The Dugout - March 26

Getty Images/Courier Mail

Fair Dinkum, Mate. Chuck Another Shrimp on the Barbie.

The LA Dodgers opened the 2014 MLB season in Aussie with a pair of wins over the Arizona Diamondbacks. In front of back to back 38,000 strong crowds, the Dodgers rode a strong pitching performance by Clayton Kershaw (6.2 I, 5 H, 7 K, 1 ER), along with a two run Scott Van Slyke home run for a 3-1 win, and held off the plucky D’backs late rally for a 7-5 win the following day, Hyun-Jin Ryu with the win (Mark Trumbo homered for ARI).

The Dodgers have officially passed the Yankees for the highest opening day payroll in baseball ($235m), but at least they’re getting their money’s worth so far. It’s the first time in 15 years that the Yankees haven’t had that ‘honour’.

MLB Pre-Season Power Rankings:

  1. LA Dodgers
  2. Detroit Tigers
  3. St Louis Cardinals
  4. Washington Nationals
  5. Atlanta Braves
  6. Texas Rangers
  7. Boston Red Sox
  8. Oakland Athletics

I’m not seeing the Red Sox being quite the same team this year. Things gelled at the right time for them, and although they haven’t lost too much talent, there will likely be a World Series hangover for a while yet. Mike Napoli’s probably still drunk! Expect a much less successful (even desperate…) Rally Beard revival in September. Baltimore and Tampa Bay should have the goods to challenge Boston for the AL East, while the Central looks like a complete dirge of quality aside from the always challenging Detroit Tigers. The West is Best though, with Texas, Oakland and the LA Angels all with playoff-calibre rosters, although Texas may struggle for the first few months with an epidemic of injuries gutting their depth.

The St Louis Cardinals are gonna be dangerous again, much to the frustration of every non-Cards baseball fan in the world. Hopefully the Nationals are in and around come October, so we get to see some prime time Bryce Harper and Steve Strasburg. The LA Dodgers have to be the favourites in the National League given their resources, though don’t be surprised if the Pittsburgh Pirates with Andrew McCutchen or the Atlanta Braves and their Upton Bros dominated outfield give them a playoff run. There’s a long way to go yet (we haven’t even started!), and plenty of surprises in store no doubt.

A Bit of Glorious History For Yankees Fans

(History’s all they’ve got at the moment. History and Derek Jeter, anyway.)

This Is How Chris Bosh Celebrated His 30th Birthday

At a strip club in Miami, with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony playing, makin’ it rain dollar bills.

Now, before you start worrying if this decadence is affecting his on-field performance, the last three games before his party he averaged 9.7pts 7.3rebs shooting 1/13 from 3pt zone. Then after his big blowout, he came back fresh and smelling of Cuban (cigars) to score 15 and 8 with 4 steals (3/6 3pters). I hope you’re taking notes, every other NBA player.

Jermaine O’Neal Ya Troll!

Quote of the Week:

“I think the NFL is 10 years away from an implosion”

So says Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and popular outspoken tycoon. Here are his reasons why:

  1. Safety concerns causing diminishing playing pool of youngsters
  2. Off field behaviour of players to the league’s detriment
  3. Over saturation of coverage caused by NFL greed (such as proposed Saturday night games)
  4. The eventual decline of fantasy sports as tech based concepts have short shelf-lives
  5. Future changes in the model by which we consume television

Some food for thought there. I think the NFL is more than capable of keeping up with 4 & 5. And as Cuban says, the NBA has overcome 2 as a precedent. It’s 1 & 3 where he makes the most pertinent points. Once the President of the USA says he wouldn’t want his children playing on the grid-iron there’s a problem. As for the NFL’s greed? Well, as the Joker told the Thief, it’s not exactly a secret.

Good Week:

  • San Antonio Spurs – They haven’t lost since getting Good Week honours 7 days back. In fact, Tuesday’s win over hapless Philly stretched their streak to 14 games – a new team record in the Duncan/Pop era.
  • DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors) – In his past four games, he’s averaging 28.5pts 5.8rebs and 4ast, helping the Raptors to wins over Atlanta & New Orleans, plus a double overtime loss to OKC, that ended on a KD buzzer beater. We’re finally seeing some star potential from the 9th overall pick in 2009, and first time All Star in 2014.
  • David Ortiz (Boston Red Sox) – Big Papi signed a new contract extension, worth US$16m in 2015, that could keep him in Boston up until the end of 2017, by which time he’ll be 42, pretty much ensuring that he’ll finish his career as in Boston, as he well should. Nice work, people.

Bad Week:

  • Texas Rangers – It’s been mentioned already, but injuries, dude. Their 3 best starters (Darvish, Holland & Harrison) will all miss their first starts, while starting 2B Jurickson Profar (the highest rated prospect in baseball before his rookie season last year) and catcher Giovanni Soto are out for up to 3 months too.
  • Portland Trailblazers – The number one rebounding team in the NBA have lost three in a row (Charlotte, Miami & Orlando) as they stumble to the finish line. They should have enough to easily make the playoffs, though their seeding may cost them in the long run. Don’t wanna be playing the Thunder or Spurs in round one if you can help it…
  • Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves) – Watching the T-Wolves lose any long playoff shot they still had is torture for a guy like Love. He’s so good, and this roster looks pretty handy on paper too. He deserves (and will eventually get) better.

Player of the Week:

Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder) – Yeah, just you try and stop him. KD is marching towards the MVP, doing his cause no small harm in putting up Western Conference Player of the Week honours, and we’re apt to do the same. Averaging a huge 38.2 points per game (along with 8.8 rebs & 6.4 ast, shooting at 51.6% from the field) over his past 5 and his 36-game streak of at least 25 points is second only to Michael Jordan’s streak of 40 in the past 50 years of the NBA.

Upcoming Dates (NZ Time):

April 1 - MLB Opening Day

April 17 - NBA Regular Season Ends

May 9 - NFL Draft Begins

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Written by Nick Robinson On Tagged , , ,