Baseball Update

The baseball season is about over. But, don't worry if you think you will have Mets withdrawal (a suspended game on Friday night -- though the Cubs keep on losing, so maybe not -- require a Monday cameo appearance). Or, baseball withdrawal after October baseball. The strike is over. So, there will be more television content.

I wanted to replace my Friday post since there have been new developments. The Marlins won, ending the Padres' very slim remaining hopes. The Mariners decided to find a way to beat Texas two times in a row. This gives them a fighting chance (still are likely to miss it by a game) for a playoff spot. Two more wins can even get them a division title and bye!

The Rays, Blue Jays, and Astros or Rangers are still the likely AL wild cards, but we will see. The Phils, Diamondbacks, and Marlins are also the likely NL wild cards. But, as with the final two AL slots, not quite. Reds and Cubs retain a bit of life at the moment, the Cubs requiring the most help. Including the Mets on Monday.

Saturday Night Update: The Mets swept a doubleheader, which appears to erase any shot at them getting a better pick by being among the bottom six in the baseball standings (Nats being a repeat player does not qualify). Daniel Murphy, who is retiring for real now [if not as a Met like Big Sexy], was on hand to throw out a first pitch. Good luck, Roger Ramjet. 

Teams, for people who care about such things, are playing for statistics like being at or over .500. More importantly, the Marlins won and the Reds lost, so the NL wild cards are in place. The question then becomes what seeding the Marlins and Diamondbacks have.  For now, this still can turn on that suspended Marlins/Mets game. The Cubs did win, after blowing a six-run lead, but needed the Marlins to lose out. 

Seattle can play spoiler: the NL West and a bye is still up for grabs. Just not for them.  They are done. Their loss helped the Blue Jays, who now are in. It first eliminated Seattle as the NL West leader. Then, the Astros won, eliminating them totally.  

The last day will determine seeding. A bye and playing the Twins over the Rays is not nothing. 

Sunday: The big news is that the new head of baseball operations decided that Buck should no longer be manager of the Mets. I think he was partially to blame for their failure to get to the promised land last year (if you praise a manager for the good stuff ...) but was not the reason this season. 

How about getting rid of the GM, who made some questionable moves that influenced their current situation (as well as last season, such as not getting a key piece to put them at the deadline over the hump like in 2015)? I'm okay with them moving on with new leadership. The players really like Buck. It would been fine to keep him too. But, not just him!

Anyway, Seattle won again -- they won 3/4 vs. Texas, but the Astros swept the Diamondbacks. In the end, Seattle being able to beat Texas (finally) merely helped the Astros win the division and first-round bye. Yippee. Marlins/Diamondbacks both lost so that last game wouldn't matter. So, the Mets will wound up completing 161 games. 

The Mets wound up 1.5 games ahead of the Angels so came in 7th in the race for the bottom six in MLB for a better draft pick. A tie would have gone to the Angels since the Mets did so well last year. Oh well. One more low pick would be nice but it's still a lot of guesswork and who knows what would have come out of it. Really comes out of the Angels doing so bad. They had the potential to do better than they did

BTW, I have for a while complained about Vogelbach still being around to take at-bats from others. I haven't actually seen him in the lineup for a while.  Small favors. D.J. Stewart, who for a while was hitting very well with DH vibes (and being able to play the field), has struggled.