Just in case the AL’s winning percentage of 0.566 over the past 5 years of Interleague Play wasn’t enough to convince you… (in case you were wondering, a 0.566 winning percentage in 2009 would have you leading the NL Wild Card race)

Just in case the NL’s last All-Star Game win coming during Derek Jeter’s Rookie Year wasn’t enough to convince you…

Just in case the AL’s winning 7 of the last 11 World Series wasn’t enough to convince you…

How about John Smoltz and Brad Penny both lighting it up in the National League after they were JUSTIFIABLY deemed to be unworthy of taking part in the American League playoff push?

Just for good measure – let’s take a quick tour through the 4 of the past 11 World Series that were won by the NL, in reverse chronological order.

2008 – Phillies 4, Rays 1.  Was anyone seriously surprised when Cinder-Rays-la woke up with an ALCS-sized hangover and was so bloated she couldn’t fit into her glass slippers any more?

2006 – Cardinals 4, Tigers 1.  Everyone forgets how the Tigers pretty much handed the Cards 3 of the 4 wins in this series by playing in a manner which would have caused them to run extra laps during little league (errors, baserunning blunders, etc.)…I think the Tigers lineup was hands-down better at every position except 1B…David Eckstein was the Series MVP for cryin’ out loud!

2003 – Marlins 4, Yankees 2.  Josh Beckett owned the Yankees…I shamelessly giggled and dared to dream of what could happen if Theo could ever find a way to get him into a Red Sox uniform.  Ask any Red Sox fan – even back then, when Mike Lowell was a past-his-prime overpaid bum that Boston had to take off Florida’s hands just to get Beckett – it was a small price to pay to get the Yankee killer on the roster.  Of course, Lowell worked out OK, too.

2001 – Diamondbacks 4, Yankees 3.  Someone forgot to tell Arizona that everyone (with the possible exception of Red Sox fans) was rooting for the Yankees after September 11, 2001.  Hey – on a side note – anyone heard from Luis Gonzalez lately?  Take a look at this close-up of him after the game winning hit and shout out the first word that comes to your mind.  I’ll bet it rhymes with hair-droids.  If you yelled out something different, go ahead and click on it to see the larger version.

OK – it has been forever since I posted anything.  I apologize for the inconvenience if my revenue-generating life does not coincide with your desire to read my half-baked theories.

I will now predict the AL and NL wildcard winners.  I am going to do so with something crazy and completely out of place in any sports argument – facts and logic.  I am going to look at the remaining schedules of the teams competing for the wildcard in each league.  At this point in the season, wins and losses are worth roughly 0.004 percentage points, in terms of winning percentage, and they are going to decrease slightly with each passing day.

That kind of makes the math pretty easy – if you are competing against a team with a better record, you will need to overcome at least half of the difference, to the tune of 0.002 in the winning percentage for each game you are behind.  We then coupling this simple math with some that is even simpler – what is the weighted average of the winning percentage of the teams you have left to play in 2009?  If you don’t know what a weighted average is, look it up.  If you have a more difficult schedule than a team you are chasing, you will probably also have to make up at least half of that difference as well.

Later today, I am going to set up a page where you can see the current prediction on a daily basis.  For right now, we are just going to look at the predictions through the games of last night, August 30, 2009.

American League

Boston (Wild Card)

Texas (4.5 GB)

Tampa Bay (9.5 GB)

Seattle (12 GB)

National League

Colorado (Wild Card)

Atlanta (1.5 GB)

San Francisco (2 GB)

Florida (3.5 GB)

Chicago (4.5 GB)

I am anxious to see if the statistics hold up over the course of the next 30+ games.  On the surface, you would kind of expect this kind of performance – Boston running away with the AL Wildcard and a dogfight up until perhaps the last weekend in the NL.

Speaking of the last weekend – here are the series that weekend that have the potential to have an impact…in order of the probability that they will matter to the playoff picture.

Rockies-Dodgers.  Tough last series for the predicted Wildcard winner.

Giants-Padres.  These first two are very intriguing.  Could you imaging San Fran being within a couple of games of Colorado, looking at San Diego, knowing that Colorado had the Dodgers to contend with?  In Dodger Stadium with that crowd gearing up for the playoffs?

