This Week In Baseball 9/24-10/1

[CanadianChris 0]

Also, Arizona has clinched a playoff spot.

[vivalaultra 0]

The fuckin' Cubs clinched the division. That's ca-rah-zee! Oh well.

 

The Astros signed Cecil Cooper to a 2-year deal w/ a 3rd year option. He'll become the first Af. American manager of the Astros ever. As long as he makes a commitment to put Josh Anderson in CF and JR Towles (who had his 1st ML strikeout after 39 ABs just a minute ago) behind the plate, he'll be fine by me.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The fuckin' Cubs clinched the division. That's ca-rah-zee! Oh well.

 

The Astros signed Cecil Cooper to a 2-year deal w/ a 3rd year option. He'll become the first Af. American manager of the Astros ever. As long as he makes a commitment to put Josh Anderson in CF and JR Towles (who had his 1st ML strikeout after 39 ABs just a minute ago) behind the plate, he'll be fine by me.

Josh Anderson's non-production will certainly be a welcome sight to the rest of the league as well.

[vivalaultra 0]

Josh Anderson's been quite productive this past month, small sample size though it is. And he wasn't ever THAT bad in the minors, especially not bad enough to get 'Juan Pierre-lite' comments about him. I'd much rather see the Astros go with an outfield of Lee, Anderson, and Pence and save money to spend on some type of pitching than overpay for Torii Hunter or Andruw Jones. The only cheap alternative would be Aaron Rowand and I think he'll be overpayed anyway. Play the kids and all that.

[Above Average 0]

After watching Cole Hamels pitch that jem, I jusut have this permanent smile on my face. 3:55 PM tomorrow can't come sooner for me. If the Phillies win the divison is Jimmy Rollins the MVP... even considering Holliday's numbers?

 

And on a whim I feel like I should talk about how bad Yost looks after 'sticking up' for his players in the middle of a pennant race. Now the Cubs have clinched and he has to feel like a complete jackass. Oh well.

[NYU 0]

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

I feel like I should talk about how bad Yost looks after 'sticking up' for his players in the middle of a pennant race. Now the Cubs have clinched and he has to feel like a complete jackass. Oh well.

I'm tellin' ya. Ned's gotta be gone after that.

 

"Hey, Ned, Lou here. Mind gaining a game on us?"

"Nah, gotta throw a baseball at Pujols's head. Thanks, though!"

 

Take a hike.

[snuffbox 0]

Hitting Pujols didn't quite give up as many runs as an absolutely pathetic bullpen down the stretch. Almost made sense, though.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

Brewers lost this race in July, but if you ask me to think of the single game that cost them the year, that's the game I'm gonna think of. Sorry, just is.

[milliondollarchamp 0]

Willie Randolph :"When we sip champagne later on, it'll be a little sweeter."

 

they celebrated a little to early

[Steve J. Rogers 0]

 

I'm going to Shea Saturday.

 

There is nothing left now except see you in Port St Lucie in Feb 2008.

 

How the hell did September get so away from the Mets? Disgusting.

[snuffbox 0]

Matt Wise, Derrick Turnbow, and Scott Linebrink (among others) should get some sort of compensation from the Chicago Cubs. Mindnumbingly worthless.

 

Has any bullpen ever taken such relish in giving up runs by the half-dozen in nearly every single game they're trotted out?

[cabbageboy 0]

So it looks like we're headed for the Cubs, Phillies, Diamondbacks, and Padres in the NL playoffs. That is seriously the weakest group of playoff teams I've ever seen. If the Cubs are ever going to make a World Series run, now is the time.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

We need as many tiebreaks as possible for the Cubs to have any chance. They're much weaker than the other three teams in pretty much every aspect except having a better bullpen than Philadelphia.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

The stadium in Philly was ROCKING tonight. Section 138, Row 5! And "Alfalandejo" or whoever that pitcher is for the Nats totally no-sold some annoying little kid that kept yelling "Throw it to me, por favor! POR FAVOR! POR FAVOR!" and came up and handed me a foul ball during batting practice while I was kinda just standing there yelling shit at the bullpen.

