The Twins are in the race, and Joe Mauer is hitting .410 in September. He has to be the American League's Most Valuable Player, right?
Zack Greinke is finishing the season nearly the way he started it, with a 0.31 ERA over the last four weeks. He has to win the Cy Young Award, right?
|
|
| Philadelphia's J.A. Happ is in the lead as the NL's best rookie for now. (AP) |
Jim Tracy is going to be the NL Manager of the Year, and there's a real good chance Mike Scioscia is going to be the deserving winner in the AL.
Hard to believe, but the awards races are starting to look like the division races -- as in, basically no suspense.
So, what do we argue about for the final two weeks of the season, and what do we watch?
Well, there is the Rookie of the Year, which could still be up for grabs -- in both leagues.
For now, my picks would be Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus and Phillies left-hander J.A. Happ, but if I had a ballot (I don't), I wouldn't be filling it out and mailing it in just yet.
We need to see what happens in the last two weeks, because:
• While Andrus' candidacy is based more on his defense, it won't hurt if he keeps his batting average over .270 (it's .272 right now). He has a .357 on-base percentage in the second half, and with Michael Young and Josh Hamilton out injured, Rangers manager Ron Washington (who would have been the Manager of the Year if not for Scioscia) has felt comfortable batting him second.
• Rick Porcello has at least a couple more high-profile and high-pressure starts left for the Tigers. Porcello is 13-9 for the season and with Jarrod Washburn hurting, he has become a key member of what still looks like a playoff-bound team.
• Andrew Bailey could extend his streak of 20 consecutive saves, and keep his ERA under 2.00. The A's started a Bailey petition for their fans to sign, although that would be more impressive if there was any evidence that there still are any A's fans.
• Happ hurt his chances when he had to miss two starts because of a ribcage injury, then was pulled from a Friday night start in Atlanta because of fears about the same problem. He's 10-4, the same record as Atlanta's Tommy Hanson, but he's pitched well all year for a first-place team and his ERA (2.77) is a little better than Hanson's (2.85).
• Hanson lost Sunday to the Phillies, just his second loss since July. If he can bounce back with two or three strong starts, he could still take the award away from Happ.
• That is, Hanson could take it away from Happ, unless voters go with Florida's Chris Coghlan. Coghlan's September OPS of .908 is just slightly behind his August OPS of 1.030. It would help him if the Marlins could inch a little closer in the wild-card race (they trail the Rockies by five games), because then at least someone would want to watch their games.
It's been quite a year for rookies, so good that we're not even talking about the Cubs' Randy Wells (who also has 10 wins), or Pittsburgh's Garrett Jones (who has 19 home runs) or Colorado's Dexter Fowler (27 doubles, 27 steals). Or Toronto's Ricky Romero (12 wins) or Tampa Bay's Jeff Niemann (12 wins), or even Niemann's teammate, preseason favorite David Price (6-3, 3.41 since the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline).
We're not talking about them, yet. With two weeks to go, these races still haven't been decided.
The other stories to watch this week:
Rangers' future could be bright -- with the right owner: Now that the Rangers have basically exited the playoff race, the focus in Texas can shift to finding someone to take over the team from Tom Hicks -- or actually, from Major League Baseball. The Rangers have been operating all season with severe financial limitations and sources said that in recent weeks, every Rangers decision had to be approved directly by the commissioner's office, so much so that MLB is basically running the team.
Hicks insisted to MLB.com that the Rangers themselves made the decision to offer $4 million to first-round draft choice Matthew Purke (who turned it down), but a source said the commissioner's office made that call -- and didn't authorize the offer until minutes before the deadline to sign Purke. MLB also authorized last week's signing of Tanner Scheppers, the Rangers' sandwich-round pick, for $1.25 million.
With the emergence of Andrus and a group of rookie pitchers (Tommy Hunter, Derek Holland, Neftali Feliz), the future looks good for the Rangers. But it sure would look a lot better if the next owner arrives soon -- and with deep pockets.
Matching it up: With the Rockies winning Sunday and extending their wild-card lead to 4 1/2 games over the Giants, the National League playoffs are more or less set.
So go ahead and make your plans in Colorado, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Philadelphia.
Just don't ask when -- or who -- you'll be playing.
Going into the Cardinals' Sunday night game against the Cubs, the three division leaders were within two games of each other in the loss column. With two weeks to go, there's still a real chance that any of the three could finish with the league's best record -- and thus with home-field advantage in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Not only that, but the Phillies led the Cardinals by just half a game. With the Rockies almost set as the wild card, whichever of those two teams finishes with the best record would face the Rockies, while the other would face the Dodgers.
So the playoffs could open with the Rockies playing in Philadelphia and the Cardinals playing in Los Angeles, or with the Rockies in St. Louis and the Cardinals in Los Angeles, or with the Dodgers in Philadelphia, or with the Dodgers in St. Louis.
Go ahead. Make your plans.
Polanco plays for October -- and for 2010: In the Tigers' biggest game of the year so far, Placido Polanco drove in three runs in Sunday's 6-2 win over the Twins. As most of the Tigers have struggled in September, Polanco has hit .371.
So maybe it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Tigers manager Jim Leyland is telling people he wants the club to hold onto Polanco, who can become a free agent at the end of the season.
Three games to watch: 1. Yankees at Angels, Monday. Andy Pettitte's first start since Sept. 11 looks even more important after another ugly Joba Chamberlain effort Sunday in Seattle. If Pettitte's shoulder trouble proves to be more than the minor issue he said it was, then the Yanks could be forced to use Chamberlain (0-4 with an 8.42 ERA over his last eight starts) as their third starter in the playoffs.
2. Twins at Royals, Friday. Zack Greinke could start against the Twins next Sunday, but Friday's matchup with Robinson Tejeda could be just as problematic. In four starts this month, all against first-place teams, Tejeda is 3-0 with a 0.81 ERA and a .117 batting average against.
3. Tigers at White Sox, Friday. Jake Peavy gets his chance to impact the American League Central race. Exactly how the White Sox planned it.
