The Yankees magic number is down to 15, we are only 1.5 behind Detroit for best record and the Redsox are 9 back.
The additional bonus, the Angels are the one team I feel matches the Yanks the best and they are now long shots to make the postseason. I like the Yanks chances against Detroit, Oakland, Chicago and even Minnesota.
The pitching is shaping up well. Johnson has been pitching better now than most of the year. Moose has enough time to be 100% and Wang looks great. I think Lidle gives us a chance to win in a longer series. Bullpen comes down to Mo being ready and Proctor not being burnt out. Of course, Farnsworth’s back is always a question mark.
Joe Torre has a great coaching staff and a mix of weapons to use this year. The team will take more pitches than any other team in the majors and has power and speed options. The bench will be very strong. Just having Bernie on the bench is big. Cairo is supposed to be ready next week. Matsui should be playing by next week, which gives us one more clutch, pitch-taking bat.
The trade to get Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle has made a huge difference to the team. I like our chances and I believe another Subway series could happen this year. That could be dangerous, in an ideal scenario, someone will knock off the Mets and the Yanks will face a lesser team.
The Cardinals have been maddeningly inconsistent for a team consistently at the head of its division. Key regulars have been in and out with injuries, and have had streaks and slumps when playing, and substitutes have risen to the occasion. The team has had its ups and downs, and a lot depends on whether they hit the post-season during an up or a down. If the former, it’s conceivable they could make it to the World Series, though once there it’s hard to imagine them winning, given how they did against the American League earlier this season.
The Royals have improved tremendously since June, when David DeJesus returned from the DL, Mark Teahen found new life in AAA, and Mark Redman remembered how to pitch. I’m hopeful that maybe we can finish the yesr with fewer than 100 losses.
Hey, as a Mets fan I was going to say the same thing but in reverse. Mainly because if the Mets do make it to the WS and end up losing to an AL team (as is the pundit consensus), I’d want for it to be any team other than the Yankees. I’ve not generally been a “Yankee-hating” Mets fan, but I gotta tell you, being at Shea Stadium for the last game of the 2000 World Series was painful enough (being surrounded by fans of the opposing team… in the WORLD FREAKIN’ SERIES… as the home team loses) that I would not wish it on any other non-Yankee sports fan.
Your Honor, I would like that remark stricken from the record!
Well, the Dodgers lead in the NLWest is down to half a game. If we win the division, we play the Cards, who have tromped us all year. If we get the wild card berth, we play the Mets, who also have tromped on us all season. Post-season for Dodgers is looking like just prolonging the agony one more series. All we can hope for is the Cards staying injured and us getting very lucky.
Even with our late treades, our pitching is iffy. Maddux and Lowe are strong, but Penny is faltering and Billingsley, et al are erratic. We have great defense and a steady offense, but the pitching is going to kill us in the end.
At the beginning of the season I expected another bottom-of-the-division finish from my hometown Mariners, and in this I was not disappointed. But I have to say, I didn’t expect them to be so maddening. There’s a difference between a team that’s just plain not good and a team that finds innovative new ways to suck; the first is predictable and can be ignored, but the second keeps drawing your attention to the endless frustrations.
This thread is so timely! I haven’t the foggiest idea what my Giants are doing. I know that Bulgaria trashed Slovenia in a soccer game the other night, though.
Another Indians fan checking in. Man, they are tearing it up lately. They FINALLY got the bullpen straightened out some. They started playing better when they ditched all the veteran/ free agent/ reclimation projects and started playing the rookies.
So what about next year? Will they play the young guys who played good and won some games the last 2 months? Nope, they’ll go and get some more veteran free agents. I blame some of that on the fans, who are always screaming for the front office to stop being “cheap” and go out and get some free agents. :smack:
Tiger fan. You can not guess what we went through the last few years.Some national pundits are jumping on us saying it is over and we wont make the playoffs. They are wrong. Leyland manager of the year. One pundit said the Yankee manager. They buy such good players that you could manage them by postcard from Hawaii. The young arms are great. We need to buy an established power hitter. Lefty preferably.
Please note, I think Leyland and Girardi are the clear favorites for Managers of the Year, but in Torre’s defense, he has had to manage more this year then anytime since 1996 and he seemed to do everything right. He is number two on my list for the AL. See this thread for the Boards opinions: Baseball Fans, who are your early picks for the big awards?
No nod to Willie? He managed the worst team in the NL last few years to the top spot this year, or were you talking AL only?
And excuse me, but no one in the NL is gonna knock us out of the series - But unlike 2000, we will at the very lest make you work for it this year, if not take it in game 7
Shapiro has even said that they have a bigger budget his year. Nooooooo.
Still, I don’t know what to do with the players they have. They just can’t let Garko moulder in the minors again, so that leaves still too many players.
What do you do with Kouzmanoff? Does Marte stay up and stay at 3rd? Who plays 2nd? How about Big League Choo? How can Shoppach get playing time if Garko is at 1st and Victor behind the plate? If Carmona has a couple of good starts, what to do? WHAT TO DO?
Nice problems to have, though. I love young teams.
Actually in the other thread I linked to, I picked Willie first, but some convincing arguments have me putting Joe Girardi 1 and Willie 2. (Either way, I am going with a Torre Bench coach, not bad)
I shudder a bit as I look at the rest of our schedule. I think we might still manage a split with the Mets, and we have four more games against the Padres, so we’ve got a chance to make up some ground. On the other hand, the toughest opponent the Padres have left (other than us) is Cincinnati. They’ve got SEVEN games left against Arizona.
Scratch that…they’ve also got three games left against the Cardinals, but who knows which Cardinals will show up for that series? Especially if they’ve already got the division locked up at that point.
Oakland, 5.5 up with 23 games remaining on their schedule. I think they’ll hold on and get the division, and I’ll be satisfied with that. Whatever happens in the crap shoot playoffs, I’ll call this season a success.
I’m originally from Philadelphia, so I’m also gratified to see the Phillies putting up a fight, and very excited to see Ryan Howard swinging the big stick. It would be great to see the Phils get the wild card, since they’ve been out of contention for so long.
