Tonight is the first night of the MLB playoffs. After a thrilling end to the regular season with the Twins earning the right to be beaten by the Yankees, everyone is excited about the playoffs. I’ll tell you my picks for the first round and then we’ll look at what MLB2K9’s simulated playoffs with the same teams and updated rosters comes up with. I should remind you that in the first round of MLB playoffs the series are best of 5.

ALDS: Yankees (Al East Champs) vs. Twins (Al Central Champs)

Nobody seems to be giving the Twins a chance here. The Twins were not expected to make the playoffs but got incredibly hot to steal the division from the Tigers. They are probably the hottest team going into the playoffs right now. However they are going against the Yankees with no rest and with Joe Nathan unavailable for at least 4 games. Joe Mauer will be big as the league’s best hitter, but they still do not have Morneau and the Yankees have the best lineup in the league.

The Yankees, on the other hand, are well rested. While they haven’t played meaningful games for a little while, they have so much more rest and the schedule with home field and the 8 game schedule which they were able to choose due to their superior record gives them a huge advantage. Not to mention the Yankees are at full strength. The Yankees have been, in the second half, have been scary good. They have been by far, the best team in baseball and are 7-0 against the Twins this year. No upset here the Yankees will win.

My Prediction: Yankees in 4. I give the Twins one game because they have momentum on their side, but nothing else.

MLB 2K9: Twins in 3. I know wtf, right? Apparently the Yankees bats slept and they lost two close games followed by a 9-2 drubbing as the Minnesota offense beat up on Andy Pettite. 

(Read on after the jump for the rest of the predictions)

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I just saw this on Sportscenter this morning and I felt it was absolutely necessary to share with everyone. Thanks go out to YouTube, the Internet, and people with seemingly no lives for providing this video so quickly.

The rundown

  • This guy not only predicts that a rookie is going to hit his first homerun...
  • He predicts it's going to happen in his second at-bat...
  • On a 3-1 count...
  • On a fastball...
  • And that he'll pull it over the left field fence.

Unreal.

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 "Hey Papi, you wanna shove a needle in my ass after the game? Right here?" 

The New York Times broke the not so shocking news today that in 2003 both Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz tested positive for steroids along with 102 other players. We all already know that Manny was juicing or at least pregnant, so as far as Manny is concerned, this is no big news, but some of you may be shocked that Ortiz is being fingered as a steroid user. I am not. It was obvious. The guy looks like a Dominican Shrek. The dude is seriously an ogre. Also, let us look at the facts. In 2003 Ortiz burst out on to the scene in Boston after basically being mediocre in Minnesota. 2003 was his first year with 30+ home runs. After that he was a home run hitting machine (he hit 41, 47, 54, and 35 homers in the next 4 years). Also, Ortiz seems to have had a rather large drop-off in productivity in the last two years. Could it be that he was scared off the juice by the recent steroid crackdown that included the Mitchell Report and the controversy surrounding Bonds, Clemens, and A-Rod? It is just speculation but it is not hard to infer that either this year (currently hitting .224 with 13 home runs) or last year (.264 with 23 home runs) is his first year off the stuff since 2003.

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Bowing out of the Roy Halladay sweepstakes, the Phillies are more than content to acquire their contingency plan in Cy Young winner Cliff Lee who arrives at only half of the cost of Halladay. Which is fair considering when their careers are placed side by side, he's only half as accomplished and half as sure a thing.

Trade specifics are after the jump.

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Randy Ingle, the manager of the Rome Braves — a Class-A minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves — put on quite a show during last Thursday's game against fellow South Atlantic team, the Augusta GreenJackets.

Apparently the game was tied 6-6 in the top of the 10th inning when Braves' catcher Matt Kennelly launched a bomb that soared above and eventually over the top of the left field foul pole. As Kennelly rounded first base, home plate umpire Erik Hill put his hands in the air and signaled that it was a foul ball.

Of course, the Braves' dugout errupted in madness but no one could prepare for what the team's 51-year old manager was about to do. Ingle stormed onto the field like a (incredibly awesome) nutcase and began screaming at Hill with all his might whilst standing no more than 2-inches from his face.

I'll let the video after the jump explain the rest of the story, but just know that the call would eventually stand and that the GreenJackets went on to win it in the 11th with a walkoff single by Charlie Culberson.

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The A-Team was in the house Monday night at the Cubs game as they took on the Pirates at Wrigley Field. Mr. T not only threw out the first pitch in the most outrageous attire I've seen since old M.C. Hammer music videos, but he also got on the mic to sing his rendition of "Take me out to the ballgame." Let me just say, Mr. T is the man!

Check out the video after the jump.

Yes, I am a Yankee fan. It is harder now to admit that than it usually is. The Yankees have always had the most avid fans and equally avid haters of any baseball team. Right now the fans are distressed and the haters are reveling in another slow start to the Yankee season. As a Yankee fan who has watched nearly all their games in this disappointing season I will tell you why they are under .500 almost 30 games into the season.

 

As I'm sure most of you sports fans out there already know, Manny Ramirez was suspended for 50 games in violation of MLB's drug policy. As a result of his 50 game suspension he will end up losing $8 million out of his $28 million for the games missed. Were not talking about a little fine for starting a bench-clearing brawl, something that would be like pocket change to a guy like Manny, this is $8 Mil. What would you buy with $8 million dollars? You could get tickets for you and all of your friends to sit in the all you can eat section at Dodger Stadium for your entire life.

I am not really a big baseball fan, nor am I a Manny fan. The only connection I really have to this story is that I am an Angeleno (Los Angeles resident). I may be just the one to impartially weigh in on this.

I don't know about you but when I first got wind of this news and heard MANNY and DRUG POLICY I immediately thought he's being busted for weed. Then when I got more info. on the situation and discovered he was being suspended for 50 games it seemed too excessive of a punishment for merely puffing the magic dragon. Marijuana is essentially as common out here in L.A. as a chai latte, and equally as legal. So, realizing that wasn't the case steroids was the only other possibility. That or the league finally discovered that Manny was indeed an alien PREDATOR sent to infiltrate the country by charming one baseball fan at a time until he reached the highest branches of the government.

World media reports late last night that the New York Yankees have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy citing the over extension of assets, lack of  first quarter revenue from the YES! Network and crash of the credit market.

Senior Vice-President Hank Steinbrenner told the media that the acquisitions of first baseman Mark Teixeira and pitchers C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett were a financial mistake and one that the organization regrets for that reason. Steinbrenner also hinted that the debt the Yankees assumed to construct their new stadium has left the “organization's financial foundation unstable.”

“The credit crunch has taken a toll on all of America and we're no different,” Steinbrenner said during a press conference last night.

With opening night just a handful of days away, and the Jon Miller/Joe Morgan spots running on ESPN every commercial break I figure it is about time to help out those of you who (like me) wait until the last minute to hold your fantasy baseball drafts.


If you haven’t already, you should sign up for our fantasy baseball league. It’s going to be super competitive (especially since I won’t be in it) and best of all filled with smack talk about people’s mothers. To sign up go here.

 

Since 2000, I have participated in fantasy baseball drafts, and with that has come some knowledge of what “to do” and “not to do”. I won’t claim to be as knowledgeable as those guys from Yahoo! Sports like Brandon Funston, but I also will likely not be so douchie: