MLB: April Starts; Colorado Rockies, Going Forward // NBA: Best & the Rest; Nuggets of Value

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: April Starts; Colorado Rockies, Going Forward // NBA: Best & the Rest; Nuggets of Value. . .//. . MLB---IF a few MLB clubs owning deep and hot starts has been your mid-April wish, well, you haven’t much to your favor. Except for the National League East’s Washington Nationals being up by two wins, no division leading MLB club is ahead of a number two franchise by more than one won game. And from the seven to nine games that have been played by the 30 MLB clubs, eight are back of their respective division leading clubs by just one win, and only four clubs within both leagues are to the rear by four. This near-stasis, as if the 30 MLB franchises were roughly the same regarding skills and power, is reflected best within the American League East, where last year’s World Series winning team, the now 4-6 Boston Red Sox, is in last place, yet the Sox are behind first place team, the 5-5 N.Y. Yankees, by only a single won game. Presently, the NL’s Nationals are tied with the NL Central’s number one team, the Milwaukee Brewers, for the lead within both leagues, each at 7-2, while the Oakland A’s are atop the AL at 6-3. The A’s are also tied with the NL West’s number one team, the 6-3 S.F. Giants, for second best within either of the two leagues. So, April hasn’t been the meanest of months yet for any of MLB’s 30 clubs, in that 18 are still at and above .500, eight of which are above .600. Surprisingly, the four clubs that are behind by four games and so dwelling at the bottom are within the NL---the NL West’s 3-8 Arizona Diamondbacks, NL Central’s 3-6 Chicago Cubs plus 3-6 Cincinnati Reds, and the NL East’s 3-6 Philadelphia Phillies. Like irony? Last season’s worst among the worst, the AL West’s Houston Astros, they’re tied now with last season’s best, the Red Sox, at 4-6/.400. . . COLORADO ROCKIES---THE 6-3 S.F. Giants and the 6-4 L.A. Dodgers are at first and second place within the National League West, and, like the Dodgers, the 5-5/.500 Rockies are but one won game behind first place. Last year’s stats and recent games would suggest that the Giants pitching + the combined hitting and pitching excellence of the Dodgers could keep the standings of the three teams roughly the same throughout the current season, were it not for the hitting display of the Rockies during its five wins and the more than occasional sparks suggesting that the Rockies pitching staff can keep the number of opposing runs below those that the Rockies line-up can produce. Rockies RF Michael Cuddyer, who last season achieved the NL’s top batting average, is on a 10 game hitting streak, LF Carlos Gonzalez has an amazing 1K+ OPS, and lead-off hitter OF Charlie Blackmon, 3B Nolan Arenado and 2B D.J. LeMahieu have been purchasing RBI’s and been base runners = runs regularly, exceeding their mid-April numbers of last year. Meanwhile, except for the RH Wilton Lopez disaster of a few days ago (too many runs given away in his half-inning), the Rockies rotation and bull pen have been reducing ERA’s efficiently enough if not per game, contributing to Rockies wins being other than close, e.g., the Rockies 10-4 smash vs. the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday. . . //. . NBA---THE disparity between best and worst in the NBA is huge now, the Western Conference Southwest’s San Antonio Spurs on top with 61 won games, the Philadelphia 76er’s and Milwaukee Bucks at the bottom with 17 and 14 wins respectively (Ugh!). Too, the number of games that division second place teams are back of their number one is also suddenly and unpredictably wide; as examples, the East’s Southeast 40-38 Charlotte Bobcats are behind the Miami Heat by 13 won games, the East’s Central 46-32 Chicago Bulls are back of the Indiana Pacers by seven, and within the West the Southwest’s 52-26 Houston Rockets are behind the Spurs by eight. In addition, the West’s Northwest 51-28 Portland Trail Blazers are behind the Oklahoma City Thunder by six, and the West’s Pacific Division’s Golden State Warriors are behind the L.A. Clippers also by six. Clear, of course, is that no NBA franchise can catch up to the NBA’s top team, the Spurs, without the Spurs losing every game that it has left to play while the Thunder, four wins back of the Spurs, would have to win every game it has left to play. Surely when the season ends, the Spurs will still be on top of either conference, with either the Heat or the Pacers leading the East, the Pacers now being only one win up over the Heat. Another sure bet is that the West’s Pacific 55-24 L.A. Clippers, the East’s Atlantic 46-32 Toronto Raptors and 43-35 Brooklyn Nets, the East Southeast’s 40-38 Charlotte Bobcats and the East’s Central 46-32 Chicago Bulls will comprise the NBA-2013/14 playoffs. . . DENVER NUGGETS---TRACK the 34-24/.436 Denver Nuggets performances since March 14 of this year and the results will fail to indicate a high above-the-margin basketball team---seven wins, eight losses. But a concern here has been 11 games that the Nuggets were scheduled to play since March 14 against NBA teams that have obtained first and second place slots within their divisions---vs. the Heat, the Spurs twice, the Thunder, the Rockets x 2, Clippers x 2, Warriors x 2, and the Wizards. Of note is that winning the greater share of these 11 contests would mean that the Nuggets have indeed been a winning NBA franchise, in spite of it not having secured a playoff slot or finishing the season at or above .500. To date, the Nuggets are five wins, four losses within the framework of the 11 big challenges. Among the teams beaten by the Nuggets since March 14 are the Heat, the Clippers, the Rockets, the Wizards and the Warriors. Up ahead are games vs. the Clippers (April 15), and the Warriors (April 16). Too, during a pre-season game (October 10, 2013), the Nuggets defeated the Spurs, and in January of this year the Nuggets took down the Indiana Pacers. During the current season, the Nuggets also defeated the Raptors, the Nets and the Chicago Bulls. Plain to see, then, is that the Nuggets have defeated 10 of the NBA’s top 12 teams one or more times since October 10, to include each of the currently selected playoff franchises except for the 51-28 Portland Trail Blazers and the 40-38 Charlotte Bobcats. END/ml