Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
Scott Kazmir was good last night, but Phil Hughes was better. Joba Chamberlain pitched the eighth--including an emphatic strikout of BJ Upton--and Jose Veras earned the save as the Yankees won their 92nd game of the year, 3-1. It is looking more and more like the Yanks will face the Indians in the first round of the playoffs. You can throw the Yankees 6-0 record vs the Tribe out of the window--the Bombers only faced Fausto Carmona once this year, and didn't see C.C. at all. But heck, the American League playoff teams--"the fantastic four," as Brian Cashman called them the other night--are all tough. If the Yanks are to be champs, they've got to beat the best, 'nuff said.
Anyhow, I didn't watch much of the game at all. I watched the Mets instead. Man, can you believe what is happening out in Queens? I have to say that I don't derive a lot pleasure from watching a team fall apart like the Mets have over the past couple of days and weeks. I'm no fan of the Metropolitans, but I've got a lot of close friends who are. So while I don't root for them to win, dude, I just can't get into wanting them to lose like this. Think of the winter-long hangover they'd have to live with. Nah, that's too much to wish on anyone other than a Red Sox fan.
Still, it ain't over yet. So here's the question of the day, if you don't mind me shifting the conversation to the National League for a minute. Who will suck more (or less) this weekend: The Mets or the Phillies? The Mets are playing scared right now, though they said put up a brave front after the game, while the Phils are streaking. But these are the Phillies we're talking about. If history tells us anything, it will be Philadelphia who folds. So if I had to take a pick, I'd say the Mets recover and make the playoffs, despite how awful they've looked this week.
But I'm rooting for a tie and a one-game playoff on Monday.
Holding on for your life, 'cause you work all day
To blow 'em away in the night!'
Anybody else just catch Bruce on 'Today'?
Promised Land
Radio Nowhere
Living In The Future
My Hometown
(encore) Night
Yeah, I would.
Not sure if the Mets are going to pull this off. Who's going to pitch them out of this mess? Poor Willie.
'Long Walk Home.'
Sweet, Clarence! Bring it home!
Alright, enough Backstreet Banter from me, but this is great. Band is on fire. New Bruce, October baseball, Mets-Phils down to the wire. Good times in the dirty Jerz!
A year after his pre-playoffs hatchet-job on A-Rod, Verdooch takes a warmy, soapy loofah to the Papelboner. Weak, dude, but it will make beating Paps that much sweeter next month.
Perez blows hot and cold. Kim will get hit, but this one will be a high scoring loss for the Mets and the Phils will be one game up come tomorrow morning.
So I'm a lot less focused on the collapse in Flushing than I am the collapse over on Sheffield and Addison.
Go Cubbies!
I would also like to see Colorado get in, because that would be different.
Living in DC, I'm praying the Nats somehow make up their 15 game deficit in the final weekend and go storming to the World Series to face the Yanks.
1) They seem very loose, and seem to be having fun.
2) They are used to adversity this season. If they find themselves in a hole in a playoff series, it will not be uncharted territiory and we'll have to see how they respond. They were in a hole all season, and they dealt with it.
I think these two things bode well going into the postseason.
There are very good seats available.
1) We are often shut down by good pitching... a lot because Cano, Melky and now Matsui are impatient and swing at shit
2) Melky is in a deep hole, God knows what's going on with Matsui, and while ARod has had a few good games, since he hit #52, he is taking a LOT of bad swings... and missing balls he creamed before #52. I think/hope he got HR conscious, and will drop that in the PS.
3) We only have 2.5 reliable BP arms, although I think Hughes or IPK will be in there.
4) We need a healthy and determined Roger.
What's the story with IPK? Is he shut down.. injured? Is he available/healthy for the PS?
I would LOVE to see a Yanks-Phils WS because for numerous reasons: the match up of potent offenses, two older franchises with traditions and their own authentic personalities (see Anaheim Angels, rally monkey), and each team is stacked with REAL, likable superstars.
While it's going to be a tough road ahead for the Yanks before they even make it to the WS I think if the Phils win a playoff birth they might have a much easier road to the World Serious.
I can't wait for the lineups on Sat and Sunday. If we're one out on Saturday I wonder what they'll run out there. Last game, street dudes looking to move inventory, the Baltomorons in a state of complete malaise; we might even be able to get a pro Yankees sign in.
Shook Ones? not nearly enough cursing in the post.
I'm not worried about A-Rod or Matsui. Matsui's been fine for the past couple of weeks -- he was badly slumping before that.
FWIW
Meanwhile, the Yanks faced Carmona twice this season. The first time was the game-winning salami by Rodriguez of Borowski. The second time, Hughes outdueled him.
Finally, my Wild Card post over at Fungoes on SI.com today deals with the NL races and specifically the Mets. It's not up yet, but check it out this afternoon.
I hope they miss the playoffs entirely and fire Willie.
Then, of course, the Yanks win it all, Joe retires & we have Girardi & Randolph riding the pine in the Bronx!
Everybody wins!
Prediction: Bobby V manages again in Flushing before the decade is over.
Ooops.
I've never been to a playoff game, or a game that was a must win for that matter. I gotta say, I'm loving the idea of going to another teams must win and not the Yankees. Save myself a coronary.
Winters was suspended for the rest of the season on Wednesday for using a profanity aimed at San Diego's Milton Bradley last weekend.
World Umpires Association spokesman Lamell McMorris said the WUA would not challenge the penalty handed down by Major League Baseball.
Nice to see an Umpire held accountable for their actions. Now if they could only do this for calling balls and strikes so badly.
There has been little discussion about the 'extra rest day' now allowed. I'm not sure of the specifics, but it's a terrible rule. It means a team like the 2001 Diamondbacks, who weren't that good but rode to the PS on the backs of 2 greats pitchers, have a further advantage.
The PS should be about seeing and exercising an entire teams pitching staff and ballclub. It is the entire ballclub that decides what happens over 162 games. This is especially bad in a 5 game series.
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