Step up from JP Ricciardi.

Towers is reportedly out in San Diego as well.

Zack Greinke's last start suddenly has a lot of significance. Detroit is one game ahead of Minnesota in the Central. KC is tied with Cleveland for last place. A win by Greinke over Minnesota allows Detroit to clinch the division and may get KC out of last place with a Cleveland loss.

Can't believe Leyland started Figaro tonight over Verlander on 4 days rest then having Porcello tomorrow on 5 days.

Really hope the Pirates do one more job tomorrow. Or if they win, I hope the O's do as well. Would be nice to have the 2nd pick.

Amazing that the Tigers have all but thrown in the towel for the playoffs. I just don't understand how a team in the middle of a pennant race can lay so many eggs right now. If they don't get in, Leyland HAS to be accountable for some of this, along with the players of course.

Leyland is the most overrated coach in the game.

He constantly tinkers, over-manages and rewards mediocrity because of seniority. I fucking despise him.

Leyland is a turd floating in a cesspool. With a cigarette in his hand of course.

Just an interim for now. Hopefully not Pat Gillick. I like him, but...that's not really building for the future. Hope they give Kim Ng, the Dodgers Assistant GM a shot at a gig. She'd be the first woman GM, but that's not why I think she deserves the job. Interviews with her shows she knows her stuff and while she doesn't have a scouting background, I think if you get the right people to do their jobs, then the management folks have the info they need to make things happen.

She should replace Cito with a different voice too. Someone out of the organization, maybe a younger guy who can get through to the players. Or if not that, someone who has Blue Jays pedigree who can teach the team now how to carry the banner of a once proud franchise. But I can't think of anyone offhand who'd fit the bill and could come in and do it well.

He was the right pick last year, but at this point, that team needs total regime change.

Now that's no way to speak of the city of Detroit. Hasn't that place been beaten up enough already? :D

Over in the NL, with Philly and St. Louis both losing again today, the NL West champ will get home field in the NL playoffs. If Colorado can pull off the sweep (scoreless in the sixth as of this writing), it'd be quite a capper to the incredible turnaround from being 20-32 to the best record in the NL.

20-32 to pushing the West to the last day is incredible enough.

I'm glad we managed to hold them off. Now we can worry about the postseason.

Ha, I thought about that after I wrote it. Leyland sucks though.

Tigers win 5-3, Twins are spanking the Royals. Looks like there will be a game on Tuesday, I'm guessing Leyland gives the ball to Porcello.

Also there are some rumors out there that Miggy Cabrera was in a bar fight or some sort of altercation last night, he's got some serious cuts to the side of his face.

Nice to have some excitement to the last day of the regular season. (As opposed to just wondering who half the players in the Phillies starting lineup is...)

Hey, if you are a Mets fan, you could have played "wondering who half the players in the Mets starting lineup is" like 2 months ago! ;)

Oh, and btw, apparently this is the third straight year of do or die in the final day:

One-game play-ins are nothing new | MLB.com: News

So you just haven't been paying attention ;).

Regardless... Tuesday should be fun.

Thank God the Blue Jays and Cubs have been put out of their misery. What a debacle.

The Nationals finished with a bang. Seven straight wins to end the season, and a 15 inning 2-1 win over the Braves on the last day. In the land of useless statistics, they are the first team to ever start the season witha 7 game losing streak and end it with a 7 game winning streak.

Now it's time to see who the manager is, who the assistant GM is, if they can address the bullpen and starting rotation, who will be the starting fielders and whether Strasburg is the second coming of Walter Johnson.

My wife and I may go down to Viera in the spring -- she has a good (female) friend that loves baseball, and she's trying to talk her into going down. My wife and a friend can go to the beach while we go to spring training. :)

So with the season on the line, Miguel Cabrera comes stumbling home drunk at 5am? Bravo to his "dog." He needs his ass kicked.

Based on the most recent report in the Detroit Free Press, Miguel Cabrera was out Friday night until quite late/early Saturday morning, partying with his friends from the Chicago White Sox. He gets home very late, is drunk (he blew a .26, three times higher than the legal limit for driving), he is loud, talking on his cell phone, he wakes up his 4 year old daughter, his wife gets pissed, they get into a fight, her lip is split, he's got cuts and bruises on the left side of his face, his phone is broken as is the gold chain around his neck.

His wife calls the police at 6 am Saturday morning, they come and pick him up and taken him to the police station, because his wife demands Cabrera leaves the house. The Tigers pick him around 8 am or Saturday.

That's great. Biggest series of the year and he's out getting hammered with players from the opposing team until 6 in the morning.

He went 0-11 in the series.

Good job, Miguel. You, sir, are a true professional.

Don't forget the apparent spousal abuse and the 4-year old potentially watching all of this.

What a douchebag.

I don't have all the details here, but he may be doing the Tigers a favor.

I mean, one Tiger player out partying with a bunch of White Sox. If he can get 3-4 of them to be performing as poorly as he is then advantage Tigers right...

