Happy Father’s Day!!!!

 

Thinking of my dad today.  He lives so far away and I don’t get to see him as much as I would like to.  He and I got to realize OUR major league dreams together!  I owe my career to him.

 

I feel so lucky.  Got to spend time with my middle son Chris on Memorial Day when he came to umpire in the Leo Mazzone Memorial Day tournament.   Spent this weekend with my youngest son Nick on the lake.  What a great weekend.  And this Father’s Day I’m a proud granddad for the very first time.  My oldest son Tony became the proud papa of a beautiful little girl, Brooke Elizabeth Mazzone, in December.  Life is good.

 

Leo’s MLB rankings broken down into 5 categories.

 

1.        Top 10 teams

2.        Teams that could go either way

3.        Teams that could come back from poor starts

4.        Mediocre teams

5.       Bad teams

 

Top 10 teams…

1.        Cardinals – Great starting pitching

2.       Tigers – Deep, powerful lineup

3.       Giants – Well balanced

4.       Rangers – Pitching and power

5.       Red Sox – Starting pitching and solid lineup

6.       Braves – Power, pitching, defense and strikeouts – streaky

7.       Nationals – Pitching and fair offense

8.       Reds – Fair pitching, good offense and good at home

9.       Orioles – Good offense, good bullpen and starting pitching??????

10.   Yankees – Good pitching and patching it together on offense

 

Teams that could go either way

 

1.        Rays

2.       Royals

3.       Diamondbacks

4.       Pirates

5.       Rockies

6.       A’s

7.       Indians

 

Teams that can come back from poor starts

 

1.        Dodgers

2.       Angels

3.       Brewers

 

Mediocre teams

 

1.        Twins

2.       White Sox

3.       Mets

4.       Padres

5.       Blue Jays

6.       Mariners

7.       Phillies

 

Bad Teams

 

1.        Cubs

2.       Marlins

3.       Astros

 

So today I got my Baseball Digest in the mail and found this small little snip it that I wanted to share.  I found it extremely interesting. 

 

“One of Roy Halladay’s few highlights in 2012 was notching his 2,000^th career strikeout.  Among pitchers who have reached that plateau, the Phil’s ace now ranks third all-time in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.78).  Here were the top 10 at the start of the 2013 season.”

 

Pitchers With Best Strikeout-to-Walk Ratios (Min of 2,000 S0)

 

Pitcher                                                  SO                          BB                           Ratio

Curt Schilling                                      3,116                    711                         4.38

Pedro Martinez                                   3,154                    760                         4.15

Roy Halladay                                      2,066                    556                         3.78

Mike Mussina                                     2,813                    785                         3.58

Greg Maddux                                      3,371                    999                         3.37

Javier Vazquez                                   2,536                     763                         3.32

Randy Johnson                                 4,875                    1,497                         3.26

Dennis Eckersley                              2,401                     738                          3.25

Juan Marichal                                    2,303                     709                          3.25

Fergie Jenkins                                  3,192                      997                          3.20

 

My top picks

 

Braves

Nationals

Reds

Cardinals

Giants

Tigers

Rangers

Baltimore

 

 

Surprise teams

 

Mets

Pirates

Diamond Backs

Royals

Twins

Red Sox-BEST STORY

Rockies

 

Border line teams

 

Phillies

Brewers

A’s

Yankees

 

Teams that have no chance of having a good year.

 

Marlins

Cubs

Padres

Astros

Mariners

Indians

 

Leo’s most disappointing teams so far in major league baseball.

 

Blue Jays

Angels

White Sox

Dodgers

Rays

 

Subject to Change!

 

Leo’s top 10 greatest players of the NCAA tournament (March Madness)! 

 

1.       Lew Alcindor - UCLA

2.       Bill Russell – SF University

3.       Bill Walton - UCLA

4.       Oscar Robinson – University of Cincinnati

5.       Wilt Chamberlain – Kansas

6.       Larry Bird – Indiana State

7.       Bill Bradley – Princeton

8.       Magic Johnson – Michigan State

9.      Jerry West – West Virginia

10.    Christian Laettner – Duke

Leo’s top 5 major league baseball clubs pre-spring training rankings

 

5.  Atlanta Braves

4.  California Angles

3.  Los Angeles Dodgers

2.  Washington Nationals

1.  Detroit Tigers