Down the stretch (MLB)

[Drunkenmaster]

Who do you like coming down the stretch. The wild card races look very interesting. I do think whe Chi Sox will catch the Tigers.

[DrHibbert]

I like the Twins and the White Sox. The AL central is solid. I'd be surprised if someone from that division didn't win the world series.

[Kinbote]

I was rooting for Detroit in the Central until, one, they acquired Neifi Perez, and, two, jackass Leyland thought it'd be a good idea to bat him leadoff. Jesus Christ. For those sins I hope they tank.

Anyone noticed how hot the A's have been? Big mistake, I think, to count them out of anything. With the Red Sox toasted I've shifted my loyalty for the rest of the year to the left coast.

Meanwhile, while my Sox are done, I WAS very pleased by the Wells deal: Kotteras is a hell of a guy to give up for a month of fat washed up beluga meat. At worst he'll be a cheap, solid backup. And if his bat can develop - it well may; his plate discipline is superb - he could be a very valuable regular.

[Peter]

Here's my predictions:
AL EAST: Yankees
AL WEST: Athletics
AL CENTRAL: Tigers
AL WILD CARD : Twins

NL EAST: Mets
NL WEST: Padres (this is iffy)
NL CENTRAL: Cardinals
NL WILD CARD : Cincinnati

[DrHibbert]

Yankees, Tigers, Athletics (all duh)
Mets, Cardinals, Dodgers (same)

Wilds: White Sox, Phillies

[Kinbote]

I'd be tickled pink if the Marlins kept up their surge and took the NL wild card. Bud Selig would poop his pants!

[El Loto]

Well the Marlins do well in post-season if they get the wild card. Would be a great turnaround.

[Peter]

:lol: I forgot the marlins even existed.

[Drunkenmaster]

All I can say is the Marlins must do a bang up job in drafting.

[Peter]

Seems like they're making quite a racket with this little hot streak...good for them.

[Kinbote]

Larry Beinfest would seem to be a very underrated GM. A good drafter, yes, but also a good judge of other people's talent - he may have to conduct salary dumps, but he gets a lot more value in return than most salary dumpers do.

Plus, he makes me feel smart. It was Lester or Sanchez that we were going to have to give up for Beckett, and I, unlike most observers, thought we made the wrong choice. And now? Sanchez is having a damned solid season as a twenty-two year old, and our guy has cancer. Way to go, Lucchino!

[Peter]

and in a freak turn of events,

THE TIGERS CUT DH DMITRI YOUNG. outta fuckin nowhere seemingly.

[Drunkenmaster]

Larry Beinfest would seem to be a very underrated GM. A good drafter, yes, but also a good judge of other people's talent - he may have to conduct salary dumps, but he gets a lot more value in return than most salary dumpers do.

Plus, he makes me feel smart. It was Lester or Sanchez that we were going to have to give up for Beckett, and I, unlike most observers, thought we made the wrong choice. And now? Sanchez is having a damned solid season as a twenty-two year old, and our guy has cancer. Way to go, Lucchino!
Perhaps the Billy Beane of the NL?

[Kinbote]

Give him a few more years. Luck is still conceivably an element of his success, and he hasn't made a team yet capable of a multi-year run.

[Drunkenmaster]

True. I think you really have to like the A's in the AL. The pitching looks good and Frank Thomas could be thrown into the AL MVP argument. I'm giving them my full support for the remainder of the season. In the NL, I don't like anyone so I'll just say the Phillies.

[Narcissistic Nihilist]

The Phils still have too much of a habit of throwing leads away in the 8th and 9th, but they should still have too much for the rest of the teams they face. (at CBP: 3 v Cubs, 3 v Marlins, (Ive got my tickets for the last game of that series on Sunday :D ), 1 v Houston, and on the road: 1 v Houston, 3 v Nats, 3 v Marlins). They really need to put a streak together.

They should win most of them, but the Padres are looking tough to catch. The best hope of the Wild Card might well be against the Dodgers, if San Diego overtake them. There is only .5 between them in the NL West and they still have 2 more games of the series together left yet. One of them has to lose, so if the Phils can keep a streak up and win the next two, they are guaranteed to be at half a game behind the wild card at most.

[Drunkenmaster]

Sounds like the Phils bullpen needs some help if they keep blowing games in the latter innings. I haven't seen them play much this season and the news is generally about Ryan Howard.

[Narcissistic Nihilist]

Sounds like the Phils bullpen needs some help if they keep blowing games in the latter innings. I haven't seen them play much this season and the news is generally about Ryan Howard.

Well, it could always improve.

The Phils pitching has improved greatly over the last few weeks. In the last game v the Cubs, Myers went all the way for a complete game. Last week against Houston, Cole Hamels went over 6 innings without conceding a hit. The starters are going the distances when needed. Geoff Geary has been a fairly reliable replacement, and Ryan Madson is still a great pticher, but adjusting to life as cover rather than a starter.

There is no doubt that pitching is the key for a team that has scored over 800 runs (the most in the NL, only the Yankees and White Sox have scored more in the MLB), and yeah, the hitting is built around the big, gentle giant, but Chase Utley has 29 HR now, his best, and J-Rol and Lieberthal have been going deep recently too.

They are playing their best baseball of the season at the crunch time, but people round here (I'm over in Philly at the moment) still expect them to blow it. Once bitten... and all that. Its pretty much gonna come down to how they play the tricky Marlins, with them being our opponents in 6 of these last 10.

