SPORTS NOTEBOOK: June 2014

Friday, June 27, 2014

NBA: The Free Agent's Confusion; Denver Nuggets & Next Season Readiness // MLB: Today's Standings

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: the Free Agent’s Confusion; Denver Nuggets & Next Season Readiness // MLB: Today’s Standings. . . NBA---WHERE love of the game is best served, where the opportunity for accruing better stats exists, where more money can be had---you’d think these would be enough for making a move-or-not-to-move decision when free agency is the high card that a superb athlete holds. Freedom shows its scary teeth, and there’s a ping in the belly that he or prevails against quickly and with glee thinks, “I could go anywhere, play for any team I choose to play for.” It’s to be this way for NBA star Carmelo Anthony, now of the New York Knicks, and for star Lebron James, of the Miami Heat. Both are singing “Dis-satisfaction,” and that could be the added motivator causing them to tell the wife, “Pack up, we’re moving.” Unhappy about what? The answer to that for Anthony is, “No NBA championship team yet for me.” It’s why Anthony left the Denver Nuggets for the Knicks. It’s why James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Heat and it happened for James, but he wanted that three-in-a-row record and it eluded the Heat this year. This being the case, freedom can still be “a game of thorns” for Anthony and James, as an example there’s looking at the first and most important question that Anthony and James are already mulling, “Which team should I focus on for the next chapter in my extraordinary life as an NBA star, is it the team that I am now attached to, or is it another team?” There’s a brutal truth here, this: “There’s no guarantee that any of the 30 NBA franchises will be next season’s trophy gatherer, even with Anthony or James becoming better than ever during the NBA season’s 82 games, each player having a ppg average that exceeds 32.” This surely means that a next season could be “the big one” for the team that you say goodbye to. And, the new start is never a picnic no matter who you are and what you are capable of, it’s no comfort-zone having to once again prove that you are worth every dollar and/or the trade that brought you in. It’s a hurdle that you had to deal with before, why go that way again, all this proving that you can share the ball, do the rebound above a seven+ footer who has hands wider than a catcher’s mitt? Can you rescue the offense error by netting for three? Can you be as loyal to the coach as the last who subtly allowed you to captain your own efforts, and now the new one could be breathing down your neck? Can you be okay with this new bench over-riding a game? Ugh! The new team means all of that which when unmet could bruise the ego, expose one’s vulnerabilities. It’s been written that Anthony and James are wondering what playing for the Chicago Bulls, the Houston Rockets, the Atlanta Hawks, maybe the Lakers might look like. Make no mistake, their contributions could pull these teams up, up and up, surely to higher season rankings, but the Knicks can be stronger and better with Phil Jackson as front-office leader and Derek Fisher as Head Coach, plus Amar’e Stoudemire still on board. Besides, the Knicks weren’t anchoring the bottom of the pile during 2013/14. Regarding the Heat, not beating the San Antonio Spurs for the NBA 2013/14 Finals trophy has overshadowed the fact that the Heat’s James, Wade, Bosh and Allen getting to the 2013/14 Finals demonstrated the prowess needed to compete at the highest of skill levels next season---if not a guarantee for another NBA championship title, the Heat is certainly a contender for next year’s post-season, i.e., there were no signs during this year’s post-season that Wade, Bosh and Allen could be two fadeaways and a flake for 2014/15. In spite of the pressure of dreams and the temptations suggesting fulfillment, quite often the best move for a free agent is “No move.” However, and OMG, what if Anthony and James become a joint-venture, both playing for the same team, e.g., the Bulls? Could that be the answer for each to prevent a career dominated by an unfulfilled yearning? Then again, “There are no guarantees in