Note: This was written Friday morning. Fucking Cardinals. So, not so great yesterday with the crystal ball. The Reds most certainly did not come through, though they had their chances. The A’s also didn’t come through, but I think Justin Verlander had more than a little something to do with that. It’s hard to blame Oakland for that. The Cardinals were beat on a walk-off homer from Jason Werth, but as described before, I have a hard time caring. At least Baltimore did force a game five, and did it in the thirteenth inning. I told you these guys are evenly matched. First off, yes, the Reds choked. But, I have a hard time blaming Dusty Baker, though. His guys had so many opportunities to score runs and win each game in Cincinnati. That’s all you can really ask for out of your manager. He can’t hit or pitch the ball himself. But he can finagle his line up to get the right guys up at the plate. He had reconfigured his rotation to start Mat Latos in the fifth game. Without Johnny Cueto, who else would you have wanted? Zack Cozart has been absolutely solid all year. You can’t blame Dusty that he dropped the ball trying to throw home. The Reds had the winning run at the plate in the form of Jay Bruce in the ninth. Jay Bruce, who you might be aware, has more than a little pop in his bat. Who else would you have wanted up in that spot? The only thing I can really see blaming Dusty for is relying on Scott Rolen at this point in his career. There are probably reasons why Rolen got the time over Frazier at this point, and it probably all points to the past. Truly, that’s the only thing I could say I would have done differently had I been in Dusty’s shoes, and there could well have been reasons outside of his control for playing Rolen.* I mean, do you think Joe Girardi really wants to put A-Rod into the line up every day at this point? *His rumored retirement is probably high on that list. The nice thing is, though, the Reds should be built to do this for quite a few years. That series also would have been much different if Joey Votto’s power hadn’t abandoned him since his surgery. If I were a real Reds fan, I would be holding my breath and praying that the power does come back. It would be a huge shame if it didn’t. Votto’s still a very good hitter without his power, but he is superb (or better) with it. I didn’t see any of the A’s-Tigers game. I was already fast asleep when it started. But, I read that Verlander finally had a dominant performance in a clincher. This is overdue. But, A’s fans can take some heart. If they’re willing to spend just a little bit of money, this is a team with a brilliant future. There might not have ever been a team that outperformed expectations as far as these guys did. Sure, there have been surprise playoff teams and even surprise teams to make the World Series. But I don’t think any of them were so roundly viewed as undertalented also-rans before the first pitch of the year. The other teams that came through like that were viewed as being pretty good teams, but not very good teams. I don’t know if anybody was looked at as a bad team that turned out to be a darned good team like this. If the Tigers had lost this series, though, Detroit would be in bad shape. This is a team that’s built to win right now. And if Verlander can finally find his mojo in the playoffs, it just might happen. It’s getting on lunchtime now, so I’ll make the football portion of this quick. The Colts go to New York to face the Jets. I don’t think the Jets are a very good team, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this one. It’s on the road, and the Colts are primed for a let-down game after such a huge upset of the Packers. The Colts should win this game, but unfortunately, I don’t think they will. Purdue gets to play host to Wisconsin for homecoming. This game will most likely decide if Purdue is going to sneak into the B1G championship or not. I’ve gotten my hopes up about Purdue being competitive with Wisconsin before, and they’ve been shattered. I’m going to have to pick against my Boilers this week. Lest you think I’m all pessimism, I do think Wabash will win this week. They travel to St. Louis to take on the Bears of Washington. Wabash has had two games where they look like the Little Giants they were supposed to be. The last time Wabash went out to their place, they played one of the worst games I’ve seen out of them and lost. This year’s Washington team is nowhere near as good as that one, and Wabash already got their toe-stub game out of the way. Besides, Washington couldn’t even beat DePauw, so they’ve got to be bad, right? Wabash should win this one going away. It’s lunchtime for me. Plus I’ve got to buy new shoes. We’ll see you next week when we have a clear picture of the LCS. Things are certainly heating up. The Reds didn’t close out the series like I thought they would, but Lord knows they left enough men on base to win that game. The A’s did win as predicted, forcing a game five of their own. The Yankees and Orioles played a twelve-inning thriller, underscoring again just how much of a coin toss that series is. And the Cardinals won easily, just another sign of the sports gods laughing at the Nationals for acting like the playoffs are no big deal. Seriously, how do you do this? I don’t know how you can handle this if you were a Nationals fan. I’m enraged, and I honestly don’t have any strong feelings either way for Washington. But these are the playoffs. You won your division. You finished with the best record in baseball. As the Nationals/Expos should know as a franchise, these types of seasons don’t happen very often. And once they do, it is damned hard to capitalize* the opportunity. Billy Beane flat out said it in the end of Moneyball.