EVIL~! alkeiper

No Sheets in this series.

I think they do that every time a pitcher leaves the mound.

I can't recall a season in recent memory where so many pitchers went on three days' rest late in the season. Brett Myers, Jamie Moyer, Oliver Perez, Johan Santana, C.C. Sabathia, Javier Vazquez, Gavin Floyd, Mark Buehrle and now John Danks have done it this month.

Damn. I was hoping Cashman would land with the Phillies.

Often tiebreak games like tonight are overlooked, probably because they do not show up in postseason results. But there have been some great ones over the years. October 3, 1951. Dodgers vs. Giants at Polo Grounds, Game Three. Bobby Thomson's home run caps a four run ninth inning as the Giants win the pennant, 5-4. September 29, 1959. Braves vs. Dodgers at the LA Memorial Coliseum, game two of a three game set. The Braves lead 5-2 going into the ninth, trying to force game three. The Dodgers score three to tie it, and win the pennant with Carl Furillo's single in the 12th. October 3, 1962. Giants vs. Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, game three. The Dodgers blow a 4-2 lead in the ninth, giving up four runs to the Giants. October 2, 1978. Yankees vs. Red Sox at Fenway Park. Bucky Dent. October 1, 2007. Padres vs. Rockies at Coors Field. Padres score two runs in the 13th inning, Rockies score three.

If Brewers/Phillies goes six games, it will be truly amazing.

Let's give this a whirl. From another thread. NL MVP 1. Albert Pujols 2. Johan Santana 3. Chase Utley 4. David Wright 5. Lance Berkman 6. Hanley Ramirez 7. Geovany Soto 8. Carlos Beltran 9. Carlos Delgado 10. Tim Lincecum AL MVP 1. Joe Mauer 2. Dustin Pedroia 3. Grady Sizemore 4. Alex Rodriguez 5. Josh Hamilton 6. Nick Markakis 7. Justin Morneau 8. Brian Roberts 9. Kevin Youkilis 10. Carlos Quentin Mauer is on the verge of winning the batting title, as a catcher. Virtually no catcher has ever done it, and it will be Mauer's second. Pedroia has an ungodly number of doubles and is 20/21 in stolen base attempts. NL Cy Young 1. Johan Santana 2. Tim Lincecum 3. Cole Hamels AL Cy Young 1. Cliff Lee 2. Roy Halladay 3. Mike Mussina NL Rookie of the Year 1. Geovany Soto 2. Joey Votto 3. Jair Jurrjens AL Rookie of the Year 1. Evan Longoria 2. Mike Aviles 3. Brad Ziegler This was a real tough one. Armando Galarraga, Alexei Ramirez, Joba Chamberlain and Jacoby Ellsbury are also deserving candidates. NL Manager of the Year 1. Charlie Manuel 2. Lou Piniella 3. Jerry Manuel AL Manager of the Year 1. Joe Maddon 2. Mike Scioscia 3. Ron Gardenhire

Yeah, I started this one first because the matchups are set.

All games on TBS. WEDNESDAY Milwaukee (Yovani Gallardo) @ Philadelphia (Cole Hamels), 3pm ET LA Dodgers (Derek Lowe) @ Chicago Cubs (Ryan Dempster), 6:30pm ET THURSDAY Milwaukee (C.C. Sabathia) @ Philadelphia (Brett Myers), 6pm ET LA Dodgers (Chad Billingsley) @ Chicago Cubs (Carlos Zambrano), 9:30pm ET SATURDAY Philadelphia (Jamie Moyer?) @ Milwaukee (Johnny Wholestaff), 6:30pm ET Chicago Cubs (Rich Harden) @ LA Dodgers (Hideki Kuroda), 10:00pm ET SUNDAY Games if necessary, times to be determined TUESDAY Game Fives, if necessary

Good time to bump this thread. * Four posters predicted three of the division winners, including myself, 909, Vitamin X and RedBaron. Most posters with correct predictions had some combination of the Angels, Dodgers and Cubs. VX was the only poster to correctly predict that the Phillies would win the NL East. No one picked Tampa Bay. No one picked either the Twins or the White Sox. * Tampa Bay won 97 games, far surpassing anyone's expectations. * Baltimore finished last but did not lose 100 games. * On that note, Marvin never did post the rest of his predictions. * Not only did the Marlins not finish last, they finished above .500. * Albert Pujols was indeed healthy and productive all season. * The Giants too were not as bad as expected. In fact, some young players took big steps forward, especially Pablo Sandoval.

