Posted on 07/24/2005 4:54:14 PM PDT by ken5050
OK, all you Freeper baseball afficionados. It's early Sunday evening..it was a hell of a week for the national pastime, and I wanted to get our weekly thread up and running...I won't have a chance late tonight, early tomorrow, and there is much to talk about..
NOTE: The stats do NOT include tonight's Cards/Cubs game...and remember, unless a team is at least playing .500 ball, it doesn't get mentioned ( hmmm..does that mean we're going to ignore the entire NL WEST?
Both Central Division races are over, done, finito..
NATIONAL LEAGUE
NL EAST: Braves and Nats are tied, they lead the Phillies by 3.0, Mets by 3.5, and the Marlins by 4.5. EVERY team in the division is over .500. Nats are collapsing, as I predicted, and the Braves's rookies may be feeling the pennant race. Mets look awesome. YIPPEE!!!! ( hey, it's MY thread..so don't complain. Benson has been even better than Pedro since the All-Star break..
NL WEST: Padres lead by 3 games..
NL WILD CARD: Braves lead the Phillies by 3.0, Astros and Mets by 3.5, Marlins by 4.5, and Cubbies by 5.0 Astros pitching rotation has to give them an edge, in my book
BREAKING: ESPN just reported that Card's Rollin may be done for the season.. Bummer for you Cards' fans. They'll need him in the WS..
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AL EAST: Red Sawx lead Yankees by 1.5, O's by 3.5, Blue Jays by 5.0. Baltimore blows three to Tampa Bay...If they don't make the playoffs, they can look to this weekend for the reason why.. Yankees got shellacked by the Angels..Leiter was a one-game wonder, then reverted to true form, and Kevin Brown is finished..he's a mop-up guy now...They'd better hope that the medium sized UNIT is OK ..The AL WC is NOT coming out of this division.. MY money says the Yankees don't even play in the post-season..
AL WEST: Angels lead the A's by 5.5...Texas is finished. Oakland may well be the hottest team in all of BB right now...
AL WILD CARD: Twins and A's are tied, they lead the Yankees by 0.5, Orioles and Indians by 2.5, and the Tigers and Blue Jays by 4.0..
White Sox and Red Sox split a 4 game series..and the Chisox gave away a game to boot. Both teams look like they expect to see each other again in the fall.. LAA is playing great baseball..but they may start to look behind them just a little at the A's...
There was a line in today's NY POST sports section, an AL GM quoted anonymously as saying that besides the Cards, there's no reason to let another NL team into the playoffs...There are what..6-7 AL teams who would be in first place in the NL WEST...Could we have a division winner with a LOSING record? Stay tuned..
And it shoudl be a wild week leading up to the trading dealine..Lots of teams could go either way....
another week without barroid bonds is a great week...Go Marlins !
FYI..anyone want on or off..just Freepmail me..
Padres may be trading Nevin.
And in a different trade we are getting
the Red Legs 3rd baseman
For a team who has had its top players out over
long periods of time with major injuries and
and a few week flu bug with many, it says a lot
for the San Diego Padres to still be in first place.
"I've had a pretty good success facing Stan (Musial) by throwing him my best pitch and backing up third base." - Carl Erskine
Tigers 4 games out of Wild Card, and it is NOT April!
Go Tigers!
A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings. ~Earl Wilson
FYI..
Chris Shelton WOW. For a kid that only got around 40 at bats last year it seems like he's making up for all the times he didn't bat.
The Man was my idol...when he retired, I became a Mets fan.
I know..I realized that when I was plugging in the stats..both Tigers and Indians...could make it interesting...There's still a little voice that says tome once in a while..the White Sox ain't for real..
Seems like every year is a rerun for Oakland -- start slow, get hot in the second half. NL East is really interesting -- everybody has a shot -- I think the Phillies can sneak in there, but until somebody actually BEATS Atlanta, you have to give the nod to them. The Yankees just finished a rough road trip with only two major league starters and still won 6 of 11 against Boston, Texas and LA -- Brown is garbage, but Pavano back next week, and Wang may return sooner than originally thought. That will make an enormous difference. With the BoSox struggling themselves, do not count the Yankees out. O's look like a team in decline, but they have bounced back before. But this is the best race in many a year in the AL. Lots of legitimate Wild Card possibilities. Minnesota will always give a good account of itself, and has a big series coming up in The Bronx. I love baseball.
I thought the same thing about the ChiSox, ken. But watching them split with Boston, and really should have taken three -- I don't know, they are pesky. They are very much in the tradition of the last Chicago pennant winner, the 1959 Go-Go Sox of Nellie Fox and Looey Aparicio, with Early Wynn and Billy Pierce playing the roles of Jon Garland and Mark Buehrle.
Forget the Phillies..BTW..they want to move Thome...and the contract..to whom...yup the Yankees need another first baseman /DH..and the Philadelphia fans are already getting angst-ridden over TO....
Could be. His shoulder's messed up. He was screaming in pain after some swings last week. But Rolen is the ultimate gamer.
Cards are really banged up, lots of regulars out. With the lineup they were putting out there yesterday, it looked like the Memphis Redbirds.
BTW, maybe a record heat index of about 125 in St. Louis today. Even with the game shifted to the evening, it's still broiling here.
I agree with you on the AL East, and that's hard for a Yankee fan to do! I never understood the deal for Randy Johnson.
"You've known me all this time and you still can't spell my name"
I doubt the Yankees want to take on Thome's contract, especially since Giambi has come back so much -- I think he now actually leads in the AL in OBP. Other than pitchers, their biggest need is a CF -- supposedly they are looking at Randy Winn (don't know why). Thome is a good guy, it's a shame to see him come to such a sour end. But that young Ryan Howard looks like a keeper at first for the Phils.
Buck -- a Yankee fan here too. The deal I can't understand is Jaret Wright. His performance this year was totally predictable.
Right--forgot about that one!
Mariano Rivera is having a surprisingly good season. I was hoping the Yankees would deal him in the off season, and his first few games this season were shaky, but he seems to be back in his old groove.
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