Pitching

I’m a big believer that pitching wins games.  Disagree all you want, but think about it for a second.  Then think about the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and look at their record.  They have no quality pitching and they suck this year (it’s fantastic).

You can’t win games if you don’t have quality pitching.  It’s awesome that your team can put runs on the board, but if you want a win, you need to keep the other team off the board. It’s important to have good infielders as well, but if you’re throwing batting practice out there, it doesn’t matter if you have every Gold Glove winner behind you, things are going to be bad.

Patrick Corbin, as requested by Chris, the Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher has been pretty stellar this season.  7-0  with a 1.44 ERA stellar.  Corbin is in his second year in the Majors, coming over to the dbacks from the Angels in the Dan Haren deal.  Side note, I hated that Haren was an Angel and I’m happy he’s with the Nationals so I can go back to cheering for him.  Last season, Corbin went 6-8 in 22 games, 17 of which he started.  In his Major League Debut last season, he allowed just 3 runs in 5 2/3 innings and even laid down two sacrifice bunts while also scoring a run to beat the Miami Marlins.  Not a bad way to start your career.

This Spring Training, Corbin proved he was what the dbacks needed and was named into the starting rotation.  Another side note, now matter how good this kid is, I still like Brandon McCarthy more.  Corbin is doing just what you want your starting pitcher to do, throw quality innings and get wins.  Something even more impressive is that in his 9 starts this season, Corbin has 18 BB and 51 SO.  While those numbers might not be the most impressive, just because the BB seems a bit high for 62.1 innings pitched but the strikeout numbers are impressive, not everybody can be Yu Darvish with his 91 strikeouts this season.  You don’t have to be striking out every batter you face to be a good pitcher or to win games.  Does it help? Yes.  If you look at it though, it’s better, pitch count wise to not strike out a lot of batters can pitch you out of games.  I remember in 2010 when Max Scherzer had 14 K’s against the A’s, but only pitched 5 2/3 innings because he’s pitch count was so high.  That being said, I do love strike outs.

Corbin is putting the Diamondbacks in good position, and behind his 7-0 start this season, the Diamondbacks are currently sitting a game ahead of the San Francisco Giants.  If he keeps pitching like this, the NL West is going to be a fun division to watch come September.

Some people like the long ball, I like the K ball.  Yes, that was meant to sound extremely corny.

Clinch-less

After this weekend, the National League playoff spots are almost all sealed up, with just the wild cards left up for grabs.  With the post season getting clearer by the day in the NL, the American League is clinch-less.

One of the big differences?  The American League, despite losing the All-Star Game (thanks for nothing Verlander), is the better league.  And by better, I mean that the records of the teams in the AL are much better than those in the NL.  If we look at the records of the teams that have clinched, the Reds, Giants and Nationals, they have good records that blew away most of the teams in their division.  Aside from the Braves and Cardinals, most of the teams going for the wild card are close to the .500 mark.  A few years ago when the Padres won the NL West one game over .500 everybody made a huge deal about how a team at .500 could go to the playoffs.  Yet, here we are again with .500 teams being thrown into the mix like it’s no big deal.  The difference between these teams and the Padres is that they’re going for the wild card, not the division.  The American League has eliminated all of the teams with .500 or lower records from contention, and now it’s just the big guns battling it out.

With the A’s taking on division rivals and leaders, the Texas Rangers this week, the AL West could be one division that could wrap up quickly.  It saddens me to say, but I don’t see the A’s over taking the Rangers for the division.  I’ve been holding onto hope, but after the last week, their playing sloppy and losing ground.  Tyson Ross, who has been a great starter for the A’s in the past, has struggled big time in his last two outings, losing to the Yankees in 14 innings on Saturday and in the 9th inning last night.  I understand that a manager wants a pitcher to feel comfortable and have a chance to redeem himself after a tough loss, but at what point do you say enough is enough?  The season ends next week, and the A’s are now 5 games back in the division.  You can’t keep sending out a pitcher that’s struggling in tight games hoping for the best, because if he continues to struggle, you’re hurting the team.  If I saw one person lose two games in three days, I would not want to see that guy warming up in the bullpen.

The White Sox shocked just about everybody this season.  They’re a good team, but nobody really thought they could win, especially with what the Tigers were expected to do. With as good as the Sox have been, it’s a question of if they are that good, or they just look good since the rest of the division isn’t playing as well as we all thought they would.  The Tigers, while they’re playing much better as of late, have spent most of the season playing nowhere near where they should have.  However, with the Tigers getting hot and the White Sox struggling slightly, things could change in a heartbeat.  With their loss this afternoon, seriously who plays an afternoon game on a Tuesday, the White Sox lead is down to half a game, which could be down to a tie should the Tigers beat the Royals tonight.  Last year, or every other year in recent history for that matter, I would have said the Tigers would be winning that game, but the Royals have quietly put together a great season.  Everybody talks about the A’s and the O’s as the biggest surprises this season, but look at the Royals.  Sure they have a sub .500 record again, but they’re in third in the AL Central, which is huge for them.  They are usually the bottom rung of that division and have one of the worst records in all of baseball.  They have drafted smart the last few years and I’m glad to see the pieces slowly coming together.

