The MLB season is right around the corner. On Sunday, April 2nd, the Tampa Bay Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, and the St. Louis Cardinals have their home openers. The Rays play the New York Yankees, the Diamondbacks play the San Francisco Giants, and the Cardinals play the reigning World Series champions, the Chicago Cubs. Currently, players are staying active by playing in Spring Training, and the World Baseball Classic which is an international baseball tournament. As of the writing of this article, the Yankees have the best Spring Training record at 18-7.

According the www.bleacherreport.com, they have the Cubs finishing with the best record – scoring 96 wins. They have the Minnesota Twins having the worst record – losing 100 games.

A team that could be very dangerous this season is the Cleveland Indians. The Indians have a young team that led them to the World Series last year, but fell short. Even though they lost, they still should be able to become contenders this year again. This offseason they signed slugger Edwin Encarnacion. They also still have Corey Kluber in their bullpen who made a huge impact on their drive to the World Series. They are the most likely team to win the AL Central division.

One team that may disappoint is the Kansas City Royals. They lost big hitter Kendrys Morales and players like Lorenzo Cain and Alex Gordon are starting to get old. Eric Hosmer is still a great player, but he seems to be the only great player on this year’s team. The Royals also sadly had a young pitcher of theirs, Yordano Ventura, pass away during the offseason. He died in a car accident while in his native country of the Dominican Republic.

One dark horse this year are the Seattle Mariners. They have three star players in Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager. They also depend on Felix Hernandez who needs a bounce back season this year. Last year, Hernandez had only a record of 11-8 with a 3.82 ERA. His worst ERA since 2007. He didn’t have a single shutout last season compared to the 2 he had in the 2015 season. If he can pitch well, then the rest of the MLB should watch out for Seattle.

The Highland Park Boys baseball team is off to a nice start to their 2016 season. The Scots currently sit at a solid 6-3 record, and 7 of those 9 games have been non conference. Historically, SPPS baseball teams struggle in non-conference games, and a 4-3 record to start off the season is very respectable, especially considering the fact that 6 of those games were on the road. The team had its most exciting game of the season in its first matchup of the year against St. Anthony, in which sophomore Jack Dombrock hit a walk off single to win the game 2-1.

The boys have stayed competitive throughout the entire season, and have lost a few games by only a few runs or less. A loss to River Falls stung the team a little, as they held a 2-0 lead going into the sixth, but would end up losing that lead, and the game 5-2. The following non-conference game against Henry Sibley didn’t help either, as the Scots wound up losing a tough one 1-0. However, the squad didn’t lose composure, and were able to beat non-conference rival DeLaSalle 6-3 in front of the home crowd. 

Over the weekend the Scots took Central at Toni Stone field under the lights. It took 11 innings but the team was able to prevail with yet another exciting victory with a score of 3-2. They boys also played Saint Paul Academy at CHS field in downtown St. Paul. This was another thrilling game as the Scots once again won on a walk off single from team captain Jared Deuitch giving them a 5-4 victory.

The captain gave me a brief statement after the game about the team thus far: “Respect is earned, never given”. It seems quite clear that the Scots are playing with a chip on their shoulder this season. Jared also announced this week that he will be attending Hamline University to further continue his education and to play baseball. Congrats Jared!

The Scots’ next game falls on May 2nd against Washington at 4:30 at home!

A full schedule can be found here: http://sports.spps.org/sport//HS/boys/varsity/baseball/2015-2016