The Orioles will be in direct contention for the top spot in the AL East through September. They just keep winning games on a consistent, sustainable level. They haven’t gone on any huge Tampa or Toronto-esque runs, but those runs aren’t sustainable. What the Orioles are doing is. It will be close, but if they keep doing what they are doing they should certainly be in the playoffs and be right there for the AL East crown.
Opinions, I have them.
The battle for the AL East will go down to the wire, perhaps the last weekend of the season. The Orioles play Boston. We must sign Andino before that series.
Chris Davis will be fine, he had a bad July. But his bad July is still pretty dang solid for most mortal players.
My campaign to call him Galactus has failed miserably. I can really only blame myself; but I choose to blame you people.
Opinions, I have them.
Watching the Yankees slowly crumble away is quite remarkable. They were the scourge of my childhood, they caused me such pain. To see them just evaporate is quite a thing.
That billion-dollar palace will be a mausoleum next year.
Opinions, I have them.
The team the Orioles most need to look out for is the Texas Rangers. If the Rangers fall away, then it is very likely that Boston, Tampa Bay and the Orioles will make the playoffs, the only thing to figure out would be the seeding.
This is assuming, of course, that things continue to go the way they are.
The Tigers look like they will have the weak AL Central wrapped up again leaving four other playoff spots. The teams in the running are: Texas, Oakland, Boston, Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Cleveland.
Cleveland is a real darkhorse right now. Their last 17 games of the season come against the White Sox, Astros, Royals, and Twins. They are only three games behind the Orioles for the Wild Card, and the same number behind the Tigers for the AL Central. If the Indians can hang around they will be hitting the weakest part of their schedule at precisely the right time. And it will only be weaker as those teams will basically be auditioning AAA talent.
That doesn’t mean Chief Wahoo isn’t any less horrifying.
Opinions, I have them.
I really wish the MLB would get on with it and just announce the remaining biogenesis suspensions. I hate to think they are waiting on guys like Bartolo Colon and Nelly Cruz because their teams are both in the heat of a playoff race. Imagine, Colon gets the axe but decides to appeal it and continues to pitch with the biogenesis label and a 100 game suspension looming? Could you imagine the endless boos and harassment he would face in every city he pitched? Could you imagine the distraction for the A’s?
The MLB needs to rip the band aid off now to give these teams time to adjust. The longer the bosses wait the worse it will be for the affected teams.
A-Rod is a different story. I think Bud Selig is trying to find a way he never sets foot on a field again while not letting the Yankees entirely off the hook for his massive contract.
That being said. Chris Davis is wrong, 73 is the home run record.
Opinions, I have them.
Chris Davis has been slumping and he will likely not break the AL homerun record. And that is okay. Davis hasn’t forgotten how to hit and I think he ends the season with over 50 homers, taking the franchise record.
I also don’t think it is a coincidence that all who participated in the homerun derby have started the post-allstar schedule in very bad slumps.
Davis is also in contention for the franchise OPS record, currently third behind Jim Gentile and George Sisler.
The fall of the Blue Jays is no longer entertaining to me, now they look like the angry spoiler team at the end of the year. Thankfully they play the Rays in their last series.
I would put odds at 50/50 that Robinson Cano is a Yankee next year; especially if the Yankees completely fall apart over the next month. Giving a ton of money to Cano with nothing to go around him would be folly.
I really want to see Pittsburgh go deep into the playoffs.
I am tired of seeing the Cardinals just dominate, but the National League is so bad. The Marlins are an embarrassment, the Brewers are completely screwed, the Phillies and Mets seem to be consistently underachieving, the Nationals look to be backsliding. The accession of the Dodgers makes things a little more interesting but the National League is going to be pretty dull for the foreseeable future. There are a lot of bad teams and the races seem pretty over.
Opinions, I have them.
