2019 MLB Preview: AL East

And with this, we are at the end of the preview road.

Back on Monday I started going division by division to look at the upcoming Major League Baseball season, alternating leagues and moving across the country. As is customary, I always conclude with the defending champion's division.

So to wrap this all up, let's grab a look at the AL East. Happy baseball season!

2019 MLB Preview: NL East

Opening Day is tomorrow! Let's celebrate by cranking out the last of the season previews!

I've condensed this down from prior years; I used to do one division a day. With a mid-week start to the season, I've changed that to doing two-a-days. I'm still sticking with my same pattern of rounding my way around the country, alternating leagues, and always ending with the division of the defending champion.

With the West and Central under wraps, and the defending champion Red Sox getting to round out the previews, we look at the NL East.

2019 MLB Preview: AL Central

We're halfway through the MLB preview series for 2019! Thursday everyone except the Mariners and A's open the season (since they played a pair in Japan already), so I'm working my way through the league early this week to be ready for Opening Day.

Earlier today I touched on my home division in the NL Central, so this afternoon we flip leagues and head over to the American League to see how the Central shapes up.

2019 MLB Preview: NL Central

The preview series continues on with, for all intents and purposes, official Opening Day coming on Thursday. And with four divisions left to cover before then... I'd better get to work.

As in prior years, I'm going across the country and alternating leagues, ending with the defending champion's division. That means tomorrow afternoon is when I'll have a gander at the AL East. But for now, let's visit the middle of the country and look at the NL Central.

2019 MLB Preview: AL West

We're staying out west for the second post of the day.

Earlier today I kicked off my series of MLB preview posts with a look at the NL West. Like last year, especially with the regular season starting on a Thursday, I need to get this series expedited, so I'm covering two divisions a day. This means for the afternoon portion, we're going to take a look at the AL West.

2019 MLB Preview: NL West

I know technically, the Major League season started last week when the Mariners and A's played a couple games over in Japan. But two games out of 162 isn't enough for me to have justified running this feature early.

In what has become an annual tradition, one of the ones where I make an idiot out of myself, I run through all six MLB divisions and make my predictions for the season. Last year I condensed the posts to a span of three days, but I continued the pattern of going across the country and alternating leagues, ending with the defending champion's division.

With that in mind, we'll kick things off out west in the National League.

2019 March Madness Preview

I got some of my March Madness kicks early this year. But with the Division III Tournament complete and UW-Oshkosh taking the walnut and bronze home, it's time to fully turn my attention to Division I.

I haven't really watched much, if any, D-I hoops this year, but brackets are brackets. I have to do this.

Once again though, I won't be alone in this quest. Adam Quinn, who joins me every fall for Pigskin Pick 'Em, will join me again for NCAA Tournament picks. As we've done the past couple years, we're going to go region by region and make our Final Four picks, plus a few other things. Then to round it out, we'll make our title game predictions.

2019 NCC Men's Basketball Recap

In the past I've gone with the old saying, but I think the quote from the old but great parody (and NSFW) Rahm Emanuel Twitter account from 2011 says it best: "Only things that f***ing suck never end."

I got to cross an item off my bucket list this past weekend and announce a set of NCAA Tournament games. It was really cool, even with NCAA rules mandating that I announce the game as a neutral party. I did get to introduce Loras and North Central to an instrumental/karaoke version of Team Four Star's arrangement of "Day of Fate" though, which was neat even though probably 99 percent of the crowd didn't know what the song was.

Unfortunately, that game saw North Central's season come to an end by a pretty narrow margin, and for the fourth straight year, North Central's season ends on the first weekend of NCAA Tournament play. But considering the circumstances around this year... I can live with it.

2019 MLB Tournament of Champions: First Round Preliminaries

As promised, the 2019 MLB Tournament of Champions will be undertaken beginning on April 1st. But in order to get to that point, we have some parameters to set.

I mentioned in the introductory post that there have been 114 World Series winners. To get to a nice round number, I added one representative from each franchise that has not won a World Series, and then because that still didn't get me a nice round number, added a few more representatives to get to an even 128 teams.

In a number of instances, these non-champions received automatic bids. The 1998 San Diego Padres, 2011 Texas Rangers, and 1995 Cleveland Indians, for instance, all made the postseason of the 2017 Tournament of Champions and are thus automatically in.

