The Weekly MLB Rundown 08.29.08: 30 Days and Counting...
Posted by A.J. Stevens on 08.29.2008
We are exactly one month from playoff baseball! The marathon is about to come to a close as teams gear up for the most important month of the season. Who will shine? Who will fall? It's all here inside this week's Rundown!
School's back in session, baseball is about to end, something called "pre-season foot-ball" is starting, and the Olympics are over. It's Rundown time, folks!
LEADING OFF with some reader mail from last week...
Mikel writes: The Blue Jays humiliated the Yankees 14-3 tonight and seem to be making a legitimate run for the wildcard. Even if they don't make it, its still a good story for a team written off a couple of weeks ago.
Toronto is currently 12.5 back in the AL East and 9 games back in the Wild Card. They're coming off a terrible loss to the Rays, where the starting pitcher struck out 11 batters, but still took the loss, 2-1. For the rest of the year, they're looking at 6 games against the Yankees, 3 games against Tampa Bay, 4 games against the White Sox, 6 games against Boston, and 6 games against Baltimore. Unfortunately for them, the only "easy" games are going to be against the Orioles.
I believe that Toronto is officially in the role of "spoiler" - a team that's good enough to win a few games, but not good enough to make a leap into pennant contention. With 13 games against first place teams (or teams that may be in first place in the wild card), there is a large chance that one of these teams is going to be cursing the Blue Jays come October.
Big Dirty pipes up: Why doesn'the NL East get any love on this site. The NL west is full of garbage teams that are bareley at or over 500. The east is playing out a riveting story as the Mets try to make ammends for last years historic collapse. The race has everything from former mvp's and cy young winners, major trades, managers being fired and the biggest market in the game.
I'm sorry to be so blunt, but: Where? I'll give you that the NL East is going to come down to the wire - maybe - and that one of the teams may be involved in the NL Wild Card race. The Mets are barely in first place, and I would be surprised if they sniffed it at all the rest of the season. Their bullpen is horrible, they've made no - NO - moves except picking up an arm from the Nationals, and their dearth of effective outfielders plus the non-pitching depth means they are DONE. Kaputski, nice knowing you, Shea isn't going to get that nice sendoff everybody wanted. The Phillies have also done absolutely nothing - save from acquiring Joe Blanton. They're doing well with a couple NL HR leaders in the lineup with Utley and Howard. Brad Lidge appears to have regained the form that Pujols shattered back in 2004. Aside from that, there has been absolutely no action in the NL East other than three teams struggling to not collapse the worst. It's almost like the opposite of the NL West, where the team that sucks the least will win.
Stephen writes: You know...for the last 8 years or so I counted the losses on the yankee's part and celebreated when they hit the 63 mark...I hated when yankee fans would say .."we are going to win 100 games and win the world series" since I started countings...no series. But this is just too much for me...I feel like im in a bizzaro world or something. I mean...the Mets better then the Yankees?! I'm not counting my chickens before the cow makes it's milk...but I can't help but wonder..."is this the year that shuts them up?"
The Mets were better than the Yankees for the majority of the 80's. Most of the really obnoxious Yankees fans only seem to remember the teams from 1996 onward, which conveniently omits a pretty bad run for the Bombers. I think right now we're seeing another swing in the momentum between the teams from the Queens and Bronx. The Yankees are getting rid of a whole host of free agent money at the end of the year, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them deviate from their formula of the past few years and go after some young players to help them build towards another run in a couple of years.
And dude... "count your chickens before the cow makes its milk?" I've heard of "counting your chickens before they're hatched," but this is a new metaphor for me.
Finally, toto closes it out with: those 411 fact or fiction guys say the yankees will make it to play offs... oh, are they red in the face!
Well, nobody's perfect. Without looking, I can tell you that at the beginning of the season I picked the Red Sox to beat the Diamondbacks in the World Series, and I would be surprised if that played out. Right now there is a very real chance that neither of those two teams will make the playoffs.
UP NEXT we've got a quick jaunt around the horn
Alright... what else do we have this week? We've got an exciting pennant and wild card race... nope, not the one I just got done talking about. I'm talking about the AL Central. Right now, Boston is in the lead with 77 wins, with NL Central division champs Chicago with 76 wins, and Minnesota at 75 wins. Boston is 4 games behind Tampa Bay, so they have to be careful that they don't fall out of contention in either race over the next month. Minnesota plays 7 of its last 10 games against the Rays and the White Sox. The Sox have a slightly easier schedule, with Minnesota being their only opponent of note in the season's final two weeks. Meanwhile, the Red Sox will be fighting against the Yankees in their final series this year, preceded by two weeks of nothing but Tampa Bay and the spoiler Jays. Hmm... that almost sounds like a rock band.
Speaking of Boston, they acquired OF Mark Kotsay from the Braves to help them out while JD Drew takes his regular seat on the disabled list. Kotsay said: "[T]his obviously is exciting to come to a club that's in the playoff race, and especially one like Boston that has the history of a great tradition."
Do you hear that, Brian Giles? Enjoy life with your brother out of the major leagues on Sep. 30, idiot.
The NL West continues to be a battle of hot potato, as nobody seems to want the pennant. The Diamondbacks just got done rolling out their best three pitchers, the pitchers expected to get them through three short series this October, three pitchers named Webb, Haren, and Johnson... who were promptly swept by the lowly San Diego Padres. Granted, this was more a
function of the anemic Arizona bullpen than anything else, but still...
The AL West appears to be going to the Angels, unless there is a collapse of epic proportions. Really, that's not going to happen. We're able to start talking about "Magic Numbers" already for these guys, and for the Angels (as of deadline time Thursday night), it is a nice, cool 15. (The next closest team is Chicago, with 25, and that's with 31 games left, just to give you an idea of how close the rest of baseball is right now.)
Instant replay started last night, but unfortunately, due to deadline concerns, I will not be able to cover it until next week's column. Don't worry, we're on top of things here at the Rundown, we're just up against a very tight schedule. Maybe Borenstein will have something for you this week...
This is the part of the column where I realize it's a bit short, so I embed a video:
BAH GAWD KANG HOW DO YOU LEARN HOW TO FALL OFF A 10 FOOT WALL
(Sorry. For size reference, Mike Pelfrey is listed as 6'7". Any Philly readers out there who can tell me how high that wall really is?)
CLOSING IT OUT
Short column this week, but I was able to spend the majority of it talking baseball with you, the readers. Stay safe over this holiday weekend, and when we come back, it's a return to form for the Rundown as we put on our favorite team's baseball cap, relax, and watch the show! Until then -- AJS
