EVIL~! alkeiper

I saw Victorino play about 25 times this year. He really blossomed as a player. More bad news for the Dodgers, as now Cesar Izturis will miss 10 months with Tommy John surgery.

Want Billy Wagner? He's certainly not doing us any good.

Do yourself a favor and ignore the ESPN updates. It is not imminent.

It is not the nail, but this game is a serious setback.

I try to be optimistic. We put one of the best closers in baseball against a pathetic 7-8-9, and we can't do it. Why do I even try?

VICTORINO!

Bobby Abreu hits a HUGE game-tying home run. Of course, the idiots at WIP will say its just empty numbers.

I couldn't help but notice there are no New Orleans Hornets players in this game. Perhaps because they have no stars.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}> There's a difference. Jimmy Rollins at his best can line the ball into the gaps. He has some legitimate power, and the problem is plate discipline. Willy Taveras is the new Willie Wilson. When Wilson played for Whitey Herzog, he would pound the ball into the ground, run out base hits, and hit around .300 or better. When Wilson got away from Herzog, he had a manager who encouraged him to drive the ball. Wilson hit a few more homers at the expense of his batting average, and his value plummeted. Like Wilson, Taveras has no business trying to drive the ball.

I assume this is meant to cover 2005?

Lots of cokeheads have become successful major leaguers. There's a great deal of speculation that the real problem was Gooden was overuse. He pitched 276 innings in 1985 as a 20 year old, and 250 the next year. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I was kidding. Although, how many reached their full potential? Other factors likely came into play but how much did cocaine abuse hurt Dave Parker? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Parker had several productive years in the late 80s, so I doubt it did much harm. He's a borderline HOF candidate as it is. He'd be in if he had a better reputation.

Lowell's under contract through next year I believe, at $8 million a year. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And people bash the Yankees for trading him. We knew this would happen. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The best part is that Baseball Prospectus praised that trade, for the Yankees. They were convinced Ed Yarnell was the next great lefty.

Lowell's under contract through next year I believe, at $8 million a year.

Willy Taveras should be ordered 20 push-ups every time he hits the ball in the air. There's no reason whatsoever for him to try and drive the ball.

What a stupid statement. The Phillies' pinch hitting OPS isn't even the worst this year (its 10th). Division leaders Atlanta and St. Louis have worse production off the bench than the Phillies.

Lots of cokeheads have become successful major leaguers. There's a great deal of speculation that the real problem was Gooden was overuse. He pitched 276 innings in 1985 as a 20 year old, and 250 the next year.

Love that quote. I'm going to go out on a limb (maybe?) and say he wins 20 games and a Cy Young either next year or 2007. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It counts as a limb. Doc Gooden had his last great season at 20. Felix could get injured, you never know.

I'm in Section 426. No argument here on that point. I've still got my Phillies hat autographed by Byrd hanging on my wall.

That game was disgusting. One run losses are terrible to sit through, and there's really nothing you can do about it. Stuff happens. Outside of one pitch to Lance Berkman, the Phillies had everything going for them. Roy Oswalt will be a tough mound to conquer, but if we can pull this game out, we're in good shape going into Wednesday. I'm attending Friday's Marlins/Phillies game live. AJ Burnett versus Eude Brito. This would actually be the fourth time this season I've seen Brito start a game, and his seventh overall pitching appearance.

Usually the 162 game season acts as the best tiebreaker, so we can avoid these messes. Not stating the obvious, but with so many games, it is insanely difficult for more than two teams to produce exactly the same record.

Not quite -- that only happens if the three teams are all tied with the same record. Since one-game playoffs count in the standings, the loser would end up a half-game behind the Yankees, regardless of who it was, so the Yankees would get the WC no matter what. If two division rivals end up tied for the division lead and the wild-card lead, they don't play a playoff game, but go to tiebreakers instead. I believe this happened with the Rockies a few years back. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I believe they changed this setup, but I'm not sure.

MLB doesn't have a readily available list of tiebreaker scenarios. I would assume the above scenario is correct, but I would have to think we'd see a one game playoff between the Angels and Yankees.

He had a great chance in July when he had the 21 consecutive saves and his ERA was like .74. Then everyone started to notice, and he went into his usual August slump. Hes out of it now, and his stats are still very very good. 40 hits and only 10 earned runs in 63.1 IP. A 1.42 ERA. 35 saves in 39 chances. A WHIP of .89 and 68 Ks. I mean, those numbers are incredible, but doesn't a reliever need out of this universe stats to win the Cy Young? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> A reliever winning the Cy Young is usually the result of positive press clippings and occurs almost entirely independant of the statistics. A sportswriter campaigns on the closer's behalf and all the sudden we have a winner.

I think Mariano Rivera has to be a viable candidate.

Are you kidding, he bitched when his team won but didn't look good doing it. He'd rant and rave about how piss poor the team was.