Uh-Oh, Looks Like God's Been Reading My Blog

Although the lack of comments to my recent posts suggests that with the filtering mechanisms in play my readership has again been reduced to single digits, apparently God Almighty has been poring over my commentary very closely, and it's pissed Him/Her off. That is the only explanation for the circumstances which caused the defeat of my Rotisserie Baseball team in the final week. Virtually tied for the lead at week's beginning (with Jesus), all our squad needed were sufficient wins and strikeouts from our talented staff of seven starters to maintain our point standings. Then, one after another, disaster struck.

Our top strikeout guy, A.J. Burnett, spouted off angrily against the management of the Marlins, and was sent packing. This announcement came five minutes before our final move deadline, and neither Kevin nor I were attentive at that point, or we could have replaced him with another ragged arm, Rich Harden. Turns out had we done so, we would have tied for the championship. This even after three other starters were smitten as well. Rich Helling's wife decided to have labor the day of his final start, dragging him to her bedside; rotation regular Jeff Suppan was benched all week despite a successful season as Tony LaRussa decided to rearrange his staff for the play-offs. Most appallingly, Jorge Sosa, third best pitcher in the league, had his start aborted after one batter from a torrential rain in Florida. If we could've add one win and five strikeouts, Jesus would not be walking away with the trophy.

Good one, God. I'll still get over $500 in prize money, so happy Rosh Hashanah to you.

Actually You might have spent more time helping out the Indians, who needed some divine assistance as they fumbled away their chance to make the play-offs as a Wild Card team and underscore how clever my prognostications were. In truth, they were just okay. My April 1 blog stated my predictions, which were as follows: Padres, Card, Braves, Yanks, Indians and Angels for division titles; Mets and Twins for wild card. Well, that's five out of six correct on divisions, but I missed on the tricky wild card choices as Boston and Houston snuck in on the final day. I foresaw Cleveland's emergence but not that of the White Sox.

Play-off season is now upon us as I put away my stats sheet and actually pay attention to wins and losses. The American League is far too close to call. The Red Sox have guts but probably insufficient pitching, especially among relievers, to go all the way. The White Sox are well-balanced but short on play-off experience. The Yanks and Angels have been the best two teams down the stretch, but are facing off against each other in what should be a very tough divisional contest. Los Angeles has a "home field" advantage and a history of success against the Yankees, who can only pitch Randy Johnson once. The team that wins this series will likely advance to the World Series. For my own constitutionnal health I'm hoping not to have to endure another Yankee-Red Sox ALCS, but if God really has it in for me, he/she'll arrange it.

Among the Nationals, the Cardinals are clearly the class, and have something to prove after their World Series disaster last year, when they were lacking Rolen and Carpenter. Well Rolen is still out but Carpenter is back, and should have enough to hold down the Padres. Houston has the best starting threesome going into the post-season, with Clemens, Pettitte and Oswalt, so Atlanta is likely again to choke away the early series, as the jaded fans in the semi-full outfield seats cheer half-heartedly. The lamentable 3-of-5 divisional series format allows for peculiar outcomes so even the undeserving Padres could advance as flukily as Jesus. But these are religious times, and the Lord seems more interested in faith-based baseball results than in curtailing weather catastrophes, so an ultimate Angels-Cardinals/Padres World Series would be no surprise.