Braves-Nationals.  If the Braves can be close going in, there should be 3 guaranteed victories here.

Rangers-Mariners.  Both of these teams should be well-eliminated by this time, but if one or both of them is close to Boston, it could be interesting…except for:

Red Sox-Indians.  Just what the other AL Wildcard hopefuls need.  By the way, Boston has the easiest schedule of any potential AL Wildcard team.

Yankees-Rays. If we learned anything from The Matt Garza Game last October, we learned to never count out the Rays.  This might also be their last year before they can only pay one out of every 3 of their young superstars…they could be in “now or never” mode and how can you root against Joe Maddon?

UPDATE:  The daily prediction, using the most current relative statistics for the competing teams, based on their performance until this point in the season and their relative schedule strength vs. the other competing teams in their league, can now be seen here:  http://www.mackonsports.com/blog/mlb-wild-card/

I had occasion to be in Chicago this morning and the local sports radio guys up there were positively giddy with the Peavy-to-the-White-Sox deal.  And they should have been.  It was reported that the Padres had actually called Peavy in to talk to him about it on Wednesday night…which basically means that the deal was in place and just required Peavy to waive his no-trade clause. 

Most of the experts are talking about a couple of key reasons for Peavy to invoke his no-trade clause and stay in San Diego:

- Peavy wants to stay in the National League

- Peavy wants to play for a contender

Obviously, neither of those two criteria apply to the 2009 Chicago White Sox, especially the second one. 

If winning cures everything, then the potential for winning will set Peavy free.  Here are some of the other things at play here:

- The Padres need to get Peavy’s salary off the books ASAP.  They are way over budget and the owner is going through a messy divorce, in which the Padres franchise comprises over 50% of the marital assets and is also the key bargaining chip.  They are in full-on fire sale / rebuilding mode.  Hey, at least this guy have a bona fide reason for the fire sale (I am talking to you, Jeff Loria, you heartless, soulless, fan-destroying douche-bag). So, Peavy is gone before the trade deadline, we know that for a fact.

- The Padres want 4 good prospects in return for Peavy.  There are only a small handful of teams that have the prospects to support that kind of trade without depleting the farm system and/or have enough money to replenish the farm system fairly quickly.  I don’t quite have time to do all the research necessary to come up with the whole list, but it probably looks something like:  Red Sox, Cubs, Braves, White Sox, Yankees, Mets, Angels, Rays, Phillies, Dodgers.

- Peavy has around $60 million of guaranteed money coming to him under his current deal.  The list of teams that can support that kind of financial commitment is even shorter than the list of teams in the bullet point above this one.  Once again, just a slightly educated guess, but that list might look like this:  Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Red Sox, Dodgers, Angels, White Sox, Phillies.  Notice anything particular about that list?  If not, you are kindly urged to check out the list of the largest media markets in the U.S. here.

So, it’s not exactly rocket science to figure out where Peavy might end up.  If he is firm on the National League thing, then he will probably end up with the Cubs…who have finally figured out how to win in a league without a salary cap when you are in a major media market.  Granted, they already passed on Peavy during the off-season for financial reasons, but they are far from done talking to Peavy about the prospect of coming to Chicago.

If Peavy is willing to relax the NL requirement to get himself to a contender, then he will be in New York or Boston.  I think Boston, with the injuries they have had to their pitching staff, and all the young arms they have in the minors, would be a perfect fit.

Sure, I am a Red Sox fan, so the overall premise of this blog post is merely to pre-gloat about the upcoming Jake Peavy trade in the next month or two.  Don’t go to sleep on Theo Epstein on this one.

So, just for kicks, let’s look at the potential playoff rotation for the Red Sox with Peavey in the mix, shall we?  Beckett, Peavey, Penny, Lester, Dice-K, Smoltz…wait, that’s 6…and we haven’t gotten to Wakefield, Buckholz or Masterson yet.  I have always wanted the Sox to be able to use Wakefield as a reliever in the playoffs.  Could you imagine being able to have him get up every couple of innings or so of a playoff game, see how the knuckler is reacting under the current conditions, phone in the results to Tito from the ‘pen, and only have Wakefield used when he will be most effective?  And what about having the ability to finish games like this: Masterson, Smoltz, Papelbon back-to-back-to-back…with Okajima available to put the occasional lefty to sleep in a pinch.

