EVIL~! alkeiper

The International League North is going to be a ton of fun next year. AAA Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Red Sox all as inter divisional rivals. Syracuse and Rochester are open as well, so who knows who will occupy those spots. (Syracuse will likely retain the Blue Jays.)

The Cleveland Indians officially terminated their affiliation with the AAA Buffalo Bisons. It is likely they will pick up the Columbus Clippers. This is big for Met fans as well since the club is likely looking to move their AAA club to the International League.

A couple friends snagged tickets to the 9/27 Phillies/Nats game. One more trip to an MLB game this season.

Phillies called up Adam Eaton, J.A. Happ, Lou Marson and Greg Golson. Golson is a fast runner at least, he can be a suitable late inning replacement on the basepaths and in the field. He's working on his plate discipline but is likely overmatched by big league hurlers. Marson is a catcher who could well steal the starting job if given the opportunity.

I have my doubts on the scoring decision. An after the fact no-hitter would be unprecedented, and kind of cheap really.

I think the big development of this week is that the Marlins are just about out of the race. They are seven back in the NL East. The difference between them and last year's Mets is that the fish need to catch two teams. The Cardinals are also now 7.5 back of the wild card, just about done.

Best C.C. Sabathia stat. He currently leads BOTH leagues in shutouts!

Two and two. Now the Phillies need to get the job done in Washington. A three-game set against Milwaukee next weekend is the only non-division matchup left on the docket.

Yes. The official scorer can change his ruling within 24 hours of the game. The Brewers can also request an appeal of a scorer's ruling within 24 hours to the league office. From the ESPN game account, it appears the Brewers will do that. There is no set time for the league office to hand down a ruling. Rule 10.01 (a)

There's two problems with a regular channel. Either you end up missing a lot due to schedule conflicts, or they replay everything often and you see the same crap over and over. I like the current concept as I've got a certain amount of time to spend watching wrestling, and I can watch it at my leisure. I'd hate to get home from work and tune in only to find out my only viewing option was IYH 5.

Had this idea at work. Simple concept, create an All-Star team using only one player from each country. 25 man roster, plus a manager. Starters C: Dave Nilsson, Australia 1B: Sadaharu Oh, Japan 2B: Glenn Hubbard, Germany SS: Luis Aparicio, Venezuela 3B: Reno Bertoia, Italy LF: Larry Walker, Canada CF: Devon White, Jamaica RF: Roberto Clemente, Puerto Rico DH: Babe Ruth, USA Rotation SP Pedro Martinez, Dominican Republic SP: Bert Blyleven, Netherlands SP: Chien-Ming Wang, Taiwan SP: Dennis Martinez, Nicaragua SP: Tony Mullane: Ireland Bullpen CL: Mariano Rivera, Panama RP: Lance Painter, United Kingdom RP: Moe Drabowsky, Poland RP: Danny Graves, Vietnam RP: Bobby Chouinard, Phillipines RP: Byung-Hyun Kim, Korea Bench C: Eddie Ainsmith, Russia IF: Orlando Cabrera, Columbia IF: Hector Espino, Mexico (the minor league home run king) OF: Elmer Valo, Czechoslovakia Manager: Bruce Bochy, France

I never understood this. The object of either race is to win as many games as possible. Does that change depending on what you're chasing?

The Brewers aren't exactly running great relievers out there either.

Thank god for that.

I feared this coming in. If the Cubs don't win the National League pennant, something is wrong. This is the best team they've fielded since at least 1935.

Heh. No, I'm just 26 yet.

Buster Olney says it's Fabio Castro to the Jays for Matt Stairs. I like Castro, but he's the kind of player you don't sweat giving up for a big missing piece.

Convincingly? He didn't mention that the .282 Bases Loaded OPS came in 11 plate appearances. ELEVEN! If you want to prove that anyone is unclutch, you could probably find a statistic to do it with. You're smarter than this. The Indians are 65-67 right now. This is not the Orioles or the Royals, this is a team with a history of success who could very well clear .500 this year. If they finish with say, 83-85 wins the losing team argument is much harder to make. As for the Cy Young, I can't see the voting influencing one another. Since they do 1-2-3-etc. balloting, there is less chance of that than there is if they just had one vote and done. As an aside, looking for a MVP/Cy Young combo I saw Steve Bedrosian in 1987. A closer on a sub-.500 team winning the Cy Young? What the heck was up with THAT? I could be wrong on this, but doesn't service time in September not count?

Why must we go through this winning team/MVP nonsense every single season? Sizemore's a solid choice, maybe #2 behind Alex Rodriguez. Sizemore leads the league in runs created and may win a gold glove. That spells the best player in the league, in my book. I guess maybe if he convinced Travis Hafner to hit better than .217, he'd be an MVP. Carlos Quintin would've.

I won't argue that Rich Telander is a great columnist, honestly I never read him. Mariotti though just stirred up shit, blasted everyone in sight for breaking the beloved sanctity in sports. Or something like that, I'm having trouble articulating. I think Czech likes Mariotti solely because Jay hates Ozzie Guillen. Right or wrong, that doesn't make him a good columnist. If you want a truly bad columnist though, check out Bill Conlin in the Philly Inquirer,

Isn't a GIDP opportunity more likely to be a high leverage situation in the first place though? It's worth noting that the league batting drops substantially after the seventh inning as well. The AL OPS is .745. That figure drops to .708 in the eighth inning, and .668 in the ninth. I would expect ANY batter to drop off, given that in a close game they are facing the opposition's best relievers. Rodriguez has had 18 hits that put his team in the lead this season. When Ortiz nearly won the MVP in 2005, he had 24 of them.

Mariotti was a hack. Great, great press release from the Sun-Times.

Ah Will Clark. A charter member of the "Hall of Better Than Jim Rice," opening sometime in 2009.

Yankees 3 Giants 4 WP: Habyan, LP: Downing The Giants trailed 4-2 into the ninth. Joe Gordon hit an RBI double, and Moose Skowron's two run home run won the game. Yankees 1 Giants 4 WP: Mays, LP: Peterson, Sv: Farr The Giants scored all four runs in the sixth inning, the big blow a two-RBI double by Moose Skowron. Giants 3 Yankees 4 WP: Turley, LP: Shocker The Giants carried a 3-0 lead into the ninth. The club stuck with Urban Shocker too long, and the Yankees scored four without recording an out. Joe Dimaggio tied the game with a two-run double, and Dave Winfield collected the game winning single. Giants 8 Yankees 2 WP: Gomez, LP: Hunter Don Mattingly gave the Yankees an early lead with a two-run home run in the first. The Giants scored three in the second and two in the fifth, the latter coming on Mickey Mantle's two-run home run. The Giants win the series 3-1. It's Giants vs. Dodgers in the finals.

I'm heading to Lakewood, NJ for a game today, the Lakewood Blueclaws against the Hagerstown Suns. The Phillies/Cubs series could not come at a better time, as my 2 1/2 hour commute will coincide with the radio broadcast. This series has me nervous though, as the Cubs are easily the class of the National League. If the Phillies manage a split, I will be happy. Next month shows 12 games against the Nationals and Braves.