Inside Pitch

A Prince of a deal for the Tigers

No more carping allowed from anybody that no one can compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. Look at the stupid money this offseason: Angels (Albert Pujols), Rangers (Yu Darvish) and now Tigers (Prince Fielder).

I'm still trying to put my arms around Fielder's nine-year, $214-million deal.  The Tigers certainly were in panic mode when Victor Martinez went down and owner Mike Illitch isn't getting any younger at 82. He's won a lot with the Red Wings and I was told by several people at the World Series how downcast he was when the Tigers lost the ALCS in Texas last year. Sounds like he's just going for it now and longterm consequences be damned.

It makes the Tigers the runaway favorite in the AL Central and probably the favorite in the entire American League for the World Series. What a lineup with Fielder and Miguel Cabrera and, of course,  they already have the MVP in Justin Verlander.

Mitch Albom says the prevailing word is "Big" in his column on Fielder in today's Detroit Free Press. A good read. Be sure to read an Inside Baseball column I'll have in Sunday's paper. By then,  I should have my thoughts collected. That's a lotta coin. 

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

 

The postseason begins: Make your picks

While the Red Sox are going through the process of not renewing Terry Francona's contract today (e.g. he's getting fired), the real focus of the baseball world is the start of the postseason. The American League division series opens on two fronts with the Rays and Rangers meeting in Texas and the Yankees and Tigers meeting in the Bronx. That's Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia and that's must-see TV.

Right from the top, I'll put this out there: I got the Tigers and the Phillies in the World Series and I'm taking the Phillies in six. Sorry, Yankees fans. If Sabathia doesn't win tonight, I think it's possible the Tigers sweep the Bombers in three. And wouldn't that make for an interesting offseason. Remember, all division series games are on TBS.

So here's some quick analysis off the cuff. Hey, I gotta do Sunday's Inside Baseball column on the collapse of the Sox and Braves and I'm still working hockey previews too. Some multi-tasking. I give you some polls at the bottom too. Be sure and vote!

Tigers vs. Yankees -- I know all about the Bombers' offense but you have to like the Tigers' combination of Verlander, Doug Fister and Max Scherzer. You have to love closer Jose Valverde. Miguel Cabrera should get plenty of MVP looks. As for the Yankees, can you really count on Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia in this spot? Seriously? And does A-Rod show up in this series or bat eighth like he did in when he was humiliated in Game Four in Detroit in 2006. Tigers in four. 

Rays vs. Rangers -- I'm tempted, very/very tempted, to pick the Rays to go to the World Series. Maybe I should. Now that they're actually in the postseason, they have the best starting pitching in the AL. I think they get through this series and avenge last year's division series loss but you wonder how much energy they have left after that crazy September. Rays in five.

Cardinals vs. Phillies -- I don't think a lot of analysis is needed. The Phillies' losing streak near the end of the season was rooted in injuries and boredom after clinching the division title. They're ready. Halladay-Lee-Hamels-Oswalt with Worley in the bullpen. Do they need a bullpen? This is one of Tony LaRussa's better managing jobs but this is a case of thanks for playing and please drive home safely. Phillies in three.

Diamondbacks vs. Brewers -- Who had this matchup in March? Thought so.  In Kirk Gibson and Ron Roenicke, you have your two main candidates for NL manager of the year. Think the Yankees wish 20-game winner Ian Kennedy had found his game when he was with them until waiting to getting to Arizona?  The Dbacks are a great story but the Brewers have the motivation of Prince Fielder's last season. They have an MVP in Ryan Braun, a great rotation, a supreme closer in former Canisius College pitcher John Axford. I think Brewers-Phillies could be a fabulous NLCS. Can't wait. Brewers in four.

Now you vote.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

poll by twiigs.com

poll by twiigs.com

poll by twiigs.com

poll by twiigs.com

Linking to a wacky Wednesday we'll never forget

I saw every minute of it, well past midnight, and I still can't believe it. No one has ever seen a baseball season finish like that. The Rays were once down seven runs and still a run short and a strike away from losing, the Red Sox were a strike away from winning, the Braves two outs away from winning. And every result changed.

See you, chokers from Boston and Atlanta. Welcome to the playoffs, Rays and Cardinals. Take your places in home run history, Dan Johnson and Evan Longoria (showering fans at the Trop above).

Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe might have the start on new fodder for more of his Curse of the Bambino books. Wrote Shaughnessy on Page A-1 of today's Globe: "Truly unbelievable. This feels like revenge for 2004 and 2007. It is as if the baseball gods are punishing Red Sox Nation for hubris and arrogance and good times that seemed so good, so good, so good."

I like this Shaughnessy crack too: "They are the first team in baseball history to hold a nine-game lead in September, then fail to make the postseason. This makes them worse than the ’64 Phillies or the ’78 Red Sox. They are the poster boys of the Heimlich maneuver."

Wrote great friend of the blog Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant: "Now we know why 2004 happened. Now we know why 2004 was followed by 2007. Somehow the baseball gods knew Red Sox fans would never have been able to handle September 2011 if two exhilarating world championships hadn't interrupted all those decades of suffering. No, a few verses of Sweet Caroline and a pink hat under the Christmas tree aren't going to cure this hurt."

Another great friend, Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post, was in Baltimore and recaps the chronology of events by calling it "the single most-exciting, most intense, most exhilarating night in baseball history."

In the St. Petersburg Times, John Romano calls it "Miracles 2, logic 0" while recounting the Rays' bizarre finish through the eyes of several team personnel who weren't on the field. 

No one, of course, paid much attention to the Braves' collapse given the Red Sox situation. But as Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote, "But even a choking dog can have his day, or night, and the 2011 Braves tried to give themselves one Wednesday. They failed. They failed in the way this entire month had been a failure."

The Cardinals took until the last night of the season to finally get it together and win their 90th game. And it was shades of the 1964 team that came back on the Phillies.

So there we have it. Yankees-Tigers and Rays-Rangers in the AL. Phillies-Cardinals and Diamondbacks-Brewers in the NL. No Red Sox, no Braves. No way you thought that could happen when September started.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

Photos of Evan Longoria (left) and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (right)/Associated Press

Welcome to Wildcard Wednesday

It all comes down to this on the final day of the regular season: The Rays and choking Red Sox are both 90-71 in the AL, the Cardinals and choking Braves are both 89-72 in the NL. Will we decide the wildcards tonight or get one-game playoffs Thursday in Tampa Bay and St. Louis?

The schedule remains the same as the last two days -- Tampa hosting the Yankees and Boston at Baltimore, while the Braves host the Phillies and the Cardinals are in Houston. All night games. Have your remotes ready to be clicking between YES, ESPN and the MLB Network.

The Red Sox are 7-19 in September with a team ERA of 5.90. Once-impenetrable reliever Daniel Bard is 0-4, 11.90 and not trustworthy. Look at the starters' ERAs: Bedard and Wakefield, 5.25; Beckett 5.48, Lester 5.96, Lackey 9.13. The Rays have pulled even by going 16-10 despite a .237 team batting average in September. But that 3.50 team ERA sure helps.

The Braves, meanwhile, have gone 9-17 and hit just .235. Their team ERA of 4.25 isn't ghastly, especially when you consider Derek Lowe fell to 0-5, 8.75 in September when he was booed off the mound last night. The Cardinals are 17-8, batting .293 and have a 3.25 ERA.

See SABRhounds, I don't need a lot of made-up acronym stats to tell me why these races have changed this month. 

How is this going to end up? Take the polls.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

poll by twiigs.com

poll by twiigs.com

Mariano on 601: 'It's a great number'

TORONTO -- The celebration was relatively muted today in the Rogers Centre after Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth inning in the Yankees' 7-6 win over the Blue Jays to tie Trevor Hoffman's all-time record with 601 career saves.

There was a big celebration Tuesday in Seattle for No. 600 and there will be a big one for No. 602 when Rivera breaks it,  be it here Sunday or if it happens when the Yankees return home.

"Don't get me wrong, [601] is a great number but you have to hit 601 to get 602," Rivera said. "It's a great number but the most important thing is we won the game. We were down 6-1 and came back, pitched good after that."

"By being a Yankees as a player, manager and coach, you get to see a lot of great accomplishments," said manager Joe Girardi. "This is another one. You feel fortunate. ... What can you say about Mo? 602 is the big one because it just puts the final stamp on it that he's the greatest closer of all time.

"I don't think in this room we have any question. I don't want to take anything away from Trevor Hoffman but when you've been around Mo as long as I have, you've seen a lot of special things."

