On the mini segmant during Sports Center Larry Bowa - Picked the Phillies stating that they have a dominant closer who closes out the 9th inning in Billy Wagner and that will be the difference. (guess he forgot Lidge being a dominant closer, no wonder he is not a manager anymore) John Kruk - Sayng Florida is the best team in NL East and they are the ones that are going to take the Wild Card Peter Gammons - Also went with Florida All i got to say is we are going to shut them all up and win the wild card.
How many times do the East teams play each other in the last 6 weeks? The way we've played on this homestand, I can't blame them for picking other teams though.
As of a few hours ago, the Astros were ahead by quite a bit on the ESPN.com poll. Not that it really matters, but at least your average baseball fan still thinks they will win it, even if the "experts" don't.
At this point, I don't think you can blame anyone for not picking the Astros. They certainly haven't looked good recently.
As of 24 hours ago, Peter Gammons said the Astros would still win it... and he's somehow the most credible of the three "experts" that you just mentioned. That should say enough as to how valid the opinion of ESPN guys is.
No one is going to run away with the wild card. It will come down to the final week. Let's hope the Astro bats become average again and the pitching goes back to stellar.
not suprising... conisdering the way the team has played over the last several weeks. And then I check in tonight and we're down 5-2 in a Clemen's game. This team is paper thin and relies heavily on rookies/young players, and that will be the deciding factor come September. Will they be the team that rose to 1st in the Wild Card standings or the team that sunk to the bottom of the pack or somewhere in the middle. If they're the latter two than its an early postseason, cause there are too many quality teams too close behind (or tied) to play mediocre ball and expect to back into the Wild Card.
My gut feeling is the Marlins will take it. The two times they've had a good opportunity to win it they've taken it and gone all the way.
2 weeks ago everybody was picking the astros. these guys change their mind every freaking day. hell at this point i'm even a little worried, but i still think they can pull it out.
If the Astros win 15 out of 20, they will be the back on top of everyones list. The list will change at least 4 times before it's all over.
Buster Olney said yesterday he thought the Astros would win the wild card. Jayson Stark has said he thought the Astros would win the wild card.
My favorite Kruk and least favorite the fruity African American whose name I cannot recall now said back in late May/early June we were out and done. They catergorically stated that it is impossible for us to make the post season. It is really disappointed me coming from pros that have followed and played this game for a long time at the highest level. It showed a great level of irresponsibility on their part but it still gladens to know that they will all eat their words in due time.
Did you get the latest e-mail re: fantasy football? We'll discuss why you're wrong about this at the draft.
For what it's worth, they were discussing remaining schedules on BBTN last night. Astros have the 2nd most home games left (behind the Nationals)... but more importantly, Astros only have 13 games against winning teams (out of about 40-45 games left). All the other teams have between 25-35, if i remember right - primarily because they are all playing each other, I assume.
Well if the Astros are going to win it, they need to start WINNING....losing 4 of 5 to the scrub teams of the league at home, is not going to get it done. DD
An optimist would look at how bad they've played since that last Arizona game and say that there's something to be said about the fact that they're only a half game out of the lead. I still think the East will beat up on each other enough to where we won't have to play lights out ball the rest of the season to take the wild card. Based on how the season started, I'm estatic we're still in the thing. I really think people are missing how great this run has been. I know most people don't care about what happens if you don't make the playoffs, but when less than 25% of the teams make the playoffs in your sport, you've got to learn to enjoy other things because the playoffs just aren't going to happen every year. How we started and how there was really no one out there traded who would've made any significant difference, I'm happy. Get me to football season which will get me to the 2005-06 NBA season which we'll all be happy about in June.