the NBA.” . . DENVER NUGGETS---THIS team began preparations for the NBA 2014/15 season before the recent season ended, and with specific drivers in mind, starting with knowledge that the Nuggets are a talent-loaded franchise with a very smart head coach who won’t be the rookie HC during 2014/15. Instead of being the experimenter, a trial-and-error man working from the uncertainties as well as the strengths usually that of the rookie coach, Nuggets HC Brain Shaw will likely be the strong applicator along a meticulously developed path to follow, more the enforcer of his lessons learned, on track for a Nuggets post-season appearance. Do the math and it will be learned that had the Nuggets not experienced the injuries it had starting with the end of the 2012/13 season when Danilo Gallinari was hurt, and during 2013/14 season when Ty Lawson was injured, Shaw’s record would have included a green light for post-season play. We can say the same for Nuggets GM, Tom Connelly. Due primarily to a joint Connelly/Shaw decision, brought back to the Nuggets to undo a vulnerability is shooting guard Aaron Afflalo, who when with the Nuggets season before last remained key for that which sent the Nuggets into the post-season for the ninth straight time. The Nuggets also recently acquired from the Chicago Bulls a shooting guard, Gary Harris, and center Jusuf Nurkic, both with above-the-margin records. This fleshes our a sturdy and effective roster with much depth, including Afflalo, Kenneth Faried, Lawson, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, Randy Foye, Nate Robinson, Evan Fournier. This isn’t a team dominated by superstars with 25 ppg averages but it is an aggregate that can cause much damage to most of its competition via speed, much ball-sharing, plus patience for positioning for the right shot, this up to that 23.8 second on the shot-clock, in effect, the Nuggets reflect “team ball” rather than reliance on but one or two star players.+ a big and wide center. The theme here is that the right strategy and appropriate tactics for carrying it out can neutralize the best that a Lebron James or a Kevin Durant can deliver. Reflecting on the 4-1 San Antonio Spurs victory over the star-dominant Miami Heat in this year’s NBA Finals, there’s no reason for any team of the Nuggets style and caliber to fear a star-laden franchise. . . // . . MLB---EXCEPT for the National League East’s Miami Marlins and the American League East’s N.Y. Yankees, surely the NL and AL League ball clubs in third place or below within their divisions are too far back to rise higher before the All Star break come mid-July. The third position Marlins are but two wins behind first place team, the Washington Nationals, and the Yankees are three below first place team, the Toronto Blue Jays. The remaining third place clubs---the AL West’s Seattle mariners, AL Central’s Cleveland Indians, the NL West’s Colorado Rockies and the NL Central’s Cincinnati Reds--- are six, six, 11 and eight games behind each of their division first place clubs. Those teams that are fourth and below within their divisions are eight or more wins behind their division first placers, deepest in trouble being the AL West’s Texas Rangers, 13 back of first place. Ironically, the NL Central’s fourth place club, the Pittsburgh Pirates, they have 40 wins to date, just one win behind the NL East’s first place team, the Nationals. But no team is behind as many games from first place as are the AL West’s 34-46 Houston Astros---15 rear of first place team, the A’s. But hope floats in Texas: the Astros are on the cover of SI this week, knighted as a team that can rise up from the ashes next season from Moneyball-like machinations, which if unchecked, if allowed to be super-dominant,could literally become too much “mind over matter,” Data-thoughts the Puppet Master, and a batting order + pitching rotation + bull pen the slumping Puppets. Even the Oakland A’s know that you can’t digitize every aspect of athletic prowess, anyway NOT in baseball. Talent still prevails in the majors, and it could be proven in Texas next year if the Astros rely far too much on metrics and find themselves having to cancel their reservations for travel upward. END/ml

