Category Archives: Jeffrey Siegler

Jeffrey Siegler, MLB

Could 2015 be Christian Yelich’s Breakout Year?

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After two full years in the majors, has Christian Yelich’s  time come to be a household name in baseball?

Yelich’s first two seasons weren’t bad for such a young player. Last season Yelich hit .284 and had 9 HRs. These are average numbers for a starting left fielder in the majors. Yelich is a part of arguably the league’s best outfield with Marcell Ozuna and Giancarlo Stanton. The name that stands out in this group is obviously Stanton’s but who else contributes to being the best outfield in baseball? It’s Yelich who has has been playing like he has been in the league for years.

Although Yelich doesn’t have much power he can still be an everyday starter because he makes up for this by getting on base frequently, not striking out often. This makes up for Stanton and Ozuna who were both in the top ten for strikeouts in the MLB. In addition to his consistent fielding Yelich was also statistically the best left fielder in baseball. He had only one error at a position where defense isn’t always stellar. All of this great defense contributed to him being awarded a Gold Glove last year. The last time a Marlin won this award was Mark Buehrle in 2012.

If Yelich continues to play the way he has for the rest of his career then he will be comparable to players like J.D. Drew an average left fielder. Both don’t hit many home runs but get on base. The other scenario is that Yelich improves his power and starts to hit homeruns like J.D. Martinez did this past year. Both did not hit for much power earlier in there career. Also similarly Martinez had his breakout year in his third season.

Whether or not Yelich improves his power he is still a very valuable part of the team. He won four games last season for the fish based on WAR. It will be very exciting to see how is career plays out.

Jeffrey Siegler, NCAA, NFL

Jim Harbaugh Coaching Possibilities for the 2015 Season

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Jim Harbaugh is a part of the select group of people in this world who have the privilege of working where they want to. There is a high demand for a coach like him in all levels of football. He has been very successful in turning a losing team into a winning team. Harbaugh has done this at Stanford from 2007- 2010 and for the 49ers since 2011. Currently there are are a new wave of teams that want him to coach and rebuild their organization.

At this point Harbaugh’s Alma mater, the Michigan Wolverines are making the biggest effort in acquiring him. They have offered him $48 million dollars over six years. The Wolverines haven’t had the success that they have seen in the past, their last bowl win was the 2012 Sugar Bowl. They are one of the few collegiate teams that still hasn’t decided on a coach. Every day they don’t have a coach they are losing recruits to other teams. Harbaugh has shown a lot of interest in the job and some sources are even saying that a deal is already in place and he will be making his announcement to move after the 49ers season comes to a conclusion. Although these sources claims may not be accurate Harbaugh has recently said that he is torn between going to Michigan and staying in the NFL.

Staying in the NFL could have many meanings. He could remain in San Francisco and continue working toward a championship or become the coach of the struggling Raiders or any other of the bottom tier of teams. Many of these teams have the opportunity to draft a franchise quarterback that can be the cornerstone to building a successful team. Harbaugh has done this successfully twice in his past tenures.

There are many advantages and disadvantages to switching to a college program. As I mentioned earlier every single day of the year is important in recruiting high schoolers. Harbaugh doesn’t currently have this responsibility in the NFL. He has a general manager and owner to work on acquiring players. All he has to worry about is coaching on field. In college he would now hold the responsibility of recruiting, coaching, and all other football operation. In some ways this could be something that he likes because he is in the position of fielding a team that he would be coaching. This responsibility requires him to follow all recruiting rules and attend events that boosters attend. Here the school raises the money that they need to run the program.

I think that it will all come down to what is best for him and his family. At this point his family wants him to go home to Michigan where he can be close to everyone and be a part of a familiar organization . It will be hard for him to turn down Michigan’s offer because of this.

Jeffrey Siegler, Soccer, UEFA, World Soccer

2014-2015 UEFA Champions League Predictions

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After a fall that was filled with group play in the UEFA Champions league there is now a finalized round of 16.

 In group play almost all the teams that were expected to advance did, but there were a few surprises. Liverpool the runner up in the Premier League last season was eliminated. They were placed in a very talented group of clubs, that included the UEFA reigning champions Real Madrid and also a very successful FC Basel.

 Another reason for Liverpool’s poor performance in the group stage is that they don’t have the same starting eleven that led them to second in the  BPL. This past offseason they lost Luis Suarez to Barcelona. Suarez led the BPL last year with 31 goals. The other player missing is last years second best scorer in the BPL Daniel Sturridge. Sturridge is still on the team but has been left off the his club’s roster because of a nagging hamstring injury that he obtained while training with the English national team. Liverpool is now in the UEFA Europa League set to face Beşiktaş.

 Looking ahead to the round of 16 there will be some very exciting matches to watch. Leading off in the 2 home and away match ups in February and March is Paris Saint- Germain and Chelsea. Chelsea is currently on top of the BPL table and PSG is sitting at second in the French Ligue. Leading Chelsea will be Diego Costa and Eden Hazard. PSG has star Zlatan Ibrahimović and Edinson Cavani.

