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If the All-Stars were today, these would be my 33 guys for the National League team. My breakdown is based on 20 position players, deserving of All-Star recognition, and 13 pitchers.  And one final player, 33rd man on the roster!

Starters:

 C   Yadier Molina  STL

1B  Albert Pujols  STL

2B Chase Utley   PHI

3B David Wright NYM

SS Hanley Ramirez FLA

OF Ryan Braun MIL

OF Carlos Beltran NYM

OF Raul Ibanez PHI

Reserves:

C Brian McCann ATL

1B Ryan Howard PHI

1B Adrian Gonzalez SD

2B Freddy Sanchez PIT

3B Chipper Jones ATL

3B Mark Reynolds ARI

SS Miguel Tejada HOU

OF Brad Hawpe COL

OF Justin Upton ARI

OF Adam Dunn WAS

UT Pablo Sandoval  SF

MY 33rd Guy: Either 1B Prince Fielder MIL  or C Bengie Molina SF

Pitchers:

SP Tim Lincecum SF

SP Chad Billingsley LA

SP Matt Cain SF

SP Dan Haren ARI

SP Johan Santana NYM

SP Josh Johnson FLA

SP Jason Marquis COL

SP Ted Lilly CHC or Yovani Gallardo MIL 

CL Jonathan Broxton LA

CL Francisco Rodriguez

CL Heath Bell SD

CL Ryan Franklin STL

CL Trevor Hoffman MIL

 Lincecum is 4-1 now with a 3.o3 E.R.A. in 2009.

Tim Lincecum has built a 24-1 record in 41 starts when the Giants score at least three runs for him. The latest instance of this was Tuesday night’s 4-0 triumph over the Atlanta Braves, which featured eight efficient innings from Lincecum.Moreover,  Lincecum was dominant in his outing against the Atlanta Braves Tuesday night. Lincecum showed off his 2008 Cy Young Form in this spectacular performance as he picked up his 4th victory in the 2009 campaign.  Lincecum went 8 shutout innings, throwing 122 pitches and had 8 strikeouts to only 2 walks in the win.  His 8 strikeouts leave him one shy of the big 500 for his young career. That shouldn’t be hard to reach 500 in his next start against the lowly Washington Nationals. 

 The Giants offense was led by none other then the new leadoff man of the Giants Aaron Rowand, who went 1 for 4 and had the game-winning two-run double in the Giants big scoring 2nd inning.

That scoring outburst — which Lincecum hastened by coaxing a walk that loaded the bases for Rowand — seemed to sharpen the right-hander’s focus. From the final out of the Braves’ second, Lincecum retired 14 of the next 15 batters until Jeff Francoeur and Diory Hernandez singled with one out in the seventh.

“When you get a lead like that, you don’t want to let them [catch up],” said Lincecum (4-1), who endured no-decisions in his previous three starts and won for the first time since May 5. “You just want to keep pounding them into the ground.”

And thats what Lincecum did for 8 dominant innings, as he kept pounding and pounding the Braves batters and baffled hitters at times. 

Bumgarner was 3-1 with a 1.48 E.R.A for High-A San Jose.

  Top Prospects in the San Francisco Giants farm system, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson, the two top pitching prospects at Single-A San Jose, were told after tonight’s game that they had been promoted to Double-A Connecticut.

The early promotion was expected. The organization believed them both to be above Class A level as the season began but wanted to keep them in the warmer weather early on.

Bumgarner, Class A’s2009  MiLB Most Spectacular Pitcher of the Year, was 3-1 with a 1.48 E.R.A  in 5 starts for the Class-A San Jose Giants in 2009. Bumgarner, only 19 years old, is on the fast track for the Giants and looks to be in the Giants major league rotation as early as 2010. If he continues his success here in the minors, he could replace Randy Johnson in the rotation for 2010 season.

Alderson, on the other hand, was 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA, three walks and 20 strikeouts, also in five starts. He is also on the fast track but may not be in the major league rotation as quickly as Bumgarner. However, you could see him pitching for the Giants somewher in the 2010 season.

