Motor Sports: Formula 1 // NBA, the Playoffs // MLB: 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 . . . // Motor Sports, Formula 1 // NBA, the Playoffs // MLB, the Standings . . . // Formula 1---OKAY, you saw the film RUSH last year, so you know that Formula 1 (F1) motor racing is a most popular sport, second to soccer as the world’s richest and most viewed from stands and in front of TV sets. If the film hooked you and you performed some research, you also know that F1 Grand Prix (GP) races have been happening around the world for several generations and that every other weekend March through mid-November, 11 teams send two F1 cars and two drivers each to compete in 19 events in 18 countries, starting with the Australian GP, ending with the Abu Dhabi GP, including a U.S. F1 event that will take place this year at Austin, Texas, November 2. Unique about these races is that none occur on strictly oval racetracks, such as that for the Indy 500 and Nascar events. Instead, the F1 GP events occur on tracks similar to the design of real roadways, they include uneven though linear stretches and also angular distances and exceptionally hard turns, dips, etc., with a single F1 GP race being anywhere from 50 to 60 laps amounting to between 250 and 320 miles in distance, the F1 cars averaging between 130 and 180 mph along the linear. Also, F1 is unlike other motor sports from its universality. Though each F1 team is privately owned, they come from a large assortment of countries, as examples, Team Ferrari (Italy), Red Bull (Austria), McLaren (the U.K.), Honda (Japan), Sauber, Renault (France), Team India, Team MaRussia, their drivers from numerous countries, as well, and not necessarily from the country that a team is from. But this year is different from all other F1 years because of required major changes to engines and energy efficiency, to aerodynamics and so car configuration, to cockpit and brake demands and re. new tire requirements, therefore a year different in that each team has had to enter F1-2014 with new or dramatically reconstructed F1 cars and with drivers new to the alterations. Calling the current F1 season an experiment in ground vehicle power resulting from innovative construction and the marriage of various materials is far from verbal fabrication, and the observed results could exist within the next generation of privately owned vehicles. Among the year’s F1 requirements are a switch from V-8 to V-6 engines packaged with formulated electrical systems so that F1-2014 cars can meet the hybrid challenge successfully. Too, there’s a new limit on amount of fuel that an F1 car can contain per race (35 percent less than in recent years), and a new regulation has called for means capable of capturing, holding and re-using energy that can escape mostly from brake applications (Whenever a foot goes from gas pedal to use of brakes, a certain amount of energy seeks the atmosphere and so has been wasted but today can be held and re-used), also there’s mandatory employment of tires that can meet nearly all weather and surface conditions. Too, from dropping the nose shape of the F1 car this year, and narrowing the position of the car’s front wings while requiring a smaller rear wing, and there being minimum allowed car weight to 691 kilograms from 642 kg’s, all will reduce downforce and increase torque, allowing for faster yet more controllable gear shifting for the deep turn and for moving into imagined lanes right or left at higher speeds. So far, three F1-2014 GP events have occurred, the Australia, Maylaysia and Bahrain