Notable Additions: Yunel Escobar IF, Max Scherzer SP

Notable Losses: Adam LaRoche 1B, Rafael Soriano, Ross Detwiler P, Steven Souza Jr. OF, Tyler Clippard RP, Asdrubal Cabrera IF

This team is so far ahead everyone else. The starting rotation is the best in the league by a landslide. It will be led by Max Scherzer who signed with the team in the offseason. He finished with a 3.15 ERA through 220.1 inning in 2014. His SO9 rate has been above 10 the past three seasons. So I guess this makes Jordan Zimmerman the two, Strasburg the three, Fister the four and Gio the five. That’s just not fair. That means that the number five pitcher would have a career ERA of 3.59 and is a lefty. Gio would be a “two” on most other teams. I actually have a different spot that I would like to see Gio but I’ll talk about that later on.

The offense should be strong enough to win games. The pitching will keep other teams at check just about every day. Jayson Werth will contribute heavily on the offensive side. He seems to have gotten better with age and finished last season with a .292 batting average and 16 home runs. The Nationals will count on his reliability in 2015. Anthony Rendon secured his spot at third when he hit .287 with 21 homers and 83 RBI’s in 2015. He will be looking to cross the plate 100+ times again after scoring 111 times last season.

It’s hard to say that this team has any weakness but if we had to pick one it would be the bullpen. The team decided not to bring back, former closer, Rafael Soriano. He finished 2014 with a 3.19 ERA and 32 saves. The biggest loss in the bullpen was Tyler Clippard. The setup man finished with a 2.18 ERA through 70.1 innings last season. This brings us to my “try something new” proposal. I’d love to see Gio Gonzalez sent to the bullpen. The starting rotation is already the best in the league and they have the depth to replace Gio. Tanner Roark could fill the fifth spot in the rotation and be effective. Roark finished 2014 with a 2.85 ERA through 198.2 innings. A fifth starter with a sub 3 ERA? Yes please! A dominant lefty that can work for multiple innings out of the bullpen? Absolutely! I think it would give the bullpen that extra boost to be almost unstoppable.

Breakout Player: Bryce Harper OF

This team is full of guys who have already broken out. Harper is different than the usual candidate. I think he is ready to take the next step and become a superstar. He finished with just 13 home runs last season and played in 100 games. I think he’s gonna surprise a lot of people in 2015. If healthy I expect:

.287 BA 29 HR, 87 RBI’s 

Game Changer: Drew Storen CP

Storen will have the duty of closing out games in 2015 and is plenty capable of doing it. He finished with 11 saves last season. He held a 1.12 ERA through 56.1 innings of work in 2014. If he can consistently close out games, you might be looking at the 2015 World Champions.

The Nationals will be the team to beat in the NL East and will make a playoff run. They have all the pieces to the puzzle and have the edges put together. Now it just comes down to execution.

Make sure to check back in on March 31st for my complete standing predictions along with a few other fun pieces of news. Until then, you will be able to find a new preview of an individual team from March 1st through the 30th here at KRUI.FM.

The post Washington Nationals 2015 Preview Edition #15 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

There is something to be said for humble baseball players. Guys who do not run their mouths or act like they are the greatest man to ever walk on a diamond, but simply go out every day and play ball. I have always been a supporter of someone who lets his play do the talking, but once in a while a player comes along whose ego is justified. If a player is only 20 years old, batting third for a major league baseball team, coming off a Rookie of the Year season, and is batting .302 with 10 home runs and 21 RBIs, that is a pretty reasonable exception. Bryce Harper is that exception.

Now the general consensus I have gotten from people is that he is generally not well liked. They say he is a bit too arrogant for his own good and for his age. But despite all this I like Bryce Harper. Maybe he is arrogant but you cannot tell me that anyone in his position would not be. If he thinks he’s better than the others on his team, well its because at the moment he is. The Nationals would not be even as high as they are now if it was not for Harper. For a team that was picked to be the preseason favorite, they are not quite living up to expectations, except for number 34. Currently he is leading the team in home runs, RBIs, batting average, on-base-percentage, slugging percentage, and total bases. In essence, he is Washington’s offense.

