2011 MLB Playoffs

How about those Devil Rays?

Just as a baseball fan, I think I have to pull for them after that comeback.

Get the gun out of your mouth, SC. There's always next year (but maybe not for Terry Francona).

I have to say, it'd be a real shame if Francona gets fired because his players layed down. The guy won two World Series for God's sake!

Francona and his two rings aint getting fired for this epic collapse. That whole team just absolutely jobbed on the national stage, not just him.

Same with the Braves.

(Hell the Yanks losing that last game like that was horrible for them. Up by 7 in the 8th, only to lose 8-7? You don't want that strench left on your uniforms when the playoffs begin.)

Two World Series wins in 4 yrs after nearly 100 years without one? Francona should have that job for as long as he wants it.

Anyone see the Buckner/Bartman ESPN special the other night? It was very well done from a network which has really lost a lot of credibility in my eyes in recent years.

I saw it, Goom. I thought it was great.

But in general, ESPN is still a f'n joke.

My initial thought was why were they airing this now? All the commotion finally quieted down for Bartman, whose life was forever changed that night in 2003 Game 6 of the NLCS.

God forbid, what if some nut hurt Bartman after seeing this show? I think ESPN would most likely be sued - rightfully so.

Most amazing last day of the season I can remember - but that was 2011, not sure about 2012 yet

Oops .

I did. I wasn't too impressed by it. My first round picks are as follows:

-New York over Detroit
-Tampa Bay over Texas
-Philadelphia over St. Louis
-Milwaukee over Arizona

new york over detroit? i hope its the opposite.

Yeah, beware the Tigers.

Obviously I'm rooting for Detroit.

Detroit vs. New York: It's Big Apple season
Francis X. Donnelly/ The Detroit News
New York has Broadway, Times Square, Central Park, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.

Detroit has humbler landmarks.

As the baseball teams from each city begin a playoff series tonight, Tigers fans said they weren't intimidated by the mighty Yankees from mighty New York.
"New York is a tough place to play, but we'll be OK," said Carl Royal, 48, an attorney from Grosse Pointe Shores. "We're playing well right now."

It's the Midwest against the East Coast, a car-crazy region against the only city in America where most residents don't own an auto.
New York is celebrated as the cultural capital of the world. It influences everything from business to media, from fashion to art.

If you don't believe it, ask a New Yorker.

Detroit is often portrayed in news reports in more modest terms.
"We need it," Dave Curbela of Wyandotte said about the skirmish against the Yankees. "It's important to the city."
New York is known for finance, retailing, tourism, real estate and insurance. Detroit is known for cars, cars and cars.
They have the Museum of Modern Art. We have the Booty Lounge, a strip club on wheels.

They have the Bronx Zoo. We have the former Kilpatrick administration.
They have five boroughs. We have two sides: east and west.
They claim we have an accent, but they're the ones who talk funny, as one would know from hanging out at Toidy-Toid and Toid Streets.
To promote peaceful relations, it should be noted that some common ground exists.
New York has Coney Island. We have Coney Islands.
They like to poke fun at their neighbor New Jersey. We have Ohio for that.
They were the birthplace of punk, hip hop and salsa. We sprouted techno and Motown.
They also gave the world disco. We had nothing to do with that.
fdonnelly@detnews.com

I hope your political predictions are better than your baseball predictions because Francona was just fired .

I can't believe they're blaming the guy who turned the Red Sox into two time champions, when it was the PLAYERS who layed down like dogs.

Pure bullshit!

I just read Francona got fired. I really can't believe that. I wasn't 100% sure he'd come back, but for them to let him go, I find that hard to believe.

The Devil Rays are looking like Cinderella right now. The kid that started last night threw 7 innings of shutout ball in only his second major league start. Very impressive.

I heard a quick news update on this, but don't know much more that. How does a kid making his second ever major league start, pitch the first game of a playoff series? Is Joe Maddon some kind of Baseball Mad Scientist or what?