I think it might be safe to say that a Red Sox team featuring that kind of staff might have a better than average chance to win their 3rd title in 6 years.  Uh, as a Red Sox fan, I am pretty excited about that last paragraph, even if you take the name Peavy out of it.  In fact, if you are a Red Sox fan, read that last paragraph again, ignoring the word “Peavy” and remind yourself that the Sox have been accomplishing everything so far this year without Dice-K, Smoltz or an HR from Papi, except for the one he hit Wednesday night.

So, my feelings for the Red Sox aside, let’s assume that Peavy is going to end up with a contender that can provide the prospects required and weather the $60 million storm.  Unfortunately, at least for small market teams and their fans…the rich get richer…again. 

One last point…don’t go to sleep on Shallow Hal with this one, either. 

Make no mistake, Scott Boras has changed the game of baseball with his negotiating prowess.  I do not wish to use this forum to recount all the reasons why any change attributed to Boras is horrible for everyone associated with the game, except for Boras and his clients, and especially horrible for hardworking fans.  It really makes me angry to even think about it…I could only imagine my mood after writing that article.

Anyway, since I don’t have a heck of a lot of time to spend on this one, due to the recent launch of RPIBracket.com, I will keep it short and leave you with this very brief analysis.

I have a 4-year-old son at home that could never, ever, under any circumstances, be outmaneuvered, out-foxed, or out-anything-ed (except for being out-douched) by Frank McCourt and Ned Colletti.  Hell, I scraped some dog dookie off my shoe the other day that would stand on even intellectual footing with the current Dodgers brain trust (at least until you get to Joe Torre)…and somehow Mr. Super Agent is so far off his game that Manny is not playing ball yet for the only team that really wants and really needs him…and is, by the way, the absolute perfect situation for him.

I will always have a soft spot for Manny after all he did for me and my fellow Red Sox fans, but to see Boras floundering like this has got to be one of my best baseball memories since the shock and disappointment of “The Matt Garza Game” last October.

I will, however, give a little bit of credit on one front — the Yankees are one of only a few teams that have figured out how to win in a league without a salary cap.  It’s simple…spend as much money as you can to get the best players that you can…while still maintaining some semblance of a farm system.  It is no great surprise that for the most part, the teams with the biggest payrolls are the teams still playing in October.  Most fans of mid-market and small market teams are quick to point out that they are at a distinct disadvantage because they can’t compete under those conditions.

That is only partly correct — with very few exceptions, those teams have an owner worth a billion dollars that does not want to spend enough money to give his fans a fighting chance.  Enough about those guys without enough balls to take that chance…let’s talk about our new friend Shallow Hal — someone with a slightly different problem. 

For lack of a better term, let’s just call it “small cock disease”.  You know what I am talking about…the guy that would take out a second mortgage on a house that he already can’t afford to get a hot new sports car and be a total douche to everyone he gets the chance to lord over in his personal and professional life…as if he is compensating for something he does not have in his trousers.  You can often find this kind of person badgering those in the service industry…and if you don’t think Pinky Dick Steinbrenner badgers at least one person in the service industry every week, you do not know much about his kind.

So, let’s take a good look at the first two deals Stubby has come up with, shall we?

The Yankees just added almost $40 million per year to its payroll for two pitchers that have a total of ZERO postseason wins between them.  I understand the Sabathia deal, I really do.  He was the best player available, and the Yankees absolutely felt like they needed to send a message by picking him up.  Sure, $23 million per year is a bit absurd for a player that has melted down in the postseason in Cleveland and Milwaukee…not exactly the same pressure as October in the Bronx…but the message is loud and clear…the Yankees are spending money and trying to put together the best team they can. 

