Since I started this thread, the Yanks have gone on a nice little tear. 7 behind the Red Sox and only 6 behind Cleveland.
We “Yankee Fans” also got good news that Philip Hughes should only need one more rehab start and is scheduled for it at AAA Scranton. This puts Kei Igawa into the bullpen and hopefully removes Villone from the team. Karsten is supposed to be close to joining the bullpen. He throws strikes; we need someone to come in a throw strike and a fresh arm. With any luck, some NL team will decide Farnsworth is a good fit for them and take him off our hands for a bag of balls and the Yanks tossing in a few million.
The Yanks have another 20 or so “easy” games to make up some more ground. With just a little luck, the Yanks will at least make the Red Sox sweat.
Just to expand on what cckerberos said, I’m still waiting for the inevitable Yankees rally/Red Sox collapse in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS. I’m not entirely convinced that it’s actually over.
I’m on record as saying that the Yanks will win the division. That the Sox just got swept at home by the Royals (the Royals!) is a sign of how supine they have become. Their rotation has been really floundering. Tavarez had a good streak, but hasn’t been so hot over the last month. Wakefield, ditto. Matsuzaka seems to alternate a dazzling outing with a ho-hum one. Gabbard? Who knows?
The team has been flat as a pancake for weeks on end, and if they don’t find a bit of energy, they’re done for.
A crappy rotation(although it’s been better now that McGowan and Marcum are starting over those awful pitchers we signed in the offseason), the shortstop and catching positions are black holes for us offensively and some key players are just not hitting the way they should be.
Toronto has a lousy offense; it’s that simple. They signed a 39-year-old DH one season too late for $15 million too much and the team is, for the most part, made of relatively low-ceiling players, save Rios. The team was only average at scoring runs last year with Wells and Johnson having big years, so it’s not terribly surprising they’re below average with them regressing.
Unfortunately, this is about as good as the team is going to be for quite some time, because they’re pretty much locked in to who they have and there’s no help on the farm for years to come. 2007 was their best chance and it’s hosed. The team isn’t going to contend for several years to come.
The pitching has actually been okay, especially considering how the defense is. Toronto has been a surprisingly poor defensive team, largely due to losing Johnson and Overbay for long periods of time; Lind and Stairs aren’t glove men, Glaus’s wonking legs have given him some trouble at third, and the catching is just awful, the worst in the league.
Well, since I started this thread, my team, The Yankees, have made up some ground.
6 games over .500, only 5½ behind Cleveland and only 3 behind Seattle. They passed the Twins.
In the Divisional race, the gap is down to 7½ behind Boston.
They have won 4 straight and 10 of the 13 since the All Star break, a .769 clip. Most of the hitters are hitting, even Damon has started and the pitching is looking a little better. The Yanks drop the average fielding, no bat back-up catcher Wil Nieves when they picked up the defensive specialist Jose Molina who at least hits above the Mendoza line. Both Hughes and Karstens are close to returning.
Boston has some great news as well as Jon Lester won in his return yesterday.
Frustratingly, the Braves seem to be tracking the Mets exactly, neither losing nor gaining much ground.
Here’s hoping Bonds doesn’t get his record against a Braves pitcher this week. That would be adding insult to the injury of taking the record away from Hank.
The Cardinals spent the first half of the season waiting for ace Chris Carpenter to come back and be ready to pitch right about now. Instead, he’s having season-ending surgery, leaving the starting rotation as shaky as ever, made up of guys who, though they can pitch well, can’t be trusted to, and all too often haven’t. So that’s the next-to-last nail in the coffin of the (2006 World Series-winning) Cardinals’ hopes of making the playoffs this year. The last nail will come this week, unless they somehow manage to do really well against the Cubs and the Brewers, the two teams that are way ahead of them in the NL Central.
As a Mets fan I feel just as frustrated that the Braves just won’t go away. Makes the season far more interesting than last year’s, though.
And I second that emotion – that Barry breaking Hank’s record against the Braves is just wrong. Though I do hope (for his own sake) that he does it in his home ballpark.
I am pleased to note the Jays continue to have some mysterious, unexplainable ability to beat the crap out of Johan Santana. If they faced a Johan Santana clone every night, they’d win 125 games a year.
Dodgers have opened up an enormous two-game lead in the NL West!
I’m getting very nervous about having to face Bonds next week, though. He looks like he may slump just long enough to try to tie/break the record against us.
Well, we’ve got a slowly-growing lead over Cleveland and things are looking dandy as a motherfucker. The bullpen has righted itself and further cavalry is coming in.
I’m still looking for the Phillies to get their asses in gear and move past both the Mets and Braves. If they ever decide to start pitching, at least a little bit, I’m thinking it’s a lock.
Locally, the A’s have won the last two against the Angels, significantly with Mike Piazza in the lineup. I’m reasonably certain they will trade Piazza before the deadline, but it’s kind of a shame because I think even now the team could really shape up with him in the lineup every night. Maybe not make the playoffs, but at least reel off some wins and put in a respectable showing, finish with a solid above .500 record and build some momentum for next year.
On a related note, there’s talk about Piazza going to the Twins, and I’d find that really interesting. They’ve already got two legit young stars in Morneau and Mauer, an All-Star in Hunter, the best pitcher in the world–despite what Toronto may do to him–leading the staff…that could be a team to watch with one more big bat.
RickJay, I’m wondering about the Blue Jays. I saw them against the A’s on 4th of July, and going on what I saw they are definitely underperforming. Is there any thought of canning the manager? Because I don’t see where there’s any more pertinent reason for the Blue Jays to be a .500 team.
I don’t see that happening. The Phillies’ bullpen has been leaky and there’s not going to be a lot of help there out on the trade market. And don’t forget, the Mets have Pedro Martinez coming back off the DL in a few weeks to enter the rotation, which could be a big plus.
Really the only weakness for the Mets this season has been a surprisingly poor offensive year from a number of key players (Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado), and players with histories of hitting well usually play back to their level eventually. Also, the rest of the season’s schedule favors the Mets – they have more home games left than road games, and many games against the “cellar dwellers” of the division, the Nationals and the Marlins.
Nothing’s ever a given, but I think the odds are on a strong finish for the Mets; it’s really a question of whether the Braves and Phillies can finish even stronger. Since the Mets have got a weak remaining schedule, key players coming back from the DL and (hopefully) bouncing back from mid-season slumps, and are holding a lead in the division (with in fact the best record in the NL as of right now), I think their position is pretty good – it will take a lot more for the Phillies than “starting to pitch a little bit” for it to be “a lock” for them to catch up, especially with the Braves also ahead of them (unless you mean make the post-season by taking the Wild Card).
