7 Left. Half Down

Wouldn't be a birthday without a devastating late game Giants loss.

Season ends in a week.  Half up on the Padres; tied with the Braves.  Cain today.

8 Left. Half Up.

Lincecum killed the Rockies dead last night.  2 hits, 10 strikeouts. 

Burrell hit another late game homer to get us to 20 games over .500.  Half up in the West with 8 left; now a game up on both the Braves and Reds for the second best record in the NL. It's 18 straight games now without giving up more than 3 runs, our September ERA is more than a run better than any other team in baseball.  We haven't had an ERA under 2 for a whole month since May of '89.
If we can keep the 3 and under run going today, we'd tie the 1916 Giants and, stand only behind the 1917 White Sox who kept teams under 4 runs in 20 consecutive games. 

Our pythag remains at 89 wins - but our playoff chances have hit their absolute high water mark for the season, 80% - and now the Padres hold the advantage over the Braves to pull the WC.  This is the best possible of the remaining scenarios, as it would mean a first round matchup with the Reds.

In the race for the post season awards - Longoria has pulled in front in the AL MVP race; he and Cano are going to hit the tape together in a week.  King Felix has my Cy vote wrapped up.  Wainwright looks like a good bet to hold on for the MVP/Cy in the NL. 

I'm still in second in both AL and Mixed fantasy leagues - all the $ goes for first place, so I need a last week push. 

Half up. Nine left.

That's Juan Uribe, he hit two homers in the 2nd inning last night.

Half a game up.  Nine to go.

We haven't given up more than 3 runs in our last 17 games; the greatest stretch for any team since 1917. Our ERA this month is one and a half. 

Our odds to make the playoffs are 63+%; Colorado may whip us this weekend, but their season ended in Phoenix.  The race is 3 teams for two spots.  San Diego's winning the WC gets us the Reds in the first round; our beating out the Reds for second best record would get us the Braves in the first round, were they to win the WC.  The other configurations would give us the Phils, and let's put that off if we can.

Our pythag has hit 89 wins.  13 teams in SFG history have had 90 pythagorean wins. 

The weekend matchups:

Lincecum v. Chacin
Zito v. Hammel
Cain v. De La Rosa

We don't have enough at bats against Chacin to mean anything, although Posey's 2-2. 
Huff and Sanchez have good records against Hammel; Uribe does not.
Sanchez and Ross have hit De La Rosa well; Sandoval, Rowand, Renteria have not. 

It's too bad we're missing Aaron Cook  The numbers are significant:

Burrell - 15 of 24
Fontenot - 4 of 13
Huff - 3 of 8
Ishikawa - 6 of 8
Posey - 3 of 5
Renteria - 8 of 20
Ross - 4 of 12
Rowand - 7 of 20
Sanchez - 3 of 9
Sandoval - 6 of 14
Schierholtz - 4 of 7
Torres - 2 of 6

The other way - Helton and Iannetta has really hit Lincecum well, but he might be able to cool off Tulowitzki
Zito has a really impressive record against the Rox, other than Gonzalez, who is 6-16, he has owned that entire roster.  Barmes, Iannetta, Stewart, Tulowitzki, Young - all hitting under .200 with double digit at bats.  There might be a little value in investing in Zito Saturday night. 
Tulo and Spilborghs really hit Cain well; he owns Gonzalez and Helton. 

There's been a change in the WARP3 leaderboard, Wainwright's still got both my Cy and MVP votes in the NL (although Tulowitzki, who just yesterday I named Athlete of the Month, is charging hard at the tape for MVP) but Longoria and the first half WARP leader Cano have passed the idle Hamilton for MVP in the AL. King Felix is still your AL Cy winner.

I Pick College Football Games (Although I Should Stop) Week 4, 2010

Last week is here.

5-16-2

Air Force v. Wyoming under 50.5 (win)
Baylor v. Rice under 56 (win)
Duke v Army under 56.5 (win)
Idaho v. Col St. over 50.5 (win)
Kansas -23 NMex St. (win)
Mary -12 FIU (win)
Mid Ten -3 La/La (win)
Penn St -11.5 Temp (loss)
Tenn -14 UAB (loss)
USC -22 Wash St (win)

That's more like it.

13-18-2

TBOR Athlete of the Month - September 2010

Troy Tulowitzki: Runners Up - Roy Halladay, Rafael Nadal, Jose Bautista

That means we're nine deep in the race for TBOR Athlete of the Year, you can access past posts here.

Back in '98, my winner and the AP winner was Mark McGwire

Jan: Terrell Davis (John Elway, Vin Baker, Martina Hingis)
Feb: Dale Earnhardt: (Antawn Jamison, Dominic Hasek, Tara Lipinski)
Mar: Chamique Holdsclaw (Antawn Jamison, Bryce Drew, Andre Miller)
Apr: Mark McGwire (Mark O'Meara, Pedro Martinez, Chuck Finley)
May: Karl Malone (Kerry Wood, David Wells, Mark McGwire)
June: Greg Maddux (Ollie Kolzig, Michael Jordan, Sammy Sosa)
July: Ronaldo (Zinedine Zidane, Se Ri Pak, Marion Jones)
Aug: Jeff Gordon (Eric Davis, Mark McGwire, Cynthia Cooper)
Sept: Sammy Sosa (Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds)
Oct: Scott Brosius (Shane Spencer, Kevin Brown, Jason Elam)
Nov: Ricky Williams (Cade McNown, Terrell Davis, Randy Moss)
Dec: Randall Cunningham (Steve Francis, Gary Anderson, Ron Dayne)