Thursday, September 30, 2010

SweetSpot Roundup: September 30

Capitol Avenue Club (Braves): Wednesday Notes
"Not that it’s a given, but a playoff berth seems very likely at this point.  That’s something I didn’t think I’d have to make clear a month and a half ago."

The View from the Bleachers (Cubs): As We Come Down to the Wire
Chet makes an excellent decision (adopts the Twins as his postseason team) and then asks five awfully interesting questions.

Redleg Nation: Best. Night. Ever.
Chad impulsively made the long trip to take in the Tuesday night Reds game, and was rewarded with a walk-off home run and a Reds clincher. And now he's written about it, so we're rewarded, too.

Austin's Astros 290 Blog: Lessons from Chris Johnson
Thoughts about a moving article about the Astros' Chris Johnson. I hope Austin's right that Johnson (nearly 26, .399 BABIP) is a "rising star."

Dodger Thoughts: Dodgers Finish Series Sweep of Rockies
The game/series recap includes the "Bottom Standings," with the note that the Dodgers are "close to being mathematically eliminated from the race" for baseball's worst second-half record.

Mets Today: Mets Game 157: Loss to Brewers; Mets Game 158: Loss to Brewers
The Brewers come from behind in doubleheader game one, and then beat the lackluster Mets in game two. "Not much else to say, other than, thank goodness we have only four more games to suffer through."

Ducksnorts (Padres): Axis: Cold as Glove
I'm not smart enough to grasp the meaning of the title. "I prefer to remember the 2010 Padres in their glory, when they possessed the finest attributes of our heroes’ youth. The team I saw Tuesday night (likely for the last time in person this year; playoff tickets arrived on Monday, but those just seem cruel right now — I may not even open the envelope) bore no resemblance to the team I watched for five months."

Bay City Ball (Giants): Wednesday Graph: Where Did Rowand Go?
Aaron Rowand has been getting less and less playing time lately, and it's not that hard to figure out why. What is hard is figuring out what to do with a guy you still owe $24 million to who doesn't really play baseball all that well anymore.

Fungoes (Cardinals): Rethinking Pujols' demands in light of 2010 playoff teams' payrolls
"None of this is to say Pujols isn’t a hugely valuable player or hasn’t been worth his salary to-date. But if the goal is to win championships — or, as we propose, simply make it to the crapshoot tournament — will having an albatross of Albert’s contract over the next five to seven years make that more or less likely?" I think my answer to that question is very, very different from Pip's, but he makes good points.

Nationals Baseball: What if the Nats do Nothing?
"The Nats could do nothing. It's always possible. Doing nothing though, would be a sign of a team giving up on 2011, surrendering already to another 100 loss season."

B-List Indians Blog: B-List Lite
Armando Galarraga, Luke Carlin, and Charles Nagy.

Pro Ball NW (Mariners): Well That Was Original
The Mariners keep finding new and creative ways to disappoint M’s fans and amaze the rest of us. Would you believe a walk-off strikeout?

Baseball Time in Arlington (Rangers): The Rangers Playoff Dump Truck
All that’s left is to figure out who’s in the pen and on 1B.

The Ray Area: The Maturation of David Price and Evan Longoria
"It struck me last night that perhaps Price and Longoria engaged in something of a coordinated effort to spark the Rays fan base that was hatched in the dugout during Monday night’s game.  If they did, we may always remember Monday, September 27, 2010 as the day that the Evan Longoria and David Price era began."

Fire Brand of the American League (Red Sox): Felipe Lopez and How the Red Sox Stole a Draft Pick
"Lopez is a malcontent, a problem child and has played for seven teams in his career, but he’s going to be converted into a potential impact player via a draft pick and I applaud this move by the front office."

Royals Authority: Seeking Answers to the Remaining Questions of 2010
Royals bloggers are talking about the attendance problems in other cities?  Now I've seen everything.

The Daily Fungo (Tigers): Tigers Today
Happy Birthday to TCM's favorite Tiger of all time: Rob Deer!

Nick's Twins Blog:  The "Overlooked MVP" Ballot
Nick thinks the most underappreciated Twin is not someone you'd think of.

Sox Machine (White Sox): It's Not Me, It's You
Breaking up with the 2010 White Sox

It's About the Money, Stupid (Yankees): RIP, Javier Vazquez' Yankee Career
"No matter what you want to look at, Javy Vazquez has been drinking copiously from the Fountain of Suck."


championship

2 comments:

Geoff Young said...

Re: Ducksnorts title, it's a play on Jimi Hendrix's album "Axis: Bold as Love." Hendrix is mentioned in the article; the Padres committed three errors in the game, so one could say their gloves went cold.

Bill said...

Aha! Thanks for the explanation. Yeah, not up on my Hendrix.