MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2017: 1 WEEK TO GO!

MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2017: 1 WEEK TO GO!

With only a week remaining on the schedule, one would think the pennant races were pretty much decided. But one would be a fool, wouldn't one?

The Nationals have already clinched in the NL East. The Dodgers, despite a recent 5-20 swoon, have won the West by plenty. The Cubs have gone 8-2 in the last ten to sew up a Playoff spot and all but win the Central officially.

The NL First Wild Card looks like Arizona for sure. They've been giving up a lot of runs lately but they look to host the Play-In game. Colorado, which has been solid all year, has suddenly gone ice cold at the plate...even at home in Denver-Launch-City. Shut out in 3 out of 4! What on Earth? That has opened up better possibilities for Milwaukee and St. Louis. Seeing this, the Brewers promptly spit the bit and lost 3 very winnable games in a row before Shaw hit a walk off against the Cubs last night. Now the Cardinals...underachieving all year...are hovering hopefully just a game and a half out of the second Wild Card.

Best guess is Arizona hosts somebody for a one game Wild Card Play-In. Winner faces the Dodgers and all their recent question marks. Washington and the Cubs will rassle for the Championship berth.

In the AL, Cleveland has flattened the Central with that magnificent 22 game win streak and Houston printed up Playoff tickets about three months ago. The Astros had a bad spell in August (so did the city of Houston as a whole, actually...good luck to my flooded hometown) but the trade for Verlander and the return of Golden Boy Carlos Correa seems to have reinvigorated them.

Boston is up on New York by 4 and you'd expect the Bronx Bombers to relax and be happy with a Wild Card. Thing is, the Yankees have owned the Sox lately and they keep trying to win the whole enchilada. So far the Sox have been able to fend them off.

New York is guaranteed one Wild Card...probably the first. Minnesota looks good for number two with the Angels 7 game losing streak canceling their second half resurrection. Texas and Kansas City have mathematical chances of getting in if Minnesota starts losing.

But let's go with the overwhelming probability that the Yankees will host the Wild Card Play-In against Minnesota and the winner of that one will face the Indians or the Astros, whichever team winds up with the best record. The other of those two will face Boston in a 5 game Playoff.

But before we spank this monkey, let us remember 1964 and the Famous Philly Folly.

Philadelphia had been having a great season and were 6 ½ games up on the Cardinals and the Reds with 12 games left. Then they got involved in a 0-0 contest with Cincinnati in a game in Philly.

6^th inning, one out... Chico Ruiz of the Reds singles. Vada Pinson singles him over but stupidly gets thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. So Ruiz is on third with two outs and Frank Robinson up. (He of the soon to be double MVP, Triple Crown, future Hall of Fame resume). Art Mahaffey, the big Phillies right-hander, gets two strikes on Frank. All of a sudden, Chico breaks for home.

Robinson is more surprised than anybody. Why take the bat out of your clean-up hitter's hands with a suicidal steal of home attempt? Not to mention nobody else on the team had a clue. And with two strikes, Frank was likely to swing at anything close. If he hits a liner down the third base line, Ruiz could have been killed.

But the startled Mahaffey's pitch was wide, Robinson stepped out and Chico slid in safe for a 1-0 Red's lead. They went on to win the shutout and the shocked Phillies proceeded to lose ten straight games in all kinds of weird ways. Their manager Gene Mauch panicked when the losing streak started to build and started pitching his two big guns, Jim Bunning and Chris Short, on minimal rest. Bunning made 4 starts in one 9 game stretch. Not surprisingly they kept losing and let the Cards sneak in and win the pennant. No wild cards as a consolation prize back then...it was all or nothing.

In 2017, the Dodgers have already had the big losing streak. They are still staggering around, winning 4 then losing 4. I thought this streak would piss them off so much that the indignity of it would turn them into lions and their natural superiority would come roaring back. Not so.

Last night they made Madison Bumgarner look like he never took that fateful dirt bike ride and hurt his shoulder at all. He's been giving up big numbers ever since he came back from the DL. But not against the Dodgers. MadBum made them look like bush-meat.

Even though they just clinched the West, The Dodgeheads seem confused and tenuous. Their starters have improved lately, but the team seems vulnerable.