If the C.C. Sabathia deal is understandable, the deal for A. J. Burnett is absolutely indefensible if you are the Yankees.  $16.5 million dollars per year for that?  This deal has “Kevin Brown” written all over it…except Kevin Brown was a lock-down #1 starter when he arrived in the Bronx, and Burnett is a serviceable #3 starter and that’s it.  But, once again, the Yankees are sending a message. 

Perhaps the message in this case speaks a little bit more toward a little rich kid with “small cock disease” that does not have a clue how to run anything, much less a baseball team, than it speaks toward a team trying to win a championship, but one thing comes through above all else…do you recall hearing about any other team than the Yankees during the winter meetings? 

Mission accomplished, Hal the Short — the Yankees are relevant again.  Relevance in December is no guarantee of relevance in October, or even April, but at least you are trying.  Granted, like the spoiled little brat you are, you are trying to take the shortest and easiest route possible and it is more than likely to blow up in your face, but your fans have to be happy that there is at least some kind of progress.  Speaking of fans — how do you think small market fans feel about the A.J. Burnett deal?  Watching the Yankees pay $16.5 million per year for a #3 starter has got to make Royals fans feel like their team really has a chance to compete.

One final thought about what the Yankees are doing.  Brian Cashman is the one who will end up taking the fall for what has happened over the past week, not Joe Girardi and DEFINITELY not Hal “Pen Cap” Steinbrenner.  And you know what?  Cashman SHOULD end up taking the fall for these moves.  They are not good baseball moves.  Brain Cashman has forgotten more about good baseball moves than everyone in the Steinbrenner family will collectively ever know…and he still allowed those deals to happen.  I can’t blame him for not going to the mat with Needle Dick over either of these moves, but he has to know that his future is tied to how those two players (and any other player Hal overpays for over the next couple of months) perform over the next couple of years.  I personally don’t think he has the stones for it.

In addition to voting for “Value” to mean a player’s value to his team, let’s also incorporate his financial “Value” as well.  For instance, a player making 15 million dollars per year should be roundly castigated in the press if he is not on the list of M.V.P. candidates every single year, while a guy making $400K, who is matching the high-priced prima donna tit-for-tat, should be regarded as being much more “Valuable”.

Anyway, it has long been a dream of mine that salary should count for something in the MVP voting.  I know it’s a pipe dream, and I also know that a bunch of writers, usually the last guy picked all their lives and now drunk on power, vote for these things.  That is why it all too often devolves into a popularity contest.  I would love to see some of these younger writers use the huge audiences they have now with TV (I am talking to you, Buster Olney) and take a stand against the status quo.  Ignore whether or not the guy is likeable, or even tolerable, and make your decision based on what matters…was he the player in the entire league with the most value over the course of 162 games?

Yeah, I know…another pipe dream.  OK — let’s get on with it.  Here are the numbers:

OK – now, let’s talk turkey.  First of all — sorry K-Rod.  You are off this list.  You had 62 saves and that was incredible…but your team played 57 games against one of the worst divisions in all of professional sports…and that is where 26 of your saves came from. 

So, now that the only pitcher on the list is gone, we can make a better comparison.  Let’s look at the rankings for the remaining 9 candidates.  The player with the best average gets 1 point, the player with the second best average gets 2 points, etc., until the guy on the list with the worst average gets 9 points.  We do that for each of the 4 key offensive stats, and let’s see what we get.  After all, it’s baseball.  Stats are king.

I have not crunched the numbers before, so I have no idea how this is going to turn out or if it will support any of the arguments I want to make later in the article.  Yes, here at MackOnSports, we specialize in that kind of “let’s just start crunching the numbers and see what the eff happens” journalism.  Hell, if the numbers support a different argument, I can always flog that other horse for a while.