** This may not be an exact quote, because I don’t have the book in front of me, but it was something like “My shit doesn’t work in the playoffs. It’s too random. Too small a sample size.” The A’s have figured out how to squeeze out every win over 162 games. But there’s just not enough games to do that in October. And you certainly can’t do that if you decide you can go without your stud pitcher. *No pun intended, but it was appreciated. **The book, anyway. If I remember right, the whole “does nothing in the playoffs, certainly no sliding” thing was pretty well glossed over or ignored in the movie. And, boy, if the Nationals could have trotted out a Strasburg-Gonzalez duo for the playoffs, that would have been a scary team. You can almost bank on two wins every series. Three if you can rush one out on short rest. Probably Gio in this case, because clearly Strasburg’s elbow is made of spit and rubber bands. After pulling this move, I can sincerely say, at this moment, anyway, I hope the Nationals miss the playoffs the next few years, and a very frustrated Strasburg demands a trade or walks in free agency to get a shot in the playoffs. This is clearly a franchise who just doesn’t deserve players of this caliber if this is how they are going to treat them. Seriously, I know teams have to make a lot of tough choices about who is on the playoff roster or not. But this is a guy who clearly deserved a spot, deserved a shot. Wanted this shot in the worst sort of way. But was kept away by, in my view, irrational fears of management. Whatever Strasburg was originally entitled to as a playoff bonus or playoff share, the team really ought to double it. Because this was mangled terribly, and fans of baseball everywhere should be outraged. In other news, if I were going to play hooky, this would have been the day to do it. I thought that yesterday, but that was before I saw today’s schedule. One o’clock start in Cincinnati for game five. Possible deciding game in Washington at four. Another possible deciding game in New York at 7:30.* And then wrap up the day with a game five in Oakland at 9:30 to see if the A’s can finally break through against Justin Verlander. *Though I do believe in my heart of hearts that the Orioles will force a game five. If you can’t get excited about a day like this, then you can’t call yourself a baseball fan. I might even go so far as to say a sports fan. Anyway, I’ll keep it short today. I’m going to say the Reds gut it out today behind another strong Mat Latos outing. The Cardinals will most likely close out the Nationals. The Orioles will beat the Yankees in another tight one. And I think the A’s are going to pull this off. I don’t really have any evidence or any real argument behind why I think the A’s are going to do this, I just feel it in my gut. We’ll wrap it up tomorrow, as well as an abbreviated football forecast. I had a terribly busy day yesterday, so unfortunately, that didn’t leave any time for writing. It’s unfortunate, maybe, but doing this doesn’t pay any bills. Hell, it doesn’t even put a penny in the piggy bank. So, sometimes, it just doesn’t work out every day. I still feel bad when it doesn’t. Especially when I’ve been so good. Anyway, I came here to pick up on the baseball talk. We’re waist-deep in the playoffs now, and I think we all owe a big apology to Dusty Baker. Look, I’ve done some Dusty-bashing in the past. I don’t know if I’ve done it here or not, but I’ve taken part in it. And I have to admit, my heart is never really in it. I’ve always liked Dusty Baker, and I never blamed him in the least for what happened with the Cubs. Does he work pitchers hard? Maybe. But, if you asked me in all honesty, I think pitchers should be worked hard. That’s how you get better and stronger. There are going to be some injuries along the way, some players that can’t take it. But do I think it was really Baker’s fault that Kerry Wood and Mark Prior’s arms broke down? Not really. I don’t remember any big Giants pitchers going down the drain with all the years he spent out there, and you haven’t really seen that many pitching injuries for the Reds. At least, not any more than a typical team would have to deal with. So, yeah, I firmly believe that Baker has gotten a bad break. In fact, I think he’s one of the best managers in baseball. Not the absolute best, but he’s in the conversation for me. I just try to keep that to a mumble most times. But, you know, game one of this year’s NLDS might make me speak up a bit more. No manager has a contingency plan for his starter to go a third of an inning. That just never happens. Hell, even if your pitcher is hurt, he’ll gut out the inning before he realizes it. But, that didn’t happen in game one. Johnny Cueto’s back just did not allow that. And, you know, Baker could not have navigated that crisis any better. No manager could have, and I would bet that a lot managers would have had the game blow up in their face. And nobody would really blame him. That’s a tough hand to be dealt. But, Baker persevered and cobbled together a sequence of pitchers that held San Francisco to two runs. Not too shabby. Then, we get Bronson Arroyo in San Francisco. The grumblings began anew. Everybody was atwitter about how good Arroyo is at home, but how shaky he is at home and this and that. All Arroyo did was throw seven shutout innings, giving up all of one hit and one walk. Throw in four strikeouts for good measure. Their pitching was superb again last night, the Giants needing to get an unearned run in the tenth to win the game.