Now is the time when David Roberts, he of the happy-face managerial style, has to earn his money. Chase Utley and Granderson and Justin Turner and Kershaw have to turn on the Old Pro vibe and lead these youngsters to the Green Green Pastures of Playoff Plenty. Nothing would be worse than for the Dodgers to go 2-8 or something these last ten games and go into the Playoffs as if they should apologize.

The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Washington Nationals are lurking like hyenas in the shadows... with a great hunger for carrion.

It's Eat or be Eaten on the Baseball Savannah. (And so much for the African predator metaphors.)

The aforementioned Nationals are the new Darlings of Destiny according to baseball media. Harper looks like he'll make it back for the Playoffs and Tre Turner has been awesome in his return from DL limbo. But it's the three-headed starter/monster of Scherzer, Strasburg and Gio Gonzalez that makes them so formidable. Especially now that the rebuilt Nats' bullpen is looking so good.

My personal opinion? The Nationals look better than they really are because they played so many games against very weak Eastern Division rivals Atlanta, New York and Philadelphia.

The Cubs just don't seem to be scary this year with Lester looking bad. (I told you he'd miss his personal catcher, David Ross!) Arrieta and Hendricks will keep them in it, but I am not a believer.

Arizona would be the toughest Wild Card if they win the play-in game. They have lots of pitching and several hot hitters. They are my dark horse candidate to win it all.

But I'll stick with my early season pick of Los Angeles to make the Series.

Are the Bosox for real? Only if they play the majority of their games at Fenway. This is a home field club. They finish the season off at the Fens, but I fear for them when they go into Cleveland or Houston for a 5 game Playoff. Chris Sale will have to win 2 against either of those teams.

Houston is looking real good again. They need to keep getting good starts from people other than Verlander, but their big lead has allowed them to rest people like Altuve, Reddick and Beltran and get them ready for Playoff action.

They'd be the AL favorite if it weren't for…

Cleveland! A decisive moment in history folks...the Cleveland Indians are the team to beat.

Last time the Indians faced the Dodgers in a World Series it was 1920. The Indians had Tris Speaker (.388 to break up Ty Cobb's nine year run as AL batting champion) and the Dodgers had Zach Wheat in the outfield and spitballer Burleigh Grimes as an Ace. The Series featured an unassisted triple play (Bill Wambsganns), the first Series homer ever by a pitcher (Jim Bagby), and the first grand slam in a Series (Elmer Smith).

All of these firsts were executed by Cleveland players and the Indians took the Classic 5 games to 2. (It was first to win 5 that year.)

I hope you enjoy the rematch!

AL ALL STAR TEAM:

LINEUP:

1/FRANKIE LINDOR(S) SS

2/JOSE ALTUVE(R) 2B

3/MIKE TROUT(R) CF

4/ED ENCARNACION(R) DH

5/JOSE RAMIREZ(S) 3B

6/AARON JUDGE(R) RF

7/ERIC HOSMER(L) 1B

8/SAL PEREZ(R) C

9/GEORGE SPRINGER(R) LF

BENCH:

VAZQUEZ (BOS) C

CORREA (HOU) INF

GARCIA (CHI) OF

MACHADO (BALT) INF

BETTS (BOS) OF/INF

STARTERS:

SALE(L)

KLUBER(R)

SEVERINO(R)

CARRASCO(R)

SANTANA(R)

BULLPEN:

KIMBREL(R)(closer)

CHAPMAN(L)

BETANCES(R)

MILLER(L)

OSUNA(R)TOR

COLOME(R)TB

NL ALL STAR TEAM:

LINEUP:

1/BLACKMON(L) CF

2/VOTTO(L) DH

3/GOLDSCHMIDT(R) 1B

4/ARENADO(R) 3B

5/HARPER(L) LF

6/STANTON(R) RF

7/POSEY(R) C

8/GORDON(L) 2B

9/COZART(R) SS

BENCH:

TRE TURNER (WASH) IF/OF

OZUNA (MIA) OF

MURPHY (NY) INF

BELLINGER (LA) INF/OF

MOLINA (ST.L) C

STARTERS:

KERSHAW(L)

SCHERZER(R)

GREINKE(R)

RAY(R) (ARIZ)

BULLPEN:

JANSEN(R) closer

HAND(L) (SD)

DOOLITTLE (WASH)

DEGROM (NY)

HILL(L) (LA)

STRASBURG(R)

WADE DAVIS(R)

AFTERWORD:

The Indians deserve our thanks for their great winning streak of 22 games...second only to the 26 straight won by the 1916 New York Giants. Very entertaining, Tribe!