I know, it's crazy. The guy is some kind of savant .

I'm a big Mets fan, who will usually pull for the Yanks as long as we're not playing each other. But this Rays team has me rooting hard for them this year. I hope they win it all.

PB, I hope you remain a Mets fan and don't be putting any negative mojo on the Yanks. The Rays are the anti-baseball team. They are vile. I say this mostly because I work with a guy who is a Rays fan and he always refers to the team as "we", like he's the general manager or something. It's a psycho-thing.

Hahah, so the Rays are evil because of your coworker?

Personally I'm rooting for the Brewers. I'm not sure why to be honest, but I've always had a soft spot for them in my heart since I was a kid. It had something to do with having a lot of Brewers baseball cards I think. I don't expect them to win a world series this year, but I'll be cheering them on as long as they are in the postseason.

Edit: now that I'm thinking of it and it's coming back to me, Paul Molitor had a lot to do with it. I kept getting his baseball card, and I remember he was pretty good. Hehe, funny reason to root for the Brewers, I know.

i'm rooting against the brewers, cardinals, and yankees. but, i am rooting for the cubs in hiring epstein (and francona).

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2011/10/epstein_to_the.html

Good win for the Yankees last night. Cano was just on fire! Hopefully, if Garcia's pitching tonight, he can pitch decently, put the Yankees up 2-0 heading to Detroit.

And Blibbleblabble, I agree with you. I wouldn't mind seeing the Brewers win it all this year. I really respect them. I think everyone in Milwaukee knows Prince Fielder's not coming back. But did they panic? No. Did they try to get something for him and trade him? No. They went all in this year. You don't see that very often anymore and I really respect that about Milwaukee this year.

Why would they go work for the Cubs when they know the Cubs will never win a world series no matter how good the team is they put together?

well i guess i can add the giants to my list of teams to hate

Why would Francona and Epstein work together after their falling out?

(and really, the Cubs?)

Nostradamus has nothing on Pizzaboy! El oh el, Larry.

Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Yankees WIN.

What could be better than a fifth game at the house that Ruth...scratch that, they torn that one down......Steinbrenner and the City built.

Still sticking by my prediction. The Yankees have Nova starting and CC available for relief if needed

BY MITCH ALBOM
DETROIT FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

NEW YORK -- October ain't over.

It takes a lot to stare down Yankee Stadium, but the Tigers just did it. It takes a lot to knock out CC Sabathia twice in a week, but the Tigers just did it. Doug Fister -- not even with the team in late July -- just did it. Delmon Young, who arrived even later than Fister, just did it. Don Kelly, who has seen more baseball stops than a Louisville Slugger shipping container, just did it.

From top to bottom, on a dry, cool New York night, the guys from Detroit just did it -- without their certain Cy Young winner Justin Verlander ever taking off his jacket. They are moving on to Texas to play for the American League pennant, leaving behind the bewildered New York Yankees, the team with the league's best record, the team that racked up 10 runs the previous game, the team that this morning is looking at its game plan, scratching its head and saying, "Why didn't that work?"

It didn't work because you can't plan a baseball game; you just have to play it. While the Yankees had a strategy of "hold 'em down until we get to our best relief pitchers," the Tigers came out and, well, pitched and hit and ran and fielded. That's not easy to do on an elimination night -- not overthink things. But with the calm, easy confidence of their white-haired manager, Jim Leyland, who picked up a new suit earlier in the day -- he called it "a humdinger" -- they just did it...

Complete Column

I was hoping that Leyland would pull in Verlander but as it turned out the Old Man knew what he was doing.

Congrats to the Tigers. A-Rod was embarrassingly bad this series. I think Girardi pressed the panic button too early last night bailing on his starter after just 2 innings and giving up 2 runs. Looking forward to the pitching matchups in the ALCS and the two Game 5s tonight in the NL.