GP’s. This weekend is the China F1 GP, to be followed in May by the Spain and Monaco F1 GP weekends. Ahead in the championship competition so far, that’s Team Mercedes (U.K.), the drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, both F1 veterans . . . NBA---THIS week marks the end of another NBA regular season and the closest for team selection for 2013/14 playoffs and a shot at the year’s NBA championship title. Of the 30 NBA franchises, 16 (eight per conference) will be in said playoffs for rounds of play and then the finals. If we go only from end of the regular season findings, a guess that the now Western Conference-Southwest 62-19 San Antonio Spurs will represent the NBA Western Conference in final games is rational yet slightly suspect with the West’s 58-23 Oklahoma City Thunder close at the Spurs heels and the West’s 56-24 L.A. Clippers just two games back of the Thunder, therefore either of these three positioned for final games versus the East’s Central Division 55-26 Indiana Pacers or the East-Southeast’s 54-27 Miami Heat. While seeking the top of the West, the Spurs will be in a mix of challenges involving the Thunder, Clippers, the 54-27 Houston Rockets and the 53-25 Portland Trail Blazers, the 49-31 Golden State Warriors and the 49-32 Dallas Mavericks, while within the East the Pacers and the Heat will be in a mixing bowl comprising the 48-33 Toronto Raptors and 48-33 Chicago Bulls, the 44-36 Brooklyn Nets, 43-38 Washington Wizards, the 42-39 Charlotte Bobcats and the 37-44 Atlanta Hawks. In other words, the now top leading NBA franchises could get knocked out of the playoffs by teams that finished lower in regular season standings---in this regard, the NBA playoffs are nearly a clean slate, though set for an elite, for a collective of the 16 teams that made it to top positions within their conferences, but definitely for viewers the flames of professional basketball turned up highest and lasting into June. The conservative take for now is the Spurs and Pacers or Heat battling for the NBA championship title . . . MLB---EXCEPT for the American League West’s Houston Astros being at fifth position from having won but five of 13 games played to date, and the NL East’s Miami Marlins being at last place from a 5-9 record, the MLB clubs at the bottom of their respective divisions are a surprise against the run of pre-season predictions, for example, 2013’s World Series winning team, the Boston Red Sox, are in last place of the AL East today, at 5-8 no different than the Astros. Also expected to be in a better way after two weeks of play within the AL are the AL Central’s last place 4-7 Kansas City Royals, also the AL Central’s fourth place and 6-7 Cleveland Indians, and the AL West’s fourth position 6-7 Texas Rangers. Bottom of the pile surprises within the National league are the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks, last place, 4-11 (worst in either league), and the NL Central’s last place 4-8 Cincinnati Reds. But at the top, there isn’t a proportionate number of surprises. Of course, a surprise is that the NL Central’s leading team, the Milwaukee Brewers, they are the lead ball club re. both leagues at 10-3, but it isn’t a surprise that the AL West’s leading team, the 8-4 Oakland A’s, leads the AL today and holds third re. both leagues, or that the 7-6 N.Y. Yankees are leading the AL East, the 6-4 Detroit Tigers the AL Central, or that the 9-4 L.A. Dodgers are at first place within the NL West and second re. both leagues, meanwhile the 9-4 Atlanta Braves at the top of the NL East. END/ml

