Hey guys! Sorry, there was no football yesterday. There will be football again soon though. Keep your head up. Let’s get to what sports news we *did* have from yesterday…
The Cardinals, Giants, and Mets all have the same record with 11 games to go for the two NL Wild Card spots
What has been three teams being a whole lot of average has now provided us with what should be a thrilling final two weeks in the NL Wild Card race. The New York Mets, San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals are currently in a three-way tie for the two NL Wild Card spots at 80-71.
Well the NL #WildCard is interesting … pic.twitter.com/ffI0IlMvDx
— MLB (@MLB) September 21, 2016
So, all of these teams are 80-71 with just 11 games remaining. At this point, projections mean little in such a small sample size, but FanGraphs projections… have all of these teams winning 86 games. So that really doesn’t tell us anything! It’s really that even right now.
The Giants have been miserable in the second half, and finally got a win last night over the Dodgers, but they also lost Brandon Crawford with a day-to-day pinkie finger injury, and the big thing is star right-hander Johnny Cueto left the game with a groin injury that will require an MRI today. I have more on Cueto coming on the site this morning (including his really interesting description of the injury).
The Mets were fortunate enough to get the NL-worst Braves the previous two games in New York… and lost both of them. Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey are shut down, and their pitching situation is just not how you picture the Mets’ pitching situation over the last two years.
Then the Cardinals, well they can hit the crap out of the ball but they’re essentially starting a rotation full of No. 3-4 guys. Still, they’ve won four straight games — after losing three straight games, though — and may be playing the best ball of these three teams right now. Of course, they have a game at Coors Field tomorrow (which is just basically a big game of who the hell knows), before facing the MLB-best Cubs the following three games.
This is going to be a wacky, ugly, finish, to wacky, (fairly) ugly seasons for these teams. So watch one of them find a way into the tournament and then win the World Series because #baseball.
Quick Hits
– Lamar Jackson is the overwhelming Heisman favorite. Yes, already.
– A Baltimore Orioles fan heckled David Ortiz after Ortiz just missed a homer. Big Papi told the fan “Next time”, and sure enough went yard the next at-bat in the Red Sox’s 5-2 win.
– Jim Harbaugh rips Urban Meyers’ “candy ass” 1% milk habits. Of course he does.
– On the topic of Michigan, SEC guy Paul Finebaum says Wolverines fans are “a whiny and sniveling bunch”.
– Someone made a creepy Tom Brady gif that shows how he’s changed through the years. It’s weird, yet kind of amazing.
– NY Post sports columnist Bart Hubbuch literally deleted his Twitter account after some hot take backlash. Seems a little extreme.
– Bill Belichick doesn’t want to answer questions about the Patriots’ quarterback situation.
– This is another hilarious Madden NFL 17 glitch. For what it’s worth, I’m having a blast with this year’s game especially when you figure out the new kicking and punting (it took me a good dozen games). Now, I’ve seen my fair share of dumb things too. Like when Kirk Cousins stood here at the goal line looking to pass for 10 seconds before my defense could get to him for a sack:
I was just reminded about this Madden moment a few days ago. Kirk Cousins just standing looking to throw here lol. pic.twitter.com/fSy1fqZbcq — Matt Clapp (@Matt2Clapp) September 18, 2016
– Alright, I’m obsessed with Popeye’s Chicken so I’m going to tell myself this apparent deep fried rat accident is a one-time thing and continue to take my chances.
– Anthony Bourdain’s Reddit AMA is as great as you’d expect.
One last breath of gratuitous procrastination
No human friends to play soccer with? Find yourself a swan.