MLB: The Teams To Watch; Colorado Rockies, Power & Skills // NBA: Heat, Pacers. . . Nuggets

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner . . . // . . MLB: The Teams To Watch; Colorado Rockies, Power & Skills // NBA: Heat, Pacers. . . Nuggets. . . // . . MLB---IT’s just days away, 30 MLB teams leaving their spring training locations for a season of 162 games each at home stadiums and away from home, meanwhile fans and analysts studying the MLB landscape for clues signaling which teams will reach the top of their respective divisions early on. Of course, the more cautious guesses will be based on MLB-2013 end-of-season records. For instance, that which seems to be the conservative take regarding the American League-East is that the Boston Red Sox will seize the number one slot in April and be followed closely by either the Tampa Bay Rays or the N.Y. Yankees. Last season, the Red Sox were tied with the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals regarding most won games among the 30 MLB clubs, 97 wins each, and the Red Sox won the ALLC and the World Series. The Rays were seventh across both leagues regarding most won games, 92, the Yankees 12th, from 85 wins. Predicted widely as the coming season’s top team within the AL-Central are the Detroit Tigers, having had 93 wins, finishing MLB-2013 as third in the games-won category re. both leagues, and it could be that the Cleveland Indians and the Kansas City Royals will nearly be tied for the AL Central’s number two position, last year the Indians having ended MLB-2013 with 92 wins, 13th among all clubs, the Royals, 86, 14th in the rankings. As for the AL-West, a smart bet has the Oakland A’s ahead, close behind them the Texas Rangers, the A’s having closed MLB-2013 with 96 wins, fifth within both leagues, the Rangers, 91, ninth across both leagues. . . NATIONAL LEAGUE---Based on MLB-2013 season endings, the NL-East could be led during 2014 by the Atlanta Braves, 96 wins last season, ranked sixth among both leagues. Probably close behind will be the Washington Nationals, 86 wins as MLB-2013 closed, seventh across both leagues. As for the NL-Central, the 2013 record book points to the St. Louis Cardinals being far ahead of second place team, the Cincinnati Reds. The Cardinals were 97 wins when MLB-2013 ended, the Reds 90, 10th across both leagues. Regarding the NL West, the performance sheets point to the L.A. Dodgers as the front-runner, its 2013 finish being 92 wins, ranked fourth among both leagues, with the Arizona Diamondbacks close behind. The DB’s completed MLB-2013 with 81 wins, ranked 17th and at the .500 margin. . . BRAVO, THE UNCERTAIN OUTCOME! Yes, there’s uncertainty to ponder, good ol’ suspense! Who would want a completely scripted MLB season, other than a gambler wanting to control the odds? There’s definitely room for a lot of not knowing until that proverbial lady sings, e.g., of the aforementioned likely top teams for MLB-2014 all ended MLB-2013 above .500, reinforcing the possibility of each remaining in that top segment. However, the differences in number of 2013 won games among these clubs are slight. There’s the 97 wins at the top, accrued by the Red Sox and also by the Cardinals, and the lowest of the AL’s within the aforementioned teams was the 92 games won by the AL’s Indians, in the NL the 90 won by the NL’s Reds. These deficits were only of five and seven games. This implies that as these likely top division teams compete to be best within their respective leagues, any one of them could be prevailing over the others. Which? No-one knows. . . ROCKIES---ON the plus side is the Rockies hitting power and the defense skills that the team’s top hitters can provide when afield, translation: RF Michael Cuddyer, SS Troy Tulowitzki, LF Carlos Gonzalez and C Wiln Rosario. But let’s think of minuses as uncertainties, e.g., the Rockies pitching staff, though in no way a comparable power + big assist alongside the Rockies MLB-2014 line-up, it is still a subset of the Rockies that carries potential, and perhaps the addition of LH Brett Anderson as a starter over from the Oakland A’s can help to prevent opposing teams from accruing more runs than the Rockies fine hitters can put up. Several baseball analysts believe that the National league-West’s two top teams are first the L.A. Dodgers, second the Colorado Rockies, and that if the Rockies pitching staff had the numbers that the Dodgers starters + bull pen now have the standings among the two clubs could list in reverse order. During MLB-2013, the Rockies Michael Cuddyer achieved the highest NL batting average, .331, and Tulowitzki reached .312, Gonzalez .302, and Rosario, .292. And, many an inning turned out well for the Rockies during 2013 from extra-base hits by 3B Nolan Arenado and 2B D.J. LeMahieu. As a team, the Rockies put up 673 RBI’s and 706 runs during 2013, no small achievement. But the Rockies pitching staff had a combined 4.4 ERA, and only two hurlers accrued double-digit wins, LH Jorge De La Rosa highest with 16 over 10 losses, RH Jhoulys Chacin, 14-10. Yet from listing 2013 injuries, therefore the days away from baseball for the Rockies De La Rosa, for Chacin and for RH Juan Nicasio, next computing such with their 2013 win-loss and ERA records and then their past annual achievements, an equation suddenly appears that has these starters quite capable of doing a lot better if they can be injury-free during MLB-2014. A simple point here is that better work from the mound will be key for the Rockies if they are to elevate from that fourth division slot that they dropped to as MLB-2013 closed. . . //. . NBA---THE 52/20 Indiana Pacers 84-83 takedown of the 48/22 Miami Heat this week secured a Pacers 2013/14 playoff billet, and it’s been certain that the Heat will be a playoff contender, but in the same week the 32/40 Denver Nuggets failed to obtain a 10th playoff billet in a row, an absence sure to cause the Denver team to feel hollowed out. This latter happening was sealed by a Nuggets loss to the now 55/16 San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, the Spurs 15th straight win keeping the Spurs atop all other NBA franchises for the current year. The Pacers are third within all of the NBA, close behind the 52/19 Oklahoma City Thunder. For the Pacers/Heat game, super-star shooting had kicked in, the Pacers Paul George accruing 23 points, and the Heat’s LeBron James 38 points. However, during the game’s final four minutes the Pacers defense helped to suppress the Heat’s shooting far down. . . NUGGETS---As for the Nuggets, sad songs are being sung, but, in part “undeservedly.” Of the 18 games that the Nuggets were scheduled to play between March 14th until the closing of the current NBA season, 11 games underscored 11 challenges versus NBA division first-place and second-place franchises. The Nuggets won the first three games, vs. the 48/22 Heat, the 50/22 L.A. Clippers and the 36/35 Washington Wizards. After Wednesday night, the Nuggets became three wins and one loss with regard to the hard 11, and a win vs. the Spurs tonight will raise that to a 4-1 record, perhaps not enough solace for the Nuggets being at 32/40 and in fourth place of the West’s Northwest Division, but it suggests evidence that the Nuggets are, as commented before on this page, far from being a below-the-margin team. After Friday night, remaining games of the hard 11 will be against the 48-22 Houston Rockets twice, the 44-27 Golden State Warriors twice, and vs. the Clippers. END/ml

