Steven Urena
By Steven Urena
Wild Card Wildness
The battle for the last playoff spot is going to feature teams that rely on different strengths. The Yankees will send Gerrit Cole to the mound. Most likely the AL Cy Young winner and arguably one of the nastiest pitchers on the planet.
The Blue Jays have a rejuvenated Robbie Ray, Vladdy Guerrero Jr and a hot team. The Red Sox have a few options on the mound such as Nathan Eovaldi and a fresh Chris Sale. The Sox took control of the first wild card spot. Let’s see if the carousel continues the last 12 games of the season.
The NL wild card will be the battle of the aces. The Dodgers will most likely send Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer. The Cardinals will go with the immortal Adam Wainwright. The Giants will most likely go with Kevin Gausman. It will be three veterans who took a dip in the fountain of youth. The question will be…who will slip? Which offense will come alive for a big inning? Which pitcher will keep their cool and do what they’ve done all season. The team that does that will advance to the NLCS.
Dodgers
The lineup is something Dave Roberts has been juggling with for quite some time. I personally like Trea Turner leading off. He can flat out fly, gets on base and is a tough out. Mookie still looks a little tender from his hip so I like him hitting third better. But loyal reader BMTEducator made a solid point. Mookie likes to hit leadoff and he’s Mookie Betts. He’s going to get what he wants.
I like Seager hitting second, Max Muncy hitting clean-up, Justin Turner hitting fifth and Will Smith hitting sixth. This keeps our two rabbits up top, mixes up righty’s and lefty’s and gives Robert’s flexibility with the guys that platoon. What are your thoughts?
Roberto Clemente
Should #21 be retired in the MLB? Yes. Absolutely. If you ask my opinion, the numbers 42, 21 and 3 should never be worn in the MLB again. Those three men changed baseball forever. Changed it for the best. Their heroics, humanitarianism, talent, and personalities helped make baseball what it is today.
First Pitch
Another piece of evidence that validates how hard baseball can be is the first pitch. Conor McGregor threw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field the other day. Let’s just say he couldn’t hit water if he fell off a boat. We see world class athletes messing this up all the time.
I dare say if a baseball player had to make a free throw, catch a pass from Tom Brady or make a goal in hockey, they would not look as ridiculous. Baseball is just one of those games where an athlete must start young. Baseball players cannot get a late start and if they do, it’s hard to catch up.
A Upon A Time In Queens
Absolutely crazy and wild documentary about the 1986 New York Mets. Spoiler…guys brought girls in the clubhouse during games, party’s, drinking, drugs, funny stories and Lenny Dykstra. It’s four hours of great baseball stories. Do what I did and watch one a night for four straight nights. You will not be disappointed.
Seldom Seen and Never Seen
I’m trying to watch as much as I can of Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Shohei Ohtani. We are going to look back at this season and realize what a treat it is to have a potential triple crown winner and a hitter/pitcher. Both guys are must watch TV. I really hope the Blue Jays advance to the ALDS so the world can see what a great hitter Vladdy has become. Too bad Ohtani plays for the hapless Angels. We may never see him in October baseball.
St. Louis Cardinals
A good franchise is a good franchise. The Cardinals are one of the top five organizations in baseball. Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Cardinals and Giants. That’s baseball right there.
The Cards are either a great team or a team that claws its way out of the gutter and into the playoffs. Guys come and go but the organization continues to be committed to success and professionalism.
Sad Diego Padres
“For a can’t miss team, they still have a lot of question marks. You can see the Pads running with it – Slam Diego, power arms, swag, excitement. You can also see them crumbling.”
“Is a 34 year old (35 in August) and injury prone Yu Darvish going to hold up over a 162 game season plus an extra month of playoffs? Do Padres fans really think Blake Snell will pitch every game like he did against the Dodgers in the World Series? One can’t deny, these are great moves but not an automatic trip to the World Series.”—Steve Urena, via The Urena Express in March columns.
Well, there goes that. The Padres are not yet mathematically out of the playoff race but if you have a fork, you might as well stick it in them! Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr’s shouting match the other day pretty much put the stamp on a disappointing season. I’m sorry but Machado has nothing to stand on. He’s been lazy, dirty and flat out a bad teammate throughout his career. He’s completely right but he’s not the guy to call anyone out. Tatis needed to suck it up and act like he wants to be the face of baseball one day. All around, it’s a bad look for the Padres.
The Padres had Dodger fans and the rest of the MLB shaking in their cleats when the season started. Now its a different story. To be quite honest, the future in San Diego does not look bright. They were built to win now and the front office traded away several top prospects. The guys getting paid big are not enough to carry the team to the ‘ship. Time to rebuild, again.
Contact Steve Urena at:
Email: theurenaexpress@gmail.com
Twitter/IG: @theurenaexpress
