You’d think a series where you have Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke pitching in almost promises you back to back wins right? Well lets just say the Dodgers suck right now. Losers of 5 straight has the Dodgers asking if they can pay their next opponent for a win. Looks like the Dodgers can’t buy wins, at least not in 2015. The club is struggling heavily to put the ball in play on offense while their I’d rather see Yasiel Puig come out of their bullpen than Chris Hatcher at this point. The club was no hit in their opener to an average pitcher at best Mike Friers. In game 2, Zack Greinke got outdueled by newly acquired ace Scott Kazmir, while Game 3 they watched Kershaw throw a gem just to see their lead fade away thanks to the bullpen. Once again, I preach Yasiel Puig to change positions and start using that cannon for something other than throwing the ball 35 feet over the cut off mans glove. The Dodgers will look to turn it around as they fly to Cinci to face a reds team who has been extremely inconsistent this year to say the least. The Dodgers will throw Alex Wood to the mound after the day off today, followed by the one of the more pleasant surprises on the year Brett Anderson, lastly giving the ball to Zack Greinke. The day off should treat the Dodgers well. It’ll give them time to talk and think about why they couldn’t get a hit off Mike Friers. Anywise, the Dodgers will be just fine but just because the Giants have the most difficult upcoming schedule in the majors.

Lets get straight to the point here, I give the Dodgers a C for this trade. They didn’t necessarily give up any important promising minor leaguers however they didn’t solve their weakness on the field. Adding a rather old second basemen in his quite possibly last year doesn’t make sense. After starting second basemen Howie Kendrick went down to injury, Kike Hernandez filled the void rather nicely. So not too sure what management was thinking to bring in another second basemen who is really not any better than Kike Hernandez. This move really makes us question the Dodger front office and what their minds are thinking. I think every true Dodger fan knows at this point the team desperately needs bullpen help. Starting pitchers can only pitch so far in a game, even when you own the best two in the game. A move for Francisco Rodriguez would of made a little more sense than Utley, however that was no the case so the Dodgers will have to move on with what they got. Utley is not a bad player, plays his position rather nicely for his age and swings a hot bat at Dodger Stadium which I’m sure all went into account when trading for the ex Philly. Despite his age and the depth the Dodgers already portrayed at second base, I think this move could pay off come October. I believe the Dodgers will make the postseason and the Southern California native Utley can help the Dodgers in ways more than just on the field. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when starting second basemen Howie Kendrick returns in a couple weeks, knowing Utley wanted to go to a team where he would play everyday at which simply wont be the case when Kendrick returns. I give the Dodgers a C for this one, not addressing the area they need help most.

A 2015 storybook, Hollywood ending is looking rather unrealistic at this point. The Dodgers, losers of 5 straight can’t buy themselves a win. And that’s rare, because the Dodgers seem to be capable of buying just about anything. After getting swepted by the last play AL West Oakland A’s and Houston Astros in consecutive series, the question has to be is it panic time for LA. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s panic time, but it’s time to have a closed door team meeting. If you look at this team on paper, they have the two best pitchers in the league, and above average hitters filled at every slot. You have to ask yourself if there money is going to the right players which the answer is clearly no. Management, staff, and more importantly the players on the field better figure it out quickly because they have the reigning world champs knocking on the door. The Dodgers will look to somewhere turn things around as they travel to Cinci to face the struggling Reds. The Reds won’t go quite however, having 3-4 heavy bats despite a poor starting rotation. The biggest question the Dodgers will need to address starting a new series is their bullpen. Their bullpen has been the week link to this team all year, having no define roles throughout except who gets the ball in the ninth inning. Other than Kenley Jenson, this team has major problems that they failed to address over the trade deadline. It’ll be extremely interesting to see how this next series pans out, you have to ask yourself if the Dodgers lose this series will skipper Don Mattingly be the first to go? Despite all the negativity to the Dodgers in this post, I still have them winning the division, I just don’t see them winning a world series in 2015.

This has been a heavily debated argument in the past couple days as we’ve seen both starting rotations thrive as the season nears end. The question is simply who has the better starting rotation? This is tough, you got the best two pitchers in baseball on one team, in the Dodgers, and then you got three number one aces on the Mets. You might say to yourself well i’d rather have three aces over two. Well yes, you can think of it like that however that would simply not be fair. You have to look at the talent. Kershaw and Greinke are the two top pitchers in baseball as you have Degrom, Harvey, and Syndergard who are all top 20 pitchers in the league. You really can’t go wrong with either rotation, however if i had the choice i would have to take Kershaw and Greinke. Greinke leads the league in era and looks like the favorite for the CY young and possibly MVP while Clayton Kershaw is well Clayton Kershaw, enough said. Nothing against those 3 guys from New York, however that’s my opinion and i’ll stick to it. Look for both teams to make the playoffs and possibly meet in the World Series simply due to their rotations.