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

MLB: the Rankings & Time; Colorado Rockies & What the Numbers Say

Friday, June 20, 2014

BASEBALL: The Majors & Division Supremacy; More About Amazing Batter, Tony Gwynn; Colorado Rockies, Wrong Side Of A No-Hitter

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 . . . // . . BASEBALL: The Majors & Division Supremacy, Where Is It?// More About Amazing Batter, Tony Gwynn // Colorado Rockies, Wrong Side of A No-Hitter. . . // . . MLB--- A READER of this column wants to know which of the six MLB divisions is best. Well, there are many ways for a hunter to track prey, and it’s surely like that when it comes to deciding which division inside either of pro- baseball’s two leagues is better than the other five. For instance, there’s looking at the differential regarding games won by the first and last teams inside each of the six divisions, the gold star going to compactness. Today, the National League East’s first place team, the Washington Nationals, has 37 won games, while the NL East’s fifth and last place team, the N.Y. Mets, has 33 won games. That’s a difference of only four wins. As of today, the remaining five divisions have differentials of six or more wins, while four of the divisions have top to bottom differences greater than 10. From this, no outright foolishness exists in naming the NL East the top division within both leagues, although the NL East’s number one franchise, the Nationals, has the least number of won games among all six division leading teams, the 37 cited above. So, which division could boast that it has had the most wins since the start of the current season? On Monday, that division was the AL West, which had a total of 180 won games. Lowest among the remaining five divisions was the National League Central, with 153 wins. Yet, on the same day, neither the AL Central nor the AL West owned the first and second place teams with the most wins. That record belonged to the NL West, its S.F. Giants having 43 won games, the L.A. Dodgers, 37. Today, the Giants own 45 wins, the Dodgers 40. Were Monday the first day of this year’s post-season, the two teams would have been vying for a division championship title. Lowest in this category on Monday was the NL East, its Atlanta Braves having 36 won games, the Miami Marlins, 35. Or, an indicator for measuring value among the six MLB divisions could be the total number of wins accumulated by the fourth and fifth position teams of each division, e.g., on Monday the AL West’s fourth and fifth place teams, the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros, together had a total on Monday of 66 wins, worst in this category the AL East’s Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays with their combined 58 wins. And, is there a division with a fifth place team that has experienced the same number of losses that a division first place club has had of won games? Right now, the AL East’s Tampa Bay Rays have 45 losses, while the AL West’s Giants lead both MLB leagues with its 43 wins. Bottom line here, when it comes to ways to figure out which division is superior, it gets like those Russian dolls, where you uncover one stat only to learn there’s another underneath. Of course, the total number of fans and analysts concerned with which MLB division is best approximately half way during an MLB season probably couldn’t fill a standard office building’s elevator, but if a baseball season is to be about how many games are won over losses, then total number of wins accumulated by a division seems the more appropriate judgment factor, anyway the easiest and to our eyes the more satisfying . . . // . . MORE ABOUT BATTER, TONY GWYNN---WHAT Gwynn did isn’t for everybody but it worked for him, e.g., batting practice nearly every day, and since the best hitter will be using wrists, arms, torso, hips and legs in balance + eyes tracking like a modern drone with HD-TV monitors, all this for each swing of the bat, Gwynn kept his body, mind and spirit strong and flexible. In this regard, the 5’10 200-pound Gwynn’s only flaw was a habit of chewing tobacco, which led to the cancer that led to his death at 54. . . Gwynn finished his career with a .348 batting average, Ty Cobb .385. Gwynn ended his career with 3,141 hits. Yes, Gwynn didn’t just hit, e.g., in 1987 he became the first National League batter to while hitting as high as .370 also stole 56 bases. Gwynn had a hit inside of every eight at-bats that year, and the .370 was the highest NL season batting average since the St. Louis Cardinals Stan Musial achieved .376 in 1948. In 1987, Gwynn hit in over 80 percent of the 155 games during which he’d played. Also that year, Gwynn struck out only 35 times during 589 at-bats. When totaling and averaging in the number of times that Gwynn got on base along with the number of times that he caused his team to have an out at the plate, his number is high and off the charts, 1,086, well above the .800 that is usually that of an All Star game selectee. . . COLORADO ROCKIES---IT’s been noted again and again: the best among batting orders rarely produces enough runs over, say, ten games in order to offset the number of runs given away to opposing teams by starting pitcher rotation + bull pen combos that rarely settle beneath a 4.8 ERA, and the numbers and pain gets worse when an order is up against a starting pitcher like L.A. Dodgers LH Clayton Kershaw, who last night pitched a no-hitter against the Colorado Rockies, final score Dodgers 8, Rockies the zip, zero, nada! Kershaw achieved the sweet dream, 15 strikeouts, just two beneath the record for most strikeouts during a no-hitter, the 17 achieved by Nolan Ryan in 1973. The Rockies experienced the nightmare, with .356 batting average holder Troy Tulowitzki 3-0 for the night, .326 hitter Corey Dickerson, 4-0, and .336 Josh Rutledge, 3-0. But the award for best horror picture went to Rockies LH Jorge De La Rosa’s gift of seven runs to the Dodgers, his ERA now above 4.6. It’s in 3-D now, clearly visible from any vantage point: the Rockies won’t be in position for a post-season slot as the season progresses unless the team’s starters + bull pen can upgrade skills and bring consistency to a greater number of strikeouts, therefore to lower ERA’s, and it has to begin to as close to NOW as is possible. A line-up that includes five batters with averages above .287, three of which are above .325, i.e., that of the Rockies batting order, such cannot be faulted from a single no-hitter re. the Rockies third place NL West position and a drop to 34 wins against 38 losses, percentage .472, and the worst games behind record for a NL third place team, nine back of NL West first place franchise, the 45-29 S.F. Giants. END/ml

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

NBA: Spurs, the 2013/14 Championship Team // MLB: Tony Gwynn, Star Hitter; the Standings

