SoxBlanco

This is a good point, too. Like I said, I don’t think it really matters much.

Yeah, I would break up the left handed bats (when a righty is on the mound). I don’t think the batting order means much, but I’d probably set it up this way: Anderson Moncada Abreu Eloy Grandal Robert EE Mazara Madrigal

I wouldn’t consider it any sort of confident prediction...just a feeling I’ve had for a couple weeks now.

My gut is telling me we lose game 1 with Giolito, we win game 2 with DK, and then I have no idea about game 3. I agree with those who said we should go with the hot hand at that point.

Do we know the dates of the first playoff series yet? Will some start on September 29 and others on September 30? Will there be any off days for that first three game series?

I just call him Madrigal.

I would guess the same.

Agreed. I don’t think we’d get in if we went 0-17. I was just explaining his thought process because there seemed to be some confusion.

It's not about how the top 8 teams will have at least 31 wins, because you are counting the White Sox as one of those 8 teams. It's about how many wins the 9th place team will have. If you think the 9th place team will have 26 wins, then 27 would have been good enough to get in the playoffs. That's what @Jose Abreu is saying. The Yankees could get to 31 wins, but if the Orioles, Tigers, and Mariners don't get more than 26 wins, then he is right in saying we can go 0-17 and still get in the playoffs.

Can you imagine if Grandal had been the one with three catcher's interferences this year? People would be losing their minds and ripping him to shreds here.

Great post. The other huge factor is that Grandal is the perfect fit for our free-swinging righty-heavy offense. We really needed a lefty who can work counts and get on base, and that is exactly what Grandal does for us. I'm as frustrated as the next guy when I see him make plays like last night, but we just have to accept that because of all of the other good things he does for the lineup/team.

Couldn't have said it any better. He's being way too aggressive on the bases while trying to show off that baseball IQ. I think he will settle down and be a great base runner in the coming years, and even then, he will get thrown out from time to time. I'm not worried about him in the long run.

Madrigal ran through a stop sign and got thrown out at home with one out. Then later in the game, he tried to advance from second to third on a grounder to SS and was thrown out easily. Both happened after he doubled. Grandal was a mess with the glove. Dropped a pop up (slightly tough play, but it popped out of his glove), couldn't stop any tough wild pitches, and on the final play of the game with bases loaded nobody out, a guy hit a dribbler to Cordero who underhanded it home and Grandal just dropped the ball...game over. It's crazy to me how bad he is with his glove sometimes for somebody who is so good at framing.

Great news. He’s been huge this year. With other options after we missed on Wheeler, Hahn hit a home run with this signing.

Holy shit, has Stiever really never pitched above A ball? Not sure why I didn’t realize that. Great post, by the way.

My guess is that resting for 10 days will not help him at all.

Remember when everyone was worried that RR would continue batting Abreu third in the order this year?

I don’t think Vaughn was ever going to replace EE anyway. If they pulled the trigger, I think they’d stick him in RF.

The 8 AL teams are just about set at this point. Toronto could fade, but I’m guessing the top 8 right now are your playoff teams.

This one had to be typed about a half hour ago! Big win.

Abreu. Nobody has had as many big time hits in huge spots as Jose.

Even nicer to have a team hitting boat loads of home runs and at the top of the league in runs scored.

Didn’t anybody notice that McCann didn’t react as if he tagged him? I honestly don’t think he got him. And even if he did, there certainly wasn’t enough to overturn.

Wrong. Not obvious at all.

I don’t think there’s any way that gets overturned. I don’t even know that it touched the foot.