Yet Another Padres Custom

...I really don't have anything to say, other than 'thank god we've got a month left of the regular season. Making Padres customs is tough, especially when nobody's playing well enough to deserve one.

Coming Tomorrow- Best closer in baseball, finally getting back to what he does best.

Ranger Danger

(Anguished Sigh)

Okay.

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you probably can tell that I'm not a big fan of teams that have no right being competitors trying to sneak into the playoffs. In my eyes, you can't get far into the playoffs without a reason to be there. You have to earn it. I think about the 2016 Cubs, or the 2009 Yankees. They earned it. They deserved to be there. I think about the Dodgers and Astros, how much they deserve their shots.

And then I think about how awful it would be if someone who didn't deserve to be there, like the Texas Rangers, took it all away from them and stole their glory.

There's an argument that baseball complements the underdog, but the real underdog is some team that's been fighting the whole time, up against the best, and sneaks in after getting robbed from 1st. The Rangers were circling last for most of the season. Their lineup is scattered, they've given away some pretty big guns to competitive teams. Despite the fact that they have a pretty solid rotation, and a few good bats, they have no reason to even be anywhere near the conversation for the Wild Card spots. They haven't had the season for it.

The Angels I can kind of get, because while they've not been fantastic, they've been circling second, and they've been building off of nothing, and they just got Justin Upton, and they could theoretically make it past the Twins. But the Rangers were a bad team for most of the season. What's the use of them getting good now and jumping into the playoffs with the best teams of the year?

I don't think this will escalate to the point of a playoff spot, but if it does...I will not be happy.

Coming Tonight: The Padres suck. I only have to do one or two more of their players until December. Here's one of them.

The One Guy Named Frazier That Doesn't Play for the Yankees

...and his name ain't 'Joe'.

While I'm sad that the Pirates weren't really able to do a great deal this season, thanks to a lack of a solid core, I am excited that some of the youth movement is beginning to bloom, thanks to Josh Bell's fantastic rookie season, and a similarly great sophomore effort from Adam Frazier.

And look, while this Pirates team isn't great, we are NOWHERE NEAR the amount of sheer ineptitude that they hit in the 2000s. Back then, whenever someone became anything resembling a star, they were sent out of Pittsburgh on a rail. Now, people like Gerrit Cole, Andrew McCutchen and Jameson Taillon can bloom into great star players and hold onto the team without it turning into an every-man-for-himself situation, like in 2009.

I'm not entirely sure if this team's going to look any better for 2018, though. I assume the feeding frenzy in St. Louis will have begun after the inevitable departure of Yadier Molina, and it will be tough for the Brewers to sustain what they've kept this year, so...that could leave a hole for an improved Pirates roster to step in. It just takes some reestablishment of the core, and letting a few older, more injury-prone people out. But I'm still not sure if this rebuilding process will work by next year.

I am pulling for these guys, because I've spent a nice amount of time in Pittsburgh, but practicality is going to have to take a backseat in order for a comeback to happen next year.

Coming Tomorrow- A man with his name struck fear into the hearts of Yankee fans 20 summers ago. Now...the new holder of the name is trying to bring a team that's been gutted, scraped and dulled into a postseason that will most likely not be kind to them.

Sort-Of, Kind-Of In Command

The Twins have the misfortune of being at the head of a long train of people trying to nab that last Wild Card spot. They're sitting on it right now, but they're also not too far from the Angels and Orioles. Meanwhile, the Rays, Mariners, Royals and Rangers aren't technically out of it yet, but unless they make a major push, they will be. And the Blue Jays, Athletics, Tigers and White Sox...yeah, they kinda have no shot. Just wanted to include them.

So yeah, the Twins, while they've come so far this season and have built a surprisingly nice team, need to come even further in order to avoid the slowly building Angels and suddenly surging Orioles. We should only point out that this barrage of Wild Card teams is only a game away from the Yankees at their first spot. It's implied that they're going to hold onto it, but...we can't really imply anything in baseball.

So, the Twins...yeah, the Twins are doing alright. They've hit 70 wins, and have come further than anybody would have thought they would back when the season started. The youth movement has mixed well with the veterans that they'd been stockpiling, and Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios and Miguel Sano FINALLY decided to start having nice seasons. This is also the year where Bartolo Colon made the rotation and Chris Gimenez switched from catcher to pitcher, and Kyle Gibson limped along after signing a baseball with a bible scripture for a certain baseball card blogger of another faith. It's been strange, but they've managed to outdo the odds and win a ton of truly tough matches.

The question remains as to whether they'll end up making it to the Wild Card game...and if they do, whether or not they'll have any effect on the postseason. Remember, the WC winner has to play the first seed, which, right now, is the Astros, and the way they're playing, I don't think anybody WANTS to. So the Twins will need to man up and become a truly great club if they do make it through the WC race.

