Baseball note

[yendi]

With the next Red Sox win or Tampa Bay loss, the Devil Rays will become the first team eliminated from contention for a 2007 division title (they'll still, technically, be in the wild card race). Other teams likely to be officially eliminated this week include the Orioles (seven combined Sox wins/O's losses), and the White Sox (six combined ChiSox losses and Indians victories). There's also an outside chance of seeing the Royals (ten combined KC losses and Cleveland victories), Rangers (ten combined Texas losses and Angels wins), Marlins (eleven combined Florida losses/Mets victories), and Nationals (eleven combined Nats losses/Mets wins) officially drop out of the division races.

My condolences to anyone who picked Tampa Bay in their preseason predictions.

Comments

[thegreatjohnzo.livejournal.com]

and i could swear kazmir, crawford, and upton could give them over a hundred wins!

semi related - last year my friend seriously predicted that not only was Florida going to take the east division, but the diamondbacks were going to lose over a hundred games. i look at that as my gold standard of bad predictions.

Up from the Cellar

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

If the Devil Rays keep their offense together and acquire something resembling a bull-pen (and, of course, at least one more decent starter), they could leap-frog both the Orioles and the Blue Jays next year. There's a lot of raw stuff on that team.

My impression is that they lose most of their games after the 6th inning, but statistics may not bear that out.

They have the misfortune of being in the same division as the Red Sox and the Yankees, which makes their numbers look worse than, say, the Royals, the White Sox or the Rangers.

Re: Up from the Cellar

[thegreatjohnzo.livejournal.com]

it also doesnt help that people still respect the royals...or at least i do. texas and the sox? meh. then again, maybe its just fun to say david dejesus's name.

tampa just seems too new at times to be an impact. its kinda like how everyone treated florida and the diamondbacks...until they won the world series a few times. but the AL east is like the hardest division ever, i'll give you that. even if i don't care for boston and feel meh about the yankees.

[yendi]

and i could swear kazmir, crawford, and upton could give them over a hundred wins!

Well, if you listen to some Mets fans, Kazmir still will. By himself.

[thegreatjohnzo.livejournal.com]

you guys had kazmir? who'd you trade him for?