Congrats to the Tigers, Lilo. THIS series, goombah? ARod is always awful in the postseason. This may have been worse than other appearances, but I'm sure he's home crying in his piles of money.

As they said on the local news this morning, the Yankees stranded a small village on base. While ARod was shamefully bad, nobody else was able to score that tying run, even though they should have.

Best of luck to the remaining teams!

I dunno. Maybe an actual win?

Six years to go on that ridiculous contract they gave A-Bum .

I was trying not to pile on, SB. A-Roid has been a playoff choker for most of his career. With the exception of 2009, so has Fat Albert - I mean C.C. Sabathia.

One thing about Rodriguez was that he probably should not have played given his injury. But it begs the question as to whether his skills are rapidly deteriorating. They certainly appear to be because his power seems diminished.

First off, congrats to Detroit. Jim Leyland has a nice team; scrappy, determined, professional. I'll be pulling for them the rest of the way.

The Yankees....what ever happened to my team. For all the "good" Steinmonster did for the Yanks the philosophy of buying the best players has become mutated. A-Dud? - never wanted him. Back then I wished they spent their money on pitching. It was player gluttony. Don't forget A-Hole was a shortstop and the Yankees already had one of the best. As Goombah said, one good year in the post season - 2009 (even a blind squirrel finds a nut). A-Dud reminds me of another "compiler" the Yankees had - Dave Winfield. If the Yankees were winning 8-0, Winfield would hit a homerun.

The whole sport has become a TV show; entertainment. I'm only a casual viewer now. A four hour game, chock full of inane commentary, TV personalities and meaningless statistics.

Go Tigers!.... and Lions!

To pile on A-Rod is a grand Yankee fanbase tradition of deflecting blame and responsibility elsewhere, since he's always been a good reliable scapegoat.

How about blame the team instead? Or Girardi making that puzzling choice to pull his starting pitcher that early? Or the line-up impotent when the fates were practically giving them a win for the giving?

Way to pick 'em.

at least he got one right

One out of four. That's a .250 clip. Twice as good as ARod's average.

I thought the same thing, and still question whether Nova was actually hurt or not, but if he was hurt, then it's understandable.


...but I can't argue with this. I12 cursed everything! lol

I'm glad to see that the $375 million that the 2 teams with the highest payrolls in MLB spent this year, didn't go to waste. Oh wait. It did.

What does a piece of crap look like, lately?

....but piling on is a fan tradition no matter what team. I work with a bunch of Philly fans. They will be blasting Howard. OK, the team stinks too, even though they had the best record in the AL, they were swinging "rusty gates", as we used to say. Girardi's move was puzzling, but he must have known or seen something wasn't right. The move didn't hurt them.....it was those fungo bats. Swing battah!

Girardi's move, while questionable, had zero impact on the game. The lack of hitting did. So if you want to throw Swisher and Tex into the blame, go right ahead. But leave Girardi out of this one.

As far as A-Hole getting the blame? Well, A-Hole is the one making the most money. He's the one that came with all the hype. So he's the one who's going to get the lion's share of the blame. That's just the way it is. In New York, and everywhere else.

Not only that, but he IS the clean up hitter. It's his job to advance/knock runners in. That's his role in that spot.

As for the Phillies, I'm more shocked at them losing than the Yankees. They were my World Series pick at the beginning of the year and I think them losing at home, Game 5, with Roy Halladay on the mound, getting 3-hit and shut out by Chris Carpenter is more shocking than the Yankees losing.

Did you guys see some of those calls by the umpire game 4 Yankees vs Tigers wtf talk about getting squeezed. What is up w/ Betemit he likes golfing at curve balls at his feet. Yankees always leave men on base in key games. It's a shame but hope the Tigers win it all.

I was also stunned that the Phils did not advance. Now espn is reporting Ryan Howard ruptured his Achilles on the last playof the series.

I thought Philly would win the Series.

Howard took one step out of the batter's box and dropped like a lead weight. It was evident he was in a lot of pain.