Some people put an asterisk by the Giants' feat because they had one tie in that streak. (In the old days rain outs and long games that had to end before sunset were sometimes not finished) Some curiosities from that season:

The Giants came off of an 8 game losing streak in May and won 17 in a row. All 17 games were on the road! Then they coasted until July when they traded their legendary pitcher Christy Mathewson. From Sept.7 until Sept.30 they never lost. The tie came after the twelfth game in the second game of a double header in Pittsburgh when rain ended the game in the 8^th inning, tied up 1-1. The game didn't count in the stats or standings.

After all that, for the season the Giants finished...FOURTH!

MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2017: CHEATING CHEATERS WATCHING WATCHES

MARCO'S BASEBALL BLOG-O-ROONIE 2017: CHEATING CHEATERS WATCHING WATCHES

ITEM 1: CHEATING…

You can hardly blame the Red Sox for trying. They've been incapable of getting clutch hits against the Yankees all weekend. Sabathia beat them with sliders, Tanaka beat them with splits and Severino beat them with fastballs...(especially Pedroia...welcome back from the DL Dustin! Here's a 100 mph fastball on the extreme outside high corner...I see you're just now swinging at that pitch but I have to tell you the catcher is already walking back to the dugout with the ball in his mitt.)

So we now know the Sox cannot hit the Yankees top starters. They're not very good hitting the bullpen either. Maybe earlier in the season they were but these Sox hitters look tired trying to put rallies together with two walks and an error and then three straight guys fanning the breeze.

Meanwhile the Yankees are assassinating the Red Sox starters...Porcello, Pomeranz and even Sale...bingo! Sale has obviously pitched too many innings this year. He's been getting lit up regularly lately...several times a game he'll throw something with no snap and the boppers are bopping him. The only Sox pitcher who had a good outing against the Yanks was Doug Fister! He of the 85 mph fastball. Fister works fast and throws junk and it worked...the Yankees were discombobulated. They were so happy to go back to facing 95 plus fastballs again. Result: Yankees take 3 out of 4 in the Bronx.

So now it comes out that the Red Sox have harnessed technology and are using camera coverage to view the catcher's signs, have a coach look at it on his Apple watch and then relay the pitch to the runner on second base and tip off the batter as to what the Yankee pitcher was throwing next. (Not that it did any good, the Red Sox batters couldn't hit even when they knew it was coming)

You knew that it was just a matter of time with the high tech. The Sox brass didn't even try to lie when the Yankees busted them...probably because they were so unsuccessful even when they knew what was coming. They made some lame ass claim that the Yankees were cheating too. Cheating Cheaters never win!

HISTORICAL NOTE: Except the 1951 New York Giants who placed a coach with a telescope in the center field wall at the old Polo Grounds and relayed the pitch to the Giants hitters. They came back from 13 ½ games down in the stretch and caught the Dodgers. Did Bobby Thompson know what pitch Ralph Branca was bringing when he hit the “Shot Heard Round the World”? Branca thought so. I mean, if you cheated the whole last two months, why not in the playoff? The Giants claimed that even though they had been stealing signs for two months they didn't steal them in the 3-game playoff against the Dodgers because Roy Campanella, the Dodgers 'catcher, had been hurt in the first game and his replacement, Rube Walker, was too good at disguising his finger signs to the pitcher. Ralph Branca, a stand up guy said “But Bobby still had to hit the pitch and he did.” Hats off to you Mr. Branca.

ANOTHER HISTORICAL NOTE: Tom Seaver gives Rube Walker credit for making him a good pitcher when he was pitching coach for the 1969 Mets. Walker worked with Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Gary Gentry and Nolan Ryan and made those young pitchers better. He also instituted the 5-man rotation that year, which was eventually copied by all of baseball. Walker's common advice to pitchers? “Shut up and throw the ball.”