Considering the utter failure of any of the young Pirate pitchers to develop, I think you do need to start looking at the coaching staff. The Pirates need to revamp their defense. Replace the double play combination, particularly at second base. Move Nate McLouth off of center field, bring up Andrew McCutchen. Fielders failing to make plays put the pitchers on edge, a big reason for the Pirates leading the league in walks this season.

I think the Phillies are the second best team in the NL, behind the Cubs. As long as they are in it though, I hope for the best.

I figured it was a figure of speech.

Despite there being four innings left and the Tigers bullpen being AWFUL. Game's tied.

Floyd made a huge mistake throwing that ball to first base. Once he bobbled the ball, he should have held it and still had first and third with a tie game.

And that was a sweet ass curveball that Floyd flew to Gary Sheffield.

The divisional series scheduling is a bit frustrating, but with three games on one network someone was going to get hosed. I'm going to miss the first few hours of games one and two. Things will settle down when LCS play begins. Rooting for Gavin Floyd in this game.

Quick note on threads. I'm going to start the awards thread the day after the regular season ends. Once Baseball-Reference updates, that's my queue. Right now there are still regular season games on the docket. A White Sox/Twins tiebreaker game Tuesday counts for regular season statistics. Postseason. Different threads for each round. Should we do one divisional thread, break them up by series, or break them up by league?

Looking at the postseason schedule, the Brewers will almost certainly have to start Sabathia AGAIN on three days rest on Thursday. That would set him up to pitch a potential game five on normal rest. If they hold him to game three on Saturday, he could only start one game. The Phillies start Cole Hamels on game one. They could use him on short rest for game four, giving them a series rotation of Hamels, Myers, Moyer, Hamels, Myers. Not bad to cut your rotation to three pitchers. Suddenly a thin team becomes a lot more dangerous.

I see Orlando Hudson is a free agent to be. This would make sense on two levels. A. The Mets problem is not scoring runs, but preventing them. B. Adding a Gold Glove caliber fielder would only improve the beleaguered pitching staff.

Murphy played 17 games at second in the minors, this season. It's questionable whether his defense is good enough to hold the spot.

If Sabathia had a great first half and hurt himself, would we have this discussion? The Brewers finished their season by going 6-1. Five of those games Sabathia didn't even play. And I could always include the day before, where Sabathia lost.

Yeah, his CG shutout yesterday sealed it. He carried the Mets pitching staff. I'll do an awards thread eventually. This is just a post in response to ongoing discussion.

The bullpen is more important now than ever before, so I don't see what's wrong with Mets fans being upset about that. If he's such a great general manager, why hasn't he addressed the need that has been the team's undoing? The bullpen wasn't really the problem last year, the rotation was.

Since there was some MVP talk above, let me see if I can't work out the NL award race. Albert Pujols is obviously number one, but there are several qualified candidates for the #2 slot. 1. Albert Pujols 2. Johan Santana 3. Chase Utley 4. David Wright 5. Lance Berkman 6. Hanley Ramirez 7. Geovany Soto 8. Carlos Beltran 9. Carlos Delgado 10. Tim Lincecum As you can see, no Manny Ramirez, Brad Lidge, C.C. Sabathia or Chipper Jones. I can't see being the MVP in limited playing time. Manny played in 53-54 games for the Dodgers. He would need to triple All-Star production to reach the MVP standard, IMO.