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AL East

Frayed Knot Sep 10 2010 03:00 PM

NYY - TBR -2.5 Bost -9.0 This looks like it should be a fun pennant race but it really won't seeing as how the loser is almost certain to be the WC winner. The Red Sox are the closest competition at this point (ChiSox trail them by one game) so there's almost now way the WC comes out of any other division. So we're reduced to waiting out 'home field advantage' (one of my least favorite topics for discussion) and mundane speculation about things like the specific match-ups such as pondering whether there's an advantage in playing Texas first rather than Minnesota or the other way around. Yanx & Rays have seven head-to-head remaining (3 in Tampa starting Monday, then 4 in NY the following week). If nothing else, six straight vs Texas & Tampa could knock the Yanx around a bit this week. Tampa has won 6 of the 11 games played to date. Other than that the MFY starting rotation bears watching as it's been more than a bit raggedy lately and Pettitte, who is due back soon, is desperately needed to regain his early season form and right the ship. The post-season sked supposedly (I haven't seen anything yet) doesn't have as many built-in off-days as that disaster they gave us last season, the one that had a scheduled November finish by giving teams (read: TV) more off-days than game-days and allowed a team to not only use just three starters but do so without fear of using any on short rest.

Frayed Knot Sep 11 2010 07:54 AM Re: AL East

I couldn't stay up for the end of the 5:12 abortion that was the Tex/NYY game - finding out only now that Nelson Cruz won it with a leadoff HR in the 13th. One could rationalize the length based on the extra innings but that thing was dragging from the very start. It took them just under an hour just to play the first two innings and it was a 1-0 game at that point. Fun stuff I did see: - Joba the Fat serving up the game-tying HR on the first pitch he threw in the 8th (also Cruz) - Jeter going 1-for-7 (infield single in the 3rd) which deepens his current slump into something like 10 for his last 60-something, .260/.326/.366 for the season and .235/.313/.322 since June 1st It's time to begin wondering if they'll consider dropping him out of the leadoff or 2nd slots in the lineup come playoff time in favor of say Brett Gardner (.388 OBA) or Swisher (.364) or ... hell, just about anyone else. Going to be an interesting contract discussion this winter for sure. Buster Olney said the other day that if you took the name away and just looked at the stats, position & age you'd tag him as a 1-year/$4mil contract Tampa did pick up a game on the Yanx, managing to hold on to a 9-8 win after jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the top of the 1st.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 12 2010 08:43 PM Re: AL East

[quote="Frayed Knot"]IBuster Olney said the other day that if you took the name away and just looked at the stats, position & age you'd tag him as a 1-year/$4mil contract

6/100

Ashie62 Sep 12 2010 09:25 PM Re: AL East

I was looking at Jeter's stats today and it appears at age 36 he is about shot.

Edgy DC Sep 12 2010 09:44 PM Re: AL East

I'm not so optimistic with my pessimism. I think they will somehow find a way to appropriately overpay him without crippling themselves too too much, and he'll find a way to produce a little along the way. Nonetheless, not an impressive showing for the Athlete of the Year. At this age, Joe DiMaggio had one disappointing season and walked away.

Frayed Knot Sep 12 2010 10:04 PM Re: AL East

What this season does is tend to make last year look like more of the aberration and not 2008. In 2008 he dropped to an OPS+ of 102 after a string of years mostly in the 120s & 130s. At age 34 it wouldn't have been irrational to see that as the beginning of the slide towards mediocrity. But the 3rd place MVP year of 2009 tied for his best OPS+ ever (132) other than the career year of 1999 when he turned 25 and it became easier to write off the one so-so season as a fluke. But drop this year's OPS+ = 91 into the mix and suddenly there's two mediocre (or worse) seasons out of the last three which, added to his age, makes the good season the one that seems out of place. Now into that stew toss in the clash between the face-of-the-franchise label and the question about how much the Yanx are willing to (over)spend for goodwill with the perceived ego thing about how much less he's willing to take as compared to ARod and they're in for one interesting negotiation over the winter. In a way the team probably caught a break that the contract wasn't up last year. But, in the meantime, nice sweep by the Rangers. Now it's on to Tampa for three where Sabathia hooks up with Price in game 1.

