MLB 2012 Season

[Neal Pomea]

So, either the Yankees, Rangers or Orioles will be out after losing one game in this new fangled play-off system. That makes so much sense, Bud Selig is an idiot.

They are all in the playoffs, but what is at stake is winning the division and home field "advantage," which will be a real advantage in the future but not so much this year.

Division winners

Yankees

Tigers

Athletics

Wild card

Orioles

Rangers

UNLESS Orioles win tonight v Tampa and Yankees lose to Red Sox, which would tie them with NY. Not sure but I believe they would actually play a one game playoff to decide which one is division champ and which one is wild card. I might be wrong about that.

Bottom line: It's not so much your argument but your sentiment I agree with, that Selig is an idiot.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Neal Pomea

[PHILLYQ]

So, either the Yankees, Rangers or Orioles will be out after losing one game in this new fangled play-off system. That makes so much sense, Bud Selig is an idiot.

They are all in the playoffs, but what is at stake is winning the division and home field "advantage," which will be a real advantage in the future but not so much this year.

Division winners

Yankees

Tigers

Athletics

Wild card

Orioles

Rangers

UNLESS Orioles win tonight v Tampa and Yankees lose to Red Sox, which would tie them with NY. Not sure but I believe they would actually play a one game playoff to decide which one is division champ and which one is wild card. I might be wrong about that.

Bottom line: It's not so much your argument but your sentiment I agree with, that Selig is an idiot.

Yanks are winning big now and O's losing by 4, so Yanks are division winners and O's wild card. O's and Rangers play one game to see who advances to the next round against the A's, other series is Yanks-Tigers.

If the Yanks and O's had finished tied, there would have been a 163rd game to decide the division winner. Because of the advantage of winning the division they would have had to play a 163rd game to decide it, as the wild card winner plays one game and it's in or out. Either O's fans or Ranger fans will be heartbroken.

[Soulstation1]

I thought the MLB season would always end on a Sunday

Not sure since I don't follow like I did 20 years ago

[Soulstation1]

Yaz won the batting title in 1968 with a .301 avg

Lowest ever for a batting title winner

[BERIGAN]

Yaz won the batting title in 1968 with a .301 avg

Lowest ever for a batting title winner

I was going to look that up, I remembered he had a really "low" top BA. Guess we know why they lowered the mound after that year...

[JSngry]

Okay, rant over. The simple fact is: reality finally caught up with the Rangers. Their starting rotation was never consistent, their hitting even less so (especially in the clutch), all that was holding things together was the defense and when that started falling apart over the last couple weeks, it was only a matter of time.

But this still sucks. Even worse than game 6 of last year. How the hell do you build offa this?

Rationally, Scott Feldman + Roy Oswalt + Justin Grimm + Martin Perez < Neftali Feliz as a starter.

Also, Ryan Dempster < Colby Lewis when push came to shove. Best option available, just not the best option, period. That would have been a healthy Colby Lewis

Bottom line, Ranger's couldn't pitch, Oakland would not lose, and ther it was.

Also, why you running these guys so hard Wash? Because Wash knows baseball, Wash saw the 012 A's looking and feeling like the 010 Rangers and Wash knows that if he don't keep his main guys in thee as much as humanly possible, there's a good chance that the As have the division title long before game 162. Hell, I started feeling it at least a month ago, and I know that Wash is more perceptive than I am. Oakland is the monster who you can't run away from because they're stuck on GO!!! At some point, there's no avoiding the inevitable.

Emotionally, hey Josh Hamilton, FUCK YOU. It's been fun for everybody, but it's time to move on. Micahel Young, Nellie Cruz, you're both at the age where things change with your body. Make the adjustments of make the trip out of town.

Rest of the team, hey, we love you because of your youthful energy and edge, but - don't ever think that magic is guaranteed. Use this season and learn that lesson very well. Don't get all old and jaded like "certain otehr teams", keep it fresh, but look over at the A's and you know EXACTLY how that felt. Now you know how THIS feels. Both feelings are always possible outcomes, so stop "expecting" them and bump it up another notch more to increase the odds of getting the favorable one.

Exempt from all this- Adrian Beltre. Still a Superior Human Being. And Yu Darvish who IS going to be all that was hoped for. And Ron Washington, who...just knows the way baseball go, good and bad, and that all you can REALLY do is play the next game and platy it better than you did the day before.

Oh, wait, we still have another game to play, against Baltimore. At home. And if we win that one, we get two more to play, against the Yankees. At home.

