The A’s entire payroll… all of it… would not be enough to pay Barry Zito, Tim Lincecum, Aubrey Huff, and Hunter Pence this year.
Sorry A’s, pick any 3 of those players to make up your entire team.
Tigers tie the division once again, if only they can figure a way to deal with that juggernaut that is the royals, they should be good.
I predicted at the start of the year the A’s would tank, and tank badly. Hoo boy, was I wrong.
They’ve already won WAY more games than I expected them to all year. And they’re a team that can be seriously improved, so things look good for 2013 and beyond; they have really glaring holes you could fill with reasonably competent and affordable players. A team 18 games over .500 with huge holes like Cliff Pennington and Kurt Suzuki is a good and improveable club.
True, although the Suzuki hole has moved to Washington, D.C.
Hey! That’s just unfair! We made the playoffs last season and everything!
Was at the Braves game earlier tonight. Braves won on a 3-run walk-off homer by Chipper off Papelbon that capped a 5-run bottom of the 9th. Briefly considered leaving after the 8th inning, and am so glad we didn’t! Not the biggest Chipper fan, but that was pretty special.
So, with exactly a month until the last day of the regular season, here’s how the playoff hopes in the AL East shake out.
Current standings:
W L GB WC
NYY 76 57 - -
BAL 74 59 2.0 -
TBR 73 61 3.5 1.5
Schedules:
NYY BAL TBR
@TBR @TOR NYY
@TBR @TOR NYY
@TBR @TOR NYY
@BAL NYY TEX
@BAL NYY TEX
@BAL NYY TEX
@BAL NYY @BAL
@BOS TBR @BAL
@BOS TBR @BAL
@BOS TBR @NYY
TBR @OAK @NYY
TBR @OAK @NYY
TBR @OAK BOS
TOR @SEA BOS
TOR @SEA BOS
TOR @SEA BOS
OAK @BOS TOR
OAK @BOS TOR
OAK @BOS TOR
MIN TOR @BOS
MIN TOR @BOS
MIN TOR @CHW
@TOR TOR @CHW
@TOR BOS @CHW
@TOR BOS @CHW
@TOR BOS BAL
BOS @TBR BAL
BOS @TBR BAL
BOS @TBR
The next week is going to be huge, with all three teams playing a series against one another.
In out-of-division games, the Rays seem to be at a slight disadvantage, playing series against the two other AL division leaders, the Rangers and the White Sox. The Yankees and Orioles each have a three-game set against Oakland, although Baltimore has to travel to the left coast for the series. Baltimore gets the mediocre Mariners away, while New York gets the truly terrible Twins in Yankee Stadium. Advantage Yankees in the out-of division games, i think.
In the division, the Yankees and Orioles each get 13 games against the two bottom teams, Boston and Toronto, while the Rays get 9. Tampa has also played one more game than the Yankees and Orioles.
The Yankees are also due to get some big-name players back in their lineup very soon. I think they should still be favorites for the division, but i hope it will be very close.
If there are no dramatic collapses or surges before the end of September, the last few days could once again decide a whole lot of things. Baltimore and Tampa play each other, with possibly the Wild Card and/or the Division at stake. And if it’s close, Boston might have the opportunity to go into Yankee Stadium and come away as spoilers. I think even this year’s mediocre Red Sox could probably make a special effort for an occasion like that.
Should be an exciting month.
Let’s Go O’s!!!
I was just reading about this on MLB.com.
I knew they had him on an innings limit for the season, but i must admit that i still find it somewhat incredible that a pitcher of Strasburg’s quality is apparently not going to throw a single pitch in the postseason.
What I find puzzling is why they didn’t move him tothe bullpen about a month ago, if they were really serious about this, and just have him throw an inning or three a week until the playoffs rolled around. Or if this was the pan all along why didn’t they shut him down in July, and work him back in in August? Or have him in the bullpen for two months?
