2014 MLB Preview: NL Central

Apart from the Cardinals, each of the NL Central teams has some serious flaws, but all of them except Chicago are hoping to compete for a wild card spot. The Cubs are content to take their lumps for one more year (although hopefully with some more positive developments from their best players, Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo) before attempting to be more competitive in 2015. The Reds will have some adjustments to make after upheaval at the top of their lineup. Pittsburgh aims for a repeat of last year's exciting playoff run, although they are a prime regression candidate. Milwaukee gets its best player back from a Biogenesis suspension and hopes to ride him and the other stars in its lineup back to October baseball. And the Cardinals continue to solidify their strong case as baseball's best top-to-bottom organization, making astute trades and filling gaps on the major league roster with hidden gems from their farm system.

2014 MLB Preview: AL Central

It has puzzled me for the last few years as to why Detroit hasn't won this division by 20 games every year. They have far and away the most talent in the AL Central, with two of the three best pitchers, the best hitter on the planet, and a solid supporting cast. I guess it just goes to show how difficult it is to truly stand out in baseball over a 162-game season. The Twins are rebuilding and waiting for a pair of phenoms (Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano) to arrive, hopefully next year. The White Sox should bounce back from a dismal 2013. Cleveland has some talent and one of the best managers in the business, but also sustained a couple of key losses. The Royals are all in for a playoff push this year. As for those Tigers? They had better watch out, because a couple of their rivals have made major strides over the past couple winters, and even the bottom-feeders are starting to build strong foundations.

2014 MLB Preview: NL West

Welcome to our first divisional preview of the senior circuit, the quietly compelling NL West. The Dodgers have the most star power and the most polarizing player in the game (Yasiel Puig), but each of the other four teams has a guy who has been a serious MVP candidate within the past two to three years (Buster Posey, Chase Headley, Paul Goldschmidt, and Carlos Gonzalez) and other talented players. The Giants could use a bounce-back from their non-Madison Bumgarner pitchers and a big year from Pablo Sandoval. One of these years all the young talent in San Diego is going to jell. Arizona backs up Goldschmidt with the grittiest bunch of scrappy ballplayers in the league, and Colorado hopes for full seasons from Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki along with a rotation that can at least survive in Denver's thin air.

2014 MLB Preview: AL West

Opening Day is creeping up on us fast, which is why I want to give all you baseball fans out there a giant six-part preview, with one column for each division, starting with the American League West. Thanks to Seattle's bold play for Robinson Cano over the winter, this division looks like it should be the most entertaining in baseball in 2014, with four very different teams all gunning for a division title and only the Astros looking primed to develop some young players and lose one hundred games again (speaking of which, my good friend Keith Hankins has developed some excellent proposals to limit the appeal of tanking for MLB and NBA teams). Without further ado...

Wild First Weekend

Wow. That was one hell of a first weekend, and I'm going to assume that not only are you out of the running for Warren Buffett's billion dollars, you're also out of the running for your office/online pool unless you are a) incredibly lucky or b) Nostradamus. Double-digit seeds won ten games (discounting the four they won in the opening round on Tuesday and Wednesday), and three of them (Stanford, Dayton, and Tennessee) will play in the Sweet 16. Six games required overtime to complete, and a whopping twenty-two of the fifty-two games played so far have been decided by single digits, nine of them by a single possession. Six of the twelve highest-seeded teams will be watching the rest of the tournament from their couches. Let's recap some stories.

Influential Coaches #3: Robert Joseph Ahola

Previous entries:
Series Overview
January: Paul Westphal
February: Tara Gallagher

"Your mothers left you a long time ago. I'm your mother now!"

I suppose that IF there is one quote with which to sum up Robert, the longtime pro bono rugby coach at Pepperdine (he's the old man kneeling in the center of the blog's background photo), that would be it. He was tough, demanding, hilarious, and occasionally nonsensical. But I don't think that there is any coach I have ever been around who has as clearly demonstrated his sheer love for the game as Robert, and that infectious enthusiasm sustained the Pepperdine program through some lean years until a mini-breakthrough, which happily coincided with my senior season, turned it into something of a southern California powerhouse.

March Madness Preview

It is once again time for the best three weeks on the sports calendar, and as such, time to spill some pixels about this year's tournament, which has a lot of promise. There are maybe as many as fourteen or fifteen teams that have the ability to go the distance, although each of them has a fatal flaw or two that could just as likely crop up somewhere and doom them to an early exit. Let's get to the regions and see what there is to see.