SC, would the BoSox be interested in some old Yankees? A-Dud would be a good fit. He might still be able to reach the Green Monster.

They almost got ARod a few years back. I wonder how differently things would have worked out.

A-Rod wanted to be a Met, and would have been a Met in 2001, if him and/or his agent didn't make ridiculous demands.

http://bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view.bg?articleid=1372633&position=0

a quick update on the situation with the red sox and cubs

Tigers woke up at least. Do it again and we have a series.

Lilo - take solace that the Tigers have not fallen asleep. They have just been ravaged by injury and run into a buzzsaw Texas team.

Yeah, that's it Goombah.
But at least we live to fight another day.

Two pretty good series, strictly from a baseball fan's point of view. I'm enjoying it.

Lilo, did you see my boy Elmore Leonard behind first base the other night?

I was hoping he'd throw out the first pitch. He's pushing 90, and not likely to see too many more Tigers' playoff games. I mean, he is an all time Detroiter, no?

Sorry that I missed that. Yeah he probably should have been recognized.

Wow. Not a word about the WS.

Game 5 tonight and I hate to break the silence, but anyone watching / rooting for either team?

It could go both ways, and I think we'll have game 7, but I don't think any team's a favorite right now, home court advantage or not.

It'll be some record if the Rangers will go on to win this thing coming back from a 2-1, since it didn't happen many times, but like I said I think it's 50/50 right now.

Not a fan of either team, but I'll go with the Cards. NL glory and all that

I'm pulling for the Cards. I hate the Rangers. Plus I personally believer that if St. Louis wins, this will solidify Pujols staying in St. Louis. I'd find it hard to believe them winning another World Series and him bailing.

I'm pulling for the Rangers, I hate the Cardinals. Plus I love Ron Washington. We got a good look at him here in the Bay Area when he was the bench coach for the A's. He's a really good guy and, since my Giants beat up on them last year, I wouldn't mind seeing the team win their first World Series instead of the Cardinals winning another.

I would like the Rangers to win for one reason - so that Josh Hamilton can get a ring. I think he truly is a role model for young fans, and I admire his perseverance tremendously.

BTW what's the repercussion of Tony LaRussa's moves in game 5?

the old man simply gave up the game!

forget that, who watched game 6 last night???

it was the best baseball game I have ever watched. I don't recall being actually nervous bceause of a game. I think I'll be a Cardinals fan now what you think?

It was one of the best games, for me. Especially considering that I was not rooting for either team. It was as if both teams didn't want to win, yet you know just the opposite was true.... the errors, the home runs and the going back and forth with the lead was nerve shattering.

In fact, other than Pujols' big game last Saturday, all the other games have been quite exciting as well. One of the better Series I've seen.

Wow again. After last night's SENSATIONAL one-in-a-million game, I thought for sure this thread would be loaded with posts. But I guess with no Yanks, Sox or Phillies, I'm expecting too much.

That game was one for the ages. I said it would go to game 7 but I never imagined such a scenario: everytime you think it's all over, the cards will make you think again. The numbers are crazy. The Cards were trailing FIVE times! It was down to last strike TWICE and they came back each time! You can't even understand the amount of pressure when facing elimination and yet they kept their heads up. It's never over till they call it a game, and that spirit is the stuff champions are made of. (whether they win tonight or not).

There is a new god in St.Louis and they call him David Freese.

Second best World Series game I've ever seen (after game 6 of the '86 World Series). And to be fair, I'm a Mets fan, so I'm biased about that game.

9th AND 10th inning 2 run comebacks? Are you frigggin kidding me?

You really have to root for the Cards now.

Best Series game ever was Game 6 of the '75 Series when Carlton Fisk hit the game winning homer (and stood at the plate "begging" the ball to stay fair). OK, I'm a little biased, too.



Not just that, but the Cards were ONE STRIKE away from losing in both innings.

Thats was a great game last night. Just unbelievable. Doesn't get much better then that and now a game 7!

