KJNL Week 3 Preview

Written by KJNL Commish


Arizona (0-2) at Colorado (1-1):
Arizona is off to a rough start, but has no reason to panic yet. Their hitting has been doing everything it can to make up for the lackluster production being shown by their pitching staff. Having Kazmir on the DL is definitely showing. Colorado's anemic offense showed life last week and will need to do so again to beat the tough luck Arizona team. Should Colorado's offense produce, along with another strong week from their pitching staff, this one should go to Colorado. If their offense goes back to sleep, Arizona could very well get their first win of the young season.

Los Angeles (1-1) at Houston (2-0):
Houston's riding high at 2-0 with a well balanced attack the first two weeks. Los Angeles is coming of it's 1st loss against Colorado last week. Los Angeles will need their batters to keep doing enough to get by and get their pitchers to start performing more consistently if they want to win this week. Houston has been riding the back of some pleasant surprising pitching that is due for a bad week. This one should come down to the wire and the winner of this match up will be the team who can milk all they can out of their pitching.

St. Louis (2-0) at Chicago Cubs (0-1-1):
Division leading St. Louis has been lights out from the rubber. When their hitting tries to keep up, they end up with a week like last where they beat a solid Atlanta team by a wide margin. Cubs have been winning most hitting categories and should continue to do so. What they need is to have a good week from their pitching staff to try to keep up with the Cy Young caliber output coming from St. Louis. Unlike the records show, this should be a very tight match up and may very well be the game of the week.

Cincinnati (1-1) at Atlanta (0-1-1):
Atlanta just can't seem to put it together yet. Their offense has yet to really show up and their pitching was great the first week and equally as bad the second. Cincinnati, after running into the pitching juggernaut of St. Louis the 1st week, put forth a Cardinals-esque performance themselves in the second week. If Atlanta doesn't wake up, they could be looking at another lopsided loss this week and be looking out the basement window of their division for a while.

Minnesota (1-1) at Kansas City (0-2):
Minnesota has had two very close match ups so far this year. They have lost and won by the same score 5-4-3. Their balanced attack has given them a shot both weeks and should do at least that this week. Kansas City's pitching has been good enough, but been out performed by their opponent. Kansas City is going to need to put forth a much better offensive week if they want a chance in this match up.

Seattle (2-0) at Chicago White Sox (1-1):
Scary thing about Seattle is that they are 2-0 while both Martin and Howard are off to slow starts. They're another one of those teams with the players on both sides of the ball to put out a balanced performance each week. Chicago has shown that it can hit and pitch. They just need to put it all together this week and they could challenge Seattle and give them their first loss of the season.

Cleveland (2-0) at Detroit(0-2):
Detroit's a team that has the players to contend, but has been besieged by injuries and low output. When you have a team loaded with bats from the Yankees, you'd expect to win most hitting categories. This team will not go o-fer this year. Eventually, their hitting will live up to the hype and they won't be placing key players on the DL every week. In real life sometimes adversity breeds strength and pulls a team together. Detroit needs that to happen here. Cleveland can beat you with their bats or arms. They're getting some great pitching performances and their young hitters are off to excellent starts. They'll be in each match up every week, but are beatable.

Toronto (1-1) at Boston (1-1):
When you've got a lot of pitchers on your staff that play half their games in Coors Field, you're never going to know what you're gonna get. Boston's pitching has been inconsistent, but adequate. They're hitting is not doing what it needs to do if they want to challenge Cleveland in this division. Toronto's win last week against the M*A*S*H unit named Detroit wasn't pretty. Their pitching was good enough to win 4 categories and their hitting pulled a Rob Deer by winning the power numbers with an avg. below the Mendoza line. Based on past performances of these two clubs, this match up will not be pretty. Neither team is clicking on all cylinders and the numbers will show it.