With Sox winning 90 games tonight and the Magic number at just 5 with 11 more games to be played it is good time to give my State of Union on Baseball.
Last few weeks of baseball season and there are no pennant races to speak of.. well except in AL Central where the Twinkies are making late charge in AL Central vs Detroit.. Yeah we are all very excited here along with all the Midwesterners " Yeah you betcha Yeah" ...LOL ... Now we all know that Twinkies and their no name pitching would be slaughtered by Yankees in 1st round, I have better faith in Detroit Tigers and Verlander ( whose 98 MPH Fast Ball unlike Joba's last the full 9 innings) and he can shut down Yankees powerful lineup for 2 games he starts.
ANGELS, YANKEES AND RED SOX have solidified their spots in AL. These 3 teams have been almost a constant in AL in October a testament to great front offices and well run teams but above all all 3 teams have a payroll of greater than $ 100 Million -- Yeah Sorry Pirates, Orioles, Royals, Nationals and YES THE 2008 FLUKE - " THE TAMPA BAY RAYS". Felt good to say that ;))
NL -- Dodgers, Cardinals and Phillies along with Rockies as the WC are in the Playoffs.
Phillies -- Would be tough for them to repeat as Champs or go into WS especially with he way Lidge is blowing saves left and right... he was perfect 42/42 in save chances in 2008
Dodgers -- Their pitching is a mess. Billingsley, Kershaw have some nagging injuries and Manny without his steroids is not generating any POP-- well the pun is intended here..
Cardinals-- Really like them to win NL pennant and be in the WS. They have the best player in MLB in Pujols, They also have 2 very good starters in Carpenter and Wainwright and Larussa as their Manager. The only Achilles heel for them is their Closer Franklin. Not sure if I trust him with a 1 run lead in a big spot say against Howard in NLCS ;)))...
In NL , have to talk about the the Mets err, Mess The owners Wilpons gave a solid backing to Mr. Minaya for the remainder of his 3 year contract.. reading between the lines that means after what Bernie Madoff did to them they are in no position to fire Minaya and eat his contract, as they are already are paying Randolph....
I thought the best thing for them to do is to clean house after this season but that is not going to happen. But then again if they get Jason Bay to play LF for them ( stiff competition from Sox and yanks) and Lackey they should be good for 85 + wins if they stay healthy.....
As far as Theo goes, the CA$H for clunkers did not work for him -- Read Smoltz, Penny etc and maybe he would go the Cadillac route like the Yankees in 2009 but hey the Yankees committed $ 450 million more to their payroll last off season for what 6-7 more wins..Not a good ratio of $ spent/ Win don't you think..
He did well in the trading deadline by getting Victor Martinez from Indians as Varitek and his 0.210 average was not going to cut it and he send Lugo packing to cardinals and got Gonzalez form reds to solidify the SS position which has been a revolving door for Sox since the trade of Nomar in 2004.
Now from listless September ..here's hoping for an exciting October where the Sox are looking good for a run.. Can they be the last team standing ? well let the dance begin....