But really, Jon Daniels is going to have an interesting winter, that's all I can say.

And I would more more than OK with these barracuda buzzsaw A's just gnawing the legs off of everybody they play from here on out and just leaving blood and bone fragment everywhere.They seem to be very good at that, and unless you the one getting it done to you, it's pretty fun to watch.

GO A'S!

[JSngry]

My condolences, Jim.

No, not necessary. It will hopefully be a wakeup call to the players and the organization and the fans that magic should never be expected, and that if you want a dynasty, go rent some DVDs. Otherwise, you can play your ass off and still have some shit happen, some of which is under your control only until you realize that you need it to be under your control, at which point, hey, too late. That's baseball. Hell, that's life. Appreciate the hell out of it when it's good and don't lose faith when it's not.

[alocispepraluger102]

is texas out of the playoffs?

[JSngry]

No, we have a wildcard game on Friday, against Baltimore. I suspect there will be drama.

[Brad]

I actually can see the Rangers winning on Friday as I believe Darvish is starting and Os starters are not lined up ideally.

If it wasn't for the second WC, the Rangers loss would rank among the greatest collapses in history along with the Phillies, Mets, Red Sox and Braves. If Rangers win tomorrow, they avoid that but if not.....

[Jazzmoose]

I never thought there would be another triple crown winner

Yaz won it in 1967 the year I was born

IIRC he won it with a .301 batting average

Yaz won it with a .326 BA

I haven't followed baseball since the strike back in the '90s, so I was absolutely floored to find out that this had happened. I just assumed it was something that would never happen again.

[alocispepraluger102]

No, we have a wildcard game on Friday, against Baltimore. I suspect there will be drama.

it will be difficult to see either team lose. a whole season may hinge on 1 bounce or pebble...............

[JSngry]

It may or may not be a "collapse", this last week of the Rangers' season, I suppose mathematically it is, but if you watched the team every game, it's not a surprise. The pitching (other than Darvish, and even Harrison) had been getting wobbly for a while now, and the offense never really got into what we've come to recognize as a Rangers Groove. Physically they looked more than a little worn down, and mentally they seemed to be relying on "it" happening just because "it" had happened before.

I tend to think of a "collapse" as something sudden and unexpected. This was more of a "fade", a team not having any gas left in the tank for the last quarter lap. Same results, but hardcore Ranger fans have been wondering for quite a while now when "it" was going to come back together, and I was of the school that "it" just might not come together. Nobody does it all the time, you know? There are years when teams don't get it done, they just don't have it. This years' Rangers, from about late April on were one of those teams. Best record in the AL for a good while, they kept winning games, but not a lot of "strong" wins. The real competition was coming from the A/s, and for a quick minute, the Angels. The Angels obviously had issues of their own, but the A's...

This year's Rangers never really showed the "heat" to be able to withstand a constant onslaught of aggressive baseball. I don't have the stats in from of me, but it sure seemed that we won a lot more come-from-behind games in the later innings last year than we did this year, a lot more. How much of this was mental, how much was physical, how much of it was just "law of averages", I don't know. I hear murmuring that Kinsler's been playing with a bad-ish ankle almost all season, etc. Definitely all the injuries to the pitchers had some kind of gradually unfolding negative effect...and in the end it looked like it was all coming down to "one game".

And if you want to look at the "one game" that could have made the difference, you can look way past the last week or two. You can look back to when Josh Hamilton was swinging at anything and everything and leaving runners on base. You can look at all the times we left runners on third base with nobody out. You can look at all the times where we'd get a lead and give it right back due to ineffective pitching. You can look at the times when teams like the Royals would be given chances to make it a tight game instead of just shutting them down and taking all the hope out of their life, which made everybody have to work harder to get the win That shit was going on a good long while before the last two weeks and erosive patterns like that eventually become manifest. The last week or two of the regular season was chickens coming home to roost, simple as that.

So this is not shocking, this fade of the Rangers. Disappointing, yes, but not shocking. Even if the team gets "redemption" in the playoffs to whatever level they make it to, the talent is not balanced like it was in 010 & 011. And we all know that in the end, unbalanced talent can get you quite a way, but sooner or later it gets exposed. The 012 Rangers ended up unbalanced and they got exposed.

Not a surprise, unfortunately, and it should make for an interesting off-season.

Edited October 4, 2012 by JSngry

[BERIGAN]

Who is manager of the year? Showalter, or Melvin? Almost as cruel to have one of them lose as it is for one of the teams to lose.

As for the Rangers...well, I've seen other teams, say, Yankee teams look worthless, then viola, find the magic seemingly out of nowhere.

