Something I thought I would never see

This weekend produced an abnormally high number of series sweeps, including all four series involving the Mets, Braves, Yankees, and Red Sox going the way I wanted. The odds of that happening are about 1 in a million, and show just how far the Yankees have fallen. Of course, they were playing Los Angeles de Anaheim, a team that always seems to have their number.

It is only a matter of days before the Yankees start firing/trading/executing people. They miss Gary Sheffield a lot more than they, or I, expected. Watching Sheffield hitting against Fausto Carmona last night reminded me of why Sheffield is so intimidating. He is an angry man with an angry swing. Even when his numbers aren't great, he makes the players batting in front of and behind him that much better, as shown on ESPN's telecast of the Detroit-Cleveland game last night. The Yankees aren't scaring anyone anymore. Aura and mystique are on the DL.

Losing Mike Gonzalez to Tommy John surgery is a huge blow to the Braves. It's the difference between the Braves having a bullpen about as good the Mets, and the Braves having a clearly inferior pen. The Mets rotation is much deeper than the Braves, and now that Tim Hudson has slowed down after an awesome start, it puts too much pressure on John Smoltz to do it all himself, which no pitcher can do. Chipper Jones being out certainly isn't helping things, either. Watch out for the Phillies to make a run at the Braves for 2nd, although they won't end up ahead of the Braves at the end.

Milwaukee has been slumping since they played the Mets, but I expect them to have a great second half and run away with the worst division in MLB. The only question is who will come in 2nd, and whether that team will be over .500 at the end. The Pirates are doing better than expected, with all their young pitching, and may just claim their first 2nd place finish in forever.


Caroms Off the Wall:

Curt Schilling should pitch more and blog less. He can't stand being the 4th best starter on the Red Sox (until Lester comes back, and he falls to 5th), so he is having an attention addict temper tantrum. I loved his criticism of Bonds and then the retraction, thus making himself look like a stand-up guy, and getting another couple of days of headlines. It's like Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, where a mother makes her child sick and then comes to the rescue in dramatic fashion.


© Judy Kamilhor 2007