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

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.

MLB: Top Rivals, The Race Is On // NBA: Playoffs & Conquest

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: Top Rivals, The Race Is On // NBA: Playoffs & Conquest. . . //. . MLB---WHEN explaining baseball to, say, a visitor from outside the U.S., who has only known soccer, cricket and Formula One racing, we sooner than later mention that Major League Baseball includes the American League and National League and that each of the two leagues includes three divisions; further, that each division has five ball clubs, and of the five in each there are always two that at the start of a season are noted as “rivals” for top division slots capable of guaranteeing a post-season position after each has played 162 games, April through September. Continuing our tutoring, we’d probably mention that in early-April of every MLB season these rivals are picked “informally” by fans and analysts, and usually from the previous year’s standings, a ranking that might not exist by mid-May. Out of the chute, then, for the American League East are the Boston Red Sox versus the N.Y. Yankees or the Tampa Bay Rays, and within the AL Central it’s the Detroit Tigers vs. the Cleveland Indians or Kansas City Royals. Inside the AL West, it’s the Oakland A’s vs. the Texas Rangers. Within the NL East, it’s the Atlanta Braves vs. the Washington Nationals. Inside the NL Central, it’s the St. Louis Cardinals vs. the Cincinnati Reds. For the NL West, there are the L.A. Dodgers against the Arizona Diamondbacks or the S.F Giants. Based on last year’s stats, rivals for the AL’s number one 2014 position are the Red Sox vs. the Tigers, and for the NL League Championship title, it’s the Cardinals against the Dodgers. As to the 2014 World Series, based on 2013 data only, it’s the Sox vs. the Cards. . . SO, where are these teams after games during MLB-2014’s first week of play? The aforementioned rivals are not true to form exactly, for instance, the AL East has the Sox on top, Rays in second position, but the Yankees are at the bottom of five. Regarding the AL Central, the Tigers are ahead, the Indians third, yet the Royals are number five. As for the AL West, whoa! the A’s are fourth, the Rangers third, at the top are the 3-0 Seattle Mariners (Last year, the Mariners had 71 wins, 91 losses, and were 19th in the standings). Within the NL East, the Nationals are now leading, and the Braves are third. Inside the NL Central, the Cards are second, the Reds fourth, and within the NL West, oops! the Diamondbacks are last, first position having gone to the 4-1 Dodgers. The Dodgers are best in the NL now and also first with regard to both leagues, advantaged by having played five games when all other MLB teams have played but two or three. The Mariners, they’ve begun atop the AL and are second re. both leagues, tied with the Nat’s. The NL East’s Nat’s haven’t lost any of their three games to date, nor have the Tigers lost their two games as of today. . . NBA---EXCEPT for the Eastern Conference’s 43-32 Toronto Raptors, the remaining five NBA division leading teams have accrued more than 50 games to date, the West’s Southwest San Antonio Spurs now leading with 59 wins, lowest of the five that of the East’s Southeast 52-22 Miami Heat. Of these five, then, is but a seven game difference, signaling close playoff games, all of them hard to predict a winner of. Not seen in any crystal balls today are there easy playoff rides, not even for the Spurs or the West’s Northwest 55-19 Oklahoma City Thunder, the West’s Pacific 54-22 L.A. Clippers or the East’s Central 53-23 Indiana Pacers. And, that which undergirds this notion is one word—“Consistency.” These teams have been high-end since the previous season and from when NBA-2013/14 began last October. Example, the Pacers and the Heat finished NBA-2012/13 among the East’s top three, and the Spurs, the Thunder and the Clippers finished within the West’s top four. And, a month after the current season began, the East’s Pacers and the Heat were leading their divisions by 12 and eight games respectively, and the West’s Spurs, Thunder and Clippers were atop their divisions, though by fewer games---three, two and one respectively. Come late January of 2014, these teams were still leading their divisions. Mid-March and early April, it’s been the same. But of particular note in all of this, is that the difference in won games among the five leading teams has been minor. Among each other, these teams have been fairly close in number of wins over losses. Even so, a recent Thunder versus Spurs contest may have indicated which of these playoff competing teams will prevail against the other, this: a Thunder pummeling of the Spurs, 106-94, which ended the Spurs 19-game winning streak and saw the Thunder’s Kevin Durant score 28 points, a 39th consecutive game during which Durant reached 25 or more points, a record for Durant and a Thunder record, as well. END/ml.

MLB: A Game That Speaks To All Of Us // NBA: Current Standings, "A Different View."