* For supposedly being in shambles, Reds pitching has been dominant this October. *While I don’t necessarily disagree with calling that play an error, it wasn’t exactly through the wickets. I also think a younger Scott Rolen might have had enough arm to still get the out at first. Then again, a younger Rolen probably would have caught the ball cleanly in the first place. The dude was an amazing defender before the injuries started piling up. Which brings us to tonight’s game.* At the time of writing (10:20 AM), ESPN is saying Mike Leake will be the starter, while MLB.com is saying it’s still TBD. There’s a chance it’s as simple as bringing back Matt Latos on short rest again. But, it does look more likely to be Leake. Bringing Leake on would mean the Reds have made a roster change. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know who the Reds dropped to bring Leake on. The interesting thing is whoever is dropped can’t come back for the NLCS. Did they just make a swap, Leake for Cueto? Do they expect Cueto back for the World Series, assuming they go that far? Is he bad off enough that they’re writing him off for the season? Did they drop a reliever instead, thinking maybe they won’t need Cueto this series, but they will for the Nationals or Cardinals? So many questions, so few answers. Answers we probably won’t fully have until almost game time. Nevermind the game is now only about five hours away. That sure doesn’t leave a whole lot of time to make new travel plans. *By the time this is posted, St. Louis-Washington will probably already be done and Cincinnati-San Francisco will have already started. Unless I do some finagling to get somebody else to post this one for me, which I very well might do. On the other side of the ball, you have the Giants fighting for their life. They’ve relegated Tim Lincecum to the bullpen, even though he had been looking more like the Lincecum of old towards the end of the season. So, now, San Francisco has staved off elimination for one game. If they want to force a deciding game five, the onus lies on the shoulders of. . .Barry Zito? The same Barry Zito that was being ridiculed for basically stealing the Giants’ money because he was so awful when he moved across the bay? The same Zito that was left off the playoff roster when the Giants made their championship run? I guess I’m not a Giant fan, but if I were, I don’t think I would be very comfortable this afternoon. Granted, Zito has looked very much improved this year over any of his previous National League seasons, but it only takes one outing for him to look like the Zito Giants fans have come to know to end the season. As you might be able to tell, this is the series that interests me the most. Cardinals-Nationals just isn’t doing it for me. Maybe I’m still a little sick over the Cardinals sneaking into the playoffs (again). I know I’m angry at Washington for shutting down Strasburg for the playoffs. But, yeah, especially for being in the National League, I can’t get into this one. I’m sure the vast majority of my family would disagree. Over in the American League, the A’s staved off elimination for another night. I don’t know what to think of this series. It just felt all sorts of wrong that the A’s had their backs against the wall before they ever got to see Oakland. It’s one thing to have the pressure to win all your playoff games at home. It’s another thing to have all those games in a row. That just isn’t right when you’re the higher seeded team. But, it looks like they are the only higher seed to face it, so maybe Detroit is just the better team here. You would certainly think so on paper. But, the A’s did have the better record, and their division wasn’t a slouch. Max Scherzer goes tonight for the Tigers. AJ Griffin is throwing for the A’s. I don’t know anything about Griffin, but I know Scherzer is a pretty darned good pitcher. Still, I just have this feeling that the A’s will pull it out tonight. That will set up a game five showdown, the A’s bats against Jason Verlander’s arm. I’m sure the A’s had hoped in some capacity they could win this series without being forced to beat Verlander, but the wild pitch in game two ruined that plan. Still, Verlander has not exactly been money in the playoffs, and especially not in deciding games. That would be appointment viewing for me. So, even though I kind of like the Tigers,* I’m all in for the A’s tonight. A win for Oakland tonight is a win for America. *More than the A’s, though? I really don’t know. Probably not. There’s also the matter of the Orioles and Yankees. This has been, for New York reasons, the most covered series in the nation, so I don’t know how much more I can add. But you can definitely count me in on this series. I usually don’t even like watching the Yankees play, but this series has my interest. Admittedly, this is almost entirely because of Baltimore. This series is maybe the most evenly matched of all, and that is really saying something. I’m a card-carrying Yankee-hater, and I’ve always liked the Orioles. Having family in Maryland doesn’t hurt