And lastly, mainly because I hate them, we have the New York Yankees.  After a rocky start to September, it was questionable if the Yanks would even make the playoffs, yet they’re the Yankees.  They always battle and find ways to win.  They are the Yankees after all.  After spending most of this month in a tie with the Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees are starting to gain some ground and pull away.  Not much ground, but at this point, you don’t need much.  Tampa Bay was making a strong push for the division, coming within three games, and were a top wild card team before things started going south.  Since making a playoff push earlier this month, the Rays have sunk to 6 games back in the division and three back for the final wild card with the Angels ahead of them.  The Rays are in need of a miracle to make the post season this year, which it’s sad to see their playoff appearances come to an end.  I always enjoy when teams go to the playoffs that you would have never guessed would go.  Back to the Orioles though.  The currently lead the A’s by 1.5 games in the wild card, but are still holding out for the division.  It’s a possibility, a strong one at that.  They have been playing great baseball this month, and their remaining schedule includes series against the Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rays.  The Red Sox and Blue Jays, both sub .500 teams, have a chance to play spoiler, which we know, every team loves that chance.  If anybody would like to ruin the Orioles chances of the post season, or at least clinching the division, it would be the Boston Red Sox.  They say revenge is a dish best served cold, but I think the BoSox are looking to get a little payback for what happened last year.

No matter which way these division go, I want some teams to start locking up positions so I can stop stressing so much.  I would also very much like for the A’s to stop losing games- I already got my post season tickets, I just need them to get there.  Happy watching!

Exciting

This season can best be described at exciting.  There has been so many great and exciting things happen that it’s hard to believe the season is going to be ending soon.

Today, Gio Gonzalez became the first 20 game winner with the Nationals 10-4 win over the streaking Brewers.  Gio had a scary moment in the game when he slipped and landed face down on the grass in front of the mound, but was fine.  I’m so excited and happy for Gio.  He is an amazing pitcher, and I wish he was still with the A’s.  He will always be “Ojos Locos” to me.  I should mention he did commercials for A’s Fiesta Day with funny names for pitches, which had googly eyes on baseballs, which he called Ojos Locos.

As today, big news in Cincinnati, for the second time this week.  After clinching a playoff spot on Thursday, the Reds officially clinched the NL Central today in front of their fans at home with a 6-0 win over the struggling Dodgers.  Right now, the Reds are sitting just a half game back from the Nationals for the top seed in the National League, and are aiming for that top spot now.  This win for the Reds was more than just a clinch for them, it was more than that.

When the Reds beat the Dodgers today and clinched their division, it had lingering effects.  The loss by the Dodgers meant that if the Giants won their game against the Padres, they would clinch the NL West.  And clinch it they did.  The Giants beat the Padres 8-4 to win their division in front of their fans at home too.

The playoff stage is almost set in the National League, with only the two spots left and things are going to get interesting very quickly.  Atlanta, while they haven’t clinched a playoff berth as of yet, are more than likely going to clinch one of the two remaining spots with their six game lead in the wild card.  The second wild card could go to just about anybody, as there is four teams within five games of the Cardinals, the current owners of the final spot.  No matter how things play out in the finals weeks here, I’m stoked to what it all go down.

Mounting a Comeback

The Philadelphia Phillies are trying to mount a comeback, winning six in a row, and 14 of their last 18.  However, they are currently 17 games out of the NL East and are tied with the Milwaukee Brewers at 4.5 games out of the wild card.  That would have to be one heck of a comeback for the Phillies to get to the post season.  It’s not impossible, look at the 2002 A’s winning 20 games in a row to get them to the playoffs, but somewhat unlikely.

Getting hot and streaks are all about timing.  It’s nice to start the season hot, but at the same time, there’s a lot of baseball left at that point.  Getting hot in August/September and you’re putting yourself in a great position.  It’s no secret that the National League is the weaker of the two leagues, and the standings are all of the proof you need.  At .500, the Phillies are tied for 5th in the wild card with the Brewers right now.  Remember a few years ago with the San Diego Padres won the NL West with a record of 82-80?  It’s times like that when you want to just take the top four teams, rather than winners of the division.

This year, with the additional wild card, things are going to be interesting in the first round of the playoffs.  That one game playoff for the wild card is going to one hell of a game.  Right now, if the Phillies keep winning and do get one of the wild cards, I would take the Phillies over anybody.  The San Francisco Giants, when they won the World Series, got hot at the right time of year- just like the Cardinals last year, and maybe like the Phillies this year.

