04/25/24
September 03, 2012
SportsFilter: The Monday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Get ready for a crazy finish in the American League:
TEX 80-54
NYY 76-58
OAK 76-58WC1
BAL 75-59WC2
TBR 74-61
CWS 73-61
DET 72-62
LAA 72-63
The teams in bold currently have playoff spots, with the WC1/WC2 indicating who holds down the wild-card spots.
We're looking at a potential "Game 162" finale again (possibly with playoff games to determine wild card spots).
posted by grum@work at 10:30 PM on September 03, 2012
It'd be truly stupendous to see Baltimore and Tampa pass New York in the AL, and have Oakland finish with a better record as well- leaving New York out of the post season (along with, sadly, Boston). A part of me actually hopes Boston all but rolls over for Baltimore and Tampa (not unlike how New York did for Tampa last year), to help make that a reality.
Not, of course, that anyone would actually notice...
posted by hincandenza at 10:54 PM on September 03, 2012
If only the Tigers could solve the powerhouses in Cleveland and KC, those sweeps against the weaklings from Chicago would mean something...
/snark
posted by MeatSaber at 12:02 AM on September 04, 2012
A part of me actually hopes Boston all but rolls over for Baltimore and Tampa (not unlike how New York did for Tampa last year), to help make that a reality.
I'm not sure we really want to get into a discussion of the rolling-over that was done last September, because that rapidly becomes a large discussion about last September and not about this September. After all, whatever your situation late in September, ultimately you can't count on the other teams to manage their wins and losses for your benefit. The way to the playoffs is to win your games, not to count on other teams to win when it would help you and lose when it would help you. Whatever the mathematical drama of the last few days of the regular season, the teams that didn't make the playoffs are the ones that failed to win their games, as always.
I don't like New York's chances much, and haven't since Mo blew out his knee. They've done much better than I would have expected given their injuries, but I can't see it holding up well enough to take them deep in the playoffs.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:37 AM on September 04, 2012
Houston Texans fans practice their brawling during the preseason.
It's interesting how few of those people had the sense to get away from a situation when it was clearly getting out of hand. Cameraman had the right idea.