The fact that we’re asking ourselves about this question this late in August is crazy. The so called world series favorites come season start have dig themselves in as deep as whole as one can dig. The struggling Nationals find themselves 4.5 games out of first place to the New York Mets, and 8.5 games out of the Wild Card game. With just over 40 games left on the year, they have a chance at catching the Mets of course but that’s a tough task. I think we all know the Mets can’t hit but they sure can pitch, having three number ones giving them the possibility of shutting out their opponent on any given night. The Nationals are just a mess at this point, injuries have been the story of their promising season start the year. However, the Nats are just starting to get healthy which is promising for Washington fans. Strasburg has returned to booster their starting rotation while Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman have returned to booster their offense. But is it a little too late? Yes, it is. I don’t see the Nationals passing the surprising Mets to take the division. The Nationals will have to answer a lot of questions going into the offseason with no bigger one regarding keeping their manager. Apologies to all Nats fans however it is a little too late for comeback in 2015. Look for the Nationals to re boot in the offseason too make a run in 2016.

As we get closer and closer to October, we start to see what teams have a realistic, legitimate shot a post season birth as we see the flukes slowly start to fade away as crunch time begins. I’m here to break down what teams will and will not make the 2015 playoffs and have a shot at the trophy every baseball player dreams of holding one day. We start with the most blown open race in baseball, the AL central. The Royals currently hold a 11.5 game lead over the .500 Minnesota Twins. You could say the Royals are very good, yes. However you do need to acknowledge just how bad the division is. Sorry Kansas City fans, your team isn’t how good as their lead in the division is. I’m not calling them bad and to be honest i believe they’re the best team in the American League however i think there are multiple teams in the National League are better. However the Royals will come out on top of the division, and if they choose to stop trying now, they still might win the division with the lead they’ve built up. Next, we move on to the AL West. Where we find two struggling teams battling it out for the division. We find the Astros with just a two game lead over the struggling Halos. Despite the Astros being in first place for the majority of the year, look for the veteran ball club just 2 games back to leap them as we start heading towards October. Whenever you have the best player in the game and possibly best player we’ve seen in quite some time on your side, things are looking pretty good. Mike Trout will lead his Angels into the post season giving him back to back MVP awards. Theres another prediction. Mike Trout wins AL MVP again however this blog is about division winners so lets stay on task. However Houston fans should not worry, I never said their ball club won’t make it to the playoffs, just not as the division winner. And lastly, we get to the closest race in baseball. Here come them Blue Jays. The Blue Jays winners of 11 straight have overtook the Yankees for the best record in the AL east and i don’t seem them giving it back anytime soon. What the Blue Jays pulled off at the deadline just might work out for them. The Blue Jays find themselves in perfect position as they hope they stretch their lead over the Bronx bombers as the season comes to an end. And finally we get our Wild Card marquee matchup consisting of the Astros and Yankees. It’ll be interesting to see who the Yankees put on the mound in hopes of attaining a playoff birth for their one game playoff game against most likely AL all star starter Dallas Kuechel. This should be an interesting game because you have a heavy bat lineup in the Yankees while you got a young an inexperienced Astros team relied heavily on starting pitching. I think the experience of the Yankees will help them achieve a victory over the Astros in their one game playoff matchup.

This is the time of year, teams start to buckle down, hoping to get healthy for a late playoff run. I’m here to tell you what teams will make it and who will just miss the cut. Lets start with the NL West simply because i honestly don’t think their will be any kind of race to see who takes the division. It might be the most competitive division in baseball on paper with the giants being just 3.5 games back which is the closest gap in the national league, however the Dodgers have been playing around with this division and have yet to run off 5-7 straight victories which they’re fully capable of doing and should be able too with a rotation led By Kershaw and Greinke before season end. The Giants only hope of getting in will be battling it out in the Wild Card race which i will touch on later. Moving to the NL East, this becomes a little more interesting. We got the so called best team in the league Washington Nationals currently sitting behind the surging talented New York Mets however i don’t see that remaining the order once playoffs start. I think the Nationals sitting 4 games back will eventually jump the Mets once they get the Stephen Strasburg of old back. He is the key to the Nationals. We all know what this team is capable of doing when healthy and that’s potentially having the best starting rotation paired with a deep offensive unit led by the second best player in baseball Bryce Harper. Look for the Nationals to jump the Mets late to take the division. Lastly, we got the NL central. A race that was a quite close come all star break however the Cardinals just won’t give their lead up to the Pirates and quite frankly they won’t let them get close to taking their division. It’s their division to lose. They currently hold a 7 game lead as they have throw Lance Lynn to the hill tonight to face Pirates southpaw Liriano in hopes to gain another full game in the standings. The Pirates won’t go quietly however i don’t see them getting any closer than 3 games of the red hot red birds. And finally this sets up our Wild Card game. The game will consist of the Pirates and the Mets. This race should be very interesting because there are 4 potential teams separated by just 4.5 games, those teams including the Pirates, Mets, Cubs, and the reigning struggling champs Giants. This race will come down to the last few games and quite frankly the last game of the year. I have the Pirates and the Mets playing it out simply due to their starting rotations. The Mets rotation might just be the best in baseball while the Pirates have a very solid rotation of their own. Look for Gerrit Cole to out duel Harvey or Degrom in a potential post season birth.

