Cleveland's win last night was the seventh in a row.
Go Tribe!
NATIONAL LEAGUE
NL EAST: Braves lead the Marlins by 7.0, Phillies by 8.0
NL CENTRAL: Cards should make it official this week
NL WEST: Pods, by default. Nobody else made a move.
NL WILDCARD: Astros lead the Marlins by .5, Phillies by 1.5, Nats by 4.0, and Brewers, Cubs, and Metsies by 5.5. FYI, I only mentioned the last three because the Cubs and Brewers have been playing great ball of late..so we can give them a few props!!!..
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AL EAST: Red Sox lead the Yankees by 3.0
AL CENTRAL: White Sox lead the Indians by 5.5
AL WEST: Angels lead the A's by 2.0
AL WILDCARD: Indians lead the Yankees by 1.5, A's by 2.5
Where to start?
In the National League, only race really undecided is the Wildcard... 'Stros and Marlins play a four game series ( with some pretty good pitching match-ups) then the 'Stros go back to a suddenly very hot Brewer team..Phillies can't get their act together. I think this race goes down to the final weekend..and if all three stumble this week, you could see the Cubbies closing within a few games...Nats had come back from the dead..to their credit, but the terrible loss to the Braves just showed the deficiencies in their bullpen, and psychologically had to be a real crusher..
All the real excitement is in the American League, where all four races are in play..yup..you heard me..including the AL CENTRAL..
In the AL East, Yankees future may well be decided by the next three games against the dreaded D-Rays. A sweep is what they need..2 of 3 is the miminum..if they lose the series they can start reserving tee times for the first week in Oct.
In the AL CENTRAL, the once huge WhiteSox lead has shrunk to 5.5 games. Now, boys and girls, we will speak of the unspeakable..the 1964 collapse of the Phillies, leading the NL by 6.5 games with 12 left..they proceeded to lose the next ten, and lost the pennant to the Cardinals..if the White Sox implode, the collapse will, IMHO, rival the 1964 Phils.. Orlando Hernandez looked like he was pitching BP in the first inning yesterday, giving up 3 dingers, and just escaping a 4th. However, here's where it gets real interesting..The Tribe has 6 games left with the White Sox, but Chicago has beaten the Indians 10 of 13 so far this season...It could go either way.
In the AL WEST..it looks like Vlad and the A's have hit their stride..A's have a really tough week..the Indians and then the Red Sox, both on the road...Cleveland could put the A's out of the race by taking 3 of 4, and also put tremendous pressure on the Yankees as well..By the same token, you'd normally say, if you were the A's, that 3-4 on this upcoming road trip would be good, except it won't be..and injuries have really hurt the A's of late. The smart money here says that the A's are effectively out of both the AL WEST and the AL WILDCARD by this time next week..
In the individual award races, let's turn for a moment to perhaps the most interesting race of all, the NY MVP.
Here are the stats for the three contenders..
Pujols: .337BA, 39 HRs, 107 RBIs, probable Gold Glove
Lee: .341BA, 41 HRs, 99 RBIs,
Jones: .275BA, 49 HRs, 121 RBIs, definite Gold Gove winner
It's probably one of the closest races in years, and should go down to the wire...early in the season, Derreck Lee early on was all world, they'd all but conceded him the Triple Crown. and the Cubs were hot...His numbers are spectacular, but since the Cubs faded even though he continued to hit, that would, IMHO, detract from the MVP idea..IOW, he didn't make a difference. OTOH, the Cubbies are hot of late, and could make a run for the wildcard. If they get it, or even get back into the WC race these last weeks, it will be on Lee's bat, and that could give him a late surge.
Pujols has been spectacular at the plate, and also very consistant in the field. I think he might well get the Golden Glove as well. Here's the question in his case..if you're the BEST player on a very, VERY, VERY good team; does that make you the MVP???...IOW, would they have won without you, or even if you had a mediocre season? The Cards have romped without Scott Rollen, which gives some credence to the argument. OTOH, one could invoke the Karl Malone rule in this case. Malone finished 2nd numerous times behind Michael Jordan in the NBA MVP voting..so the one year that Jordan was out for the league, they gave it to Malone. So, since Bonds is out this season, should they give it to Pujols?
Jones, I think on balance, may deserve it most. The power numbers are staggering, and he carried the team while Chipper was out. His average is 60 points below the two others, and normally that would be the deal breaker, but his defense more than makes up for it.
I think that by season's end, any of the three could win it, or also finish third in the voting....It will be very close..
Ive already witnessed a collapse.
Good Monday morning baseball ping...have at it..and if anyone wants on/off the ping list, please Freemail me..
AL: Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Cleveland, plus New York and Oakland chasing
NL: St. Louis, Atlanta, San Diego, Houston, plus Florida and Philadelphia chasing
All other teams are at least 4 games out of a playoff spot.
NL only has the WC race. AL has the WC, as well as divisional lead races in the East and West. Even the once-insurmountable lead of the ChiSox has shrunk--but probably not enough for the hottest team in baseball, the Tribe, to overtake them.
A-Rod?
Ken, there is life outside NY. :-)
Pujols deserves the MVP. Unless Bonds hits 56 HRs in the last three weeks, ;)
While Pujols has come a long way and has become a good glove man, I think Lee still is the better fielder at first.
Cleveland's win last night was the seventh in a row.
I object strenuously to this idea. Lee made the Cubs good vs. mediocre early on, and now makes them mediocre rather than bad.
It's like when a player hits 3 home runs, but his team loses, and his performance is written off because "it didn't help his team win". Get real, he did everything he could to win, not his fault his pitchers gave up X runs. People take the idea that baseball is a team sport, so an effort is only worthwhile if the team wins, and then demand that one individual win games singlehandedly. Sorry, you can't have it both ways. If a player does everything he can to help his team win all year, more than any other player, he deserves the MVP, no matter how bad his teammates suck.
My beloved Orioles are gone again...mired in 4th place after leading the league for virtually the entire 1st half of the season.
Sosa's a bust, Raffie's eating a gun, and the team can't hit a damn with RISP.
Pujols: .337BA, 39 HRs, 107 RBIs, probable Gold Glove
Lee: .341BA, 41 HRs, 99 RBIs,
Jones: .275BA, 49 HRs, 121 RBIs, definite Gold Gove winner
It would really be a toss-up between Lee and Pujols. Lee has a slight advantage in both BA and HRs, but Pujols had a wider margin for RBIs. As for Jones, he's having a great season, but I'm not sure that if I were voting that I could give my vote to someone with a .275 BA. Sure, he has 8 more HRs than Lee, and 14 more RBIs than Pujols, but his average is 66 points lower than Lee's!
If I were voting, I guess I would give it to Pujols, in part because of the fact that Bonds* has robbed him of the award just about every year.
If you're a baseball fan, you may like this thread. :o)
Reluctantly, I have to agree with you.
Perhaps Lee shouldn't even be in the running. How "valuable" can you be, if your team isn't even contending? But, if memory serves, Andre Dawson won as a Cub one time when they were well out of contention (maybe even in last place?).
The Pujols-with-Bonds-finally-out-of-the-way argument is an interesting one. Certainly there have been times when, if Bonds had been out of the way, Pujols had the MVP wrapped up. Maybe the whole steroids thing will weigh on some voters' minds as they think about those votes they previously cast for Bonds, and they'll try to make up for it this year. (If so, too bad for D.Lee and/or A.Jones. Thems the breaks.)