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New York Yankees – Joe Girardi Has no one to Believe in
Joe Girardi was growing tired of his lineup after the first two games, but the third consecutive loss, this time 1-2 facing a sublime Justin Verlander performance, made him probably lose all confidence and belief these guys can do anything.
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Oakland A’s and Washington Nationals Defy Big Payroll Policies
Is having a big payroll a waste of money in the MLB? I guess it all depends on how you manage that salary expenditure. The New York Yankees, constantly the highest paying team in Baseball, are pretty much a constant fixture in the postseason. The success of the Oakland Athletics and the Washington Nationals is a little bit more surprising.
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Miami Marlins – Worst Season in Over a Decade
New ballpark, Marlins Park, didn’t help. Signing free agents worth more than $200 million didn’t help. Bringing in Ozzie Guillen to be the manager certainly did no good. Nothing seemed to work for the ambitious project that was supposed to make the Miami Marlins into a force to be reckoned with.
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St. Louis Cardinals – Better Than Last Season?
The World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals just might be better this season than they were last year, with Albert Pujols and Tony La Russa, when they went into the postseason as a wildcard team and went on to beat the Texas Rangers in 7 games. This year, all the stats show this team is better in 2012, but the win-loss record tells us different.
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Felix Hernandez & Stephen Strasburg With No Postseason for Different Reasons
No one actually knows if limiting a pitcher to a certain amount of innings each seasons works. Felix Hernandez is throwing 230-240 innings a season and he’s never played less than 30 games excluding his rookie year. Stephen Strasburg is at 139.1 this season after 24 starts, which means he’ll be shut down in 20.9, according to everyone within the Washington Nationals organization.
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Ichiro Suzuki With His First Big Game (Red Sox vs Yankees)
Not that he hasn’t had big games in the past, but for Ichiro Suzuki to hit his first multiple home run game, as a New York Yankee, against the Boston Red Sox, is completely different than anything else he’s done in the past with the Seattle Mariners. Like it or not, it simply means more on a national level.
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Houston Astros – Can’t Get Any Worst
The Houston Astros won’t go down as the worst team in MLB history, already beating four teams on that notorious list with a record of 39-82 deep into August. But while it isn’t exactly surprising that they’re the worst in the league, no one expected it to be this bad, despite all the changes made since Jim Crane took over.
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Boston Red Sox – The End of the Bobby Valentine Era?
How bad is it for the Boston Red Sox in 2012? Well, 57-60 deep into August, 12.5 games behind the division leading New York Yankees and 6.5 games away from the Wild Card spot, occupied by two teams from the AL East. As postseason might have showed, the Bobby Valentine experience isn’t going too well.
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The Usual Problems in Yankee Stadium (Yankees vs Rangers)
It wasn’t about David Phelps pitching through five straight innings for the first time or Derek Lowe making his debut for the New York Yankees with 4 fantastic innings. It was mostly about how the Texas Rangers lost their lead of the AL after another disastrous outing in the new Yankee stadium.