Well, I just crunched the numbers, and until we start to figure out the salaries and the “contender” factor, as an unabashed Pedroia backer, I do not like the results.  Here they are:

1. Josh Hamilton
2. Alex Rodriguez (-0.5)
3. Kevin Youkilis (-1.0)
4. Carlos Quentin (-2.5)
5. Vladimir Guerrero (-9.0)
6. Justin Morneau (-10.0)
7. Grady Sizemore (-12.0)
8. (tie) Dustin Pedroia and Joe Mauer (-14.0)

So, before we get into the next two areas of analysis, there are a couple of things that jump out at me.  First of all, A-Rod is second on the list, and only by the smallest of margins.  Sure, he was, is and will probably always be “Mr. April”, but the dude is a stat machine.  Regardless of the postseason record, he is, without a doubt, the best strictly position player to ever play the game…by such a significant margin that it does not even matter who is next in line (probably bubblehead Bonds, if anyone wants to know).  He can’t make up for The Babe’s 163 appearances as a pitcher (94 wins) and unseat him as the best player ever, but we are still watching history every single time we see him play.  If you have not seen him play in person, or you have a child that has not done so, please make it happen soon before he gets too much older.

Let’s also remember the conditions under which Pay-Rod put up his numbers this year.  Playing in the #1 media market, already carrying the “Mr. April” stigma, and being so stupid as to get caught up in the whole Cynthia-Madonna-Stripper in Toronto mess…if you ask me, one tranny is as good as another.  He should just pick whichever one of those dudes he wants to hang with and live happily ever after.

The second thing that jumps out at me is Josh Hamilton — what a beast!  Despite what could be considered a crummy second half of the year (Home Run Derby Curse, anyone?), he is #1 on this list, and he has the lowest salary on the list.  Sure, he ended up with that low salary by acting like an imbecile and almost pissing away his dream, but what a great story that he is not only back in the league, but riding high.  Unfortunately, the Rangers are just too horrible for me to say he should be the MVP.

Which brings me to what I will call the “contender” factor.  Sure, there have been guys that have played for crummy teams that won the MVP…but Hamilton’s statistical advantage is just not that great this year, so that is probably not happening.  Let’s remove the guys who played for a non-contender, and we are down to Youk, Quentin, Vladdy, Morneau, Mauer and Pedroia.  Yes, I did laugh out loud that I got to take Stray-Rod off the list for playing for a non-contender…the year that they closed that toilet of a stadium in the Bronx.  I love it.

Anyway, this is the place where I wanted to talk about how Pedroia only made $457,000 in 2008, and he is the MVP, based on his stats, his value to his contending team, and his financial value.  Seriously, the working title of this article was “Pedroia: Let’s Put the ‘V’ in M.V.P.”

Unfortunately, his numbers just do not match up favorably with some of the others on the list.  The fact that he put the Red Sox on his back for a couple of weeks is not remarkable, either…every guy on the list has done that at least once this year.  Plus, his financial value is not as great as I thought it would be, when you consider what Hamilton and Quentin get paid…and even at $3 million per year, Kevin Youkilis is an outright steal compared to other guys on this list.

So, why not give the M.V.P. to Youkilis.  Big Papi, and J.D. Drew, and Dice-K, and Mike Lowell, and Josh Beckett, and Clay Buckholz, and Julio Lugo all spent significant time on the DL, they ended up starting 2 rookies in the field for a large portion of the year, and Manny was more of a distraction than anything else…and Youkilis and Pedroia, more than anyone else, are the reason that the Red Sox are in the post season.  Either one of them could get the MVP and no one would argue, except maybe some bitter Angels fans…and Youkilis is (alas) statistically far superior to Pedroia.

If voters can look past the fact that Hamilton played for a shit-stain of a team, I have no problem with him getting the nod over Youkilis.  A-Rod, too.  How can I argue with the best player of my lifetime winning another MVP award?  The only knock against Youkilis is that he just has the anti-”it” factor.  I am not even sure how to explain it.  The way he plays…if I was not a Red Sox fan, I know for a fact that watching him play would make me annoyed.  That’s the word I think I am looking for…he is annoying.  If I was a pitcher in the AL, he just looks like a dude that would be my favorite guy in the world to throw at…or at least brush back…every single chance I got.

I guess if I had my druthers as a fan that wants to be entertained…I would say, give it to Hamilton.  Then, invite Michael Irvin, Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson to his MVP party in Dallas and see if he can stay out of rehab.

Alternatively, the writers could do this year what they wish they could do every single year…give the MVP award to a well-liked player with great stats playing for a contender in a large media market.  Maybe there is hope for my boy Pedroia yet.