MLB: State Of The Art Baseball: What the 2013 Stats Have To Say // NBA: Standings, Near The Wire; Denver Nuggets

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner MLB: State Of The Art Baseball: What The 2013 Stats Have To Say // NBA: Standinge, Near The Wire; Denver Nuggets. MLB---THERE are 30 MLB franchises, but during year 2013 only a few shared the high end of power-credentials when it came to the art of hitting. This is seen readily in MLB 2013’s hitting stats, where some surprises existed, among them, that the American League team that won the 2013 AL-LC and the World Series, the Boston Red Sox, did not have the highest team batting average. The Red Sox reached a .277 BA, while best BA in the AL belonged to the Detroit Tigers, .283. Nor did the Red Sox deliver the most home runs during 2013, putting up 178 HR’s, while the highest number of HR’s belonged to the Baltimore Orioles, 212. And, the Red Sox did not have the most hits during MLB-2013, 1,566 compared with the year’s highest number of hits gained by the Tigers, 1,625. But the Red Sox had the AL’s highest On Base Percentage (OBP), .349, and acquired the most RBI’s, 819, and the most runs, 853. And, it is most runs that win a ball game. The Red Sox finished MLB-2013 with 97 won games, best in the AL and tied with the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals 97 wins. So, bases loaded and then a third out with runners left in scoring position, this equals zero, zip, NADA! Runners reaching home before that third out, such made the difference for MLB-2013’s Red Sox, signaling the importance of OBP = runs, at the same time suggesting how insignificant OBP is without it translating into runners reaching home... NATIONAL LEAGUE: THE NL team that during MLB-2013 had the highest number of hits, 1,511, the highest BA, .270, the second highest number of runs, 706, and third highest number of RBI’s, 673, was the Colorado Rockies, yet the Rockies finished the season within the bottom half of all MLB clubs. The easy answer as to why would appear to be a Rockies pitching staff that couldn’t stop opposing teams from accruing more runs than the Rockies line-up could deliver, but there’s probably more to the story here, which to date the game’s software wizards haven’t been able to decode, though surely part of the problem for the Rockies were the stats put up by the NL teams that they were challenged by, e.g., the St Louis Cardinals having the year’s second highest number of hits, 1,494, the most RBI’s, 745, the most runs, 783, the second highest BA, .269 (just a decimal behind the Rockies), and the highest OBP, 332. Yet most HR’s were delivered by the Atlanta Braves, 181, next highest in HR’s being the Chicago Cubs (4th from the bottom within both leagues), having put up 172, third best in HR’s the Washington Nationals, 161. The Cardinals were seventh in this category, 125 HR’s, underscoring why the preference among managers is the extra base hits that result in runs, runs, runs. Again, and from the Cardinals 2013 stats, it’s base-runners becoming runs that best sends teams to the top and keeps them there. . . // NBA--- IT’s clear now that within the NBA West the Northeast Division’s Oklahoma City Thunder, the Southwest’s San Antonio Spurs and the Pacific’s L.A. Clippers will finish the current season as division leaders, and that the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers will end the season leading the East’s Southeast and Central Divisions, and that the East’s Atlantic Division could see the Brooklyn Nets ahead of the Toronto Raptors for first position within the East’s Atlantic Division. Of the aforementioned three teams of the West is a combined total of more than 150 games, the 54-16 Spurs having been the first in the league to reach more than 50 wins, and the Thunder, as of today, second best in the West with a 52-18 record, also ahead of the East’s leading franchise, the 51-20 Indiana Pacers. The aforementioned three division-leading franchises of the East have a combined total 133 games, with eh Nets added, 172. The Nets are at 37-32, only two games behind the Raptors. . . // NUGGETS--- Last night, the Denver Nuggets lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder, 117-96, the first loss of four games versus NBA teams that have held first and second place within their divisions, a set of challenges that began for the Nuggets mid-March and will continue until the Nuggets last game of the season, vs. the Golden State Warriors. So, the Nuggets are three for four, if you will, having beaten the Miami Heat, the L.A. Clippers and the Washington Wizards since March 14. There are seven such games to go before that last challenge, two vs. the Spurs this Wednesday and again on Friday, then two games vs. the Houston Rockets in April, another against the Clippers and the two vs. the Warriors. Winning the lion’s share of these games will prove that the Nuggets are an above-the-margin NBA franchise, in spite of the team’s current 32-39 record. END/ml

MLB: AL or NL? Which Is Best? . . Colorado Rockies, Out From The Gate // NBA: Standings & The Playoffs // Denver Nuggets, "the Hard Games Up Ahead"

