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I'm split on DH.

On one hand I think of pitchers like goalies and having a pitcher hit is like asking a goalie to take a shootout.

On the other, "designated hitters" and "pinch runners" make baseball look so lazy.

Keith Olbermann has covered how it doesn't create any advantage or disadvantage and it merely separates the leagues. I like the leagues being distinct. Otherwise it's just two conferences.

Why not just drop the rotation by 1 for both leagues? No designated hitter. No pitchers going up to bat.

MLB Player's Association would hate that.

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I'm split on DH.

On one hand I think of pitchers like goalies and having a pitcher hit is like asking a goalie to take a shootout.

On the other, "designated hitters" and "pinch runners" make baseball look so lazy.

Keith Olbermann has covered how it doesn't create any advantage or disadvantage and it merely separates the leagues. I like the leagues being distinct. Otherwise it's just two conferences.

Why not just drop the rotation by 1 for both leagues? No designated hitter. No pitchers going up to bat.

The reverse of that, which I have suggested many times; is a line-up that brings 10 men to plate including pitcher and DH. This way both traditions are honored. Secondly, there would be no home field advantage based on lineup.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Big series this weekend with the Jays and Yankees battling for 1st in the AL East. I've been stunned by how much Toronto has turned it around although like most, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop; they can't keep up this type of winning pace the rest of the way.

Sad news in Boston as their manager, John Farrell has been diagnosed with lymphoma. This comes days after one of the NBA's head coaches (who also is their GM) - Minnesota's Flip Saunders - was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma.

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Not MLB-related but the Little League World Series got underway yesterday. Canada's pitcher had a game to remember. He pitched five innings and struck out 16 (that's not a typo). Unfortunately, games are six innings long and his replacement allowed a run in the final inning, knocking Canada to the brink of elimination. Still though, what a pitching performance.

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Jays are going to keep it up..... ;)

I don't think they'll have as strong a September as they did in August. It feels weird to say with ~30 games left in a pennant race but it really feels as if there are only seven truly meaningful games left, the head-to-heads vs the Yankees. Tampa and Baltimore have really fallen off making it a two horse race for the AL East.

Only three times in MLB history has a team had three players with 10 or more home runs and 20 or more RBI in a month and Toronto's August was one of them. The other two times it happened were Colorado (Aug. 1996) and the New York Giants (July 1947).

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What are you going to do with Goins next year if this keeps up. Surely he would not be content to be backup.

I think he still has one option left so it doesn't much matter what he's content with. (2015 was supposed to be his final option season but I don't think you burn one if you're down for less than 20 days; he was only with Buffalo for a week or so.)

Travis has options as well so one of them could go to AAA. Or, they'll do like they did with Goins earlier in the year and try to make him a utility player and work on him in left field. It's a waste of his defence but if his bat holds up, it's not the worst scenario.

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It's the biggest series of the year (until about ten days from now) as the Jays and Yankees open up a four game set, weather permitting. Considering how the pitching and the hitting seem to have gone dry for Toronto, a split out of this would be decent. They'd maintain their division lead at the very least that way.

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Wow, what a game between the Jays and Yanks in the first half of the doubleheader today. That felt like playoff baseball and then some. It was also nice to watch on Fox with quality broadcasters...perhaps that's part of the reason it felt like a playoff game.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Down to 2 for the magic #!

That didn't take long, Yankees lose yesterday and the Jays took game one today. To celebrate, the Jays are starting a AAA lineup in game two aside from Dickey. (Seriously, almost their entire batting order played at AAA at some point this season, all but Pennington.) Now the focus is Kansas City for home field throughout the postseason.

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So the Yankees get eliminated after losing to Houston. That's always nice although Houston's team scares me more than New York's.

The Jays get Texas in a battle of the two best AL teams since August. The Rangers feature a lot of strong left handed hitters and the Jays don't have a whole lot of lefties - Price as a starter and Cecil/Loup in the 'pen...and Loup hasn't pitched well for big chunks of the season. Toronto should be able to win this but this won't be an easy matchup. It's Price vs Gallardo (a Jays killer) in Game 1 tomorrow afternoon.

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Both AL series are going to Game 5's after Houston choked in spectacular fashion while the Jays took advantage of a bad start from Derek Holland to square up their matchup. Toronto also burned David Price in relief to the point where he likely won't be available tomorrow. On the other hand, he didn't fare too well in relief and didn't have a great start either. Texas seems to do well against him despite having quite a few lefties.

In the NL, the Dodgers face elimination tonight and are turning to Clayton Kershaw on short rest. He has lost his last 5 postseason decisions and has received a total of 8 runs of support in his 29 1/3 innings in those games. And the Cardinals, the best team in the regular season, could be out today as well. Lots of upset potential in these playoffs, there has been plenty of parity.

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Both AL series are going to Game 5's after Houston choked in spectacular fashion while the Jays took advantage of a bad start from Derek Holland to square up their matchup. Toronto also burned David Price in relief to the point where he likely won't be available tomorrow. On the other hand, he didn't fare too well in relief and didn't have a great start either. Texas seems to do well against him despite having quite a few lefties.

In the NL, the Dodgers face elimination tonight and are turning to Clayton Kershaw on short rest. He has lost his last 5 postseason decisions and has received a total of 8 runs of support in his 29 1/3 innings in those games. And the Cardinals, the best team in the regular season, could be out today as well. Lots of upset potential in these playoffs, there has been plenty of parity.

What we are seeing is that Price may not be the cure that fixes everything. At times he is real good, but other times not so much. What I am suggesting here is that he may not be that 28M per guy that you want going into next season even if you could afford him. Seems to me he is making that decision much easier. We may even get a better picture if we can get past Texas.

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