But there are three scenarios that I need to play out to get us to a field of 126, then follow that up with the teams that didn't win the following scenarios, plus a couple others, to fill out the field. I'll get to that towards the end of Spring Training when those scenarios get played out, but here's what's at hand now.

• 1904 World Series: This series was not played, and we're remedying that problem. The 1904 Boston Americans and 1904 New York Giants will face off in the traditional best-of-nine format the old World Series employed. With the better record, the Giants will get home field advantage in a 3-4-2 format. Winner gets a berth.
• Montreal Expos: I couldn't leave out baseball in Montreal. The Expos made one postseason in their existence in 1981, and were on pace to make the 1994 playoffs before the strike (though we saw how that ended last summer). Those two iterations will face off in a best-of-seven; with the better record, the '94 Expos get home field advantage in the traditional 2-3-2 format. Winner gets a berth.
• 2012/2014/2016/2017 Washington Nationals: These four squads all won the NL East; all four failed to get out of the Division Series. They'll get their chance here with a double round robin; all games will be played at Nationals Park, with each team getting a three game series at home against the other. The top team in those 18 games will get a berth.

The results of these series is below. With these decided, the five losing teams will be paired with the 1984 San Diego Padres, 2010 Texas Rangers, and 1995 and 1997 Seattle Mariners in a single round robin, with the top two teams getting the remaining two berths. We'll deal with that in a few weeks though. For now, here's a look at the first round of preliminaries.

Game Notes: (MBK) Loras College @ North Central College (3/2/19)

Final Score
Loras 84, NCC 82

Game Summary
In an extremely tight game, the Duhawks (23-6) drew first blood and held narrow leads, but the Cardinals (23-6) didn't go away, fighting back to grab a one point lead, though a technical foul helped the Duhawks regain the advantage. The Cardinals fought back though to grab an 18-13 lead just over halfway through the first half, and stayed just a hair ahead for most of the rest of the half, taking a couple five point leads before settling into the half with a 38-34 advantage. Tonight out of intermission though, it was Loras who came out guns blazing, scoring the first five points of the first half to turn the game back into a dogfight, but the contest turned on Loras' 10-0 run spanning just under two and a half minutes and forcing a North Central timeout. The Duhawks would lead by as many as eight with just over ten minutes to go, but the Cardinals were able to make it close, getting back within one with 6:40 to play, but every time the Cardinals got back within one possession, the Duhawks would answer right back. The Cardinals pulled within two with just over a second to play, but Loras successfully inbounded the ball halfway up the court to seal the road win.

Key Players

• Ryan DiCanio (LOR): 9-17 FG (1-3 3PT), 8-8 FT; 27 pts, 8 reb (2 off), 5 ast. DiCanio was probably the best guy on the floor tonight, at least for Loras. He was able to get to the basket seemingly at will, especially in the second half, where he scored 15 of his 27, including a perfect 6-6 at the free throw line to help keep the game just out of North Central's reach. There's a reason why this team was able to knock off both Nebraska Wesleyan and Augustana this season.
• Josh Ruggles (LOR): 6-12 FG (3-7 3PT), 3-7 FT; 18 pts, 4 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl. I debated between Ruggles and Ryan DiCanio in this spot (Dicanio had 15 and 6), but Ruggles scored more, and despite a subpar day at the free throw line, hit some big shots. He capped off the Duhawks' 10-0 run with a huge three to put them up six, but did his damage evenly between halves (9 in each).
• Connor Raridon (NCC): 6-12 FG (0-3 3PT), 17-17 FT; 29 pts, 11 reb (4 off), 6 ast. On another night where he didn't leave the floor (and there were many), Connor tried his best to will this Cardinal team to the next round. He hit one or two of his midrange jumpers, but the fallaway wasn't really working as well. So he did the next best thing: get to the line with impunity. His 17 made free throws tied a single game program record, and it's the best single game free throw performance by anyone in a Cardinal uniform (coming into tonight, there were 13 games where a Cardinal went to the line at least 10 times and made them all; Connor had done it three times before, including a tie for the previous record of 14-14). He also did a great job on the glass and found the open guy a few times. It just wasn't quite enough.

