Major League Baseball Playoffs

Wow! What a great week of baseball it has been. I cannot proclaim to have watched all of the games this week but with all four series going five games one has to be impressed with the playoffs thus far.


The Yankees have had an earth shattering revaluation during their series this week with Baltimore. Joe Girardi has been roundly criticized for his performance as manager, in comparison to media darling Buck Showalter especially, but I think Girardi is underrated and doing all he can with what is, essentially, an old, fast getting older team, of veterans. His decision to pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez this week showed what is in store for Yankee fans, namely five years and over 100 million left to pay a man that is essentially a shadow of what he was. Whoever wins this series today this has been a great, if offensively challenged series.

Last evening Justin Verlander pitched a shutout as the Tigers finished off the Oakland A's and their improbably run. Verlander is as good as it gets and he proved it last night. The Athletics had a great year however and one wishes that their fans could prove to be a little more loyal, as they were wonderful last night.

The Reds, with their collapse to the Giants, are in for a long winter. It seems likely that Dusty Baker will not be back, but certainly the injuries to Cueto and Joey Votto were great factors in their defeat. The Giants on the other hand showed again how resilient they are and they will be intimidated by nothing the rest of the way.

Today we will see Game Five of the Washington Nationals and St. Louis Cardinals in the conclusion of a series that has been a little overshadowed by the other baseball taking place. Most baseball fans would like nothing more than the Strasburg shut down controversy to go away and whereas that will never be going away until the Nats are dead and buried perhaps it will be better for all of us if the Cards win today. To me being in a game five with their twenty game winner on the mound in Gio Gonzales it seems to me the Nationals have no one to blame, certainly not the Strasburg issue, should they lose today.


Lets hope the next round continues to be as exciting.