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 Game That Speaks To All Of Us // NBA: Current Standings, "A Different View". . . // MLB---OUT from locker rooms and dugouts and onto playing fields begins a competition for determining which among 30 MLB clubs is best after each has played 162 games. Then, from distillation, which can reach an October shootout, a tradition that’s existed since 1903, when Boston won the World Series having defeated Pittsburgh, 5-3. But it’s April, 2014, and we are reminded of how local and not yet national or global pro- baseball can be in the first weeks of a season. It’s our town’s team that we care about most in April, a tribal thing: me, my family and friends, my city and my town’s big league franchise, with all those baseball connections to that which can exist in our personal lives, for instance, in spite of a past season’s dashed hopes we keep coming back. As a new season kicks in, we are in front of the TV or at a game, filled with hope and expectations against the possibility of many disappointments and our having to accept defeat, just as so many of us wake every day hopeful and eager to meet personal challenges, knowing that success or failure is in the balance. Then there’s the inevitable strikeout. We know that the best hitters will strike out more than they will ever get on base, that they will be at bat several hundred times between April and late September and very few will accrue more than 30 home runs after a team’s 162 games. Who in his or her personal life never strikes out, unless they stay in bed 24/7? Baseball mirrors that. And, how about the fact that a walk, a balk or a soft bunt can win a game, be the final win for taking a series, maybe game four gaining the WS title? Yes, what may seem to be the weakest and most uninteresting contribution toward a win can be that which takes us to the summit, to the top of our personal or team Everest, and maybe it’s the weaker partner at work, or at home, who makes that happen. Then there’s the experience of having viewed a moment of perfection, our seeing a hitter send a baseball deep into the stands; or, we observe an amazing slider having caused a powerful and skillful batter to slink away sullenly from the plate after strike three, thus a third out and runners left in scoring position. Yet enacted before us was that which we often aspire to be, simply to do as good batters and pitchers have done, to be the best that we can be under any situation, to train and prepare for that. Note, too, how baseball requires individual expertise, personal skill, the very best that an individual athlete can create by himself, and that baseball also demands maximum cooperation with others, e.g., that shortstop’s pick of a hit ball and his flip of it to a second baseman, who tags a runner and throws to first for the double play, or there’s that long throw from right field to a pitcher who flips the ball to a catcher, who tags a runner for the third out. This individual prowess + cooperation with others within any group, and surely within any family, is surely a success component. Consider also the team that’s been winning 3-0, starter and relievers having combined for a no-hitter until during the last half of the ninth an opposing team loads the bases and the next batter delivers a home run, game over, the opposing team has won 4-3 from the Grand Slam. What’s baseball telling us here? First, that the game is unfair, reminding that the world beyond baseball is also unfair. Second, we can brace against the unfairness in any situation or relationship with proper insurance, for even when ahead we are best served by a margin most difficult for an opponent to overcome. Had the 3-0 team gone into the ninth inning at 5-0, it would have had some insurance for the win providing that following the Grand Slam-HR were strikeouts ending the game, final score 5-4. Okay, enough of the philosopher’s curse. Here are some stats to roll with as MLB-2014 unfurls---Most games won during 2013? That was by World Series winner the American League’s Boston Red Sox having tied with the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals, 97 won games each. Of the 30 MLB clubs, 17 won more games than they lost and so were above .500, leaving 13 teams below that mark and so 13 finishing MLB-2013 as losing ball clubs. And, as MLB-2012 ended, the following year’s WS winning club, the Red Sox, they were among the below .500, having won only 69 games. The NL’s Cardinals, they finished MLB-2012 with 88 wins, eighth in the rankings. Also during MLB-2012, the Washington Nationals had the most won games, 98, but during MLB-2013 they finished with 86, ranked seventh. . . It could be anyone’s game now, which is why April is NOT the cruelest month!. . . // NBA---IF it’s true that there’s nothing new under the sun, then what’s proposed here has been done before, dividing the 30 NBA teams into four categories, “Very Best,” “Best,” “At The Margin” and “Bottom Dwellers,” basing the positioning on won games for the season. For example, atop the league now re. won games are the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, the L.A. Clippers, the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat, each of the five having won 50 or more games, the Spurs leading with 58, and so these teams can be considered “Very Best.” The next tier, a.k.a., “Best,” includes the Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors and the Brooklyn Nets, all nine with 40 or more wins. Next comes the “At The Margin” crowd, which includes the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans, N.Y. Knicks, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Bobcats, Atlanta Hawks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, all eight with 30 or more won games. And, the “Bottom Dwellers?” That’s the Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, L.A. Lakers, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, the Milwaukee Bucks, all eight with less than 30 wins, lowest being the 76ers and their 16 wins, then the Bucks, 14. Sure, all that’s being said here is that there are different ways to view the NBA, different ways to dress the cat. Going deeper, we can argue that among the lower tier teams there is still much prowess, much skill. The Raptors, though having least number of wins within its category, they’ve been leading the East’s Atlantic Division for many weeks, and the Denver Nuggets, though mid-point within its category, they’ve had numerous season packets of superb performances, they are far from being a deadbeat team, to wit: seven and five game winning streaks, and having defeated most of the top NBA teams during the year at least once, among them, the Thunder, the Pacers, the Clippers, the Warriors, and the Rockets. END/ml

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