2008 Pennant Races

[BillD1984]

The following are elimination numbers for teams that have a E.N. of 15 or worse (lower):

AL EAST
Baltimore- 13

AL CENTRAL
Kansas City- 10

AL WEST
Seattle- ELIMINATED
Oakland- 11
Texas- 15 (Angels MAGIC number)

AL WILDCARD
Seattle- 3
Kansas City- 9
Oakland- 14

NL EAST
Washington- 4
Atlanta- 14

NL CENTRAL
Pittsburgh- 4
Cincinnati- 5
Houston- 14

NL WEST
San Diego- 13

NL WILDCARD
Washington- 1
San Diego- 4
Pittsburgh- 10
Cincinnati- 11
Atlanta- 11
San Francisco- 12
Colorado -15

 

[Mets82]

How do you explain a magic number? I've tried to figure it out and I'm still confused. How about the Yankees tonight? My god, could the Yankees be out of the playoffs this year? That would be amazing.

 

[BillD1984]

How do you explain a magic number? I've tried to figure it out and I'm still confused.

I'll use the AL West as an example:

Angels...................80-51.....................-
Rangers.................66-68....................15.5
A's.........................60-72.....................20.5
Mariners................50-83.....................30

Let's look at the Mariners first. There's 162 games in a season and the Mariners have 83 losses, that means the MOST games the Mariners can win is 79 (162-83=79). The Angels already have 80 wins, therefore the Mariners cannot mathematically catch the Angels, so Seattle is eliminated.

Next, you have the A's with 72 losses, which means the MOST games the A's can win is 90. So ANY combination of Angels wins and A's losses totaling 11 eliminates the A's.

Because the Rangers are in second place, you look at their losses (68) and the Angels wins (80) to figure out the Angels "magic number" (and the Rangers elimination number). With 68 losses, the MOST games the Rangers could hypothetically win is 94. Because they currently have 80 wins, the Angels magic number is 15. And every time the Angels WIN a game or the Rangers LOSE a game, that magic number dwindles down until the Rangers are eliminated.

Hope this helps, and sorry for the long winded response.

 

[BillD1984]

AMERICAN LEAGUE

EAST: The Rays lead the Red Sox by 3.5 games.

CENTRAL: The White Sox lead the Twins by 1 game. This is a GREAT race!

WILDCARD: The Red Sox lead the Twins by 2.5 games ,and the Yankees by 7 games.



NATIONAL LEAGUE

EAST: The Mets lead the Phillies by one half game, and the Marlins by 5.5 games.

CENTRAL: The Cubs lead the Brewers by 6 games.

WEST: The D-Backs lead the Dodgers by 3 games, and the Rockies by 6 games.

WILDCARD: The Brewers lead the Cardinals by 3.5 games, and the Phillies by 4 games.

 

[Mets82]

Thank you. I understand now. How about Jason Bay. He's been great for the Sox. Between Kotsay, Byrd and Bay the Red Sox cleaned up in the last month. You know Cashman might be fired because of this. He should've maybe gotten one of those 3 guys. The Red Sox now have Good defense, Good farm system, good clubhouse (especially w/o Manny or Me-Me as you like to call him) and they make good trades. Sound familar. It kind of sounds like the Yankees of 10 yrs. ago, doesn't it?

 

[SabresRule]

While we know how Boston has gotten better since they got Bay,

I was wondering:

have the Pirates done badly since he left? Are they in a tailspin?

 

[risnuff]

While we know how Boston has gotten better since they got Bay,

I was wondering:

have the Pirates done badly since he left? Are they in a tailspin?

The Bucs lost seven in a row, and are nineteen games under .500, so I'd say yes. Yes they are.

 

[BillD1984]

Thank you. I understand now. How about Jason Bay. He's been great for the Sox. Between Kotsay, Byrd and Bay the Red Sox cleaned up in the last month. You know Cashman might be fired because of this. He should've maybe gotten one of those 3 guys. The Red Sox now have Good defense, Good farm system, good clubhouse (especially w/o Manny or Me-Me as you like to call him) and they make good trades. Sound familar. It kind of sounds like the Yankees of 10 yrs. ago, doesn't it?