that a bit. But, I am well-known to like underdog stories, and the Orioles being down for so long before roaring back definitely has my attention. This series could very well be 2-0 either way, both games being played pretty well on a razor’s edge, ninth inning of game one notwithstanding. But, as it is, it’s 1-1, which certainly feels right in this series. Now, though, the series goes to New York, and the Yankees did what they had to do on the road. But, if any team is going to win two out of three on the road this year, I would have the most faith in either the Reds or the Orioles being able to do it. This is the most excited I’ve been to watch a Yankees series in some time. Now if only my DVR will let me watch live TV tonight. Sometimes things work out better than you planned. Sometimes they end up much worse. Sometimes you’re pretty well spot on. I hit all three of those on football this weekend. Wabash turned out just about like I expected, pulling out a 27-24 win in Springfield. That means Wabash is now 8-8 all time against Wittenberg,* and I can tell you for a fact it should 9-7 if not for a badly timed Matt Hudson injury. For whatever it’s worth, we’re 7-6 since it became a conference game. In any case, yeah, this game went more or less how I expected. Plus, it’s another spot to climb in the polls, now up to fifteen. *Who, just as a reminder, is the winningest team in Division III. Purdue did not go as planned. Thanks to dinner with my dad, I didn’t get to see very much of that beatdown, but I’m not complaining. I’m not shocked Michigan won, but my goodness, you couldn’t even hang with them at home? I don’t really know what went so wrong, and somehow, I think I’m better off that way. Now Purdue will turn its attention to Wisconsin for homecoming. It’s an awfully big game, essentially being the division championship. Purdue might as well pack it in if they lose. Wisconsin could still get there after losing on Saturday, but it’ll make things more difficult without the tie-breaker. Wisconsin might be a little perturbed to be a homecoming opponent, though. For reference, Wabash was Wittenberg’s homecoming opponent on Saturday. It made me bristle a little bit as a fan, and Coach Erik Raeburn flat out said “You don’t schedule Bash for homecoming.” So, yeah, it was on the players mind, just as I’m sure it will be on the Badgers mind on Saturday. I don’t think that’s a good thing. In happier news, the Colts probably just pulled out the upset of the NFL season. With Coach Chuck Pagano in the hospital with leukemia, the Colts played on a level we haven’t seen in a few years. Andrew Luck showed why he is a bona fide star in this league and why the Colts had to bite now instead of waiting a few more years when Peyton decided he was done. Luck is almost exactly the same size at Peyton, but boy, he moves better than Peyton ever has in his dreams. He takes a bit better, too. One of my biggest, maybe my only, gripe about Peyton was he had a bit of a glass jaw. You hit him a couple times, and he would get jittery. Luck seems to invite the contact. Even after taking an extremely hard hit,* he was undeterred and not at all afraid to take the contact instead of sliding when he decided to run. *And what I thought was a clean hit on the replay, though I admittedly probably would have flagged it watching it full speed like the officials, too. And, you know, the more I thought about it, the more I’m about to decide Luck is a better athelte than RG3. Griffin probably is a little faster, but he can’t throw as well as Luck,* I don’t know if he makes decisions as well as Luck, and I’m for damned sure he doesn’t take a hit like Luck. It’s not his fault. Look at Griffin and look at Luck. It’s pretty easy to tell who’s more solidly built. And, you know, Griffin went out with a concussion yesterday after taking a hard hit. Luck just came back and played even better. I think the Colts really picked the right guy, if there was any doubt left.** *Not saying he’s a bad passer, because that’s uncategorically false. Just not as well as Luck. **At least we can all be happy that we missed out on the Cam Newton sweepstakes. Well, everybody but Carolina, that is. I would also be out of my head if I didn’t mention Reggie Wayne. There’s just something about Reggies playing in Indianapolis, isn’t there? We got to hear about how washed up he was all last year, and all off-season. With apologies to Curtis Painter, it seems like that had a lot more to do with the team around him than anything with Reggie. Because he was absolutely brilliant yesterday, and really, he’s been doing this all year. The dude is just a hall-of-fame receiver, no doubt about it. If one bad year was enough to scare everybody away from the Colts’ fire sale, then it was worth it. If we can’t keep Peyton in a Colts uniform his entire career, we should at least be able to keep Reggie around. If I were buying a Colts jersey in the near future, I could tell you right now it would be number 87. There were baseball playoffs all weekend, too, including some iffy umpiring. I don’t have time to write much more, though, and this is getting long enough already. Let’s pick up the hardball tomorrow, shall we? Yeah, the playoffs start tonight, and I’m very excited about it. But, we covered it yesterday, so today we return to football. It’s a big week for Wabash, so we’re going to quickly cover the Colts and Boilers. First off, well, I fear there won’t be a lot