MLB: Players To Watch, & Why; Colorado Rockies // NBA: Nearing 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: Players To Watch, & Why; Colorado Rockies // NBA: Nearing The Wire; Denver Nuggets. . . //. . MLB---IT’s been thought to be a kind of chicken or the egg question, whether it’s players, teams or overarching rule changes that can cause professional baseball to evolve two staeps forward and one back. Looking to the past, a starting pitcher throwing at 95mph or better for a strikeout record motivated many other starters to match that and that is what ahppened. Two years ago, a N.Y. Mets pitcher almost revived the knuckle ball as a highly desired mainstay for strike-outs---knuckle-ball revival retreated. And, several exposed illegal substance users forced up strict drug testing rules after setting up power-hitting as baseball’s wave of the future, causing batting and home records to be suspect. Too, a Mr. Moneybags invested so heavily and deeply for best players from the inhabited continents he created a rich uncle trend until Moneyball theorems arrived and big buck value was reduced greatly in several quarters of the game. Recently, many club managers received what they’ve wanted over the years, TV-replay on request. More than likely, as these and so many other examples could show, baseball’s evolution comes from multiple causes, the more interesting and pure being the contributions made by players reflecting the very best that a baseball athlete can deliver “in our time.” Were these players a technology, we’d call their accomplishments, “State-of-the-art.” Who, then, are top MLB players to watch this year for impacts that in addition to advancing baseball as a sport will also add to richness and enjoyment of the sport? Let’s begin with Detroit Tigers right-hand batter, infielder and three-time American League batting champion, Miguel Cabrera, his last season batting average .348. Cabrera is the second in MLB history to win a batting title across three seasons, the first being Nap Lajoie, 1901-04. Too, Cabrera is, according to scouting reports, still vital, still skilful and young enough to best the record for most career batting titles won, six, now that of the great Rogers Hornsby, 1920-25. A question is whether Cabrera can win a title with a batting average as high as Hornsby’s highest, .424. Right now, Cabrera’s three batting titles positions him alongside Stan Musial and Ty Cobb. Cabrera’s three-in-a-row accomplishment’s value to the game is also highlighted by the fact that Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron and Willy Mays hadn’t won three batting titles consecutively. And in a season before 2013, Cabrera became the second ballplayer to reach a .345 batting average while also accruing more than 130 RBI’s and 40 home runs, the other player to achieve that being the recently retired Colorado Rockies 1B, Todd Helton. . . Now to a threesome, the L.A. Angels Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols and Mike Trout and the question of long-ball hitting power being the panacea for a winning baseball season. You’d think not given the Angels last season below .500 finish, just 78 wins across 162 games, but a single season rarely proves or disproves a concept. Trout closed with the highest batting average of the three players, .323, Pujol reaching .258, Hamilton, .250. The current season could demonstrate that adjustments to a new team configuration kept Pujols and Hamilton from reaching the potential shown when they played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers, respectively. And, what will we learn from the Seattle Mariners gaining 2B Robinson Cano from the Yew York Yankees for a salary of $240 million across 10 years? Also, what will be seen from last year’s big winners upon the little hill? Detroit’s Max Scherzer won 21 games during MLB-2013, the Cardinals Adam Wainwright, 19, while 14 other hurlers won games in double-digits. Can they repeat? Moreover, 59 of 88 MLB pitchers completed MLB-2013 with under 4.0 ERA’s, and nearly two-thirds of these had ERA’s under 3.5, suggesting pitcher dominance of the MLB game. Will we see this again during MLB-2014? Also to observe, can a ballclub escape the very bottom of its league by data-mining in the manner that the Oakland A’s lifted and sustained over the years via the less can buy more concept if you know where to look? For this, watch the Houston Astros (On Monday, the Angels defeated the Astros, 9-1) . . . COLORADO ROCKIES---A great start in anything brings up the word “Consistency,” and we ask “Can the athlete, or team, gain a lot more than will be lost as a season continues?” Right now, the Colorado Rockies are third in the National League West, 4 wins, four losses and so at .500, but they are just one game back of first and second position teams, the 5-2 S.F. Giants and 5-3 L.A. Dodgers, and of the four won games three may be of a healthy 3-4 pattern, it is certainly reflective of the power recorded by the Rockies line-up last year and the potential noted in Rockies starting pitcher, Juan Nicasio, and that seen in relievers Rex Brothers, Adam Ottavino and LaTroy Hawkins. The Rockies RF Michael Cuddyer had the NL’s highest batting average of MLB-2013, .331. Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki and LF Carlos Gonzalez followed with .312 and .302. Yesterday, the Rockies slammed the Chicago White Sox, 8-1, with Rockies pitcher Jordan Lyles not only getting the win, he went three for three at the plate and drove in two runs. April 4, Opening Day at Denver’s Coors Field, the Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 12-2, with Rockies CF Charlie Blackmon going six for six. On April 6, the Rockies beat the DB’s again, 9-4, with 3B Nolan Arenado having delivered two home runs, perhaps a signal that his inconsistent hitting for value of last year won’t be a future stat. . . NBA---THE leads held by five of the six division leading teams of the NBA’s two conferences have shifted as the last weeks of NBA-2013/14 moved toward playoff billets being filled. Furthest ahead of a division’s number two team today within either conference are the West’s Southeast Miami Heat, 13 wins above the 40-37 Washington Wizards, although the West’s Southwest San Antonio Spurs leads the entire NBA with 60 won games over 17 losses, yet the Spurs are but eight wins above the West’s Southwest second place franchise, the 51-25 Houston Rockets. The Indiana Pacers are third in either league with regard to a lead above a second place team, seven ahead of the 45-32 Chicago Bulls. Next in line are the West’s Northwest Oklahoma City Thunder and the West’s Pacific L.A. Clippers tied at six won games above their second place franchises, the 50-28 Portland Trail Blazers and the 48-29 Golden State Warriors. Of the six division leading teams, throughout NBA-2013/14 it’s been the Toronto Raptors being only a few won games ahead of a number two franchise, always the Brooklyn Nets, the latter now 42-34 and only two wins behind the Raptors. Within the entire NBA, two teams are yet to win 20 games, the East’s Atlantic Division’s last place 17-60 Philadelphia 76ers and the East’s Central Division’s 16-63 Milwaukee Bucks. . . Denver Nuggets--- ON Sunday, the Nuggets lost to the Western Conference’s Southwest Houston Rockets, 130-125. The Rockets, now 51-25, are among 11 first and second place division teams that the Nuggets were to face between March 14 and its final game of the season vs. the West’s Pacific Division second place franchise, the now 48-29 Golden State Warriors, April 16. On March 14, the currently 33-44 Nuggets were in fourth place of the West’s Northwest Division, and under .500, where they are today in the standings. Knowing by mid-March that a 10th consecutive end-of-season playoff selection was outside the realm of possibility for them, the Nuggets have surely also known that winning or coming close to winning the lion’s share of games versus the 11 top NBA teams would restore credibility. Presently, of the aforementioned 11 games to be played, the Nuggets are three wins and four losses, with one of the losses occurring in overtime. Up ahead are games vs. the West’s Pacific first position team, the 55-22 L.A. Clippers, another against the Rockets, and two vs. the Warriors. From winning these remaining games of the cited 11, the Nuggets could finish the challenging segment of 11 games, 7-4, a favorable narrowing of the credibility gap. END/ml.