I've been waiting on this since about the All-Star Break. The AL kicks things off this evening with the Rays and Rangers taking the field at five eastern. I'll miss a little bit of the action, but hopefully just the first few innings. Better yet, I'll go set my DVR to record the game, and I should be able to catch up to real-time before the Yankees and Tigers start their brawl. Thank goodness for DirecTV and their remote recording. I'm going to have a bit of a hard time picking who to root for in this Rays-Rangers series. I think it will be the Rangers, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Rays take it. The Rangers will start CJ Wilson, which is entirely expected. The Rays are going with wonderkid Matt Moore in his second career start. I didn't see the first start, but word on the street is this kid is the reason CY Young candidate James Shields (in his iconic picture here) won't be on the Rays next year. Tim Kirkjian says expect him to throw about 98, but his body will look like he's throwing batting practice. I really want to get a look at this kid. And, come on, is it not compelling to see a kid making his second ever start in the Bigs in Game 1 of the ALDS? In other news,* Terry Francona will be leaving the Red Sox after this collapse. I don't think Francona is one of the greatest managers of all time like many seem to, but I do think he's darned good. And not at all to blame for the Red Sox's epic decline. I don't really like to use the word epic, it's been terribly abused as of late, but it really was record breaking. Here's a graph to really put a visual on how bad a choke job this was. Since it was Tim Kirkjian they had on the radio this morning, they asked him where Tito would land and who would take over in Boston. I didn't hear (or pay any attention) to the Boston answer, but Kirkjian threw out the White Sox as a possible spot for Francona. I think that would be an awfully good move. The White Sox still have a good core, but clearly need a different motivation than what Ozzie Guillen was able to provide. I think Francona would be a pretty big change from Ozzie. I think that would be an excellent idea if I were running the White Sox, which plainly I am not. *I was actually kind of waiting for it to become official before I wrote this post. Buckle up, folks. I have a feeling this is going to be an October for the ages. I'll meet you around 5 tonight on TBS, yes? Comments are closed.
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