Iceblink

A couple of things. 1. I agree with the cyclical argument. For a few years, the Western Conference was absolutely dominant in the NBA and nobody thought the Eastern Conference had a chance to win the NBA title during the 5 years the Lakers and Spurs won the NBA titles. But now the Eastern Conference teams are much better. Last year both Miami and Detroit were considered serious contenders for the title while both Chicago and Cleveland were on the rise. The last two NBA finals have been up for grabs and most people were split as to picking which team would win. 2. If you took the DH out of the discussion then of course things would be different. For one, the White Sox would have never resigned Konerko AND traded for Jim Thome because they knew it would be hard to find spots in the order for both of them. The Red Sox wouldn't be hurt that much by David Ortiz playing in the field and they would have either traded Kevin Youkilis or found a place for him in the field. The list goes on. If a team wants a player they will find a place to put him. 3. This is related to #2. The difference would be solely dependent on that lost spot in the batting order. Rather than having another actual hitter batting a team must deal with a pitcher batting 2 or 3 times a game, which would have a big affect on a team's lineup. The teams in the AL would likely look a lot different without the DH. Would Boston have even taken a flyer on Ortiz after the Twins released him? Sure, you can put a stiff at first base, but maybe he hadn't shown enough offense to take a roster spot given he can't play 1B well. One more point about losing the DH is that AL managers would actually have to start working for a living.

Now that is how it's done. The Cubs figure out a way to have Chris Duffy - he of the .520 OPS and 0 for his last 15 or so - to go 3 for 5 with 3 runs and 2 RBI. They make up a full game on the Pirates. THAT's the kind of effort that can win this thing.

Good very good. As for this thread, wouldnt it be better to look at the race this way? Team W-L Pct GA Streak L10 --------------------------------------------------- Kansas City 47-85 .356 -- Lost 1 4-6 Pittsburgh 50-81 .382 3.5 Lost 3 4-6 Tampa Bay 52-79 .397 5.5 Lost 4 4-6 Chicago Cubs 54-76 .415 8 Lost 3 2-8 Washington 55-75 .423 9 Lost 2 2-8 You are correct, sir. A fine suggestion.

Team L-W Pct GB ------------------------------------ Kansas City 88-52 .371 -- Tampa Bay 84-55 .396 3.5 Chicago Cubs 83-55 .399 4.5 Pittsburgh 83-56 .403 5 As of 8/28, it looks like a 3 team race, with the Cubs and Nationals working hard to sneak into consideration. Look at those 'Last 10' records for the contendors, folks. Now that's a dogfight. You can't put up 4-6 for long and hope to maintain your spot. You've gotta get it push it to 3-7 or 2-8 to hold your position in this battle. 7-3 records for Cleveland and Baltimore. 5-5 for Seattle. Sheesh. They're starting to fade from the race. They clearly don't have their hearts in this battle. They don't have the need in their gut for that last-minute push you've got to put in to get the job done. Heads may roll if that kind of performance keeps up down the stretch. Colorado is trying to sneak in with a strong 3-7 mark, but their pathetic .500 play earlier in the season has them out of contention. Big matchup this week: Cubbies at Pittsburgh. They meet up for 4 more huge games next week. Tampa Bay is a darkhorse after totally owning the Orioles and giving up 3 games this weekend. They're now playing cupcakes in the ChiSox, Seattle, Twins, A's, and Yankees over the next two weeks. Huge ground can be made up with that weak schedule. However, Kansas City might have this already won. They finish up with a cakewalk of: Minny, ChiSox, Yankees, Red Sox, Cleveland, Seattle, Anaheim Angels of Anaheim of Ventura, Detroit, Minny, and Detroit again. With the schedule-makers handing them this crown all gift-wrapped like that, Selig should investigate. Still, the Royals have put together a team that seemingly can't lose this race. Kudos to KC for trying to pull of the rare repeat to go with 2005's #2 pick. I don't want to start the dynasty talk too early, but there's something special going on there. The real races appear to be Tampa's chances of running down Pittsburgh, and the Cubs trying to hold off a hard-charging Nationals team who are trying to close the gap despite Alfonso Soriano's efforts to sabotage their record. The Cubs should be commended for having twice the payroll of any of the three teams below them, and $30M more than the Nationals. Folks, in this day and age of moneyball, you just don't see fiscal planning like that very often. No complaining about having to be a large fish in a small pond, no moaning about how these small-market teams can seemingly not spend whatever they want to not land any quality player and field a team of non-all-stars at every position. No sir. The Cubs just suck it up and stay focused on the goal. Just when you think the bar can't get any lower, they find a way. Kudos. This won't be for the weak of heart of stomach. Gauntlets have been thrown. Battle lines have been drawn. Families have been torn apart. Monster trucks are revving their engines. We're barrelling down the stretch like Namath on a Kolber chase. Tune in for all the drama (MLB blackouts not-withstanding.)

