AL Central Case Study Questions

Competitive imbalance is caused mostly by high-revenue teams in large markets having the ability to outbid low-revenue small-market teams in free agency when acquiring talented players at high asking prices and putting the best team on the field that poorer teams could never afford. The largest problem MLB is faced with is transparency between owners and players. Presently, there is a comprehensive distrust between the two. In order for improvement, there needs to be a balanced partnership with communication and the

I believe that you Chicago Cubs are doing very well. I hope after your loss in the National League Playoffs, you guys rebound, and make it to the World Series next year.

The Cubs have just that, with the help of their elite starting pitching rotation that makes up of Jake “The Snake” Arietta, Kyle Hendrix, John Lackey, and Jon Lester they seem like a force to be reckon with. Three out of the five starting pitchers for the cubs were nominated to win the C.Y young award last year for best pitcher of the year. Only five starting pitchers out of the whole league get selected and three of them came from the Cubs. Even with this compelling arsenal of weapons on their team there is always room for one more gun, and that gun is no one other than the “Cuban Missile” Aroldis Chapman. Chapman good be called “the greatest relief pitcher” too ever play and he has the resume too prove it. He holds the record for the fastest thrown fastball ever in the MLB clocking in at 105.1 mph. To have a pitcher come in for you during the bottom of the 8th or 9th inning a very crucial point in the game of baseball, and for him too throw that fast and hard is incredible. Not only can he pack a punch with his throw but he also throws lefty. Having a closing pitcher too be lefty and throw the fastest fastball in the MLB is ultimately unheard

Training camp has begun and fans are gearing up for another exciting season. They are hoping for a repeat of last year’s performance. People are already speculating that the Toronto Blue Jays are contenders to win the World Series even with the changes that have been made in the club. Is it too early to think about the playoffs and the World Series? Will the team be able to overcome the changes that have been made? I guess only time will tell as the season progresses, but it should be interesting to watch the team develop with the new management and

The Houston Astros have been making deals to improve their team, and avoid another collapse like the one they had last season. Their bullpen could not finish the year strong after being one of the best in baseball throughout the season. The bullpen, also, collapsed in game four of the ALCS against the eventual champions. The Royals could not hit Lance McCullers, but once he was removed with one out in the seventh inning, Kansas City 's offense got it going.

The major league World Series has come. The games that KC Royals, Lopez’s team, have won are 3 games. The opponent team, San Francisco, have won one. One more win and the Royals are the champs… again.

The Rockies bullpen is energized as in their last 3 games they needed to use 6 pitchers with 80 pitches and 17 outs. Their batting average on balls in play is a very impressive of .394 and their on base percentage is also very impressive with a .393 season to date

They have a good rotation with a lot of polarity—Madison Bumgarner is one of the best pitchers in the world, and Johnny Cueto is not far behind. However, Jeff Samardzija is not nearly as good as he used to be, Matt Moore isn't good, and Matt Cain has been injured and horrendous as of late. Their bullpen was absolutely horrific last season, blowing 32 saves in the regular season and playoffs. Behind Melancon they are supremely deficient; Hunter Strickland and Derek Law are awful. Their lineup is solid, led by Brandon Belt, Buster Posey, Hunter Pence, and Brandon Crawford. Pence has been got progressively worse over the past few years and is well past his prime, on top of the fact that he carries an albatross injury concern, and the same is true for Denard Span. Their weakest point is the outfield; injuries to Span and Pence could be a killer. The Giants have the potential to make the playoffs, and they could catch the Dodgers if everything goes right, but they are the likeliest of the five teams I predict to make the playoffs to come up short.

If the Dodgers want to make a run in the postseason, their relief pitching needs to be playing at the level that they are playing right now. As of today, the Dodgers relief pitching is tied for second in ERA with a 3.41 in the National League. The more incredible thing about this statistic is that the Dodgers’ relief pitchers have played the most innings in the NL with 482.1, that’s almost 100 more innings than the Washington Nationals, who lead the NL with the lowest ERA. So, even though the Dodgers are tied in second for lowest ERA among relief pitchers, they have played a lot more innings than any other

The Chicago Cubs is a team that has not won a lot of pennants (pennant is just another name for World Series), however the 1908 Cubs and the 2016 Cubs managed to do it. The 2016 Cubs team was the most recent team in the MLB to win the World Series, but the last time the Cubs had won a World Series was way back in time in the year 1908. Although it has been nearly 110 years since the Cubs won their last World Series, the two teams aren’t so different; however, I believe the 1908 Cubs team is a better team than the 2016 team.

In particular, Ender Inciarte, Nick Markakis, and Brandon Phillips raised their respective batting averages over .150 points in the last five games. Add the steady bat of Feddie Freeman (.400 batting average and 1.347 OPS) and the return of Kemp (.500 and 1.654) makes the lineup a bit intimidating for other pitchers.

The biggest winner of this year's baseball season might be Houston and Los Angeles. Pulling the series out to seven games has really impacted the economy of both towns. Plus the excitement of the competition has people humming as many are in a good mood. The games have brought people closer together and created a bond in communities where life seems to be less than predictable. Who knew Dodger fever could be a good thing to be infected with? Now we only need to see who wins this crazy

This could be an interesting year for these divisions as past studs from the Borough Cup are now standouts at the next level. Jason Pineda from the inaugural U14 champions Bronx Bombers from 2014 has recently been drafted in the 17th round by the San Diego Padres but

Just because a team has the money to go out and pay the high price free agents, does that mean that they are going to be successful? Not necessarily, as the Baltimore Orioles have shown, they have one of the higher team payrolls in the majors but they are at the bottom of their division. So maybe it is what you do with the money that matters. And in the Minnesota Twin's case this year, who are a small-market team, they got the best out of their relatively unknown players. But the thing that eventually hurt them was their inability to go out and get a key player before the trading deadline.

c. Estimate the value of Mercury using a discounted cash flow approach and Liedtke’s base case projections.