You sort of answered your own question there. The Angels have been a given since the A’s decided to trade away their starting rotation, so there’s really been nothing to talk about in the AL West.
I don’t know what the great baseball minds think, but the Angels don’t impress me (as much as a first place team normally would) for two reasons:
They play in a weak division.
Their W-L record is heavily influenced by luck. It’s way above what you’d expect based on their runs scored and allowed. Here are AL teams if you ordered them by their projected “pythagorean” records:
Boston 87-57
Toronto 83-61
Tampa Bay 80-63
Chicago 80-64
Minnesota 79-65 6. Anaheim 78-66
Cleveland 75-68
New York 76-69
I’m not going to tell you 100% for sure that Anaheim is a worse team than Toronto or Minnesota, but I’m not sure they aren’t, and I’m also not 100% sure they’re a better team than Cleveland.
On the other hand they have two things going for them:
Hey, ANY team can win a playoff series, and
Anaheim is in many ways a team ideally suited for playoffs. They’re pitching-heavy, with only Tampa Bay likely to have a better staff ERA among possible playoff opponents. Their best offensive player, Mark Teixera, only recently joined the team and so his true impact is deceptively hidden by team stats. They have a solid bullpen.
But that said, Boston is IMHO the best team in the league and the likeliest to win the pennant, unless they pull a choke job of Biblically epic proportions and lose out against Toronto, in which case the Blue Jays would be the best team in the league - but as I mentioned in my last post the odds against that are 250 to 1. The only real up for grabs spot is the AL Central.
Damon didn’t just sign with the Yankees. He said he wouldn’t sign with the Yankees, and then did. It is a bit different. I don’t really hold the latter against him (anyone is welcome to sell their soul to the devil), but he really shouldn’t have said he wouldn’t in the first place.
Manny would get a very negative welcome if he returned to Boston, one which I would find to be at least somewhat unwarranted. Boston has had a history of sabotaging their stars as they got rid of them, so I have a hard time taking what they say, or there media feeds say, at face value. How many things about Pedro and Nomar only came out when the Red Sox were ready to move on? I don’t really think anyone except Manny and maybe his doctors could know how much he was actually hurting. Not all people show injury the same way, or have the same pain tolerance, and I have a feeling MAnny would still come off as goofy no matter the situation.
This isn’t to say Manny didn’t have faults. But he was a great player for them for a really long time, and I think the Red Sox handled the end terribly. They didn’t do it at 3 in morning on the first game of a road trip, so at least there’s that.
Today, on KTAR after the D-backs loss, even the home station said the D-backs were done after this disgusting loss.
The D-backs have got to get it together and quick. We’ve got to stop making stupid errors. We’ve got to start hitting. The last two games could have been a lot worse. SF is a lousy team and they must have left at least 10 men on base in today’s and yesterday’s game.
For what it’s worth, I don’t really see the D-Backs playing this way for the remainder of the season. There’s too much talent on that team to not catch a little fire again, particularly given your competition the rest of the way. Unless the players have already given up.
The Dodgers have got a really tough series against Colorado on the road this weekend, so I’d say this would be your best opportunity to make up ground. After this weekend, we’ve got Pittsburgh, the Giants (twice) and San Diego left, so…
As a Yankee fan it is time for me to think about who I will be rooting for in October. The Cubs would be that team, hopefully this can be their year.
They have been my favorite NL team for most of my life. When I was very young it was the Dodgers, but somewhere along the way I started liking the Cubbies.
I don’t hate the Mets, but I cannot root for them when the Yanks are going home.
Obviously I hope the Red Sox don’t win the division and get knocked out by the Angels in the first round.
Yeah…I really don’t blame you for that. Tampa has my vote for AL champs unless the Dodgers make the World Series, in which case, I want them to play the Angels. I would love an opportunity to end this crap about the Angels being “LA’s team.”
I know the people at Fox would shit a brick if it was an all-LA series, but if my team’s in it, I really don’t care about anybody’s ratings.
This Mets fan will not feel comfortable until the magic number is zero… But re-collapse or no, if the Mets are not in the World Series, I’d be hoping to see the Cubs there.
In the AL I’d love to see the Miracle Rays win the pennant, otherwise it’s more or less the same to me. If not the Rays and if the Cubs were to win the NL, it’d be more interesting to have a Chicago Subway Series (El Series?) than a Cubs/Angels or Cubs/Red Sox Series. Ho hum (even though just a few years ago, a Cubs/Red Sox World Series would have been tantamount to hearing Gabriel sound his trumpet for the End of Days).
Once there though, I’d be hoping (without spite or malice) to see the Cubs lose, definitely if it’s to the Rays but even if it’s to the Angels or Red Sox. It’s just part of the fabric of the baseball universe. The Cubs… lose. Any division, pennant or World Series run is just sleight of hand to distract you from the sucker punch.
Now that both the Red Sox and the White Sox have won in the past 4 years (the Red Sox even doing it twice), there’s nothing left to cling to, and baseball is supposed to be about traditions maintained, isn’t it?
On the other hand, should the Cubs beat the Red Sox or Angels in the Series I’d be happy for them. Sad that a cherished tradition has passed on, but happy for their fans.
Early in his tenure with the Yankees, Damon was interviewed and urged a number of other Red Sox stars to sign with N.Y., so it’s not surprising that fans in Boston have a less than wonderful feeling about him.
*Looks like Jesus *(before the haircut) Acts like Judas
Throws like Mary
The Angels and the Cubs remain the favorites to meet in the Series. I can’t see any N.L. team beating Chicago, but as they are the Cubs unforeseen doom could strike.
Assuming the Mets make the playoffs (a large assumption), they lack the pitching and especially the bullpen to advance, unless it could somehow be arranged for them to play the Nationals. But you can’t expect to score 13 runs a game to cover your pitiful pitching when you’re playing decent teams. (Incidentally, I take back the less than respectful comments I made about Carlos Delgado a few months ago. What got into him?)
By the way, I just noticed that Boston’s wild card lead got a little smaller last night. I don’t think it’s very likely that they’ll get knocked out, but it brought to mind a question that I imagine someone here can answer:
When’s the last time that both the Red Sox and the Yankees missed the post-season in the same season? My guess is that it hasn’t happened since the wild card was introduced, but I could very well be wrong.
The Mets are now an overwhelming favorite to make the playoffs even considering last year’s collapse. BP’s current odds have them at 92%. Plus, really the Phillies just aren’t that good. Their likely first round opponent, the Brew Crew, also has a terrible bullpen, perhaps even worse then the Mets. I’ll take my chances on Heilman, if I get to face Gagne. I foresee a bunch of game 2-2 through 6 that end with scores like 8-7.
My wife’s a Cardinals fan (hence why I’m still in St. Louis). 2004 was an uncomfortable time. She was okay for a couple of games, but by the time game four rolled around, things got a little cold. She listened to the first few innings of game four in the car (long enough for the Sox to go up 3-0), walked into the apartment where I was watching the game, glared at me, and stalked into the bedroom and slammed the door. Wouldn’t talk to me for a day.
Oh, yeah. That times a million. I’m getting enough flak over Manny already. If the Dodgers won, I wouldn’t get laid for a year. If the Sox won, I still wouldn’t get laid, because I would have said multiple nasty things about the Sox during the series.
No, better for all concerned if the the Dodgers win the Series against some other team.
