flavum

Royals win. 2 back of the Tigers after they lose the suspended game tomorrow at 5. Mariners are going to lose. A's and Phillies in a 4-4 game, 4th inn.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 04:09 PM) A minute or 2 short of 4 hours. 3.5. Started at 12:40.

Remember that game in Seattle last year? Not that.

Webb had a subpar season. Hopefully better next year.

I'll give Danks some credit for making all of his starts, and he does have 19 quality starts. His bad was real bad, but he does have value.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 03:13 PM) Who is Oak? I think he meant Aoki there.

I won't miss Lindstrom

Aoki staying hot. 2-run triple. 4-2 Royals, bottom 4, 1 out. Altuve 45th double. Mariners lead Astros 3-2, but Stros threatening for more.

It's games like these that give you hope for next year.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 11:38 AM) As this season comes to an end, the more I wish he would have retired last year. With this injury and everything else, he is going out with a whimper, can't even get on the field I kinda feel like it went ok. Who knows, maybe he helped Abreu with his defense. There's a week left. Hopefully he can play next weekend, and get the love and then he'll be gone.

On the tanking thing...I'm not saying teams purposefully take the field with the intention of losing. I'm saying maybe teams play 4A guys, or go to 6-man rotations, or shut down their best pitcher with a couple weeks left. Teams have their own agendas at the end of the season that don't match others playing for the postseason. Bottom line for me, it would be a good idea just to eliminate that an individual game could have a huge impact on the draft order.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 11:39 AM) Would you play for a small shot at a wild card or a shot at a really high pick? One problem with your scenerio is it is one thing when bad teams tank but the average and slightly above average teams would be given more motivation mot to take a shot at a wild card spot. Teams that close to contention are trying to make the playoffs. In a lot of cases, they're in their own division race late into the season. You'd always take a shot at winning a championship over a small chance at a top 3 pick.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 11:21 AM) It is a stupid idea because it ruins the overall product to have a significant portion of the league attempting to fail at one time. So you're saying that 20 teams in any given year will be trying not to make the playoffs? That makes no sense.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 11:05 AM) But losing games that do not matter still results in more ping pong balls . There still really isn't motivation to win those games. NBA teams still tank entire seasons . For a while the bad teams were not getting the better players because on signability. The best system is the worst team gets the highest pick. I wouldn't mind if thet did it like fantasy drafts and flip each round and give everyone the same pool amount. I never said anything about ping pong balls. I'd want the 20 teams that didn't make the playoffs to go in with an equal shot, and then build in rules for future seasons so teams can't get lucky and win the top pick or a top 3 or top 5 or whatever an inordinate amount of times. It would take the outcome of games in September out of the equation. There would be no incentive to lose.

Sale is starting Wednesday. So that's it. Mon: Bassitt vs Lobstein Tue: Carroll vs Price Wed: Sale vs Verlander KC series- Quintana, Noesi, Danks, Bassitt

https://twitter.com/ChiTribKane/status/5137...4387968/photo/1

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 21, 2014 -> 10:07 AM) It is a stupid idea for MLB. The NBA has already turned into a garbage product because of the lottery. I don't want to see this happen in baseball. It's not stupid. How is the NBA anywhere close to the same as MLB? You have to have one of the best individual players to win in the NBA. Again, my opinion is that it's just bad to get to the end of the season where lesser teams may be playing other teams with the postseason on the line, and maybe the bad teams aren't putting out their best product to win because it may mean the #1 pick the following year. And also maybe losing the last couple games to get a protected pick and all of that. So it's not stupid to eliminate some of those things, and build in rules to a Draft Lottery that teams can't have top 3 picks in consecutive years, or the #1 pick more than once in a decade. There's a fair of doing a Lottery that makes the outcome of a Mets-Astros game on the last day of the season irrelevant to the draft order.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings/_/group/9/sort/winPercent 8th worst record, but same amount of losses as the Reds and Phillies. The Padres would have to lose four more games than the Sox over the last 8 games for the Sox to fall out of the 10 worst. So the protected pick is looking safe unless something crazy happens. Also, quite a race for the first pick: Texas and Arizona have 93 losses, and Colorado has 91. Draft lottery, please. Make a TV show out of it.

Outs please.

Assuming a Royals loss in the suspended game: A's 84-70 Mariners 83-71 Royals 83-71 Remaining schedules: A's- 1 vs Phillies, 3 vs Angels, 4 at Rangers Mariners- 1 at Astros, 4 at Blue Jays, 3 vs Angels Royals- 1 vs Tigers, 3 at Indians, 4 at White Sox I hope they all end at 88-74. More baseball.

Jerome Williams has 6 wins this season. 3 of them against the A's. He got those 3 wins with 3 different teams...Astros, Rangers, and Phillies

Tigers beat the Royals again. If KC loses the suspended game (which they should), the Tigers magic number is 6. So it looks like we're down to 2 out of 3 of the A's, Mariners, and Royals. Sox could spoil next weekend.

Maybe they can do something different with protected picks the next CBA, but my overall feeling is that no one game at the end of the season should impact draft order. I'm watching these games hoping the Sox lose. Dan Hayes is writing articles saying it would be good for the Sox if they lose. And just because of the system, it's perfectly ok to want the Sox to lose these last 9 games. But for MLB, the best thing to do would be to take the focus off getting in the 10 worst for an advantage, and just build in some rules to the draft so teams and fans don't have to think about the ramifications of a win or loss at the end of the season.

In this era of more focus on draft picks, protected picks, tanking seasons for top picks, and having September call ups determining draft order, I think MLB should go to a Draft Lottery and do it at the Winter Meetings. Some rules: - the 20 teams that don't qualify for the postseason go in the lottery. - no team can be in the Top 3 in consecutive years. If you're 1, the following year the highest you can be is 6. If you're 2, the highest you can be the next year is 5. If you're 3, the highest you can be the next year is 4. - You're only allowed to have the number 1 pick once every 10 years. - The wildcard game losers get the 21st and 22nd picks - The DS losers pick 23-26 - The CS losers pick 27-28 - The WS loser picks 29

Great job by Quintana. Needs 7 innings next week for 200. And he'll finish leading the staff in games started for the second year in a row.