One final thought — due to the fact that Carlos Quentin almost screwed over his team, and definitely  screwed over his own bid for an MVP award, by acting like an emotional little child…I hope his agent was on the ball enough that he had a big fat kicker in his contract if he won the MVP.  Unfortunately, money is the only thing most of these guys understand, and that may be the only way to get through to him.

OK – I lied.  THIS is the real final thought, much as it pains me to say it as a Red Sox fan…see A-Rod play as soon and as often as you can.  Look at your team’s schedule as soon as it comes out, and buy a ticket for the Yankees series.  If your team does not play the Yankees, find some other way to make it happen.  Unless something very strange happens, or at least until Hanley Ramirez gets the hell out of Florida, most of us will die without seeing a better baseball player than Alex Rodriguez.

There I said it.  But, the fact remains that A-Rod is now playing golf, or hanging out with his tranny wife, or chasing tranny hookers, or studying the Kabbalah with tranny pop stars, or whatever else he might do during the off-season…and the Red Sox and Rays are still playing baseball.

So, here are the quotes from cry baby number one:

1. We lost to a team that’s not better than us.
2. We are a better team than they are.  The last two days, we shouldn’t have given up anything.
3. [Sunday] night they scored three runs on a pop fly that was called a hit, which was a joke.
4. [Monday] night they scored on a broken-bat ground ball and a fly ball that anywhere else in America is an out, and he’s fist pumping on second base like he did something great.
5. [It's] like I want to throw somebody through a wall.

Here is what I have to say about it:

1. You had a genuine opportunity to win every game of that series, but did not have the testicles to make it happen.
2. Boston owns you, and they close lesser teams (like you) out when they have the chance.
3. You are absolutely high if you ever thought you had a chance in that series.  I know that you are a professional athlete and you have lots of pride and all that…but be honest with yourself.  Name more than two field positions where your starter is better than Boston’s starter. You can’t.  Oh, and Boston was starting two rookies and one sophmore…get used to getting worn out for several more years. 
4. The fact that you won 100 games against one of the worst divisions in all of professional sports is no great feat, believe me.  You are headed to the golf course, where you belong.
5. If you think you have any ground to stand on about sketchy hits and bloop singles and seeing-eye ground balls, you haven’t been watching.
6. Throw your own ugly ass through the wall…it might help your appearance.

If you were disappointed at the lack of content over the summer, rest assured that I will try to make time this fall and beyond.  Plus, you can always get off your ass and chime in with some posts of your own.  Just click the “Write For Us” link at the top of the page and follow the instructions.

Before I get to my predictions, let me just reiterate what a total crap shoot it is to make any of these kind of predictions in baseball.  Sure, it usually works out over a 7-game series that the better team will win, but not always.  Even 7 games is a pretty small sample when you are talking about baseball.  Case in point — does anyone outside the city of St. Louis actually believe the 2006 Cardinals were better than the 2006 Tigers?  And then, when you throw in the 5-game component of the divisional round, anything can happen.  The 2005 Chicago White Sox swept the 2005 Boston Red Sox…a team that was better than them at every single position on the field, in the dugout, and in the corporate offices…friggin’ El Duque.

Anyway, here are my predictions guesses.  Sorry about the image quality…no time to eff with it right now.  Maybe I will clean it up later.

Division Series

Series	How it Ends	Why
vs.	Chicago in 4	I hope I am wrong, since I like the spunk of the Rays, but their fans think they are ready because they have responded to every “big game” so far.  I know you can’t exactly play a playoff game during the season, but there is not a single person in that organization, including Joe Maddon, that knows what a big game looks like.
vs.	Boston in 5	The last thing anyone needs is for the champs to get some press saying they are vulnerable, and they are getting it in spades with all the injuries.  This is a team that battled back from 0-3 against the Yanks and 1-3 against the Tribe.  Besides, they OWN the Angels, and especially K-Rod, in the playoffs.  Bold Sidebar Prediction:  Someone from the Sawx will go yard off K-Rod in this series…and that someone will be Coco Crisp.
vs.	Chicago in 4	There is only one player on the Dodgers that can change the outcome of this series, and everyone knows it.  If someone else from the Dodgers decides to step it up, then they maybe have a small chance at possibly competing in this series.  Plus, they have Joe Torre and Derek Lowe, who everyone forgets got all 3 series-clinching wins for Boston in 2004…if they can somehow get it to Game 5 and give Lowe the ball, all bets are off.
vs.	Milwaukee in 5	There is no way C.C. is letting this team lose this series.  Very rarely can you make this argument, but you can here — if C.C. is going to definitely give you 2 wins, can you count on winning 1 out of the other 3?