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: San Antonio Spurs, Champions--2013/14 // MLB: Tony Gwynn, Star Hitter; The Standings. . . // . NBA--- THE San Antonio Spurs 4-1 defeat of the Miami Heat in the best of seven NBA 2013/14 Finals is more than the crowning of a championship team for a single NBA season. The Gregg Popovich-led Spurs tore into and weakened considerably the notion that a trio of perhaps the best players in basketball will always prevail against five+1 of less but still above-the-margin skills. More precisely, the Spurs killed the idea that a few superstars will always dominate a team consisting of only one star or of none, but which is still a competent force. When learned a few years ago that LeBron James, D. Wade and Chris Bosh would be the Heat’s “Tres Amigos” it was feared that they’d be cleaning house and clocks wherever they’d play, and that teams without comparable superstars would deflate and form a junk heap. Not so in the Western Conference with former Denver Nuggets Head Coach George Karl putting his no-star Denver Nuggets into the post-season year after year, and recently HC Doc Rivers bringing the L.A. Clippers into ascendancy. Not so in the East, either, when comparing the Heat and Indiana Pacers regular season records. Anyway, this year the Spurs brought it home---evidence that “team ball” prevails. The Heat numbed from it in the year’s Finals and lost two games at home, then a third at San Antonio, two of them near-massacres, Game Five was a final put down, 104-87, locking the Spurs to an NBA championship title for the fifth time in franchise history, while preventing the Heat from owning a third-in-a-row NBA championship. So, how did the Spurs pull it off, how did they cause the Heat to be at the effect of their skills when the Heat’s James, Wade, Bosh have remained a trio that few can reckon with easily? Oh! Add the Heat’s Ray Allen. Of course, the Spurs found victory from an overall “guerrilla” strategy set by Popovich, and from the tactics applied for that strategy to succeed, tactics that are probably the only actions that could neutralize, if not overcome the likes of a James, Wade, Bosh + Allen challenge. A list of these tactics would surely include speed in transitioning from the offense to defense and vice versa, especially re. fast breaks for lining up lengthy exploitation of the 24-second shot clock so that best positioning for the best shot taken could happen, and it happened often for the Spurs in four of the Finals games. Add, a “thinking” rotational defense, not just in your face coverage---note that James scored 31 points in Game Five, which hadn’t helped the Heat much because coverage of the other Heat shooters was usually very tight, allowing only two other Heat players to score in double-digits, best the 13 points accrued by the Heat’s Bosh. And, the Spurs offense mantra seemed to be “never set a pattern,” that is, “keep the Heat guessing,” e.g., Will the Spurs get into the paint again? Will they drive to the basket as in the last turnover? Will they shoot from the corners once more? Will they go for the three-pointer from the center as they did less than a minute ago? and so on), essentially “a being where the opposition can’t get to you offense and then doing the unexpected anyway.” Hey, the Spurs mixed it up, the Heat thinking that Tony Parker and Tim Duncan would be the main characters of their blockbuster movie in scene after scene, all other Spurs in support, and then it was the Spurs Danny Green and Khawi Leonard saving the day (Leonard was selected Finals MVP). On Sunday, Popovich joined Phil Jackson (Bulls/Lakers), Red Auerbach (Celtics) and Pat Riley (Lakers, Heat) among HC’s having steered teams to five or more NBA championships . . . MLB---(“He can tailor his swing to the situation”---George Will, Columnist, TV pundit and author of baseball classic, “Men At Work”)---THE good hero can die young while some very bad people can live into their 90’s. Tony Gwynn, former San Diego Padres star hitter, passed on early at age 54 just the other day, having succumbed to cancer. Ballplayers and fans grieve when this happens, as if their sport got punctured by a meteor that no-one saw coming and a big hole can’t be covered over. Lasting, of course, will be memory of Gwynn’s on and off-the-field demeanor, his character, his dedication to his sport. Gwynn was liked, he couldn’t make enemies, he couldn’t be sad for long, he was usually upbeat no matter the situation, and always empathic. And, Gwynn’s work ethic stood out and above that of most other ballplayers, he was among the first hitters to study game film over and over, and he underwent batting practice almost every day as if doing so were a necessity similar to eating and needing water. He saw hitting as a science to be examined, understood and mastered, and that is what happened for him. The record speaks to this: 3,141 career hits, a career batting average of .348, and only 434 strikeouts from 9,288 at-bats. He was an All Star selectee 15 times, and were there no players strike in 1994 shutting down baseball, Gwynn would probably have finished the year with an over .400 BA, first to do so since Ted Williams achieved the feat in the 1940’s. Gwynn’s hitting ability was of such control, he could place the ball numerous times to left field between outfielder and shortstop, or close to that third base line. He could exploit the pitch being given if he wanted to, as if every pitch was an associate of his, the ball almost a friend wanting to go wherever Gwynn wanted it to go. Maybe the quality of a shorter life trumps the length of many longer ones, it certainly seems that way when reviewing the life and career of Tony Gwynn. . . . CURRENT STANDINGS---WITHIN the National league, the NL West is still led by the 43-27 S.F. Giants, though in a week the Giants haven’t added a win, they are now of a six game lead over second place team, the 37-34 L.A. Dodgers, instead of having the nine game lead posted on June 10. In the NL Central, the 41-29 Milwaukee Brewers are still atop second place team, the 37-32 St. Louis Cardinals but by four wins instead of the five of a week ago. Within the NL East, the 36-32 Atlanta Braves are still one win above now number two team, the 35-33 Miami Marlins, which held third place a week ago behind then second place team, the Washington Nationals. . . Within the American League, the 42-27 Oakland A’s are still the AL West’s number one franchise, they are ahead of number two team, the 37-31 L.A. Angels, this by four wins as it was on June 10, and in the AL Central the 36-29 Detroit Tigers are leading second place franchise, the K.C. Royals, by one win and not the two of a week ago, and the AL West’s 41-30 Toronto Blue Jays are atop the Baltimore Orioles by four wins instead of last week’s five wins. Above both leagues re. number of won games are the S.F. Giants---43; next the A’s with 42 won games, then the Brewers and the Blue Jays, each with 41. None of the remaining 27 MLB franchises have won more than the 37 won games each that was posted today by the Dodgers, the Cardinals and the L.A. Angels respectively. In other words, only the S.F. Giants have a commanding division lead. . . .Biggest falls of the seven day period, that’s the NL East’s Washington Nationals dropping from second to third slot, and the AL Central’s 33-37 Chicago White Sox going from third to last position. Still worst in the NL are the 28-39/.418 Chicago Cubs, and in the AL and worst re. both leagues are the AL East’s 27-43/.386 Tampa Bay Rays, the only MLB team of 30 that’s remained below .400. Of the 30, 17 are above .500 today. . . Best leap forward since June 10 belongs to the now 34-35/.493 Colorado Rockies. Though still in third place of the NL West, the Rockies went from being 11 games behind first place team, the S.F. Giants, to eight wins back, this from a five game winning streak after a dismal homestand, a streak that included a three-game sweep of the Giants. END/ml

