Yes, it´d be fair to the Rays fans.

Please no one go all Rule 5.

http://tinyurl.com/yutbvr

AROD might be Mr. October once he gets past the first playoff series. He might want to think about that before resigning with the Yanks or signing with the Dodgers.

Franklin Gutierez gets key rbi base hit in a Division Series for Cleveland and goes one ahead of Bradley and Ethier.

It'll be fun to hear Boras talk about how his postseason performance is just a small sample size issue, and not indicative of his true value. Course, Boras doesn't shy away from small sample sizes when they support his case (e.g. BA w/RISP).

But A-Rod is going to take Jake Westbrook deep twice today, so Boras will be happy.

Vlad is also invisible this month, in case nobody else noticed.

I wonder whether the firejoemorgan boys just love post-seasons like this, because it guarantees them idiot material for months to come, or whether it drives them nuts.

Bill Plaschke noticed...!

And when New York did debut on Thursday, the ratings kept right on pouring in. The Day 2 tripleheader on TBS racked up another big day of numbers, averaging 4.6 million viewers over three games -- Game 2 of each National League series, plus the opener between the Yanks and Indians. Colorado and Philadelphia drew 3.3 million viewers, the Chicago-Arizona game drew 3.7 million, and the Yankees and Indians contest was played before 6.7 million television viewers. <<<<<<

Good news for MLB, you can't help but be happy for baseball when you read stuff like that.

Sunday is another matter. ;-)

You have to watch the NL today! I'll be at the Rose Bowl most of the day.

Have we gotten through the 48 hours of doom, otherwise known as the rumored window for the Santana trade to go through?

Why not just seed them according to most wins?

Because nobody liked to watch the Yankee-Red Sox LCS. Although I don't the Astros-Cardinals Series were overly popular.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/05/appendix.purpose.ap/index.html

Now I could understand if they wanted to avoid situations where one division was assured of having a team in the LCS, but the current format gives one division a rather high likelihood of getting at least one team into the LCS and it seems to happen that two teams end up there more often

I read about the appendix having a purpose, and not once did I think about Juan Pierre. I'm definitely making better progress at recovering from this season than you guys.

Keep in mind. I'm not far away, but I have not yet settled on my mode of transportation.

I think we have a new nickname for Pierre. If Ned signs more useless vets, do we call them the appendices?

http://tinyurl.com/2mlud9

In fact, it would help the Angels if they just put Willits in center where he belongs and played Chone at third.

Jim Tracy's strategy was to get a lead and give it to his bullpen, among whom, he prospered by having the greatest run by a closer in the history of baseball.

Now, it can be argued that he never had a team that put all facets of the game together at the same time but Jim Tracy, a baseball strategist, sorry never saw it.

But I also think what people think of as strategy is often just second guessing pitching moves, etc. Very few teams have a particular strategy or plan, the Yankees in their glory days worked counts, the Angels try to run the bases agressively but all of that can be shut down by good pitching.

It was true 30 years ago and it is true today, the best strategy in baseball is the 3-run home run.

I can't see how it could've been worse, but I'm curious what some of the more knowledgeable posters here think he might've done.

Though I doubt either one of these guys are good for a team in the midst of a youth movement.

I can't believe people would take Tracy over Grady. I'm not a giant Grady fan, but Tracy's incessant over-managing was often ludicous, not to mention his love of (s)crappy AAA players who tried hard.

But what innovative things did he do, play LoDuca in left field, insist Cesar continue to switch hit, move Shawn Green to first?

I guess he was part of the leadership when Gagne became a relief pitcher but did Tracy help young players flourish?

He is a very nice man from what I saw and he probably is what I would call a good baseball man but he can also be somewhat childish (e.g. wearing LoDuca's number after the trade), stubborn, Jason Phillips, and not a great leader (see September records with the Dodgers).

