Yankee Stadium but I have seen him go well on TV and can say that he might regress in the ERA department but will have about the same strikeouts and wins. Everyone knows that aces become superstars when they play on winning teams, which I think the A’s will be this year.

Grade: C+

Notable Additions:

Brian Fuentes, Grant Balfour, David DeJesus, Edwin Encarnacion, Hideki Matsui, Josh Willingham, and Rich Harden.

Notable Subtractions:

Rajai Davis,Vin Mazzaro, Justin Duchscherer, Jack Cust, Gabe Gross, Boof Bonser, and Jeremy Hermeida.

Why?: For the simple reason that they have not improved much through the moves they have made, most of it was substitution from one player to another. Let me give a few examples and let’s see if you agree. Jack Cust and Hideki Matsui, they are pretty different players but have about the same power and Cust’s OBP advantage more than offsets any of Matsui’s advantages. Balfour (does anyone else see the irony in his name) and Harden offset Mazzaro and Duchscherer( that was hard enough to write on the English keyboard), each pair has a , injury risk but a very high ceiling’s the limit if he ever stayed healthy for a few years, starter and a fluctuating but healthy other person, I could explain this further but I do have 28 more teams to write about. The only addition by lack of an equal and opposite subtractions is Brian Fuentes, which could take them to the next level (whether or not that’s the division I am not sure because, let’s face it they only won half of their games).

Though, I do see them growing as a result of the young pitching staff having another year of experience and either failing miserably as a result of it and coming back next year, or using last year’s experience to grow and be the dominant staff of the American League. They do have the opportunity to win the division but their success is based on alot of variables with inexact formulae. So, could they be division winners? Yes. Will they most likely be division winners? Actually, yes ( and you thought I was going to say no). Though they were nine games behind the division winning Rangers and they are full of inexact science. I do believe a nine game swing has occurred between the two and Oakland will end up the season as a playoff team, but not by much.

Predicted record range: 88-93 wins. You can do the math on the losses. Although, with young rotations there is always the risk that the rotation will lose a few starters to overwork (cough,cough…Gio Gonzalez), injuries, streakiness etc. In which case, their win range is in the mid 70’s.

Up Next: The Los Angeles Angels of Aneheim. Or if translated completely into english, The The Angels Angels of Aneheim.

It didn’t take me as long as most entries but I’ m about ready to throw this keyboard to the ground. The letters are the same but the symbols are a nightmare because there are about three on each key and so you don’t know which will show up.

For example, I must have pressed this:{ about a hundred times trying to get an apostrophe. I won{t send you out on a bad note, so…

Fun Fact of the day: The reason the flags of Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador have the same color pattern is because they were all freed in the same revolution , headed by Simon Bolivar. Panama was also but it was part of Colombia until Teddy Roosevelt wanted to build a canal through it. So he started a revolution because the Colombians wouldn’t let him, sent US troops, and got permission from the grateful Panamanians to build his much desired canal(So the reason Panama doesn’t have a similar flag is because it wanted to distance itself from Colombia). Hope it helps you sound smart around your freinds. What do I mean? You need no help sounding smart. (What I won’t do for frequent readers. Did I just write that?)