 

So the one game of the three-game set I need tickets for is tomorrow, which is also sold out. Standing room (3,000 standing room seats were sold at the Cit tonight, UNREAL) go on sale at 1 pm tomorrow and the rumor has it there's gonna be a line starting at 5 AM. Fuck that. I so want to be there but I also haven't slept in while, so I'm debating it.

 

But fuck if tonight wasn't a great time. I hope the Phillies keep it up. ADAM EATON TOMORROW. Mets, your chance to tie for the division lead is tomorrow, take advantage of it.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

We need as many tiebreaks as possible for the Cubs to have any chance. They're much weaker than the other three teams in pretty much every aspect except having a better bullpen than Philadelphia.

 

 

Baseball Prospectus has introduced a postseason prediction model called Secret Sauce. The system measures a team's chance in the playoffs by weighting certain metrics that most heavily correspond to postseason success (EqK/9, FRAA, and closer WXRL, if you're interested). Essentially they have correlated strikeout rates, defense and strong back-end bullpens most heavily with playoff wins.

 

Anyways, where I am getting with this is that their system predicts that the Cubs have the best chance to win the National League this year. So at least based on historical precedent, Chicago should be the favorite. Scary thought for Cubs fans, I know.

[Richard 0]

But what would it have predicted for last year?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

But what would it have predicted for last year?

 

 

I don't have acccess to last year's rankings because I let my membership expire. But let's be clear, it doesn't "predict" anything. It merely measures the probability of postseason success based on the attributes that correlate with teams that win in the postseason. If there are 8 teams in the playoffs, the winner will likely come from one of top teams ranked in upper echelon of the league in SS. For instance, in 2005, the White Sox and Astros ranked 1st and 2nd in Secret Sauce, respectively. That doesn't always happen, but no team ranked in the lower echelon has ever won the World Series.

[strummer 0]

I don't know what the Mets off season plan but I hope they don't go out and sign David Eckstein to play 2B or something because he's a gamer that will help a "soft" team.

[iggymcfly 0]

Came across this on another forum. Funniest article ever.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Quick, bring back Bobby V!

How can you not get fired up playing for this guy:

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I think the Brewers are just trying to re-live that magic 2005 season, and see if they can secure a winning record in their final two games of the season.

 

Good job coming out on top, Cubs.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

QUESTION, Hypothetical:

 

Padres finish with a Wild Card win and are a game better than the NL East winning Phillies.

 

Who gets home field in Rd 1- Phils or Padres?

 

I'd love to see Chicago take the Snakes out, too. Chicago is a pretty decent team.

[Slayer 0]

WC never gets home field in league playoffs

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Correct. I believe it would be Cubs @ D'backs, Padres @ Phillies.

 

I'm leaving in a few minutes for the game. I'm stoked to see probably the biggest game in the history of Citizens Bank Park thus far. Marlins/Mets is at 1pm so we'll have a good idea if the Phils have a chance to clinch by gametime. Despite being a game up I'm a little anxious. Baseball really is a funny game sometimes. What people forget about 1964 is that after the Phils blew the lead, the Cardinals needed to take just one game from the Mets in a three game series to clinch. The Cards lost the first two. The Reds just needed one win in two games against the reeling Phils to force a tie and they couldn't do it. The Mets could still win the division by 5pm tomorrow.

[TheSSNintendo 0]

That was awesome..they also assured a split of the season series with the Yankees with it currently at 9-7 Os

 

And if the Orioles win tonight or tomorrow, it'll be the first time since '97 that they won the season series against the Yankees. Ironically, the Yankees played the Indians in the first round and lost that same year.

 

[snuffbox 0]

MLB took back Seth McClung's entire suspension for hitting Pujols upon viewing the tape, scouting report, etc. So much for that conspiracy theory.

 

That leaves the obvious: The Milwaukee bullpen are to pitching what Abraham Lincoln was to pitching.

[CanadianChris 0]

Looks like the Mets are going to make Philly earn it. I don't think even the Mets bullpen is going to blow an 8-0 lead.

[Boon 0]

I really like the Division Champion caps this year.

[treble 0]

How many Yankee fans are going to be rocking those Wild Card shirts and caps?