Game 140: Pirates 7 – Cubs 5

box
Pirates move back ahead, 57-84
Cubs move back to the cellar, 56-84

POTG: 1B Scott Moore (2B, HR, 2 RBI, R)
Runner Up: 3B A Ram (HR, 2 RBI, R), C Henry Blanco (2 H, 2B), RP Carlos Marmol (2 IP, BB, 4 K + HR!)

Those standings, once again…

KCR 52-89 .369 —
TBD 56-84 .400 4.5
CHC 56-84 .400 4.5
PIT 57-84 .404 5.0

Cubs will likely be eliminated from the Central this weekend, and the Wild Card early next week. Which actually seems quite late considering a 28 under team.

SP Projected 2007 Depth Chart
2. Free Agent
3. Free Agent (2)
4. Rich Hill (penned in)
5. VACANT
—
DL Mark Prior (DL, would be 5)
—
6. Angel Guzman (by default)
7. Sean Marshall (quite disappointing)
8. Juan Mateo (probably better than Marshall for 3 innings, but you need more than 3 innings)
9. Wade Miller (will be interesting to see if they pitch him on Saturday)
10. Ryan O’Malley
11. Jae Kuk Ryu
999999. Les Walrond

OFF THE BOARD: Carlos Marmol – with his recent bullpen performances, it’s easy to take him off this list and keep him out there.

ideas that have been bouncing around in my head for two months but never fully developed and won’t be now:

Everyone so often, you’ll find a column proposing relegation. That idea is dumb for a multitude of logistical reasons, but let’s pretend it magically ‘works’ for those aspects. For the sake of making it working, I’ll use a system where no minor league teams get moved around, the majors are just split into a 20 team Division 1 and a 10 team Division 2. The two worst D1 teams move down, the two best D2 teams move up, and 2004 is the seeding year. Because it’s so very easy, we’ll use the real win totals instead of adjusting based on schedule or doing other sorts of work.

Year Wins
DIVISION 1
STL 105
NYY 101
BOS 98
ATL 96
LAD 93
ANA 92
HOU 92
MIN 92
OAK 91
SFG 91
TEX 89
CHC 89
SDP 87
PHI 86
CHW 83
FLA 83
CLE 80
BAL 78
CIN 76
DET 72 (wins a tiebreaker)
———-
PIT 72
NYM 71
TBD 70
COL 68
MIL 67
WSN 67
TOR 67
SEA 63
KCR 58
ARI 51

So, that’s how we start. I guess the top 8 teams of Div make playoffs, though that’s not really important for this (and playoffs aren’t really important in leagues that have relegation, it seems.) On to year 2, and I promise there’s a point coming.

Year 2005
STL 100
CHW 99
NYY 95
BOS 95
ANA 95
CLE 93
ATL 90
HOU 89
OAK 88
PHI 88
MIN 83
FLA 83
SDP 82
TEX 79
CHC 79
SFG 75
BAL 74
CIN 73
LAD 71 (to D2)
DET 71 (to D2)
————
NYM 83 (to D1)
MIL 81 (to D1 by tiebreaker)
WSN 81
TOR 80
ARI 77
SEA 69
PIT 67
TBD 67
COL 67
KCR 56

Would the Scott Kazmir deal been worth it for the Mets if they ended up moving up? Yea, still, probably not. The Dodgers, Tigers, Mets, and Brewers switch places, setting up this year

Year Wins (projected out to 162 games)
NYM 101
NYY 97
CHW 93
OAK 93
MIN 93
STL 87
BOS 87
ANA 87
SDP 85
TEX 83
PHI 82
FLA 81
SFG 81
CIN 80
HOU 79
CLE 78
ATL 77
MIL 74
BAL 71
CHC 65
————
DET 99*******
LAD 86
TOR 84
SEA 77
ARI 75
COL 74
WSN 71
PIT 65
TBD 65
KCR 60

This year’s Detroit Tigers are the problem with relegation concept; it removes the possibility of last to first. Worse, it creates the possibility that the best team in Major League Baseball wouldn’t actually be eligible to win the award for being the best team, since they’re great season would be wasted on (only) moving them up from Division 2 to Division 1. If College Football has taught us anything, it’s that the #1 and #2 not meeting is the Worst Thing Ever, and any system that would increase that possibility is worthless.