Also how can people criticize a guy that has to take an IV before playing, throws up during the game, and still stays in? Usually arrogant baseball players are classified as “prima donnas” but you cannot say that about him either. The kid’s got some guts and is a true competitor. If he was not, then he would never have been playing varsity baseball his sophomore and freshman years of high school, or competing against top JUCO talent when he was sixteen, or been a top pick in the MLB Draft at eighteen, or won NL rookie of the Year. Need I say more?

To me Harper just has more of an edge than anything, but anyone in his position would have to. You are not going to succeed in the MLB without a little arrogance, especially if you are only twenty and going against the top players in the world. I do not condone arrogance, but it is not arrogant when someone can back it up.

The post Not Cocky, Just Confident appeared first on KRUI Radio.

More than any other sport, baseball is a sport of patience. This holds true as a player, and as a fan. 162 games is a long (almost too long) season and since we are only two weeks in, overreaction should be kept to a minimum. Baseball is a streaky game and a team dominating or struggling after only playing around 12 games is no cause for panic. However, I do feel as if the past 14 days have shown us a lot about our own expectations. So I am here to simply make observations and point out who is for real, who the surprises are, and who needs to step up their game.

Rough Start in the City of Angels

Probably the biggest off-season acquisition was the Angels signing former Texas All-Star Josh Hamilton and how a lineup that consisted of him, Mike Trout, Mark Trumbo and Albert Pujols would be unstoppable. But after dishing out a five-year $125 million contract for Hamilton, he and the rest of the Angels for that matter are not off to the start everyone had anticipated. Right now they are last in the AL West with a 3-8 record. Hamilton is batting a sub-par .186 with five RBIs and one home run, while Trout is .269 with two RBIs and one home run. Pujols is putting up solid numbers with a .324 average, seven RBIs and two home runs, as is Trumbo batting .298 with seven RBIs and one home run. What seems to be killing them is the inconsistent production of their high-priced talent, along with a short staffed pitching rotation as ace Jered Weaver is out for up to five more weeks with a fractured left elbow. With that injury, the only other go-to pitcher in that rotation is C.J. Wilson who has not done bad boasting a 14 strikeouts and a 1-0 record, but he also has a 4.00 ERA. Injuries will heal and slumps will happen so the Angels do not appear in to be in too much trouble yet. That lineup is too talented (and expensive) to not produce all year.

No Sophomore Slump for Harper

Two big questions coming into this season were, will the two rookie sensations of last season repeat or will they both experience sophomore slumps? Both Mike Trout and Bryce Harper are good enough players that a slump was probably not going to happen this year (precisely why I took both of them for my fantasy team) but it was Harper who put the whole “sophomore slump” theory to rest on opening day. The 20 year-old Nationals star launched two home runs in his first two at bats April 1^st against the Marlins. Since then he has gone yard three more times and is batting .348 with 10 RBIs and 14 hits. Now Trout is not off to the same start as Harper but is also not in a terrible slum; as mentioned above he’s batting .269 with two RBIs and one home run. Whether or not arriving at camp around 55-20 pounds heavier than last season is having an effect on him is not for me to say. But for now it is not a time to worry as both sophomores will finish the year with respectable numbers.

Breakout in the Bay

As the Giants have won the World Series in the past two out of three years, naturally they are the story in the Bay Area. This especially holds true since they are doing as expected by starting the season atop the NL West with a 9-4 record.  But probably the biggest surprise out of that team is the resurgence of Barry Zito. So far he has pitched14 innings earning eight strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA. Granted his first two starts were against Colorado and St. Louis, not exactly offensive juggernauts. So the question still remains as to how he will do against some of the better hitting teams in the league such as Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Washington. But since Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum have been the big-name pitchers in San Francisco for the past few years, it is nice to see Zito resemble the pitcher he was in Oakland 9 years ago.

Speaking of Oakland, let us take a look at the news across the bay. The A’s are off to a 9-4 start and are currently first in the AL West. This is especially surprising as their biggest names are Coco Crisp and Yoenis Cespedes (to which some may be saying, who?). Right now they lead the MLB in runs (73), RBIs (70), and total bases (208). If this tells us anything it is to never underestimate Mr. Billy Beane and his band of no-names and has-beens because in the end, they get results.

The post What We Have Learned So Far appeared first on KRUI Radio.