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . MLB: AL or NL? Which Is Best? . . Colorado Rockies, Out From The Gate // NBA: Standings & the Playoffs; Denver Nuggets---“the Hard Games Up Ahead.” . . . // . . MLB--- LOOKING only at MLB-2013 regular season standings with regard to wins over losses, we can see readily that nine of the top 15 of 30 MLB franchises were from the American League, suggesting that the AL is superior to the National League when it comes to wins over losses. And, that five of MLB-2013’s bottom 15 clubs having been from the AL seems to support the implication, until we note that three of MLB-2013’s bottom five clubs were from the AL, the Minnesota Twins, the Chicago White Sox, the Houston Astros. Combined, the three lost 306 games during MLB-2013, more losses than the 286 wins totaled by MLB-2013’s top three AL clubs, the Boston Red Sox, the Detroit tigers and the Oakland Athletics. Too, from a glance at the top 10 instead of the top half of MLB-2013 we can observe that six teams were from the NL, four the AL, which lifts the NL total standings some. But---comparing total number of MLB-2013 wins of the nine AL clubs of the top 15 with the top nine NL clubs of all of MLB-2013 regular games played, we come quite close to parity---817 AL games won versus 786 NL wins, the NL having a deficit of only 31 wins. Want to go deeper? We can compare total number of MLB-2013 wins achieved by the AL’s 15 franchises with that of the NL’s 15. This gives us a turnabout, 1,192 AL wins and 1,211 NL wins. Is there a lion vs. mouse situation here? No way, again there’s just a small deficit, the AL behind now but by only 19 games. . . // Colorado Rockies---DURING the first month of MLB-2014, the Colorado Rockies will face seven teams, four of them from its own division. The four are the National League West’s Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants and the L.A. Dodgers, in effect, the rest of the division that the Rockies will fight to stay atop of. Only one of the seven April, 2014 challenges will be versus an interleague team, the American League Central’s MLB-2013’s 63-39 Chicago White Sox, third from the bottom of both leagues. The remaining two are vs. the NL East’s MLB 2013 62-100 Miami Marlins, second from the bottom of both leagues, and the NL East’s MLB-2013 73-89 Philadelphia Phillies, eighth from the bottom during MLB-2013. What the four NL West clubs have in common relative to competition vs. the Rockies is that each finished the MLB 2013 regular season with win/loss records better than that achieved by the 74-88 Colorado franchise, highest the 92-70 Dodgers, next the 81-81 Arizona Diamondbacks, followed by the 76-86 Giants and the 76-86 Padres. Of these games, six will be against the DB’s, five vs. the Giants, five vs. the Padres. That’s 16 challenges that the Rockies would not just want to win but also to use as more “baseball university” than afforded by Spring Training, as schooling in the vulnerabilities of each of the teams that the Rockies would want to defeat more than any others as MLB-2014 progresses, though only one, the Dodgers, made the top 15 within both leagues during MLB-2013. The Rockies were tenth from the bottom last season, and so 18 games behind the Dodgers. But until May 9, the Rockies won’t be facing either the St. Louis Cardinals, the Atlanta Braves, the Cincinnati Reds or the Pittsburgh Pirates. These were the top four National League clubs for MLB-2013 re. wins over losses, each having won more than 90 games. Except for the May 9-12 three-game series against the MLB-2013 90-72 Reds and a June 9-12 series vs. the MLB-2013 96-66 Braves, the Rockies won’t be seeing another of last year’s top NL clubs until June 30, when it faces the MLB NL-2013 fifth best team, the NL East’s 86-76 Washington Nationals. In the interim, the Rockies will again face NL West teams, the DB’s, the Giants and the Padres. All of this allows a lengthy time span, more than 30 games, many against teams with records only a slight degree higher and some lower than that built up by the Rockies last year, surely an opportunity for the Rockies to gather momentum and bring skills to the hilt of possibility as it wins or loses games. . . // NBA---IN the past week, two of the six division leading NBA clubs advanced a game without having accrued a loss. Meanwhile, two advanced by a win although they lost one, and the remaining two lost a game without later attaining a win. But all are in the same top position as last week, and all are now playoff candidates; and, the East’s Atlantic 38-29 Toronto Raptors are still the only leading team ahead by fewer than five wins, still subject to a takeover by the 34-31 Brooklyn Nets. Ironically, the team with the most wins in the West, the 51-16 San Antonio Spurs, which is now just behind the East’s top team, the 50-18 Indiana Pacers for best within both conferences, they have that five game division edge, over the 45-22 Houston Rockets, while the Pacers still have the best lead within the entire NBA, 12 wins above the 38-30 Chicago Bulls. The East’s Southeast top team, the 46-20 Miami Heat, are close with 11 wins ahead of the 35-22 Washington Wizards. If we go only by recorded wins to date, it’s clear that within the West the Spurs will defeat the now Northwest Division leading club, the 50-18 Oklahoma City Thunder, and within the East the Pacers will take down the Miami Heat, and the outcome of the NBA finals will have the Pacers on top. Today, the Pacers are four wins ahead of the Heat. But all this is implied from numbers only, and the playoffs begin as a clean slate, even if top teams are awarded a first round Bye. Anyway, a fact about most about-to-occur-happenings is that anything could happen. . . // DENVER NUGGETS---TWO teams down, six teams and eight games to go, and the Denver Nuggets could take it all or lose three or fewer by only a few points per. The subject here is a list of teams that were selected from games that the Nuggets would have to play from March 14 until April 16, when NBA-2013/14 ends for the Nuggets. Four of the teams are leading their divisions, the rest are in second place slots. As reported in a previous column, the Nuggets defeated two of the clubs, the Miami Heat 111-107, on March 14, and the L.A. Clippers, 110-100, on March 17. Up next for the Nuggets, then, are the teams left on that list of top NBA teams, games against the Washington Wizards (Sunday, March 23), followed by games versus the Thunder, the Spurs x 2, the Rockets x 2, the Clippers again, and the Golden State Warriors x 2. Between these contests will be games vs. lesser teams, which the Nuggets have a fair chance of defeating. Presently, the 31-37 Nuggets are in fourth place of the West’s Northwest, largely from injuries = best starters unable to play. The Nuggets may still be in this position on April 16. However, by defeating or coming close to defeating the first and second place teams scheduled, such will reflect a Nuggets team that is above the margin and worthy of much respect as the season closes. END/ml

MLB: NL Central // NBA: Standings; Denver Nuggets & "the Big Nine."

