it was the heat of the moment

July 31, 2009 at 12:02 pm | In Baseball | 9 Comments
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Trade deadline live-ish blogging!

4:32: Whoa. Late in the game, Padres pull off biggest deal of the day. Pitchers Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Adam Russell, and Dexter Carter for Peavy. Peavy’s locked down through 2012, but he’s currently injured, and that’s a lot of talent – mostly Poreda – for such a question mark. If the Padres wanted to shed payroll, they did a nice job doing so with no leverage against Chicago.

4:27: Is this an elaborate joke by a few writers on Twitter (notably Jon Heyman) and MLB Trade Rumors? Apparently, Jake Peavy has been traded to the White Sox, despite being on the DL for the last few months. This is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen this late in the game.

4:19: Chase Weems, not Austin Jackson, for Jerry Hairston. Much better for Yankees, alas; Weems would have to be a great defensive catcher for his offensive abilities to portend anything but minor league fodder. Reds also gave up too much for Scott Rolen – Edwin Encarnacion just isn’t that bad, and they gave up two near-ready arms in Josh Roenicke and Zachary Stewart. I don’t see future superstars there, but two solid relievers and Encarnacion looks steep, unless the Blue Jays are paying some of Rolen’s $10 million for 2010. That said, I am also jealous; I was hoping Rolen was Boston-bound if they could flip Lowell.

4:16: I’m a bit frustrated that the Red Sox didn’t go after Nick Johnson instead of Casey Kotchman, but it mighta taken too much time to find another taker for LaRoche. Plus, Kotchman’s defense essentially makes this a lateral move for 2009. Now, I’m just waiting for confirmation that Halladay’s staying in Toronto and that the Padres and Yankees have been stagnant.

4:09: Clarifying my last comment: I meant for Johnson and for the Marlins. Certainly not for the Nationals, as prospect Aaron Thompson is a pretty laughable return for Johnson. 22 and struggling at AA? Ugh.

4:03: Rumors of Nick Johnson to Marlins. I like this on both ends; very glad to see Florida actually going for it and Johnson moving to a possible contender.

3:58: Apparently not Austin Jackson for Hairston, and Rolen’s for Encarnacion plus a minor leaguer. Okay, back to Cincy not having a great day, but not a BAD day, depending on prospects.

3:48: Austin Jackson for Jerry Hairston? Looks like a big overpayment by Yankees; I’ll retract what I implied about Cincy not knowing what it’s doing if this report is accurate.

3:40: Rolen to Reds. Seems odd that they’re trying this “win now” stuff in Cincy while dealing a big piece of their bench (Hairston), and presumably Edwin Encarnacion heading north.

3:28: Adam LaRoche for Casey Kotchman? That’s a downgrade for the 2009 Red Sox, but cheaper in the future. Of course, Sox + cheap = WHY?

3:23: Stuff coming fast and furious now, but with no idea what prospects are involved in any of these deals. Rockies added a nice bullpen arm in Joe Beimel.

3:20: This Gonzalez-to-Dodgers thing has to be made up. How could Padres walk away from that with anything less than Kershaw? Yankees add Jerry Hairston, Jr.; should be a nice piece off the bench, and sadly, no schadenfreude about an Arroyo acquisition yet.

3:12: Bryan Price as third pitcher to Cleveland… college reliever moved back to starting; looks very good in A-ball, but it’s A-ball. Seems like another Knapp for Cleveland – high upside, no guarantees. Meanwhile, Gordon Edes says Adam LaRoche to Braves; I’m hoping this means bullpen help for Red Sox.

2:56: MLB Network reports that Dodgers may have a chance at Adrian Gonzalez. If that happens and if they don’t get completely taken, I’ll be crushed that the Sox didn’t make that deal instead of getting Martinez.

2:40: Reportedly Justin Masterson on top of Hagadone. Still looking like a nice deal for Red Sox, as Masterson’s problems vs. left-handers limit his value quite a bit and Hagadone is still a ways off. Remains to be seen what else is involved or if Boston will target a new long man.

2:35 PM: Matthew Pouliot throws out the name of Nick Hagadone; Clay Buchholz and Daniel Bard reportedly not involved. If this is true, sounds hard for Boston to screw it up.

2:02 PM: Still waiting on confirmation and price of Victor. Also increasingly terrified of how much time the Yankees have to counter-punch here.