If they do blow it, they should look back to their dismal Interleague record (5-13).

On another unrelated note, I went to my first Flyers game last night. My first visit to the Wachovia Centre. Good to see some hockey body checks close up! :D

[Kinbote]

Chase Utley strikes me as one of the more underrated fellers playing these days. Rarely hear about him around here, anyway. I don't know how his defense is - though I think I remember it being praised - but .369/.515 out of a second baseman is pretty sweet no matter what. Third amongst major league 2Bs in runs created per game (Ray Durham leads, shockingly: I wasn't really even aware he was still playing), and the top 2B in Win Shares. And Ryan Howard, in addition to being very good - a fucking .502 OBP since late June, I read not long ago - sounds like a genuine nonasshole. Were I a Phillies fan, my only big fear for the near future would be the fact that Pat Gillick's running the team - he has a tendency to implode.

[Drunkenmaster]

Utley did have the great 40+ hit streak earlier this season. I think it was over 40. Anyway, he does seem like a good ball player. Phillie fans can be lucky that their team didn't get sold off after the All-Star break. Luckily, the Braves had their worst season in well over a decade which opened up the NL a bit.

[Drunkenmaster]

I know Girardi had a confrontation with the Marlins owner, but why in the hell would they want to fire him? His second half record was outstanding and he did it with about 3 players that anyone had heard of. He'll probably be manager of the year and then get fired. Oh, well... on to the sinking ship that is the Cubs?

[Kinbote]

Well, for one, managers have very little effect on wins (and only very bad ones have much of an effect on losses), so having a manager, even a successful one, perhaps formenting discontent between players and the front office isn't too great a thing, especially when most of those players probably want to get the hell out of town anyway.

Also, Loria is a fucking douche.

[gangsta puffin]

Chase Utley strikes me as one of the more underrated fellers playing these days. Rarely hear about him around here, anyway. I don't know how his defense is - though I think I remember it being praised - but .369/.515 out of a second baseman is pretty sweet no matter what. Third amongst major league 2Bs in runs created per game (Ray Durham leads, shockingly: I wasn't really even aware he was still playing), and the top 2B in Win Shares. And Ryan Howard, in addition to being very good - a fucking .502 OBP since late June, I read not long ago - sounds like a genuine nonasshole. Were I a Phillies fan, my only big fear for the near future would be the fact that Pat Gillick's running the team - he has a tendency to implode.

Danny: Chase certainly isn't underrated in these parts. He and Howard are considered the future of the franchise. Utley's main strength, apart from being very clever on base, is his fantastic speed. He can turn singles into doubles simply through pace. This also helps his defense, and he is super-quick at getting the double plays in. He is still prone to odd error in overthrowing the ball, but it is rare. During his huge hitting streak, he was totally reluctant to discuss it till it was over.

Ryan Howard is a total non-asshole. Quiet, modest, and a guy who just prefers too do his talking with his bat on home plate.

Glad the Dodgers lost last night and now the Phils have the NL wild card lead. You know they are gonna blow it this afternoon when I go to see them :cry: I still havent got to see them play that much, but I see a lot of national "experts" are saying they are playing the best baseball in the majors at the moment. Just hoping they concentrate on keeping that going and on into post-season. I am still refusing to count any chickens until its definite.

[Aaron]

wooohooo Tigers are in the playoffs, first time since 1987. :D

:rockon: :spamtap: :party: :pinkeleph :guitar: :dance: :bounce: :bop: :chicken:

[gangsta puffin]

wooohooo Tigers are in the playoffs, first time since 1987. :D

Congrats, I hope they go all the way to the world series, where they get truly thrashed by the fighting phils! ;)

[Drunkenmaster]

How about the freakin Astros! (could read: How about the abismal Cardinals!)

[Drunkenmaster]

1/2 game!

[Peter]

here's how it's going to go down:

AL Champs: Yankees
NL Champs: Mets

effin' subway series. MET'S FUCKIN PWN THE YANKS FOR THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (OF AMERICA).

[Kinbote]

I kinda doubt it. Neither the Mets nor the Yankees have any starting pitching. Mets have a better chance, given the lameness of their NL fellows, but I'd take Oakland and the Twins over the Yankees without hesitation, and wouldn't be willing to bet against Detroit.

[Drunkenmaster]

Oaktown!

AL: Oakland
NL: Mets?

They will miss Pedro's 83 mph fastball.

[drumloops]

I kinda doubt it. Neither the Mets nor the Yankees have any starting pitching. Mets have a better chance, given the lameness of their NL fellows, but I'd take Oakland and the Twins over the Yankees without hesitation, and wouldn't be willing to bet against Detroit.

You are absolutely right about the Yankees. I mean, it's not like they have any nineteen-game winners in their starting rotation.

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_425426.jpg

[Kinbote]

To think that wins have anything to do with whether or not a pitcher's performance is a fool thing. On top of which, Wang's poor peripheral stats suggest that his bottom, as they say, could fall out at any time.

[Drunkenmaster]

Well, Bowden cleared a lot of dead wood out of the bullpen yesterday. Hopefully with Frank Robinson gone, the Nats will take on a more youthful persona and be able to compete in 2-4 years. Now they need to focus on finding some underrated talent to dump at next year's trade deadline.