I'm Back Baby!!!

This is a letter to the 18 or so people who actually read my blog:

Dear Readers:

I cannot apologize enough. I have been both extremely busy and extremely lazy to give you the fantastic baseball knowledge from my convoluted little brain that you so eagerly crave and desire. I’ve watched several exciting and interesting things, but have resulted to the simplicity of the tweet instead of the extravagant and well worded blog-post.

Do you all desire more?

Probably not.

Do I give it to you anyways?

Not lately.

Will you want it in the future?

Probably not.

Will I still do it anyways?

Probably.

For those of you who do or don’t know a lot about Roanoke, Virginia, there’s not a whole heck of a lot going on here. In fact, that’s exactly how this blog started. About a year ago I was sitting on my couch watching baseball and I realized I should just start writing about it. One year later, The Knurve has built an empire of dedicated followers (mostly family friends and relatives) and is a lot of fun for me.

So without further due, I will actually begin talking about baseball and hopefully will be blogging semi-regularly, so follow me on twitter @TheKnurve to be in touch with new posts and special promotions (I’ll call you to say hello).

In looking at the season thus far there are several baseball and fantasy baseball storylines that are pretty astounding in order of significance to me:
1. The Cleveland Indians: Frankly, I’m sick of hearing about every reputable baseball analyst and blog talk about these guys. They have to because it’s a great story, but this is not a good baseball team. This is an extremely lucky baseball team. They only seem to give up solo home runs, they have played a terrible schedule, and they have too many guys that are over-performing. That being said, they are playing in the weakest division in baseball BY FAR (See: Number 3), so winning this division could be possible because of this start.

2. The Minnesota Twins: When I made my preseason predictions, I knew the Twins would be a little weaker, but I didn’t expect to see this. Mauer didn’t look like Mauer from the get-go, and to be honest, I think he is extremely overrated as a fantasy player. I wasn’t going to touch him preseason and I advised the dedicated followers not to touch him. I think the Twins may have gotten ahead of themselves when they traded away solid catching prospect Wilson Ramos to the Nationals for Matt Capps. Sure, Capps has been valuable to the Twins thus far, but their offense is absolutely atrocious with no signs of getting better. Delmon Young has been awful, Span is pretty bad, and Morneau may never get back to 50% of the MVP numbers he used to put up before his concussion. Ramos has been hitting a little bit for the Nats and any offense is good offense for the Twins.

I bring up Ramos because it’s looking more and more like Mauer’s body is already breaking down as a catcher. Bilateral Leg Weakness is not something you want a guy who has to squat for a living to have. I’m really worried that Mauer will be nothing more than a DH for the rest of his career, making the Capps for Ramos deal a steal for the Nationals.

3. The AL Central as a whole: I think the demise of the Twins is slightly more shocking, but how bad is this division? None of these teams scare me compared to any of the teams in the AL East. I’d literally take the O’s over the Indians at this point of the season. I was really high on the White Sox coming into the season, and to see them perform like this has been nauseating. The Royals have a lot to look forward to, but they are still one year away. The Tigers don’t do anything sexy, and you know what I think about the Twins. The White Sox have the most talent in this division by far, but literally everybody on this team is underperforming. At this point, I think this division is wide open, but at this point I can’t see any team in this division making any noise in October.

4. Jose Bautista: I thought last year was a fluke. I didn’t think he’d be able to do this again. But after watching a few of his at bats from his 3HR game on Sunday, I’m a believer. He has such a good batters eye, and knows how to take walks as evidenced by his .500+ OBP. He’s one of those guys that every time he steps to the plate, he earns the fastball he crushes. Great power hitters force the pitchers they face to throw them strikes, and Bautista knows how to work himself into counts by being patient when he’s thrown breaking pitches. He’s only on pace to strike out 75 times. I think we’re watching a special transformation and I would throw the town at the guy who’s got him to nab him for the rest of the season.

5. Curtis Granderson: I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Granderson immediately after Bautista. It’s amazing that baseball is a game of inches, and it’s amazing what happens when you make a few small adjustments and what it can do. Move your hands a few inches back and close your stance a few inches and you’ve got Curtis Granderson. He’s one of the only guys hitting on this Yankee offense and if it weren’t for him, they’d be in trouble. This guy is quickly turning into one of the most dynamic hitters in the AL. He’s also 4-5 in steal attempts and I think he’s going to run a little more here soon, especially if Jeter continues to perform as poorly as he is. You can’t hate on any lefty in Yankee Stadium, and I think as the summer comes that offense will be fine (even though the pitching is a whole other story). I’m a believer in Granderson. He won’t hit more than .275, but I think this power stroke is real.

6. Young AL Arms: I was originally going to write this little blurb about Pineda, but I realized it would be unfair if I didn’t mention Britton, Tomlin, Masterson, Humber and McCarthy. Many of the best starters in the league reside in the NL, but these guys are carrying big loads for their teams and it’s been impressive. They all have ERA’s under 4 and have given big lifts to their squads, specifically Pineda, Masterson and Tomlin. I think Tomlin and Masterson’s luck will run out a little bit, but I can see all these guys maintaining these performances the rest of the way.

7. The Unhealthy ManCrush I’m developing on Mike Stanton: Look, I’m 2 months older than the guy, but boy do I love him. He never looks like he swings hard, and he just crushes the ball. I am reluctant to trade him because I feel like whenever he hits a home run I get two for my fantasy team. I couldn’t write a blog post without telling the blogosphere how much I truly love Mike Stanton.

That’s it for today. Check Twitter @TheKnurve to be in touch with when I write, but I’ll be upping my game here soon. Much love.