Friday, June 13, 2014

NBA: Spurs Ahead At Finals, 3-1; MLB: NL, AL, Which Is Best?; Colorado Rockies, Suddenly Ascending.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

NBA: The Finals; Heat, Spurs // MLB: Leaders of the Pack; Colorado Rockies, Analysis Of A Slump

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: The Finals; Heat, Spurs // MLB: Leaders Of the Pack, AL & NL; Colorado Rockies, Analysis Of A Slump. . . NBA---IT’s a game apiece today in a best of seven series for the NBA 2013/14 championship title, and if you watched the Heat defeat the Spurs, 98-96, on Sunday, you observed Game Two of an event that’s been consistent year after year since the 1946/47 NBA Finals. That’s more than 65 NBA championship duels over the years, and the Miami Heat could be a team taking the crown three years straight after obtaining the 2005/6 NBA title versus the Dallas Mavericks and losing it to the Mavericks during the 2010/11 go-round. To date, the Minneapolis Lakers, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and the L.A. Lakers are the only franchises to have won three or more NBA titles in a row. You might think that the Spurs prefer taking the title home every other year---the Spurs were NBA champions for NBA post-seasons 2002/3, 2004/5 and 2006/7, after grabbing the title for the first time in its history, 1998/99. As for most NBA crowns won in a row since 1946, that’s held by the Boston Celtics, eight crowns starting from NBA 1958/59. The Celtics also hold the record for winning the most NBA finals---16, the Lakers second with 11 takes, though purists like to claim that since the L.A. Lakers were once the Minneapolis Lakers then surely the total Lakers NBA titles is the same as that of the Celtics---16. Combine the Celtics and Lakers totals and that’s 32 NBA championship wins held by two clubs, nearly half the total of crowns sought since 1946/47, suggesting dominance of the NBA by big market teams. Too, of the 30 teams within the NBA, 16 have been end-of-year champions, nearly all from big market regions. Yet the largest market supporting an NBA franchise, New York, its team, the N.Y. Knicks, has taken the NBA crown for the least number of times among the NBA’s multiple crown winners, twice, 1969/70 and 1972/73, a record hefted some by the Knicks seven appearances at NBA Finals. As for the middle and small market franchises, only one has been a multiple crown taker, and the consensus is that this team doesn’t exist anymore---the Minneapolis Lakers. Not that small and mid-market teams haven’t been NBA championship holders, e.g., the Seattle Sonics, 1978/79 (now the Oklahoma City Thunder), the Baltimore Bullets, they won the crown during the 1947/48 season and morphed into the Washington Wizards that seized the NBA crown, 1977/78. Add the Portland Trail Blazers re. post-season 1976/77. As an aside here, and by strict definition, the San Antonio Spurs are still close to the mid-market category. Last year, the Heat defeated the Spurs to become NBA crown holder, four games above three. But change is always hovering above the hardwood. Game three could have more to say to us regarding a likely winner. The Heat unveiled swifter and a more pressuring defense in a final period on Sunday, joined by a return to fast break depth and near-shooter perfection displayed by, led by, the Heat’s Lebron James Yet had the Spurs Tony Parker and Tim Duncan netted their combined four free throws in that period, the Spurs/Heat outcome may have been different. . . // . . MLB---THE 42-21 S.F. Giants are leading the NL West with nine wins up over second place team, the 34-31 L.A. Dodgers, and the AL East’s 39-26 Toronto Blue Jays are ahead of second position team, the 32-30 Baltimore Orioles, with seven wins. A safe argument is to say that these are comfortable leads. All other MLB division leading teams have four or fewer wins as their edge over runner-up franchises. In just one week, the Giants went from 37 to 42 wins, and the Blue Jays from 34 to 39. The