Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
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Acute terminal ileitis. Personally I would be happier if Todd Helton's illness turned out to be something the name of which I could pronounce or reliably spell, but at least we've moved from the scary waiting phase into the phase where KOA plays silly get-well-soon messages and optimists speak of Todd sliding right back into the lineup the first day he is eligible to do so, which would be May 5th. We'll see about that, but at least we know for sure that he doesn't have an alien growing in his digestive tract. Although that would be kind of cool, especially if the alien threw left-handed. (Helton does, so wouldn't the alien logically do so as well?)
Question: in order for a team to establish a knack for come-from-behind wins, does it first have to establish a pattern for falling behind big early? Colorado managed to make a 7-1 deficit briefly interesting again tonight in Philadelphia, but ultimately Jason Jennings dug the Rockies too big of a hole. Nice night for Cory Sullivan, though, who had four hits including his first homer of the year. Garrett Atkins walked twice. Jason Smith started at first base and had two hits, as did Clint Barmes. The back end of the bullpen was effective, except for David Cortes, who was kind of due to get scored on a bit. And the Giants lost, so San Francisco and Colorado remain deadlocked for first in the NL West at one game over .500, 11-10. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks are a game and half a game back respectively, although they're the division teams with positive run differentials. San Diego is really bad.
Aaron Cook and Jon Lieber will start in the last game of the four-game Philadelphia series. I had no idea it was a four-game series, something I would have found out if I'd bothered to write a series preview, but didn't the Rockies just play the Phillies like five minutes ago? I guess I'll do one for the Florida series this weekend, but I don't know how much left to say there is about the Marlins, either. I know they're bad, you know they're bad, they know they're bad. Hey, who foresaw the Mets running out to the biggest early division lead in baseball? New York is at four and a half games while no one else has a lead of more than one and a half. Watch out, though, as the Nationals have claimed Zach Day off waivers. I wonder if Frank Robinson signed off on that move. (We also learn in that same article that the White Sox have picked up Eduardo Sierra, which I guess means it's only a matter of time until Sierra is closing World Series games.)
East: -12
Central: +17
West: -5
The top 4 teams in the West are all right around .500 and average out exactly that, with the Padres keeping the division 5 games under. The Mets record would have them right in the middle of the crazy fray at the top of the Central, but in the East they have more than 4 games on everyone else, of whom none are even at .500. The Central has completely dominated, and while the Pirates are a combined 3-16 against their division-mates, the other 5 teams are a combined 17 games over against the other two divisions, so it's not just feasting on the lowly Bucs that's helped out the division's record.
I do think that the Central race will probably be the most interesting, only insofar as there's a pretty good chance that more than 2 teams will be in running come September and decently over .500, as opposed to the West which will have at most 1 team clear 86 wins, and possibly none. The East will probably be a good two team race, but I don't think that the Mets AND Phillies AND Braves will all make a run at 90 wins...2 of 3 at best.
East: -12
Central: +17
West: -5
The top 4 teams in the West are all right around .500 and average out exactly that, with the Padres keeping the division 5 games under. The Mets record would have them right in the middle of the crazy fray at the top of the Central, but in the East they have more than 4 games on everyone else, of whom none are even at .500. The Central has completely dominated, and while the Pirates are a combined 3-16 against their division-mates, the other 5 teams are a combined 17 games over against the other two divisions, so it's not just feasting on the lowly Bucs that's helped out the division's record.
I do think that the Central race will probably be the most interesting, only insofar as there's a pretty good chance that more than 2 teams will be in running come September and decently over .500, as opposed to the West which will have at most 1 team clear 86 wins, and possibly none. The East will probably be a good two team race, but I don't think that the Mets AND Phillies AND Braves will all make a run at 90 wins...2 of 3 at best.
After 21 games the Rockies have played:
Arizona (6 games)
San Diego (6 games)
San Francisco (3 games)
Philadelphia (6 games)
And that's pretty random. Obviously they will play plenty more division games on the year, but they don't play the Phillies again this year after today's game. So, get your crummy CDT superiority the hey-all out of here.
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