Baseball experts tell us that there are nine games in a single season, really, truly come down to luck.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s a number nine hitter, connecting on a 97 MPH fastball and squeaking a two run single passed the diving arms of the shortstop or a relieving corps that just can\u2019t stop giving out walks like parents give out candy on Hallowe’en, there are elements of luck involved in the greatest game.\u00a0 Experts tell is, there are nine games like this, and if you are really, really lucky, you might come out on top of all those nine games.<\/p>\n
So, some of the ways that owners can effect the outcome are better use of their pens, defence and of course timely lineup adjustments including proper platoons.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s with this in mind that we preview our BDB 2015 Baseball Season and my predicted order of finish for each division, largely based on WAR (Wins Above Replacement)<\/p>\n
Robinson Division<\/strong><\/p>\n Solid Contenders:\u00a0 Bristol and Montreal<\/p>\n Longshot:\u00a0 Ottawa<\/p>\n Real Longshot:\u00a0 Beaconsfield<\/p>\n Every year, Bristol is pretty much always the favourite for the past 15 years, however have only managed to win once in that time period, so predictions here don\u2019t seem to be 100%.\u00a0 They got the arms and the bats, so they should be fine.\u00a0 Their pitching staff is tops in the league, so that gives them an edge, but they\u2019ve been there before with that label.\u00a0 Expect a lot of homeruns by this team so it will depend if they are with men on base or not.<\/p>\n Montreal is not to far behind who along with Beaconsfield have made a lot of pre-season adjustments to compete this season.\u00a0 They feature sold defence and of course have great pitching and hitting as well.<\/p>\n The interesting longshot is Ottawa.\u00a0 Guess who has one of the best pitching staffs in the league?\u00a0 Who would have thought?\u00a0 What\u2019s interesting is that they even went and traded the 4th<\/sup> overall pick for an aging tub of goo that realistically could have been picked up with a 6th<\/sup> rounder, imagine if they added Syndengaard to their staff?\u00a0 If the league bends towards pitching, Ottawa could make things exciting in the final months.<\/p>\n Beaconsfield, oh Beaconsfield, is there a team that works harder year by year to win the title?\u00a0 I think not.\u00a0 Even before the end of the last season, I believe the Pathfinders had twenty trades lined up.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe they have the firepower to compete, not the arms to shut down the opponents.\u00a0 They will be a tough fourth place team in the division though.<\/p>\n Jenkins Division<\/strong><\/p>\n Lock of the Year:\u00a0 North Bay.<\/p>\n Long Shot for Wildcard:\u00a0 Waterloo<\/p>\n Shooting for the Number One Draft Position:\u00a0 Langley and Hamilton<\/p>\n This is the easiest division to call.\u00a0 North Bay has been in rebuilt mode since 2011 when they decided that in order to build another dynasty, a complete overhaul was needed.\u00a0 It looks like now is the time has arrived.\u00a0 North Bay goes into the season with a legitimate chance at 100 wins and a contender for the title once again.\u00a0 Now, 100 wins may seem impressive, but they are playing in the easiest division in BDB, so they are handicapped BIG time.<\/p>\n Waterloo has a shot at a .500 season, but I don\u2019t think they have the thunder to do much damage. Perhaps they get hot and contend for a Wild Card spot, its possible if some deft trades are made.<\/p>\n Hamilton and Langley are the tale of two very different teams.\u00a0 Langley has been struggling for a long time, and sadly, when they had strong positional draft picks, they didn\u2019t benefit very well from them.\u00a0 They have had some gems, and not for lack of trying, their prospects just haven\u2019t dealt much damage.<\/p>\n Hamilton, who on the other hand, has been a shining star for several of the last years.\u00a0 We are not too sure if this is a total rebuild, or a half measured one.\u00a0 I guess all will depend on the rookies that have been picked up this past draft.\u00a0 Sambrook hasn\u2019t had the best of luck, but he is hoping Kris Bryant turns the team \\around, unlike last year\u2019s first round pick of Mike Foltynewicz.<\/p>\n Frobel Division<\/strong><\/p>\n Solid Neck and Neck Contenders:\u00a0 Sao Paulo, Yorkshire, Sacramento.<\/p>\n No Chance for Division or Last Place:\u00a0 Nassau.<\/p>\n Its going to be the OK Corral for these guys, with the last team standing walking into automatic contention, and the second place, and maybe third place team earning a trip to the dance at well.\u00a0 All teams are pretty strong, but not as strong as last year, but the parity remains; Sacramento with strong defense, Yorkshire with strong pitching and Sao Paulo with the offence.\u00a0 Sadly, the only way that Nassau makes it to the final dance is an epic collapse by three teams, and that is likely not going to happen.<\/p>\n So —<\/p>\n My best to all teams and may the best GM win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Baseball experts tell us that there are nine games in a single season, really, truly come down to luck.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s a number nine hitter, connecting on a 97 MPH… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/51"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.belteddeep.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}