Number 6 Sep 12 2010 10:11 PM Re: AL East

Tangential question, if I wanted to output a list of SS sorted by a metric like OPS+ for this season, what site would one use? I looked through B-R and couldn't find a way to do it, as well as the Baseball Cube. Could very well be that I'm not navigating those sites properly.

Frayed Knot Sep 12 2010 10:24 PM Re: AL East

ESPN's stats page will let you do stuff like that. You can limit your search by position, league, min ABs, etc. and then sort (up or down) by stat

Number 6 Sep 12 2010 10:26 PM Re: AL East

Thanks, FK.

Frayed Knot Sep 14 2010 07:53 AM Re: AL East

Lost in the Met & Jet stuff last night (the three game were coming down to the wire right around the same time - tough night for the remote thumb) was the Rays beating the Yanx on an 11th inning walk-off HR by Reid Brignac which took them into 1st place. Sabathia tossed 8-innings of 2-hit/2-BB/9-K scoreless work while David Price was throwing 8 innings of 3/2/4 shutout ball of his own. Girardi then seemed content to go with his lesser relievers, first Wood, but then Boone Logan, Chad Gaudin, and finally Sergio Mitre who served up the whopper to the first batter he faced. That's 4 straight losses for this Yanx stretch against likely AL playoff teams.

Frayed Knot Sep 14 2010 08:24 PM Re: AL East

Yanx jump out to a 6-0 lead in TB ... only to cough up a 7-spot in the 5th. Now 7-7 heading for bottom 9 with last night's star Reid Brignac to lead off. David Robertson pitching. 3 of the Yanx' 4 losses over the last four games have come via walk-offs.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 14 2010 09:08 PM Re: AL East

Grrr

Edgy DC Sep 14 2010 09:17 PM Re: AL East

Rays had eight hits, six in one inning. For the Yanks, well... even Jeter got two hits.

Frayed Knot Sep 15 2010 06:59 AM Re: AL East

Not sure which was worst: - Posada's PH HR in top 10 - Longoria's almost 2R HR in the bottom that would have won it (caught at the fence in straight-away CF) - Carl Crawford ending the game by being thrown out at 3rd after tagging on a fly to short RF Yanx back up by a half-game. Hughes & Shields today.

MFS62 Sep 15 2010 07:35 AM Re: AL East

Soon-to-be free agent Carl Crawford trying to audition for Angel Pagan's job? That reminded me of some of the past mental mistakes that Angel made that caused to you to scratch your head in bewilderment. Later

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 17 2010 07:59 PM Re: AL East

O's clinging up 3-1 in the 9th vs. MFYs Uehera's got some serious sideburn action happening and just caught Jeets looking but MFYs have tying runs on and meat coming.

Kong76 Sep 17 2010 08:01 PM Re: AL East

Jerry's press conference not doing it for you?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 17 2010 08:01 PM Re: AL East

Severna Park's own Mark Fucxeira pops up. Now Gayrod as the go-ahead run, 2 out.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 17 2010 08:02 PM Re: AL East

[quote="Kong76":284z5dp5]Jerry's press conference not doing it for you?[/quote:284z5dp5] Nope. I am still rooting for MFYs to miss playoffs.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 17 2010 08:04 PM Re: AL East

This is why I don;t do this shit. Jeezus fuck.

Kong76 Sep 17 2010 08:04 PM Re: AL East

I flip over and Arod hits a bomb.

G-Fafif Sep 17 2010 11:07 PM Re: AL East

A-Fraud was struck out on the previous pitch but ump didn't call it. Yet another case of someone in MFY gear taking something that didn't belong to him.

