Capsules of National League Central teams, listed in order of finish last year: ___ Chicago Cubs 2020: 34-26, first place, lost to Marlins in first round of playoffs. Manager: David Ross (second season). He’s Here: OF Joc Pederson, RHP Jake Arrieta, RHP Zach Davies, RHP Trevor Williams, RHP Brandon Workman, INF Eric Sogard, RHP Kohl Stewart, C Austin Romine, OF Jake Marisnick, RHP Jonathan Holder, RHP Shelby Miller, RHP Robert Stock, INF Sergio Alcántara. He’s Outta Here: RHP Yu Darvish, OF Kyle Schwarber, LHP Jon Lester, LHP José Quintana, OF Albert Almora, Jr., C Victor Caratini, 2B Jason Kipnis, RHP Tyler Chatwood, RHP Jeremy Jeffress, OF Billy Hamilton, OF José Martínez. Projected Lineup: CF Ian Happ (.258, 12 HRs, 28 RBIs, .866 OPS), 1B Anthony Rizzo (.222, 11, 24, .755 OPS), 3B Kris Bryant (.206, 4, 11), C Willson Contreras (.243, 7, 26, 37 runs), SS Javier Báez (.203, 8, 24), LF Joc Pederson (.190, 7, 16 with Dodgers), RF Jason Heyward (.265, 6, 22, .848 OPS), 2B Nico Hoerner (.222, 0, 13) or David Bote (.200, 7, 29). Rotation: RH Kyle Hendricks (6-5, 2.88 ERA), RH Zach Davies (7-4, 2.73 for Padres), RH Jake Arrieta (4-4, 5.08 for Phillies), RH Alec Mills (5-5, 4.48), RH Trevor Williams (2-8, 6.18 for Pirates) or RH Adbert Alzolay (1-1, 2.95). Key Relievers: RH Craig Kimbrel (0-1, 5.28, 2 saves), RH Brandon Workman (1-4, 5.95, 9/12 saves for Red Sox and Phillies), RH Ryan Tepera (0-1, 3.92), RH Dan Winkler (0-0, 2.95), LH Andrew Chafin (1-2, 6.52 for Diamondbacks and Cubs), RH Rowan Wick (0-1, 3.12, 4 saves), LH Kyle Ryan (1-0, 5.17, 1 save), RH Shelby Miller (1-3, 8.59 for Rangers in 2019). Outlook: Rizzo, Bryant and Báez are coming off down years, and they are eligible for free agency after this season. The rotation took a hit when Darvish was traded to San Diego. It remains to be seen if Kimbrel can carry over his strong finish in 2020 into this season. But the rest of the NL Central isn’t exactly imposing, so it’s not hard to imagine the Cubs contending for another playoff appearance. Rizzo, Bryant and Báez struggled with the unusual circumstances surrounding last year’s pandemic-shortened season, and Bryant was hampered by injuries. A return to form for any one of them would help the Cubs improve on their .220 team batting average from a year ago. While the loss of Darvish is a big blow, Davies is coming off a strong season in San Diego. Arrieta is looking to regain the form he showed during his first stint in Chicago, and Williams was a 14-game winner with Pittsburgh in 2018. The Cubs also are hoping Kimbrel has solved the issues he had at the beginning of last season. The closer had a 1.29 ERA over his last 15 games last year, including 1 1/3 scoreless innings in his only playoff appearance. ___ St. Louis Cardinals 2020: 30-28, second place, lost to Padres in first round of playoffs. Manager: Mike Shildt (third season). He’s Here: 3B Nolan Arenado, 3B Jose Rondon. He’s Outta Here: 2B Kolten Wong, OF Dexter Fowler, LHP Austin Gomber, RHP John Brebbia, C Matt Wieters, 1B Rangel Ravelo. Projected Lineup: 2B Tommy Edman (.250, 5 HRs, 26 RBIs), SS Paul DeJong (.250, 3, 25), 1B Paul Goldschmidt (.304, 6, 21), 3B Nolen Arenado (.253, 8, 26 with Rockies), RF Dylan Carlson (.200, 3, 16), C Yadier Molina (.262, 4, 16), LF Tyler O’Neill (.173, 7, 19), CF Harrison Bader (.226, 4, 11). Rotation: RH Jack Flaherty (4-3, 4.91 ERA), LH Kwang Hyun Kim (3-0, 1.62), RH Adam Wainwright (5-3, 3.15), RH Carlos Martinez (0-3, 9.90), RH Miles Mikolas (did not pitch in 2020). Key Relievers: RH Alex Reyes (2-1, 3.20), RH Giovanny Gallegos (2-2, 3.60), LH Andrew Miller (1-1, 2.77), RHP Jordan Hicks (did not pitch in 2020), RH