My 3 MLB Predictions for 2016

1. The Seattle Mariners will get to the Playoffs for the 1st time since 2001

Why? Because I have faith in Seattle Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto. He's a more statistically minded individual than previous Mariners GM's Jack Zduriencik & Bill Bavasi put together.

2. Tyson Ross of the San Diego Padres will pitch the 1st no-hitter in Franchise History

Why? Because it's been long overdue, as the Padres are the only MLB team to never have a no-hitter in their franchise history & Tyson Ross is the best candidate to pull it off. Andrew Cashner will not because he gets injured every time he gets out of bed.

3. The Chicago Cubs will win the World Series

Why? Because if anyone can make the Chicago Cubs World Champions, it's their Vice President, Theo Epstein. In my opinion, if the Cubs do win it all this year, Theo Epstein will be in the VIP Suite of Baseball Immortality, because the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years under his watch.

Update on Pirates Catcher Reese McGuire

NOTE: The quotes in this entry were taken out of an interview from the official Minor League Baseball Website [www.milb.com].

Like most Pittsburgh Pirates fans, Reese McGuire watched as many games as he could last season, particularly during the final month of the regular season and the wild-card playoff game.
But no matter the opponent or significance of the game, one thought consistently flowed through his head.
“I wish I was there. I wish I was playing behind the plate,” McGuire said.
It might not be long before he gets his wish.
McGuire is the top catching prospect in a talent-rich minor league system. The second of the Pirates’ two first-round picks in 2013 — outfielder Austin Meadows was the first — McGuire was recently ranked as the Pirates’ No. 6 prospect by Baseball America, this after putting together a solid first season with high-Class A Bradenton.
McGuire has spent the past month playing for the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League. He’s one of six prospects with the Desert Dogs. Meadows, the No. 2 overall prospect in the Pirates Organization, played in 17 games before being removed from the roster to attend to an illness in his family.
Like Meadows, McGuire was selected to play in the AFL All-Star Game, a big honor made even more significant considering he’s the youngest player on his team and one of the youngest in the league at just 20 years old. McGuire, a left-handed hitter, is batting .333 with a .417 on-base percentage and has struck out only three times in 42 at-bats.
Among those impressed with McGuire’s talent is Glendale pitching coach Justin Meccage, who holds the same position at Class AA Altoona. Meccage praised McGuire’s defensive ability and developing offensive skills, and said he looks forward to working more with McGuire, possibly as soon as the start of the 2016 season.
“He’s a really nice prospect, especially blocking and receiving and throwing, the physical part of the game,” Meccage said. “The thing that he’s still learning and we’re all still learning is pitch calling and things like that. I hadn’t seen him much offensively, but he’s really impressed me offensively out here. He’s swung the bat really well. So there’s a nice little package working for a 20-year-old guy that’s in the fall league.”
After last season, Baseball America named McGuire the best defensive catcher in high-Class A in addition to the No. 11 prospect in the Florida State League.
“Everything seems pretty instinctual out there,” McGuire said. “My baseball IQ has been real good. Being able to call my own games since I was a young kid has really helped me, as well.”
Offensively, McGuire has shown a lot of promise. He hit .254 with 34 RBIs in 98 games at Bradenton in 2015, a year after hitting .262 with 45 RBIs in the same number of games at West Virginia.
“I’m getting better every day for sure,” McGuire said. “I’ve learned a lot this past year. Coming off of my first full season in 2014, I was able to come into this past season with a pretty good idea of who I am as a player and develop a consistent routine.”
Projecting when McGuire will make it to Pittsburgh is difficult. Starting catcher Francisco Cervelli is coming off a strong season and could be in the Pirates’ long-term plans. Another catcher, Elias Diaz, is the organization’s No. 10 prospect who spent the 2015 season at Indianapolis before a late-season call-up.
Regardless, it appears McGuire could have the label “major league-ready” attached to his name soon, maybe even this year.
Said Meccage: “He’s going to put himself in position to be able to make an impact up there in the next few years.”

Good News & Bad News

Let's start with the Good News: There are seven days until the Mariners play their first Spring Training game against the San Diego Padres in Peoria, Arizona. Bad news: It will not be on T.V.

Fun Fact!!

Ken Griffey Jr. [below] was the 1st overall selection in the 1987 Major League Baseball Draft and the 1st number one overall draft pick in MLB history to be elected to the Hall of Fame.  Can you name the highest overall draft pick in MLB history to be elected to the Hall of Fame before Griffey?

The answer is... Reggie Jackson [left], who was selected 2nd overall in the 1966 MLB Draft by the Kansas City Athletics [now the Oakland Athletics].

Steve Dalkowski

“To understand how Steve  Dalkowski, a chunky little man with thick glasses and a perpetually dazed expression, became a ‘legend in his own time’...”

— Pat Jordan in The Suitors of Spring (1974).

The fastest pitcher ever may have been 1950s phenom and flame-out Steve Dalkowski. Dalkowski signed with the Orioles in 1957 at age 21. After nine years of erratic pitching he was released in 1966, never having made it to the Major Leagues. Despite his failure, he has been described as the fastest pitcher ever.

Ted Williams once stood in a spring training batting cage and took one pitch from Dalkowski. Williams swore he never saw the ball and claimed that Dalkowski probably was the fastest pitcher who ever lived. Others who claimed he was the fastest ever were Paul Richards, Harry Brecheen and Earl Weaver. They all thought he was faster than Bob Feller and Walter Johnson, though none of them probably saw Johnson pitch.

In 1958 the Orioles sent Dalkowski to the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, a military installation where Feller was once clocked. Feller was clocked at 98.6 mph. Dalkowski was clocked at only 93.5, but a few mitigating factors existed:

1) Dalkowski had pitched in a game the day before, so he could be expected to throw 5-10 mph slower than usual;

2) there was no mound to pitch from, which Feller had enjoyed, and this would drop his velocity by 5-8 mph;

3) he had to pitch for 40 minutes before the machine could measure his speed, and he was exhausted by the time there was a reading. Other sources reported that the measuring device was a tube and that he took a long time to finally throw one into the tube.

It was estimated that Dalkowski’s fastball at times reached 105 mph. Dalkowski was not physically imposing, standing only 5'8" and wearing thick glasses. He had legendary wildness, which kept him out of the Major Leagues. In 995 minor league innings, he walked 1,354 batters and struck out 1,396. He walked 21 in one minor league game and struck out 21 in the same game. In high school he pitched a no-hitter while walking 18 and striking out 18.

He threw 283 pitches in a complete game against Aberdeen and once threw 120 pitches in only two innings. He played in nine leagues in nine years.

In 1963 for Elmira he finally started throwing strikes. During spring training in 1964, Dalkowski was with the Major League club. After fielding a sacrifice bunt by pitcher Jim Bouton in spring training, Dalkowski’s arm went dead and he never recovered. He drifted to various jobs and landed in Bakersfield, California, where he was arrested many times for fighting.

He once threw a ball at least 450 feet on a bet. He was supposed to throw the ball from the outfield wall to home plate, but he threw it well above the plate into the press box. He once threw a pitch so hard that the catcher missed the ball and it shattered an umpire’s mask. Dalkowski was the basis for wild fastball pitcher Nuke LaLoosh in the movie Bull Durham.

Sadly, in 1970, Dalkowski was diagnosed with dementia and because of it, he does not remember his life after 1969. He now lives in a nursing home in Frederick, Maryland.