1:57 PM: Sounds like Red Sox finally about to pull trigger on Victor Martinez. After all the Adrian Gonzalez and Halladay talks, this is a bit anticlimactic, I’m sad to say. Dare I dream this isn’t all?

Yes, I dare. I’m an idiot.

1:30 PM: It comes to my attention that Orlando Cabrera’s glove isn’t even good anymore. Starting to seem that Beane didn’t get something for nothing; he got something for less than nothing.

1:19 PM: Los Angeles Dodgers traded P Claudio Vargas to Milwaukee Brewers for C Vinny Rottino. Nothing but a depth move here; Vargas has been through Milwaukee once before and they know he’s not a great bet to give much. Rottino’s 29 and has seen his bat decline since 2006 and 2007.

1:14 PM: “According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, the Twins have acquired Orlando Cabrera from the A’s for 21-year-old shorstop Tyler Ladendorf.” Unless Ladendorf stays at shortstop, don’t see him making the bigs; Cot’s Contracts informs me that the A’s agreed not to offer arbitration if Cabrera is a Type A free agent, so draft picks wouldn’t be an issue; looks like trying to get something instead of nothing, plus save a million bucks or so.

1:01 PM: Rumblings of SS Orlando Cabrera being traded from Oakland A’s to Minnesota Twins. Nice glove, but with his bat (and at his age), I’m just glad the Red Sox are apparently staying out of this.

11:40 AM: Seattle Mariners traded SP Jarrod Washburn to Detroit Tigers for SPs Lucas French and Mauricio Robles.

First reaction: “CRAP! The Yankees didn’t get Washburn!” I was fairly confident he’d be eaten alive in a hitter-friendly ballpark in New York, and believe his low-strikeout, flyball tendencies were in one of the best ballparks for a pitcher of such abilities.

Even so, this is a bit disappointing for Seattle; French might be able to serve as a back-end starter right now, but Robles’ high strikeouts in the low minors are accompanied by some iffy control. With a pretty solid 23-year-old as well as a higher-upside young guy, Seattle didn’t walk away empty-handed, but I again expected there was more of a market for this pitcher and one could have found a bit better of a prospect package.

Now it’s time to hope the Yankees “address” their “problems” with Bronson Arroyo.

Yesterday, Pittsburgh Pirates traded RP John Grabow and SP Tom Gorzelanny to Chicago Cubs for Ps Kevin Hart and Jose Ascanio and 2B Josh Harrison.

I don’t have much to say here; Grabow’s 30 and has major walk problems, while Gorzelanny’s low strikeouts would need to be accompanied by vastly superior control for him to have any sort of upside. The latter pitcher went completely off the rails in 2008, but like Ian Snell, has looked good at AAA and could improve. Still, Hart and Ascanio are less of question marks – they could probably help from the bullpen right now – and Harrison, while old for his league, was a college draft pick just last year and could have a nice bat if he can stick at second base. Solid pickup by the Pirates for a free agent to be and a guy about to get more expensive.

bust a move

July 24, 2009 at 8:37 pm | In Baseball | Leave a Comment
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Because trades are starting to come steadily, I’m abandoning my “Sunday roundup” format for the next week. There’s no real reason I can’t give some succinct transaction reviews during the week, particularly since the trade deadline falls on a Friday and I’ll likely have waning enthusiasm two days later for most of the news.

Pujols is no longer alone: The Cardinals, realizing that their offense is basically Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick, wisely pursued the best outfielder presumed to be on the trade market in Oakland’s Matt Holliday. Holliday’s numbers have slipped noticably since leaving Colorado, but he’ll still bring more to the plate than St. Louis’ alternatives. The question, however, is whether it was worth it – Holliday will be a free agent after the season, and the prospect cost looks rather steep for a few months of a non-elite player.3B Brett Wallace seems overhyped for someone with only a small stint of dominant hitting at AA and not much of a defensive reputation, but he’s not yet 23 and showed a lot of offensive potential in his college career at Arizona State. Starter Clay Mortensen looks like pitching depth at best, but again, youth mitigates things; at 24, further improvement, while not guaranteed, is far from impossible. The rawest talent the A’s received was in 21-year-old outfielder Shane Peterson, who looks like the sort of player the A’s might have drafted with their second compensation pick had they lost Holliday in free agency.

