Cubs @ Cardinals tonight.

Go Cards!:lifter

:p

Always a good time. Two fan-bases that really understand the game & travel well.

Cards sweep Cubs. Sweet words. Tough injury to Molina, hope he recovers soon and doesn't have permanent performance issues....on and off the field!

Yep, some tough baseball. But tougher for Yadi - hate to see that for anyone (even a Met). 100mph "traumatic hematoma" in an "uncomfortable" area.

Get well wishes - he is currently The Bar for anyone who ever played that position & an example for all young catchers around.

My two teams, St. Louis and Atlanta are doing OK this year. I am especially surprised at how well Atlanta is doing. Their young players are showing world class poise and maturity and the Braves are a fun team to watch.

Looking at both ends of the spectrum now:

The Bo-sox are doing well. AL East is back to the old way of business with NY and Boston swapping the 1 spot.

At the other end of the spectrum is Baltimore who is not just in the basement but continues to dig as they achieve historic lows.

Perennial (yet civilized) opponents or not, I'm glad to hear that Yadier is back ok. 3 night games for the Cubbies in STL (2 of them on normal TV, Sat/Sun).

The top-3 in the NL Central will always seem to make it a dogfight. A fishing buddy Brewers fan I congratulated about his team's ball-playing lately just shook his head & muttered something about "we haven't reached the AS break yet; there's still time for the Brewers to puke on their shoes."

Cubs/Cards are always a good time & both fans travel well.
Get dirty kids!
:cool:

With the exception of the AL East (as usual), there seem to be the regular number of division hair-balls developing in advance of the All-Star break - and a trade deadline.

I see the Cubs perhaps moving some folks around in their system (or up & down) in an attempt to shore up the starting rotation. The bats are there & the bullpen is excellent but a couple of well-paid starters have GOT to quit giving up runs early. Lester remains a battler no matter what, as does Quintana now that he's settled down. Kyle Hendricks is having mechanical issues, like Rube Goldberg occasionally takes over his delivery or something. WTF?

After the Twins acquitting themselves well (but still being swept) in Wrigley, they travel up to Milwaukee now & might be a little po'd so the Brewers'd better watch out. With the heat wave, the ball was really being launched during that series - proof positive that it's still possible to hit Waveland or Sheffield Avenues even with the new graphics boards in place.

Atlanta (at the expense of the Cards) has percolated itself to the top of their division it seems & are playing some pretty good ball.

As we head toward the All Star break...What is everyone's thought on the comparison of AL and NL overall records.

The top 4 records all held by AL teams with the (hot) Atlanta Braves coming in at the top of the NL.

Is there significant strength in the AL this year or is it that there are just more bad teams in the AL divisions that allow for high winning percentages? Seems most of the teams at the bottom of the overall are also from the NL.


As a side note.... Baltimore (what else can go wrong) lost a pitcher to the DL for an ankle injury while running the bases in interleague play :rolleyes:

Without seeing what's being done (or, importantly, NOT done) in the front offices/farm systems it may be difficult to tell. Top AL East are traditional money-fixes-everything franchises. Others in the NL I can think of in contention are teams that have done some things over time and, for the last 2-3 years, have had teams that are getting better & better (Brewers come to mind). Maybe reaching their prime now in terms of development, that kinda thing. Agree with you, 'tis a puzzlement. As in, hey, how about the Braves? Or, WTH happened to Kansas City...?

Boston is 25-7 against AL East teams not located in the Bronx. The Yankees are only 15-10 against AL East teams not located in Boston (and they are 5-4 against the Red Sox), so they are not dominating their division the way the Red Sox are. They still have 42 games to play against AL East rivals, compared to 35 for the Red Sox.

The Yankees are 11-2 against the AL Central, 16-6 against the AL West and 8-6 against the NL East. Boston is 6-6 against the AL Central, 17-10 against the AL West and 6-1 against the NL East (and are leading the Nats in the 8th inning as I write this). Neither has played any NL Central or West teams, and won't for the rest of the regular season.

Coming into the season, I think that 11 teams (the Rays, Tigers, ChiSox, Royals, A's, Braves, Phillies, Marlins, Pirates, Reds and Padres were perceived as being in various stages of "rebuilding" or tanking for draft picks), while 4 other teams were probably deluding themselves that they were better than they were (Orioles, Blue Jays, Rangers, Mets).

Of the other 15 teams, 9 probably had reasonable expectations of reaching the post-season, at least as a wild card (Red Sox, Yankees, Indians, Astros, Nationals, Cubs, Dodgers, D'backs, Rockies) and 6 were somewhat hopeful (Twins, Mariners, Angels, Brewers, Cardinals, Giants).

So the biggest "upside" surprises so far appear to be the Braves and the Phillies, who seem to be much further along in their rebuilds than expected, and Oakland. The Pirates, though below .500, still appear to be better than expected. The Braves are 27-14 against their division and 22-21 against the rest of MLB. The Phillies are only 15-17 against the NL East, but that is because 22 of these games have been against the Braves and Nats and they still have 28 games left against the Marlins and Mets. The Mariners are also performing better than expected, especially without Cano. I don't know enough about the Brewers to have a strong opinion - they improved in the offseason, but a lot of their wins are against weaker teams.

Baltimore's woes, by the way, continue as Colby Rasmus basically just quit, and without even giving enough warning to allow the team to bring up a replacement.

Completely agree about the Phillies, they are a surprise. They were always the team, when the Cubs were kicking butt on everyone else (at various points in their history) that for some reason the Cubs would tank & get their hat handed to them in Philadelphia by a near last place team. These days it looks like folks had better bring their full-on game when playing the Phillies, taking no chances. Sneaky bastards.

I think part of the pain in Baltimore is raised expectations and false hope. Their "up" years had more to do with both New York and Boston going through a generational change in their rosters. It's back to "normal" now which only amplifies the gap between those checkbooks and everyone else's.

The chatter is about what their rebuild plan is. It might be best served moving to the NL.

R10

Coming out of the All Star Break.... What's your expectation
 

Well, the mid-summer classic has gone by. The Manny Machado "rental" has happened, so now what?

The BoSox remain the team to beat in the AL East, managing to work up a 4.5 game lead on the Yanks. Being a New Englander I have a healthy appreciation for the historic post-All Star collapses of the Red Sox in the past. They are looking strong this year so the second half will be fun I think.


The O's will hopefully get over the "Black Knight" syndrome and admit that they are dead and looking at MAYBE 3 or 4 years of rebuild. The fire sale needs to happen NOW for any player they don't have control of beyond 2021, because that's real. This is all compounded by the question of whether they move on from the current Manager and GM.

On to October

Did anyone see the introduction of the Medal of Honor recipients at the All-Star Game? It was a great moment, even for someone as cynical as me about how much the "honor our troops" stuff by MLB seems more marketing gesture than genuine expression of patriotism.

WRT to the Orioles, I guess the question is do they just rent out the rest of their pending free agents like Britton and Adam Jones, or do they see what kind of return they can get for younger players like Bundy and Givens, or even if they can get takers for Trumbo or Cobb.