Post Season Check

The job hunt becomes a real pain in the ass when one wants to do nothing but write a baseball blog. I refrained from posting this summer, because as a White Sox fan….Jesus H. Christ. It was either totally agony or total ecstasy. Mostly agony. Another year, another ball-kicking in August by the Twins (more on them later).
Looking back at my preseason predictions, I was actually pretty good. San Francisco proved me right, as did Philly, Minnesota, New York and Tampa Bay. I want credit for the Reds, because they did win despite their manager (and really, he’s an idiot), but deserve a firm rock kicking for my embrace of the Angels. Oh well. Good for Texas. They’re much easier to root for now that they aren’t chalk full of raging steroid monsters.
The Rangers have continued this impressive year by going in to the ALDS matchup with the aforementioned Rays and beating them. Soundly. And repeatedly. Tampa looks flat out over-matched, which is very difficult to do. The Rays, after all, won more games than any other team this year, in the hardest division in baseball, with no payroll and while being no hit twice. Yes, twice. And three times over the past calendar year (shout out to Mark Buerhle of the White Sox!!!!) I’m very impressed with the Rangers this year, but doubt they will be able to replicate this feat next year. Cliff Lee (acquired in a mid-season deal with the Mariners [YEESH!!!!]) is going to leave for a multi-year deal in free agency this October (first demand of his deal will be a no-trade clause), and over the past decade, there a ton of one team wonders (’01 Dbacks, ’02 Angels/Giants, ’03 Marlins, ’05 Astros, ’06 Tigers
Roy Halladay continues to just destroy the National League, as evidence by his no-hitter in Game 1 of the ALDS against Cincinnati (and really, Philly fans….I don’t know what good karma you put out there…but good God the last 4 years have just been unreal). Lincecum (Tim, The Freak) of the Giants was almost as good against the Atlanta Braves the other night, going the full nine and giving up just 2 hits. Unreal. I’d put my money on a Phillies-Giants NLCS, with the Phillies wining in 6 games, because the Braves just can’t hit and are giving up a hit too many.
I’m still LOL’ing at the Minnesota Twins inability to play the New York Yankees. Guess what, Twins fans? This is exactly what White Sox fans go through every August. Maybe you should try designing your team for October baseball and not just April-September baseball. I wish I could be a bigger man, but I just love the smell of Twins failure.
All in all, not a bad season of prediction by myself. I’ll take a Rangers birth in the WS this year, going up against the Phillies. I say…..Phillies pull it out in 6 games.

1st real post.

I’m not planning on wasting anyone’s time, so I’m just going to jump on into baseball chatter. Thanks for reading, and here we go!

It's clear to anyone with a pulse that the American League East is the best division in baseball. At the beginning of the year, I made my division picks as follows:

AL: Rays (East) Red Sox (Wild Card) White Sox (Central) A's (West)
NL: Marlins (East) Phillies (Wild Card) Cubs (Central) Dodgers (West)

Now, clearly, I look like a darn fool given what I said about the AL West and my pick of the Marlins to win the NL East (I've thought they were overdo for one of their crazy get-to-the-world-series-than-blow-up-the-team runs (see '97 and '03). I still think the Rays are in a position to make the playoffs, and the Red Sox are...well, the Red Sox (like it or not, Red Sox Nation, you guys are the Yankees of this decade). Despite the additions made in the off-season (Tiexiera, Burnett and Sabathia [man, I would love a slice of the money those fellas got]), I didn't believe the Yankees would make the playoffs and despite how they have played thus far (including the performances of Coke, Huges and Aceves in the bullpen), think that the Rays will see another October (they (the Yanks) have got a tough September schedule, with trips to LA, Seattle, an always intense Boston match-up and a run with KC (who always SEEM to play well at the end of the season)). What works against the Yankees, in my baseball world anyways, is their defense. Jeter and Cano are not good defensive players. And as a team, the Yankees are just 7^th in AL in fielding percentage, and are 7^th overall in errors committed. Those are not good numbers considering the Red Sox rank 3^rd in fielding % (although the Rays are 9^th).

Tampa has been…well, just mediocre this year, frankly. Yeah, they hit the ball a very long way and will run you out of the ball park (even if it’s not their ballpark). I thought they’d win the East again, but they seem to have fallen into the same hole that the 06 White Sox and 07 Tigers did (meaning that for a team which in the previous season made in to the World Series (05 and 06, respectively), the pitching which got them to the post season has been mediocre and the hitting has been what’s carried them). They still have a series of games left with Boston and New York, so they could climb back into it, but it looks for now like it will be the Red Sox and Yankees in the playoffs (again…puke).

Boston has been the best team in Major League Baseball since 2003. 2 WS wins, 4 ALCS appearances, enough All-Stars to make any non-Red Sox fan puke, fans in every corner of the globe and the best General Manager. All of that was very difficult for me to type, I hate the Red Sox, but it's true. They seem to have the surest shot at the playoffs in the AL, but they have a tough August plan, with a 5-game trip to Tampa and New York, a trip to Texas and a set of 5 games in Fenway against the Yankees and White Sox (who are, despite my fandom, a very underrated team). They aren't bothered by players who get injured, they just call up a guy, plug him in and keep chugging right along. I hate to say it, but they look (again) like your WS favorites (they will kill the Dodgers (who cannot play the AL with a 29-52 record in inter-league play since 2005) or Phillies (who have no starting pitching, seeing as Cole Hamels is mediocre this year) should they play them).

Speaking of the Cubs: A quick note/preview of my next posting, which will be about the NL Central (I’m going to go in order of divisions I think are the most competitive). The Cubs are still in a great position, despite what everyone in Chicago is writing at both the Tribune and the Sun-Times. Aramis Ramirez has missed most of the season and still isn't healthy. Milton Bradley is having, statistically, the worst year of his career. So is Soriano, and the pitching staff can't stay healthy. All of these problems, and they're still at .500 and only 3 games behind the Cardinals. And have some 70 games left to play. And the NL Central…well, for want of a better term, it sucks.

In the words of my favorite Beatle [because of the whole being-the-conductor-thing on Shining Time Station], peace and love, peace and love.