He's just taking one for the team. Didn't quite get it done in time for game one of the series, but helped them get a split Saturday/Sunday ;)

Here's the story:

Police: Cabrera was drunk during fight with wife | Detroit Free Press | Freep.com

Nice rollover job by the Royals there.

I am a Miggy slappy but Christ this is bad. I'd hate to be him if the Tigs lose Tuesday because the public outcry is gonna' leave Leyland (to an extent) and go right to him. He better have the game of his life Tuesday to save face.

But that's what happens when you become a drunken asshole.

Sounds like an alcoholic if he can handle being .26 and still functioning.

Fuck him. I hope they trade his ass and bench him on Tuesday. I don't care if the Tigers lose because of it, although they might be better off with his drunken, piece of shit, ass out of the lineup anyway.

I'll never cheer for that bum again.

Unfortunately this does not happen nearly enough.

This whole Cabrera thing is eerily reminiscent of the Detroit Red Wings "Goose Loonies" affair back in the day.

Considering his ability, they will not bench him on Tuesday, nor should they. The day to have benched him should have been Saturday. Tuesday they need to let him know his performance will have a great say as to whether he is a part of the team in the future, and his conditioning needs to be a part of it as well.

Personally, I'd sell him to the highest bidder. They could restock the team based on a trade. I'd have done it last year though...

There aren't going to be high bidders. If you offer him, it's because of this so that hurts leverage. Then, he has 125 mil left on his contract which means, oh, I don't know, 5 teams can afford him? Of those teams, the Yanks don't need him, Boston might, the Mets have nothing in their farm system and the Dodgers have a good 1B already.

I could see the Red Sox being interested. However, the combination of his contract, his conditioning, and his work ethic questions means that the Tigers would likely be getting FAR less than you would probably expect. I doubt they'll be able to restock anything from trading Cabrera.

I'd say his conditioning isn't an issue. The partying obviously is but he doesn't miss games and has performed at a high level all season for the most part. Boston would be the only team that makes sense but like you said, the return isn't worth it.

Let Miggy ride it out. He fucked up huge but I'm all for giving him a second chance when you consider there aren't but a handful guys better then him in all of baseball and he isn't even in his prime.

Well, what I mean to say is with his body type and the fact that its pretty obvious he's not going to be improving it, who wants to pay him $44M in 2014 and 2015?

Quite right. The guy did have a 142 OPS+ this season.

In a move that should surprise no one, all sorts of things are coming out now. The latest is that Cabrera almost got into a fight back in August with some guy and a teenager at the same bar. Apparently, Cabrera was drunk and was mocking the teenage for being fat (he weighed 300 lbs.). He then got beligerent and challenged the teen and man to a fight.

It's not surprising that what happened last weekend wasn't the first time. If anything, hopefully this getting out into the public will shame him into getting his life in order and stop this kind of nonsense. Hopefully he will take these humiliations galore to heart.

From the description of the two events, becoming a "mutual combatant" with his wife and picking on a fat teenager, he really sounds like an ass.

well, the Sox made the playoffs. Despite my public pronouncements earlier in the season that I didn't see it happening.

I still don't think they necessarily have what it takes to go all the way, but I'd be happy to be wrong about that also.

Anyways, if anyone wants to take shots at me for not believing, go ahead.

especially when you consider that he was probably a pretty chunky teenager himself :D

Albert Belle calls in advice: don't trade your stars

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index..._advice_d.html

Thank you, Albert. At least we can all have a laugh now that the season is over. That last month in particular was pure agony.

I'm willing to GUARANTEE he's been waiting a full 6 months to say that.

Good stuff from Belle in that article. Regressive Field :D

Hopefully Detroit wins tomorrow, they're the only team left that I sort of like. Everyone else I'm either apathetic towards or slightly dislike, but don't really hate them like I do the Mets so it'd be kind of boring. I used to hate the Yankees as well as the Mets but after several years of them not winning the Series (or even making it there) and acquiring a few players I like it's just mild dislike now. It being the playoffs I'll still be watching a lot of it either way though.

Strasburg makes his pro debut.

Strasburg sees first game action as pro | nationals.com: News

how'd that whole contract-thing resolve itself? i must have missed that

I didn't realize it but apparently I missed it too.

From an LA Times blog

so Boras buckled hmm?

The previous record was $5 million. So while $15m ain't $50m like they were saying, they made a smart move because going to Japan would've been a disaster, independent ball is shaky at best and well...the road there would've strewn with dudes who did that and of whom have never been heard from again.

Smart for him to sign, even if it's with the Nats. ;)

Sooner he gets to the majors, sooner he can become a free agent.

I presume you meant to type that the previous record was $5m less, not $5m. :) That, however, was in 2001 for $10.5m. With inflation that's around $12.7m with inflation. so the Nats upped the previous record by about $2.5m. Considering everyone thought it would be around $20m, they didn't do half bad. Of course, perhaps that was Boras's plan all along.

I think everyone knew that short of the nuclear option Boras had little leverage. And Strasburg going elsewhere would have been VERY risky for him, especially being offered the record.

PING: DETOX
 

Eat my ass, cockboy.