The Weekly MLB Rundown 08.22.08: Around the Turn...

Posted by A.J. Stevens on 08.22.2008

This week we're taking a look at the time leading up to the stretch run for the 2008 MLB Season. Who will stand strong at the end?

Welcome again to another edition of the MLB Rundown! I'm your host, A.J. Stevens, and we've got the week's hottest news stories and analysis right here for you. Let's get to it!

Greg Maddux to the Dodgers (and why didn't the Dodgers try to block Adam Dunn)?

Earlier this week, the ageless (actually, he's 42, but who's counting?) Greg Maddux joined the Dodgers once again for one more - some would say a final - run at a World Series ring. Maddux has won 4 consecutive Cy Young awards, been elected to the All-Star team 8 times, and is widely regarded as the greatest pitcher to toe the rubber in our generation. Having been saddled with the offensive-but-not-in-the-right-way Padres batting order this year, Maddux has eked out a substandard 6-9 record, with a below-league-average 3.99 ERA. Another way to put this is, he won as many games with the Dodgers during his first post-trade stint with them as he has all year with the Padres.

This is a good move for the Dodgers: Brad Penny is on the DL, Jason Schmidt is still a bust, and Kuroda alternates between flashes of unhittable brilliance and the apparent inability to recognize a baseball. At the very least, Maddux is going to be a valuable mentor to next year's rotation. Given that this is likely Maddux's last shot at a second ring (having won before in 1995 with the Braves), and the fact that the Dodgers were the only team Maddux would have accepted a trade to, Maddux is going to be motivated. He's going to have two bona-fide Hall of Fame sluggers in Jeff Kent and Manny Ramirez supporting him in the lineup. The Dodgers, despite their history of big FA busts (Schmidt, Jones, Pierre), are sending the message that they are willing to take a shot at it all this year.

Less understandable, but certainly justifiable, is their reasoning behind not blocking the acquisition of Adam Dunn by the Diamondbacks. At the time Dunn was put on waivers, the Dodgers had a worse record than the Snakes and were therefore ahead of AZ in the pecking order. Not quite sure how that works. Sure, the Dodgers could have been on the hook for $3.5MM in salary, they could have faced the problem of another 1B/OF on the team, but when it comes down to it, if your division rival is about to add the league leader in HRs, you have to take a risk and block it.

NL West Pennant Race

And speaking of the NL West pennant race, as of 5 PM EDT on Thursday, the Diamondbacks are 2 full games ahead of the Dodgers. The Diamondbacks have 3 games against Florida (65-62), 3 against the Padres (48-78), 6 against the Dodgers (64-62), 7 against the Cards (71-58), 6 against the Giants (54-72), 3 against Cincinnati (56-72), and 6 against the Rockies (59-69). The Dodgers have 6 games against the Snakes (66-60), 4 games against the Phillies (68-58), 3 games against the Nationals (0-127), 9 games against the Padres, 3 against the Rockies, 4 against the Pirates (57-70), and 6 against the Giants.

What does this all mean? The Snakes are playing 21 of their remaining 34 games against the NL West. The Dodgers have 24 of 35 against the West. The Dodgers have an easier schedule outside of the division, with only the Phillies presenting any particular problem. The Diamondbacks, meanwhile, will face two legitimate pennant/wild card contenders in Florida and St. Louis. Given the fact that the NL West is the worst division in baseball, and the Nationals and Pittsburgh are in the bottom third of teams outside of the division, the edge for the rest of the season goes to the Dodgers. ESPN lists the Diamondbacks as 2:1 favorites over the Dodgers for the playoffs, but that could quickly change over the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned to the Rundown for the latest news and analysis!

NL Central Pennant Race

This one, thankfully, is looking more cut-and-dried. Barring a late-season surge from the Phillies, Marlins, or Mets, the NL Wild Card is going to come out of this division, and it is going to be a tight race. The Cubs are leading the division with a share of the best record in baseball, and it looks like they will take the flag home no matter what CC Sabathia can manage in Milwaukee. Meanwhile, the Brewers lead the Wild Card hunt by two games over the Cardinals, with Philadelphia and Florida following close behind. Toss in the Mets (only two games ahead of the Phillies in the NL East), and we have a nice 5-team mix heading into the final 5 weeks of the season. It's time to pay close attention, boys and girls.

Carl Pavano to start for the Yankees

I'll take "things I'll believe when I see" for $500 please, Alex. This, more than anything else, is another item on the long list of reasons why the Yankees have thrown in the towel on 2008. When your options are all the way down to Pavano, you've got problems. Of course, all of this discussion may be moot, as he still has another couple of days to injure himself.

Instant Replay

Baseball + Instant Replay: two great tastes that go great together? In this case, heck yes. They're still working out the "how", but the "what" is in place: instant replay on disputed home run calls. One thing I enjoy about baseball - I've been a fan for over 25 years now (Old!) - is the renaissance of classically-designed stadiums. While I grew up with the "cookie cutter" multi-purpose stadiums, I'm a huge fan of classic stadiums and classic designs. Heck, even on MLB 2008: The Show, I'm more likely to play an exhibition game in Shibe Park or Forbes Field than I am in Shea. With the new design of stadiums, though, a new innovation has come to pass: the dreaded "home run line", the most ridiculous of which exists in Arizona's Chase Field. Now, instead of a ball clearly going over a wall and disappearing, it's up to an umpire's judgement as to whether or not the ball hit the wall above or below the line. Hey folks, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Not everything can be retro. You want the yellow lines, you gotta take the instant replay cameras. This will be a good thing for baseball once everybody gets the hang of it.

Maier takes pitch to face

For those of you who haven't seen the highlight, go here: MLB Video Highlight.

OK, first off, Royals OF Mitch Maier wins the Here Is Your Man Card award this week for not going down and staying down. Dude gets hit in the face, then TAKES A KNEE? You've gotta be kidding me. That is some serious hurting going on there. Man points also for coming back to the clubhouse after the hospital visit, and joking with his teammates about the incident: "I guess I should have gotten the first bunt down," referring to the pitch beforehand, which was bunted foul.

Reader comments

Rundown regular reader Remy writes: I remember watching Sheffield in an interview about a year after he left the Yanks. He claimed Torre is a racist. I never liked him, but after the ridiculous tirade that included comments about Jeter and Bernie not counting because they aren't really black and that Posada doesn't count because he's Hispanic....I truly hated Sheffield. The man is only relevant in his own mind.

I did a good job of establishing my antipathy for Sheffield last week. While I don't wish harm upon anybody, and I understand that a man's gotta make a living, I also don't think he's got the skills to play at the level he thinks he can. Let him be a platoon DH somewhere, and really experience what he thinks he's going through right now, and then maybe he can complain. But until he steps his game up, he ain't got nothing to say.

CLOSING IT OUT

Good news, baseball fans: I'm very pleased to make the announcement that I will be attending an actual, meaningful, pennant-race-affecting baseball game early next month! Watch this space for more details, and after the fact: some bonus special coverage you can only get right here at the Rundown!

In the meantime, drop me a line at [e-mail] or leave me a comment below! See you next week --AJS