American League
AL East: Red Sox lead the Yankees by 2.5, Blue Jays by 6.0. The Orioles are now officially dead and buried, having gone 1-9, including getting steamrolled by the Devil Rays..that whole team has "crabs." Do you think Tejada is having regrets? If the A's still had him..they'd be odds-on to go all the way. Yankees went 5-5..should have been 2-8. Yes..big come from behind victories, but overloooked in yesterday's win is the fact that the medium sized Unit stunk..Yankees have no pitching..
AL West:
Angels lead the A's by 1.5, the Rangers by 6.5. Oakland went 9-1 over their last 10...Angels have to be worried.
AL Wild Card
A's lead the Yankees by 1.5, Indians and Twins by 4.0, Rangers and Blue Jays by 5.0
Twins really got hurt badly with the injury to Torii Hunter. It may well cost them the playoffs, along with their 2-8 record over the last 10 games. Indians quietly moving up..but have a lot of ground to cover...though the schedule gives them a slight edge.
PS..here's a flat out prediction by yours truly..Yankees do NOT make the playoffs this season..They have NO, ZERO, NADA, ZILCH pitching..and they cannot continue to hit they way they have been in the late innings. Over a month, or two..goods pitching ALWAYS beats good hitting. Sorry, LisaFab..
National League
NL East: Braves lead Nats by 5.0, Marlins and Phils by 6.5, and the Mets by 8.0. Atlanta back in its usual position, first place..going 8-2. Nats finally won a game. I stand by my prediction 2 weeks ago that they finish last in the division..Marlins think they have a chance...they'll keep Burnette..lose him to the Yankees as a free agent in the post season, where he will then proceed tofall apart in NY next year..Philles doing so-so despite Abreau still basking in his HR derby laurels..He shoudl have saved some for the regular season. Mets didn't get Manny..I'm glad..because I think the regular OF of Floyd, Cameron, and Beltran will be the BEST in the majors for the rest of the season ( actually, they remind me of Cleon Jones, Tommy Agee, and Ron Swoboda..for those of you who remember 1969 ) now that all the trade rumors are over. Again, with two months left in the seaosn..EVERY TEAM in the division is OVER .500. Amazing stat. And, because they all play each other a whole lot more., it's wide open..almost a round-robin, though the Braves have the edge, because a lot of their injured players are coming back
NL Central: Hey..lookee here..Cards lead the Astro's by 9.5. First time in a long time the lead is in single digits..What say you, SCALEMAN? Tony LaRussa must be a whole lot of fun this week. StL begins a series againt the Marlins tonight...could be big for both teams..
NL West: The Rattlesnakes are in a dead heat with the Pods for first place, in the division nobody wants to win..I, normally exclude teams with records below .500, but hey, I have no choice here. SD has won 1 of their last 14..BTW..LA is 4.0 behind, and SF is 5.5 behind. If Bonds comes back..the Giants might well win it. Stay tuned.
NL Wild Card:
Astros lead Nats by 1.0, Marlins and Phillies by 2.5, Cubs and Mets by 4.0. Right now 'Stros look really good for the WC..very strong pitching rotation. Mets staff has also been excellent...they've just stopped hitting. If they can score a few runs, they can give Houston a run for the WC. I think the Cubs are shot. Too bad..what are the odds in Vegas for an all Chitown WS?
So, how was YOUR week? How'd your team do? Were you surprised at the lack of trade activity..
FYI...and if anyone wants on or off the ping list, just Freepmail me..thanks..BTW..I believe I deleted all those of you who asked off..if I missed you, sorry, just pleasew remind me again..
The Tigers capitulated on their 1-5 West Coast road trip...
Traded Farnsworth for a bag of balls because he wouldn't re-sign....
In my best Brooklynese: "Wait 'til next year."
The Braves got Kyle Farnsworth from the Tigers by trading Roman Colon. Should be all the bullpen we need now.
The weekend started out with a scare but ended with a bang. They sweep a likely wild card team and Manny stays.
WHEW!
I agree with you Yankee assessment. Their pitching is not showing up and they can’t keep wining games with late inning heroics. Though I really thought the Angles would have made a better show of it. The AL East really is the top tier of MLB
Nice strong 8th inning by the Mets yesterday to avoid the broom. I was really hoping for a second straight sweep by the 'Stros on their home stand, but you can't win 'em all. Eventually the 'Stros will come down from the stratosphere and will start playing like a normal team again. That said, their strong pitching (even from the rookies Astacio and Rodriguez) gives them an edge. While the Cards are still way out in front, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that Houston at least give them a run for their money.