Click below to hear the audio of Rivera's meeting with reporters:

Mariano Rivera

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

AP Photo: Catcher Russell Martin congratulates Rivera on No. 601.

The Presidents come to Buffalo

Perhaps it's a reflection of how completely unforgettable the Buffalo Bisons' season was on the field, but I have been deluged with inquiries about the Washington Nationals' Racing Presidents appearance Thursday night in Coca-Cola Field.

So I poked around YouTube and the folks at Buffalo.com posted a video of the Presidents' race, where Teddy -- who has never won -- got overcome by the aroma of Chicken Wing and forgot to finish a race he was leading and George got the win.

I haven't found any clip of the match race between Teddy and Celery that ended with neither one winning. The Presidents, by the way, visited Toronto, Niagara Falls and the Wilcox Mansion on their trip north and tweeted shots of each. They're also included at that link of the "Let Teddy Win" blog. Hey, the Nationals stink too so the folks in DC have to get some entertainment.

The Wilcox Mansion on Delaware, you ask? Come on, history buffs. That's where the real Teddy got inaugurated after the assassination of Wiliam McKinley here in 1901.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

(Triple) Plays of the Week

I knew about the 5-4-3 triple play the Red Sox pulled against the Rays on Tuesday night (the first around-the-horn job in Sox history), but I completely missed the acrobatic 4-6-3-2 trifecta the Brewers pulled the next day against the Dodgers. That one, which finished with Prince Fielder nailing Matt Kemp at the plate, was simply sensational. The Brewers, in fact, became the first team since the 1953 Yankees to turn a triple play and four double plays in the same game.

Then Elias Sports came up with this nugget: It's the first time since 1981 we've had triple plays on consecutive days in the big leagues. Pretty rare indeed. Let's go to the video.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Nationals' Racing Presidents coming to Bisons' Fan Appreciation Night on Sept. 1

There's the sausage race in Milwaukee and the pierogi race in Pittsburgh. Cleveland has an entertaining hot dog race (ketchup tends to get a little physical) and, of course, the Bisons have trotted out a Chicken Wing race this year that has turned Celery into a forlorn winless character that brings you back to the '62 Mets (or maybe the '09 Bisons).

But no mascot race has gotten as much sudden attention as the Presidents Race the Washington Nationals stage each night in Nationals Park. And George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy are coming to Buffalo for the Sept. 1 home finale as part of Bisons' Fan Appreciation Night ceremonies. The Presidents, who are regulars at the White House for various functions, will race and be available to fans during the game, which will also feature giveaways and a huge fireworks show after the final out.

Teddy has never won a race since it was born in 2006. Just like Celery has been an every-day loser so far this year. The Presidents have a wikipedia page with information on their history of races. The Nationals Web site has their official bios. The team also kept the standings on the site through 2010 with Abe leading with 154 wins and Teddy at 0.

There's even an entertaining blog -- called LetTeddywin -- that chronicles his efforts to finally win a race, complete with lots of video. Its current loss meter stands at 415 straight races.

Here's a look at the July 4 race.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington)

Going to the video on Sappelt's debut

As part of Sunday's Inside Baseball column, I mentioned how former Lackawanna Little Leaguer Dave Sappelt made his big-league debut for the Reds last Sunday in Wrigley Field and it was a good first impression in an 8-7 victory.

Batting leadoff, Sappelt crushed the first pitch of the game for a line drive out to left field. But he later got his first big-league hit, a solid single to left, and made a diving catch of his own in left field.

Here's the video evidence of those two plays from MLB.com. Click the arrows in the upper left of the boxes to play.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

A look ahead to the second half

If you missed my look forward to the second half of the MLB season in today's editions, here's the link to the story. It's pretty fascinating to see there is tremendous parity in baseball even when the public perception is otherwise. In the last six years, 11 different teams have made the World Series! Pretty amazing.

My choice for a newcomer this year to that group would be the Brewers, especially now that they've acquired Francisco Rodriguez. That said, my prediction would still remain what I called in March -- the Phillies and the Red Sox. It's going to be really hard to knock either of them off come October.

So based on what you've seen so far and what you think might happen the rest of the way, take our little poll to choose who will be in the Fall Classic.

---Mike Harrington
(www.twitter.com/bnharrington) 

poll by twiigs.com

poll by twiigs.com