Division leaders and their rivals are squaring off today in both the AL and NL East. With the Yankees looking to pad their four-game lead over the Rays in their rubber match and the Braves looking to pull within 5.5 games of the front-running Nationals with a sweep, here are the notes, quotes, and song lyrics from the East:
- GM Brian Cashman reiterated Joe Girardi will manage the Yankees next year, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. Cashman was specifically asked, if in his mind, Girardi will be the manager regardless of what happens. "Yup," was Cashman's reply.
- The Nationals aren't letting the Stephen Strasburg controversy and the recent skid in Atlanta dampen their enthusiasm, according to the Washington Post's James Wagner. Mark DeRosa is the most vital presence in keeping the clubhouse loose with Wagner calling him part team dad and part team comedian.
- The Nationals' season is of historic proportions, writes Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post. With 1933 the last time a Washington franchise won a league title and the District of Columbia having seen two versions of the Senators come and go in the interim, Svrluga also gives a lesson in how to calculate magic numbers for those who might have already perfected the math behind RGIII's QB rating.
- In addition to trying to make the playoffs, September is also about playing for awards and new contracts for the Rays, opines Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
- Jason Bay told Pat Borzi of the New York Times that he doesn't believe the effects of two concussions are the cause of his disappointing season. Manager Terry Collins hinted that was the case before the Mets' series in Milwaukee. Bay responded, "Terry’s asked me that, and I have nothing to quantify that with. How do you know? I don’t feel like it has. A lot of people look for a lot of reasons as to why things may or may not have come down as they historically have. Albeit that’s a viable scenario, but I can’t tell you from one day to the next how it felt. Those things did occur, but if I knew the answer, I would have fixed it by now.”
- There is no easy fix for the Red Sox as they begin the long task of rebuilding their roster, writes the Boston Herald's John Tomase who provided a critique of the franchise from ownership to the farm system.
- It has been a surprising year for Bobby Valentine and Buck Showalter, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. No one could have predicted, even himself Sherman admits, the seasons the two managers have experienced.
- In a separate article, Sherman believes starting pitching will determine the Yankees' post-season fate.
- GM Alex Anthopoulos confirmed to reporters the Blue Jays are exploring moving their Triple-A club to Buffalo from Las Vegas, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. This would, in effect, bump the Mets, currently affiliated with Buffalo, to Las Vegas.
- Rays' manager Joe Maddon summed up his team's offensive problems by turning to song, reports the Tampa Bay Times' Topkin. "Again, we've sang this song," Maddon said. "I'm sure we could make a nice country and western song out of this whole thing. Between your dog and your pickup, we came up short again. We came up short agin." Unfortunately, Maddon will not be eligible in the songwriting category at the Country Music Awards tomorrow night.
Wow. The hiring of Bobby V at this point has turned out to be a huge franchise-changing move. If they had acquired another manager, they might not be here at all. Not saying they’d necessarily be successful, but they might not have had the clubhouse chemistry unravel so badly, and Adrian and company would still be in Boston.
Not necessarily – He was a terrible choice, agreed. But the bigger issue was a clubhouse culture. No manager can fix that. That requires transactions – which have happened ( Beckett, Gonzalez ).
I see what you’re saying. But, I think any perceived chemistry issues entering the season was really the afterglow from the bitter collapse in ’11. If they started to win for a few good months, I think that perception would have shed somewhat. It’s easy for us to play “What if?” but we could never really know.
I think what we can say for certain is that, Bobby V’s statement that seemed to throw his whole existing lineup under the bus was a face-saving move, and probably means his time in Boston is going to end soon. This has been a pretty unreal last 12 months for the Red Sox, starting from the Collapse til now.
espn and mlb network keep talking about how the nats should have taken the same approach as the braves with medlen. Medlen channeled his inner greg maddux and turned spot starts into being the braves number one. Im a huge braves fan but the nats are getting the raw end of this. In noo way was wren managing kris’ innings
Jason Bay’s kinda downplaying this concussion thing. If he thinks it doesn’t affect a career, he needs to touch base (no pun intended) with Brian Roberts and Mark Lemke.
He was so bad before the concussion it’s kind of hard to tell the difference.
Justin Morneau too.
Though in his defense, supposedly there is no such thing as a routine concussion. Every one is unique, depending on where on the brain it happens, what type, and how severe. That said, many many players never totally come back, or if they do, they’re a shadow of the player they used to be. You can also be more susceptible to future occurrences too.
Sydney crosby went from the best thing on ice to missing serious time. I doubt he will ever be the same. I questioned his and justins desire till i read up on concussions and talked to a few guys that had them. Alot more to it than i thought. I always figured smelling that salt stick or whatever just made it better but i was bad wrong
Bay watch will go on until Mets hire Hasselhoff as manager. they should’ve given Jason’s sister Lauren (a Team Canada fastball ace) a tryout!
The Mets might as well have their AAA affiliate in Richmond, VA than in Buffalo. Richmond is closer to New York by about 15 miles. Closer to home, the Mets could relocate their franchise to either Brooklyn or Trenton. There is also an almost new, totally expandable stadium up in The Albany-Troy area, some 130 miles upriver from Queens. Toronto is doing the Mets a favor moving their team from Las Vegas to Buffalo, no doubt about it.
Yikes!! Buffalo is making New Yorkers feel rejected.
Upstate NY is separate from the city and they usually let it be known. NYC is over 7 hours from buffalo. Toronto is only like 2.5 hours with the border crossing.
Trenton already has the thunder. Albany makes alot of sense, it had pretty good attendance back when they used to have a team. AAA affiliate is nice to have close to home. Toronto wants buffalo, Yankees have scranton, pa; red sox have rhode island; Detroit has toledo,
What stadium is available in Albany?
I personally would have liked the Mets to have stayed with Buffalo but the Bisons don’t want the stay with the Mets.
The Mets should also consider fixing up Bernie Robbins Stadium in Atlantic City, abandoned since 2009.
There is a a fairly new, $15,000,000 stadium adjacent to the campus of Hudson Valley Community College (enrollment 13,500), in Troy, NY, that seats 4,500 without bleacher seats in the outfield. But it does have 10-12 corporate suites, and lots of parking. The stadium can easily be expanded to 9-10,000 seat capacity. 750,000-1,000,000 population live within a 15 mile radius, 4 local TV stations plus Time-Warner cable already broadcasts International League games nightly on local cable TV.