Key Stats

• NCC: 12 turnovers. This isn't an extraordinarily high number, especially since Loras committed nine for their part. But the Duhawks scored 13 points off those turnovers, compared to 11 for the Cardinals. You do the math.
• LOR: 36 points in the paint. Normally this is a number that comes from a team having a dominant post presence. But that wasn't really the case tonight; instead Loras was able to get penetration and found the open guy underneath plenty of times. North Central, by comparison, only managed 18 points in the paint.

NCAA Tournament Scoreboard Watch

• CCIW Teams
• Wheaton 78 (21-8), Wooster 70 (24-6)
• Augustana 85 (26-3), Capital 79 (21-8)
• St. John's (MN) Pod- Sweet 16 Opponent
• UW-Oshkosh 108 (25-3), Northwestern (MN) 86 (22-7)
• Guilford Pod- Would be potential Elite 8 Opponent
• Guilford 70 (23-7), Wittenberg 61 (24-6)
• Nebraska Wesleyan Pod- Would be potential Elite 8 Opponent
• St. Thomas 70 (24-4), Nebraska Wesleyan 58 (27-2) 

Final Thoughts

Credit the fans of both teams in this one; announced attendance in this game was 2,360, and I'd believe it. Merner was packed, and while I'm sure I've said this more than once, I don't think I've ever heard it louder in that gym. Credit the Cardinal Crazies for bringing it on two straight nights and doing their best to provide home court advantage.

I'm feeling a couple things in the aftermath. This one hurt. This wasn't a game of "The Cardinals played poorly." Loras was talked about as a possible first weekend host, and they showed why tonight with an outstanding offensive performance. The official scorer and I both said probably half a dozen times down the stretch that the Cardinals needed a stop... and pretty much every time, Loras wound up scoring. Give them credit; they earned the victory.

All things considered, it's a successful year for the Cardinals. I would have loved to continue dancing; there was a pretty strong chance North Central would have hosted again next weekend with a win. But alas, all good things must come to an end. I'll write my season recap on Monday and we'll put this season in the books. But it was quite the year, and it's one I'll never forget.

Game Notes: (MBK) Chatham University @ North Central College (3/1/19)

Final Score
NCC 77, Chatham 48

Game Summary
Like many games this season, the Cardinals (23-5) got off to a bit of a slow start, but overcame the Cougars (19-10) getting the first basket of the game three minutes in by scoring eight straight to grab the lead. But the Cougars didn't go away, answering with an 8-0 run of their own to retake the lead. The Cardinals answered back to grab the lead again, going up five late in the half, but Chatham got a couple threes and wound up taking a 25-24 lead into the locker room. After presumably getting the fear of God put into them, the Cardinals came out in the second half guns blazing, opening the half on a 9-0 run and grabbing control. It took just six minutes for the Cardinals to push the lead to double digits, and with about seven minutes to go the lead was 20. Three minutes later the lead was 30, and Todd Raridon began to call off the dogs.

Key Players

• Connor Raridon (NCC): 7-12 FG (0-1 3PT), 4-4 FT; 18 pts, 7 reb (1 off), 4 ast, 2 stl. I don't want to call this a weird game, but Connor had just four points on 2-6 shooting in the first half, and he sat out the final eight minutes due to some foul trouble. But come the second half, he was a man possessed, scoring four of those nine straight points, but that was just the beginning. He began to attack the basket with his specialty fallaways, and for good measure swished a pair of midrange jumpers, the second of which made it a 15 point game.
• Matt Cappelletti (NCC): 3-8 FG (0-4 3PT), 3-4 FT; 9 pts, 11 reb, 1 ast, 3 blk. Cap didn't really have his offense going in this one, so instead he did the little things. He moved in the flow of the offense, crashed the boards, got to the basket a couple times including one off a beautiful 60 foot pass from Raridon, and provided a couple big blocks early to set a good defensive tone.
• Will Clausel (NCC): 6-6 FG (1-1 3PT), 1-1 FT; 14 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 2 ast. Clausel's become a critical rotation piece this season, and was especially so in this one. He was needed in some relief with both Raridon and Cappelletti picking up a pair of fouls in the opening half, though Clausel himself also wound up sitting late in the half with a pair. He was a key part of the second half though, too, converting a huge old fashioned three point play to make it a 16 point game, and provided the exclamation point with a three to make it 71-41 late.
• Will Sandherr (CHA): 7-17 FG (1-3 3PT), 1-3 FT; 16 pts, 8 reb (1 off), 1 ast. I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up someone from Chatham, and Sandherr was the obvious choice. He put in a fairly efficient 10 and 6 in the first half, as he was able to get to the basket with some ease, but he was contained in the second half; his last basket came with 10:13 to play.

