Apparently, Rhianna has been dating a bunch of Mets players lately..

she's pretty comfortable they don't beat anyone..

I hope Minaya loses his job over that press conference today. What he said in his comments about Adam Rubin and suggesting that he broke the story because he wanted the guy's job with the Mets is just embarrassing.

Even if it's true that Rubin was lobbying for a job with the Mets even as he was covering the team, revealing that, especially in a situation where it comes off as an accusation of why the story was even broken, is uncalled-for. How can anyone in the media trust what he has to say anymore?

That sounds like a severely dysfunctional organization, even without the struggles at the major-league level.

Cliff Lee to the Phillies for pitchers Jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco, shortstop Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson.

I think it's a great deal for the Phils. Knapp is the only one that I wish we could have kept but they had to give Cleveland something.

Yeah, stupid Indians wanting something for their players :lol:

Pan nervous breakdown coming in three...two...:eek:

George Sherrill looks like he might be drawing interest from the Dodgers among other teams, and could get the O's a nice haul. Also went to the game last night to see Chris Tillman make his MLB debut; got hit a bit hard (on a rainy night delaying the start and screwing up his warm-ups), but had really good stuff and kept the team in the game.

Also, as an Orioles fan I love how Toronto thinks someone is going to help them re-enact the Bedard trade (where the Orioles got Sherrill and Tillman, along with Adam Jones...Bill Bavasi should get a World Series ring in two years when we win), and am praying they don't settle for whatever Boston offers, or worse, the Yankees' leftovers.

Just to update, Sherrill was traded to the Dodgers this afternoon. Great deal for both teams.

Hal and the other Dodger fans hanging around: you're going to love this guy. He's death to lefties, pretty good against righties, and even when he's struggling he has the bulldog attitude that will help him get through an inning or forget a bad appearance. Oh, and the flat brim on the hat will fit in well with Manny's dreds ;)

Orioles needed to make the trade, and appear to have acquired two quality prospects. Josh Bell is a power-hitting corner infielder who is likely within a year of the majors. Steve Johnson, in addition to being a flamethrower who strikes out everyone, is the son of former Orioles pitcher Dave Johnson.

I think this is one of those deals where both teams win, which is a rarity for the Orioles under Andy MacPhail (though not in a negative way for us :lol:).

Looks like Boston may be getting desperate..

Tazawa to start on Tuesday against Detroit.

Dodgers have been bombing lately. Damn. I suppose it needs to happen at least once during the season.

The Dodgers will be fine. They have a huge lead in the division.

Not that it matters but it's nice to see my DBacks finally playing like a professional baseball team again. They sucked like hell in the first half but have the third best record in MLB from July to present. Mark Reynolds has a 1.288 OPS in the second half of the season and 8 HR in the last two weeks. He's turning into one of the best 3Bman in the game.

The 2 gritty wins over the tigers should help boston get a little bit on track. If Boston can ever get it's rotation settled there may be enough time to make a late push..

If they can at least get the wildcard, then maybe they can have things come together at the right time..

For the Red Sox, picking up Alex Gonzalez from Cincy is big. Light hitting, but the best defense at short the Red Sox have ever had. That brings more stability. Now if the rotation will settle down, and it just might. A push to the finish!

The interesting thing is, according to UZR, Nick Green is better defensively at shortstop both this season and for his career. Plus the much better offensive season he is having.

Fangraphs.com has a statistic where they translate a player's overall performance into monetary terms. Basically, this season Nick Green's performance has been worth $2.6 million. Alex Gonzalez? Minus-$3.1 million.

And yes, I realize Gonzalez is going to spend the rest of the season killing the ball and stealing the Human Vacuum Cleaner title from Brooks Robinson, just to piss off all non-Red Sox fans ;)

Well, our long national nightmare has come to an end. The Nationals signed Stephan Strasburg to a four-year, $15.67 million contract.

Biggest contract ever given to a draft pick, but for a guy with Strasburg's ability and Scott Boras' contract demands, a pretty good number for both sides.

Probably the only guy in this class we will hear about before 2011, too. Though the record for pitchers selected first-overall is atrocious, which I know as an Orioles fan who's earliest memories of the team involve the original "Greatest College Pitcher EVAR!!!11" Ben McDonald. The most-memorable image I have of him was from a game from the early years of Camden Yards where the dugout flooded during a downpour and Cajun boy Big Ben was fishing from the bench. Funny as hell, though :p

The Orioles managed to sign a bunch of picks that dropped due to signability concerns, as well as our second-round pick, a Boras client who looked like a lost cause as late as yesterday. None of which we'll hear about before 2012 :lol:

Shit, the Dodgers keep sliding. I don't know what is wrong anymore. They didn't get a pitcher when they needed to and now they're going to sink.

