Baseball Notes

OJ Simpson has accumulated a lot of the media craze over the past few days. Why anyone cares...I couldn't really tell you. The guy is whacked.

What The Juice has done is take away the attention of the heated baseball races going on. With every NL race kept tight and the AL East now seemingly up for grabs, we are looking at a pretty solid ending to the season.

The AL East/Wildcard is going to come down to the end. You look at the Red Sox who are struggling to stay alive and you ask the question...is Manny being Manny? Ramirez hasn't seen the field in an extended period of time and his right handed bat is crucial...in any lineup. Manny is the most clutch player I have ever seen over the course of a career (Ortiz started hitting for the first time about 3-4 years ago). They need his bat.

My favorite pitcher representing the islands that American troops fought on during WWII, the aforementioned Hideka "Okinawa Iwo Jima" Okajima has a tired arm. He has been crucial for a bullpen that has been very strong throughout the year. At this stage of the season, the bullpen is what really holds a team together. Between Okajima and Gagne deciding that he didn't want to get people out anymore, the Red Sox are in a world of hurt. Okajima is tired...does this mean that DICE-K might be struggling a little too with fatigue? The Yankees are playing well...and they are getting their pitching figured out...for now. In the playoffs, they need to be careful of putting their hopes in the arms of guys who are closer to collecting social security than the peaks of their careers. Oh, and A-Rod doesn't hit in the post season.

In the NL, the other New York team is just as disgruntled as the Red Sox. After winning a game last night where their best player (Carlos Beltran) went 0-5, the Mets showed signs of life for the first time in a week. The problem for the Mets is that the Phillies are one good, and fun baseball team. They are gritty, talented, and motivated to get to the playoffs. Now, the Phillies have that mentality of "Hey, we can win any game at any time." The problem is, what happens if they get into a pitching duel? A big time ace, down the stretch, can match up against the Phillies and if Cole Hamels isn't pitching, the Phillies are in a lot of trouble if they catch that ace on his game. Lest we forget, the Mets forgot how to play baseball for an extended period of time. Everyone says, "The Mets go where Jose Reyes takes them." The sad thing is that is a true statement. With a team of so many great players, it's hard to believe that an axiom like that can actually be the case.

This being said, who is going to win the MVP? Sadly enough, and I hate this, but it is going to have to come down to the teams that make the playoffs. Statistically, Matt Holliday of the...ROCKIES...ranks first, third and first in the triple crown categories. In my opinion, with a team like the...ROCKIES...playing this well into September with a legit shot, there is no reason whatsoever for Holliday not to win the award. But let's put together a scenario:
The experts are for Jimmy Rollins. He held the Phillies together when Chase Utley was out. What we do forget is that Pat Burrell also decided to crush the baseball while Utley was gone...for the first time since he was at the U. Needless to say, he has leveled off some. And Utley, if he hadn't gotten hurt, would probably be the NL leader in RBI. Maybe. If the Phillies do in fact make the playoffs, it seems that Utley and Rollins would cancel each other out...a la the Kerry Collins-Ki Jana Carter syndrome of good ole 1994. What's up Rashaan Salam. If the Brewers make the playoffs, home run leader Prince Fielder will most likely win the award. But if the...ROCKIES...and the Brewers both make the post season, for some unknown reason Fielder would probably win over Holliday, though going by the numbers and the fact that the Brewers should have ran away with the division a month ago, Fielder is inferior. Did I mention that Holliday has a .402 OBP? That's convenient.

Now that the Yankees are going to make the playoffs, A-Rod will win the MVP. You can talk about the homers and RBI but he also has scored 19 more runs than the next closest players (Grady Sizemore and your very own Curtis Granderson). Though, I will lobby hard that in fact Ichiro is the most valuable to his team and that he is a leadoff man doing things that no one else, even Reyes is, it won't matter. A-Rod, followed by Vlad I guess, then, hopefully Ichiro. Too bad the rest of the M's forgot how to hit. Wait, Raul Ibanez, Rickie Sexson and Adrian Beltre never knew how to hit anyway. Sexson should have stuck to basketball. He would have been a solid 4 in college. You know he can step out and hit the 15 footer.

Finally, David Ortiz is quietly having a very productive year. Without Manny in the lineup he isn't getting pitched to. He still has 31 homers and 107 RBI to go with his .435 OBP. And you know what, he's stolen three bases without being caught. Casey Blake has four in both categories. Yeah, I went there.