MLB 2013 season

Broken, but way down the shaft. He's got the little bit of handle in his left hand at the end of his swing.

If you ever want to look closer at a gif just do ctrl+ or ctrl and scroll up on the mousewheel to zoom. ctrl 0 to reset zoom when done.

For Firefox at least. Not sure if there's a quick keyboard shortcut for Chrome.

The Reds are so frustrating. Finally start beating winning teams. Then drop games like flies against the division basement dwellers. And the Nationals are in the midst of a hot streak.

Die hard as fuck.

This is shaping up to be a pretty exciting finish to the season though, I'm still not really sold on the 2nd wild card spot, but its been working out for MLB.


-6 teams in the race, all within 4.5 of the leader, top 2 get a playoff to go into the post season.
-Rays play 11 of final 14 games against 3 of the other teams.
-Rangers get 7 against Rays/Royals followed by 7 against Angels/Astros
-Orioles have 4 against the Rays, then close the season with 3 against Toronto and 3 against a Boston team that will be resting players having locked up number 1 seed.
-Royals get 6 against Rangers/Indians, then get to close with 7 against Seattle/Chicago
-Cleveland has a 3 set with the Royals, but then gets to close with 10 games against White Sox, Twins, Mariners
-Yankees play 9 of their final 12 against the Giants, Blue Jays and Astros with a 3 set against the Rays sandwiched in.



Just looking at the final stretch for each team and taking the current standings into consideration, the Rays have the most control over their own destiny since they're currently holding a spot and they play so many against their competition. However, that comes with having by far the most difficult schedule down the stretch and by the end of the Yankees series they'll have played 17 consecutive games. The 9th of sept. was actually their last off day of the season before a 20 games in a row stretch to finish. So despite having those games, I'd say the Rays are the LEAST likely of the 6 to squeeze into the wild card.

Cleveland has by far the easiest schedules down the stretch and IMO is front runner to take the first WC spot, as they play 12 of their final 15 against 3 of the 5 worst teams in all of baseball.

Yankees have the 2nd easiest schedule, but they're getting clobbered by Boston again. Such an inconsistent team, but the schedule gives them a chance to play themselves in.

Royals are actually a pretty cool story not really being talked about, but I don't think they have much of a chance. They'd pretty much have to go 5-3 at worst against Texas, Cle and Det.and sweep the final 7 against sea/chi if they want to get in.

Losing 3 out of 4 to the Yankees kind of fucked the Orioles. Their season will probably come down to the 4 game set against Tampa. If they sweep or take 3 out of 4, they may be able to play themselves in with 6 winnable games at home to close it out.

Rangers are my pick for the 2nd WC. They're playing like shit (2-9 in their last 11), but I think they're due to come out of their slump. Like Baltimore, their season make come down do how a 4 game set against Tampa plays out. Recent history as a Tampa fan tells me Rangers own the shit out of Tampa in both the regular season and playoffs.

So anyway yeah. I think Rangers-Indians will be the WC teams, with Rangers taking the play in game behind a Darvish gem. Which would then mean Darvish probably doesn't pitch in first round series while Rangers get swept.



National League on the other hand....boring

The NL is more or less decided when it comes to teams that will be making postseason, but the NL Central race is very tight. Those last games between the Reds and Pirates are going to be serious business.

Sox are just laying waste to the Yankees over the past week. Looking at our schedule heading into September, really thought winning the division was going to be tough, but they steamrolled right through it, and Tampa sure did make it much easier on us.

Interested in seeing what the Sox do for Mariano's last regular season appearance at Fenway. Love what the Twins did with the broken bat rocking chair. Will be tough topping that. Only Yankee outside O'neil I can say I really liked. Class act all the way around.

That said I hope he has a one run lead in the ninth, and Pedroia takes him deep for a walk off.

Feel really bad for Darvish, Another 1-0 loss today. That's four 1-0 losses for him this year - the first pitcher to do so since Orel Hershiser.

Rangers offense sucks so bad. Mitch Moreland and David Murphy should quit baseball this offseason.

Randomly watched that A's game this morning during breakfast and saw the only run during that entire game.

Then went out to a bar and got to enjoy the Giants smashing the Dodgers and beating their old Dodger's stadium record. Just hope they can get this team together next year and make another legitimate run at the World Series.

So with the Rays choking away a must win (IMO) game, and the Rangers losing yet again, Cleveland could be a half game back by the end of the day.

This Boston pregame thing for Rivera was actually kinda cool and non-douchy.

Nice sweep of the Yankees for the Sox. It appears no one in the AL wants that second wildcard spot. Pregame was done well to honor Mo. If it wasn't nailed down Mariano was taking it home. Good stuff. Just wish he had the opportunity to get in the game.

Mariano's gift back to Boston.




Someone needs to get in the pen, and plexiglass that.

Oh dear, an above average baseball player retired. We must all shed tears and our favorite stories.

My favorite play of his was the DUI. That was just groundbreaking at the time. What a marvelous display!

Helton is a really good player, but he's no Mo!

White Sox score 7 runs in the first inning on 6 singles and 3 walks. No extra base hits.

If the Red Sox didn't have a contending Orioles team for 8 of 11 remaining games I'd say they win 100 games.

I think this team is winning the World Series this year.

It's official, 3 straight 100 loss seasons for Houston!

On the flip side, another #1 draft pick will be nice. I am curious to see how they gut this trainwreck in the off season though and if they bring in another parade of 4 years past their prime fringe players.