One position player will join the pitchers in the trek east: shortstop Brandon Crawford, the Mountain View native taken three rounds after first-round pick Buster Posey last year.  Crawford is tearing Single-A pitching up as he lead the San Jose Giants with a .374avg and had 6HR’s and 17RBI’s. 

Alderson and Bumgarner will make their Double-A debuts for the Connecticut Defenders Sunday and Monday respectively.

The AL West looks to be more competitive than just a one-horse race last season as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim cruised to another divisional title. However, this season will be different. Every team besides the Angels have improved drastically.  Although the Angels have added Bobby Abreu and re-signed Juan Rivera to fill their voids in the outfield, they will still miss the big bats of first baseman Mark Teixeira and outfielder Garrett Anderson.  The loss of Jon Garland should also hurt their rotation and it will be up to a young guy like Dustin Moseley or Nick Adenhart to step up unless Kelvim Escobar returns to full strength and is healthy. And they filled their major hole with the loss of their closer K-Rod and brings in ex-Rockies closer Brian Fuentes to take the reign in the late innings.  Otherwise, the 2009 Angels doesn’t look any better than last year’s squad and the Rangers have improved their offense and bullpen, the Athletics have added some offensive punch and have a strong nucleus in their bullpen and the Mariners have added some pieces and one major one that should help their strong starting rotation get some wins, help team morale and bring some excitement to Seattle with the signing of Ken Griffey Jr. The 2009 Angels look as follows:

Projected Rotation:

SP1 John Lackey RHP

SP2 Joe Saunders LHP

SP3  Ervin Santana RHP

SP4 Jerrod Weaver RHP

SP5 Dustin Moseley RHP

-  Kelvim Escobar RHP

CL Brian Fuentes

Projected Lineup:

1 Chone Figgins 3B

2 Howie Kendrick 2B

3 Bobby Abreu RF

4 Vladimir Guerrero DH

5 Torrie Hunter CF

6 Juan Rivers LF

7 Kendry Morales 1B

8 Mike Napoli C

9 Maicer Izturis or Erick Aybar SS

Bench 

Erick Aybar or Maicer Izturis IF

Jeff Mathis C

Robb Quinlan 1B/3B

Reggie Willits OF

Gary Matthews Jr. OF

Patten University joins Cascade Collegiate Conference.

  Patten University Baseball will join the Cascade Collegiate Conference for the 2009 season.  The Cascade Collegiate Conference will consist of 9 teams, 2 divisions, and 1 independent team.  In the North Division, it will be: College of Idaho (Caldwell, ID), Concordia University (Portland, OR), Corban College (Salem, OR), and University of British Columbia (Kelowna, BC). In the South Division, it will be: Bethany University (Santa Cruz, CA), Oregon Institute of Technology (Klamath Falls, OR), Patten University (Oakland, CA), and Simpson University (Redding, CA). The independent team in the conference will be Cal State University-San Marcos (San Marcos, CA).

The top 4 teams out of the 9 teams in the CCC will square off in the Regionals, a three game playoff series each round.  The winner of the Regionals will advance to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho at Lewis-Clark State University. 

The favorites to win the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship and Regionals based on last year’s statistics and rankings, is College of Idaho (30-26), or Cal State University-San Marcos (22-16-1).

Only time will tell who the Final Four in the CCC will be. Let the games begin!

Edgar Renteria hit .270 with 10 HR and 55 RBI’s in 2008.

   Edgar Renteria didn’t have a great year in 2008 and struggled for most of the year. However, if the Giants were to sign him, Renteria would fill a major hole in the infield for the Giants in 2009 and would be a major upgrade at shortstop.  And if Renteria can return to his old form when he was with the Braves in 2007, then Giants would be getting more than what they bargained for.  Renteria had a tremendous year in the National League with the Braves, hitting .332 with 12 HR and 57 RBI’s.