1996 WS, the Braves beat the Yankees, at home 12-1, then 4-0. I bet you couldn't find anyone that would take a bet that the Yankees would win the W.S. (and they did, winning 4 straight games)

Granted, different teams, no Jim Leyritz on 'roids , but a day of rest, and the feel of the playoffs...and I also recall a red sox team in 2004, that played TERRIBLE defense, yet won it all...Oakland and Baltimore have very young, very inexperienced starters...never know how they will react under pressure...could go all the way like the Marlins did against the Yanks, but so many of these guys have never pitched in September before, nevermind October...

we shall see!

[Matthew]

The Giants vs. Reds should be a good series to watch; the first game Saturday has Cain & Cueto facing each other. The Reds had trouble dealing with AT&T Park, these night games kill offense. I see the Giants winning the series, their pitching is better, and the offense should be able to score enough runs to win it, but we'll see what happens.

[Neal Pomea]

Who's pitching for Atlanta and St. Louis on Friday?

[JSngry]

Truthfully, I'm pulling for the A/s this year now. Not against the Rangers, I couldn't do that, but let me put it this way - I get the same kick out of seeing these "out of nowhere" kids just stepping up and refusing to be intimidated or pressured that I did out of seeing the Rangers team of a few years ago do much the same thing.

Watching kids play a kids game at a grown-up level vs jaded old fucks treat it like a business (even though it is)...call it the Endless Summer Syndrome, but I can't deny that it's a cool thing to watch.

[Matthew]

Who's pitching for Atlanta and St. Louis on Friday?

Lohse vs Medlen

[Tim McG]

So, either the Yankees, Rangers or Orioles will be out after losing one game in this new fangled play-off system. That makes so much sense, Bud Selig is an idiot.

What Matthew said.

The Giants vs. Reds should be a good series to watch; the first game Saturday has Cain & Cueto facing each other. The Reds had trouble dealing with AT&T Park, these night games kill offense. I see the Giants winning the series, their pitching is better, and the offense should be able to score enough runs to win it, but we'll see what happens.

I sure hope you're right, Matthew.

The Giants struggled mightily against the Reds during the regular season and Dusty Baker is certainly motivated after getting the heave-ho shortly after the 2002 WS as the scape goat for the loss.

So we wait and see.

Edited October 4, 2012 by GoodSpeak

[paul secor]

No, we have a wildcard game on Friday, against Baltimore. I suspect there will be drama.

it will be difficult to see either team lose. a whole season may hinge on 1 bounce or pebble...............

That's one way to look at it. Another way is that there was a regular saeson and the playoff teams are where they are because of the way they played during the regular season. You create your own scenario.

[Brad]

I don't think the one game play in between the Wild Cards is that bad because as Jim said there will be drama. The other alternative would be to make it a best of three but then the calendar might become an issue, unless you start the season a few days earlier.

However, it is fairer,

[JSngry]

One wild card team is enough. It's ok this year b/c the records between all the AL teams besides Detroit, there's what, at most a two game difference? But two wild card teams very much allows for the second WC team to be some bunch of schmucks who barely make it in having one game against a team that played really well but was in a division with a team that played even better. And when that happens, it won't be drama, it will be bullshit.

B.S. = Bud Selig = Bull Shit.

I'm not a fan.

[Soulstation1]

Shocking news

Bobby Valentine gets canned

[Matthew]

Shocking news

Bobby Valentine gets canned

NO WAY! Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy -- is there anyone left who he did not throw under the bus?

[JSngry]

The rumors thicken: http://espn.go.com/b...xit-sources-say

The Dodgers and Red Sox are closing in on a deal to send Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to Los Angeles, though a few hurdles remain before it's official, multiple baseball sources said Friday.

But you gotta love this:

During his daily pregame news conference, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine was asked about the situation."I have no thoughts at all," Valentine said. "I saw it scroll on the bottom of my TV."

Valentine said he had a conversation with general manager Ben Cherington earlier in the day and Gonzalez was not mentioned.

"I talked to Ben this afternoon and there was no mention -- at all," Valentine said. "There wasn't a mention of 'who do you want?' There wasn't any conversation, so I believe it's nothing more than the standard operational of a guy gets claimed, it's a block, it's not a trade and life goes on."

Either Valentine's being a Good Soldier, or else he's being left out of the discussion altogether because his ass is gonna be out of there too and he just don't know it yet.

Of course, the possibility that both are true also linger...

Corporate behavior is really quite predictable!