The Royals are my favorite team in the AL. I never really cared about the American League until my little league team was the Royals. Our team was pretty good. Especially since I had one of the best batting averages I had ever had. I only struck out 4 times. My best friend on the team Logan and I were the best pitcher catcher combo in the league. Just like Cueto and Perez for the Royals. Perez is in the top 5 catchers list currently in the MLB. I would put him second behind Molina. Cueto is a great pitcher. in game 5 of the ALDS or the American League Divisional Series, he pitched a great game and that is one of the reasons the Royals made it to the World Series. 2015 was the second year in a row that the Royals made it to the World Series. In 2014 they lost to the San Francisco Gaints. The team was crushed and understandably upset. At the begining of the 2015 season if you watched any of their games you could see that they were even more determined to be in the World Series again.
The Houston Astros are one of my least favorite teams. The are kinda like the Rockies in the way that they win some games but not a lot. However they kicked butt this year. they had a record of 86 and 76. they even made the postseason. They had to play the New York Yankees in a winner take all game(Wildcard Game) then they had to play the Kansas City Royals. The Royals ended up winning the World Series but the Astros did give up a fight. The Royals won the series 3 games to 2. So it was very close. That was the closest they have been to a World Series. That being said they have never won a World Series. One of the coolest facts about the Astros is that they switched Leagues. In 2013 they moved from the National League to the America League. Since 2013 they have been members of they American League West division. The Astros have one main nickname that is mostly used by their fans. That name is the 'Stros. My favorite player on the Astros is Evan Gattis. He played for the Braves before he came to the Astros. He plays catcher and every now and then left field. He has a cool nickname The white Bear. His team mates call him that because the has so much power in his swing. One of the main reason the Astros were so good this year is because of their pitching. They had one of the best defenses in the MLB, with a decent offence to put runs on the board.
One of the teams in the same division as my Atlanta Braves are the Miami Marlins. They have never been the best team in the division, but this year they finished 3rd in the division with a record of 71 wins and 91 loses. That sound like a good record with 71 wins but in baseball a good record has at least 85 wins or more. This year the Cardinals had 100 wins. That was the most wins out of any MLB team last year. When I think of the Marlins, the first thing that comes to my mind is 2012. In 2012 the team changed it's name from the Florida Marlins to the Miami Marlins. One of the most known player that the Marlins have is Giancarlo Stanton. He is their right fielder. he had one of his best seasons in 2012 and has continued to preform at a high level since then. However he has had a lot of injuries in those seasons. On June 26th he was hit by a baseball on his left hand. the injury required surgery and he was out for the rest of the 2015 season. In the 2015 season he hit his 155th home run to hold the record for most home runs out of anyone who plays or played for the Marlins. Even though the Marlins are not the best team now, they have won two World Series. Both of their postseason appearances began with a wildcard game. I do believe that since the Marlin's manager is now Don Mattingly they have a very good chance to win another World Series in the near future.
The next team we will be talking about are the Detroit Tigers. They are members of the American League Central division. Other teams in that division are the Kansas City Royals, the Minnesota Twins, the Cleveland Indians, and the Chicago White Sox. This season was not the tigers best season ever. They ended up last in their division with a record of 74 wins and 87 loses. A main cause of this was that they lost one of their best pitchers, his name is Max Scherzer. He is now a pitcher for the Washington Nationals. This season Max was one of the best in the league. However the tigers replaced Max with a pitcher named Divid Price. He had always been one of Tampa Bays keys to success. His season started out strong but it quickly started to stall out. Finally the tigers last major pitcher, Justin Verlander, had a horrible season. If i remember correctly he got hurt during the season and was out for a little bit of time. If you add all up all of the pitching troubles for the tiger I am really surprised that they won 74 games. However the tigers have not always been a bad team. In fact they won the World Series 4 times in the past. Their most resent postseason was in 2014 (two seasons ago). Many of their fans hope that they will get to the postseason next year, since thy will have all of their pitcher ready to go and rested up. Another thing that they tigers need to do is get another contact hitter. They have a lot of power hitter like JD Martinez. I believe that even if they don't do anything but rest up their pitching staff I know that they will win more than 74 games.The Colorado Rockies are one of the least know baseball teams. That is because they are not very good. Also they share a city with the Denver Broncos who have been in the NFL Playoffs for the past few years. The Rockies are a member of the National League West. Other teams in the same league are the Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks, and the Padres. This year the Rockies finished the season with a record of 68 wins and 94 losses. That is a win percentage of .420. The Dodgers won the division with a win percentage of .568. You can see what I mean when I say that the Rockies aren't that good. There are two good things that happened to the Rockies. The first one is that in 2007 they won 21 out of their last 22 games and ended up going to the World Series. However they lost to the Boston Red Sox. The second thing is that is good for the Rockies is that the play in Denver. Because of Denver's altitude the air is much thinner. This means that when a player hits a baseball that might bounce of the fence in any other ballpark it would easily be a home run in Denver. The name of the stadium is Coors Field. They used to play at a stadium called Mile High Stadium until 1995. That is when they started playing at Coors Field. The Rockies have never won a World Series. They have never even won a division title either. They can only hope that the future is going to be better than the past.
