Basketball Case Study

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.

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.

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 Red Sox currently have one of the most feared offenses in baseball. An offense an opposing pitcher would want to fake sick to get out of pitching to this potent group of hitters. This lineup has everything from young guns to grizzled veterans hitting on all cylinders it's impossible to pitch to them right now any mistake will get

Giancarlo Stanton got traded to the Yankees over the summer bringing in a lot of hype about the 2 players who hit the most home runs last year on the same team (Stanton and Judge). So far he has a .234 batting avg. and 7 home runs. The avg. isn’t great right now, but that was due to his timing being off at the beginning of the year.

Fast forward to today, with Rodriguez settling back in as the everyday DH, and #36 back in RF, the Yankees sit in fourth place, at 27-30. There is still a long way to go in this season, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how exactly it ends. But the one thing you can count is that Carlos Beltran will continue to grind out productive at bats. Why, you ask. Because he’s in a contract year. And when the chips are down, Beltran shines when it’s time to get paid! Look no further than to his past contract

The team has thankfully been injected with a whole heap of new talent since the Trade Deadline, highlighted by some new arms in the bullpen. However, as things tend to work out in baseball, the club is only going to go as far as their starting pitching will take

They are scoring runs, bashing it out of the ballpark and their back end of the Bullpen resembles something they had for those runs in late 90s to early 2000s, they have been outstanding. Dellin Betances who made the All-Star team for his second straight year has been lights out as the set-up man and even when Andrew Miller went down with a forearm strain it seems the team didn't miss a beat with Betances Closing.

The Pirates broke a long playoff curse a few years ago, and were one of the best teams for a couple of years, but have since regressed and are now mediocre. They have an incredibly young rotation, anchored by Gerrit Cole, and followed up by, Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl, and Tyler Glasnow. All of them are all under 30, as is Drew Hutchison, their sixth option. Ivan Nova is their veteran, and he pitched very well after coming over at the Trade Deadline last year. After dealing away star closer Mark Melancon at the deadline, Tony Watson took over and has been extremely reliable. Their lineup is solid, led by Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte, and Gregory Polanco, but McCutchen is on the downside of his career and both

The detailed description of the Cubs team having a “curse” since 1908 gives a sense of hopelessness that the team will ever win a World Series again since they have not in quite a while. Although, Cohen is still in the stands, he believes that this year their luck might have changed.

Which is better than almost any other team in baseball. Firstly, they have more World Series titles than any other team with 27. As well as the most pennants with 40, and have been in 51 playoffs. They have also sent 18 of their past players to the Hall of Fame. Along with being in 51 playoffs, they are in the postseason 40% of the time. And with the 27 World Series wins, they have won 25% of all World Series. Lastly, they have a winning percentage of 0.675. The winning percentage of 0.675 is the sixth highest in all of

And it is quite likely that at the very least, the Yankees will hold on to the No. 1 wild-card spot and host a one-game playoff against either the Houston Astros, the Minnesota Twins or the Los Angeles Angels on Oct. 6. But it is truly hard to imagine the team that lost Friday to the lowly ChiSox mounting any kind of serious charge in the postseason. Sure, it would be nice to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2012, but does anyone really believe the 2015 Yankees have it in them to do anything more than make a quick and unceremonious

One reason the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series is because of their pitching. They had strong starting pitching all year. All of their starters had an ERA under 4.00. This shows they won’t give up many runs by the time they give the game to the bullpen. They also throw a lot of strikeouts, with Jon Lester leading the staff with 197 strikeouts. If the other team can’t get on base, they will have a hard time

Cespedes who have averages of .280 hit, 31 home runs, and 86 RBI in the 2016 season will be a big help to American League MVP Trout. His 25 doubles, 133 OPS+, and 9.4 percent walk rate in 132 games that have won him the Silver Slugger Award will be the needed support the Angels could get. Aside from that, the Angels have the necessary cap space if ever Cespedes will insist a lucrative contract.