This Week In Baseball 9/3-9/9

[Smartly Pretty 0]

getting along, can't we, all, etc.

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

Bad Cub Baserunning strikes again: Zambrano runs home through a stop sign on a Soriano hit and is easily the first out at the plate. Soriano made it a triple, which is good, but c'mon, Carlos. Nobody out with Theriot on deck, stop at third.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

I was wondering if he could make it to THIRD on the play and then I see his fat ass trucking around third through the stop sign. Not smart, Big Z.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Hey, Carlos Zambrano kind of sucks again. I wonder if his horrible inning has anything to do with trying to go first-to-home in the previous frame.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Contract the NL Central.

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

That's really not a bad idea at all. Check this out:

 

NL East:

New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta

 

National League circa 1956:

New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn

 

Then just put everybody else in the West. Take the leaders and 2nd-placers and those are your LDSs. Makes a lot of sense, really.

 

EDIT: Okay, the AL is tougher to do, because their expansion/relocation pattern isn't as occidental as the NL's.

West: Oakland, Texas, Seattle, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Kansas City, two expansions

East: Boston, New York, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago

The White Sox could flip-flop with an expansion team if needed.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

If we were going to revert to four divisions, I'd start with the 1993 divisions. The N.L. added Milwaukee and Arizona since, easy to go East/West on that. The American League added Tampa Bay, and they take Milwaukee's spot in the A.L. East. Simple and painless. For those scoring at home,

 

AL East: New York, Boston, Baltimore, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Cleveland, Detroit

AL West: Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Texas, Kansas City, Minnesota, Chicago

NL East: Philadelphia, New York, Washington, Florida, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh

NL West: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, Colorado, San Diego, Cincinnati, Houston

 

Ok, we still have that annoying Atlanta issue. Take them and Cincy, and flip them with Chicago and St. Louis.

[Hawk 34 0]

Today was one of the worst games I ever attended, just atrocious all the way around. Pedro didn't look all that impressive as if he was still rusty, Harrang had a rare off day and the play was just plodding.

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

Ok, we still have that annoying Atlanta issue. Take them and Cincy, and flip them with Chicago and St. Louis.

Screw that. I like watching most of my Cubs games before 9. Nice try, Fay Vincent. Besides, the idea is to restore a lot of rivalries lost to tri-divisional alignment, like Phillies-Pirates and Cubs-Mets.

[Guest]

I can't believe Esteban freaking Loaiza went 7 innings.

 

They did it the Dodger way today. Beat you to death with singles, grounders and sacrifice flies. With Penny pitching tomorrow, the team is in good shape.

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

Bad pitching helped.

 

Hey, will you be in the Danny Maff chat tonight? We've been ninerless too long.

 

Okay, I've got a schedule figured out.

1. 8 games with each of the 8 teams outside the division, for 64 games.

2. 12 games with each 7 within it, for 84 games, and 148 total league games.

3. 14 games with 3 teams from the other league, six games home-and-home with your main rival, then two 4-game series with two teams, 162 games.

[Guest]

nope

 

I haven't been on AIM for a long time and my pops needs to use this thing for some work shit.

 

Next week if we have one, I'll be there.

[Slayer 0]

Contract the NL Central.

Man, three straight pennants, what a shitty division

[Boon 0]

A good ol' fashioned shit show in Boston tonight.

[treble 0]

I'm glad the Jays pitchers decided that tonight would be a good night to suck.

[World's Worst Man 0]

The Jays were getting too close to the Wild Card for comfort (even though they really didn't have much of a chance), so they figured they better start losing to take themselves completely out of it. Kind of like every other year since about 1993.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

The San Diego Padres were eliminated from both playoff races when they signed Brett Tomko.

[mike546 0]

A-Rod just hit a HRer atleast 10+ rows back in the left field upper deck. Wow.

[vivalaultra 0]

So, Zambrano is (to use a wrestling term) playing the 'heel' in Chicago. He got booed after his poor performance yesterday and walked off jeering and yelling and gesturing at the fans at Wrigley and called them out pretty good in his post-game press conference. Good thing he doesn't play in New York or Philly.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

His gestures were simply pointing to his hears to indicate he heard them. He called a press conference today to apologize. At any rate, it was probably one of the most bone-headed outings Z's ever had. Probably worse than the infamous dugout fight. That's only remembered because of the fight, but Z was just awful on all fronts yesterday after running through the stop sign.

 

Speaking of Cub pitchers, I've seen all of Kerry Wood I care to see. These guys crumble anytime they have to face a team that's got a winning record. It's a shame that their placement in such a lousy division is going to obstruct the fact that for $200 million, they've fielded a team that's probably three over .500 after tonight.

[UZI Suicide 0]

Matt Kemp is not human.

 

I can't believe SD signed Brett Tomko. They've had him before, they know how this story ends. I don't understand how he keeps getting chances.

[Guest]

I feel much better saying this now that the game is over, but that was one of the best games the Dodgers have played all year in which the other team got good/decent starting pitching. Penny's stuff has been amazing.

[snuffbox 0]

Contract the NL Central.

Man, three straight pennants, what a shitty division

 

Will Espn just ignore the whole thing if the 'worst division in baseball' makes the World Sries for a 4th year in a row?

[cabbageboy 0]

The odd thing is that the NL Central yielded a 105 win Cardinals team in 2004, then another 100 win Cardinals team in 2005, along with the actual pennant winning Astros.

 

I'd rather the Cardinals win the division this year, for the simple fact that they might actually do something in the playoffs. The Brewers would likely get swept with zero fanfare and we all know the Cubs would do something monumentally stupid....the Cardinals at least know what they are doing. If the Cardinals can get in a position to not start Reyes or Wells (Mulder coming back should help), then they could be a threat in the postseason.

[MFer 0]

The Tigers are just killing me...they have the worst record since July 24th or something like that.

[CanadianChris 0]

Is it too early to call all of the AL divisional races over? All the leaders have leads of at least 7 games with 26 games or fewer left.

[Boon 0]

Give it another week.

[Guest Soriano's Torn Quad]

I'd rather the Cardinals win the division this year, for the simple fact that they might actually do something in the playoffs. The Brewers would likely get swept with zero fanfare and we all know the Cubs would do something monumentally stupid....the Cardinals at least know what they are doing. If the Cardinals can get in a position to not start Reyes or Wells (Mulder coming back should help), then they could be a threat in the postseason.

Would you care to elaborate on how "we all know" this? Man, you're baseball retarded. "They know what they're doing"? They're not good!

[snuffbox 0]

And, yes, the Brewers have been unpopular in years past but this season has been VERY different. Big attendance numbers, 4 All-Stars, mainstream tv appearances & mentions outside baseball, etc.

 

Just because Espn goes with the whatever-happened-before-will-happen-again-this-year theory doesn't make it so, cabbageboy.

[KingPK 0]

Is it too early to call all of the AL divisional races over? All the leaders have leads of at least 7 games with 26 games or fewer left.

 

If Boston takes just one game of that final series next week, the division should be all but wrapped up.