Rangers acquire Bengie Molina

This deal is perfect and now I think the Rangers will make the playoffs.  Molina will fit right in with this type of offense for the rest of this year and should hit a lot of homers.  His average should be even worse than now.  Matt Treanor would have been nothing for the rest of the year and Molina will be awesome.  The Rangers don’t need anything besides his bat.  They have everything they need with him.  The Rangers only gave up Chris Ray, who won’t be anything special but lead their bullpen a bit.  Ray will have his bad outings.  I think that without Molina that the Giants just won’t contend, but not just because he’s gone.  Molina will be a big help for any team the next few years and the Rangers will get just what they need from him and not much more.  I say he will hit around 10 homers in Texas.  I also think he should stay, it’s his best fit.

Zumaya: Big loss?

I don’t think this makes the bullpen terribly worse but Ryan Perry should mature soon and start doing good.  Not having Zumaya will hurt late in the year.  They will need a bigger force in the back of the bullpen or else they might run into trouble.  Casey Fien will be an okay temporary replacement but him and Fu Te Ni late in the year will come back to bite in some games.  Not having Zumaya should make everything in the bullpen a bit worse but this team can overcome not having him.  Zumaya should be a big help next year though and pick up right where he left off.  He would be a lot better if he could just stay healthy all year and he when he does come back everything should be great.  His speed and everything will be fine.  It won’t affect anything for the Tigers or Zumaya.  If the Tigers make a trade their bullpen would be just as good as it would with Zumaya.

Strasburg: Slumps

I don’t think Stephen Strasburg will have many slumps.  He’s been dominating every time out and that won’t change, his stuff and everything will continue to be the best and he should only have a max of three bad starts this year.  He won’t give up runs and he shouldn’t walk many.  He just has all the right ingredients.  He will be baseball’s best stopper and beyond.  He should strikeout many too.  He will give up large numbers of homers his first year but it won’t affect his game, that’s the only way the will get runs off of him.  But he fools hitters and I just can’t see him falling into a slump anytime soon.  He won’t have wins but he will have tons of quality starts.  When him and Drew Storen start combining they other team shouldn’t score.  Strasburg will give runs up in clumps if he even does but there’s nothing to worry about.

The White Sox will fizzle off

They should have a winning record but they won’t keep being really good.  Now that their winning streak is over they should just be average agin.  They won’t get any pitching help down the stretch besides Mark Buehrle and Jake Peavy and Danks once every few starts and Pierre ans Rios shouldn’t only get worse, with their only consistent hitter being Paul Konerko.  They just don’t have the right tools.  Their bullpen should be the one thing that does hold up.  Gordon Beckham should be in the minors right now because with him tons of rallies and they will have trouble scoring runs.  Their overall pitching, hitting and tools should be average.  Even if they did make the playoffs they would be out quick.  They will make improvements this year but shouldn’t do much more that is very surprising.  They will ride winning and losing streaks.

Two trades that would make sense for the Tigers

Stephen Drew: He’s a special player and will do very good things.  His defense will be really good.  He won’t be good all the time but he could make a bit of the difference down the stretch.  His biggest problem is he will struggle to get hits at times but I think that will go away as he gets older.  He would be just the shortstop the Tigers need for a few seasons and his hitting will take him far.  The Tigers would probably have to give up Danny Worth and Ryan Strieby for him.  It would be very worth it, Drew will be a great shortstop.
Ryan Theriot: His speed will take the Tigers far.  His hitting will be on and off.  He would be okay down the stretch but he wouldn’t do them to much good after that.  He just won’t be that good outside of stealing and hitting okay but is worth it.  His fielding won’t be that great.  He won’t be really good but will do and his hitting should be a bit better.  They would have to give up a mid-lower range prospect.

Upcoming Debut: Andrew Oliver DET SP

He won’t have the best start but he should be a solid force in the middle of the rotation and probably more with his powerful stuff.  He’s going to be good for right now because he will have a bit of luck in the beginning and should start to use his good pitching from there and his lefty arm will be big.  This call-up is big for the Tigers and will help them tons for a month or so.  His stats should be very good too.  He should do almost everything to hitters but not without a few jams and having a really bad game.  He doesn’t have that many issues and he will be good quicker because of that.   His ERA won’t be that bad at the end of the year.  He will be a decent pitcher and get really good from there.  He will be  pretty good at everything.  He looks to have a promising career with struggles only once and  a while.