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //. . MLB: NL Central // NBA: Standings; Denver Nuggets & “the Big Nine.” . . . // . . MLB---IT’s hard to imagine a 2014 MLB division race led by other than the NL Central’s St. Louis Cardinals. Not only because the Cardinals finished year-2013 with the highest number of wins within the NL and tied for the most wins MLB-wide with the AL’s Boston Red Sox, both at 97-65, but also because the Cardinals finished 2013 seven wins above the Central’s number two team, the 90-72 Cincinnati Reds, which finished the season 10th MLB-wide. No doubt, all this evolved from a powerful Cardinals line-up that is possibly best within the NL, and a pitching staff likely to provide high strikeout consistency during 2014. The Cardinal’s OF Matt Holiday, IF Matt Adams, IF Matt Carpenter and catcher Yodier Molina, each has a batting average above .300, while the Cardinals hurlers have a combined 2013 ERA below 3.5, and during 2013 right-hand hurlers Adam Wainwright, Shelby Miller and Lance Lyons had 19, 15 and 15 wins respectively. . . But the Reds or the Pittsburgh Pirates could finish in second position, each relying heavily on a super ballplayer, IF Joey Votto of the Reds, OF Andrew McCutcheon of the Pirates. Votto finished the season with a .305 BA and 24 home runs, McCutcheon as the NL’s MVP and a .317 BA + 21 HR’s. Comparing the rest of the line-ups of each team, there’s rough parity. Also, each team has three pitchers with double digit 2013 wins, best for the Reds the 14 wins each from right handers Mike Leake and Matt Lotos, both with ERA’s under 3.5, the Pirates having LH Francisco Uriano’s 16 wins, ERA 3.0. Reds or Pirates at number two is, by our thinking, too close to call, anyway leaving the Milwaukee Brewers (74-88) and the Chicago Cubs (66-96) anchored at bottom again . . . //. . NBA---GIVEN the rate of wins over losses among five of the six division leading franchises and the leads that the five have over second place teams within their divisions, what the very top of the NBA 2013/14 regular season finish will look like is easy to figure out, the Western Conference offering the now Northwest Division’s 49-15 Oklahoma City Thunder, the Southeast Division the 50-16 San Antonio Spurs, the Pacific Division’s 48-20 L.A. Clippers, and the Eastern Conference surely the 45-19 Miami Heat and the 50-17 Indiana Pacers and either the 37-28 Raptors or the 34-31 Nets from the East’s Atlantic Division, in that the Raptors now have but a three game lead over the Nets. The five likely end-of-season division leading teams cited herein have leads of six and more wins over their second placers, two among them leading their respective conferences, the West’s Spurs, the East’s Pacers, the Spurs leading the entire NBA from one less loss than accrued by the Pacers. Among the six division last place teams, only one has won a game in the past week, the West’s Southwest New Orleans pelicans, going to 27 from 26 wins. Worst still are the East’s Central 13-54 Milwaukee Bucks, causing its division to have the widest gap between first and last place, the Pacers being at 50 wins . . . DENVER NUGGETS---AS reported in our last column (March 14, scroll to below), of the 18 games that the Nuggets would play until their season ends on April 16, nine listed against NBA division first and second place franchises, in sequence the Heat, the Clippers, the Washington Wizards, the Thunder, the Spurs twice (back-to-back), the Houston Rockets x 2 (back-to-back), the Golden State Warriors, the Clippers again, and, on April 16, the Warriors again. On the morning of March 14, the Nuggets were 28-36. Today, the Nuggets are 30-37, having defeated two of the teams on the list of nine, the Miami Heat 111-107, and last night the Clippers, also on the list, 110-100. Our take here is that there is a best revenge against three awful losing streaks. The Nuggets suffered an eight-game L-streak in December, a five-game L-streak in February and a six-game L-streak across February and early March, all delivering the Nuggets onto the West’s Northwest’s fourth place slot and 19 games behind first place team, the Thunder, three back of third place franchise, the 33-22 Minnesota Timberwolves. That revenge is winning games against the aforementioned top nine teams, and so far the Nuggets have beaten two of them, the Heat and the Clippers. Surely taking down the remaining seven or losing to even four of them by only a few points will be sweet revenge for the Denver franchise; it will certainly demonstrate that the Nuggets are a better than marginal team. Maybe with wins among the other games to be played, the Nuggets will achieve a .500 or higher season finish, thus landing inside a winner’s bracket although quite distant from playoff candidacy, showing once again that the team’s rookie head coach, Brian Shaw, is the right HC for leading the Nuggets during the 2014/15 NBA season. We shouldn’t forget that prior to numerous player-injuries, the Nuggets achieved seven- and five-game winning streaks (November-Dec., and January). Next up for the Nuggets re. “the nine-to-conquer,” will occur this Sunday @ Pepsi Center-Denver, vs. the Wizards. END/ml.