Frayed Knot Sep 24 2010 07:31 PM Re: AL East

Pettitte got his ass kicked tonight one day after CC get a sore butt as well. But no need to worry, after those guys they have ... ummm, well, lemme get back to you on that. Rays winning as we speak vs Seattle. If things hold it would flip the 1/2 game lead once again - although the Yanx just cut the lead to 10-5 and, of course, they're only 2-1/2 hours in so they've got several innings to go still. Yanx have two more against Boston and then 3 more to close out the season. Yanx would need to lose at least 5 of those 6 plus fall down during the Toronto series in between for the Sawx to have a shot at catching them but, as we know, stranger things have happened.

themetfairy Sep 24 2010 07:54 PM Re: AL East

The only reason I'm watching the MFY game is that I get to watch it with the NESN feed.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 25 2010 06:31 PM Re: AL East

Boston after another win this afternoon has got 4 more games on the sked with the MFYs. Hmmm, I seem to recall them having won 4 straight vs. 'em at least once before.

Frayed Knot Sep 25 2010 07:27 PM Re: AL East

TB winning late in their game so it looks like them up by 1.5 for 1st place in the East. Boston essentially has to run the table in order to make this interesting - but stranger things have happened. Need to not only sweep the Yanx but can't lose more than one in their 4-game series vs ChiSox in between while hoping the Yanx stumble in Toronto.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 26 2010 09:04 PM Re: AL East

Mariano blows another. Heh heh

seawolf17 Sep 26 2010 09:10 PM Re: AL East

Joe Morgan actually had some good insight there. I don't watch enough MFY baseball to know how Rivera is with baserunners, but both of those runs were flat out stolen; he didn't even try to slow them down. That has to be in opponents' heads come next month.

Gwreck Sep 26 2010 09:28 PM Re: AL East

Fuck you, Papelbon.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 26 2010 09:30 PM Re: AL East

Yeah, Pap's a big-time douche.

Frayed Knot Sep 26 2010 09:35 PM Re: AL East

I swear I've never seen that big dork have a clean inning. The Sawx finally get to Rivera only to have Papelshit, after getting Jeter to fly out to start the inning, go single, single, walk, single to re-tie the game again.

seawolf17 Sep 26 2010 09:41 PM Re: AL East

It sucks that I've spent the last hour watching this game, concocting ways that this game can end without Robinson Cano and Marco Scutaro scoring fantasy points for my opponent while I watch Papelbon's score (for me) tick down with every hit. That Cano AB was the most stressful baseball AB (for me) that I've watched since Carlos Beltran in 2006. Eff you, baseball.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 26 2010 10:00 PM Re: AL East

F

Edgy DC Sep 27 2010 05:55 PM Re: AL East

So, that Carlos Delgado thing didn't quite shake out, huh?

metirish Sep 29 2010 08:00 AM Re: AL East

How about that Girardi and his managing over the last few weeks , from what I have been reading it reeked of over managing and then panic.

Frayed Knot Oct 01 2010 03:05 PM Re: AL East

Dead tie going into the last weekend thanks to the Rays losing to KC last night (at least it was a Greinke start so they get a partial pass). Yanx are in Boston while the Rays finish up with the Royals so it sounds like advantage TB. Minnesota is one game behind the record of both of them as they host Toronto for three more. Two more HRs for Bautista in last night's Minny game (54).

Frayed Knot Oct 01 2010 08:02 PM Re: AL East

I should also mention that in the case of tied records the division title goes to the Rays on the basis of season-long head-to-head. ... and it looks like they may need that seeing as how they're getting 2-hit thru 7 by Bruce Freakin' Chen and it's 7-0 Royals. One of the things seldom mentioned about the Rays is that their offense isn't very good most of the time and even more so now that Evan Longoria is out. He should be back for the post-season although who knows. And why does it always seem that the Yanx are disgustingly healthy every October while their potential opponents have one or more stars ailing: Morneau (def out of the 1st round at this point) Mauer, Hamilton in Texas (playing tonight for the 1st time in a month), and now Longoria? I know why it seems that way ... because it's always the case, that's why. Yanx v Boston still not underway and still being listed as 'Delayed', not postponed. If postponed they'd have to play two tomorrow and that would fuck with FOX's schedule.

