2013 MLB Regular Season running thread

Third season for A's? They were bad in 2011. Actually pretty bad for first half of 2012 too.

That said, Angels aren't going anywhere. They are closer to 14th place in the A.L. than they are to a wild-card spot, and that's with a surge going on right now.

 

Meanwhile, in the slop show that is the NL West, the Giants went 10-17 in June and are only two games further out of first place than they were when the month started. The only team above .500 in the past 10 games is the last-place Dodgers. All five teams are within four games.

That's looking like an 84-78 special.

 

Or maybe a repeat of 2005, when as late as Sept. 27, the entire NL West was below the .500 mark.

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2005/09272005.htm

 

This makes me think about the 1973 New York Mets, who went 82-79 to win the East. Then they shocked the 99-63 Cincinnati Reds 3-2 in the NLCS and pushed the A's to seven games in the Series.

 

Or the 85-77 World Champion Minnesota Twins in 1987.

 

Or the 83-78 St. Louis Cardinals of 2006, who grittily ruined my childhood dreams.

 

Carlos Marmol a Dodger?

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/22599949/cubs-dodgers-talking-carlos-marmol-trade

 

Always thought that Cardinals team got a bit of a bad rap. They weren't an all-time great team by any means, but were probably heading for about 88 wins before a late-season losing streak dropped them to the 83-78 mark. After Game 149 (a win over Milwaukee) they were 80-69 and led the NL Central by seven games. Then they lost seven in a row (four of those by one run, including three in a row) and nine of 12 to end the season. They also lost a one-run game against Milwaukee just before the losing streak started.
It felt like that was more an average team that got hot at the right time (a down year for the NL helped, too -- only the Mets won more than 90 games) than the lucky bums history has made them out to be.

 

How about this pitching matchup for Tuesday:

Detroit (Fister 6-5) at Toronto (Wang 1-1), 7:07 p.m.

 

Machado is on pace for 74 doubles. The record is 67. I think he slows down and falls short of the record, but if he gets to 60, he'd be the first to do so since 1936. That is ridiculous. Todd Helton got 59 in 2000.

 

He and Brandon League can talk about how to fuck up a perfectly good three-run lead.

 

Bad rap or not, they still won the World Series. That's what matters.