MLB: 2013 Results, the Impact For Now // NBA: Standings; Denver Nuggets, the Challenges Ahead

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . //.. MLB: 2013 Results, the Impact For Now; NBA: Standings; Denver Nuggets, the Challenges Ahead. . . // . . MLB: NO-one has ever been directly in charge of any of the six MLB divisions, there’s no manager hired to push any MLB division ahead of other league-assigned division so that at the end of a season a best could be handed a huge trophy and a championship title. Yet curiosity can take hold, and we then ask, “With 2014 about to begin, which is the best division in baseball?” Of course, there are different ways to arrive at the answer. To reach a conclusion, the math junkies could play with number of wins, plus OBP’s, RBI’s, fewest runners left in scoring position, ERA’s, total strikeouts, saves, lot’s more. However, since it’s number of won games that reflects a team’s standing no matter which organizational category a team resides in---division, league, both leagues---the total number of a division’s won games within the 162 played every season by each team seems criteria enough for determining best division as MLB-2014 approaches. Going with that, last season’s top MLB division turned out to be the American League’s number one, the AL East. Coming in as second best division within both leagues was the National League’s number one, the NL East. Here’s how that played out---AL East, 433 won games; NL East, 420. Not far behind and third best division within both leagues was the NL Central, 411 wins; fourth, AL Central, 400 wins; fifth, NL West, 399; sixth, AL West, 389. The gap between best and worst was only 44 won games. The indication here is an important and also simple one, “As a totality, the majors are fair enough.” Too, from adding up all of 2013’s won games and finding that the AL’s total is 1,222, only eight less than the NL’s 1,230, we can again agree that there’s sufficient fairness among the 30 clubs, that there’s AL and NL parity of sorts. BUT---the data that counts most isn’t the macro, it’s the local stuff, what one’s favorite team could put on the board. Which teams had the most won games during 2013? The AL’s Red Sox and the NL’s St. Louis Cardinals were tied at the top, 97 wins each. Next best were the NL East’s Atlanta Braves, 96 wins. Third best, the Pittsburgh Pirates, 94. Fourth best, the AL’s Detroit Tigers, 93. Fifth, a three-way tie for the AL’s Cleveland Indians, the Tampa Bay Rays and the NL’s L.A. Dodgers, 92 wins each. Sixth, a tie for the AL’s Texas Rangers and the Miami Marlins, 91 each. That’s 10 of 30 ball clubs finishing 2013 with 90 or more wins per, contributing to a total of 935 of 2,452 wins. When adding the 12 more MLB teams that finished 2013 with between 73 and 90 wins per, we have another indicator that the majors in 2013 were closer to fairness than otherwise, that MLB-2014 won’t be kicking in as a mostly lopsided affair. . . NBA---AS of yesterday, nearly all of the 30 NBA teams have between 18 and 20 games left to play before the 2013/14 season ends and playoffs begin. What each conference within the greater league will look like when that last game completes in April is no longer immune to informed guesses, for of the six division leading franchises only one is at risk of being toppled by a second place team today: the 36-27 Toronto Raptors could give way to the 33-30 Brooklyn Nets. All other division first place teams have leads of four and more wins above their number two’s, the best being the 47-17 Indiana Pacers over Chicago by 12 wins and the 44-18 Miami Heat atop the Washington Wizards also by 12, though leading the West now, and also the entire league, are the West’s Southwest 48-16 San Antonio Spurs. Traveling back 18 to 20 NBA games, to early February, noted is that the franchises leading the six divisions today were those holding the division number one spots then. It’s a fair guess that NBA-2013/14 will end without significant changes at the top from those and today’s rankings. So, within the foreground for the mid-April and beyond battles, visible will be the West’s Spurs, the 47-17 Thunder and the 45-20 Clippers, and within the East the Pacers, the Heat, the Raptors or the Nets. Okay, this isn’t breaking news. Still, as of today, and except for the Raptors, each of these teams has won between 44 and 48 games, a differential so narrow “Square one” is the landing. It’s safe to say that determining which team will prevail, and which will drop out in the playoffs, is anyone’s guess. . . //. . DENVER NUGGETS---THE now 28-36 Nuggets haven’t upcoming playoffs winking at them from a horizon, and they can’t say that rising to a record reflecting more 2013/14 wins than losses is definitely within their future. Left for this team, however, is a grand plus, that which could be construed as great and useful basketball. Numbers and season objectives aside, there’s a 2013/14 challenge that the Nuggets can be grateful for, the six of 18 2013/14 games left for the Nuggets to play that will be against the NBA’s now leading franchises. Between tomorrow and the last day of the NBA season for the Nuggets, April 16, the team will be facing the Spurs, the Thunder, the Heat, the Clippers, the Wizards, and the Warriors. Forget that the Nuggets have fallen to fourth place within the West’s Northwest Division, 19 games behind first position team, the Thunder. Surely Nuggets defeats of these NBA leading teams, or Nuggets losses to them by only a few points, could underscore a Nuggets squad that is a lot better than its numbers and its position within the standings. Outcomes different from this will signal starkly those imbalances among the team strengths and vulnerabilities that could drag the Nuggets down during 2014/15, the bright outlook on this being valuable “classroom” for the Nuggets. END/ml.