Personally I think it’s ridiculous. There’s little evidence this level of babying actually keeps pitchers healthy - anyone remember when Joba Chamberlain was a prospect? - and the team’s got an opportunity to win the World Series. There is an excellent chance they will be playing elimination games and facing opposing hitters that could put them out of the season while their best pitcher sits around resting an already rested arm. It’s stupid.
Pre-seasonally, I predicted on another website that all the teams in the AL West would win at least 80 games. The M’s are real close to being a .500 team, so I could turn out to be right. I didn’t think the A’s would be better than the Angels though.
I’ve yet to hear a coherent explanation of why they couldn’t have held Strasburg out the first month or two, or had him miss a stretch or miss periodic starts in midseason, or work out of the bullpen for a month or so, etc.
The Nats’ front office may not have expected the team to be this good, but plenty of people last winter were pointing to an improving Nats team, with a good shot at winning 87-88 games, as a likely beneficiary of the expanded playoff structure. They had to know they had a shot, and should have been preparing accordingly since last winter.
Me too. Getting on a roll like the Nats are on now is like lightning striking. No matter how good this team is, the pieces may not come together quite like this again. If you have a team that’s ready to go deep into the playoffs, you’ve got to be ready to make the most of it. Next season, odds are it’ll be some other team that catches lightning in a bottle. That’s just how it is.
My hope is that this is a ruse, that this IS when they set him down so they can use him later. They said they would limit his innings to something in the 160-180 range. Well, he’s pitched 156 innings so far. 180 - 156 = 24, which is four 6-inning starts. So he could start once more in the season, then start once in each round of the playoffs, just enough to keep the club from having to start Detwiler or Lannan.
But I’ve got nothing to base that hope on, other than that they seem to have left room for it.
In more cheerful news, the Nats beat the Cubs 2-1, with Clippard channeling Full-Pack Stanhouse in the ninth. The Braves kept pace, so the lead remains at 6.5 games. (Speaking of the Braves keeping pace, that was one hell of a ninth-inning comeback last night!)
And in the AL, the Birds beat the Jays and the Yanks lost to the Rays, so the Yankee lead is down to one measly game. Amazing.
I don’t think its a ruse and I agree its just completely stupid. But hey, as a fan of a team that has a good shot of facing the Nats in the NLCS, if they want to shoot themselves in the foot, more power to them. I still can’t believe they are actually going to sit a guy that’s one of the best starting pitchers in baseball for the playoffs.
I doubt it’s a ruse either; I just can’t help wanting to hang onto a thread of hope, however slender.
After he’s shut down, how hard is it to bring him back? I honestly don’t know. I’m OK with the shutdown, but I’d like to know that if Gonzalez or J. Zimmerman or Jackson or Detwiler gets injured, it’s reversible. How much ‘rehab’ does a shutdown-but-healthy pitcher need to get back in a real game?
The Giants have gone 13-5 since Melky Cabrera was suspended. 
And the Dodgers are 8-10 in that same time frame, and 4-5 since they purchased the city of Boston.
Not that I’m gloating, or anything 
This fan of both the Giants and Red Sox has been enjoying the past week and a half immensely. Here’s hoping it continues.
Given that the Dodgers actually have to play, you know, major league teams and the Giants schedule for September looks like AA ball, it’s not a surprise that the Sorry-Ass Giants are winning a few. 
It isn’t going to happen. The quality of the rest of the rotation wasn’t the determining factor in shutting him down.
From reading Rizzo’s statements, the nationals wanted to keep Strasburg on as regular routine as possible. They wanted him gearing up in spring training, they didn’t want him switching between the bullpen and rotation and they really didn’t want to shut him down and gear him back up. I’m sure Rizzo was well aware of all the options that allowed him to keep Strasburg available in the playoffs, he just felt that he needed to do otherwise. Whether Rizzo made the right decision, I don’t believe we are in a position to judge. This really is one of those situations where there is very little information available to an outsiders. The fact that Strasburg has been healthy and effective all year though, along with the fact that I haven’t seen any doctor come out against the plan leads me to give him some benefit of the doubt.