This week in baseball 8/29 - 9/5

[Mik 0]

If I asked you what closer has the lowest ERA in the entire major leagues, what would your guess be?

 

After last night, apparently it's Todd Jones at 1.17. What a godsend he has been for Florida.

 

Marlins going for the sweep of the Mets today with AJ Burnett on the hill against Jae Seo.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Fucking Phillies, ah well I have football back now so I won't be that depressed when the Phillies have their eventual meltdown next week...

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They has their shot to win w/ the bases loaded in extra innings. But Rollins decides to start hacking at what would have been 2 called balls after he went up 2-0, before eventually grounding out w/ a force at home, with Lofton following by swinging at the 1st pitch and grounding out. Nice job guys.

 

On the plus side, it's nice to see David Bell stepping it up at the plate lately. Hopefully he continues the pace.

 

And what happens to Thome next year? They can't send Howard back down to the minors, and they can't have him riding the bench as a reserve. I don't want the Phillies to trade him, because I think there's a good chance Thome may be done.

[MikeJordan23 0]

OMG stop the presses; Griffey gets injured.

[the max 0]

I didn't get to see the Red Sox game, but Wells's stats look good for this game. Maybe they should start suspending him in between all of his starts.

[mike546 0]

Question.

 

At ESPN.com, it says that if the season ended today, the As and Angels would be in the playoffs, and the Yankees out of it. I know the Yankees have the season series over the As, and don't have it over the Angels. The only reasoning I have is that the As are better head to head against the Angels, which gives the As the division, and the Angels the WC over the Yankees.

 

Or is that not how it works?

[Boon 0]

Who has the ESPN insider account? I'd like to know what the article about Kevin Millar saying "thank Manny for nothing" is all about...

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Question.

 

At ESPN.com, it says that if the season ended today, the As and Angels would be in the playoffs, and the Yankees out of it. I know the Yankees have the season series over the As, and don't have it over the Angels. The only reasoning I have is that the As are better head to head against the Angels, which gives the As the division, and the Angels the WC over the Yankees.

 

Or is that not how it works?

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Nah they just don't want the Yanks in.

[KingPK 0]

Yeah, the Angels would win the WC via head-to-head tiebreaker over the Yankees, although I would think they would have a one-game playoff if there was a tie in the WC.

[the max 0]

Who has the ESPN insider account?  I'd like to know what the article about Kevin Millar saying "thank Manny for nothing" is all about...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't have one anymore, but it might be the write-up that they had on Millar in ESPN the Magazine, where he called Manny cheap:

 

#3: DON'T THANK MANNY RAMIREZ FOR ANYTHING "Manny is by far the cheapest human being on this earth. He doesn't understand that he makes $20 million a year. We ask Manny to open his wallet up and let it breathe, because I know he has choked a few Benjamins."

[Guest Rob Van Dam]

OMG stop the presses; Griffey gets injured.

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Sprained right ankle, day to day.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Question.

 

At ESPN.com, it says that if the season ended today, the As and Angels would be in the playoffs, and the Yankees out of it. I know the Yankees have the season series over the As, and don't have it over the Angels. The only reasoning I have is that the As are better head to head against the Angels, which gives the As the division, and the Angels the WC over the Yankees.

 

Or is that not how it works?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

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.

[KingPK 0]

I DO believe that if, for example, the A's and Angels end up in a tie for the division title, the loser of the playoff cannot win the wild card even if they have a better record than say, the Yankees.

[mike546 0]

The Yankees D can be so horrific sometimes. Ever since Sheff hurt his shoulder last year, when he couldn't lift his arm above his head, he started catching everything to the side. And even with his shoulder fine, he continues to do it.

[CanadianChris 0]

Who has the ESPN insider account?  I'd like to know what the article about Kevin Millar saying "thank Manny for nothing" is all about...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I don't have one anymore, but it might be the write-up that they had on Millar in ESPN the Magazine, where he called Manny cheap:

 

#3: DON'T THANK MANNY RAMIREZ FOR ANYTHING "Manny is by far the cheapest human being on this earth. He doesn't understand that he makes $20 million a year. We ask Manny to open his wallet up and let it breathe, because I know he has choked a few Benjamins."

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, it's a link to the online ESPN The Mag. Which they're nice enough to provide to all those Insider subscribers who CAN'T GET THE FREAKING MAGAZINE BECAUSE THEY DON'T DELIVER OUTSIDE THE USA.

 

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

[CanadianChris 0]

I DO believe that if, for example, the A's and Angels end up in a tie for the division title, the loser of the playoff cannot win the wild card even if they have a better record than say, the Yankees.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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.

[CanadianChris 0]

2xP

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I DO believe that if, for example, the A's and Angels end up in a tie for the division title, the loser of the playoff cannot win the wild card even if they have a better record than say, the Yankees.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

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.

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I believe they changed this setup, but I'm not sure.

[CanadianChris 0]

I think MLB is the only major professional sports league not to publish its playoff tiebreaking scenarios. It doesn't surprise me in the least.

[KingPK 0]

At least you don't need to flip through 20 pages of NFL tiebreakers, all the way down to "Team X must win by Y points and keep three balls in the air while Team A cannot lose by more than B points and keep three chainsaws in the air."

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I'd like to see it come down to that.

[Gert T 0]

I don't know, watching Green Bay put up 52 on a terrible team while scoreboard watching in order to win the fifth tie-breaker was pretty entertaining.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

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.

[strummer 0]

Astros call up Scott Strickland. He will be pitching in the Major Leagues for the first time in 3 years due to Tommy John surgery. That's a hella long time between gigs.

[MikeJordan23 0]

Astros call up Scott Strickland. He will be pitching in the Major Leagues for the first time  in 3 years due to Tommy John surgery.  That's a hella long time between gigs.

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That's a long time, though it ain't shit compared to Aaron Small.

 

Oh and for the record, I still don't understand why no team can hit him. If he's so good why did it take him so long to get back in the league. Yankees catch too many breaks. I hate them.

[Guest StylesMark]

Don't be a Small hater.

 

Besides Chacon is the man in that squad. Never thought I'd say that.

[mike546 0]

Schilling needs to stop throwing his curves and splitters asap. That doesn't leave him with much obviously, but basically every hit the White Sox have is off a hanging splitter, or a hanging curve (Konerko's HRer).

[Guest Smues]

Braves win 4-2 off a 2 run blast from Chipper in the 8th. Florida lost to Washington so huzzah for that. A Houstin win over later would be nice.

[Angel_Grace_Blue 0]

So, how long will it take for everyone in MLB to know not to test Francouer's arm? 48 games in the majors and he's tied for first with 11 outfield assists.

[Mik 0]

F Hernandez (W, 3-2) 7.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 5K 107-69 1.59

 

Nice line for King Felix today in a 2-0 shutout of the A's.

[mike546 0]

I didn't think he'd make it through the 7th. He really showed some grit throwing strikes on 3-2 with the bases load on 5 straight pitches.