2014 MLB Season: How Many Pitchers Will Die For Our Sins?

[Timby]

Some how the Mariners still have a slim chance of making it to the post season thanks to Oakland losing. Now they just need to beat the Angels with a tied game in the 9th....talk about pressure!

The AL West is just the most amazing clusterfuck. The Mariners should have been dead to rights a month ago. The A's playoff probability was around 98 percent on August 9, and that probability hadn't been below 88 percent since sometime in May ... and now they're going to stay home.

holding onto the game's worst manager in John Gibbons

Fredi Gonzalez would like to have a word with you (John Hart said this morning that the Braves are going to keep him), and until Kirk Gibson was fired he was far and away the worst in the sport. Mike Matheny and Robin Ventura deserve to be in that conversation, as well.

 

[Dave Lister]

What an exciting day of baseball. Hopefully some of the teams chasing can win their games and with a little help push game 163. I like Seattle's chances with Hernandez on the bump. I dig Detroit and St. Louis, but I'm pulling for KC and Pittsburgh big time.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Jordan Zimmermann has a no-hitter. First in Nats history.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Go A's

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Being from Omaha, I'll root for the Royals as long as they're in this. As for the NL, I hope the Pirates make it as far as they can. They deserve it.

 

[Timby]

There could have been three Game 163s ... instead there are none. Chaos, sadly, did not reign today.

 

[AliciaD496]

Well, the Mariners put up a good fight and kept it going down to the last game. Still wasn't good enough. The perpetual refrain of Ms fans...maybe next season.

 

[Dave Lister]

Being from Omaha, I'll root for the Royals as long as they're in this. As for the NL, I hope the Pirates make it as far as they can. They deserve it.

I'd quite like to see this matchup in the Series. Slim chance, they've got some formidable opponents in line, but I'd like to see this one.

 

[Timby]

Being from Omaha, I'll root for the Royals as long as they're in this. As for the NL, I hope the Pirates make it as far as they can. They deserve it.

I'd quite like to see this matchup in the Series. Slim chance, they've got some formidable opponents in line, but I'd like to see this one.

Yeah, the AL is an incredibly odd field this season. Looking at it on paper, right now I'd handicap it as Los Angeles / Detroit / Kansas City / Oakland / Baltimore. I tend to give more weight to teams that can shorten up their rotations to 3, maybe 4, good-to-great guys, but thanks to injuries none of these teams have stellar playoff rotations. If Garrett Richards were healthy, I think the Angels would be the odds-on favorite for the pennant (bizarre as that sentence would've seemed to type six months ago). Lester / Samardzija / Gray should be a decent top three for Oakland, but that's a really weird team right now, as evidenced by falling completely ass-backwards into the postseason. And I almost want to flip-flop Detroit and Baltimore despite Detroit's far better starters, simply due to how little I trust Brad Ausmus to make even a single correct, helpful in-game decision.

I'd like to see the O's go all the way, but a Kansas City / Pittsburgh World Series would be sweet, just to imagine every sports executive at Fox having a simultaneous aneurysm due to abysmal ratings.

 

[Pondwater]

Since I don't have a dog in this fight: Go Halos/ Go Cardinals!!

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Psyched about the games Tuesday and Wednesday night. I hope KC makes it out of the AL; Oakland deserves to go home after the way they've played the past two months.

--Sran

 

[Ryan8bit]

I hope KC makes it out of the AL; Oakland deserves to go home after the way they've played the past two months.

If only baseball was about what people deserved. If there weren't the wild card matchup, it would've just been KC, which would have been nice. Now I fear that Shields won't hold up to Lester, but here's hoping I'm wrong. Go, Royals!

EDIT: And the Twins released Ron Gardenhire and the whole coaching staff. I knew it was coming, but I didn't think it would be this soon. I'm not sure if the past few years is his fault, but it should be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Timby]

I hope KC makes it out of the AL; Oakland deserves to go home after the way they've played the past two months.

If only baseball was about what people deserved. If there weren't the wild card matchup, it would've just been KC, which would have been nice. Now I fear that Shields won't hold up to Lester, but here's hoping I'm wrong. Go, Royals!

That's the thing about Kansas City; they have a ridiculously tough row to hoe. Even if they do make it out of the play-in game, their offense is so anemic that every other team knows that if they can tag Shields or Duffy for three runs then the Royals are essentially a bye.

EDIT: And the Twins released Ron Gardenhire and the whole coaching staff. I knew it was coming, but I didn't think it would be this soon. I'm not sure if the past few years is his fault, but it should be interesting to see what happens.

Gardenhire's one of those weird dudes who's universally admired, but holy God, between his love of bunting and his knack for giving scrappy middle infielders an infinite number of chances just got old after a while, I guess. It sounds like Molitor and Steinbach are the front runners for the vacancy.

I'm sure Gardenhire will have a new job within a week. The combination of Tony La Russa in the front office and Gardenhire on the field in Arizona would be ridiculous for all the goofy shit they'd try to do.

 

[Ryan8bit]

I think with the people he gave chances, he really didn't have much of an alternative. I really don't like Aaron Hicks, and I thought he was given a lot of slack, but I can understand why they don't want to turn prospects away. They fear the usual, which is that Twins players flourish when they leave the team. They fear a Gomez or Hardy situation.

I think he just ran into some bad luck with how there really isn't any talent currently to pick from. It's because the owners aren't spending enough, or spending foolishly. While Hughes was somewhat of a surprise, they paid Nolasco even more to be pretty bad. And the pitching overall is the biggest problem. They were near last in just about every pitching category.

Part of me wonders if they said pitching coach Rick Anderson had to go, and if Gardy said he'd have to go with him if they did that.

 

[Timby]

I think with the people he gave chances, he really didn't have much of an alternative. I really don't like Aaron Hicks, and I thought he was given a lot of slack, but I can understand why they don't want to turn prospects away. They fear the usual, which is that Twins players flourish when they leave the team. They fear a Gomez or Hardy situation.

I think he just ran into some bad luck with how there really isn't any talent currently to pick from. It's because the owners aren't spending enough, or spending foolishly. While Hughes was somewhat of a surprise, they paid Nolasco even more to be pretty bad. And the pitching overall is the biggest problem. They were near last in just about every pitching category.

How much of that was due to Gardenhire, though, and how much was due to Terry Ryan being a Really Bad general manager? (I mean, c'mon, Kevin fucking Correia.)

Edit: Holy holy holy holy shit, the Astros named AJ Hinch their new manager. I cannot stop laughing.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

With the Astros hiring AJ Hinch I'm calling the lock now. The Astros are the team to beat for the worst record in baseball next year.

 

[JeffinOakland]

As an A's fan, I thoroughly approve of the Astros hiring A J Hinch.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Who the hell IS A.J. Hinch?

 

[Yanks]

Ok, I'm officially mad. They are doing the Derek Jeter chant in Boston. Not Jeter Sucks but the official Derek Jeter chant. I was hoping for some sort of normalcy from Boston fans but no. Can I get a Jeter Sucks chant please.

I think there were more Yankees fans there than Boston fans

Pretty classy what they did.

 

[Green Shirt]

Who the hell IS A.J. Hinch?

First I've heard of him.