Frayed Knot Oct 02 2010 08:27 PM Re: AL East

Been catching peeks at the Yanx/BoSox DH today ... - First of all, what a freakin' joke. They got rained out last night and were the 4PM FOX game today. So instead of making it a regular DH, Sox mgmt didn't want to get stuck with refunds and/or credits so made it a separate admission DH with start times of 4:10 & 9:05. That's 4 hours 55 minutes in between games by two teams who routinely take 4-1/2 hours to play. And guess what? -- They did. Game 1 ends at around 8:40 (10 innings) and so they have to clear out the entire stadium to get the new fans in who have already got to be at the gates where the game 1 fans need to file out. Amazingly enough they did all that in around 45 minutes and got game 2 started just before 9:30, but that's a 9:30 PM start ... in New England ... in October. The Wilpons would get skewered (and rightfully so) for pulling something like this. - These have been two of the worst played games I've ever seen. The Sox get 11 hits and 8 walks in game 1 and were lucky to get 5 runs out of it. Pettitte sucked again but Boston let him off the hook repeatedly by leaving runners on all over the place, hitting into DPs, making errors, had runners thrown out at home despite two Yanqui overthrows, and generally sucking all over. And after all that I think they still out-played the Yanx. Oh yeah and Papelbon sucked again. - They're now an hour into game 2 and they just started the 3rd inning. Well, it's Burnett & Matsuzaka, whaddya expect? Yanx are up 3-1 and I think they have 2 hits. There are more HBPs & BBs so far than balls hit out of the infield. Now 4-1. 3 more MFY baserunners on 1 hit. Rays finally beat KC, but if the Yanx take game 2 tonight they'll take the one game lead into tomorrow. Rays still win in case of a tie but they'll need double good fortune tomorrow to do that. Nice 9th inning comeback win for Minnesota today (esp after losing 7 of their last 8) but it looks like a #2 seed for them no matter what.

Gwreck Oct 03 2010 02:41 PM Re: AL East

Minnesota clinched seed #2 with their loss this afternoon. Red Sox up big late in their game, which will hand Tampa the division crown.

Frayed Knot Oct 03 2010 02:45 PM Re: AL East

Only if Papelbon can get the final out before surrendering 4 more runs ... I'd say that's about 50/50 at this point. oe: although Tampa has tied up KC in the 9th, so maybe they won't need it.

Gwreck Oct 03 2010 02:47 PM Re: AL East

Tampa tied up their game and unless the Royals win it in the bottom of the 9th, that game will go to extras. If Boston has already won by that point (edit: they just did), one would think Tampa would have little motivation to keep playing hard in extras.

Gwreck Oct 03 2010 02:48 PM Re: AL East

Texas at Tampa Yankees at Minnesota are your first round matchups.

Frayed Knot Oct 03 2010 02:52 PM Re: AL East

TB still has to fight hard so they don't get stuck with a co-Division Champion flag next Spring

Gwreck Oct 03 2010 02:54 PM Re: AL East

There's no such thing. The tie is broken by head-to-head record during the season, for which they hold the lead.

Frayed Knot Oct 03 2010 02:58 PM Re: AL East

Officially there's no such thing (and I was really just trying to be funny there) but there have been a couple of instances where the 'losing' (hence WC) team has raised a co-Champ banner the following year, amid some grumbling from the real winners. I think Boston did it one year where they tied w/the Yanx (I remember Bill Madden yapping about it) and I know StL did so following a year where they tied w/Houston.

Frayed Knot Oct 03 2010 03:53 PM Re: AL East

Rays win in 12th, finish one full game ahead of Yanx and with best record in AL (96-66)

Valadius Oct 03 2010 03:58 PM Re: AL East

Somewhere, Vince Naimoli is saying "Why the hell did I sell that team?"