Orioles Slap Bet Poll

[Working Stiff]

At the beginning of the season I said 90 wins ought to get it done to make the playoffs.

A's can go 6-10 and end with 90 W's (7 vs Texas, 3 vs NY, 3 vs Detroit, 3 vs Seattle)
O's can go 8-8 and end up with 90 W's (6 vs Red Sox, 4 vs Toronto, 3 vs Seattle, 3 vs Rays)
Angels need to go 10-5 to end up with 90 W's (6 vs Texas, 6 vs Seattle, 3 vs White Sox)
Tampa needs to go 12-4 to end up with 90 W's. Put a fork in them.

In the National League, the Cardinals and Dodgers suck so badly that Milwaukee and Philadelphia are getting back in the hunt. Whoever gets the last playoff spot will be nowhere close to 90 wins.

[Working Stiff]

Lol...Milwaukee is going to win that last NL playoff spot. That's funny.

Update on a real race:
O's swept Seattle; can go 5-8 the rest of the way and get 90 W's.
A's lost 2 of 3 to Detroit; can go 5-8 the rest of the way and get 90 W's (if they have any pitchers left.)
Angels lost 2 of 3 to Texas; have to go 9-3 the rest of the way to get to 90 W's.

[Working Stiff]

I just looked at some numbers. With the Angels scrambling for a playoff spot, Albert Pujols is hitting .243 with one HR and five RBI's in September. In his last 23 games he has two HR's. Clutch.

[Frank Delicious]

clutch is bullshit.

Angels suck and they are like 5 games out with no H2H left with the A's or the O's. No playoffs for them.

[Working Stiff]

clutch is bullshit.

Angels suck and they are like 5 games out with no H2H left with the A's or the O's. No playoffs for them.

They probably couldn't catch Oakland going into this week. The had a shot at Baltimore. Baltimore got it done and swept Seattle. The Angels lost 2 of three to Texas. It is too late in the year to be losing two games in the standings to the only team you have a shot at catching. Down 4.5 with 12 to play is a far cry from down 2.5 with 12 to play. It would take a total collapse for the Angels to have a shot. The only reason I give them any hope is that the A's keep losing starters. That team on paper looks like it could fold like a lawn chair.

It's funny that both teams that got 'roid suspensions to key players got hot right afterward and look like they are going to make the playoffs anyway.

[Working Stiff]

I do feel bad for Pirates fans, though. Total collapse for the second year in a row. I thought they would keep it over .500 and end that streak of losing seasons, but no luck there either. That franchise is run by idiots.

[Frank Delicious]

I gotta find a funny post about the pirates in a different forum but yeah I feel bad for the Pirates and their fans too. They needed to go something like 12-29 or something at the beginning of august to having a losing season and now it looks like they will.

[Frank Delicious]

Here it is:

The Pittsburgh Pirates, a professional baseball club that has been consistently active for one-hundred-thirty years but has not had a winning season since their one-hundred-tenth, have fallen back out of a winning record.

Need I remind you: On August 8, the Pirates had won 63 games and lost just 47. They held a comfortable lead on a Wild Card berth. It was widely believed that, even if the playoff dream would slip away with lackluster second-half play, a winning season was all but a given.

Since that day, this collection of professional baseball players has won just eleven games (1 against the Padres, 1 against the Dodgers, 1 against the Brewers, 2 against the Cubs, 2 against the Astros, and, somehow, 4 against the Cardinals) and lost twenty-seven. A solid baseball month of losses.

Tonight, with their seventy-fourth loss in their one-hundred-forty-eighth game, the Pirates are back at .500.

Last season, the Pirates endured a grueling 19-inning game against the Atlanta Braves, losing 4-3 on one of the most egregious disputed calls in the history of the game. Over their next 27 games, the Pirates went 7-20.
This season, the Pirates endured a grueling 19-inning game against the St. Louis Cardinals, winning 6-3 on a monstrous homer from Pedro Alvarez. Over their next 27 games, the Pirates have gone 7-20.