to talk about with the Colts. They aren’t a very good team this year, and the Packers are. Or should be, anyway. Yes, the game is in Indianapolis, but that won’t make up this big of a talent difference. For the record, my wife and her family are all big Packer fans. The past few times they’ve played, the Colts were still in the middle of the Peyton Manning era, and I felt good about them beating anybody, Packers included. And they did. Now, not so much. It all goes in circles, right? Anyway, I don’t think there’s going to be too much to see here, though I’m sure I’ll end up seeing every minute. In a related note, I think everybody is behind Chuck Pagano, regardless of how you feel about the team. Get well, soon, Coach. Purdue has a much more interesting game this week. They host Michigan in a game that many people are picking Purdue to win. And, you know, I’m picking them, too. Shock, I know, being a fan and all. But, in all seriousness, Purdue has played great games with Michigan lately, and have split with them the last four years. As noted, the game is in Ross-Ade, which is a help. Purdue also has not disappointed in non-conference play for the first time in a while, so hopefully that points to good things. Michigan, on the other hand, has.* I know the law of common opponents isn’t a very good law, but Purdue looked much, much better against Notre Dame, in South Bend, than Michigan did in Ann Arbor. This game is going to be a dogfight, but I think Purdue pulls it out. 27-20, we’ll say. *I don’t include Alabama as one of those disappointments. Yes, they were thoroughly drubbed, but Alabama could probably give a couple NFL teams a run for their money. Now, for the real meat of the article. Wabash travels to Springfield, Ohio, to take on the Wittenberg Tigers. Now, let’s be clear, this isn’t DePauw. But, nationally, this game has more significance. First of all, since Wabash joined the NCAC, either Wabash or Wittenberg has won the conference title twelve out of fourteen times. There isn’t an actual conference title game, but this is the de facto one. Historically, Wittenberg tops the Division III wins list at 707 wins, which is good for nineteenth overall in any division. Wabash is sixth on the D3 list at 625.* It’s kind of a big deal. *Good for 53rd overall. Just throwing it out there, but DePauw is seventeenth on the D3 list at 545 wins. I don’t know what that is overall. So, yes, while this game is definitely not the Bell Game, it’s pretty darned important. Wabash has held the upper hand the past several years, the only loss coming when Wabash’s All-American quarterback Matt Hudson was out with a punctured lung. And Wabash still came damned close to winning that year. This year, though, I’m a little nervous. More nervous than I have been for a Wittenberg game in a long time, actually. And that has mostly to do with the recent struggles the Little Giants have inflicted mostly on themselves, which has been well-chronicled here. Still, Wabash finally looked like the team they were supposed to be over the last three quarters of last week’s homecoming game against Carnegie Mellon. For review, Carnegie Mellon had been pretty well destroying everything in their path before that game. They beat Grove City 23-20, which admittedly is not a romp. But beating Allegheny* 37-7, Catholic 35-17, and DePauw 51-28 would qualify. Normally, those would be three quality wins, too. I guess we’ll have to see for sure down the road, but DePauw is definitely not themselves this year. In any case, then they came to Wabash, and we mowed them down, 54-28. I feel a lot better playing Wittenberg this week than I would have last week. *Who Wabash totally blew it against. Still, it’s Wittenberg. I really feel they ought to be ranked, especially if Wabash is ranked.* First off, as noted earlier, Wittenberg is home. Secondly, they started their season blowing out Captial (44-17) and DePauw (52-14). Now, both of those schools are generally good to very good, but both are going through downswings at the moment.** They’ve had a couple closer games lately against their big rival, Wooster (17-7), and Case*** (14-10), but they have won. Those are also schools that are normally at least decent, but have been soft lately. Still, they are 4-0 and historically every bit as good as Wabash. *Which we are. 16. **You might remember that Capital was the team that benefitted from Wabash being totally screwed over in the playoffs in 2005. ***You might know them better by their full name, Case Western Reserve University. You might see why most call them Case. So, yes, I’m a bit worried. Still, there is some reason to take heart. To distill it here, Wabash looked dominant last week against a good team. Wittenberg has looked dominant, but against a pretty weak schedule to this point, which is probably the only reason they aren’t ranked yet. Not that Wabash’s schedule has been murderer’s row or anything (Hanover, Denison, Allegheny, CMU), but it’s probably better than what Witt has faced to this point. There’s just that very troublesome blemish against ‘Gheny. I guess the only thing that’s left is to pick the game. I can’t say I’m anywhere close to as confident as I want to be with this, but I’m going to have to pick my alma mater. Maybe it’s just a little false bravado, but the Little Giants are still my team. These are typically very close, low to mid-scoring games. I don’t see why this would be any different. I’ll say Wabash takes