AL playoff picture

[ShoelesJoe]

1 hour ago, spiritof66 said:

After Gil was pulled, NYYs used eight relief pitchers -- their entire bullpen.

Gil was pulled due to injury. He threw 78 pitches in 3+ innings, and according to the Yankee broadcast he had nothing tonight. I wonder if Gil has hit a wall and is going to be a non-factor going forward. 

[Since1984]

5 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Three of the six are in the bottom third in payroll, the Guardians are spending less than the O's.

KC is right behind the Guardians and they are 20th.

What exactly are you crying about?

There is no crying in baseball! Just surprised that 1/2 are fairly low as the “best teams”

[waroriole]

8 hours ago, spiritof66 said:

Got the triple because Soto tried for the catch on a fly in the gap, and ball got by him and rolled to the wall. 

That’s a very generous description of what Soto did in RF. 

[Sports Guy]

3 hours ago, Since1984 said:

There is no crying in baseball! Just surprised that 1/2 are fairly low as the “best teams”

In a league that is seemingly getting younger, it’s not that surprising. Young players don’t make much money.

That said, I bet that stat isn’t out of the ordinary either. 
 

Stop signing the middling guys to big deals and keeping them for arb2 and arb3 money..if you don’t do just those 2 things, it helps keep the payroll down.

If, on top of those things, you are able to develop enough minor league talent to not have to pay relievers 4-7 and your bench much, if any money, you further keep the payroll down.

Not doing those things doesn’t make you cheap..it makes you smart. 
 

Put the money into your top 3 or 4 starters, your top 3 relievers and your everyday players.

[Wavetrapper]

A good night last night 

Orioles win

Losses for NYY, KC and Minn.  

[glenn__davis]

The BOS/HOU series is sort of a tough one at the moment.

BOS is probably the only real threat to the Orioles totally missing the playoffs, and while I think it's highly improbable that they catch us, they're just close enough at 7GB to still be within striking distance if we seriously falter.

On the other hand, we're 5 games up on Houston.  The importance there is that if we do happen to win the division but they catch us we don't get the bye.  They'll also likely have the tiebreaker over us unless we sweep them this weekend which seems very unlikely.

I think I'll just be happy with whichever one loses

[Grt 2BA FL Gator]

18 minutes ago, glenn__davis said:

The BOS/HOU series is sort of a tough one at the moment.

BOS is probably the only real threat to the Orioles totally missing the playoffs, and while I think it's highly improbable that they catch us, they're just close enough at 7GB to still be within striking distance if we seriously falter.

On the other hand, we're 5 games up on Houston.  The importance there is that if we do happen to win the division but they catch us we don't get the bye.  They'll also likely have the tiebreaker over us unless we sweep them this weekend which seems very unlikely.

I think I'll just be happy with whichever one loses

Guardians a factor in this? Do they have an easy schedule? Maybe we can beat them out if Houston continues their hot stretch.

I think I definitely have concern knowing BOS is only 7 GB. I don’t think we’ll fade hard, but 7 games is not a shoo in.  

Edited August 21 by Grt 2BA FL Gator

[bpilktree67]

1 hour ago, Grt 2BA FL Gator said:

Guardians a factor in this? Do they have an easy schedule? Maybe we can beat them out if Houston continues their hot stretch.

I think I definitely have concern knowing BOS is only 7 GB. I don’t think we’ll fade hard, but 7 games is not a shoo in.  

7 games is still a pretty good amount.  If we go just 14-21 which is playing .400 baseball  the rest of the way the Red Sox will have to go 23-14 or .620 baseball.  We do still have a 3 game series vs them which can help them but they are gonna have to sweep us most likely to even give them a chance.  They are running out of games to make a move and havent been gaining ground.  

[foxfield]

The Orioles have played pretty poorly for roughly 2 months.  That doesn't change the fact that they are a very good team still.  It also would be a mistake to pile all of the last 2 months on injuries.  The injuries are important and certainly take an additional psychological toll, but we played pretty subpar defense and our best players cooled quite considerably offensively during this stretch.

The good news is that most of the teams that have been at the top have also played poorly.  Houston is coming on pretty strong and will be interesting to see this weekend.  I am attending Sat and Sun.

But there is no reason to wallow in what we don't have.  If this team gets hot offensively, it will be a serious threat in Oct.  The race is still right in front of the Orioles.  They are not looking up.  They control their own destiny and they are still the best team if everyone is playing on point.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

[Frobby]

8 hours ago, ShoelesJoe said:

Gil was pulled due to injury. He threw 78 pitches in 3+ innings, and according to the Yankee broadcast he had nothing tonight. I wonder if Gil has hit a wall and is going to be a non-factor going forward. 

That would be so unlucky for the poor Yankees.  

[glenn__davis]

1 hour ago, Grt 2BA FL Gator said:

Guardians a factor in this? Do they have an easy schedule? Maybe we can beat them out if Houston continues their hot stretch.

I think I definitely have concern knowing BOS is only 7 GB. I don’t think we’ll fade hard, but 7 games is not a shoo in.  

Yes, CLE is absolutely a factor.  We've been neck and neck with them for about the past month so obviously if we finish ahead of them (or whoever wins the Central) then the HOU issue becomes a moot point, at least as far as bye-purposes go.

[Since1984]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

In a league that is seemingly getting younger, it’s not that surprising. Young players don’t make much money.

That said, I bet that stat isn’t out of the ordinary either. 
 

Stop signing the middling guys to big deals and keeping them for arb2 and arb3 money..if you don’t do just those 2 things, it helps keep the payroll down.

If, on top of those things, you are able to develop enough minor league talent to not have to pay relievers 4-7 and your bench much, if any money, you further keep the payroll down.

Not doing those things doesn’t make you cheap..it makes you smart. 
 

Put the money into your top 3 or 4 starters, your top 3 relievers and your everyday players.

Hoping this is the Orioles MO the next decade!

[eddie83]

 

Yankees up big tonight but significant news here. 

[Sports Guy]

Twins are going to win too.

[eddie83]

10 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Twins are going to win too.

Royals up 2-0 early as well. That said look at KC’s upcoming schedule, just brutal. Beating HOU doesn’t real help us. However you have 13 of next 20 vs teams BAL is in direct competition with. Somebody has to lose. 
 

PHI (3)
@CLE (4) @HOU (4)
———————————-
CLE (3) MIN (3)
@NYY (3)