The Rays, The Red Sox...
 

I was sort of hoping Madden and the Rays would keep coming on, mixing things up in the ALE, but they don't seem to be getting any real traction. They do manage to satisfy my habit for baseball, since FOX provides super regional coverage here in SWF on my limited cable TV budget.

Any other Rays fans here?

Regardless, I am always happy to see Francona and the Red Sox keeping things interesting and will transfer all my excitement there in the post-season if they prove to be the ALE representatives or the WC.

Yes, I cannot stand the Yankees...

:cringe:

....despite their record in the second half. So they are the best team in BB right now, but it's a personality thing. Just don't like (and never have) their superiority-jock-we-are-the-best-and-we-know-it attitude.

Thome and Garland to the Dodgers. I understand Garland, but WTF is LA going to do with Thome? Is he just a high priced PH unless they make it to the WS and then he can DH? At least my DBacks beat them today.

Orioles were officially eliminated from the American League East playoff race tonight with a loss to the Yankees. Although in related "So you're saying there's a chance?" news, the magic number for the wild card is still seven games :p

Of course, the team already announced that Matusz and Tillman are going to be shut down after a couple more starts (good to hear after Matusz's dominating start Sunday) and Bergesen has been officially shut down without returning from his injury this season. Not much to look forward to until December, I guess, unless Reimold gets hot and takes the Rookie of the Year award that he arguably deserves.

And I just want to thank the Chicago Cubs for Felix Pie. That was a nice gift you guys gave MacPhail and the Orioles, especially now that he's killing the ball.

Exactly. This reunites Jimmy and Manny as team mates. Big deal. I think Jimmy is a free agent at the end of the year so it's purely a move to have a big bat on the bench during the playoffs. Plus he's a smart hitter and has faced most of the ace American league pitchers of late...not a bad guy to call on in a WS pinch.

Well, the Rays are officially going down in the standings. And with a string of 7 losses, they are going down even faster now. I don't quite understand the logic of trading away one of their better starting pitchers, when it is the middle relief and closers that are the problem. Couldn't they have used Kazmir as a relief pitcher? Or maybe they wanted to trade him while they thought he still had some value.

:shakehead:

Oh well....the Red Sox will be my post-season ALE team.

Well get ready for the post season. Yankees are the best team money can buy. <sigh> But anything can happen, and HAS happened before.

Yes, it's looking more and more like October will include the Yankees, but hopefully the Red Sox can stay close and keep it interesting, at least in the AL East and make it to the playoffs. Boston is ahead 9-6 against the Yankees so far this year, with 3 games to go.

Of course, I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the Rangers in the playoffs, either. But I don't know if the Rangers can put out the Yankees. It would be an interesting playoff series. The Yankees are 5-4 against the Rangers this year.

The Rays are officially (and I guess mathematically) eliminated from the 2009 post-season along with several other teams.

That means it is therefore officially time for me to get into Red Sox mode...and the Red Sox are surging a bit...

:thumbsup:

please.. oh please let Lester be ok in time for the playoffs.

Oh the Yankees look good, maybe too good, maybe peaking right now, maybe maybe maybe.

The Yankees are looking unstoppable for the moment. But Post Season is a whole new season, so hopefully the Red Sox or the Angels or Detroit can shut them down. I'm not so certain if the Twins (vs Yankees) make it to October. Historically, the Yankees have had the Twins number.

Of course, a LAD and NYY WS would be poetic justice for Torre to win...but even in that situation, the NYY will have home-field advantage due to the AL All-Star win...

cards clinch, see ya post season

I don't think the Yankees look that unstoppable really. While Joba had a decent outing on Saturday, I don't see it continuing, and we all know how A-roid and SaFAThia are playoff bombs. Winning the league over a season is a lot different than winning a 5 or 7 game series. I see NY leaving after the first round in all honesty.

Boston looks like the best team going into the playoffs for the AL. Sure I'm biased, but the bullpen is coming around, the starting rotation (hoping on Lester) is settling in, and the offense has started to come around. They may not have been very powerful in NY this weekend, but let's be honest, the Red Sox are looking for October, not catching NY. If history repeats and Boston gets past Anaheim, and if NY happens to make it past Detroit or Minnesota, Boston will take the ALCS from NY in a series. I get flashbacks of '04 watching the season play out this year.

I agree about Boston, but they have to get past Anaheim first. That might be one of the best post-season match-ups this year. Angels are up 5-4 against the Red Sox in '09, so it's evenly matched. Both teams want the WS; we'll see who wants it most, I guess.

