On a bright note, and excuse me if this has already been mentioned, Don Mattingly has started a blog. How cool is that?

http://www.donmattingly.com/blog.php

To me, it's a toss between RJ and Wright. As unpredictable as RJ has been all season, he has 10+ seasons with very strong PS resume. And Wright seems to be ok lately.
1 markp, you are definitely right about healthy RJ being more effective. On the other hand, I'd take a hurting RJ over Lidle.

Rasner seems like a good long man option for possible not-so-pretty situations. He's had a few quality starts but he is no "Wang-of-last-year".

All in all, I can't express how grateful I am to see both Sheff and Giambi back in time. Well, obviouse, and Mo.

I'm guessing that means the typos, also.

At first I wondered why he was talking about Steinbrenner. It took a minute before realizing it's actually Jorge.

Either that or it is the Web Guy. Damn pitch hitters ;-)

AUG 30: 6.1 IP - 6 H - 2 ER - 1 BB
SEP 10: 6.1 IP - 3 H - 3 ER - 2 BB
SEP 17: 6.0 IP - 4 H - 2 ER - 3 BB
SEP 25: 6.0 IP - 5 H - 1 ER - 4 BB

Randy Johnson's recent starts:

SEP 06: 7.0 IP - 1 H - 0 ER - 2 BB
SEP 11: 6.0 IP - 9 H - 5 ER - 0 BB
SEP 16: 5.2 IP - 8 H - 5 ER - 3 BB
SEP 23: 6.0 IP - 7 H - 5 ER - 1 BB

Anyone think Unit would accept a trade back to AZ to finish his career?

Jeff Karstens P

Alex, I pity you when February gets here. ;-)

First we'll use Spahn, then we'll use Sain,

Then an off day, followed by rain.

Back will come Spahn, followed by Sain,

And followed, we hope, by two days of rain.

Joe Mauer: 179 for 517 (.34623)
Robinson Cano: 162 for 474 (.34177)
Derek Jeter: 210 for 615 (.34146)

Given that Mauer did not play in today's loss to the White Sox, I'd imagine that he only has, at most, 3 or 4 at bats left, assuming he plays at all tomorrow. If that's the case, then the worst Mauer can do is 179 for 521 (.34357)

I'm assuming that Cano and the Cap will get around 7 at bats between today and tomorrow. If that's the case, Cano will need four hits to eclipse Mauer in this scenario (three hits is .34305, four hits is .34511). If Mauer goes 1 for 4 rather than 0 for 4, he will be at .34549.

Jeter, meanwhile, also needs between four and five hits (in seven at bats) to eclipse Mauer at .34405.

My calculator stands ready if anyone else wants me to examine a specific situation...

How's he doing?

Torre announced that Sheff will play 1b in the playoffs, Giambi will DH, and Matsui will play left.

Cairo and Phillips will round out the roster.

Busy here today. Lots of activity. You can feel everyone getting prepped for the playoffs, now just days away.

The only ones who seemed relaxed, like they are having fun are the players. Watched them take BP from the field today. Whole team seems really loose. Lots of easy smiles. One reporter said even Alex has been noticably looser the past few weeks. Was talking about just how different this clubhouse is from the 04 version, with dour, "bad guys" like Kevin Brown and Kenny Lofton.

Kind of like last year, when Tony Womack made the post-season roster, solely as a pinch-runner...

I just visited Mattingly's site and submitted a question.

He'll forever be a legend to me because I was 12 in 1984 and thus highly susceptible to legendary figures. (Mattingly was succeeded by John Lennon as I turned into a hippie and drifted away from sports, but that's neither here nor there.)

But the point is, whenever I remember Mattingly, I remember a guy who always seemed to come through with the big hit. And yet, even in his best year, he made an out 648 times out of a thousand, so I guess I must be misremembering.

:)

And poor Arod, in my imagination, never seems to come through in the big spot, and yet he does, occasionally.

Hmm.

Big spot, game on the line, though, romanticized as my image may be, I'd take Mattingly over Arod in a heartbeat.

Maybe if I were twelve now, watching Arod, I'd have a totally different impression of his career?

Part of me just has the general anxiety about fooling with success, upsetting the alchemy that's gotten us this far.

The other part is a more specific concern about regularly placing an inexperienced fielder at a position where the ball is bound to find him on strange plays like bunts or dribblers or whatever.

I don't know, all I can say is, "I have a bad, bad feeling about this."

Am I overreacting?

Long answer: We've had this argument before. I'm a believer in that "chemistry" comes from an atmosphere of winning, and not vice versa. For all we know, the kids on the Devil Rays are the best friends in the world, but it doesn't win them many baseball games. Alchemy, you mentioned... never succeded in making gold out of brass.

Having Gary Sheffield at first base instead of Jason Giambi is another example of known quantity versus unknown quantity, much like the Kevin Thompson vs Bernie Williams argument after Sheff got hurt. The basis of many of the new, more comprehensive statistics, is the principle of "replacement level," that is, if you picked up your run of the mill AAA player, how would he perform. Giambi is an awful defensive first baseman. Sheffield, we hope, can provide that replacement level defense. It is unlikely he will be as bad as Giambi. That's also why I'm fine with Andy Phillips being on the postseason roster: he is clearly the best defensive first baseman on the roster (see the discussion from the other day), so in a worst case scenario (Giambi/Sheff/Matsui gets hurt or Sheff is absolutely awful at first), Phillips can play first. By contrast, I have a very good feeling about our offense in the playoffs.

The Phillies-Marlins game on FOX is preventing me from watching the Yanks on mlb.tv. They're only in the seventh inning. I'm glad I paid $15 to watch the last few weeks of games...

Thank heaven. If only because it shuts Kay up. He was blathering on about how Mauer winning the batting title will be tarnished if he sits out the last two games.