League Championship Series

Series	How it Ends	Why
vs.	Boston in 6	Boston is better at just about every single position, just like they were in 2005.  There’s always a chance that such a significant advantage will not be reflected over the course of the series, but I will take my chances with the better team on paper in this case.  One side note…do not underestimate the Orlando Cabrera factor…all the dude does is collect World Series rings.
vs.	Chicago in 4	The Cubs have the Brewers’ number.  What people will remember about this one is that Dale Sveum is no Lou Piniella.

World Series

Series	How it Ends	Why
vs.	Boston in 4	The Rox Sox sweep NL teams out of the World Series — it’s what they do.  In case these two teams are not here, change the previous statement to read “AL teams sweep NL teams out of the World Series — it’s what they do.”  Once again, thank you to the Tigers for committing 3 baserunning blunders and 4 errors per game in the ‘06 Series to lose to the junior varsity and break the streak.

One final thought — after the steroids mess of the past year or two, how badly do you think Bud Selig wants a Red Sox – Cubs World Series?  There are a couple of other compelling potential WS matchups (Torre/Manny/Lowe/Nomar against Boston, All-Chicago, and All-L.A. come to mind), but there are some ratings dogs out there as well.  How much money do you think Fox and MLB would lose with Rays-Brewers?  Luckily, this is not a salary cap league, so we should be spared from that kind of let-down.

Last night’s game was an awesome primer.  Let’s get this thing started.

PLAY BALL!!!!

I do not know anything about the 4 pitchers that threw the no-hitters that Ray Schalk caught, since his feats were accomplished from 1914 to 1922. I do, however, know quite a bit about the 4 guys that threw the no-nos that Varitek caught.  Hideo Nomo, Derek Lowe, Clay Buckholz, and Jon Lester…that is quite a mix of drastically different pitching styles.  And how about the last two coming from the two young phenoms of the organization.

Hell, when you look at Jason Varitek’s place in the pantheon of great catchers, you only need to read this one statement:

He caught two no-hitters by pitchers under the age of 25 in less than 9 months.

Well, there was a whole winter in there…how about this…he caught two no-hitters by pitchers under the age of 25 in 74 games.

That’s right — 2 no-hitters by very young pitchers in less than half a season…in Fenway Park.

Should we even talk about Schilling taking a no-hitter through 8 2/3 in Oakland last year until Shannon Stewart broke it up with a seeing-eye ground ball?  ‘Tek could have been all alone at the top of the record books…and he did his part, that’s for sure.  Schilling shook him off on the pitch that took his no-hitter away.  How perfect was it that a pitcher, who knows a fair bit about hitters,  lost a no-hitter with 2 outs in the 9th inning because he shook off a veteran catcher that knows more about hitters than any pitcher in history will ever know.  The fact that it was Schilling made it that much sweeter.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Schill for the bloody sock and everything he has meant to the Sox from Day One…but he is a self-promoting egomaniacal jerk, so it was just perfect that it happened the way it happened. He, and the Sox, got the win, and he has to think forever about what happened when he shook off Varitek…who, unlike Schilling, just laces up his spikes and works his ass off for nine innings and then takes a shower and goes home without trying to stick his face in as many cameras as possible.

I guess that’s why he’s the captain.

Let’s just get it out in the open, as it will make life easier on all of us over the next several months…I love the Red Sox. I am 39 years old and I suffered just as much (and just as loudly, I am ashamed to admit) as my Sox Nation bretheren for the first 34 years of my fandom. Quite frankly, I have earned the way I feel right now…a proud fan of the best team in baseball. Sure, there are lots of folks who love to impugn the Sox as Evil Empire II, since all they do is spend money, but that is how to build a winning professional baseball organization in this country.