Anyway, the Red Sox are hurting. They beat Toronto in 19 innings last night to end their losing streak but they're only 31/2 games up on the Yanks now and vulnerable. Also, Baltimore and Cleveland have been beating them pretty good so they're not exactly setting themselves up for the playoffs.

ITEM 2: ASTROS GET A PITCHER...

Kudos to the Houston Astros for realizing they really, really needed another starting pitcher to do well in the playoffs. I think it would have been a shame for a team that has never won a World Series and only even to been to ONE in the entire 55 year history of the franchise not to give itself a fighting chance at the ultimate Baseball Glory.

Therefore: Justin Verlander. He cost them three good prospects...right handed pitcher Franklin Perez was the Astros number 3 prospect. An outfielder and a catcher were valuable but not projected as superstars or anything. The Astros still have a loaded farm and those guys had no place to play for the foreseeable future anyway. They also got the Tigers to send them the proverbial player to be named later and a lot of cash to help pay Verlander's incredibly bloated contract.

Verlander is 35 and not an Ace anymore. But he is a powerful and still-effective pitcher for about 6 innings a game. His ERA is 3.85 which isn't great, but the Astros don't need him to have a 2.00 ERA. They need a starter to give up no more than 4 runs a game so they can win by scoring their usual 6. Justin gives them that plus a veteran presence. Can he keep his fastball down in homer-happy Minute Maid Park? We'll see.

ITEM 3: I TOLD YOU SO…

I told you that Kansas City was doomed because the path of the eclipse came very close to going over their city. Please note that the week of the eclipse saw the Royals get shut out in an incredible 4 games in a row! You have to listen to me when I propose these crackpot Bad Juju theories!

(I admit the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves didn't suffer any worse than they'd been suffering all year anyway, but let's ignore that!)

ITEM 4: NO BACK UPS!…

Roster size has become a major issue in baseball. Especially in the American League. Right now (just before September call-ups) the Red Sox are working with only three position players on the bench. One of them has to be a backup catcher. That leaves them with one spare infielder and one spare outfielder. Thus their reliance on all-purpose utility players like Brock Holt and Eduardo Nunez.

American League clubs are all leaning toward carrying 13 pitchers. With the designated hitter, that leaves only 3 spots for extra position players. Hardly any pinch hitting, pinch running or defensive replacements anymore. That's why I predict a coming surge of hitting pitchers. Two-way stars like that kid from Japan, Shohei Ohtani who can start or relieve and also play some first base or designated hitter and be a dangerous bat. (1.002 OPS with 22 dingers and can throw it 102 mph.)

Babe Ruth was ahead of his time, wasn't he?

ITEM 5: DODGERS TAILSPIN...MORE I TOLD YOU SO…

It gives me no pleasure but I predicted because of the large discrepancy in the number of home vs. away games that the Dodgers enjoyed in the first half, they were likely to start losing that gigantic lead they had over the rest of the division and all of baseball. Since going up by 21 ½ over Arizona they fell to earth with a large...SPLAT! Ever since Rich Hill lost his no-hitter to a walk off, the 'Heads have gone silent. They are 1 for their last 11 and Arizona is only 13 ½ behind now.

Hey...don't worry too much Dodger fans! This is actually a good thing for the Blue Boys and I'll tell you why:

The Dodgers were so far ahead they were actually on cruise control and losing focus. Now they're pissed off. Their hitting will come back soon (Corey Seager is back) and their pitching is still excellent. The Dodgers will win the West for sure. But having Arizona sweep them is the best way for Dave Roberts to get their attention and have them start playing with deadly passion again, just in time for the Playoffs.

ITEM 6: CLEVELAND, CITY OF LIGHT, CITY OF MAGIC…

The Indians have timed it right. They struggled early then gradually got it together and figured out who could play and got their starters together and got Corey Kluber in Cy Young winning form and now they have left pretenders like KC and Minnesota in the dust. A late winning streak of 15? Hitters like Ramirez, Encarnacion and Lindor on fire all at the same time? Good defense, a running game, power out the wazoo (or out the Chief Wahoo!). Tito Francona healthy at last? Even if they don't get super reliever Andrew Miller back, their bullpen is awesome?

Now they are the scariest team on Earth and the Cleveland Politically Incorrects have to be the favorites to win it all.

More Later! If you're in Florida right now...Good Luck!