SC am i mistaken or are you a Red Sox Fan? From Long Island out of Brooklyn? Not many R.S. fans in NY. lol

both of you are biased, sorry

the more I think about it, I do believe it was the best baseball game of all time.

and David Freese keeps either hitting a walk-off-HR or erasing 2 run deficits everytime he goes to the plate. Game 7 2-2 right now.

Freese, MVP. Cards, Champs.

...whouda thunk it?! GREAT series!

Great series.

Great for baseball that a "small market" team has now won 11 World Series championships.

Plus, that have an Italian manager. Yay Tony!

Wow, the Cards took it! Great series, i really enjoyed it this year.

That game 6 finale will go down in baseball folklore history. It reminds me some of the Pirates 7th game victory in '60. Game 6 was key this time and the Cards deserved to win.

Game 6 will, without a doubt, be listed as one of the greatest World Series games ever.

Prior to the game (Game 6) I thought Texas would win.... On paper, St Louis has a better team but Texas seemed that they wanted the win more. Game Six changed that.... Texas was deflated by the St Louis win, especially considering that they were TWICE within one strike of losing the game only to come back TWO TIMES and win. IMHO, even though Texas started Game 7 in a good fashion, it was already destined that Texas would lose.

I enjoyed the Series very much.

most people keep saying "one of the greatest" but what other game measure up to game 6?

during the live broadcasting I heard that there were 2 other times in baseball history when a team came back from within one strike of losing the World Series. Tom Verducci's column in SI.com says only the 86 Mets had done it. anyway, the Cards did it TWO TIMES, in consecutive innings, and then became just the fourth team in history to win on a walkoff homerun when facing elimination in the WS.

along with maybe the greatest individual performance in WS history, the first game 7 after the longest drought ever and at least other 2 highly exciting games (2 and 5), where does 2011 rank among the greatest World Series ever?

Game 6 was exciting, but it was played awful sloppy.

Very true.

I think what I object to with Tony Mosrite calling it the best game ever played is best answered by Josh Alper who blogged the following:

**************************************************************

It's safe to say that quite a few of us woke up Friday morning and wondered if we had dreamt up Game Six of the World Series.

It wasn't a dream. That game really happened.

A few cups of coffee and a chance to watch all of the highlights again has probably taken care of any lingering thoughts that the whole thing was a fevered baseball dream of the highest order. Now comes the time where we try to put the game in some kind of historical context.

That feels necessary because there's been some "Best World Series Game Ever" chatter flying about in the wake of the Cardinals' stunning 10-9 victory on David Freese's walk-off home run in the 11th inning. Is that a consequence of our national culture of instant satisfaction that forces everything to be the best or the most thing that's ever happened, or is there actual justification for those claims?

There were some things that make it feel like a contender for the crown. The Cardinals came back five different times to tie and, ultimately, win the game, with two of those comebacks coming when the team was facing their final strike and the end of the season.

There were so many moments that felt absolutely critical, from allowing Colby Lewis to bat with the bases loaded to back-to-back homers in the seventh to Josh Hamilton's 10th inning home run, and so many potential goats turned into heroes (Freese, Michael Young) that the narrative engine never stopped churning.

It ended on a walk-off home run, always a good thing for historical cred, and kept a team alive for one more chance at the title. Having circumstances like that certainly boost this game into the realm of the all-time greats, but there are some places where it falls short.

One reason is that it was Game Six, which means that it is naturally going to be fall short of the great World Series Game Sevens in history because only one team was facing the end of their season with a loss. The other is that the game simply wasn't all that well played.

There were five errors and several other defensive blunders, including Nelson Cruz's misplay on Freese's game-tying triple, that hurt both teams over the course of the proceedings. There were also questionable managerial decisions, baserunning mistakes and poor pitching performances to blemish the game in a way that we haven't seen in some of the other great World Series games of all time.