I'm just glad that the slapstick NL West is taking some of the jokes away from the Comedy Central.
Our lineup yesterday included Nick Punto, Luis Rodriguez and Michael Ryan with Terry Tiffee (a .200 hitter) batting cleanup. We played a Class AAA lineup against the Red Sox and made no deals.
We left the bases loaded three times in the last five innings, left 13 runners on base and were 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position in losing 4-3.
This is a lot more than Torii Hunter being hurt. It is an organizational failure to bring in players who are major league hitters. The Twins have a significant ownership problem and it will get a lot worse before it gets any better.
Columnist Pat Reusse in the (Red) Star Tribune said it best: "Minnesota fans were baying for a trade last weekend. What they got was the Lynx (WNBA) sending Katie Smith to Detroit."
The Vikings play their first exhibition game in 12 days. I can't wait.
Cards are 10-5 (.666 and that includes the WC trip) since the All Star break with 4 starters out. I'll take that for the rest of the season. If the Cards went .500 for the rest of the season, the Stros would have to be at .672 to take the division. They have 5 games left between them with 3 @ Bush and 2 in Houston. Don't bet the lunch money on that.
Look for Walt to do something, he has a history of 'stealth' acquisitions in the last half.
Cards should be healthy in Sept. and we will see if the Stros can keep up in the WILD CARD race.
ken -- I agree Yanks pitching ain't pretty, but in reality the team ERA is almost exactly the same as the Red Sox -- which is no work of art either. Three guys the Yanks got for nothing off the scrap heap -- Leiter, Chacon and Small -- all pitched very solidly, much better than some of the bigger names they replaced. And while the Unit was lousy yesterday, his start before that was his best of the season, 7 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs. Despite what it looked like earlier in the season, it may very well be once again that the Wild Card comes out of the East. Minny is struggling, and losing Hunter really hurts. Says here the 4 AL playoff teams will come from among these 5 -- NY, Boston, Chi, Oak, and the artist formerly known as Anaheim. The A's have that great pitching, but I'm not sure they can keep this pace up. I'm a bit surprised at the Angels travails -- at times they look like the best team in baseball, albeit one with little offense -- but they also have the capacity to unravel. They have 10 games left with Oakland and 6 with Boston, and that internecine warfare could help the Yanks slip in there. As a Yanks fan, I was really hoping that original Manny trade would have gone through, but I knew Theo would never be dumb enough to take Huff and Cameron for Manny. I agree that in the off-season he will rejoin his fellow headcase Pedro and live happily ever after in Queens. And my sympathies to TB and Fla fans, having to put up with front offices that hem and haw and won't pull the trigger. TB had a golden opportunity for nice prospects in the original Manny deal. And now Fla gets nothing for Burnett, unless they have some understanding about re-signing him.
I'm not an NL guy, but I have to say the Braves continue to amaze. Where they dig these arms up, only Leo Mazzone knows. And Houston stays dangerous with its own well-armed staff. I think one of those two can take out the Cards in the playoffs.
I'd like to think losing Tori Hunter cost us the season, but honestly, we've been sucking lately even with him. I'm happy Terry Ryan didn't try for some blockbuster trade. I'd rather miss the playoffs this year than sacrifice the future.
Thanks for your prediction. Every time you declare the Yankees dead and buried, they go on a hot streak!
I'll trade you my Barney Frank card. He's a catcher.
Fresh Start
Back In Lineup, Ramirez Has Four RBI
August 3, 2005
By DAVID HEUSCHKEL, Courant Staff Writer
BOSTON -- Manny Ramirez reached through the Green Monster door, pulled out a homemade sign that in all likelihood was written by Kevin Millar and held it up before the first pitch.
It read: "The New Episode ... `Manny Being Manny.'"
Manager Terry Francona didn't mind.
"He can carry all the signs he wants as long as he hits homers," Francona said. "He had a smile on his face and he swung the bat with authority. That's OK. I'm glad he put the sign down before the game started."
Ramirez returned to the lineup Tuesday night and made an immediate impact, hitting a homer and driving in four runs as the Red Sox came from behind to beat the Royals 6-4 at Fenway Park for their sixth straight victory...
