Baseball thread No. VII

The conspiracy theorist in me wants there to be something behind Ensberg hitting the DL the day after they get Huff, but I'm not really smart enough to figure out a connection.

 

See, I don't think it is. The Royals are the worst team in baseball by a significant margin, and the White Sox and Tigers get to play them 19 times each. No team in the AL East is nearly as poor. Yeah, the AL Central beat up the NL Central, but didn't the AL East do the same thing to the NL East? And to me, the Indians and pre-streak Twins are canceled out by the Yanks going against the Orioles and the Devil Rays. Which leaves .... the Royals. Are there other factors? Sure, but to me this one is glaring.

 

I guess it was fair all those years when the Red Sox and Yankees were beating up on lousy TB and Baltimore teams.

 

For starters, the Bucs are the worst team in MLB. Check the records, and the fact that the Royals swept the Pirates easily this past month.

As for the Yankees, for as bad as the NL is this season they went only 10-8 in interleague play. The Red Sox went 16-2. Now look at the standings, where the Yankees are 2.5 behind Boston. There's your difference.

Want to make the playoffs? Win more games, it's as simple as that. Don't complain about the system or the Royals, just win more games, period. Do what you have to do.

After all, that's what teams like the Yankees and Red Sox have told teams like A's, Twins, Tigers and White Sox for years.

 

OK, my bad. Clearly, I didn't check the standings. It still holds, though, that the Royals are the worst team in the American League. I agree that if the Yankees don't make the playoffs it'll largely be because they didn't do what they had to do, as you put it, and win games, and it's unfair to characterize it as being solely because the Royals are bad. As I said before, sure, there are other factors, which you pointed out quite eloquently. And, I would agree that there is a turnabout/fair play quality to this after the Yankees have beaten up on sorry teams in their own division for years. I still think it's funny that the Royals, with their Yankee-subsidized payroll, will be a factor in the Yanks' demise because they were so uncompetitive.

 

I think Sidney Ponson will pull his weight ( ) with the Yankees...

I can't see how Javy Vazquez could hurt the Mets. On July 14, 2006, the Mets' rotation consists of a No. 1 (Pedro), a No. 2 (Glavine), a No.4 (Trachsel) and a bunch of No. 5s (El Duque, Bannister, Maine and Pelfry).

 

Pujols hit another walk-off homer last night. It will be fun to watch the media try to give the MVP to someone else for the next two months.

 

Prior back on the DL


Strained oblique muscle he hurt in batting practice last week. He argued against going on the DL.

 

I'm breathlessly awaiting the AP advisory that says, "Prior and Wood are expected to make two consecutive starts without going on the DL."

 

You must be good at holding your breath.

 

I was blessed with patience. I'll give ya an example: I keep waiting for bobblehead to a post a lucid, reasoned argument about anything.

 

And I find it funny, as well as a bit sad, that Yankee fans can be such whiners. Novelist_wannabe isn't alone in expressing his pinstriped pain.

They don't want to hear about the unfairness of a $200 million payroll with so many teams at $50 million or below, but they can complain about the divisional alignments working against their team.

Contrary to popular belief in New York, the Yankees do not have a divine right to a playoff berth every year. They are still very much in the playoff race, but the presence of the Royals in the AL Central isn't what might put them out.

The Yankees are in danger of missing the playoffs because they made bad decisions on pitchers (Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano), lost two big bats in their lineup to injuries (Sheffield and Matsui) and they didn't spend enough of that $200 million-plus on a good bench.

I don't dislike the Yankees, but the sense of entitlement from some of their fans really bugs me.