Quantifying the best is a difficult thing. What we should focus on is that Game Six might have been the most exciting baseball game of all time.

Other great World Series games -- 1975 Game Six (Carlton Fisk's home run), 1986 Game Six (Bill Buckner's error), 1988 Game One (Kirk Gibson's homer), 2001 Game Seven (Luis Gonzalez's dying quail) -- have been marked by one great moment that overshadow the rest of the game that came before. Others, like Jack Morris in 1991's Game Seven or Don Larsen's Perfect Game, have been marked by one dominant performance.

There have been games with more historical resonance, like the Brooklyn Dodgers finally breaking through in 1955, but it is hard to think of more than one other game that offered the kind of emotional swings that we saw last night. That one would be 1960's Game Seven, when Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski's homer beat the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth.

Both games ended with a 10-9 score, oddly enough, although the Pirates-Yankees affair played out quite differently. The Pirates jumped out to a big lead, the Yankees came back to build a 7-4 lead, the Pirates went up 9-7 on Hal Smith's three-run homer and then the Yankees tied the game on a truly amazing play when Mickey Mantle dove back into first after a forceout on Yogi Berra to allow Gil McDougald to score the tying run.

Then came Mazeroski's homer, giving you all the drama and entertainment nine innings of baseball can offer. You could say exactly the same thing about the game in St. Louis, except that it took 11 innings.

In the end, isn't that all we can ask for from a game? To be excited and entertained to the point that we're not quite sure that what we saw happen really happened?

*************************************************************

Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City. You can follow him on Twitter and he is also a contributor to Pro Football Talk.
Copyright NBC Local Media©

good SC, that's exactly what I wanted to read about.

and oh no, game 6 was definitely not the best played game ever but in my opinion it might've been the best game ever played.

"Quantifying the best is a difficult thing. What we should focus on is that Game Six might have been the most exciting baseball game of all time"

so yeah, that does it for me, most exciting = best

I also want to point out two quotes from that blog. The first...

"There were five errors and several other defensive blunders, including Nelson Cruz's misplay on Freese's game-tying triple, that hurt both teams over the course of the proceedings. There were also questionable managerial decisions, baserunning mistakes and poor pitching performances to blemish the game in a way that we haven't seen in some of the other great World Series games of all time."

I have a hard time believing that a game can be the best ever played when the game was played so poorly. If the game was played the way a major league team SHOULD play, the outcome would have been entirely different and it would be just another forgettable world series victory for one of these teams.

I truly believe this is a case of people wanting to so badly believe they just witnessed something that is better than anything that has ever happened before. It's..

"a consequence of our national culture of instant satisfaction that forces everything to be the best"

I strongly disagree.

for me, the poor, sloppy manner in which the game was played only made it better.

I take much care in putting events into perspective and usually I absolutely refuse the hype - I remember how annoyed I was with TV the day of the rescue of the chilean miners - and that's exactly why I wanted to talk about it. and the more I read and talked about it the more I don't think any other game measure up (on excitement).

and that's mostly because two of the most dramatic scenarios posible in baseball, - being one strike away from losing the WS and winning on a walkoff homerun when facing elimination in the WS - which had occured only 5 times in different occasions throughout 130 years of history happened in 3 consecutive innings. the only time I recall being as excited because of a sport event was when my small market team was within minutes of beating Barcelona in the FIFA Club World Cup.

one thing is to look desperately for instant satisfaction and that can make you overrate an event but another one is to see the train of history pass in front of you and not get on board. I'm still not sure which case this is.

Fascinating debate going on here, much bigger than baseball. It's down to why we're watching ANY soprts.

Tony, you say exciting = best. And I half-agree and half-disagree. It's true that I watch sport to be excited but if I watch professional players then I expect some talent as well. If they fail to provide the talent which made them professionals yet they fight with nothing but guts, then yes we just may witness the most exciting game, but that's far from being the MLB's best game ever.

