EVIL~! alkeiper

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.

Here's something to irk me a bit. Route 115 connects with I-80 with one gas station there. Gas is $3.99 a gallon. Drive two miles down the road, and Wawa runs it for $3.60. 39 cents a gallon more for being located on the highway.

Larry Anderson is the Milton Berle of commentators. He has a million funny lines but he ripped them off.

Andrew Carpenter? That's unexpected.

First place! What a great comeback.

Kyle Kendrick warming up for the 14th.

I assume Johan Santana is going nine tomorrow.

I didn't know at first if it was Dustin or Barry Windham, who was also coming in at the time.

As an aside, I respect Harry Kalas but the rest of the Phillies' announcing crew is definitely bottom third. They are the kings of the baseball cliche.

Except for that fair/foul call on Tatis's groundball in the third. Even the Mets' announcers thought they caught a break on that.

Phillies are looking for a left handed hitting outfielder with Jenkins on the shelf. Kotsay was on their shopping list but that's out. I'd like to see Snelling get a shot, but obviously his health is a real question mark.

Eric F'n Bruntlett? I'll take it.