The Dodgers were able to take 2 of 3 from Bryce Harpers Nationals in a potential National League post season get together. This series was hard to judge whether the outcome of the Dodgers taking 2 of 3 would be similar in the post season due to the pitchers who went from either side. The Nationals didn’t have their top 2 guys going as the Dodgers had Kershaw and Greinke start games 2 and 3 of the series. Greinke and Kershaw again aloud 0 runs combined in their 2 back to back starts against the Nationals which seems to be a common occurrence at this time in the season. Yasiel Puig had a big series for the Dodgers as he drove in 5 runs alone in game 2 backing up a solid outing by ace Zach Greinke. Kershaw who took the ball next in game 3, did what he usually does which is striking out a lot of batters and throwing up zeroes. I believe he didn’t allow a hit until the 5th inning where Michael Taylor who racked up the majority of the nationals hits doubled into the outfield. Despite giving up a couple hits too Michael Taylor, the Nationals were shut out, and shut out in consecutive outings. The Dodgers look for a starter not named Greinke or Kershaw to help out the rotation and pick up a win against a struggling Reds team who will take on the Dodgers Thursday night as Matt Latos looks to improve his record in his first home start sinking joining the Dodgers over the trade deadline. Interesting note is this will be the first time Latos pitches against the team who valued him as their ace 2 just two years ago.

The Dodgers, who were considered world series favorites after the Giants won the World series last year, have failed to live up to the high expectations given before the start of the 2015 season. We all knew coming into the 2015 season they had the best pitcher on the planet in Clayton Kershaw, and quite frankly not such a bad second option in Zach Grienke, however i think we all questioned the rest of the starting rotation and who would slide in to spots 3-5.  Primarily, their third starter is Rhu, However Rhu went down with a season ending elbow injury, leaving optimism in the Dodger management wondering who would fill the void. The Dodgers claimed Brandon McCarthy from the Yankees in free agency however McCarthy had a falling out, needing season ending surgery of his own to repair his arm. Other than their starting pitching discrepancy, their offense has been completely out out of sink from the beginning. Their one and only steady bat coming from Adrian Gonzalez. The Dodgers will look to heavily rely on how far Kershaw and Greinke can take them for a deep post season run.

Calling it a crazy deadline would be a far understatement in my knowledge of analysis. This deadline was filled with shocking surprises from teams we didn’t expect to make a move. Teams we thought would make deals such as the Dodgers and Yankees stood pat for the most part unlike previous years. I wouldn’t say the Yankees not making a deal was the right move due to the moves made from that team up north called the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays pounced on the best Starting Pitcher and hitter available at the deadline, trading for all star shortstop Troy Tulowiski, and ace David Price. The Blue Jays find themselves a game out of first place in the difficult AL East, trailing just the Yankees who have struggled a bit of late, losing a 16 inning thriller last night on a walk off RBI single from Michaerl Brantley. Somewhere, Michael Brantley has become a Blue Jay fans favorite player. I personally like what the Blue Jays did, they capitalized on what was out on the market, without letting the team in front of them in the standings really make any substantial moves worth noting. I was caught scratching my head to the Dodgers front offices decision after not pulling the trigger on any significant trades while team executives believed they would land a top of the line starting pitcher such as Hamels, Price, or Cueto. The Dodgers have the best two pitchers in baseball, however after that, there are many questions that need to be answered. Assuming they make the playoffs, who takes the mound for a game 3 remains unknown. They were able to land a decent starting pitcher in Alex Wood from Atlanta who has not pitched up to par in first two starts against the Phillies and Pirates. Back to the American League, i loved what the Royals and Angels did. The Royals adding an ace to a ace less staff was huge while adding a key role player in Ben Zobrist. Meanwhile the team they swept in the playoffs last year, rebooted a bit in their own way. The Angels added 3 key role players that will absolutely make an impact in a playoff chase. On my behalf, i believe each one of the 3 players the Angels acquired will make a huge play down the stretch and in the playoffs according they make it to October. Victoriono, Murphy, and Dejesus are excellent additions to put around a nucleus of Trout and Pujols. And lastly, i thought the Astros made a great move, solidifying their starting rotation adding a hot Scott Kazmir to link up with their Ace Dallas Keuchel. That’s not a 1-2 punch to reckon with come playoff time. I put them right under Kershaw and Greinke as the best two 1-2 punches in the league. Although he couldn’t get the win last night in San Francisco, he pitched well enough to give his team a chance. Look forward to the teams i mentioned above who added key players to make a big push towards achieving their playoff aspirations.