If sheer guts and nail-biting scoring are all that matters, then the best baseball game I've ever watched took place in a local yard between my classmates. It was not on TV, and no one outside my neighborhood even heard about it.

What I'm trying to say is that high level of play only adds to the excitement, and once both exist - THAT'S when you have the best game ever!

What we witnessed in game 6, the tension in the air, the number of records, that's enough to call it history and SENSATIONAL as I said so myself, but believe me it could've been much more exciting without all those unforced errors. Imagine two teams playing the top of their game from start to finish. And imagine the game to be just as tight.

You mention Barcelona - the soccer team. You know why they have tons of fans all over the world? not just because they keep on winning and breaking records, but because watching them passing the ball is like watching a concert. Their level of gameplay is so high that no other team is able to imitate even tho many teams try. Real Madrid, their biggest rival, is pretty much a collection of big stars in the same team. They could win against them, but their soccer is not as impresive or exciting to watch.

What's the greatest tennis match ever in my opinion? the 2008 Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal. Why? because not only it was close all the way, but because both players provided their very best tennis. Nadal won it eventually because he was the better warrior. But both played unbelievable tennis all the way to the end.

Anyways back to MLB: great series, worthy champions who never gave up. Too bad for the Rangers who will now have to wait at least a couple more years to get it done. (since we all know the Cubs will win it next year

btw Tony, which soccer team (small market) were you talking about?

Sport Club Internacional aka Inter

we won the Club World Cup in december 17th, 2006, in the real greatest sport event of all time

Adriano Gabiru scored the winning goal at 82 minutes and the final 10 or so minutes of that game were almost too much for me to handle.

Big baseball news today: Houston Astros got sold, will move to the AL West in 2013.

Also, two additional wildcard teams will make the playoffs, a total of 5 in each League.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7246443/houston-astros-sale-approved-mlb

you forgot about the cubs offering their head coaching job to dale sveum. 2012 or 2013 world series champs.

Money, money, money .

Papelbum signed with Philly. Good move on the Phils part or no?

terrible move...

so now there will be an interleague game everyday? or (most likely) it will be imposible to make up a full schedule with everyone playing on the same day.

other than that try picture how the Astros will fare in the AL West. I feel for gina as I'd feel bitchslapped in the face if I was an Astros fan. especially in the MLB with the huge difference between AL/NL and then some millionaires make an agreement and your team is flip-flopped in the leagues overnight.

and expanding the playoffs? really?? yeah, sure, make it harder to develop a multi-champion superteam and fill the playoofs with 50% teams...

actually, any formula would be good with they just stick with it and let people get used to and it become a tradition. if someone criticized the pre-2012 format MLB could say "just look at Day 162 and the whole playoffs of 2011 and tell me it isn't just great" but no, right after their year they feel like they just have to screw it all up.

Justin Verlander wins both AL Cy Young and MVP trophies.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/726553...ers-wins-al-mvp

He's a BAAAAAAAAAAAAD Man!

cubs pursuing pujols http://calltothepen.com/2011/11/29/2012-...prince-fielder/

I think this is stupid.

I heard a quote from the great Kirby Puckett. This was said after he came in second in the MVP voting to relief pitcher Dennis Eckersley in 1992 (paraphrasing):

"It's okay, next year I'll bat .340, hit 40 homeruns, and 120 RBI's and win the Cy Young".

Pitchers have their own award. They shouldn't be open to two awards when hitters only qualify for one.

EDIT: Unless they add a hitter's only award as well. The Babe Ruth Award or something like that.

Ehh, I don't see it that way and not just b/c I'm a Detroit guy.
One of the first people to win the MVP was a pitcher. Even after the Cy Young award was established there were still pitchers that were good enough to compete and win for both.

At first glance it doesn't seem right that someone who only plays every 4-5 days can be eligible for the same award as someone who's there day in and day out. But with someone as talented as Verlander you could almost pencil in a win every time he was in the lineup. It's hard to say that about any batter.