MLB: THE PETE ROSE SAGA

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // MLB: THE PETE ROSE SAGA---THE most compelling reason for former Cincinnati Reds ballplayer and manager, Pete Rose, to be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame comprises four digits: 4,256. Yes, 4,256 hits, which placed the great Ty Cobb’s record of most career hits, 4,189, into the vault that contains wondrous but second place stats. . . COBB became a Hall of Famer many decades ago, 1936. Had Rose not been found gambling on baseball repeatedly in the last century, he would have been a Hall of Famer probably before year 2000. Rose played in the majors 1963 through 1986, banished from the game for life in 1989 because of his gambling issues, along with elimination of any right to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, this in spite of his having been the game’s best on-base hitter, his having accrued 160 home runs, 1,314 RBI’s, a career batting average above .300, also being a Gold Glove winner, a National League MVP, and an All Star selectee 17 X. . . YET a recent Sports Illustrated article and book by SI writer, Kostya Kennedy, reminds that baseball and gambling have developed mutual market-value relations, which is not the best reason for Rose to be a Hall of Fame inductee but does underscore that it’s time to revisit the Pete Rose/Hall of Fame story, to ask, “How valid is that which has kept Rose from Cooperstown, and what else besides his career hits could justify Rose joining Cooperstown as soon as possible?” . . . LET's examine, starting with knowledge that behind Rose’s Hall of Fame ineligibility has been one factor, gambling’s consequences affecting any sport, for instance, a betting athlete, manager or coach could attempt to throw a game in order to earn what he needs to cover losses. Not that Rose ever did that, but a precedent was established in the early 1900’s when several players of a Chicago ballclub confessed to throwing games. Right after, professional American baseball sent up a flag that still reads, “Never Again.” Rose violated that ethical pronouncement, a disloyalty that he has not only confessed to but has felt shame and remorse over, saying so publicly. . . SO, there’s what has amounted to a rule that any MLB player, manager, coach, member of a front office discovered to be gambling on game outcomes is to be banished from baseball and disallowed Hall of Fame consideration. Some analysts and Hall of Fame officials will argue that the Rose matter should end at this black-and-white line, with Rose’s banishment from the game, no Hall of Fame consideration ever. Even so, any rule could thin considerably and lose meaning from actions and attitudes as time goes by, producing circumstances that should overturn a decision meant to punish. . . CONSIDER, as the recent SI article suggests, that more than just a few ballplayers have committed crimes against baseball that are far worse than Rose’s gambling problem, and they have not been banished from the game, and some still have an opportunity to be Hall of Famers, namely boys from Steroid-land---Bonds, Clemons, others. . . ALSO positive for a Hall of Fame Pete Rose induction is that not one of his amazing stats occurred under the influence of gambling, and Rose never used steroids or any other illegal substances to enhance ability. Moreover, excessive gambling is now known to be an addiction, and the major leagues, the NFL and the NBA have been second- and third-chance providers for rehabbed athlete-addicts. Without naming names, teams from these leagues have helped to rehab heroin addicts, alcoholics, even wife-beaters, and appropriately let them back in their sport. An important aside here is that Rose has defeated his gambling impulses. . . TOO, denying Rose a return to baseball and a Hall of Fame billet can hurt baseball and Cooperstown the way that a solution to a problem can be more damaging than the problem itself, this by making the game appear hypocritical, even clownish, not to be taken seriously. A related argument that has been made in Rose’s favor is that in any sport the numbers accrued by individual players and by a team surely reflect many of the sport’s core values---commitment, discipline, hard work, etc. Athletic competition is much about numbers, and the best numbers play a role in any sport’s demonstration of superb athletic prowess. Among baseball players, the creation of a performance record that will last is “the holy grail.” From stats alone, then, Pete Rose is a giant, and baseball’s giants belong in the Hall of Fame. This argument points to the fact that the Hall of Fame was created to honor an athlete’s extraordinary accomplishments afield, to respect and place into history that which has been translated into significant stats. Ignoring those numbers to send a message to players who might be tempted to “break bad” contravenes what Cooperstown was meant to be. . . BY keeping Rose from the Hall of Fame for his now gone gambling addiction, the reputation of the Hall of Fame as an institution that is expected to reward great accomplishments is reduced, marred certainly from its collusion with a judgment about a ballplayer’s character deficiency and the punishment from that judgment. This is a position that today pales, it has shifted toward absurdity, especially in light of baseball’s proper compassion toward players recovering from addictions and the leniency given certain steroid-users, all those stiff fines and short suspensions instead of what Rose has endured. . . END/ml.