Marlins fire Fredi Gonzalez

This move isn’t smart.  The Marlins are underperforming but it isn’t Gonzalez’s fault.  He’s a great manager and I respect everything he does, the Marlins will pay and now they have an unexperienced manager, they shouldn’t make it really far.  The offense just needs start-up more and the Marlins will roll but without Gonzalez and his great managing it will be very hard.  The Marlins have talent but if it isn’t used properly they will only be a .500 team and that’s what they will be.  Gonzalez should do very well wherever he manages next and if it’s the Braves he will take them far.  Gonzalez will put a few more Manager of the Year trophies on his trophy case by the time he’s done and he will have a really good managerial record.  This was a big mistake by the Marlins.  Their new manager will have tons of struggles.

All-Stars

AL:
STARTERS
C: Victor Martinez
1B: Miguel Cabrera
2B:Robinson Cano
3B: Evan Longoria
SS: Derek Jeter
LF: Carl Crawford
CF: Josh Hamilton
RF Magglio Ordonez
DH: Vladimir Guerrero

P: David Price
P: Jared Weaver
P: Phil Huhges
P: Jon Lester
P: Colby Lewis
P: Justin Verlander
P: Clay Bucholz
P: Francisco Liriano
P: Cliff Lee
P: Jose Valverde
P: Rafael Soriano
P: Neftali Feliz
P: Mariano Rivera
BENCH
C; Joe Mauer
1B: Justin Morneau
1B: Paul Konerko
1B: Kevin Youkilis
2B: Dustin Pedroia
3B: Adrian Beltre
3B: Michael Young
SS: Alex Gonzalez
OF: Alex Rios
OF: Vernon Wells
OF: Torii Hunter

NL:
STARTERS
C:Brian McCann
1B: Albert Pujols
2B: Martin Prado
3B: Scott Rolen
SS: Hanley Ramirez
LF: Ryan Braun
CF: Andrew McCutchen
RF: Chris Young

P: Ubaldo Jimenez
P: Josh Johnson
P: Roy Halladay
P: Matt Cain
P: Tim Lincecum
P: Adam Wainwright
P: Chris Carpenter
P: Jamie Garcia
P: Yovani Gallardo
P: Billy Wagner
P: Jonathon Broxton
P: Francisco Rodriguez
P: Brian Wilson
BENCH
C: Rod Barajas
1B: Joey Votto
1B: Adrian Gonzalez
1B: Ryan Howard
1B: Troy Glaus- DH
2B: Brandon Phillips
3B: David Wright
SS: Troy Tulowitzki-Injured   Replacment- SS Jose Reyes
OF: Corey Hart
OF: Carlos Gonzalez
OF: Matt Kemp
OF: Aubrey Huff

Mike Leake: How far will he go?

I think he will be a really good pitcher but he will have tons of struggles this year and it will cost him a bit.  He won’t have another really good stretch but his talent will get him quite a few more wins.  He will have a great rookie season and build off of it.  His career should explode soon but for now he will be a solid pitcher who will get the job done.  He will have some amazing start but his struggle s will hold him back.  At the end of the year he should start to be worse but he will give the Reds a chance.  He will get outs and he will never have really bad patches.  The rest of this year should b decent and with his control and stuff he will make it a lot better.  He’s going to be an ace at times.   Leake’s raw talent will take him far this year, he will be like this years Rick Porcello.

Projected Line (average)- 6 IP 3-4 ER 5-9 H 6-8 K 2-4 BB  Season: 13-9 W-L 138 K 3.86 ERA

A look at Delmon Young

Young is in his prime now and will always be good, he will make to many outs and I think his average will suffer but when he’s good he will have power, a smudge of speed and will hit good enough to get the Twins through.  I don’t think he will ever be as good as he was supposed to be but he will be a big part of the Twins the next few years.  He should do nothing but hit for a while and not have speed or anything and he will just be decent.  Then sometime next year he will start to do well.  He won’t ever be a superstar but I think he will do the Twins a lot of good.  He might fall off a bit and he’s not going to be fully developed for a while but Young should hit anything right now and that;s how he will be when he’s doing really good.