MLB:  Winners Out of the Gate // NBA: Status-Quo, + Breakdowns & Breakaways.

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.  .  .   SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner.

MLB    Usually out of the 30 teams that make up the majors, around a third show up early as a less imperfect group during the league’s long season, forming an April and early May list that the more conservative among pundits say includes teams headed for playoff billets, this year's likely choices being the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, L.A. Dodgers, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, the Washington Nationals.

Implied above, then, is an April/early May MLB status quo, based on last year’s final standings, not a lot of early season surprises. Afterward? Nobody knows. Late May, June and July are when MLB fans can expect the unexpected, for example, maybe the Boston Red Sox’s latest post-Tony Francona manager, John Farrell, and new line-up and additional starters, will then be reinventing the Sox’s capacity for ascendancy.

And, it’s possible that with the addition of hustle from a new leadoff hitter and an additional hot starting pitcher, the Cincinnati Reds will create a winning record that won’t sour as the season begins its descent.

And, maybe by June the new Colorado Rockies manager, Walt Weiss, will have caused the Rockies to rise up and maintain, joining the elite from a rearranged line-up so that the Rockies limited power for the home run converts to runs from successive singles and extra-base hits. Perhaps Weiss is the manager who will stir up the miracle that Colorado’s front office says it still believes in, “last year's marginal Rockies rotation stepping up and achieving early inning dominance for takeover and control by improved relievers (the talent is there, but it needs to be exploited for the endurance factor and for the right starter/bull pen match-ups).”

Also, the L.A. Angels high dollar investment in Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton could kick in by late May, if not earlier. If so, watch out for falling sparks as flaming baseballs sail toward the moon and the Angels hold a lead into September.

Then, there’s the Oakland Athletics, its line-up and rotation of players having fewer tools than most for professional baseball, yet each Oakland A player being exceptional re. his one particular skill, the A’s being a team that pushes ahead via the least expected one-man show due to this set-up.

Big questions will haunt, e.g., “Can the Rangers prevail as a leading team without Josh Hamilton and Michael Young?” And, “Will Yankee players be wearing T-shirts in June that read, ‘Old guy wisdom beats youth any day of the week’?”

Plus, “Will the Giants maintain a leading spot from philosophy, “If it aint broke, don’t fix it?”

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NBA    ---    All of the NBA’s division second place franchises are between one and seven games back, within the Eastern Conference the 30-20 Chicago Bulls being one game behind the Central Division’s 31-20 Indiana Pacers, the Atlantic Division’s 29-21 Brooklyn Nets but three back of the 32-17 New York Knicks, while the Southeast Division’s 27-22 Atlanta Hawks are seven back of the 34-14 Miami Heat.

Within the Western Conference, the second place 30-21 Golden State Warriors are behind the 36-17 Los Angeles Clippers (Pacific Division), the 32-18 Memphis Grizzlies are back of first place 39-12 San Antonio Spurs (Southwest Division), and the 33-19 Denver Nuggets are back of the 39-12 Oklahoma City Thunder (Northwest Division).

Of note is that most of the NBA’s current second place teams have been either second or third within their respective divisions since the 2012/13 NBA season began, no surprise given their similar standings during the previous season. Among exceptions are the Warriors and the Nets, the former finishing next to last in its division last season, with the Nets, at the time belonging to New Jersey, dead last in their division and fourth last within the full league.

As of now, surprising 2012/13 fallbacks are that of third place 24-28 L.A. Lakers (West, Pacific Division), 11 games behind first place/neighbor team, the Clippers, and the 27-23 Boston Celtics being five behind the Knicks. In light of the consistency for wins demonstrated by the Clippers, by the Warriors, by the Knicks and the Nets, and the inconsistency shown by the Lakers and Celtics, the latter two could stay ranked where they are now, kept from serious further drops by poor performances shown in their respective divisions by fourth and fifth ranked teams, e.g., by the Sacramento Kings and the Phoenix Suns (West, Pacific Division) and the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors (East, Atlantic Division), each with fewer thn 23 wins and a record below .500, each being 10 or more games behind.

An upshot here is that the current six division leading teams, and those just behind them, will probably be the end-of-season competitors for playoff rounds, with a chance to finish as the 2012/13 championship team. Right now, the Heat leads the East, with the Knicks only two games behind, and the Spurs and the Thunder tied as leaders of the West, the Clippers at their heels from three games back.

For fans eager to place faith in a runner-up team closing in on a current leader, a look at the Denver Nuggets makes sense. After a poor start, losing three of its first season games, following a three game pre-season losing streak, the Nuggets advanced to where they recently finished a nine game winning streak, and haven’t lost more than three in a row since November 30, 2012. It took three overtimes for the Celtics to clip the Nuggets nine game winning streak on Sunday, 118-114.

The Nuggets won’t be facing a division leading franchise until March 1 (the Thunder), its four challenges until then versus teams holding records under .500. As for the Nuggets last encounter vs. the Thunder, the Denver franchise won, 121-118.   

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