NBA: Standings & Breaking Away; Nuggets & The Spark // MLB: National League-East

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . . NBA: Standings & Breaking Away; Nuggets & the Spark // MLB: National League East . . . // . . NBA---WINNERS usually do all that they can to keep on winning, and during the last nine days each of the NBA’s six division leading franchises added won games to their spread. Within the Eastern Conference’s three divisions, the Central’s 46-15 Indiana Pacers and the Southeast Division’s 41-14 Miami Heat are now two up + 12 games ahead of second place rivals, the 32-29 Washington Wizards and the 34-27 Chicago Bulls, and the East’s Atlantic 33-26 Toronto Raptors accrued one win and today are three above the 30-29 Brooklyn Nets. . . AS to Western Conference teams, the most wins among all six top franchises during the nine days belonged to the West’s Southeast 45-16 San Antonio Spurs, They had four wins, the Spurs now three atop the 42-19 Houston Rockets. And, the West’s Northwest and currently 46-16 Oklahoma City Thunder bought three wins, going to four over the 42-19 Portland Trail Blazers. Meanwhile, the West’s Pacific Division leading team, the 42-20 L.A. Clippers, purchased two wins, presently four ahead of the 38-24 Golden State Warriors. . . LEAGUE-wide, the East and West conference’s number one teams, the Pacers and the Thunder, they sustained their lead over the Spurs, though by a single win. And, with their 12 wins up each, only the Pacers and the Heat have what could be defined as runaway leads, the sort that a team coasts into the playoffs with. The remaining top winners are three and four wins up and so vulnerable, for instance, the West’s top team, the Thunder, could slip behind the Trail Blazers sooner than later should they lose four within the next nine or 10 days, of course with the latter winning four, doubtful in that the Thunder holds the highest wins-over-losses percentage among all 30 NBA teams, .742. . . YET as the top NBA teams continue to win more than lose, so, too, can franchises at the bottom rungs of the ladder be winners if only for a night or two. Except for the East’s Atlantic 15-43 Philadelphia 76er’s, and the West’s Northwest 21-40 Utah Jazz, each of the remaining division last place teams won one or two games in the last nine days, the 12-48 Milwaukee Bucks finally owning a .200 win-over-losses percentage. . . ONLY one of the six third place franchises failed to change the status-quo since February 28, the Dallas Mavericks remaining at 36 wins, though only one third place team gained more than one win in the same period, the West’s Pacific 36-25 Phoenix Suns, advancing by three. . . // . . DENVER NUGGETS---SURELY elation accompanies a won game after a team has lost six straight. With luck, the euphoria simmers and then exists as cautious optimism regarding future wins. The Western Conference’s Northwest Division 26-34 Nuggets are now in fourth place, with a rational goal being a regular season finish at or above .500, more possible now that guard Ty Lawson has returned to the team from an injury. During his first game back, Lawson scored 31 points, his regular season ppg average close to 19. But whether or not Lawson’s absence was an only cause behind the team’s losing streak may be debatable, for with Lawson aboard in earlier months the Nuggets lost several games in a row, some against teams lower in the rankings. Still, Denver Post writer, Christopher Dempsey, reported a comment made by Nuggets forward, Wilson Chandler, that when learned Lawson couldn’t be on the floor for many projected games, Chandler’s words, “. . . it deflated the team.” If Chandler’s assessment is correct, then perhaps the Nuggets have intentionally, or unintentionally, leaned into being a team overly dependent upon a single and exceptional player, even though Lawson believes in ball possession for the man with the best chance for a clean shot, not to be for he alone except when no other opportunity exists. Maybe there’s a dynamic here, an indefinable characteristic, that which seems to motivate others to pump up their game. Unquestioningly, Lawson’s speed and savvy setting up successful plays, and his effective shooting, his assists and surprising rebounds, impresses “and inspires.” If this is what it will take to bring the Nuggets to a respectable season finish, so be it. Imagined now is that Nuggets head coach, Brian Shaw, won’t be implementing an overhaul, applying any not seen before tactics, instead seeing Lawson as super capital for more wins than losses, allowing the team to evolve on the floor from Lawson’s hustle and skills and with that interaction with Lawson that Chandler has noted and benefitted from, Chandler averaging more than 20 ppg during recent games. . . // . . MLB---GIVEN how a baseball season ends with lots of expectations soured and the unexpected applauded, all predictions and assessments that are made “prior to” can only be placed into a category labeled, “Yeah, well, maybe.” Right now, there’s money on the Washington Nationals to lead the NL East throughout most of the 2014 regular season and into the NLLC series. Yet in 2013, expectations were high for the Nat’s to do the same and they started falling back versus NL teams. Not that the Nat’s 86-76 2013 finish was anywhere below the margin. Today, however, are Nat’s additions that could eliminate the standings quagmire that the team fell into as the 2013 season moved on, among these plusses and from the Detroit Tigers, RH Doug Fister, 14-9, ERA 3.5., and from the Oakland A’s, LH Jerry Blevins, 5-0, ERA 3.1. These two will join RH Jordan Zimmermann, 19-9, ERA 3.2, and RH Stephen Strasburg, 8-9, ERA 3.0. Balanced strongly with this is a powerful line-up, including outfielders Jayson Werth, batting average .318; Denard Span, BA .279; Bryce Harper, BA .274. OF’s Werth and Harper combined for 45 home runs last year, and with Span the three had a total of 187 RBI. Also, Nat’s infielders Ian Desmond, Adam LaRoche and Ryan Zimmerman accrued a total of 66 HR’s and 221 RBI’s during 2013. The Nat’s taking all? It’s an informed guess still, the answer, “Yeah, well, maybe!” END/ml