 Giants shortstops (Omar Vizquel, Emmanuell Burriss, and Ivan Ochoa) combined to hit only 1 HR and in the low .200 average in 2008.  So signing Renteria, would come cheaper than signing Rafael Furcal, and would allow Burriss to move to second base where he would fit nicely for the Giants there.  And Burriss would cost nothing than signing Orlando Hudson, who is an elite second baseman and will want a big contract, but is injury-prone and Burriss could put up similar numbers besides home runs and play slick defense there for the Giants at second base.  This move would also allow Kevin Frandsen, a leading candidate at second base, to move to his natural position at third base where he played in his college days at San Jose State. Frandsen is an interesting player to keep an eye on because he made some major strides at second base in 2007 and hot .270 with 5 HR’s and played some solid defense there and was ready to be the everyday second baseman over Ray Durham until an achilles tendon injury pretty much cost him the whole season in 2008 until the last game of the year. Frandsen could be the Giants third baseman in 2009, pending any deals through free agency or trades.  Pablo Sandoval, who is penciled in as the everyday first baseman for the Giants could move to third base if the Giants trade for a first baseman, like Prince Fielder.  So Renteria’s signing would fill a hole at short and allow the Giants to be more creative internally or via trade to fill their hole at one of the corner spots.  However, I feel if Giants get Renteria on board and win the bidding war for C.C. Sabathia, the Giants will be contenders in 2009 and be the undisputed favorite to win the NL West.  And with Sabathia on board like I said on a previous post would strengthen an already strong rotation and draw some serious fans and packed houses in 2009.  And your talking about a four-headed horse rotation full of Cy Youngs (Sabathia, Lincecum, Cain and Zito) and anchored by the Giants 2007 leader in wins in Noah Lowry (14 wins in 07′). Only time will tell what the Giants will look to do in 2009, either contend and continue their rebuilding or try to win it all.

According to baseball fans, no player was more “clutch” in 2008 than CC Sabathia.

The left-hander, who started the year with the Indians, finished it with the Brewers and now is available to all 30 teams in free agency, won Major League Baseball’s Clutch Performer of the Year Award, presented by Pepsi, after a fan vote on MLB.com.

 The reigning 2007 AL Cy Young Award winner, Sabathia, split this regular season between the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers and posted a career-best 2.70 ERA in 2008 with a career-high 251 strikeouts (which was second in the MLB to Tim Lincecum’s 265) and also posted a career- and MLB-leading 253 innings pitched. He was at his best after a July 7 trade brought him to Milwaukee, going 11-2 in 17 starts, including a complete-game win over the Cubs on the final day of the regular season.

It was Sabathia’s seventh complete game for the Brewers and his third straight start on short rest. And it will be remembered as the day Milwaukee punched its first postseason ticket in 26 years and a living godsend for the Brewers fans and organization.

Now, that’s clutch.

Sabathia is also up for the NL Cy Young Award, however he has four strong opponents in this competition, such as Tim Lincecum (18-5, 2.62 E.R.A) who led the major leagues in strikeouts and was second in NL in E.R.A and also won two awards in Players’ Choice Award for Outstanding Pitcher of the Year and Sporting News Top NL Pitcher of the Year, Brandon Webb (22-8, 3.30 E.R.A) who was the 2006 NL Cy Young Award Winner and led the NL and tied for majors in wins but had only 183 K’s in 226.1 IP, Johan Santana (16-7, 2.53 E.R.A) who led the NL in E.R.A, and Rich Harden (10-2, 2.07 E.R.A) who would’ve led the league in E.R.A had he qualified in needing 24 more Innings pitched.  So the competition is heavy with either Sabathia or Lincecum regarded as the top heavy contenders for the title and Webb always the fan favorite and Santana as the dark horse.

Nonetheless, there was no other player more clutch than C.C. Sabathia was for his Milwaukee Brewers team.  However, he couldn’t clutch up in the playoff series against the NL Pennant winning Phillies. So there is still more left to prove for Sabathia as far the postseason is concerned.  But one thing we know about Sabathia, is he is a dominating starter who can go the whole nine yards as his  10 complete games suggest.

