I saw that he said he's going to play the young guys, but I'm not sure I would call that tanking. What is certainly true is that if the Nats had lost today he would be playing the starters tomorrow, because for some odd reason he has decided that finishing his managing career 300 games above .500 is important. He is 1372-1070, so Sunday's game doesn't matter to him.
Astros staggering home as certainly the worst franchise (in terms of sustained performance) over three seasons since the 1962-1965 Mets. They get a chance to go after the worst four season performance since then next year!
I guess it's not as bad as what the Dodgers did after clinching the division, but sitting basically all your starters at once is tanking. 1. Jeff Kobernus (R) LF 2. Anthony Rendon (R) 3B 3. Jayson Werth (R) RF 4. Tyler Moore (R) 1B 5. Zach Walters (S) SS 6. Steve Lombardozzi (S) 2B 7. Jhonatan Solano (R) C 8. Eury Perez (R) CF 9. Tanner Roark (R) P Dodgers 1. Dee Gordon (L) SS 2. Jerry Hairston (R) 3B 3. Skip Schumaker (L) 2B 4. Scott Van Slyke (R) LF 5. Tim Federowicz (R) C 6. Nick Buss (L) CF 7. Alex Castellanos (R) RF 8. Drew Butera (R) 1B 9. Edinson Volquez (R) P
And the Nationals sitting everyone in one game matters why? Other than the fact Arizona might finish at .500 now, but it's not as if it really means anything for 'either' team although yeah it's the height of being anal that Davey wanted to finish +300. The fan in me wants the three-way tiebreaker in the AL but I need Jimenez to come through for my fantasy team and I'd rather the Indians eventually get to play the Red Sox in the playoffs anyway so I'm kinda rooting against it lol
It doesn't have any playoff implications but the idea is that teams are supposed to try to win anyway. Sitting everyone at once is tanking. Houston has been tanking all season, though. They systematically stripped all the MLB talent except for Altuve over the past few seasons.
Yankees also trotting out the scrubs Cano and Soriano resting for the postseason, I guess. Oh wait...
It's a 162-game season, you can't fault teams for trying to get a look at other players in meaningless games - or resting guys before the postseason. Especially if they're on the road. If you were resting guys in front of your own fans that paid ML prices that's something else imo. Teams in every professional sport do this, the Colts were diseased in doing this before the playoffs for years. Gregg Popovich'll do this in November lol.
That's a different situation. If you're resting for the playoffs, that's one thing. If you're out of the playoffs, you should put at least some starters out there. FYI, Johnson just removed Werth from the lineup. He just realized that he forgot to pull one of his starters.
Henderson Alvarez pitched a no-hitter for Miami as Marlins scored in the bottom of the 9th on a wild pitch to win 1-0. Amazing thing is that he thought the team was ahead and he had finished the no-hitter in the top of the 9th.
Dodgers have announced that Matt Kemp is not going to play for the rest of the season supposedly because of "minor surgery" on his shoulder. It's very strange how this has suddenly been announced after no word of this before, and doing "minor surgery" right before the postseason is more than a little strange.
So the Rays and Rangers play a one game playoff (although I guess it's really game 163). The winner goes on to play another one game playoff. Great!
Wide open playoffs. The only teams I felt couldn't win the World Series were the Indians, A's, and Pirates. The Reds were of course eliminated but they had the pieces, so I wasn't counting them out.
MLB and the networks are certainly not happy that there won't be a Francona/Red Sox reunion. Tampa Bay brings absolutely nothing to the table in terms of buzz.
vbetting on two series: http://forums.theganggreen.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=79067 Also, so much for LA having too many OFs Kemp barely played this season and will miss the entire playoffs. Ethier missed a lot of time due to injuries and may not be able to play the field for a while. Skip Schumaker starts in CF tonight.
Miguel Cabrera costs the Tigers a run by being lazy and not getting in front of a grounder. Granted he doesn't move anymore, but even the fattest slowest guy had plenty of time to move a step to his left. He didn't, he committed an error, and the A's score.
Deja vu in Detroit. Balfour got into it with Victor Martinez after shouting something at him. It happened in the 2008 ALDS between Balfour and Orlando Cabrera as well. http://wapc.mlb.com/play/?content_id=3584019
And this is exactly why all of the advanced metrics say Cabrera is a lot less valuable than his hitting would suggest - take him away from the plate and put him on the bases or in the field and he is a gigantic liability.