Soundbites aside, the AL is far superior to the NL this year. Of course, it's cyclical and signifies little. However, take the DH out of the equation and the field levels a bit. The ChiSox have to find ABs for both Thome and Konerko. David Ortiz and Travis Hafner actually have to play the field once in a while - and there's no way to know if that would help or hurt their numbers. Joe Mauer's great numbers have 15 games subtracted from them - or he has to play some of those and is that much more tired. Take away that free lineup spot and some of those players would've found their way to NL teams so they could start - or would've never gotten enough ABs to establish themselves. Lots of other everyday AL players wouldn't have the advantage of pseudo days off where they DH, and a few would've suffered injuries in the field. Sure, that makes the pitcher's job more difficult, but you also have to consider that Prior wouldn't have been injured in the Giles collision with the DH. Maybe Justin Verlander or Roy Halladay gets a pitching hand hit while trying to bunt. If the NL is the CFL to the AL's NFL, then the AL isn't far from being the Arena league version of real baseball.

I'm a Girardi fan, but this article - if the reports are true - make him sound quite capable of very bad decisions. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-hyde27aug27,0,4546043.column?coll=sfla-sports-front "For instance, back in spring training, according to two Marlins sources, here's some changes Girardi pushed for: Miguel Cabrera from third to first base; Dan Uggla not at second base but in left field; Josh Willingham at catcher, not Miguel Olivo; Alfredo Amezaga might not have made the team; and young pitchers like Ricky Nolasco and Josh Johnson would have started in the minor leagues."

If you're Zito and you can pick between teams that are run well, have won recently, and haven't had many injured pitchers...and the Cubs, would you take the Cubs? (Assume you're not a die-hard Cubs fan like we are.) Meche or Eaton wouldn't be terrible. I'm not sure a contending team would have either of them at #3, but we aren't close to contending, anyway. I've read a couple things recently saying Padilla is a "punk", mostly related to the brawl last week. Not sure how much creedence to put in that yet.

Unless Hendry's clone is GM somewhere, we're stuck with Rusch.

I've got even money that one or more of the top OOPs guys for 2006 will be on the bench and probably getting lots of ABs in the 2-hole. And it won't be next year's Jose Reyes, either. I'm betting on Royce Clayton.

Who's in on the official Chris Robinson Bandwgn with me? (I know I didn't capitalize or maybe even spell that right).

Heck yes!

Did Pagan play Everett's triple really poorly or was it just me? Didn't think there was anyway that was going for more than a double, but Pagan ran into the wall on a ball that hit 15 feet up.

Theriot would've stolen that base more cleanly if he'd had another year in AAA.

Pretty harmless HBP. Get on with the game now. Would be lame if one of our guys gets kicked out for a retaliation.

Holy cow, that ball was killed. I'm sure it's been done, but I've never seen a ball hit out to that part of the park...not even in BP when I've been to the games there.

I'm going to go all Bob Costas here: Grey on the road, with the city name on the front and (possibly) the player name on the back. White at home, with the mascot or logo on the front and no name on the back. The home fans know your city, so you put the logo. The road fans see the city or team name. I actually wish we'd lose the pinstripes, but that's not a big deal. No alt-uniforms. No alt-hats. No dark softball jerseys. That's how baseball uniforms are supposed to be. I'm no fan of the Yankees, but they get the uniform thing exactly right.

It's ok that they're not on the same page. It's not ok that neither is on the right page.

If there were any justice, it would've gone 8-4-3-2.

Dude, farm systems are overrated.

And while I'm posting, how about this - the mother of all homers: Kaboomenallen.

This one's pretty cool, too. The last play on the reel had me standing up in my living room. EDIT - I just noticed Aramis' thread. :oops: And is great mayhem. :)

Even Hendry wouldn't be dumb enough to make this one. Probably a whole lot closer to the offers we can expect than the ones in this thread, however. ARam's value is way too high to trade him now. We need to wait until there's a blow up between him, Dusty, the media, and Steve Stone. Then we can trade him for whomever is Baltimore's current best career AAA player.

If the choice is doing nothing or building a bad team - as he's mostly been doing for the last 2 years - I'll take nothing.

This is sarcasm, right? Walker for Clement would be like trading Felix Pie for Domingo Ramos. I'm a fan of Todd's, but he *might* bring back someone from a team's top 30 prospect list. Maybe.

Don't think there's a chance they consider trading him. He's looked at as their CF of the next few years...unless Ellsbury supplants him. As for the bad season, he's raised his OPS 55 points in the last 2 weeks and his numbers are getting pretty respectable. Not the .800 OPS player he was in Cleveland, but possibly on his way back there.