So we’re a month into the 2017 baseball season. Are you concerned with the way your favorite team started off? Neither World Series team from 2016; the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians are both just over .500 at 14-12 while the Houston Astros are off to the best start at 18-9. Now I’m a big advocate of panicking after the first month of the season, but there are people out there who do. Of course everyone wants their favorite team to get off to a good start, but not every team in baseball can get off to that good start. It’s kind of the same thing with players stats. Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals is off to a good start this season, but I don’t think he’ll hit .419 all season long. On the other side Curtis Granderson of the New York Mets is hitting just .122 after the first month of the season. Maybe it will end up being a down year for Granderson, but do you really think he’ll hit .122 all season long? Or will we see him end up right around his career batting average of .253. I know it’s fun to talk about it, but when it comes to rooting for a team or a player you have to be able to handle the highs with the lows. I get that’s easier said than done and it does take some time to be able to do that, but it’s a long, long season and things always seem to even out.
What I am finding interesting to watch is can the players who had down years in 2016, but have had good starts to the 2017 season keep it up. Jason Heyward go a big free agent deal with the Chicago Cubs before the 2016 season and then went out and hit .230 with 7 home runs and 49 RBI’s. Heyward has started off 2017 hitting .261 through 25 games with 3 homers and 16 RBI’s. How about Zack Greinke. He also got a big free agent deal from the Arizona Diamondbacks and while he did have a winning record at 13-7 his E.R.A. was 4.37. That’s the highest it’s been since his second year in baseball. Greinke had one complete game shutout in 2016, but was limited to 26 starts due to injury. Greinke has made 6 starts in 2017; he’s 2-2 with an E.R.A. of 3.19 and he already has one complete game. Jordan Zimmerman is another pitcher who signed a big time free agent deal before the 2016 season. Zimmerman switched leagues signing with the Detroit Tigers, but was limited to 19 games (18 starts) in 2016 due to injury. Zimmerman was 9-7 with a 4.87 E.R.A. Now in five 2017 starts Zimmerman’s E.R.A. is still quite high at 6.18, but he’s 3-1 on the season. I mentioned Ryan Zimmerman in the paragraph above, but you might not remember that Zimmerman hit .218 with 15 home runs and 46 RBI’s in 115 games in 2016. In 25 games this season Zimmerman is hitting .419 with 11 home runs and 29 RBI’s.
What do you think will we see these players continue to play well this season or will they have a relapse or revert to what happened to them in 2016? Better yet; did you take a chance on one of these players in your fantasy league this season? If you happened to they might be paying some big dividends early in the 2017 season.
I’m sure by now you’ve know about the death of Boston Celtics superstar Isaiah Thomas’ sister Chyna back on April 15th. Well last night the Celtics played Game 2 of their second round playoff series against the Washington Wizards on what would’ve been Chyna’s 23rd birthday. Now the Celtics did go on to win the game 129-119 in overtime to go up 2 games to none in the series. Now Thomas who was dealing not only with the recent loss of his sister also had oral surgery on Monday to fix the tooth he lost in Sunday’s Game 1 win. With all of this going on in Thomas personal life he still went out and scored 53 points in the Boston victory. Thomas played 45 minutes in the Game 2 win. He shot 18 of 33 from the field including 5 of 12 from behind the 3-point line. Thomas made 12 of the 13 free throws he shot as well. Thomas also had 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals with just 2 turnovers in Game 2. When Thomas was on the floor the Celtics where a +10 in the game. Unlike their first round series the Celtics won both of their home games to start round 2. The series will now move to Washington for game 3 & 4 with Game 3 being played on Thursday night.
With the draft over teams have to start looking at free agents to fill the needs they still have. The Denver Broncos hope they filled one of their holes yesterday when they signed running back Jamal Charles for one year. The deal could be worth up to $3.75 million dollars. Charles has spent his entire nine year NFL career with the Broncos AFC West rival Kansas City Chiefs. Charles has played in just 8 games total the last two seasons due to injury, but for his career he has gained 7260 yards with 43 touchdowns while averaging 5.5 yards per carry. Charles has played in 103 career games and has five 100 yard seasons to his credit. His best season was 2012 when he gained 1509 yards. Charles is also a receiving threat out of the backfield. In his career he has 285 receptions and 20 receiving touchdowns. In 2013 Charles caught a career high 70 passes.
Charles will join a Broncos backfield where Devin Booker was the leading rusher with 612 yards in 2016. The Broncos would also like to see C.J. Anderson return from injury. Denver also used a 6th round draft pick on De’Angelo Henderson a running back out of Coastal Carolina.
We spent quite a bit of time on the Tuesday edition of Sports Time Radio talking about Sidney Crosby and the hit that gave him a concussion; so I don’t want to go into that again. You can find that podcast on TuneIn.com if you’d like to get Dan the Man and mines take on the situation. It seems as though the series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals is the marquee NHL playoff match up, but sooner or later people may need to start paying attention to the Nashville Predators. The Predators swept the #1 seeded Chicago Blackhawks out of the 1st round of the playoffs and last night they beat the St. Louis Blues 2-1 to take a 3 games to 1 lead in that series. The Predators/Blues series is the only one that has played four games and all of the other series are at 2 games to 1 with to Game 4 being played tonight. The Capitals are at the Penguins and the Anaheim Ducks are at the Edmonton Oilers. Pittsburgh and Edmonton have the lead in those series. The other Game 4 is Thursday night as the New York Rangers hosting the Ottawa Senators with the Senators ahead in that series.
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