The Weekly MLB Rundown 09.12.08: I'm a Fan, Too

Posted by A.J. Stevens on 09.12.2008

A snapshot of the current playoff picture + a lack of credentials + one fan's perspective = This Week's Rundown!

SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE CLUTCHING JAWS OF VICTORY

Hi. My name's A.J. Stevens. When I'm not writing articles for Web sites, I root for the Arizona Diamondbacks. It's mostly due to proximity -- sometimes it's more fun to root for the hometown team, although you wouldn't know it from the attendance at Chase Field, which is usually 55% Cubs fans. Anyway, while I usually write this article with a concerted effort to remain impartial, this week I'm going to let some of my personal bias show through.

That is to say: ARRRRRGHHH THE DIAMONDBACKS ARE A HIDEOUS BLACK HOLE OF SUCK.

Holy poop on a stick, guys, you've lost six in a row, including the last two games on walkoff hits in the bottom of the ninth inning to the Giants. The GIANTS! You know, that once-proud franchise whose average age is roughly 74. You made Tim Lincecum look phenomenal -- which he is -- and Barry Zito look good. For the latter, you should get some sort of trophy. And in your trophy acceptance speech, can you please explain to me how people like Chris Burke and Jon Rauch are still getting paychecks?

I can't lay the blame all on one person, though. The D-Backs' lineup is miserable no matter who you look at. Terrible in situational hitting -- and a lot of that is the manager, Bob Melvin, who in Wednesday's game had Chris Snyder BUNT with a runner on first base. Chris Snyder has been OPSing .925 over the past 25 games. If you don't really know about stats, and apparently Bob Melvin doesn't, this means that Chris Snyder has been hitting very, very, very well in the past 3 weeks or so.

The pitching staff hasn't been too hot, either. Brandon Webb and Danny Haren have been replaced by pod people in the past few weeks. The bullpen has been interchangeably bad, with normally reliable arms Brandon Lyon and Tony Pena serving up runs like fried dough at a carnival. The aforementioned Jon Rauch, along with his partner in suck Chad Qualls, have specialized in letting inherited runners score. Awful, awful, awful.

This past week has been especially difficult, with the D-Backs dropping some heartbreaking games to the Dodgers, causing them to finally succumb to the inevitable and fall out of first place. Couple that with the losses to the Giants, and it's been like watching a balloon let go by a careless child -- their playoff chances are just floating away. Sportsclubstats.com has their chances of making the playoffs at less than 20%. Message boards are starting to talk about an "elimination number" instead of a "magic number".

Now, I know... there are 18 days left in the season (I'm writing this on Wednesday night as I will be travelling Thursday afternoon), and that's a lot of baseball. It seems like it is going to take a collapse of Metsian proportions for the Snakes to participate in October baseball this year.

There's hope, but not a lot of it.

ANGELS CLINCH AL WEST ONE DAY EARLY

I'm not really following the format of previous columns, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to hold myself responsible for what I wrote. Last week, I called the Angels clinching the West last night against Seattle. They overachieved, and made it one day sooner than I thought. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for being the first team to be confirmed October participants.

YOUR PLAYOFF PICTURE

I'm feeling ambitious this week, and am going to attempt a table. Remember, A.J. + Tables = broken 411mania.

	East	Central	West	Wild Card
AL	??	??	Angels	??
NL	??	??	??	??

Team names in Bold denote my pre-season picks. You know, so I can feel proud of myself.

LACK OF CREDENTIALS

Chances are while you read this article, I will be in sunny Phoenix, AZ, preparing to take in a Diamondbacks game. The Snakes' current woes notwithstanding, it will be an exciting time, watching Brandon Webb go for his 20th win (again...), getting player autographs, and pigging out on Friday's Front Row food during batting practice. I'll be taking pictures with my new camera, and bringing some great action shots home from the game.

I wanted to make this moment special for you readers, as well. Keeping in mind that sometimes I am a Fan and sometimes I am a Journalist, I wanted to put on my Journalist hat for this game. Two weeks ago, I called the Diamondbacks Media Relations department and requested a brief (5-minute) interview with a player, a coach... anybody. I mentioned that I was a Big Important Writer for a Big Important Website in the message I left. I left my home phone number, and then... waited. And waited. And, waited some more. Finally, on Monday, I got a phone call back from Jeanine in the MR department. She explained that MLB policy prohibited giving press passes to people not affiliated with print or video media, or, in other words, "bloggers." I put up a bit of resistance, and even played the birthday card, but no dice. I didn't want to push it, in case I did wind up writing for a Big Important Newspaper or giving reports on a Big Important Radio Network (I have a face made for radio... trust me).

Here's my initial entry into video media:


So, long story short: I will be attending the game today, I will be taking lots of pictures, and I will be paying too much money for food, but it will be with an eye toward what could have been for you, the readers, and me, the Journalist. -AJS