NBA: ANALYSIS OF STANDINGS; PACERS, HEAT, NUGGETS // MLB---NATIONAL LEAGUE-WEST.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . . NBA: ANALYSIS OF STANDINGS; PACERS, HEAT, NUGGETS // MLB---NATIONAL LEAGUE-WEST---SOME OBSERVATIONS. . . . // . . NBA---IN the past week, four NBA second place teams moved ahead in rankings by a game, while remaining first place clubs added two or more wins, and none fell behind unless a number one division team leaped ahead with wins. And no increased sweat required, the Indiana Pacers are not only leading the Eastern Conference-Central still, they are ahead of the entire conference and of the full NBA, at 46 wins, 13 losses. Also, the Pacers have maintained a deep lead ahead of any other division leading franchise, now 13 games atop the East-Central’s second place team, the 33-27 Chicago Bulls. Best of the West is still the Oklahoma City Thunder, at the heels of the Pacers for being tops in the league, at 45-15 while ahead of the Western Conference-Southwest’s leading team, the 41-16 San Antonio Spurs, by only two wins. Moreover, the Thunder’s WC-Northwest’s lead is as tenuous, four games up on the 41-19 Portland Trail Blazers. Of note is that seven of the 30 NBA franchises have won more than half of the current season’s 82 games, each with their more than 41 wins from, depending on team schedules, between 55 and 60 games played as of today. Implied is that it takes almost two thirds of a season to go by before this can be accomplished by even the best among NBA clubs. As for third place teams still chasing a decent finish if not playoff entry, within the East the Atlantic Division’s N.Y. Knicks stagnated this week at 21 wins, and the Southeast’s 27-33 Charlotte Bobcats fell back by two games, to 17 wins behind the 33-26 Toronto Raptors, and the Central Division’s 24-36 Detroit Pistons fell by one, to 22 back of the Pacers. Within the West, the Northwest’s Minnesota Timberwolves added two wins, going to 30-29, 14 wins back of the Thunder and five ahead of fourth place team, the 25-34 Denver Nuggets. And, 14 of the 30 NBA teams are still below .500, and three are hovering at or barely above .500, among them below-the-margin teams that finished the regular season decently a year ago and were expected to be front-runners this season: sad songs are being sung in Boston for the East’s 20-40/.333 Celtics, in Atlanta for the 26-32/.448 Hawks, in Denver for the West’s 25-34/.424 Nuggets, in Utah for the 21-39/350 Jazz, at L.A. for the 21-39/350 Lakers. . . HEAT, PACERS, NUGGETS---THE 43-14 Heat’s LeBron James demonstrated again that he’s the NBA’s top shooter from among the greater variety of challenges to his being that repeatedly, last night accruing 61 points versus the Charlotte Bobcats. This was his career high and a Heat record, bringing the Heat vs. Bobcats win to 124-107, preparing the Heat for what could be a ninth straight win before midweek, vs. the West’s 43-16 Houston Rockets, even if James has but half the points that he scored against the Bobcats. Especially worthy for sustainment of James’ MVP status is that last night he netted eight straight 3-pointer attempts. Shown, then, is high-end value for an NBA franchise, that of having a team phenom, a superstar capable of establishing leads that cannot be overcome. But the Pacers show that there is another way, winning four games in a week mostly via integration of star performance with backoffs to teamwork, to equal ball possession among players on the floor, which hadn’t worked last night for the Denver Nuggets, a team without a James but a player coming close in having guard Ty Lawson, who returned yesterday to the Nuggets starter squad after physical rehab and scored 31 points (his average, 18 ppg), yet the Nuggets lost to the Timberwolves, 132-128. If there’s any good in this outcome, it’s that the Nuggets endgame deficit wasn’t of the greater disparity of several recent lost Nuggets games. Uncoupled from the Nuggets still is the connectivity among players that earlier in the season empowered them to win seven straight games and later to defeat division, conference and NBA leading teams the Pacers, the Thunder and the 40-20 L.A. Clippers. . . // . . MLB---THERE’s no telling with great certainty which teams will rise to the top two positions within an MLB division for the chance to earn a post-season billet. However, true fans know that trying to establish informed guesses as to teams rising to the top of a ladder is irresistible. Stats do reveal, if not always accurately. That said, if we look at last season’s rankings and off-season developments within any division a lot of likely outcomes can appear, example, the NL West, inside which the L.A. Dodgers might take first position early and sustain that by having maintained a starter rotation and batting order similar to that of 2013. There’s a magnificent seven within the Dodger camp---LH Clayton Kershaw (16 wins, ERA 1.8), RH Zack Greinke (15 wins, ERA 2.6), IF Hanley Ramirez (BA, .345, OBP .402), IF Adrian Gonzalez (22 HR’s, 100 RBI’s), OF Matt Kemp (BA .270), OF Yasiel Puig (BA .319), and C A.J. Ellis (BA .238) But the Colorado Rockies could remain close to L.A.’s heels with a mix of keeps and its add-ons, from the still on board RF Michael Cuddyer, SS Troy Tulowitzki, LF/CF Carlos Gonzales, C Wiln Rosario, 3B Nolan Arenado, and, over from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jutsin Morneau to 1B, plus from the N.Y. Mets, RH LaTroy Hawkins joining the Rockies starter rotation vet’s LH Jorge De La Rosa (16 wins), RH Jhoulys Chacin (ERA 3.4), RH Juan Nicasio (9 wins), RH Tyler Chatwood (8 wins, ERA 3.1) and reliever/closer LH Rex Brothers (ERA under 2.0, 19 saves), Hawkins throwing for under a 3.0 ERA. The Rockies team BA last year was 20 points higher than the NL average, .271, and the team’s OBP, runs-per-game and stolen bases remained higher than the NL average, .323, 4.36 and 112 respectively. Cuddyer was NL batting champion (BA .331), Gonzalez and Tulowitzki not far behind. That the Rockies high individual player and key team achievements couldn’t yield enough game-winning runs last season, pulling the team upward in the rankings, is still in question, though suspected are too many base-runners left in scoring position at third outs and the starter rotation unable to push its ERA average below 4.5, higher than the NL average, 3.8. END/ml