Wild Card vs. Division

A lot of people around the Boston area (or at least at Boston College) are paranoid now that the Rays are a 1.5 games up on the Red Sox.  To many, Tampa Bay will winning the division is the worst thing possible.  I don't know if I agree with that.

Sure, it'd be nice to win the division and have that first series at Fenway, but would it make for the easiest road to the World Series?  I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.

I assume either way, you have to play Los Angeles-Anaheim.  LA-A has taken something like 7 of 8 from Boston this year, so it's safe to assume they're the better team.  I also believe the better team is more likely to win a 7 game series then a 5 game series, which leads me to the conclusion that the Red Sox would be better off taking on the Angels in the first round.  I like the that in a five game series, you can have Beckett, the greatest postseason pitcher in Red Sox history, pitch twice and Lester pitch once.  If all goes according to plan, those are your three wins right there. 

As a final point, taking on the Angels to open up the post season seemed to work pretty well in both 2004 and 2007.  Both 3 game sweeps for Boston. 

Conflict

Drafting players for my fantasy team can always be a challenge. I try to avoid drafting players that I don't like... or who play for teams that I don't like. At the same time, however... I want my team to win! Sometimes that means drafting players that I'd rather not have do well.

For example... I picked up Mark Teixeira of the Braves this year. [Well... at least he was in Atlanta at the beginning of the season. I was rather relieved when he went to California and I didn't have to root for a Brave anymore!] It was difficult for me to root for a player on a rival team... but I sucked it up and did it anyway. I just hoped that the rest of the team fell apart... which they did, thankfully.

So... it's September. Why on earth am I writing about this now?

It's fantasy league playoff time... and I had a major conflict yesterday. Here's what happened:

On Facebook, I saw on my news feed that a friend of mine had the phrase "Go Mets!" on her profile status. It was horrifying. This wasn't just any friend... this was one of my best friends. And she was not only rooting for the Mets... but rooting for them in a game against the Phillies.

Horrified... I wrote on her wall. She wrote back and explained the situation. She needed ONE hold by a reliever to go past her opponent... and that reliever happened to be a Met. It was a do or die situation: if he got the hold, she'd win the week and play for 1st-4th. If he failed to get the hold, she'd lose the week and would play for 5th or 6th place.

Shoot.

Where does my loyalty lie? To one of my best friends and only other girl in our baseball league? Or to my beloved Phillies?

On the one hand... if I can't win the league... I want her to. So that makes me want to cheer for her. But on the other hand... how can I root FOR the Mets... and AGAINST the Phillies?!? Especially in a real-life playoff race!

It was awful.

But that day has passed. The Phillies lost. My friend got her hold and her win. And now the Phils have to win an extra game to make up for the loss.

We weren't friends yesterday... but I think we're okay now. : )

No-Hitter? Who cares? It's still his fault...

There is a big hub-bub about the only hit in the Brewers-Pirates game yesterday that cost Sabathia a no-hitter. Was it an incorrect scoring decision? Was it a play he should have made on the nubber in front of the mound?
Maybe.
But I think something is getting lost here...Sabathia himself was the one who made the mistake! Maybe he should have made the play, but whether it was a no-hitter or not he still didn't get the job done on that. And yes, I understand that calling it an error shows how dominant his pitching was that the only way the other team could touch him was normal plays getting messed up. It is a measure of how great a pitcher is on a given day...which apparently doesn't have anything to do with fielding. Either way C.C. was incredible (for 11 starts now). An infield hit is basically the equivalent of saying the hitter got lucky. But in order to say the pitcher was as good as he could be, shouldn't that include not making errors?

This gets into the whole problem of unearned runs, at least indirectly. Does it bother anyone else that a pitcher can commit an error in a game and then not get charged for the runs it allows...that HE allows? How does that make sense? The point of an unearned run is not to charge the pitcher for runs he was not responsible for. If we are completely divorcing pitching from fielding, then I guess this makes sense. But we don't seem to have a problem with crediting the pitcher when a guy behind him turns in a web-gem to save a run...

Ok, just a soapbox.

Another question that has come up among friends is: At what point does Sabathia become a real choice for NL Cy Young?
I mean, he has thoroughly dominated his 11 starts, with 6 CGs and 9-0, barely allowing hits or runs...crazy. So, with, say...15 starts and 13-0? Webb is faltering lately...hmm...