this one 17-14 and cling to their chance to sneak into the playoffs. Wabash Always Fights! I told you so! The A’s messed around and took the division crown last night, topping the Rangers 12-5. Not too shabby. It was awfully nice seeing the Coliseum packed, too. Really, Oakland, where have you been? Also, Miguel Cabrera did officially win the triple crown last night. Listening to folks last night made it sound like he was the favorite to win MVP over Mike Trout, the main argument being that the Tigers made the playoffs and the Angels didn’t, so clearly Cabrera helped his team win more. This, of course, totally ignores the fact that the Angels won one more game than the Tigers. I don’t know how all that really figures together with unbalanced schedules and all that. But, while I wouldn’t be shocked if Trout still won MVP, my money is on Cabrera. So now we’re all set for the playoffs. For those that haven’t seen the schedule, the Braves will host the Cardinals at five tomorrow, with the Orioles going down to Texas, starting at 8:30. I hesitate to pick the Braves after the Cardinals magical run last year, but I’m going to do it. It’s in Atlanta, it’s Chipper’s last ride, and they were clearly the better team through the year.* Both teams got their rotation set, though. The Braves will start Kris Medlen. He started twelve games this year, winning ten of them and losing only one.** The Cardinals will go with Kyle Lohse, who has really ended up being St. Louis’ ace. He sports a 16-3 record in 33 games started. That would worry me a little bit, and probably exposes St. Louis’ Achilles heel. That’s a lot of no decisions, and I’m sure that’s because the Cardinals have had an utterly undependable bullpen. It’s been better as of late, but it’s not something I would be feeling all warm and fuzzy about if I were a Cards fan. *Of course, that “better team through the year” argument really falls apart in a one game “series.” If you haven’t been paying attention, that’s my main gripe with this new format. **Obviously that leaves a no decision in there. Not sure if the Braves pulled that game out or not, but I suppose it doesn’t too much matter in this case. Also, I know pitcher record is a dicey stat at best, but you don’t win ten out of twelve games you pitch if you’re not at least an above average hurler. In the late game, I think I’m going to have to go with Baltimore, and I might even say they’re going to win fairly easily. The Rangers have looked shell-shocked the past two weeks as their lead just absolutely crumbled, and last night was just another example. Look at Josh Hamilton making a Little League mistake out there in center field. Meanwhile, the Orioles have been giving it their all against a very spry Rays team. I don’t know if I believe it in general this season, but right at this moment,* I just think the Orioles are a better team. We don’t know who will take the mound for Baltimore yet, but Yu Darvish will pitch for the Rangers. If you need somebody to stop the bleeding for Texas, he would be your guy. He’s the guy you essentially let CJ Wilson walk for, so this is exactly the kind of role you want him in. He’s gone 5-2 over his last ten starts, which is downright respectable. Even moreso when you see he hasn’t given up more than three runs since the beginning of August. Still, I just like the Orioles in this one. You won’t find a more clutch team this year, and this is certainly a clutch situation. And a clutch situation they have direct control over. No Red Sox to screw them over. Did Boston make anybody happy this year? *Again, thank you, one game playoff! I’ll wait to elaborate on the rest of the playoffs once we get the winners of those games and get the final pairings. I know, I could extrapolate out, but frankly, I just don’t feel that would be doing anybody any service. But, I will say, I think this go around for the Reds will be better than the last go around. But I’d still be a bit nervous. The Giants got good late, which is usually exactly the sort of team that will make a deep run. Friday Football Forecast tomorrow. All my teams are playing this week! And it’s Witt week. Good times, right? First off, a baseball update. The A’s once again beat the Rangers, making tonight a one-game playoff for the division crown. Out on the other coast, both the Orioles and Yankees pulled out one run wins. That most likely means the Orioles will be your wildcard, facing the loser of Oakland-Texas, but it’s certainly not out of the question that we could see a one game playoff for the East crown.* *This was confirmed to me by John Kruk this morning on Mike & Mike. That also means that, if game 163 does happen out East, somebody will be logging some serious travel time. But, today, I want to talk about football. And it’s not even about one of my teams. No, today we’re covering the New York Jets. As I’m sure most of you are aware, the Jets are downright terrible this year. Mark Sanchez looks exactly like everybody who’s not a Jets fan thought he would.