The Reds are eliminated from winning the division. Technically they could still get a wild card. Million to one, but it gave Lloyd Christmas hope.
Who’s the worst team in baseball? Yeah, the Reds are the first team to not be able to finish first but holy moly, the Braves, man. They lost 15-1 yesterday and lost 20-6 last week. They’re 6-22 since the trading deadline, have the worst offense in the majors (Shelby Miller: 2.56 ERA and he’s 5-12) and are just generally one depressing sack of crap. The Phillies are a game behind them but really I think Atlanta’s worse. What the hell happened to Nick Markakis’s power?
Now that it’s obvious that the Giants will never, ever, win another game of baseball ever again, why can’t SD just lay down and let the Dodgers roll all over them, and snuff out the tiny but still flickering flame of hope that we Giants fans still hold on to? Have Mercy on us!
Then again…
The Giants only need to pick up a half-game each week in order to be withing striking distance when LA comes to town on the 28th…so maybe they’re not *quite *dead yet…
And the Giants continue to blow chunks.
I got to spend my labor day watching baseball and with the Giants down 6-0 in the seventh I’m confdent in predicting them losing another game. Is there any chance of them falling out of second?
I’m still not sold on Jackie Bradley finally figuring it out, but I’m willing to listen now. Over the last month, since Aug. 9, he’s hitting .446 with 24 extra-base hits in 25 games. It’s going to be very interesting now to see what Dombrowski does over the winter.
So Matt Harvey was being very coy about what will happen when he reaches his suggested limit of 180 innings. He was talking about what’s good for his career and how he was consulting with a doctor and his agent (Scott Boras, of course).
Now he says he’ll pitch in the playoffs, but I’m not clear what that means for the rest of the season. He’s at around 166 1/3 innings now.
I see both sides of this. The old school guys think everyone should want to play as much as possible until their body falls apart. On the other hand, I’m sure Harvey is still under his rookie contract and baseball is his livelihood.
Exhibit A: Stephen Strasburg. Shut down in a playoff run and what did it get the Nats?
Personally, I think the most damage to a pitcher is done in their teen years, leading up to and in high school. Guys are throwing year round, in multiple leagues and of course it’s wearing down young arms. That’s my opinion and I have no data to back anything up.
I really don’t believe taking 6.5 months off will make any difference 6 months doesn’t. It strikes me as being silly. Again, I am willing to be swayed by evidence, but pitchers are getting hurt just as often, just as young, and just as badly as they ever have, and babying them does not, from what I can see, make a damn bit of difference. If it matters to the Mets they should simply move him into the bullpen right now - Matt Harvey is not going to singlehandedly maintain a 5-game lead - to save his innings but keep him sharp. If it matters to Harvey, he’s a pussy. “I cannot pitch because I am hurt” is smart. “I won’t pitch because I’ve decided I have an innings limit” is when you tell your employee to shut the hell up and go back to work.
For all we know the Mets won’t make the playoff again for ten years, who’s to say? Win when you have the chance.
We have tickets to Mets-Nats tomorrow night and were hoping it was going to be an important game in the playoff picture, but it looks like the Nats are trying to take themselves out of it. 6 BBs in one inning?
Mathematically, sure the Nats have a chance. But realistically, it will require an epic collapse on the Mets part, as well as a huge turnaround on the Nats part. Sweeping a terrible Braves team obviously didn’t help. We’ll need to work on our bullpen next year. Also, although I’m not happy with the calls to fire Matt Williams, I’m reluctantly starting to come around to that side.
I wonder if Matt Harvey is somewhat distracted by all this innings limit stuff. He got roughed up by the Nats, although Washington’s bullpen blew a 6 run lead to lose the game.
The Barves (we fans use this name when they are playing like they are now) have been an interesting study in how to do a rebuild this year. After last season, in which the Braves competed for a playoff spot until the final month, the front office (the FO) decided that the team, as constructed then, really was no better than a mid-pack team in an division that was, overall, getting better.
Well, through some people outperforming expectations, they were right at .500 at the halfway point. So, this gave the FO the quandary of do we try to compete this year, or do we trade some of these people who have outperformed expectations, and get even more prospects.
They decided to trade and truly tear the team down and rebuild from almost nothing.
All sights are set on 2017 when the Braves move to a new stadium, with the idea that we will have a very competitive team by then. But that means at least one more year of 15-3 games. Sigh.
Worst of all, it’s forced me into a position where I have to somewhat pull for the Mets. Anyone but Washington!
With Tim Hudson’s solo homer in the 3rd inning last night, the Giants now have 7 home runs hit by pitchers on the season (8 if you count now-Giant Mike Leake’s homer he hit while with the Reds earlier in the season); no other team has more than 2.
Of course, 5 of those came off the bat of Madison Bumgarner…in only 66 at-bats.