Friday, July 11, 2008

Thursday Round-up and Weekend Preview

Thursday Round-up

Ken Griffey Jr.: 2-for-5, BB, 2B, HR, 4 RBI, 2 runs = 18 FP
Howie Kendrick: 3-for-5, BB, 2B, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 runs, 2 K = 18 FP
Justin Morneau: 5-for-5, 2 2B, HR, RBI, 2 runs, BB = 16 FP
Fernando Tatis: 2-for-3, 2 2B, HR, 4 RBI, run = 16 FP
Dave Bush: W, 8 IP, 4 H, ER, 13 K = 59 FP
Dan Haren: 8 IP, 3 H, ER, 2 BB, 9 K = 35 FP
Zack Greinke: 7 IP, 6 H, ER, BB, 8 K = 29 FP
Jamie Moyer: W, 7 IP, 7 H, ER, 2 BB, 4 K = 23.5 FP

Weekend Preview

The Blowouts - Halos over Rasmus’ and Phantom Menaces over Smurfs

Both of the 11-3 teams are taking care of business against the 4-10 teams. This will be the Smurfs 9th loss in 10 weeks after starting 3-1.

Solid Lock, But… - ‘Roid Needles over The Zou

CRN leads The Zou by 138 points with three days left. Erik still has ten starts left over the next three days, including starts from Tim Lincecum, Cole Hamels, Felix Hernandez, Rich Harden, Roy Oswalt and Chad Billingsley. So anything can still happen in this matchup. Still, 138 points is a lot of ground to cover as long as CRN can post some decent numbers.

Upset of the Week - Boom Goes the Dynamite over Cockies

Boom Goes the Dynamite has an 81.5 point lead over the Cockies. The Cockies have four starts left from Gavin Floyd, Tim Redding, Jesse Litsch and Armando Galarraga. Barring a negative day or some huge starts from the four aforementioned pitchers, Dynamite should pull off the upset.

Anybody’s Game

Two good starts from Zack Greinke and Mark Buehrle and two bad starts from Andy Sonnanstine and Kevin Slowey have given KC the 223.5 to 203 edge heading into the weekend.

The Inoculators will send out Jake Peavy, Clay Buchholz and Manny Parra to try and stop the bleeding while KC will counter with Matt Cain and Roy Halladay. Crossover matchups include Cain versus Geovany Soto and Buchholz versus Adam Jones.

Playoff Implications (assuming scores hold up)

Halo and Menace wins coupled with a Zou loss means both the Halos and Phantom Menaces will have a two game cushion between them and one and two seeds. As of now, the Halos have the one seed because of total points.

A Zou loss makes them more vulnerable at the three seed, but not as vulnerable as the Cockies, who would only have a one game lead over CRN for the fourth and final playoff spot if scores hold up.

An Inoculators come back would put him only two games out of the final playoff spot. A loss means he remains three games back with time quickly running out.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The ghost of Josh Hancock continues to lead me to victory! Proof once again that the only good Cardinal...is a dead Cardinal!

Random playoff seedig question: Are the playoff seeds determined strictly by record or do the division winners automatically get seeds one and two?

Blown Save said...

Division winners get seeds one and two.