After last night's loss, the Red Sox are now tied with the Yankees 9-9 for the season, so I definitely think it's possible for the Red Sox to take all. And you're right--in the post-season, the Red Sox have the definite edge and I think Francona definitely has it over Girardi. Let's hope history repeats itself with the Yankee's lack of post-season production. Teixeira is a factor as the AL HR leader, although he's mostly untested in the post-season.

Boston knows how to handle Tex. He was the only one who really produced for the Angels last season in the playoffs and I think Francona will be ok if the same thing happens this year if Boston gets past the Angels. Anaheim never seems to be able to get past Boston in the post season and I don't see it changing. They just don't seem to have enough shut down power on the mound or enough power in the box. They can certainly run against Boston, but Boston is capable of running themselves and if they get their bats going, Anaheim is going to have problems getting to the ALCS. IIRC, Anaheim has also been ahead of Boston the past few regular seasons in head to head play, but the playoffs bring out a different Boston team and Anaheim seems to shy away from the spotlight as the pressure gets turned up.

The yankees are going to be dependent on their pitching staff.. and while their bullpen has improved this season, I have this sneaky suspicion that Burnett and SaFAThia are going to choke. I'll put money on A-roid doing nothing as usual. It would still please me to no end to see them bow out in the first round again. I don't like Girardi and I want to see the Skanks bemoan all that money.

If Lester is healthy and Beckett finds his post season form, Boston should get out of the first round easily. I'm confident enough in Dice-K to add a third win since he's been back from rehab.

It's Rocktober again. The Rockies will pretty much need a miracle to win the division, but at least they have the wild card spot clinched. Honestly I think they are a better team now than when they went to the World Series two years ago.

Those last three games between the LA Dodgers and the Rockies will be a fun series to watch. It's always much more interesting when division titles come down to the wire like this.

I love the trainwreck that the Tigers turned into this weekend.

Mauer is the AL MVP and Grienke is the AL Cy Young. Anybody who doesn't agree is just plain retarded.

Yeah, pretty much.

I'm just disappointed Matt Wieters came on a little too late. He was 14th in the majors in OPS for catchers overall, and was crushing the ball throughout the last month of the season. He could have been Rookie of the Year had he got hot earlier. Just watch out for next year.

The Orioles had three legitimate candidates in Wieters, Brad Bergesen and Nolan Reimold. I already mentioned Wieters, Riemold was hurt the last three weeks of the year and Bergesen the last six weeks. It stinks.

Well, the Twins are officially In. And after that final tie-breaker game with the Tigers, I have to say--they deserve it: they are the AL Central Division champs. Congratulations, Twins!

I typically don't pay too much attention to other teams, but damn, that was one hell of a game for the AL Central yesterday.

And I disagree with your statement, guccilvr, about the Halos shying away from the spotlight of the postseason. It's not so much that they shy away from said spotlight as much as they just don't perform well when they are in it. BoSox definately bring it on in the postseason, I'll give ya that. Offence and starting pitching are very much the same for both teams, (no numbers wars here, please?) but the bullpen will be the real test. Halos are more of a finesse bullpen while Boston is gas, gas and more gas.

Realistically, this series is all about Game #1.

Fair enough Mister Coaster.

Maybe it's just because I don't have as much exposure to the Angels, it just seems like they will be on a hot streak and something happens in the postseason and they just stop. Maybe Boston just has their number. I'm really not sure, but either way I'm ready for the playoffs :)

Here's hoping the Twins knock the Skanks out in the first round.

I was a little worried about the Phils going into this postseason but the game today was awesome. Unfortunately I think that might be the only game I get to see in person. My sister has seats for game 5 of the series (if they make it that far), but my mom claimed them.

I feel like I'm in some alternate reality. CC and Afraud are both actually performing well in a playoff game.

I don't like this version.

Well, it is early yet, gucci. Remember, it's not so much that the NYY are unbeatable, it just may not be the Twins who do it.

But I am not altogether ready to count the Twins out just yet. It's going to be tough for them, but they've shown they can overcome adversity.

Plus, Gardy has a lot of baseball tricks up his sleeve and they play extremely intelligent and well-executed baseball. Gardy also has extensive post-season experience versus Girardi...

Oh, I know it's early, but Gardy doesn't have much success playing the Yankees away. I'm not counting out the twins just yet, but if they don't win tonight and wrestle some home field advantage away, they are doomed.

I'm actually kind of hoping that Boston gets past the Angels, and the Yankees get past the Twins so Boston can stomp all over NY in their precious stadium during the playoffs. That would be epic :D