 I predict that Chelsea will advance because of their deeper roster that has more experience, with better coaching from Jose Mourinho.

 My next big match up to watch is Barcelona vs Manchester City. This draw will be the most entertaining because of the long history that these two teams have. Barcelona is currently sitting behind Real Madrid in La Liga while Manchester City is also sitting at second in the table behind Chelsea. The players to watch in this draw are Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi. These two Argentinians lead their clubs in goals this season in their respective leagues. They are also very good friends off the pitch. This could result in a scoring showdown between the two.

 I predict that Barcelona will win this match up because of the depth of their roster. Luis Suarez will continue getting the assists that he has had since coming off his suspension. Neymar is also a threat at forward. It will be very hard for MUFC to hold back this squad that has talent at every position.

Jeffrey Siegler, NCAA

Questions in Columbus for 2015

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Ohio State will be playing Wisconsin tomorrow in the Big Ten Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Taking snaps for Ohio State isn’t the player who Buckeye faithful would have expected in the beginning of the season.The player is third string QB Cardale Jones. This is because earlier in the season Braxton Miller re injured his shoulder in practice and was ruled out for the rest of this season and just this past weekend red shirt freshman J.T. Barrett fractured his ankle against Michigan.

Jones was competing for the starting job with Barrett after Miller was injured. Ever since Barrett won he has put up numbers that put him on the radar for the Heisman. He brought them to an impressive 11-1 season and one spot out of the top 4 in the College Football playoff rankings. After the ankle injury Miller said in a quote to ESPN regarding Jones:

“I honestly feel like if I wasn’t starting this year, Cardale would have done the same things I did this year. Cardale is that talented. He definitely can do it.”- J.T. Barrett

Wisconsin is a three-point favorite in Indianapolis. I think that it is going to be very hard for the Buckeyes to hold back Melvin Gordon from running the football through their defense. If Ohio State comes through to win this game they can have a chance to be in the College Football Playoff, if any of the current top four teams lose in their respective conference championship games.  It will be very interesting to see the result of tomorrows games. If Cordale Jones and the Buckeyes defense can pull a rabbit out of a hat and beat Wisconsin then the selection committee will have a hard time deciding the top four FBS teams.

Looking beyond the question of what bowl game Ohio State will play in is, who will be the starting quarterback week 1 of the 2015 season, Braxton Miller or J.T. Barrett?

Right now I can see Urban Meyer starting J.T. Barrett next fall after coming off such a great season and because he will be a sophomore. But what about Braxton Miller? He said right after his injury in late August that he will return to Columbus in 2015 for graduate school. This decision made sense then but now that his starting job is in jeopardy he may want to rethink what his path to getting in the NFL will be. Miller isn’t an NFL caliber quarterback in the pocket like Barrett is, so if he wants to play in the NFL he will have to change positions for his final year of college at Ohio State. Another thing that can happen is he can transfer to a school where he can be the starting quarterback and develop his passing game before the 2016 draft like Russell Wilson did in 2011.

What ever happens will most  likely result in Ohio State having a quarterback that will lead them to another season being in the playoff conversation because of the options they have at QB.

Jeffrey Siegler, MLS

MLS PLAYOFF UPDATE

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After an exciting weekend the first leg of of the MLS Playoff semifinals has come to an end. The New England Revolution defeated the New York RedBulls 2-1 and the  LA Galaxy defeated the Seattle Sounders 1-0.

In the Eastern Conference the Revolution were led by goals from the Canadian Teal Bunbury in the 17′ and the game winner by the German Jermaine Jones in the 85′. The lone goal for NY was from the  Englishman Bradley Wright- Phillips in the 27′. Going into the second leg of games it is expected that the RedBulls will try to bounce back from their first loss behind Thierry Henry who has been vital in NY’s success during the regular season. NY will be forced to play without Bradley Wright- Phillips because he collected his second yellow card of the MLS Cup Playoffs. It will be interesting to see if NY can stop the Revs’ Lee Nguyen from setting up his teammates with goal opportunities. This year has been his breakout year with 18 goals. He also was recently asked to play for the US National Team in England this past month after not making an appearance on the squad in 7 years. You can watch the second leg of the semifinal this Saturday at 3pm ET on NBCSN.

On the West Coast the LA Galaxy were led by a goal from the Brazilian Marcelo Sarvas in the 52′. Both teams have a lot of talent on offense and defense. The Galaxy have USMNT star Landon Donovan and Omar Gonzalez. The Sounders have USMNT captain Clint Dempsey and Deandre Yedlin who is transferring to Sunderland next season.  The winner of this semifinal round will face the winner of the Eastern Conference final. Remember that the team with the most goals in this home and away match up determines  who will go onto the final. You can watch this game at 9:20pm this Sunday on ESPN.

This weekend will be very interesting as there isn’t a very large goal difference in both match ups. This means that if either set of teams goes ahead to score 2 or more goals then they will advance.