latter advanced from the now 31-31 N.Y. Yankees dropping from second place a week ago to third today behind the Orioles. Most vulnerable among AL division leaders, that’s the AL Central’s now 33-27 Detroit Tigers having no wins above second position team, the 33-31 Cleveland Indians. The most vulnerable division leading franchise in the NL, that’s the NL East’s first position holder, the 33-29 Atlanta Braves, with just one more win to its credit than second place club, the 32-29 Washington Nationals. The Braves are tied regarding number of wins with third position club, the 33-30 Miami Marlins. Within the AL, the AL East’s Yankees have the most games behind among the division third position teams, and inside the NL it’s the NL West’s third place team, the 29-34 Colorado Rockies, 13 games back of the Giants. Using games behind as a key judgment factor, the Rockies are currently the fourth worst team in the majors. Worst is the AL East’s last place club, the 24-41 Tampa Bay Rays, and the NL West’s 28-37 Arizona Diamondbacks, both being 15 games behind their respective leading clubs, the Giants and the Blue Jays. The Giants are King Of The Hill right now, both leagues, from their 42 wins. The Blue Jays are close behind with their 39 wins, so, too, the AL West’s Oakland A’s, also with 39 wins. . . COLORADO ROCKIES---THIS MLB National League team is experiencing what may be recorded as one of the meanest downward spirals encountered by an American professional baseball club. Middle of May of the current year, the NL West’s Rockies were a second place holder at 23-19/.548, three games behind the NL West’s leading franchise, the then 26-15 S.F. Giants. Today, the Rockies are 29-34/.469, holder of third place and 13 games behind the now 42-21 Giants, five behind second place team, the 34-31 L.A. Dodgers. That’s 19 games lost by the Rockies since May 16, sadly the lion’s share being of a losing streak greater than the number of games won since May 16. What comes to mind are lyrics from Sixties songs, “Soon as you think you’re winnin’, you’re losin’ again” and “What goes up must come down,” similar to what the Rockies are probably thinking about now, along with a question, “What’s to blame?” And figuring out the answer to a long slump, be it of a team or batter, could be as difficult as proving the Big Bang’s exact moment, it’s no quiz to be handled and aced in a few hours, it could take weeks, months, maybe never even after the slump gives way and dies. But one thing is clear about team slumps, there’s a factor that threads through all of them, summed up by the word “Disconnect.” Something gets “disconnected,” the easiest image of this being a pitcher at his best but without linkage to a line-up capable of producing enough base runners and follow-on runs to win a game, or it’s the opposite, a starter rotation whose ERA seems to be seeking a higher than 6.0 rating, joined by a bull pen that for unknown reasons has lost its ability to stop opposing team rums from occurring even when taking over a winning game after, say, six innings, this preventing a line-up’s commendable number of runs to remain less than those of the opposition. Or, a team’s most reliable hitter isn’t enough to carry a line-up (Rockies SS, Troy Tolowitzki) when the second most reliable hitter (Rockies OF, Cargo Gonzales) experiences a personal slump and back-up power hitters (C Wilin Rosario, OF Charlie Blackmon) also shift from high to low gear, all of this within the framework of “disconnects,” so puzzling now when three of the Rockies batters are averaging above .315, Tulowitzki atop at .354, and Charlie Blackmon at .298. Figuring out what the fixes are could require Sherlock Holmes on steroids, yet “connections” often return of their own accord and mysteriously. Best now is for the Rockies to keep hoping against hopelessness. Even the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros manage to win again, in spite of their hefty volume of losses gluing them to last place slots. END/ml

