Getting past the Yankees puts us third in the Wild Card standings just a 1.5 behind the Twins but still 8 back of the Red Sox. The Sox and the Rays have a three game series in Fenway. The Sox are just a 1.5 behind the Rays so by our weekend series with the Red Sox we might be chasing the Rays for the Wild Card. Not that I really think there is a possiblity. It would take a 2007 Met's style collapse coupled with a Rockies style run. But is fun to consider. The nice thing we could do is sweep the White Sox to even things with the Twins. Only fair to sweep both teams in the AL Central race. Best not to play favorites.
Looks like the good races will be in the NL this year. The Mets beat the Phillies last night to give them a two game lead but they have got bad new this weekend, Billy Wagner is likely done for the season and Pedro Martinez was very inaffective in first game of the Mets-Phillies day/night double header. They can't be very confident about what they might get from him for the rest of the year.
The Diamondback are 1.5 games ahead of Dodgers after being swept by them. The Dodgers are the only team in the division above .500.
Jamie Campbell blogged about trading BJ Ryan, seems like a good idea but then you would need to find someone willing to take him and his contract. That would be tough. But it was one of the comments I was interested in:
Why not move BJ and Rolen and Overbay (I personally like Overbay) for (Lance) Berkman? They have some hefty corner infielder needs.
I would think if you suggest trades maybe you could think about it for a moment from the other team's point of view. You think the Astros would trade one of the top players in baseball for three wildly overpaid players, two of whom are huge injury risks and the other an underpowered first basemen. If all the other GM's in the league were idiots, this would be a much easier game.
Thought we'd take a look at our recently traded Jays:
Robinson Diaz had his first start at catcher for the Pirates Sunday going 2 for 5 and driving in a run.
Stairs is 1 for 4 with a double for the Phillies.
Eck is 4 for 22 with no runs, for a .182 BA and a .240 on base in 6 games for the Diamondbacks.
And one last thing, since we didn't get the fantasy football league off the ground, I thought instead we could do a weekly NFL pool. On Wednesday or Thursday each week I'll list the weekend games and the spread and folks can email me who they think will beat the spread. No money involved but the winner can have bragging rights for the week.
Tonight's game is a later start, 8:00 Eastern, the game threads have been great fun lately, join in if you can.