Coming Tonight: A solid rookie for the Pirates, who, despite not really being anywhere near contention, is still doing his best to keep the team semi-afloat.

What Injuries?

Right now, Max Scherzer and Jayson Werth are back with the Nationals after some injuries. Trea Turner's also just gotten back. So at this point, the Nationals are waiting on Bryce Harper to return some time in September...but even if he doesn't, they're still doing pretty damn well. Even an outfield without Bryce Harper, but still featuring Werth, Michael Taylor, and the still-blazing Howie Kendrick, is worth celebrating.

More importantly, Max Scherzer's back on his feet, and back in the race for the NL Cy Young. At this point, the race is filled with the usual suspects, like Clayton Kershaw, who's probably gonna have some points docked for the injury-filled August, and Zack Greinke, who's probably going to come in second like he does every year, but right now Scherzer has a 7.0 WAR, a league-leading 230 strikeouts, an insanely low ERA, and a 13-5 record that's only gonna grow as the Nationals continue to incline. To say a Scherzer repeat could happen is a safe bet.

But...to say the Nationals could finally win a division series? I'm not making any definitive statements yet. Every time I do, they get clobbered. They have worse October luck than the Cubs used to. It's looking like their postseason matchup will square them against the Cubs, which seems doable at the present moment, but this is without accounting for the momentum that could accumulate or diminish from either team in the next 30 days. I have no idea what teams we'll be dealing with, who'll be healthy/hot/cold/injured, and what the picture will be. As is, I'd back on Washington, but you can't predict that when the October matchup will be completely different.

The only thing I can predict with few trepidations is that people are definitely going to vote for Max Scherzer to win a third Cy Young.

Coming Tomorrow- The Twins aren't dead! Neither is their former-rookie-phenom outfielder.

Deep Duda

With Lucas Duda, Adeiny Hechavarria, Wilson Ramos and Sergio Romo entering the fold with good numbers, you'd think the Rays would still be in the race, but thanks to the surging Orioles, aided by Tim Beckham...the guy they traded away...they're stuck in fourth place, with no real chance to succeed further this season.

Sad, because they actually did a lot of nice work this year. Steven Souza and Kevin Kiermaier continued to boost the exploits of the brief youth movement the Rays have collected, while Logan Morrison and Corey Dickerson hit a ton of home runs without sinking the franchise. Jacob Faria and Matt Andriese added themselves to the fold of impressive young pitchers, while Chris Archer did his usual thing of getting a ton of strikeouts.

Honestly, it was just some weird stuff, like Derek Norris' atrocious gameplay, Colby Rasmus' sudden leave from the game, the presence of Jesus Sucre as the only option at catcher for a little while, and a random turn from Rickie Weeks as the DH, that kept the Rays from being truly great. And while they're not completely out of the race, especially considering the power coming from Lucas Duda, it's safe to say they won't be going much further into the Wild Card race.

Still, there's a ton of promise coming from this lineup that's keeping me optimistic.

Coming Tonight: The guy that's probably gonna win his 2nd Cy Young award in a row.

Yes, They Can Dodge This

I just looked back at Baseball Reference and saw that the Mariners traded for Zach Lee to get rid of this guy. That was a good laugh.

So look...the Dodgers have four consecutive losses. But none of them were blowouts. None of them were losses without some trying. So it'd be great if none of those 'ARE THE DODGERS DONE BEING AMAZING' articles could pop up. It's bad enough that 'Albert Pujols is the Worst Player in Baseball' was on the front page of ESPN for a day. I just wanna get rid of the pessimism in sports news media.

The Dodgers's loss of a few games doesn't mean they're not powerful, by the way. They've just been forced to use Ross Stripling and Hyun-Jin Ryu as starters for a few games, while Clayton Kershaw, Brandon McCarthy and Alex Wood are on their way back from injuries. Kershaw and Wood will be back in the next week, and McCarthy will be back very, very soon. So, what's the problem? Lineup's still hot. Bullpen's still strong.

We've even gotten to the point where Adrian Gonzalez is back, Curtis Granderson is hitting homers off the bench, Chase Utley is finally playing better, and Austin Barnes is having a hell of a time as backup catcher. This team has gotten even better over time, and there's so much flexibility and depth in the lineup. Chris Taylor came in as a backup and he's been fantastic, playing great in the outfield and hitting really well.

Inevitability may be this team's one weakness, but if they continue to completely overpower every opponent, it may also be their way to the end.

Coming Today: Not too long ago he was the Mets' 1st baseman. Now he's playing for another 4th place team...but he's actually doing a ton better?