Ian Kennedy started the season wearing this uniform. He has ended it wearing a different set of pinstripes.

Welcome back for another edition of Bullet Points – with the season winding down, the races are getting closer, and more playoff spots are becoming unsettled rather than settled as the end draws nigh. This is why baseball is the greatest sport, even with the Wild Card that traditionalists decry – with less than two weeks left, there are almost as many teams in the race as out, and on any given night, the entire playoff picture can change.

The AL East looked settled weeks ago – now, New Englanders, such as myself, are sweating every Sox game while also watching the Yankees and how the Tigers are doing in the Wild Card, just in case. In New York, where the Yankees always make the playoffs, the Yankees have just a 3.5 game lead over the Tigers, and anything can happen on any given day. Fortunately, for those in the five boroughs, they still have the Mets, who are a lock still for the playoffs, right?

Wrong – with their loss yesterday, the Mets are now just 2.5 games up on the Phillies, who have won eight of their last ten games to put the fear of God in the residents of Shea. If the Mets do not win the division, they might not make the playoffs, as that slide would likely put them out of the Wild Card picture too.

The National League Central is a toss-up at this point, with the Cubs leading by just one game. The Brewers have the advantage of playing the final week of the season at home, but they have the disadvantage of facing the Padres in the last four games. Those Padres, meanwhile, are trying to fight for both the National League West, where they trail by just one game, and the Wild Card, where they currently have a 1.5 game lead. The Dodgers are just three back, and the Rockies only five back, so neither one of them is dead yet either.

The biggest fantasy question surrounding all these playoff scenarios is of course a tie and if an extra game, or games, needs to be played. Does what happens in a 163 game count for your league or not? What about a 164th game? Or even a 165th? As David Pinto in his excellent Baseball Musings blog has been discussing, we could be looking at multiple ties for the NL East, Central, West, and Wild Card, as none of those races is even close to settled, and they only get closer as we go on. If you do not have rules for this in your league one way or another, you should be sitting down to figure out how your league will handle it now before it is too late and the games are here. They might happen, they might not, but there is no reason not to be prepared for the possibility.

En Fuego

• With just 74 at-bats so far this season, it is doubtful that Jacoby Ellsbury will pick up enough at-bats to not qualify as a rookie next year. One has to consider him one of the favorites for the Rookie of the Year award after how well he has performed so far this season under the pressure of a playoff race. Since returning at the beginning of the month, Ellsbury has picked up a hit in all but one, and in that one that he did not, he still reached base by way of being hit by a pitch. For the month of September, Ellsbury is 22-for-55, a .400 average, with three home runs, thirteen RBI, and thirteen runs. He has also been a perfect 5-for-5 in stolen base opportunities. It would be really hard to argue against him being one of the favorites…


• …Unless of course you are trying to make an argument for Ian Kennedy, and it would be hard to dismiss his ROY credentials. Through three starts so far this season, Kennedy is 1-0 with a 1.89 ERA, with 15 strikeouts and 9 walks in 19 innings, and a .191 batting average against. Kennedy sailed through the minor leagues this year, starting out at the High-A Florida State League, and cruising through stops there, the Double-A Eastern League, and the Triple-A International League before hitting the Bronx. Kennedy should be a lock for a middle-of-the-rotation slot out of Spring Training.


• In the National League, continuing the hot rookie theme, we have Joey Votto raking it for the Reds. Through 12 games, Votto is hitting .424 with two home runs, nine RBI, five runs, and one stolen base. Is there anything Votto cannot do? Well, he probably pronounces “about” funny – those whacky Canucks… – but other than that, no.


• For the Brewers, Yovani Gallardo was highly touted early on in the season, but some mid-season struggles calmed some of the hype. Gallardo has been on a roll again, however, running off four straight wins and having not allowed an earned run in any of his last three outings. Going further, Gallardo has won five of his last six decisions, allowed no runs in four of those, and allowed only one total home run in his last six starts. Now that is the type of pitching the Brewers are going to need to get back over the Cubs.

En Hielo

• With just seven hits in his last fourteen games, giving him a .135 batting average in 52 at-bats, Ryan Theriot has been just about worthless of late. There are few players that have been as up and down as Theriot this season, and I for one want off this roller coaster.


• Want a cold pitcher in the National League? Try Matt Albers, who is 0-3 with a 10.95 ERA in his last three starts. Oh, and the starts before that were nothing special either. Why is he still in the league? Oh yeah – because the Astros gave up trying, or caring, months ago.


• Darin Erstad, when not injured, is not hitting. Over the last eight games, Erstad has picked up three hits in 28 at-bats, giving him the second-worst batting average in the American League over the last two weeks at .107. His sub-.200 on-base and slugging percentages are not making anyone feel all warm and fuzzy.


• Lastly, the coldest American League pitcher, who just happened to cost me four points in my AL-only league last night (me, bitter? Perish the thought!), is Daniel Cabrera. Cabrera has had a meltdown on the field emotionally and statistically, and he is 0-3 with an 11.77 ERA in his last three starts.

What to Watch

In the National League, the Rockies and Dodgers play two today, and one more tomorrow, in a series that could either get one of them in the playoff hunt or knock both out. Chad Billingsley and Jeff Francis get the starts in the first game, with the Rockies hoping for the good Francis and not the bad one – in his last eight starts, only four have been quality starts.

In the American League, meanwhile, we have the Red Sox in Toronto looking to salvage their lead and the series. Can they topple Frank Thomas and the Blue Jays, or will baseball’s sole Canadian team left play spoilers in the American League?

Questions and comments may be sent to markhaverty@sportsgrumblings.com