The Cleveland Indians are currently a member of the American League Central. However from 1969-1993 they were members of the American League East. Between the two divisions the Indians how won 7 Division Titles all of which were won when they were in the Central Division. The Indians have won two World Series. The years were 1920 and 1948. I am a Braves fan so I know that in 1995 the Brave played the Indians in the World Series. The Braves ended up winning which is good for me, but not the Indians. The Indians are an average team in the MLB. They finished this year at .500 which is not bad, but other teams like the St. Louis Cardinals finished the regular season with a recored of 100-62 which is equal to .617. I have watched a movie that is about the Cleveland Indians. It was not real but the movie had the owner of the team put a lot of bad players on the team to try and make them lose. However the team of "bad" players ended up winning the World Series. The Indians play their home games at Progressive Field. It is also know as Jacobs Field. They have been playing here since 1994. They have played at 2 other ballparks since the team was created in 1901. The team has two nicknames, they are the Tribe and the Wahoos. When the team was first created in 1901 they were called the Cleveland Bluebirds. However that name didn't last long because in 1902 they changed their name to the Cleveland Broncos. They changed their name again in 1903 the the Cleveland Naps. Three different names in three years. They were the Naps until 1915 when they changed their name for the last time to the Cleveland Indians.
The Cincinnati Reds are one of the most well known baseball teams. The have great players like Joey Votto and Todd Frazier. One of their pitchers also set the record for the fastest pitch in the MLB. His name is Aroldis Chapman. He through the ball 106 miles an hour. The Reds are also know by many people because they hosted the 2015 All Star game and the Home Run Derby. In fact Todd Frazier won the Home Run Derby in front of all of the Reds fans .
The Reds have won five World Series. They also won two back to back in 1975 and 1976. They won their other three in 1919, 1940, and 1990. If you have read my blog on the Chicago White Sox you will know that the year 1919 is very important to any baseball fan. The reason is that the Reds faced the White Sox in that World Series. This was the year that the White Sox got the nickname of the black sox. They White Sox were accused of trying to lose the World Series on purpose. The Reds have won nine National League Pennants and ten Division Titles. The Reds have been in two divisions. From 1969-1993 they were part of the National League West and from 1994- the present they have been part of the National League Central. 7 of their 10 division titles came from when they were in the NL West and the other 3 are from the NL Central. The Reds play their home games at Great American Ballpark since 2003. They have played at six other ballparks too. Their team colors are Red, White, and black. They are mostly red so when they were really good in the 1970's they got the nickname big red machine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngubly4hpHw (link to youtube to watch pitch) The Chicago White Sox were created in 1900. They have kept the same name from 1901-present. The White Sox have won three World Series. The years are 1906, 1917, and 2005. they have made it to the World Series six times. In 1919 they got the nickname the black sox because some of their players bet that they would lose and they lost the game on purpose. The player involve got banned from the game for life. In 1918 the white sox were really bad. They were bad because they lost most of their good players to World War I. The White Sox are now in the American League Central but they weren't always. From 1969-1993 the White Sox were in the American League West. The White Sox don't have the coolest uniforms in Major League Baseball. Their team colors are black, white, and silver. They do have a throwback jersey that does have some red on it.
Those of you who read my other blog post you know that my family went to Boston this summer. I said that we saw a Red Sox game. The day I went the Red Sox were playing the White Sox. It was a good game. The White Sox scored 4 runs in the first inning. However the Red Sox came back and made it a close game. When the White Sox play home game they play at U.S. Cellular Field. Since 1901 they have played at four different stadiums. Some of the retired numbers for the White Sox are 2, 3, 4, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, 35, and 72. The Chicago Cubs are one of the oldest teams in Major League Baseball. Their fist year was in 1871 when they were called the Chicago White Stockings. They had three different names from 1871-1903. They were Stockings, Colts, and the Orphans. In 1903 they changed their name to the Cubs. They still have that name today. The Cubs do have some nicknames like the Cubbies and lovable losers. They are called the lovable losers because they are one of the world's favorite teams but they are not very good. However this year they surprised everyone by making it to the postseason and actually winning a game. The last time they won the World Series was in 1908. That was 107 years ago. Some of the player that have helped the team win this season are Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and their manager Joe Madden. The first to players are pitchers. Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta are two of the best pitchers in the MLB at this moment. Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant are both infielders. The retired number for the cubs are 10, 14, 23, 26, 31, 31. I am not sure why they retired 31 twice but I did find out that the two number belonged to two different people. Most people think that the Cubs have played at Wrigley Field since 1871, However they have not. They played in six different parks between 1871-1914. When they first started playing at Wrigley Field they did not have lights. Another interesting factor of Wrigley is that the outfield wall is covered in ivy.
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AuthorI play baseball a lot and love to learn and talk about baseball especially catching since that is my position. The Atlanta Braves are my favorite team. Archives
March 2016
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