Yeah, I think the basic idea is that the division winner already (obviously) beat out the second place team in their own division, and so shouldn’t have to risk turning around and losing to them in the very first round of the playoffs.
Woohoo!
Nice win for the Padres in a tight game tonight. They actually played the second half of the game under protest, after an interference call in the 4th. It was also nice to beat Jonathan Sanchez, after he guaranteed a Giants sweep to the media.
And Baltimore gets another win on the back of a nice outing by Jeremy Guthrie. They’re 9-2 now under Showalter.
Well, they finally managed to win two in a row, and all it took was two complete-game shutouts by Santana and Dickey. 
There, there Josh Johnson, it’ll be okay, chin up…that’s a good little Marlin.
Redlegs win two in a row after being thumped in the Cardinal series with all the attention focused on the brawl and the subsequent outcome of the games, many fickle Reds fans rushed to the local media to proclaim them done and not very good.
Well, we’re fifteen games over .500 for a reason bandwagon fans…no reason to jump ship now.
Kevin Slowey pulled from a game in which he was pitching a no hitter because his pitch count was too high.
I’m sure the Twins know more about Slowey’s health than I do, but in general… is there any evidence the recent obsession with pitch counts and not allowing pitchers to complete games and stuff is actually preventing injuries? If pitchers are less prone to injury than they used to be, it’s sure escaped my notice.
Losing 2 of 3 to the Royals in August while in first place is not encouraging…
The Padres took 2 of 3 from the Giants this weekend, and are now 9-2 against San Francisco this season. Today’s game was the first of those 11 games that was won by more than 3 runs, and 7 of the 11 (5 SD wins, 2 SF wins) have been 1-run games.
The whole pitching staff has been great, but Mat Latos is having an awesome season, with an ERA of 2.32 and a WHIP of 0.99.
The problem the Padres face now is how much to pitch him. At the start of the season, the feeling was that they were probably going to restrict him to about 150 innings or so, in order to protect his arm. But when that strategy was being discussed, no-one expected the Padres to have a three and a half game lead in the middle of August. Now they not only need him to keep their playoff hopes alive, but if they continue to lead the division they will also need him for the playoff games.
He had a 15-day stint on the DL around the All-Star Game, and that was probably a precautionary measure. As it is, though, if he stays in the rotation for the rest of the season, he’s likely to end up pitching about 200 innings.
ETA:
I’m watching the Phillies-Mets game right now, and Christ but i wish Joe Morgan would STFU.
How is it possible that one of the greatest players ever to pull on a glove can be so fucking useless as a commentator?
I’m not sure but he is the worst without question.
Where is ManRam going to end up? Tampa? New York? He’s definitely not going to remain a Dodger. I could even see Boston putting in a waiver claim on him just to prevent either of the other two divisional teams from getting him.
I doubt NY, no spot for him on the Yanks and the Mets quite honestly appear to be done. I doubt Francona or the fans in Boston would welcome him back after his exit.
Here is a wildcard, Tampa Bay? White Sox could be a possible fit.
I liked Colby Rasmus’s box score line from Friday night:
AB – 0
R – 0
H – 0
RBI – 0
BB – 4
The 0 runs and 0 rbi serve to make the 4 walks all the more startling.
I think the Dodgers would be thrilled if anyone claimed him, and would give him up for free. I don’t see anyone picking up the remainder of his salary.
The Mets have traveled back into the deal ball era scoring all of 9 runs on their 6 game homestand. Amazingly, thanks to three shutouts, they still went 3-3.
Ricky Romero has a shiny new five-year, $30M contract, and celebrates by pitching seven innings of six-hit, one-run ball as the Jays beat the Halos 4-1.
On to Oakland tonight, unfortunately can’t see the game on TV as it’s a Sportsnet One (new cable channel) exclusive; only Rogers Cable currently carries it.
Thanks a bunch, Rogers. Looks like I’ll be catching Tampa vs. Texas instead.
Do not get me fucking started. Oh, I’m fucking started.
For those of you who don’t live here, Rogers owns the Blue Jays and their own cable service. They have five sports channels, which for a lack of programming - there’s only so much baseball, basketball, football and hockey - mostly show the same highright shows repeated over and over, and a lot of non-sports like poker.
Without warning, they announced last week that they’re creating yet another sports channel, “Sportsnet One,” and are moving half the Blue Jays’ remaining games to it. Sportsnet One, sadly, exists only on Rogers cable. If you have any other cable provider - and we’re not given a choice, it’s all territorial - you don’t get it.
Of course, all the other cable providers can get SN1, if only they pay Rogers an exorbitant fee. And if they do, Rogers will simply create Sportsnet Two, and plsit off games to that.
And it’s not just Jays fans; the Raptors games will all be on SN1. Don’t get Rogers? Too bad, unless your cable provider pays them their astronomical fee - and passes it on to you.
I had two more games planned to go to this year. I am no longer going. They don’t get my money if they’re trying to rip me off at the same time.
I don’t know why they didn’t just call it “Fuck You, Bell, and the TSN2 You Rode In On”.
To be fair, Slowey had missed his previous start with elbow tendinitis, but still a good question.
Everything I’ve read on the subject falls basically into two camps-the old school camp that basically says today’s pitchers are pussies that don’t throw enough, and the new school camp that takes it as prima facie fact that fewer pitches=fewer injuries.
Here’s the 12 year old unveiling Pitcher Abuse Points which was an attempt to quantify abuse by progressively penalizing high pitch count games and here’s an article basically setting PAP on it’s head. In fairness, the second article makes an assumption about the quality differences between two sets of high pitch count pitchers that is manifestly wrong. Basically the more pitches a pitcher throws in any given year the better he is (on average); Tom Tango glosses over that, even though it could explain the entire production differential of his subsets.
Anyway, I haven’t seen anything definitive on injury rates past v. present, so here’s my theory-
Modern pitchers suffer more injuries under pitch counts because they have a hard ceiling, i.e. 100-110 pitches, and, knowing this, they put more effort into each pitch, and therefore incur more stress per pitch than ever before.
I think it holds up, because we’ve all seen a 92-93 MPH starter go to 97-98 in relief (Smoltz) and vice versa (Joba) and I don’t think there’s really any argument that the highest injury rate on a per pitch basis has to be among modern relievers.
Once again, thanks a bunch, Rogers. I’m missing a gem by Marcum and Bautista’s 37th.
Seriously though, why would you cut off perhaps three-quarters of your viewing audience, even if you expect other cable/satellite companies to eventually pick up the signal?
Sounds like you guys have a major (heh) issue…that sucks…
On a happier note, Marcum tosses a one-hitter (grumble grumble Conor Jackson) and the Jays sign first-rounder Deck McGuire right before the deadline.
Morrow tonight for the first time since the Evan Longoria Game.