Grady's main flaw, IMHO, is his loss of the clubhouse during the September collapse. According to that Post-Gazette article, Tracy also has problems with leadership.... and in addition he was so fascinated with stats (and interpreting them incorrectly), he often did not play his best possible team. Remember, this is the man who wanted J.D. Drew to sacrifice bunt. This is the guy who decided to play a scrub catcher at first-base instead of the first-baseman on the team. This is the guy who batted Izturis leadoff while his BA and OBP were a black hole.... for months.

Grady makes the occasional stupid pitching decision... but they affect a single game. And, by and large, he's shown a willingnesss (when repeatedly confronted with the truth) to change the lineup to better the team.

You can blame the players for not having been better than they were, I guess. I'll stick to blaming Tracy.

I hate when writers write things they know aren't true. He knows Tracy will never manage again. He KNOWS it.

And again, I don't think it was ever this guys should not be playing if he is better vibe, I do think that there is certainly enough inference from some objective folks (not LA Times columnists) that would place blame on a lot more than one disgruntled outfielder and one cranky second baseman.

If Grady had to do it over, he probably should have tried to set a lineup that at least could be more easily understood by the players and then while they would be still upset by their lack of play, they could understand the why they were sitting better.

But Ned did Grady no favors but the construction of the roster and that is probably one reason why you will hear no complaints from Ned about how Grady managed the team.

Was that a big deal? Nomar wasn't bad a third.

As BH said, Tracy's main strategy was to get a lead into the ninth and hand it to Gagne. Which is great if you A. get a lead into the ninth, and B. have Gagne. In Pittsburgh, A. didn't happen very often, and B. never happened.

With that strategy, his obviously horrid player selection severely hampers success in part A. as well.

Frankly, my preference is that the Dodgers go with a younger, hungry manager who has limited ML experience. I think too often teams go for the "name" hire.... but "name" too often means "retread". But I know this approach is the opposite of what Ned would do if he replaces Grady.

The ability to adjust strategy to personnel should be a top priority when looking for coaches.

Hmm. That's a hard call. Generally Tracey was not all over the place in his line-ups like Grady is. When Tracey filled out the line-up cart there was usually some rationale to it. On the other hand, Tracey was so stubborn in his committment to certian players, especially Jason Phillips that his judgment seemed impaired. One big diffrence is Tracey almost never accepted responsibility for anything that went wrong. Grady at least shoulders the blame for some of the teams failings. With this young team I think I prefer Grady. If we had verteran team I might go with Tracey.

"Identification as a member of SABR should be for identification purposes only and should not be used to attempt to obtain special privileges or other advantages.

"... please note that only the president, executive director or executive board may speak for SABR..."

Fortunately, on the first page is a reminder that, while I can start enjoying the "non-publication benefits of membership immediately," I won't really be a member till January 1, 2008. To my eye, that means I've got three months to speak for SABR, and demand special treatment before I'd be breaking any rules. So, I've got that going for me.

The big question though, is who do you bring in if you fire Little?

I wonder who he made dress up in Jason Phillips' goggles.

Jim Tracy might be a better manager than Little, or he might be worse. It's hard to tell. But he is a much stranger person than Little. If I were a GM, I wouldn't want him around me.

80 Is McCourt "writing off next season already" by keeping Little such a bad thing? Not if his mandate is clear: Develop the younger players. McCourt is a monkey-see, monkey-do kind of businessman, and maybe the monkeys he's studying now are Arizona and Colorado.

I would have though XeiFrank & his machine would have done well also...

IMHO I think you also have to take what writers write with some suspension, there always half truths if you ask me. everything I've heard about Tracy is that he's an absolutely great human being.

Oh my gosh that's funny.

You can point out flaws in everybody if you look hard enough, Roberto Clemente use to get EATEN ALIVE by them over there. But to be fair I'm sure theres plenty of truth to the article as well.

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/discussion/2008_zips_projections_tampa_bay_devil_rays/

Can't really say I agree with that assessment, however.

The Point--How much do I hope the Rockies do in the snakes!

Either way it's a challenge. (pronounced as Clueseau would.)

Now all we need is Florida to hang onto its small lead over LSU...and maybe Cal is #1. Although the announcement of the SC loss seems to have pumped up LSU fans.

NPUT!