BOSOXBLOG

My crystal ball reveals...

...the National League playoff picture in October.
As of 8/28/08, the scenarios are as follows.
NL East: New York Mets (Phillies 1.5 GB)
NL Central: Chicago Cubs (Brewers 4.5 GB)
NL West: Arizona Diamondbacks (Dodgers 3 GB)
Wild Card: Milwaukee Brewers (Cardinals 3.5 GB)

The only way I see this ending up differently is that I believe the Dodgers will overtake the Diamondbacks in the West. Only three games behind and on track to add Brian Fuentes to bolster their bullpen, Los Angeles also has a far easier schedule almost completely within the weak West. Arizona still has seven games left against the very dangerous St. Louis Cardinals, while the Dodgers' toughest challenge is the three games left against the very team they are chasing. With the Beantown Bozo (who shall remain nameless) driving Los Angeles, the number 2 team in California should punch their tickets to the postseason.

As they head down the stretch...

Wow, this has been one wild and crazy year. Did I mention it's not even September yet?
Without further ado, here are my predictions about how the American League playoff picture will look in October.

AMERICAN LEAGUE EAST:
The Red Sox. With the recent injuries to Carl Crawford and Evan Longoria, and the recent inefficiency of Scott Kazmir, the Rays will slip and the Red Sox will take the division, despite injuries to Tim Wakefield and J.D. Drew.

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL:
I don't see the White Sox losing control of this division. With two of the three leading home run hitters (Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye) and their deep pitching staff, the Twins will not have enough, especially with Chicago's recent acquisition of future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST:
The Angels. 'Nuff said.

AL WILD CARD:
Now this is a tough one. With the Rays and Twins in the mix, it will be very difficult to see how the September callups will affect the major league clubs with very, very deep farm systems. I think that the Rays, despite losing the grip on the AL East, slip in just ahead of Minnesota and take the wild card.

That means the divisional matchups would be as follows:
Boston* versus Chicago
Angels** versus Tampa

*home field advantage
**best record- home field throughout

Hmmm, very interesting. Take a look at the numbers and see who I'd pick.
TOMORROW: My foresight shows me the National League picture in October.

It's not Olympic Season...

Everyone around me seems very excited about the Olympics. Friday my family had an opening ceremonies party. An Olympic cake, the whole deal. I found myself watching these ceremonies with less interest than my ten year old cousins. In fact I found it as painful as a standardized test. I couldn’t stop fidgeting. What was so amazing about synchronized dancing? Who has time to admire distant fireworks when baseball season is starting to get to the do or die stage of the season?
How was this more important than the Red Sox game I knew was on? Why is Bob Ryan writing articles on Phelps rather than Dice-K? It’s not that I’m not patriotic. In fact it’s more of the opposite. I live for American sports. Baseball, football, and basketball. But I can’t get hooked into swimming, or gymnastics, even the dream team. I keep asking myself where have all the Celtics gone.
At eight tonight I will have on the Sox game. There will be no cake. My housemates will have to suffer through not watching the Olympics. I want to see Beckett pitch. I want to see us narrow the enormous lead Tampa Bay has grown on us. I want to listen to Orsillo and Remdwag. I want to focus on what’s really important in America. With just a month until football we have to savor the last days of uninterrupted baseball. Let’s just block out this whole Olympics business and get back to the real America. Please, let's start talking baseball again, it makes public transportation so much less painful.

The Bay State

    Last night we truly were the Bay state. I was nervous as he stood to the plate the first time. Like everyone in the bar I cheered for him wildly, watching Fenway stand. But a part of me was heartbroken. Because I knew this was the end of something.
    It quickly became apparent it wouldn’t be difficult to adjust to Bay. He had me at Red Sox onsie. Anyone raised by a Red Sox fan can’t be all bad. And he was anything but bad. He scored both runs and won our game. He was Wakefields only run support. By the time the game ended my friend and I ran to the Red Sox store to purchase Bay shirts. This whole run was with us chanting Bay; it caught on like beat LA.
    So, why am I not wearing my Bay shirt right now? They already sold out. Only ten minutes after his winning hit there were no Bay shirts left. This is a man Boston can get used to.
    Bay, we welcome you with open arms. All I needed for a little faith in this trade was a win, I didn’t even need his winning hit that brought everyone to their feet, although, it was quite nice! Winning was what our team needed. And Bay did just that.

Divorced by Manny

So Manny divorced my sorry ass. I got out of work and thought we were in the clear. I had heard nothing of the trade going through. I got home to check my email, and there is was. Manny gone.
I bought a six-pack and tried to block out my roommate talking about the effect this would have on his fantasy team. This is my real team. You know that feeling of disappointment you get when you see Mannys not in the lineup? That’s it. The Papi Manny duo is gone. The swaying dreds are gone. The little Mannys walking around Boston with their mini plastic bats are gone.
There was something magical about our 2004 team. I keep reminding myself how I felt the day of that late trade as well. Slowly but surely we’re losing all of them. I don’t think any of us will ever really know what went down in the clubhouse this year.
But I hope in our hung-over haze today we are able to do two things, keep cheering Manny, he reached 500 with us, he got us two rings after a 86 year draught. Unlike my Schilling shirt and Damon shirt, for now Manny isn’t in the salvation army bin.
And secondly and more importantly, lets cheer even louder for Jason Bay. And let’s hope for just a little while Boston sportswriters go a little easy on this kid. This city has a tendency of hurting numbers. We don’t need any one else looking for peace.