Friday, June 6, 2014

MLB: COLORADO ROCKIES, "LOW IN THE HIGH COUNTRY" // NBA FINALS: GAME ONE, "SPURS BRUISE HEAT, 110-95."

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: COLORADO ROCKIES, “LOW IN THE HIGH COUNTRY” // NBA FINALS: GAME ONE, “SPURS BRUISE HEAT, 110-95.” . . . MLB---HOPE lifted suddenly during the bottom of the fifth for the Colorado Rockies that were down to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a June 4, 2014, game that began, at Denver’s Coors Field, with a home run off of Rockies RH Jordan Lyles, then three more runs taken from Lyles, DB’s 4-0. In that fifth inning, Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki, he of the National League’s top batting average, .353, delivered a home run and two RBI’S. Later, Rockies RF Michael Cuddyer doubled, sending in runs bringing the Rockies up from hopelessness. But this showing of hope did not float; it sank---the DB’s counterattacked, final score a humiliating 16-8 and what became the Rockies sixth straight loss. On Thursday, June 5, hope surfaced once more. Behind the DB’s again, bottom of the seventh, and again at Coors Field, Rockies RF Micahel Cuddyer, CF Correy Dickerson and OF Drew Stubbs put up singles that yielded runs, but again hope spiraled downward and disappeared to a DB’s win, 12-7, a seventh straight loss for the Colorado club and a DB sweep, this from a Rockies team that until then owned the NL’s best at-home record, 16-8, now 16-10, with the 28-31/.475 Rockies glued further to the NL West’s third place, 10 games behind NL West leading team, the 39-21 S.F. Giants. Doubly sad for the Rockies is that they were swept by a DB club that is still the NL West’s last place club, tied with the AL East’s 23-38 Tampa Bay Rays as worst within both the American League and the NL. Also, one more recorded Rockies loss would today tie them re. losses with the NL Central’s last place team, the 23-34 Chicago Cubs and the AL West’s last place 26-35 Houston Astros, both 11 games behind their respective division leading teams. Presently, there are 16 teams with 30 or more wins to date, and then there’s the 29-31 Kansas City Royals right behind, thus the Rockies are ranked 18th among the 30 MLB clubs. But, the big ugly is the Rockies rapid slide, contributing to a Rockies 4-12 away-from-home record for the month of May. So, the Rockies have lost seven games in a row, three of these at home. Continuation of the fall could see the Rockies within the bottom 10 of both leagues well before the season’s All Star break, mid-July. The spell has to be broken. Attempting recovery is mandatory. However, it won’t be easy in the short run, because between now and the All Star Break 27 of 36 Rockies games to be played will be against teams that are at the top of MLB rankings, including seven games that will be against the current NL number two team (. . . number three, both leagues), the 36-25 Milwaukee Brewers, and four games versus the NL East’s leading club, the 31-27 Atlanta Braves, and three vs. the NL West’s and NL + AL number one club, the Giants. Can hope for the Rockies re-visit for the long run? Possibly, in that after the All Star Break 41 of 65 remaining regular season Rockies games will be against clubs now ranked at or below the margin, including seven three-game series (21 games) vs. teams now well under the .500 line that separates them from baseball’s winning side. Yet, being swept by the DB’s?? Not a good sign for sustainment of hope before or after the All Star Break. . . // . . NBA---THERE are many ways to win an NBA game, and the San Antonio Spurs seemed to apply the usually unexpected ones in a 110-95 win last night over Eastern Conference championship franchise, the Miami Heat. For example, there were a lot of Spurs netted baskets from attempts at recovery when the Heat had set up a defense that appeared to be impenetrable. The Spurs attempted to punch through anyway, couldn’t but got to positions where they could pass to the rear or the sides, with Spurs Tony Parker or Tim Duncan free for the shot. Not exactly a version of the great Ali’s rope-a-dope concept but the theme of that was there. The Heat was sucker-punched just enough times for the Spurs to leap ahead in the last half in a game that was much the trading back and forth of two-pointers. No question about it, beating the Heat machine means guerrilla warfare, lots of surprise attacks, and sometimes these grow out of necessity, from OMG we’re trapped inside the close shadows of Chris Bosh and LeBron James, got to enter “road-runner mode,” “got to go to the back, Jack, gotta get rid of the ball, Saul,” and pronto! “Say, there’s Duncan at the corner---pass, then rush in close for the assist, bam! Slam! What? No need, Duncan just netted a three.” The Spurs were a leading conference and division team throughout the regular season and became Western Conference champion partly from ability to improvise cleverly when facing exceptionally tough competition, that is, sticking to tightly related probabilities, not going too often to where the team is forced to try the impossible. There’s not a lot of Spurs time or space wasted on the low probability shot during a Spurs offense, and this is often followed by the Spurs fast transition to a defense that remains highly focused, committed to the immediate block or rebound, seemingly from Basketball-101’s belief that in defense “positioning is everything, horizontally as well as vertically,” well gained from “speed in rotation,” and getting to this when against a team like the Heat demands lightning-quick transition out of the offense to defense, which the Spurs can pull off. Of course, the resulting Spurs fast break looks to maximum sharing of the basketball, five players trying to perform as one, lots of passes and assists having high premium in each player’s mind, this as primary as exploitation of the open and easy stance for the field goal. The Heat, they are blessed with James, Chris Bosh, D. Wade, Ray Allen, all high above-the-margin shooters, one or two of them often in support of the one on a streak, James more often than the others. With last night’s loss, James still put up 25 points and may have added to that were he not injured in the game’s last moments. When James left the wood, the Heat were only two points back, less than four minutes to go for the Spurs to expand that, and they did. But a factor in the Heat loss was a breakdown in arena air-conditioning, causing the temperature to weaken the Heat, which also affected the Spurs, less so certainly in the fourth period, when the Spurs accrued 19 points more than the Heat. Yet no Spurs player accrued more points than James, the Spurs Duncan finishing the game with 21, Spurs Tony Parker with 19, Manu Ginobili with 16. But the Heat’s Wade put up 19, Bosh, 18, Allen, 16. Here’s the remaining NBA Finals schedule: Sunday, June 8, Heat at Spurs, 6 PM; Tuesday, June 10, Spurs at Heat; Thursday, June 12, Spurs at Heat; Sunday, June 15, Heat at Spurs; Tuesday, June 17, Spurs at Heat; Friday, June 20, Heat at Spurs. END/ml

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

MLB: "A PIVOTAL TURN'; COLORADO ROCKIES, "ROAD-BURNED" // NBA: "HEAT VS. SPURS."