Key Stats

• NCC: 18-31 FG in the 2nd half (58.1%). The Cardinals were ice cold in the first half, hitting just one of 13 threes and missing shots at the rim, finishing the half at 32.3 percent from the floor. They were lucky in that Chatham left the door open (see below), and they made the Cougars pay in the second half as they regressed to the mean and blew the game wide open. That second half percentage included a 5-11 (45.5%) mark from beyond the arc.
• CHA: 7-17 FT (41.2%). The Cougars came into the NCAA Tournament a roughly 70 percent team from the charity stripe. But whether daunted by their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance, affected by a raucous student section on that end of the basket in the first half where they went 3-9, or just an off night, Chatham was not good at the free throw line. Ultimately, a line like this when you lose by 29 doesn't matter, but consider that they led by one at halftime. A few more first half makes might have changed the complexion ever so slightly, though I don't think it would have changed the outcome.

Other NCC-Hosted First Round Game

Loras 75, Albion 64

This was an interesting one as the Britons (19-9) managed to keep it close for a while, but the Duhawks (22-6) used a 21-6 run in the first half to take command and led 38-26 at the intermission. Albion managed to make it interesting in the second half, pulling within six at one point, but the Duhawks responded with six straight and put it away late. Josh Ruggles led the way for the Duhawks with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and four assists, Ryan DiCanio added 17, 7, and 4, and Rowan McGowen chipped in 11 points. Quinton Armstrong paced the Britons with 18 points and 9 rebounds, 6 on the offensive glass.

NCAA Tournament Scoreboard Watch

• CCIW Teams
• Wheaton 84 (20-8), Hanover 73 (21-7)
• Augustana 93 (25-3), Aurora 67 (17-12)
• St. John's (MN) Pod- Would be Sweet 16 Opponent
• UW-Oshkosh 86 (24-3), Lake Forest 62 (18-10)
• Northwestern (MN) 93 (22-6), St. John's 78 (23-5)
• Guilford Pod- Would be potential Elite 8 Opponent
• Wittenberg 100 (24-5), Emory 88 (20-6)
• Guilford 97 (21-7), Sewanee 59 (22-6)
• Nebraska Wesleyan Pod- Would be potential Elite 8 Opponent
• St. Thomas 80 (23-4), UW-La Crosse 66 (17-10)
• Nebraska Wesleyan 101 (27-1), Eureka 75 (13-15)

Final Thoughts

Cardinal Crazies are out in full force for North Central Men’s Basketball’s first round game in the ⁦@NCAADIII⁩ tournament game! ⁦@NCC_Athletics⁩ pic.twitter.com/EAWWrYwJ9R

— Naperville Community Television (NCTV17) (@NCTV17) March 2, 2019

After a year where, other than really the last couple minutes of the Augie upset, the student section left a lot to be desired, they were in this one from the get-go. I'm convinced they helped play a role in Chatham's poor free throw night, but this group came ready for this game, and they did their part.

Chatham has to be commended; North Central was clearly the better team, but the Cougars didn't give up in this one, taking advantage of a sluggish first half to at least lead at halftime, even if they got bulldozed in the second half. They played hard and never gave up, a credit to their school, conference, and Division III basketball.

Photo by Steve Woltmann

Meanwhile for the Cardinals, this one had to have been at least a little frustrating. They've had some sluggish starts this year, and this wasn't the first time they got the fear of God put into them at halftime, prompting them to assert themselves as the team they are and taking control. It's good that this team continues to show its resilience, finding ways to win games like this. But they can't play this way tomorrow. Loras is a much better team than Chatham, having knocked off Augustana early this season, as well as handing Nebraska Wesleyan its only loss of the campaign. This is going to be a doozy of a second round game.