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The National League wild card races are officially a mess. There was a formal declaration of a mess issued by the Commissioner's Office. When such a declaration has been made, it's best to just wait until all the games are over at the end of the day and see who's ahead.
First of all, the divisional leaders have started to pull away again. The Mets lead the Phillies by 15 1/2 games in the East and have a magic number of 18 to make the playoffs. The Mets start a three-game series at Colorado at 6:05 pm PT (Steve Trachsel vs. Byung-Hyun Kim). The Mets are 19-7 against the NL West.
St. Louis which led Cincinnati by .0004 in the standings at the start of play Friday now lead the Reds by 3 1/2 games. The Cardinals host Florida, which has won eight straight, at 5:10 pm PT (Scott Olsen vs. Mark Mulder).
Los Angeles stretched its lead to three games in the West over San Diego. The Dodgers host the Reds at 7:10 pm PT (Eric Milton vs. Mark Hendrickson).
The Reds lead the Padres by a 1/2 game in the wild card. The Padres are at Arizona at 6:40 pm PT (Chris Young vs. Enrique Gonzalez). The Phillies are just one game back and play at Washington at 4:05 pm PT (Brett Myers vs. Tony Armas). If the Reds win, they hold on to the wild card lead. If the Reds lose and the Padres win, the Padres would lead the wild card by 1/2 game. If the Reds and Padres lose and the Phillies win, the Phillies would take over the lead in the wild card by a margin of .0001 (.5038 to .5037).
The Giants are just 1 1/2 games back of the Reds and the Giants will be in Atlanta at 4:35 pm PT (Jason Schmidt vs. Tim Hudson).
The AL is much tidier. Two divisions are seeing their leaders pull away from the pack. The Yankees lead the Red Sox by seven games. In the West, Oakland now leads the Angels by 6 1/2 games. Detroit leads Minnesota in the Central by five games.
Detroit opens up a three-game series at New York at 4:05 pm PT (Nate Robertson vs. Chien-Ming Wang). Oakland hosts Boston at 7:05 pm PT (Josh Beckett vs. Kirk Saarloos).
Minnesota leads Chicago in the wild card by 1/2 game and both teams are starting series against the bottom feeders of the AL. The White Sox host Tampa Bay at 5:05 pm PT (Casey Fossum vs. Freddie Garcia). The Twins host the Royals at 5:10 pm PT (Mark Redman vs. Matt Garza). Both Tampa Bay and Kansas City are 18-48 on the road this season. Tampa Bay has lost 10 straight road games and has not won on the road since they beat the Yankees 19-6 on July 29. The Royals will have a big effect on the winner of the Central as their last ten games are against the Tigers and Twins.
They will also play:
Chicago at Pittsburgh - Will the Cubs get a complete game this year?
Toronto at Cleveland
Baltimore at Texas
Milwaukee at Houston - Willy Taveras goes for 31 games in a row!
Los Angeles at Seattle - Jered Weaver faces Jarrod Washburn. Loser has to change the spelling of his first name.
Of course, other people have ipdods . . .
Brown's reference to Soriano and Lee suggests that teams may not receive compensation this coming offseason when their high-ranked free agents are signed away. Could that possibly be right?
Your link isn't working... do you mind expanding on that comment, because I can't get my brain wrapped around it and I am starting to break out in hives.
If there were no free agent draft pick compensation, then that would change my evaluation of the job Colletti has done this year from "good" to "abominable." All the extra draft picks we could have in next year's deep draft -- possibly 5 first-rounders if Lugo and Nomar leave -- has me salivating.
I believe Maury Brown's site is down at the moment.
The issue was discussed at this Nationals chat site, starting with this paraphrase of Brown's piece at comment 38: "Maury claims sources have revealed to him that MLBPA and MLB have agreed that teams may no longer receive draft picks as compensation for free agents who leave as part of the upcoming CBA."
Further down in the thread is discussion of the timing issue and when changes to the CBA would "count" that unfolded after I commented here. No clear answer of course.
http://gameday.yuda.org/index.cgi/20060829.html
I don't think you can slam Ned for Nomar. LA has gotten good value for that investment, and they didn't have to give up anything to get him. I think the Lugo deal is the main one this impacts. the question is, what did Ned know, and when did he know it?
7 Nomar would still be a good pickup without draft pick compensation. Maddux and Hendrickson, maybe not so much.
I'm not upset long-term over the demise of compensation. I'd be upset in the short term because the Dodgers have a current roster that was clearly constructed with the idea of reaping a huge harvest of compensation picks.
It will likely even help the Dodgers this year because, given Colletti's tendencies, they will likely pick up one or two free agents.
Heh heh. I had to make certain I was at The Griddle and not the other place...
What am I doing that ESPN isn't doing? Besides speaking in less slang.
https://griddle.baseballtoaster.com/archives/490657.html
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