Ryan Helsley (1-1, 5.25), RH John Gant (0-3, 2.40), LH Tyler Webb (1-1, 2.08), RH Kodi Whitley (0-0, 1.93), RH Daniel Ponce de Leon (1-3, 4.96). Outlook: The Cardinals thought they were missing one big piece last season and they landed it when they made a stunning late-off-season trade for Arenado to play third base. He provides protection in the order for Goldschmidt while also adding another Gold Glove winner to what could be the best defence in the National League. The rotation returns intact from last season with the exception of RHP Dakota Hudson, who had Tommy John surgery in September, and the bullpen is deep. Wainwright and Molina are back as one of the longest-tenured batterymates in baseball history, providing plenty of experience for a team that will have a relatively young outfield. Put it all together and the Cardinals believe they can make another post-season run this year. ___ Cincinnati Reds 2020: 31-29, third place, wild card, lost to Braves in first round of playoffs. Manager: David Bell (third season). He’s Here: INF Dee Strange-Gordon, INF Kyle Holder, OF Scott Heineman, OF Tyler Naquin, RHP Noé Ramirez. He’s Outta Here: RHP Trevor Bauer, RHP Raisel Iglesias, RHP Anthony DeSclafani, SS Freddy Galvis, C Curt Casali. Projected Lineup: LF Jesse Winker (.255, 12 HRs, 23 RBIs), RF Nick Castellanos (.225, 14, 34), 1B Joey Votto (.226, 11, 22), 3B Eugenio Suarez (.202, 15, 38), 2B Mike Moustakas, (230, 8, 27), CF Shogo Akiyama (.245, 0, 9) or Nick Senzel (.186. 2, 8), SS Kyle Farmer (.266, 0, 4), C Tucker Barnhart (.205, 5, 13). Rotation: RH Luis Castillo (4-6, 3.21 ERA, 89 Ks), RH Sonny Gray (5-3, 3.70, 72 Ks), RH Tyler Mahle (2-2, 3.59, 60 Ks), LH Wade Miley (0-3, 5.65), RH Michael Lorenzen (3-1, 4.28). Key Relievers: RH Tejay Antone (0-3, 2.80, 45 Ks), RHP Lucas Sims (3-0, 2.45), LH Amir Garrett (1-0, 2.45, 1 save), LH Sean Doolittle (0-2, 5.87 in 7 2/3 IP for Washington). Outlook: Despite more off-season subtractions than additions, confidence is high in Reds camp. Bell believes the team was just hitting its stride last September when it won 11 of the last 14 regular-season games to make the playoffs for the first time in seven years. There are questions about pitching without Bauer, the NL Cy Young Award winner who signed a free-agent contract with the Dodgers, and Iglesias, the veteran closer who was traded to the Angels. But the Reds feel they have a solid staff. Galvis left to sign with Baltimore, leaving Farmer, Strange-Gordon and others to compete for the shortstop job. Cincinnati hit a major league-worst .212 during the 60-game 2020 season and will need better performances out of veterans like Votto, Suarez, Castellanos and Moustakas to make another run in what shapes up as a soft NL Central. Around 12,000 fans will be allowed to attend games at Great American Ball Park to begin the season. ___ Milwaukee Brewers 2020: 29-31, fourth place, wild card, lost to Dodgers in first round of playoffs. Manager: Craig Counsell (seventh season). He’s Here: 2B Kolten Wong, CF Jackie Bradley Jr., 3B Travis Shaw, C Luke Maile, INF Daniel Robertson, RHP Jordan Zimmermann. He’s Outta Here: OF Ryan Braun, LHP Álex Claudio, OF Ben Gamel, 1B/3B Jedd Gyorko, RHP Corey Knebel, INF Eric Sogard. Projected Lineup: 2B Kolten Wong (.265, 1 HR, 16 RBIs, .350 OBP with Cardinals), LF Christian Yelich (.205, 12, 22, .356 OBP), 1B Keston Hiura (.212, 13, 32, NL-high 85 strikeouts), CF Lorenzo Cain (.333, 0, 2, opted out after 5 games) or Jackie Bradley Jr. (.283, 7, 22 with Red Sox), RF Avisaíl García (.238, 2, 15) or Bradley, 3B Travis Shaw (.239, 6, 17 with Blue Jays), SS Orlando Arcia (.260, 5, 20) or Luis Urías (.239, 0, 11), C Omar Narváez (.176, 2, 10). Rotation: RH Brandon Woodruff (3-5, 3.05 ERA, 91 Ks in 73 2/3 innings, NL-leading 13 starts), RH Corbin Burnes (4-1, 2.11, 88 Ks in 59 2/3 IP), LH Brett Anderson (4-4, 4.21), RH Adrian Houser (1-6, 5.30), RH Josh Lindblom (2-4, 5.16) or LH Eric Lauer (0-2, 13.09) or RH Freddy Peralta (3-1, 3.99, 47 Ks in 29 1/3 IP) or RH Jordan Zimmermann (0-0, 7.94 with Tigers). Key Relievers: LH Josh Hader (1-2, 3.79, 13/15 saves, 31 Ks in 19 IP), RH Devin Williams (4-1, 0.33, 53 Ks, 8 hits allowed in 27 IP, NL Rookie of the Year), RH Eric Yardley (2-0, 1.54), LH Brent Suter (2-0, 3.13), RH Brad Boxberger (1-0, 3.00 with Marlins), RH Drew Rasmussen (1-0, 5.87, 21 Ks in 15 1/3 IP), RH Justin Topa (0-1, 2.35, 12 Ks in 7 2/3 IP). Outlook: The Brewers’ chances of reaching the playoffs for a fourth straight season depend on whether they can get more offence after hitters up and down their lineup failed to meet expectations last season. The Brewers are counting on Yelich, the 2018 NL MVP, to regain his All-Star form. Hiura, García and Narváez also must bounce back from disappointing seasons. Milwaukee should benefit from having Cain for a full season after he sat out most of the 2020 campaign. The additions of Bradley and Wong – both left-handed hitters and Gold Glove winners – should balance the lineup and help out the pitching staff. Woodruff and Burnes provide a solid 1-2 punch, but the Brewers must get more consistency from the rest of their rotation. Milwaukee probably won’t blow many leads with Williams and Hader anchoring the bullpen. City health officials are permitting spectators to fill 25% of American Family Field’s seating capacity at the start of the season. ___ Pittsburgh Pirates 2020: 19-41, fifth place. Manager: Derek Shelton (second season). He’s Here: INF Todd Frazier, RHP Trevor Cahill, RHP David Bednar, RHP Wil Crowe, RHP Sean Poppen, RHP Miguel Yajure, C Michael Perez, INF Wilmer Difo, LHP Chasen Shreve, C Tony Wolters, OF Brian Goodwin, OF Dustin Fowler. He’s Outta Here: RHP Jameson Taillon, RHP Joe Musgrove, RHP Trevor Williams, 1B Josh Bell, RHP Keone Kela, INF/OF Jose Osuna, LHP Derek Holland, LHP Nik Turley, RHP Dovydas Neverauskas, RHP Nick Burdi. Projected Lineup: 2B Adam Frazier (.230, 7 HRs, 23 RBIs), LF Bryan Reynolds (.189, 7, 19, 5 OF assists), 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes (.376, 5, 11 in 24 games), 1B Colin Moran (.247, 10, 23, 10 2Bs), RF Gregory Polanco (.153, 7, 22), C Jacob Stallings (.248, 3, 18), SS Kevin Newman (.224, 1, 10) or Erik Gonzalez (.227, 3, 20) or Cole Tucker (.220, 1, 8), CF Brian Goodwin (.215, 6, 22 with Reds and Angels) or Dustin Fowler (.224, 6, 23 with Oakland in 2018). Rotation: RH Mitch Keller (1-1, 2.91 ERA in 5 starts), LH Steven Brault (1-3, 3.38), RH Chad Kuhl (2-3, 4.27), LH Tyler Anderson (4-3, 4.37 with Giants), JT Brubaker (1-3, 4.94) or Wil Crowe (0-1, 1.35 in 3 games with Washington). Key Relievers: RH Richard Rodriguez (3-2, 2.70, 4/5 saves), RH Kyle Crick (0-1, 1.59), RH Michael Feliz (0-0, 32.40 in 3 games), LH Sam Howard (2-3, 3.86), RH Chris Stratton (2-1, 3.90), RH Duane Underwood (1-0, 7.36 with Cubs), RH Cody Ponce (1-1, 3.18), LH Chasen Shreve (1-0, 3.96 with Mets), RH Trevor Cahill (1-2, 3.24 with Giants). Outlook: The Pirates are in the midst of a massive reset as general manager Ben Cherington enters his second season on the job. Gone are familiar faces like Taillon and Bell, among others, their departures via trade part of a plan dedicated to stockpiling prospects in the hope that enough pan out down the road to return Pittsburgh to contention. While the future looks (sorta) bright, the