* Their top receivers, Santonio Holmes and Dustin Keller, are hurt. Holmes is done for the season. Keller (Boiler Up!) is listed as questionable, so he might be back soon. But it won’t be soon enough for this team. *Yeah, he and the rest of the offense looked awfully good against a mega-bucks Buffalo defense, but then again, a lot of teams have looked good against what looks like an enormous bust of a Bills defense. There is starting to be a lot of noise, on national shows, at least,* to see what “His Holiness” Tim Tebow can bring to the team at quarterback. I’ll be upfront, I’m definitely not a big Tebow guy. But I do think the Jets are missing a big opportunity here. I just think the talk to this point has been misguided. *I would imagine this is true in New York, too, but I can’t confirm that. Tebow is not a great quarterback. That’s just all there is to it. The Broncos defense had a lot more to do with their success than anything Tebow did. But, if you remember, Tebow has been billed and continually built up to be a “football player.” And I do think he can be dangerous. I don’t remember if it was on Mike & Mike or The Grady & Big Joe Show,* but they made the point that, right now, if you see Tebow come out onto the field, you know he’s going to do something, which lets the defense key in and limits his effectiveness. *That’s a local 1070 show, if you didn’t know. It seems to me that the best option for the Jets right now is to keep Sanchez in as quarterback, but they need Tebow out there every snap. You can use him as an even more versatile Randall Cobb.* Line him up as a half or fullback. Line him up at tight end, or even as a wideout. Move him around the field, and he will draw defenders. And when he does get an opening, he’s still a very strong, athletic dude.** Give him the football in a little bit of space, he will get it done. And I do think he’s more solidly built than a lot of receivers, so I don’t worry about him taking hits. *If you haven’t seen what Cobb has been doing for the Packers, you might want to start paying attention. And snap him up for your fantasy team if he’s still available. **I guess I’m not totally sure what kind of hands Tebow has, but I’ll bet they’re pretty good. And, you know, once you line him up in those positions, you don’t necessarily have to use him like you would a typical running back/receiver. As much as he’s below average for a quarterback throwing the ball, he’s shown he can be serviceable. Run some gadget plays with him. Have him line up as a wideout, drop back, take a long lateral, then wing it downfield. It’s like a halfback pass, except with the chance to reap bigger rewards, and you’re using a guy who has spent some significant time playing quarterback in the NFL. And I’m sure the Jet coaching staff can come up with more creative ways to use in in that fashion that I could. And what’s the downside? I mean, your team is pretty well a lost cause at this point anyway. If it doesn’t work out, at least you tried something different than continually banging your head into a wall. As I’ve written here before, if you’re going to go down in flames, you should at least be entertaining about it. Even moreso in a market like New York. And if doing something out of the box like that doesn’t earn you serious cred in the coaching community and the media, they’re the ones who are broken. Come on, Rex Ryan. If any coach is going to pull this off, it’s you. I have faith! Two games left. One hundred and sixty games in the books. Two divisions within a game. Of course, that’s actually considered breathing room for the Yankees. As predicted, the Rays proved to be a much more formidable foe than the Red Sox. The Orioles lost to Tampa Bay 5-3, while the New York had a 10-2 laugher over Boston. It’s just a shame that the schedule is probably going to hand the Yankees yet another division crown, but, given their recent past, I don’t think fans in Baltimore will mind the wild card too much. The bigger question is who will they be playing. Also as predicted here,* the A’s managed to beat the Rangers yet again last night. That puts them just a single game behind Texas with two to play. And, just to re-emphasize, those two games are head-to-head. You absolutely have to love how this has played out, even if you’re a worried Rangers fan. Of course, Rangers fans I’m sure didn’t in a million years think they would be sweating out the division crown in the final days against the A’s. Of course, neither did fans in Oakland, but I’m sure they take it a much different direction. In any case, no matter how you feel about your team’s chances, you have to love how the schedule played out. No scoreboard watching, no moaning that somebody got a cakewalk to the playoffs while the other team was bogged down in the trenches. No games.** Just two teams, three games. You take two out of three, and you take the division crown. *Yes, I know it said it was pretty important that the A’s go into their series with Seattle tied with Texas, and that didn’t happen. But I made sure to note there that it wasn’t a necessity. Because the A’s got to finish up the Rangers, all they needed to do was be within striking distance, which they did accomplish. **Well, you know, beyond the game they’re actually playing. You get the expression, right? Of course, if the A’s win two out of three, that would leave the division as a tie. I don’t know if, at that point, there would be a game 163, or if they would look at the head-to-head record and declare one the division champion and one the wild card. If it came down to a spot in the playoffs at all, I’m sure there would be another game. For positioning in the playoffs, I’m not nearly as sure. The Rangers would have reason to be worried, though, currently sitting at 8-9 against the A’s. It would be lovely if MLB would announce how a tie would be handled, and it’s possible they already