With that, and Wallace’s upside, taken into consideration, it’s a solid haul for Oakland; while Wallace could very conceivably make the Cardinals look back in regret, it’s hard to fault them for giving up the two replaceable minor leaguers with the NL Central title looking very attainable.  Just how great a cost such a victory would come at is a matter of one’s faith in Wallace turning into an impact player.

Red Sox get better for free: Julio Lugo should not have been designated for assignment, but he was; by this week, he had to be considered a sunk cost for the Red Sox, and managing to turn him into anything before he cleared waivers would be a nice move. Theo Epstein did a little better than “anything,” acquiring from the Cardinals 1B/OF Chris Duncan. While Duncan’s defense and health are huge liabilities, he is only 28 and brings a little pop and the ability to take a walk. Perhaps most importantly, he also gave Boston – dealing with an injured Jeff Bailey and underachieving Chris Carter and Paul McAnulty – the organizational depth to finally cut ties with the utterly futile use of a roster spot that is Mark Kotsay.

Kotsay might not have been replaced on the major league roster, however, had the Sox not also acquired 1B Adam LaRoche from the Pirates. LaRoche is a platoon player who should only start against right-handed pitchers, but he allows Kevin Youkilis to shift to third and spell the quickly-aged Mike Lowell. More importantly, he has eliminated Boston’s most glaring weakness (in specifically Kotsay and in general lack of someone to play over Lowell) at a minimal cost: the club is taking on just $3 million in payroll, and gave Pittsburgh nothing more than organizational filler in Argenis Diaz (a no-hit shortstop who was cluttering the 40-man roster) and Hunter Strickland (who, while young, neither strikes guys out nor keeps the ball in the park). While Boston could make themselves the divisional favorite by adding an impact player before next Friday, they have added the only thing they absolutely needed in LaRoche.

Indians save some money: Okay, that was harsh. Rafael Betancourt’s 2010 option for over $5 million wasn’t going to be picked up by a team that has quit pretending to care about spending money on players, and draft compensation for a Type B free agent would hinge upon them actually offering arbitration to Betancourt, which is hardly a given. Considering that, sending Betancourt to the Rockies for Connor Graham isn’t the worst thing Cleveland could have done; Graham has some chance of being a useful major leaguer in his future. That’s about all I can say, though; while he can certainly strike guys out, he’s had control problems in A-ball, and his main asset – home run prevention – looks like more luck than ground ball tendencies. The one thing that could turn things around would be a move to the bullpen, but we’ll have to see how the Indians handle their new prospect.

Padres raise eyebrows: While many comments online are highly critical of San Diego GM Kevin Towers, I liked the move that sent reliever Cla Meredith to Baltimore. Meredith, 26, is a useful middle reliever, but he’s headed to arbitration this winter and the Padres are trying to cut payroll. Their bounty, 31-year-old infielder Oscar Salazar, looks like a late bloomer; he made some noise with a big 2008 at AAA and then continued to be a surprise in the bigs. While he may be nothing more than a backup corner infielder, he has less service time than Meredith and thus is a cheaper option for a team on a budget. The most intriguing part, however, is that his arrival in San Diego could be seen as a precursor to the club finally trading 1B Adrian Gonzalez – reported to be unlikely – or 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff.

Uninteresting player dealt to uninteresting team in uninteresting trade: That’s the best way to describe the snoozefest of a trade that sent 2B Felipe Lopez to Milwaukee, and I’ll understand if readers zone out for the rest of this post. Lopez seems, to me, like he’s been a Brewer before, but he has not; I assume that my mind just saw “middling infielder who isn’t great at anything but isn’t awful, either” and thought of Milwaukee. The Brewers sent Arizona a pair of similarly unremarkable prospects; Roque Mercedes looks like your run-of-the-mill minor-league reliever, while Cole Gillespie’s walk abilities and doubles power don’t make the 25-year-old look like a great bet in left field.