present figures to be bumpy. The Pirates finished with the worst record in the majors in 2020 and head into 2021 with a roster that has even less major league experience. Hayes was even better than advertised during his September call-up and finished sixth in NL Rookie of the Year voting. He and Keller are the linchpins whose individual development this season could be far more important than anything that happens in the win/loss column. Bounce-back seasons from Reynolds and Polanco (likely in his final months with the team) would help the offence, but even in a division that might be the worst in the NL if not the majors, expectations are really, really low. Fans will be allowed back at PNC Park this spring, but given the lack of buzz in general the Pirates may be hard-pressed to even fill those seats after the initial “we’re glad baseball is back” crowd gets its fix. ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press
More than 40 trillion gallons of rain drenched the Southeast United States in the last week from Hurricane Helene and a run-of-the-mill rainstorm that sloshed in ahead of it — an unheard of amount of water that has stunned experts.
That’s enough to fill the Dallas Cowboys’ stadium 51,000 times, or Lake Tahoe just once. If it was concentrated just on the state of North Carolina that much water would be 3.5 feet deep (more than 1 meter). It’s enough to fill more than 60 million Olympic-size swimming pools.
“That’s an astronomical amount of precipitation,” said Ed Clark, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Water Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “I have not seen something in my 25 years of working at the weather service that is this geographically large of an extent and the sheer volume of water that fell from the sky.”
The flood damage from the rain is apocalyptic, meteorologists said. More than 100 people are dead, according to officials.
Private meteorologist Ryan Maue, a former NOAA chief scientist, calculated the amount of rain, using precipitation measurements made in 2.5-mile-by-2.5 mile grids as measured by satellites and ground observations. He came up with 40 trillion gallons through Sunday for the eastern United States, with 20 trillion gallons of that hitting just Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas and Florida from Hurricane Helene.
Clark did the calculations independently and said the 40 trillion gallon figure (151 trillion liters) is about right and, if anything, conservative. Maue said maybe 1 to 2 trillion more gallons of rain had fallen, much if it in Virginia, since his calculations.
Clark, who spends much of his work on issues of shrinking western water supplies, said to put the amount of rain in perspective, it’s more than twice the combined amount of water stored by two key Colorado River basin reservoirs: Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
Several meteorologists said this was a combination of two, maybe three storm systems. Before Helene struck, rain had fallen heavily for days because a low pressure system had “cut off” from the jet stream — which moves weather systems along west to east — and stalled over the Southeast. That funneled plenty of warm water from the Gulf of Mexico. And a storm that fell just short of named status parked along North Carolina’s Atlantic coast, dumping as much as 20 inches of rain, said North Carolina state climatologist Kathie Dello.
Then add Helene, one of the largest storms in the last couple decades and one that held plenty of rain because it was young and moved fast before it hit the Appalachians, said University of Albany hurricane expert Kristen Corbosiero.