Rookie Jed Lowrie has filled in nicely at short stop for the Red Sox in 2008.

    The Boston Red Sox and Defending 2007 World Series Champions have advanced to the American League Championship Series after beating the Angels 3-2 in walk-off fashion.  This year’s Red Sox looks pretty much like last year’s team with a few more new faces and young blood, but the same old dominant pitching and clutch hitting.  The new faces for the Red Sox this time around is left-fielder Jason Bay, who had a wonderful series, and scored the winning run in the game to knock out the top-seeded Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  Bay went 7 for 17 and hit .412 with 2HR’s and 5RBI”s in the division series.  Not bad for a guy getting his first taste of the playoffs.  Another unlikely hero and new face to the Red Sox and getting his first taste of the playoffs as well, is short stop Jed Lowrie.  Rookie Jed Lowrie who has took over as the everyday short stop with Lugo going down with injury during the season, has filled in well with his slick glove and solid hitting from both sides of the plate. Lowrie went 4 for 11 and hit .346 with 0HR and a big RBI in this division series.  Lowrie hit a walk-off single to drive in Jason Bay and punch the Red Sox’s ticket to the American League Championship Series.  I am impressed with this kid in only his first big league season. 

  The story of this season and in the playoffs has been the young kids, from B.J. Upton to Evan Longoria, to Dustin Pedroia and now Jed Lowrie.  Speaking of these four young kids, the Red Sox face off against a bunch of these young kids, as they face their AL East foe, the Tampa Bay Rays led by Evan Longoria and Co.  This ALCS looks to be an interesting series and should be exciting as the Rays won the season series between these two teams 10-8.  My prediction is this series should go to 7 and it can go either way. I would like to see the Cinderella story, Tampa Bay Rays go to the World Series and go for their franchise’s first title.  On the other hand, I also would like to see the Red Sox, moving toward ‘Dynasty Status’, try and defend their title against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who has Manny Ramirez and ex-Yankees skipper Joe Torre. Either way, the playoffs is going to be even more exciting as the Championship Series for both leagues begins in the next few days. 

Dustin Pedroia led the league in hits and hit .326 with 17HR and 83 RBI’s and had 20 SB’s.

             Let’s breakdown the big matchup series against the defending World Series Champs Boston Red Sox and the team with the best record in the majors, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.   Both teams are deep and have solid rotations and bullpens. However, I am going to break down key players for each team and the game 1, 2, and 3 pitching matchups. 

       Key players for this divisional series is for the Red Sox: Dustin Pedroia, the probable AL MVP and this team’s sparkplug all year, needs to continue what he has been doing all year for this Red Sox squad defensively and offensively.   Other key players for the Sox are Kevin Youkliis (.312 29HR 115RBI) and David Ortiz (.265 23HR 89RBI). The question remains is can Big Papi clutch up in the playoffs without his clutch counterpart Manny Ramirez in the playoffs?

      Key players for the Angels are: Vladimir Guerrero needs to be the clutch hitter for this Angels lineup and let the pitching staff do the rest and carry this team.  Mark Teixeira is my biggest key player because he hasn’t been in the playoffs and gets his first taste of it this season. So this stud power-hitting first baseman needs to provide some pop and some gold-glove defense. 

     Game 1 pitching matchup features an ace and another one on the rise.  For the Angels, they go to their clutch playoff pitcher and ace John Lackey (12-5, 3.75 E.R.A).  Lackey is 2-0 with a 2.81 E.R.A at home against the Red Sox in 2008. So that should be an advantage for the Angels in Game 1 of this series. However, the Red Sox turn to their southpaw rising star Jon Lester (16-6, 3.21 E.R.A), who won Game 4 and the clinching game in the World Series last year.  Lester has pitched like an ace all year and looks to go deep into this game and give his team a chance to win and let the bullpen and high-octane offense do the rest.

