The trade deadline is now in the rear-view mirror. Two months to go in the regular season. How is your team faring? Who do you predict gets hot in August? Who falls out of contention?
I think the Yanks can probably hold onto the division lead. Excellent reinforcements and the Red Sox have run into issues.
Houston, Washington & LA Dodgers have their divisions pretty secure.
I do think the Cubs will take the NL Central but I don’t have a good feel for AL Central, I’m leaning towards KC overtaking Cleveland.
Standings as of August 1:
NL West
Dodgers, Diamondbacks (14 GB), Rockies (14.5 GB), Padres (27 GB), Giants (35 GB)
NL Central
Cubs, Brewers (2.5 GB), Cardinals (4.5 GB), Pirates (5.5 GB), Reds (14.5 GB)
NL East
Nationals, Marlins (14 GB), Mets (14.5 GB), Braves (15 GB), Phillies (23.5 GB)
AL West
Astros, Mariners (16 GB), Angels (18.5 GB), Rangers (19 GB), A’s (22.5 GB)
AL Central
Indians, Royals (2 GB), Twins (6.5 GB), Tigers (10 GB), White Sox (15.5 GB)
AL East
Yankees, Red Sox (0.5 GB), Rays (4.5 GB), Orioles (6.5 GB), Blue Jays (9 GB)
NL Wild Card
Diamondbacks, Rockies, Brewers (5.5 GB), Cardinals (7.5 GB), Pirates (8.5 GB)
AL Wild Card
Red Sox, Royals, Mariners (2.5 GB), Rays (2.5 GB), Orioles (4.5 GB), Twins (4.5 GB), Angels (5 GB)
I predict the Cubs will continue their much better play, putting the NL Central away effectively by the start of September. About time they got their stuff together.
I think the Cubs and the Nats are the only two that can seriously challenge the Dodgers for the pennant.
The Cubs seem to have recovered from that awful World Series hangover and they’re still not firing on all cylinders yet. However, the schedule for August is decent and I just don’t believe in the Brewers as a legitimate contender.
Red Sox and Yankees both made their teams better by the end of July. This should be a fun race down to the wire.
In the NL, obviously the Dodgers got better, adding Darvish to an already good rotation. They will be tough to be in October, assuming everyone is healthy.
10 games between Boston and the Yankees in the next 33 days, but then nothing after September 3rd. It’s going to be an interesting month.
It is not sufficient that the Dodgers win. The Giants must also crater.
Life is Good.
Indians / Red Sox tonight was about as exciting as sports can get. Unreal defensive plays, improbable comebacks, usually unhittable pitchers getting tagged, topped off by a walk off HR. It does not get better.
Whereas the Cubs are steamrolling Arizona by a score of 16-3 going into the 8th inning
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Quite the pitching duel between Carrasco and Sale :dubious:, plus bonus blown saves by both teams’ closers. It must have been lots of fun for the fans at Fenway though.
Good start for the Dodgers in August. They only lost 3 times in July. Current 9 game winning streak is without Kershaw.
It gets better if Cody Allen doesn’t blow that save, but I may have a biased view. Ugh. Still, watching that game last night was worthwhile for Austin Jackson’s catch alone.
In case you haven’t seen it, you need to see it.
Indeed, that was the unreal defensive play I alluded to. Best catch I’ve seen in a long time, maybe ever.
As a Red Sox fan, even going into the bottom of the 9th down a run I was thinking this game has been awesome. Then Devers gets a single on a ball that bounced about 50 feet up off the plate (or maybe the ground right in front of the plate). Moreland checks his swing, gets a 3rd strike call on the appeal to the 3rd base ump, but wait the ball is at the backstop! Moreland reaches on the 3rd strike wild pitch. When the count got to 3-1 on Vasquez I said, he’s gonna smoke one off the monster. Even better, he hit probably the farthest ball of his life.
That catch is all-time highlight reel stuff. :eek:
The Orioles have just won four in a row, and are only 3.5 games out of the Wild Card, just close enough to keep my hopes up in my more irrational moments.
But who am i kidding? They’re going to keep giving up 5+ runs per game, and they’re going to keep losing as many as they win.
I dunno. With all of the critics hammering them for their failure to sell at the deadline, I would really, really love to see them sneak into the playoffs. They just need to clone Ubaldo! (Poor Ubaldo…)
I’d be quite happy if that happened, but it seems pretty unlikely. And the problem isn’t just failure to sell.
I could live with failure to sell if they had made an effort to go out and buy. Give up some prospects and grab a starting pitcher or two, for example. If they could get their team ERA down below 5.00, they might have a shot at winning enough games to sneak into that WC spot. But they basically said, “Hey, let’s stick with the mediocre team that’s spent the last two months struggling not to drop into last place in the division.” Does anyone really think that Jeremy Hellickson is going to solve their pitching issues?
Especially since the teams they’re chasing actually did improve.
What’s the use of the Nats’ acquiring three new relievers if Dusty throws the same old clowns in there, and they blow a 6-0 lead?
Sometimes I wonder about Dusty… thoughts?