Nine of twelve

Texas and Houston are both leading. If those leads hold up Seattle is out.

Miami wins. They qualify for the postseason and eliminate the Cubs. St. Louis leading Cincinnati. If that holds up Arizona is in and the Reds are out.

I think Maeda will get two innings, maybe three if his pitch count is low, and then be held out tomorrow so he can be ready if needed on Tuesday. Beyond that they'll manage the pitches with next week in mind. I expect Ober will get as many innings as he can give us tomorrow because he'll almost certainly be kept off the roster for the first round. So hopefully we'll only need a little bullpen help tomorrow.

Make this note to yourself for future reference: Rand Balls Stu writes only sarcasm.

You can, but just barely. Game 4 of the World Series is on October 31.

Thin air affects batted balls too, you know. A fly ball to center that is caught at Target Field probably clears the wall in Denver. I think I've read that Ryan gets more fly ball outs than the average pitcher, and if that's the case it would be expected that Coors Field would be unkind to him. If I consider only starting pitching, I lean the same way as you regarding game 3. But one needs to consider the pitching staff as a whole. It's not difficult to envision a scenario in which Maeda enables us to win game 1 and/or game 2 by being available in the bullpen.

Partially correct, partially incorrect. Texas beats Seattle in a 2-way tiebreaker. Seattle beats Houston in a 2-way tiebreaker. Houston beats Texas in a 2-way tiebreaker. Seattle wins a 3-way tiebreaker.

Here's a link to an article on mlb.com which lists the results of tiebreakers as of the morning of September 30. https://www.mlb.com/news/2023-mlb-postseason-tiebreaker-scenarios This article lists the results of 2-way tiebreakers. One note: there is a partial omission. Seattle would lose a 2-way tiebreaker with Texas. Within this article is a link to a separate mlb.com article listing the results of 3-team and 4-team tiebreakers.

Three more fall training games, then we start playing for real.

Grooved pitch. Straight 93 just below the belt. And I'm totally OK with that.

Unfortunately Phil Cuzzi umpires badly and unfairly without trying.

I haven't read any comments. Just posted to say that I think the front office and the manager will do what they think is best for the team, not what anyone else thinks is best. I'm sure they'll listen to what Buxton has to say, but I think his lobbying will have little to no bearing on their decisions regarding the roster.

Speculation on my part: If the NL visiting teams and pairings are not going to be known until after the completion of the Marlins/Mets game on Monday they may use the two latest Tuesday time slots for the NL games. That would give the teams involved a little more time to travel on short notice. Or depending on what happens this weekend there may be no problem at all.

As IT said, he four host teams are set. However, the possible visiting teams are all over the map (literally). And with yesterday's Miami/Mets game being suspended with completion to take place on Monday it's very conceivable that the NL teams and pairings won't be known until then. I don't think MLB will want to wait until less than 24 hours before gametime to announce Tuesday's schedule. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

When I was talking about money I wasn't thinking about people buying tickets for a game. I was thinking in terms of corporate support. Those are much larger and much more important revenue sources than ticket sales. It takes A LOT of revenue to run a Major League franchise. I would guess that broadcast rights in the DR would bring in almost nothing. Does anyone think the DR has enough corporate money floating around to direct toward suite rental, naming rights, on-field and on-uniform advertising, "official" partnerships and so forth? I sure don't. Cuba? Where a large percentage of cars are 60+ years old because new ones are too expensive? Sorry, but not even. And I think the same thing is true throughout Latin America, probably even Mexico. Even in the US, secondary markets like Salt Lake City, Portland, and so forth, are not going to be able to generate the necessary revenue. It's just not there.

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It is viewed very unfavorably throughout baseball not to try to win games that have playoff implications. A manager has to put his own team's interests first but if the Rays don't give it their best shot over the weekend they'll hear about it from the three contenders in the AL West.

With each passing day it becomes simpler. (And easier for the Twins but still very difficult.) The Twins will get the 2 seed only if they win all 4 remaining games, Seattle sweeps Texas, and Houston loses at least 2 of its games against Arizona. Making the assumption for the sake of discussion that there is a 1 in 2 chance of each possible outcome in each of the 11 games involved there is a 1 in 512 chance of this happening. This would create a tie at 89 wins between Seattle and Texas with Houston in third with 87 or 88 wins. Texas would win the West by virtue of holding the tiebreaker over Seattle. The Twins, also at 89 wins, would get the 2 seed by virtue of holding the tiebreaker over Texas. Seattle would get the 5 or 6 seed. In the event of a 3-way tie for first place Seattle would win the West by virtue of holding the tiebreaker. They would get the 2 seed no matter how the Twins finish because they hold the tiebreaker over the Twins. Houston would finish second in the West by virtue of holding the tiebreaker over Texas and get the 5 or 6 seed. This is the only way Seattle could win the West. If Houston and Texas finish in a 2-way tie for first place Houston would win the West and get the 2 seed. Texas would get the 5 or 6 seed. A 2-way tie for first place between Houston and Seattle is not possible. If those two teams finish tied for second place Seattle holds the tiebreaker and would get the 5 or 6 seed. Toronto would get the 5 seed if they win all 4 of their remaining games. Other than that I don't know anything about possible scenarios involving Toronto. I don't know anything about possible scenarios in the National League.

AL east: BOS, NYY, BAL, TOR AL north: MIN, CWS, DET, CLE AL south: TB, TEX, HOU, Tennessee or Carolina AL west: COL, SEA, LAA, LV NL east: NYM, PHI, WAS, Montreal NL north: CHC, CIN, PIT, MIL NL south: MIA, ATL, STL, KC NL west: LAD, SF, SD, ARI

Insufficient population and money in Cuba or the DR to make a franchise viable. Same for NO, OKC and SLC.

Don't overworry. Things will turn out fine.

I think I would trust almost every reliever on the staff with closing with if the need arose, Varland included.

If TB can grasp the #1 seed they'll try to get there. We'll see how the next two days play out, but Toronto should not count on a cakewalk this weekend.

My sixth grade teacher also did the wheel-the-TV-into-the-classroom thing in 1966. Even though it was black-and-white TV and poor picture quality I still remember seeing Brooks Robinson on the screen against the hated Dodgers.

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