Month: July 2016

About a week ago the 2016 draft came to an end with all teams signing most of their picks. The San Francisco Giants lost their first round draft pick to the Chicago White Sox in the trade for Jeff Samarjzia. So when they walked away from draft night 1 withBryan Reynolds they must have felt pretty good about themselves. Reynolds hit .330 with 32 extra base hits and 57 RBI’s in only 62 games with Vanderbilt University. Many people rated Reynolds as a first round pick and when he didn’t go in the first round many people were shocked. The Giants have said publicly that they are surprised that Reynolds didn’t go in the first round and are very pleased with acquisition of Reynolds. He has power from both sides of the plate and is a premium defender. He has shown

patience at the plate and led his team in multiple offensive categories as a FRESHMAN!!! So the Giants are very pleased with this draft pick.

Aroldis Chapman has been traded to the Chicago Cubs! The Cubs, who have been front runners for Chapman for a while finally land the flame throwing lefty. They got Chapman in a deal for 4 minor league prospects. This trade was always likely as the Cubs are looking to make a playoff push this year. Chapman is essentially a rental as he is a free agent at the start of next season. There is a slight risk in trading Minor league prospects for a rental because minor leaguers can help your franchise long term whereas a rental can only help you for a few months. Chapman was a great trade piece because he can hit 106 mph on the radar gun. The Cubs now have a complete roster of young great players and they look like they can be long term competitor for the National League Pennant. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers are second in the NL West behind only the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers called up Yasiel Puig in 2013 and he hit .319 with 19 homers on the season. In 2014 he hit .296 and that was with a massive slump in the second half of the season. Then came 2015 were he only hit .255 and struggled all year round, and this year hasn’t been any different and has been emotionally rattled throughout the season. Most people think that all Puig needs in a change of scenery. I personally think that Puig needs to be sent down to the minors to learn how to play properly again.

Pep Guardiola is already making changes at Man City and Joe Hart is in danger of being another one. After his nightmare Euro 2016 there has been a lot of conversation if Joe Hart will be City’s starting Keeper next year, And by the look of things that now looks unlikely. Guardiola is intent on making City champions again and if Joe Hart won’t let him do that than he is not afraid to drop him. He is interested in other keepers and this will continue until he finds the perfect fit. Hart who is also facing some competition for England number one can’t be feeling to good about himself right now.

The San Francisco Giants opened up the second half of their season with a 4-1 loss to the San Diego Padres. Bumgarner who got the ball for the Giants threw the ball well but gave up 4 runs in 6 innings of work. Andrew Cashner who has struggled this year pitching 7 innings of one run ball. The Giants had their chances to get back into the game despite the 3 run deficit. Brandon Belt and Bruce Bochy (both from the Giants) were both ejected from the game in the 9th. Tomorrow Jeff Samardzia will take the ball for San Francisco while Luis Perdomo gets the ball from the Padres. The Giants have a 5.5 game lead over the Dodgers and will be looking to extend that lead tonight. 

This year Major League baseball has seen some of the greatest players have great years and also down years. At this point in the season all teams will be looking to boost their rosters for a possible postseason push. The team that don’t look like they will change anything are the San Francisco Giants and why not, because they have the best winning ratio in the MLB right now. The Dodgers are looking like they will make some slight changes and teams like the Cubs and Nationals are looking to boost their potent offence to an even greater extent. Anyway here are the key players that will be looking to start fresh in the second half of the season. The New York Yankees are a big seller this year as they boast to of the games best relievers in Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller. Teams that are possible playoff contenders such as the Cubs and the Giants though they don’t look to interested. Miller is easily the best reliever in the terms of bridging a gap between the 6-8 innings. Chapman is the worlds hardest throwing pitcher and because of this is an excellent closer. He is 3-0 this year with a 2.49 ERA. The teams that seem to be the most interested in Miller are the Washington Nationals and the Chicago Cubs. The team that has a great interest in Chapman are the Cleveland Indians. The Indians are having the best season for a while and the last piece that they need is a dominant closer which is what Chapman is. The only other interesting trade prospect is Jay Bruce. Bruce, who is having his best offensive season will be looking for deals with the Dodgers and Nationals. Though the Dodgers seem to be the obvious choice for a guy like Bruce, the Nats are in need for someone who can deliver in both Offence and Defence. So we will see were these players end up and it will be interesting to see if they thrive in a new environment 

The San Francisco Giants are the winningest team in baseball with 57 wins and only 33 losses and are top of their division with a 6.5 game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Which seemed almost impossible back at the start of May when they were 17 and 18. Since then they have gone 40 and 15 easily the best record in baseball. So how did they do it?  Partly because their starting pitching has been first class. Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto their first two starters combine for 23 wins and only 5 losses. Jeff Samardzija has a solid record of 8 wins and 5 losses. Jake Peavy started out the season horribly but locked and and has an ERA less than 2.00 in his last seven starts. With Matt Cain on the DL, Bruce Bochy resorted to his long reliever Suarez for some quality starts and that’s exactly what he got. He finished his starts with 3 wins and 0 losses, A great record. The Giants have been without Joe Panick, Hunter Pence and Matt Duffy for ages but somehow they keep winning. Every single Giants player is coming up big when need be. Grant Green, Jarret Parker, Rubén Tejada, and Conor Gillespie are all in their first proper season with the Giants and they have all come up big at some point. 

As you know Portugal played the host nation France in the final of Euro 2016. Cristiano Ronaldo largely regarded as the best player in the world was the single reason that Portugal were in the final in the first place. France bossed most of the game but chances came few and far between for both sides. So when regulation time ended the game looked destined for penalties so when Portugal took an unlikely lead France panicked. They quickly launched everything they had at Portugal but to no avail. Finally the final whistle went and the celebrations began. Obviously France were heartbroken as it was their tournament to win. It was a miracle that Portugal won because Ronaldo left the game early because of injury. That was Portugal’s first win against France in 11 attempts since the 1970’s. I am very happy for Portugal and feel really bad for France. So I hope that the French team do well in the 2018 World Cup.