[Working Stiff]

After that game on August 19, the Pirates were 67-54 with a +21 run differential. They were coming off a rough home stand where they went 4-7 and let the Cardinals get up to withing a game of them in the Wild Card, but had responded by taking 2 of 3 from the Cardinals in St. Louis after that 19 marathon game. They looked like they were for real.

They weren't.

At the end of play on September 22, the Pirates stand 74-77 with a -23 run differential. They have gone 7-23 in their last 30, giving up 151 runs in that time and scoring 107. If you go back to the start of August, they have gone 15-33. They have to turn it around to the tune of 8-3 in their last 11 just to finish .500.

I can't imagine rooting for a losing team for 19 years, have them get to August 19 looking like a playoff team, and then have them totally collapse like Walmart lawn furniture. It has to be an awful feeling for those fans.

[Working Stiff]

The O's are still getting it done. If they keep smacking the Red Sox around this weekend, they should be set.

It is kinda funny that with five to play, nobody is clinched in the AL.

Texas Rangers 92 65 .586
New York Yankees 91 66 .580
Baltimore Orioles 90 67 .573
Oakland Athletics 89 68 .567
Los Angeles Angels 87 70 .554
Tampa Bay Rays 86 71 .548

Detroit Tigers 84 73 .535
Chicago White Sox 83 74 .529

Texas needs to beat the Angels today and at least assure themselves of a WC. A Yankees win and an Angels loss would put them in as well. That would clear up some things. Throw in an A's win and the Angels fall three back with four to play. An A's win and a Tampa loss and you can write off the Ray's slim chance at the WC; they would fall four back with 4 to play.

If the Angels and Tampa win today, the Rangers would lose. Then if the Yankees and A's also lose, we go to four games to go with nobody clinched, the Angles one back of the WC and the Rays two back.

That doesn't even include Detroit/Chicago with one game separating them. I guess that would be an example of the Divisions and extra WC working to manufacture playoff drama.

The NL is boring by comparison. The Cardinals are thee up with five to play on the Dodgers. LA basically has the same slim to none chance that Tampa has to sneak in. Milwaukee is mathematically alive, but they are five back with five to play. On the bright side, the last WC stands to end up with more than 85 wins.

On a side note, I'll be rooting for Mike Trout and Jered Weaver to win the MVP and Cy Young if the Angels miss. I think it will be funny for a team with the MVP and Cy Young to miss the expanded playoffs.

[Frank Delicious]

Lot of games that matter on the last day of the season. Go O's, fuck the Yankees.

[Frank Delicious]

baseball bitches.

[Jesse B 707]

Well...both my teams lost yesterday...go O's!

[Working Stiff]

Both of my teams lost yesterday, too.

*realizes there were only two games and I'm rooting for the same teams as Jesse B*

*goes to a quiet spot to reevaluate life decisions*

[Working Stiff]

[rant on]OK, I get that the infield fly call in the Braves/Cardinals game was bad. I'm on board with that. The fact is that the deficit was THREE runs and the Braves left guys on 2nd & 3rd in the 7th, left those guys on 2nd & 3rd in the 8th and had guys on 2nd & 3rd in the 9th and didn't drive anybody in. So they had chances and didn't get hits. The reason they were down in the first place was due to them throwing the ball all over Turner Field. The Braves didn't lose because of a blown call. They lost because they committed three errors that lead to runs and they didn't get any two-out hits with runners in scoring position. Make the plays, get one clutch hit and the Braves win 5-2 no matter what kind of fucked-up call the umpires make. Make three errors that lead to runs and don't get any hits with two outs and runners in scoring position and you lose 6-3. Simple as that. You can try to spin this into a bad call, but even after that bad call you still have to get a fucking hit and they didn't get those hits all night so...The Braves lost the fucking game and that is on them. Get over it.[/rant off]