The Dodgers sweep the Braves at home and remain atop the NLWest. Kershaw has now defeated every team in the major leagues at least once during the regular season. The Dodgers decline to enter any trade frenzy, deciding to play the hand they have, at least for now.
Looks like it’s the A’s and the Tigers who made the big moves so far.
silenus
I don’t think the Dodgers had to make a trade. They picked up some nice relievers in the past week and 2nd baseman Darwin Barney (good glove man) from the Cubs. They’re poised to take The West.
So between the Dodgers, A’s, Cardinals and Tigers, who do we project has the best rotation for the last two months of the season? And are there other teams that ought to be included in that list?
Is anyone willing to predict the Final Four at this point?
Tigers
A’s
Nationals
Dodgers
Other teams
Cardinals
You could switch the Tigers and A’s and it would be justifiable, I mean who knows how they’re going to shake out post-trade. The Tigers top 4 is just so stacked (note that Verlander is their 5 for me unless/until he gets himself fixed). I really hope those two meet up in the ALCS, for my benefit as a viewer, of course.
I’d have a really hard time putting the regular season, five-man Dodgers rotation over either of those, though of course they’ve got the best top two. I’d almost certainly take the Nationals rotation over the Dodgers. So much talent there, and even if you don’t believe Roark keeps it up, the results have certainly be there thus far. Kershaw’s automatic win is nice but you’re still starting Haren and hoping Beckett continues this year’s magic.
As for the Cardinals, they have an ace, a couple guys pitching like #2s in Lynn and Lackey, and a couple of guys who have underlying talent but who are not having good seasons. It’s an above-average rotation, but better in the playoffs when you can focus on the top part of it. Maybe 10th or so in the league, unless you think Masterson is going to put on a Cards uniform and instantly stop being a train wreck. Braves are definitely better top to bottom. Rays are probably better even without Price. Maybe the Giants, probably a few others I’m not thinking of.
Final four? Baseball playoffs are such a crapshoot, but just from team strength I’d guess DET-OAK in the AL and WAS-LAD in the NL. Outside of those, I’d love to see Baltimore, Toronto, Pitt, or Milwaukee to get in there just to get some different teams some playoff success.
I’ve got to go with the Tigers. Their rotation is insane. The WORST pitcher on the staff appears to be Justin Verlander.
I am certainly very willing to predict an Oakland-Detroit ALCS (I do not see it likely they could meet in the ALDS barring an Oakland collapse or an Angel scorch; the AL East winner will probably be seeded third. I think Detroit is better than Baltimore or Toronto, though they’re all pretty close right now.) I wouldn’t bet my car on it but it looks pretty likely.
The NL is very tough. St. Louis and LA are not locks.
Kershaw has never pitched against the Toronto Blue Jays.
I want to continue my complaint from the previous thread about the rule for catchers on plays at the plate.
Here is the video of the relevant play, showing some good angles at around the 45 to 55 second mark.
Yes, it’s clear that the catcher is standing in the base path when he catches the ball, but the rule is still a complete fucking mess. Here’s the rule itself:
As the guys at Deadspin, and quite a few other commentators around the baseball blogosphere, have noted, this rule is way too vague and imprecise.
From Deadspin:
As i said in the previous thread, i’m completely on board with the need to prevent bad collisions at the plate, but they need to think a lot about how they might improve this rule.
In addition to RickJay’s observation about the Blue Jays, Kershaw has never pitched against the Orioles, the Red Sox, the Twins, or the Rangers. Additionally, while he has pitched against the Indians, Yankees and Athletics, he hasn’t recorded a Win against any of those teams.
Apart from that, though, you’re right on the money. 
Edit: I’m guessing you meant every NL team, because the Braves were, until this recent series, the only NL team Kershaw had not beaten.
I mis-heard Scully, obviously. Or Vin screwed up. I know which one I’d put odds on.
I’d think beating every team in your own league in a career wouldn’t be a rare event at all. Beating every team in your league in a season would nowadays not be so common since a team plays only 6 or 7 games against non-divisional opponents, and you’d have to win at least 14 games to do this. But if you’re talking about within a season, it would be impossible to win a game against every team in both leagues as teams don’t play every other team. You could possibly do it if you were traded during the season, but you’d have to win 28-30 games depending on whether you insisted on the pitcher beating his new/old team while playing for the other.
Well, the Dan Uggla Era has come to an end in San Francisco…and I think we can all agree that it went better than anyone had a right to expect.
And with the recent additions of Matt Duffy and Jarrett Parker, fresh up from AA Richmond, it’s clear that the Dodgers have no choice but to concede the division now…after all, the Giants are undefeated in August!
I would think any pitcher with a reasonably long career would pretty much HAVE to beat every other team in the league except the team they pitch for if they play most or all of their career with that team. There’s just be too many games not to. Nobody remembers Dick Ruthven, but I bet he beat every team in the NL except maybe the Phillies.
It would take longer now than it used to because teams play fewer extradivisional games, but you will eventually get there.
Oakland has four All Star starters and an All Star closer. QED.
Kazmir, Samardzija, Lester, Doolittle–who’s the other one?
(I assume you are talking about this year.)
I just checked. You’re right, and he even beat the Phillies. Had a 1-5 record against them.
Astros fail to sign the #1 pick in the draft, which I took for a catastrophe, but the compensation under the current CBA is much better than it used to be - second overall pick in the next draft. So they lose a year of development but are basically even on player quality.
The Marlins catcher is pretty terrible. For starters, he’s got 12 errors (!!!) on the year so far and they are ALL throwing errors.
I’ve been watching him mishandle several pitches in the dirt tonight, one of which he blocked on a strike three call, he thought the ball went behind him when it was actually right in front of him, and allowed the otherwise struck out batter for the Reds to reach first. Crazy.
It’s still kind of a catastrophe, for a couple of reasons - they also failed to sign at least one other significant player as a result, because of how the bonus pools work, and because they are hopefully planning on contending at some defined point (when their current half dozen or so top prospects are ready), pushing another super-top prospect a year back is a relatively bigger problem than it might be otherwise. Also, bonus catastrophe reason, there’s been some research that suggests that even the difference between pick 1 and pick 2 is really, really big.
So sorry to be a depressing person on a nice Friday night, but that episode was definitely a catastrophe. I love most of what the Astros system has going on, though!
Oh, and in real baseball, I’d like to talk about Mr. Jeter. There’s this presumption that Even Red Sox Fans Respect Jeter!!! I would like to disagree. I respected the hell out of Mo Rivera; he can have all the cute little Fenway souvenirs he wants. I even thought Paul O’Neill and Bernie Williams were kind of cool guys. But I could really not give a shit about Derek Jeter. He’s a great player, put him in the HOF on the first ballot, but no, he doesn’t have the sense of class that Mo Rivera always had. Just because I was nice to one long-time Yankee on his retirement tour doesn’t mean I have to be nice to this one.
That said, nice HR tonight, Cap’n Jetes. Glad you lost.
If that’s true, it was almost entirely of the Astros’ own making. I don’t feel sorry for them at all.
Yeah, I’ve heard people wonder how we’ll treat him when they return in September. I expect us to be wallowing in the cellar, and VERY ornery.