I wrote an article about the NFL called Dynasty Building 101, and one of my buddies mentioned a good point…bear in mind that just about all of that article is contingent on the fact that there is a salary cap in the NFL. Actually, my buddy who made that point was a Naval Academy graduate…which means that it is not just a good point…it is one of the all-time great points in the history of writing. The mere fact that he made it through that august institution and can somehow read and write all by himself speaks volumes to his dedication and breeding…and the fact that he was able to form all of those words into a semi-coherent pseudo-paragraph speaks to his tenacity and to the point that he probably did not have anything to do for 5 or 6 hours the evening that he wrote it…judge for yourself — it is the first of the comments underneath the original article…very impressive for a Naval Academy grad, no?

Anyway, here is the baseball version of that article…it is quite simple…spend money or lose. Does that give large markets an advantage…yes. Does the league care…no. Spend money or lose. Sure, there are exceptions, like what Jeff Loria, The Biggest D-Bag in Baseball, has done twice down in South Florida — get some good young players, build them into a contender that got hot at the right time, win a championship that makes a lot of money for ONLY YOU and your executive staff, and then kick your fans in the sack with a fire sale. What an asshole.

OK — back on point — I am a fan. Even if my dream comes true and I am able to do mackonsports.com full-time some day, I will never hide the fact that I am a fan of my teams. Bill Simmons comes with a few warts…but you have to respect that he was one of the first guys to be a fan first and a writer second. Well, maybe YOU don’t have to respect that, but I do respect it. That is why his site is in my Big 5 links.

So, by way of review…MLB does not have a salary cap. The teams that spend the most cash will be the best teams when all is said and done, even if there are a few surprises once in a while. Here are the top 10 payrolls in MLB:

1. Yankees ($209 mil)
2. Tigers ($139 mil)
3. Mets ($138 mil)
4. Red Sox ($133 mil)
5. White Sox ($121 mil)
6. Angels ($119 mil)
7. Cubs ($119 mil)
8. Dodgers ($119 mil)
9. Mariners ($118 mil)
10. Braves ($102 mil)
11. Cardinals ($101 mil)
12. Blue Jays ($100 mil)

OK – I lied. There are the top 12, not the top 10. I had to include the Cards and Jays…you will see why if your continue to read on. Notice anything about those teams? Let me help you…

• 2007 World Champs – Red Sox
• 2006 World Champs – Cardinals
• 2005 World Champs – White Sox
• 2004 World Champs – Red Sox
• 2003 World Champs – Marlins —— go away, Jeff Loria, you scumbag that raped your fans TWICE
• 2002 World Champs – Angels
• 2001 World Champs – Diamondbacks
• 2000 World Champs – Yankees
• 1999 World Champs – Yankees
• 1998 World Champs – Yankees

So, there are the last 10 World Champions. I know for a fact that the D-backs had one of the Top 10 payrolls in baseball in 2001 (Schilling, Unit, Matt Williams, Luis Gonzalez, etc.) and I am pretty sure that the Cards had one of the top 10 payrolls in 2006 — so, we basically have all of the last 10 champs in the top 10 payrolls…except the Marlins. I am not sure yet if I have mentioned how I feel about Jeff Loria…just in case I have not…he should be tied up in front of the stadium before each home game and every fan should have the opportunity to spit in his face and/or kick him in the nads on their way in to see the Marlins play.

Last but not least — I cannot end this post without mentioning how bad I feel for Blue Jays fans. What a shame that they have to be in the AL East. Seriously, they were the 4th-best team in MLB last year, and they did not even make the playoffs. And they have no recourse whatsoever…they have a payroll of $100 million and might not be able to build on that without at least making the playoffs. I am not sure if the Toronto market will support a higher payroll without at least a playoff appearance this year. They really are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place…and they have to play 19 games each against the Red Sox, Yankees and suddenly-not-so-bad Rays this year. I really feel for their fans…wait, they are still in the AL East…screw ‘em.

Go Red Sox!