Since I’m on the topic of the Phillies, something has been bothering me for most of the season.  What the heck is going on with Cliff Lee?!  I like Cliff Lee, especially since he’s not with Texas anymore, so it’s hard to see him struggle like he has this season.  Lee didn’t get his first win of the season until July 4th, going win-less in his first 13 starts.  That seems that Lee’s struggles go hand-in-hand with the Phillies struggles this season.  If one of your ace pitchers can’t get any wins, you know you have a problem.

I hope that the Phillies keep hot and can make the last couple weeks of the season interesting for the rest of us, plus keep the other teams ahead of them on their toes.

Battle

Last weekend, we were lucky enough to have to big division match ups.  Both series were exciting to watch and impacted the standings, so  you can only imagine how exciting this weekend is going to be.

Yesterday, the Yankees and Orioles started a four game series, after playing each other last weekend as well.  With these two teams battling it out for first in the AL East right now, this series is going to be huge.  It’s no secret that the Yankees have been struggling lately, there was a point that they had lost 10 of 14 games.  If the Yankees want to win another division title and be playing in October, they need to step up to the plate pretty quick here.  Although, from an A’s fan point of view, if they could cool down around September 21st, that would be great.  After the O’s win last night, they are tied with the Yankees for first.  There is a chance that the O’s could become the solo owners of first place come Monday.  How crazy would that be?

On the other side of the country, we have the battle for the NL West going on.  The Giants and the Dodgers are bitter rivals and now are duking it out for the top spot.  Although the division isn’t nearly as tight as the Dodgers would have hoped for, they’re not out of it yet.  The Dodgers, despite their best efforts to buy a winning team, are still drastically underperforming, and it would be a disappointment for them not to be in the playoffs after everything.  With all of the trades they did in the last couple months, it’s almost like a different team playing now than when they started the season, which is never a good sign.  The A’s in past years have struggled keeping players health, and just plan keeping players and it shows on the field.  It’s hard to stick a bunch of people together that don’t know each other or their playing styles and expect them to win.  I think of the movie, The Replacements, (ps.I love that movie) and Gene Hackman’s character is saying how players spend the whole season getting to know each other and he’s asking them to do it in three days which seems unreasonable.  That’s seems to be the case in LA right now, but when they all start to mesh, they should be one hell of a team.  All that being said, I don’t really think the Dodgers are going to make enough of a push to win the division, but will make it interesting for the Giants down the stretch.

Both match ups are big for a couple of reasons- playoff positions.  The AL East is looking like they’re sending at least two teams; one as the division winner and the other or others since the Rays are starting to heat up too.  In the NL West, the Dodgers are only 1.5 game out of the final wild card spot, so they are still in the running there, if they continue to play well since the two teams in the wild card for the NL are pretty good teams.  Tune in and check out some of the games this weekend- you won’t be disappointed!

The Dodgers

The Dodgers have new owners and they’re looking like the Yankees of the west.  After the blockbuster deal this weekend that sent Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto from the Boston Red Sox to the Los Angeles Dodgers, it’s clear that the new owners are looking to win now.

Vin Scully announced yesterday that he would be back next season to announce with the Dodgers because of what the new ownership is doing.  It’s that excitement of what they can do.  Everybody loves the Yankees for the reason that they are winners.  They get all the best talent they can in order to win games and win the title every year.  The Dodgers seem to have that same plan now, and are loading up with just about everybody they can get their hands on.

Yesterday while I was watching game highlights from the Marlins, Dodgers game, the commentators hinted that it’s unacceptable for them to be losing with the talent they now have.  Here’s the issue, these guys just met.  The A’s at the beginning of the season had a lot of struggles too.  It was basically a whole new team and it takes a bit for people to get comfortable and vibe together.  The issue is, there is a little over a month left in the season and the Dodger are currently in second place behind the Giants for the division and with each loss get further out of reach of the wild card.  While I think this trade was a bold move that says “We want to win”, it doesn’t seem like it was executed at the right time.  Changing the team up is good, but since the trade deadline in July, the Dodgers are almost a new team.  It’s like they’re getting players just to get players; hoping that something will work.

Now, the other end of this trade.  What the heck is going on in Boston?  Between the rumored mutiny in the clubhouse, the horrible play on the field, and now this mass sell off of players, something is up.  Going into this season, I would have put money on the AL East having three teams in the playoffs: New York Yankees (that’s basically a given), Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox.  While Boston has been better as of late, they need to make a major push to make that final wild card spot.  Is it possible, yes.  Nothing is impossible in baseball.  But, honestly, it’s highly, highly improvable.  They had so much talent, and still do, it’s hard to think of them as being 5 games under .500.  They’ve been so good for the last decade that for them to just drop off the map like they have is mind-boggling.

It should be interesting to see how the remainder of the season plays out for both of these teams, and the coming seasons.