       Game 2 features two young righties, who had great seasons and it should be an exciting pitching matchup.  For the Angels is all-star Ervin Santana (16-7, 3.49 E.R.A), who had a dismal 2007 season, rebounded to have 16 victories this season and pitched like a Cy Young candidate at times.  For the Red Sox in game 2, they go to other ace Daisuke Matsuzaka (18-3, 2.90 E.R.A), who has pitched well all year in only his second professional season in the majors.  Look for Matsuzaka to pitch well, but raise his pitch count up quick as he has done all season. So look for the Red Sox bullpen  to play a key role in Game 2 of this series.

       Game 3 features an unlikely ace and one you have heard of before.  For the Angels is all-star Joe Saunders (17-7, 3.41 E.R.A), who just had a kidney stone recently, and rebounded back in his last start and dominated for 6 innings of 2 hit ball to pick up his 17th victory.  This one might be a pitchers’ duel because the Red Sox turn to formidable ace Josh Beckett (12-10, 4.03 E.R.A) , who has been clutch in the playoffs throughout his career, but has had to deal with some injuries this season.   Beckett pitching at Fenway in the playoffs. I have to like the Red Sox’s chances in Game 3 of this series.  But we will see what happens. Should be an exciting game and series nonetheless.

Angels key bullpen arms: Scot Shields (6-4, 2.70 E.R.A, 4 saves), setup man Jose Arredondo (10-2, 1.62 E.R.A), and lights out closer Francisco Rodriguez (2-3, 2.24 E.R.A, 62 saves).

Red Sox bullpen arms: Manny Delcarmen (1-2, 3.27 E.R.A, 2 saves) setup man Hideki Okajima (3-2, 2.61 E.R.A, 1 save) and closer Jonathan Papelbon (5-4, 2.34 E.R.A, 41 saves).

My Bold Prediction: Angels in 5.

  The Patten University Baseball Team based out of Oakland, CA led by skipper and head coach Darin Wright,has started fall workouts and is already counting down the days to the 2009 season. And it is only September. The Patten University Lions are coming off of a dismal 2007-2008 season after finishing with a record of 11-42.  It was some rough times last season, but with some players gone and some returning, and many newcomers and new recruits, the Lions look to work hard this fall and build some team camaraderie and chemistry, which was missing through most and all of last season. The returners like the core coming back and the new guys that have come in to this program.  Some of the guys on the team are already talking about a motto of “Distribution”, meaning everyone has their own part and role on this team and everyone will contribute to the team’s success, as well as some failures. And another side motto of “Heart”. Heart is something what was missing a lot on our team last season. My hopes for this season, as a current player of this team, is to give everything to my team and to this program everyday and get better everyday and put your faith in your coaching staff to help you. 

Patten returns 13 players from last season’s squad.  Returning as followed are pitchers Larry Collins, Kurtis Brown, Graig Whelan, Charlie Baker (me), and Kevin Cheechov; first baseman/pitcher Brian Peat, catcher/pitcher Joe Salazar, catcher/first baseman Jordan Wesley, second baseman Jeremy Wells, infielder/utility man Luke Heil, third baseman Deandre Walker, outfielder David Deyess and shortstop Brett Korporal.  We think we have a good core returning as far as experience and having the same team attitude. We all know as returners that we didn’t have a good season and didn’t have good numbers, but we have put that in the past and our starting this season with a clean slate.  And it has started since Day 1 of fall workouts to get better everyday and step our game up on all aspects of this game. 

Also coming in for the 2008-2009 season, is the new recruits and transfers, who look to bring some new energy and style to this team.  Transfers coming in is Fresno City College outfielder/pitcher Phil Gonzalez, who is ambidextrous by the way as he pitches left-handed and plays the field right handed, San Diego Mesa College’s speedy second baseman/outfielder Anthony Phillips, LA City College outfielder Ryan Davis, Saddleback College’s catcher Max Burnett; and new recruits and freshmen coming in are pitcher Chris Berens (Falcon HS in Colorado), first baseman Phil Nyoff, outfielder Beau Delis, third baseman/pitcher Billy Moss (Silver Stage HS in Nevada). Thus, these newcomers and returners look to form a solid, fundamentally sound team and work hard and live one day at a time. And to get better everyday.