have. But a quick glance around MLB’s website has proven fruitless. I also haven’t heard how this would be handled on TV. But, if the A’s win tonight, or the Orioles get that game back tonight, I’m sure we will hear all about it on ESPN. Related to ESPN, who I haven’t harped on in some time, I see they have already decided to focus on the Orioles-Yankees race. That seems a bit premature, but entirely predictable, given ESPN’s headquarters in Connecticut. Of course they would care much, much more about the East Coast race. Add into that the Yankees’ involvement, and it just seems obvious that’s what they would choose. They’re putting the Yankees-Red Sox on ESPN on Wednesday night, and Orioles-Rays on ESPN2. Which is all fine and dandy if the Orioles win tonight and the Yankees lose, but what if that race is already decided, but we have a tie out west? Something tells me ESPN would say they had to make a commitment and they went with the race that was tied at the time and blah blah blah. It would be a hard sell to me, but then, I’ve been pushing the A’s for a little while. Surely MLBTV would fill that void and let us see the real clincher, right? Right? I wish I were a lot more confident in that statement than I actually am, given MLB’s badly outdated and backwards media policies. One can only hope, right? What a difference a week makes. Wabash managed to pretty well steamroll Carnegie-Mellon after the first quarter on Saturday. Both defenses looked to be as stiff as paper, both teams scoring on their first few possessions. Wabash went down 21-7 about midway through the first quarter. From there, though, Wabash finally started to look like the Little Giants I remember, going on to win comfortably at 54-28. That only pushed the team up to sixteenth in the polls, but just as with BCS schools, that is to be expected. It’s awfully hard to move back up the polls once you stub your toe. What is also terribly unfortunate is Wabash probably still won’t be able to make the playoffs this year, even if they’ve got their groove back. Of all the games they could have blown, one against a conference foe was just about the worst thing they could have done. Compound that with being against a conference foe that most likely won’t be in contention for the conference title, and you have a textbook “bad loss” on your hands. You might be able to get away with a bad loss or two in basketball. Not so in football. Wabash pretty well needs to win out and hope they can snag one of the last at-large bids. Of course, if Wabash can beat Wittenberg, and Wittenberg hits another snag on their path, that would work. It’s just that nobody else in the conference has beaten Wittenberg lately, I don’t see why that would change now. But, now, brace yourselves everybody, because we are now officially in October, quite possibly my favorite month of the year. Why? It’s playoff time in the MLB. We’re more or less all set in the National League. We’ll get a showdown with the Braves and Cardinals for a chance to get to the real playoffs, where the winner will get either the Reds or the Nationals. I don’t know who would have the tiebreaker if they’re still all knotted up at the end. Whoever draws the short end of that stick, though, will have to play the suddenly hot Giants. I don’t think it’s just the Cubs fan in me, but it just doesn’t seem right that a team could win 93 games, good enough to win the West, with a future hall-of-famer making his farewell tour, could be knocked out in one game by a team that managed 86 wins. I would buy that scenario in football, but not baseball. My argument has always been the same. Baseball is played by nothing but series. The only one-game, do-or-die scenarios have been settling ties that weren’t decided after 162 games. It was no coincidence that those games were declared game 163, not game one of the playoffs. It just ruffles my feathers. Anyway, over on the American League side of things, the only thing that really seems certain is the Tigers have the Central Division won. It’s not official just yet, but the Tigers just need to win one out of three against the Royals, which doesn’t seem to be too tall an order. That isn’t a big surprise, but boy, did the White Sox give them everything they could handle. No shame on the southside this year. The East is all knotted up, though it seems the Yankees have a slightly easier path. Baltimore has to go down to Tampa to take on the Rays, while the Yankees get the hapless* Red Sox in the Bronx. Out west, the Rangers lead the A’s by two games, which typically would be more or less settled by now. Except, in this case, the A’s are playing the Rangers, which means every game they play is guaranteed to swing the standings. If the A’s end up sweeping the series, there’s a very good chance you’ll see Buck Showalter lose his iron grip on Manager of the Year, though it would have been well-deserved. As amazing as the Orioles have been, everybody expected even less out of the A’s. And a lot out of the Rangers, given where they’ve been the past couple seasons. *I don’t usually go that negative on teams, honestly. But, I think it has been well-reported that this was a wasted summer in Boston pretty well as soon as Bobby Valentine was announced as manager. Ask the White Sox just how nice it is to have Kevin Youkilis on board. That’s all I’ve got for today. Stay tuned, though. I think we’re in for a wild week. |
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