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: “A PIVOTAL TURN”; COLORADO ROCKIES, “ROAD-BURNED” // NBA: "HEAT VS. SPURS.”. . . MLB---AROUND early June of an MLB season there’s a sense of “new semester,” of a “phase two,” of “the next lap to complete up a steeper hill.” It’s when managers and players know that their efforts to rise or maintain within the game’s standings have to be taken more seriously than in April and May. The race is definitely for keeps now. The dog chosen to be fed could be the dog that a team ends up with come September. So, which teams are up now, which down at this critical juncture, at this crossroads where the wrong direction can be taken unwittingly? The big surprises after nearly 60 of 182 games played by each of the 30 MLB clubs this season are the National League Central’s number one club, the 35-23 Milwaukee Brewers leading number two, the St. Louis Cardinals, by five wins, and the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks having been at last place within the division’s ranking, now at 23-35. But the Brewers haven’t the best lead as a numero uno club. That distinction belongs to the NL West’s 37-20 S.F. Giants having a seven game edge over division number two, the L.A. Dodgers. Today, the Giants have the most wins across both leagues, while the Brewers and the American League West’s Oakland A’s are tied at two wins back, the A’s having one less loss than the Brewer’s 23 losses. The three clubs are the only ones performing above a .600 average. Another unexpected standing is the AL East’s 27-30 Boston Red Sox being in that division’s fourth position, at .474, when last year the Red Sox won the WS. Within the AL, nine of the 15 clubs are at or above .500 today, and within the NL it’s seven of 15 teams at or above .500. Among third position franchises, the NL West’s 28-28/.500 Colorado Rockies hold the most games-behind record, seven back of number one, the Giants. Yet the Rockies are only one win behind number two team, the Dodgers. Worst record within both leagues today belongs to the NL Central’s Chicago Cubs, 20-24, .370. . . COLORADO ROCKIES ---IN the week that Colorado Rockies shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki, graced the cover of Sports Illustrated, his team faltered, dropped from second to third place within the National League West. Yep, the road curse, if you want to believe in such happenings, but a better guess is that a Rockies starting pitcher rotation has lacked enough skills for a series of wins overcoming the barriers that get in the way of most MLB teams on the road. Only 12 of the 30 MLB clubs have winning road records, the best being 18 wins over 11 losses belonging to the S.F. Giants. The L.A. Dodgers are also 18-11 on the road. Most of the remaining road records average out as three more losses than wins. Within these, the Rockies hold the MLB third worst road record for the season to date, 12-21. Worst of all now is the NL Central’s 10-21 road record. Rockies starters LH Franklin Morales, RH Jhoulys Chacin and RH Adam Ottavino, they’ve been major reasons why the Rockies total starter ERA has been above 5.0, a problem seen as worse when on the road the Rockies line-up fails to offset the weak mound performances, for instance, Rockies LF Carlos Gonzalez and C. Wilin Rosario slipping back of expectations, their batting average now .258 and .225 respectively, while Tulowitzki and RF Michael Cuddyer have held above .300. From all of this is heated-up pressure for a 10 game homestand that with enough wins within could make up for the Rockies poor away from home record. Three of the upcoming Rockies home games will be against the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks, followed by three versus the NL West’s L.A. Dodgers, then four vs. the NL East’s Atlanta Braves. Winning each of the three series, 2-3, 2-3 and 3-4, could give the Rockies seven wins, plus a division’s second position berth and an above .500 rating. . . // . . NBA ---IT begins Thursday night, the NBA 2013/14 Finals, the Miami Heat versus the San Antonio Spurs, about as close to a clash of equally strong teams as could be, each team equally capable of prevailing against the other, although each in different ways. During the year’s conference championship best-of-seven series, each team went to six games, and neither with more than one dramatically overwhelming final score of games played by each. There was a lot of immediate trading of baskets netted, a team ahead of another often by no more than two to four points, and when a lead greater than 10 occurred there was fast catching up, yet in final periods after one and two point differences went back and forth there was explosiveness taking a team ahead by more than just a few points. . . The Heat faced the Pacers with both confidence and caution, rightly so. Game One final score, Pacers 107, Heat 96; Game Two, Heat 87, Pacers 83; Game three, Heat 99, Pacers 87; Game four, Heat 102, Pacers 90; Game Five, Pacers 93, Heat 90; Game Six, Heat 117, Pacers 92. The game with the best differential favoring the Heat was Game Six, which finished with the Heat 15 points ahead. The game with the slimmest lead at endgame for the Heat was Game Two, the Heat winning by four. Total number of points gained by the Heat during the Heat/Pacers series was 591; total number of points gained by the Pacers, 552, the Heat ahead by 39 points. Meanwhile, the Western Conference Game One finished with the Spurs 122, the Oklahoma City Thunder, 105; Game Two, Spurs 112, OKC Thunder, 77; Game Three, the Thunder 106, Spurs 97; Game Four, the Thunder 105, Spurs 92; Game Five, Spurs 117, Thunder 89; Game Six, Spurs 112-107. Total number of points accrued by the Spurs during the six games, 652, by the Thunder, 589, Spurs ahead by 63. The tallies show the Spurs had put up only 24 more points than the Thunder in its six conference games, than the Heat had in its conference series, which is but a six point lead per game when averaged across the six game series, if a tell it’s that neither of the two franchises is poised to knock off the other 4-0 or 4-1---the NBA 2013/14 Finals could be another nail-biting six game set. END/ml