Bud Norris Makes O's Debut...Against the Team That Traded Him

Today is the first day of the "dog days of August."  This is the month where your favorite team plays against it's divisional enemies like 80% of their games.  As a Braves fan, this means a ton of Nationals, Phillies and Marlins games.  Also as a Braves fan, this is a good thing.

Today's match ups are okay, I suppose, but there is one game on the schedule today/tonight that really got me intrigued.

Here's all the starters and what not from around baseball today.

As you can see as of my writing this, the Indians have already beaten the White Sox today 6-1.  It's interesting because I would have maybe picked Masterson against Sale as a potential Match Up Of The Day candidate, because Chris Sale can't get a win despite pitching quite well lately.  Anyway, he lost again, and I feel bad for him because he's a good pitcher on a terrible team.  

The most intersting thing on the schedule today has to be Bud Norris making his Orioles debut against the team that just traded him to Baltimore, the Astros.  I wonder who has the advantage here, the hitters who have seen every one of Norris' starts this season, so they know what he likes to throw, or Norris, who knows these hitters weaknesses?  I imagine that since the O's are a far superior team that they will probably win, but it's a weird element to what would normally have been a rather mundane Thursday night game in Baltimore.  

Matt Cain against Cole Hammels is interesting because they're both regarded as top pitchers, but they've not performed up to their expectations this season.  In fact, neither the Phillies nor the Giants have played like themselves this year.  But that's really all that makes this interesting.  The game itself is pretty meaningless.

Will the Royals finally lose? They're playing right now and I don't know the score, but they're heating up, as much as the Royals can really heat up, I suppose.  I believe the term for them would be "Streaky."

Hey, how about those red hot Atlanta Braves, eh?

Okay, that's all for today.  Enjoy baseball.  

The American League is Heating Up Entering September

Now that it's September, I suppose now would be a good enough time to compose post #5 here at the Safety Squeeze.  Because now that the division races (and wild card races) are heating up, the sprint to the finish line is perhaps the most fun you can have as a baseball fan. Today, I'll focus on the American League, even though it bores the shit out of me.

Soon, the temperature will dip, and the colors on the trees will start to change, and baseball will turn from what you do when you're bored and killing time, to serious business about winning championships.  The only drawback to September baseball is the have-nots.  The Blue Jays and Mariners of the world.    These teams suck and I don't want to watch even more players that I've never heard of play, because they got called up with the September roster expansions.

There are a few races that are going to be fun to watch.  Number one for me is the American League central, where the Tigers and White Sox will assuredly be neck and neck until the final day of the season.  The Tigers superior pitching and offensive power should propel them to the post season, but in this crazy world of baseball, nothing is promised.

On a completely unrelated side note, I have mentioned that I love a good underdog, but I can't explain why I just can't stand the Seattle Mariners.  They fit the bill of underdog perfectly, yet I just can't stand looking at them. I know we're talking about playoff teams here, and they are definitely not one of them, but man, I just don't like them.  Sorry, people of Seattle.  Anyway, back to teams that matter...

And how about those Oakland A's, eh?  I thought to myself the other day, "I should really get to know these A's, since they're probably going to be around a while.  Wouldn't it be hilarious if they knocked the Rangers out of the playoffs, at like, the last day of the season?  Like, what a shitty thing it would be to be a Rangers fan.  Just like last years World Series, you think you got this wrapped up, and the baseball gods kick you in the balls.

Also, I want to touch on the Orioles.  I was watching earlier this season as the O's hung around, but I figured it wouldn't last.  At one point, the Yankees looked like they were going to once again run away with the division, but NOPE, here come the O's.  Now that will be fun to watch.

So basically, it looks like this in the AL as of right now (9-2-12)

Yankees - -
Orioles - 3

White Sox - -
Tigers - 1


Rangers - -
Athletics - 3

The AL Wild card is basically the Tigers, Orioles, A's, Angles, and Rays all right in there.  One of these eight teams will represent the American League in the World Series.  If I were to predict right now which team that would be, I'd have to say Detroit.  They have all the pieces and they're getting hot at the right time.  Look out, here they come.  And they won't have any Twins to knock them out in a game 163 either.  Ouch. Sorry, couldn't resist.

So even thought the American League is the boring league, there should be plenty of excitement down the stretch.  It'll be fun to see who does what.  It always is.