you hustle, you deal, you steal from us all

March 2, 2009 at 12:01 am | In Baseball, Rooting Hierarchies | 2 Comments
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4. Oakland A’s (88.11% schedule-weighted support)
Last Ranking: 4
Added: LF Matt Holliday; DH/1B Jason Giambi; SP Edgar Gonzalez and Jerome Williams; RPs Michael Wuertz, Russ Springer, Kevin Cameron, and Chris Schroder; IF Joe Dillon; 1B/OF Tagg Bozied; OF Ben Copeland
Lost: RPs Huston Street, Alan Embree, Lenny DiNardo, and Keith Foulke; SPs Greg Smith, Dan Meyer, and Kirk Saarloos; DH Frank Thomas; OFs Carlos Gonzalez, Emil Brown, and Matt Murton; IF Donnie Murphy
Strengths: After trading away SPs Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, and Chad Gaudin last year, the A’s seemed poised to go into a full-on rebuilding mode. But realizing that the Angels weren’t that dominant and they still had a solid core of talent, they’ve retooled a bit and look like the AL West’s best team in 2009. Trading closer Huston Street and others for LF Matt Holliday looked like a bizarre move for a franchise that had so recently dealt three useful arms, but while those trades may have been mistakes, one has to commend GM Billy Beane for decisively reversing course instead of committing to the wrong direction. While playing at Coors Field may have made him a bit overrated (his road stats are pretty nice, though), Holliday was just the sort of addition they needed – a right-handed hitter to help balance out the team’s plethora of lefties, and a great glove to help an already strong defensive team.

That defense doesn’t look to have many holes this year, though Giambi’s bat comes at the cost of average defense in one position – if he DHs, it would push Jack Cust to right field, where he would be a decisive weak link next to Holliday and CF Ryan Sweeney; if Cust DHs and Giambi plays first, the team loses the strong glove of 1B Daric Barton. Still, with only one position of weakness and a huge standout in the middle of the field in the form of 2B Mark Ellis, the A’s should have one of baseball’s best defenses.

Oakland has a young bench, including a nice mix of potential fourth and fifth outfielders (and insurance policies behind RF Travis Buck if Cust does end up DHing) along with 2B Eric Patterson, who was acquired in the Harden deal. While there aren’t many future starters riding the pine, it should help a low-budget team like Oakland not to dip into free agency for guys who won’t get even 200 at-bats.

The bullpen is considerably older, but looks like a solid mix of homegrown pitchers and imports from the National League; if Russ Springer and Michael Wuertz can make the jump to the AL without setbacks, it should be a solid group.
Weaknesses: SP Justin Duchscherer had a very good 2008, but he’s a 31-year-old former reliever with a considerable injury history, and his 2008 featured a mind-boggling .235 BABIP and a 4.31 xFIP. In short, he creates too few strikeouts and ground balls to be considered a true ace, and is at such an age that 2008 is unlikely to mark the beginning of his peak. Considering how likely it looks that 2008 was a fluke and Duchscherer more of a true #2 starter, and how many arms the team dealt during the season, it seems foolish of Beane to have kept him around this long. He should be solid enough, but another year like 2008 would stun me – and the A’s don’t have many sure things behind him.

The team will rely on one of the youngest rotations in baseball; outside of Duchscherer, the oldest starter on the roster right now is 25-year-old lefty Dallas Braden. While I like the potential for breakout years from young arms, it’s just as likely that one or two will be woefully ill-prepared for the major leagues. While they do have depth to insure against such an occasion, the starting is almost sure to be quite a gamble in 2009. I do like Oakland giving its internal options every chance to succeed instead of spending $5 million on someone like Randy Wolf or Braden Looper, but looking at the probable rotation gives me quite an uneasy feeling.

Similarly, the lineup isn’t a fantastic bet, though it looks to be well above average. While some below-average position players have youth in their defense, older guys like Giambi and 3B Eric Chavez need to stay healthy – a tall order – and it would help immensely if the team could find a cheap shortstop before Opening Day. Incumbent SS Bobby Crosby (and his $5 million-plus salary) cleared waivers in December after having his third poor season in a row since his solid sophomore effort, and neither of his potential replacements looks like anything special. And even with Holliday providing nice right-handed power, I can’t help but think that teams with a few left-handed pitchers will be able to make quick work out of much of Oakland’s lineup.
My Stake: Billy Beane has made his mistakes – I still can’t believe the mediocre bounty he found for Harden last year – but is, in the end, still one of the best GMs in baseball. He’s found enough cheap talent to put his team in position to contend despite the ill-advised trades, and hasn’t seemed slow to revise his strategy when something isn’t working. He used multiple pieces acquired in the Dan Haren deal of 2007 to pry Holliday away from Colorado, even though one of them (SP Greg Smith) had demonstrated solid value of his own in the majors. Docking him too much for a couple of moves last summer would seem harsh considering his solid work since and his long track record before.

Oakland has been one of my favorite teams since before Moneyball, but that book helped solidify their status at the top of the list. Well-run and full of underrated and likeable players, they remain my preferred club of the AL West, even though that race has become more competitive in recent years.
‘09 Predictions: It’s incredibly tough to know what one can expect from the rotation, including 2008 overachiever Duchscherer as well as the uncertain group behind him. But I have enough faith in the lineup and bench, with some key additions and hopefully a healthy Eric Chavez, to see them as the favorite in the AL West. It’s important to remember that 2008’s A’s featured limited contributions from departed players like Frank Thomas and Alan Embree, and that closer Huston Street – while still very good, and the most crucial loss to the team – was outpitched by his likely successor, Joey Devine. The addition of Bobby Abreu to the Angels since I started this year’s hierarchy does shake my faith a bit, but I’m predicting that the A’s narrowly win the division at 85 wins. Judging from various rumors, it doesn’t sound like they’re done with their offseason retooling, and I have enough faith in Beane to believe that any further additions will only help their cause. Having invested so much in Holliday – and unlikely to get back as nice a package if they deal him again – for one year, they seem likely to be aggressive in the trade market as long as they’re in the race.

‘08 rooting hierarchy vi: i appreciate the best; i’m settling for less

March 29, 2008 at 11:11 pm | In Baseball, Rooting Hierarchies | 1 Comment
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Making my self-imposed nightly deadlines for this series has been (unnecessarily) tedious, but I must confess that intensive list-making and element-of-list-analyzing is quite fun; perhaps this will inspire me to finally work up a list of my favorite Zevon songs or some such undertaking. 

7. Pittsburgh Pirates 79.31% unweighted; 90.06% weighted (100/80/71.43)
Last year: #21. 68-94, 6th in NL Central
In 2008: It’s amazing what a little pandering will do. I’ve wanted Neal Huntington to succeed as a GM since he showed himself to be über-geeky instead of claiming, for instance, that each player is different and that using statistics is a misleading, inaccurate method of player evaluation. The Pirates have been rather quiet this offseason, so it’s tough to say whether Huntington has a sound plan or if he’s just trying to get the attention of a growing niche of fans. Thus far, however, the club has seemed more than willing to trade away and release some of its more expendable, redundant players, so I’m hopeful that Huntington will be similarly liberal in his trade policy in order to restock the farm system.
Prediction: 74-88; 4th in NL Central

6. Arizona Diamondbacks 82.76% unweighted; 85.86% weighted (75/100/71.43)
Last year: #4. 90-72, 1st in NL West, lost NLCS
In 2008: The Diamondbacks continue to be one of the brightest organizations in the game, and should be competitive again this season… except they should actually outscore their opponents for a change. I was rather surprised by how many young players the team surrendered in a trade for starter Dan Haren, and how few they received for closer Jose Valverde. Still, there’s a lot of talent on the roster and in the front office alike; my greatest complaint about the D-backs remains their hard-to-explain 2007 run and the resultant hype, which too often bordered on sabermetrics-bashing.
Prediction: 84-78; 3rd in NL West

5. Tampa Bay Rays 87.59% unweighted; 80.31% weighted (75/82.22/93.75)
Last year: #7. 66-96, 5th in AL East
In 2008: In the well-funded AL East, the Rays are going to have a hard time winning a playoff spot. But considering how quickly GM Andrew Friedman has stocked the team with quality prospects and signed young talent to long-term deals, maybe the Rays can actually challenge the Red Sox and Yankees in coming years. The signing of OF Cliff Floyd was rather inexplicable, given the team’s existing outfield surplus, but the Rays more than compensated with two very nice trades over the winter.

