Baseball Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous baseball thoughts and observations.

The Red Sox have played 5 more road games than Tampa Bay and 7 more than the Yankees. That's perhaps the most important thing to understand about the dynamics of the race for the AL East going forward. Boston will feast at home while neither the Rays or Yankees should expect to do anything but hover around .500 on the road... If the reports are true - that the Marlins nixed the deal that would have netted them Manny because they wanted an extra $2 million from Boston - then that's disgusting. Here's a team that is right in the thick of a playoff race and they could have added a bat like Manny? The payoff of playoff games is bound to be more than $2 million. The Marlins made a big mistake in not making that deal. I'm officially rooting against the Marlins now... The problem for the Tigers is that they just can't beat the teams in their own division. Detroit is just 20-28 against other AL Central teams. If the Tigers can put together a moderately sized winning streak - then I expect they can get right into the middle of the race. In fact even though they are 6.5 games back and have lost their last 3 games - I still expect the Tigers to win the AL Central. The Twins have a lot of road games yet to play so I expect them to turn back into a pumpkin. And honestly - I just don't see the White Sox as anything but a .500 team... If the NL Cy Young was awarded today - I would hope that Tim Lincecum would be the winner. What he's doing with a lousy Giants team is incredible... Remember how people were talking about Lance Berkman and how he had a legitimate shot at winning the triple crown? Then Berkman went out and hit ZERO home runs in July. Needless to say but you don't hear that triple crown talk anymore... Today should have been Rod Beck's 40th birthday. RIP Shooter...