“It was not just a perfect storm, but it was a combination of multiple storms that that led to the enormous amount of rain,” Maue said. “That collected at high elevation, we’re talking 3,000 to 6000 feet. And when you drop trillions of gallons on a mountain, that has to go down.”
The fact that these storms hit the mountains made everything worse, and not just because of runoff. The interaction between the mountains and the storm systems wrings more moisture out of the air, Clark, Maue and Corbosiero said.
North Carolina weather officials said their top measurement total was 31.33 inches in the tiny town of Busick. Mount Mitchell also got more than 2 feet of rainfall.
Before 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, “I said to our colleagues, you know, I never thought in my career that we would measure rainfall in feet,” Clark said. “And after Harvey, Florence, the more isolated events in eastern Kentucky, portions of South Dakota. We’re seeing events year in and year out where we are measuring rainfall in feet.”
Storms are getting wetter as the climate change s, said Corbosiero and Dello. A basic law of physics says the air holds nearly 4% more moisture for every degree Fahrenheit warmer (7% for every degree Celsius) and the world has warmed more than 2 degrees (1.2 degrees Celsius) since pre-industrial times.
Corbosiero said meteorologists are vigorously debating how much of Helene is due to worsening climate change and how much is random.
For Dello, the “fingerprints of climate change” were clear.
“We’ve seen tropical storm impacts in western North Carolina. But these storms are wetter and these storms are warmer. And there would have been a time when a tropical storm would have been heading toward North Carolina and would have caused some rain and some damage, but not apocalyptic destruction. ”
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It’s a dinosaur that roamed Alberta’s badlands more than 70 million years ago, sporting a big, bumpy, bony head the size of a baby elephant.
On Wednesday, paleontologists near Grande Prairie pulled its 272-kilogram skull from the ground.
They call it “Big Sam.”
The adult Pachyrhinosaurus is the second plant-eating dinosaur to be unearthed from a dense bonebed belonging to a herd that died together on the edge of a valley that now sits 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
It didn’t die alone.
“We have hundreds of juvenile bones in the bonebed, so we know that there are many babies and some adults among all of the big adults,” Emily Bamforth, a paleontologist with the nearby Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum, said in an interview on the way to the dig site.
She described the horned Pachyrhinosaurus as “the smaller, older cousin of the triceratops.”
“This species of dinosaur is endemic to the Grand Prairie area, so it’s found here and nowhere else in the world. They are … kind of about the size of an Indian elephant and a rhino,” she added.
The head alone, she said, is about the size of a baby elephant.
The discovery was a long time coming.
The bonebed was first discovered by a high school teacher out for a walk about 50 years ago. It took the teacher a decade to get anyone from southern Alberta to come to take a look.
“At the time, sort of in the ’70s and ’80s, paleontology in northern Alberta was virtually unknown,” said Bamforth.
When paleontogists eventually got to the site, Bamforth said, they learned “it’s actually one of the densest dinosaur bonebeds in North America.”
“It contains about 100 to 300 bones per square metre,” she said.
Paleontologists have been at the site sporadically ever since, combing through bones belonging to turtles, dinosaurs and lizards. Sixteen years ago, they discovered a large skull of an approximately 30-year-old Pachyrhinosaurus, which is now at the museum.
About a year ago, they found the second adult: Big Sam.
Bamforth said both dinosaurs are believed to have been the elders in the herd.
“Their distinguishing feature is that, instead of having a horn on their nose like a triceratops, they had this big, bony bump called a boss. And they have big, bony bumps over their eyes as well,” she said.
“It makes them look a little strange. It’s the one dinosaur that if you find it, it’s the only possible thing it can be.”
The genders of the two adults are unknown.
Bamforth said the extraction was difficult because Big Sam was intertwined in a cluster of about 300 other bones.
The skull was found upside down, “as if the animal was lying on its back,” but was well preserved, she said.
She said the excavation process involved putting plaster on the skull and wooden planks around if for stability. From there, it was lifted out — very carefully — with a crane, and was to be shipped on a trolley to the museum for study.
“I have extracted skulls in the past. This is probably the biggest one I’ve ever done though,” said Bamforth.
“It’s pretty exciting.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