The big headline was the trade of talented but temperamental Delmon Young for the Twins’ SP Matt Garza and SS Jason Bartlett. Garza, while overrated by ERA in 2007, is a 24-year-old with plenty of potential; Bartlett is a defensive asset in his prime. But the Rays also made a quieter acquisition, as alluded to in my write-up of the Braves: Willy Aybar will start the year at third base in the place of Evan Longoria, and was acquired (with a middle-infield prospect, no less) for a potential mediocre lefty specialist. Considering the circumstances and history of the Tampa Bay franchise, Friedman may be leading the most impressive organizational turnaround I have ever seen.
Prediction: 85-77; 3rd in AL East

4. Oakland A’s 88.28% unweighted; 85.87% weighted (100/76/93.75)
Last year: #5. 76-86, 3rd in AL West
In 2008: Going into the 2008 season, the A’s have only made one big error: they gave up on the 2008 season. After a disappointing 2007, Oakland had some reason to doubt its competiveness; the season had been plagued with injuries that served as reminders that the roster wasn’t getting any younger, and there was a decent argument to rebuild rather than hope the Angels faltered or the AL East beat up on itself and vacated a wild card spot (the rebuilding argument is even stronger since the team would probably like to break in their new ballpark with a good team by 2010).  While I don’t expect them to contend in ‘08, I wouldn’t be stunned to see them again torn between a fire sale and a push for the playoffs.

While I still question whether the A’s should have moved into a rebuilding phase, it’s hard to complain, because they have executed that rebuilding very well. The team opted for bulk, getting six players from Arizona, including three young hitters and a possible member of the 2008 rotation, in exchange for SP Dan Haren and reliever Connor Robertson; for OF Nick Swisher, they picked up Opening Day CF Ryan Sweeney along with two decent pitching prospects. Billy Beane’s “pick up underrated young players” strategy still works, as he was willing to pay most of the essentially washed-up OF Mark Kotsay’s contract in order to get reliever Joey Devine from the Braves (instead of paying the whole contract and not getting anything; this is similar to the aforementioned willingness of Neal Huntington to take a financial hit in the best long-term interests of the club, and knowing when to cut one’s losses is particularly commendable in low-payroll clubs).
Prediction: 79-83; 3rd in AL West

2007 rooting hierarchy vi: love me twice today

March 31, 2007 at 5:34 pm | In Baseball, Rooting Hierarchies | Leave a Comment
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Well, we’re almost there. I’ve broken up the top five into two tiers – at this point, the teams sort out almost entirely by sentimental preference rather than competence.

5. Oakland A’s I very much want to put the A’s at #4 so my autograph from GM Billy Beane can mean that much more. But if I dictated listing orders by autographs, I’d be 100% behind Barack Obama, and the MEI and PSE would be in total disarray. Also, Eric Chavez Jody Gerut (how on earth did I forget I had three there?!?) would be my favorite baseball player ever. Nay, it is preference that creates the autograph hierarchy – and in spring 2004, Billy Beane was even higher on this list.

But I digress. The A’s have a legendary loyalty to sabermetrics and analysis, and are my far-and-away favorite in the AL West. Yet when we throw reputation aside, the organization is not, in my analysis, the smartest franchise in baseball. They’re on the fringe of that race, but have made too many mistakes to be considered the best. Most recently, they passed on 25-year-old J.D. Durbin on waivers, and have seen their 1B/OF situation become rather ugly. The A’s are still a very smart team, but they’re neither the smartest nor are they very emotionally appealing.

4. Arizona Diamondbacks Durbin’s new home is also the home of Josh Byrnes, who is a contender for the “best GM in the game” title. The Diamondbacks will likely fall short of a playoff berth in 2007, but it’s not for lack of trying. The team is an absolutely lethal trading partner, as detailed by David – it’s hard to put into words just how incredibly Byrnes has fleeced other GMs in his short tenure.

Unlike the A’s, the team is equally appealing to my emotional side – it is always nice to be able to root for the home team, especially if that home team was part of the second-greatest playoff series I’ve witnessed (and finally, in the grim period after 9/11, gave me something to cheer about). However, the Diamondbacks may have reached the apex of their likability unless someone in the top three does something drastically bad.

on the street and the epitome of vague

September 26, 2005 at 4:21 pm | In Haiku | Leave a Comment
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I was bored during psych stats, which was essentially a review day. So, baseball haiku.

Racing toward end
Indians’ postseason looms
Magic number: five

Starting pitching woes
Plaguing both Red Sox Nation
and Evil Empire

A’s: almost no chance
Four games head-to-head this week
Not gonna matter

San Diego Padres
Losing team will make playoffs
Bane of existence

Phillies should own East
Abreu, Burrell, Myers…
*BLEEP*ing Braves again!

Cardinals: game’s best
Must fear them in World Series
Carpenter for Cy!

Cincy’s Shackelford
Great APR, blah rate stats.
Who the hell is he?

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