Byrd is the big one as far as the Yankees are concerned. Not only is he better than 60% of the current Yankees rotation, but more importantly the Yankees let him slip to the Red Sox (who were desperate for a ML caliber 4/5 type starter at the time). Not very Yankee-like at all.

 

[BillD1984]

Mets and cjwct,

HUGE win for your Mets tonight! Carlos Beltran hits a two out- ninth inning grand slam to beat the Marlins, 5-4. It doesn't get any more CLUTCH than that! :up

 

[SabresRule]

Can we kiss the Marlins' playoff hopes bye-bye?

 

[Hart5150]

Dice-K was effing awesome tonight.

19 of the last 28 games are at Fenway for the sox, while the Twins are on this mammoth road trip and the sox are playing the bad guys.

Looks like the Playoff match will be.

Angels/Red Sox again

Rays/White Sox or Twins

Could you imagine a Rays/Twins series should be called the contraction series.

 

[BillD1984]

Dice-K was effing awesome tonight.

19 of the last 28 games are at Fenway for the sox, while the Twins are on this mammoth road trip and the sox are playing the bad guys.

Looks like the Playoff match will be.

Angels/Red Sox again

Rays/White Sox or Twins

Could you imagine a Rays/Twins series should be called the contraction series.

Yup, Dice-K is da man right now! :up

 

[BillD1984]

Can we kiss the Marlins' playoff hopes bye-bye?

Unfortunately yes, I think so. The Marlins are now seven games back, but do have five games left with the Mets and six with the Phils. No matter what, the Marlins deserve a lot of credit for hanging in this long with a $21 million payroll!

 

[Mets82]

Maybe the stars or whatever are aligned with the Mets. That's pretty amazing-Beltran's grand slam. With the Phillies losing, that's great. The Mets need to distance themselves from the Phillies. The bullpen is still shaky.
Here we go again, Ayala was ok and then he almost blows it tonight. I think his line was 2 runs and 4 hits. Ouch.

 

[BillD1984]

The Rays are now OFFICIALLY winners! They won their 82nd game on Friday night, guaranteeing them with their first winning season in franchise history. Too bad it's only a rumor in Tampa/St. Pete!

 

[jansan]

The Cubs are 35 games over .500 this season. Go Cubs Go!

 

[BillD1984]

The Cubs are 35 games over .500 this season. Go Cubs Go!

I think it's time to consider the Cubs as a lock to make the playoffs. They are now 11 games in front of the Cardinals (who are second in the wildcard race).

 

[BillD1984]

AMERICAN LEAGUE

East: The Rays are 4.5 games ahead of the Red Sox

Central: The White sox are a half game in front of the Twins.

West. The Angels magic number is down to 11.

Wildcard: The Red Sox lead the Twins by 2.5, and the Yankees by 6.

Homefield advantage: The Rays lead the Angels by a half game.


NATIONAL LEAGUE

East: The Mets are 2 games ahead of the Phillies, and 7 games ahead of the Marlins.

Central: The Cubs lead the Brewers by 6.5 games.

West: The D-Backs lead the Dodgers by 4.5 games, and the Rockies by 6 games.

Wildcard: The Brewers lead the Cardinals by 4.5 games, and the Phillies by 5.5 games.

 

[BillD1984]

The Twins blew an oppurtunity to take over first place in the AL Central, they gave up two runs to the A's in the bottom of the ninth and lost, 3-2. The Twins remain a half game behind the White Sox, and have fallen 3.5 games behind the Red Sox for the wildcard. The Twins still have four games left on their fourteen game road trip. They're currently 4-6 on the trip.

 

[SabresRule]

Alex Rodriguez is regretting having crawled back to the Bronx.

He should have gone somewhere else.