Prospect Insider - Regular season playoffs

Regular season playoffs

By Jason A. Churchill

By 09-28-2011

The final day of the regular season means something for four teams, and always has an impact on the draft order.

The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays enter Wednesday's finales tied for the wildcard lead in the American League and the same scenario surrounds the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves in the National League.

Not only are these games big, but big-game pitchers are going for the four teams involved. Jon Lester goes on short rest for Boston while Tampa sends David Price to the mound. Chris Carpenter is on the mound for the Cards and Tim Hudson is trying to pitch the Braves into the postseason.

The Sox and Cardinals would appear to have the advantage, since they are playing versus the Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros, two of the game's worst clubs. Neither of the two contenders have pitched well this month, however, leaving the games up for grabs.

The Rays, however, are only playing the Baby Yankees, as the Bronx Bombers are lying down like little kids at nap time. Dellin Betances is making his first career start in the majors in this one, though I don't blame Joe Girardi at all for throwing Betances. The rest of the team is just playing like it doesn't matter, because, well, for them it doesn't.

Draft order note: The tie-breaker rules on the draft order are not previous TWO years record, it's simply the previous season. So the M's will pick No. 3 next June regardless of what occurs Wednesday since the worst that can happen is Baltimore and Seattle end the year with the same record.

In previous years, the rule was record combined for the previous two seasons, which would change things since Seattle win 85 games in 2009.

Speaking of 2009, it's a similar draft class in terms of talent, but right now lacks a clear No. 1 like '09 did in Stephen Strasburg.

regular-season-playoffs

Comments
The following 6 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: DKulich44 on 09-28-2011 23:48:35
Yep, that Evan Longoria guy is pretty good.

2. By: safecochatter on 09-29-2011 09:16:22
Great night for baseball fans!
Watching Baltimore celebrate and then watching Lonoria/Rays celebrate 1.5 minutes later was fun!

Thanks for the depth chart. It helps people like me who can't do the time sink.

3. By: zackr on 09-29-2011 12:36:36
@1

But wait, I thought he was totally overrated.

HAHAHAHA

4. By: marinermutt on 09-30-2011 09:58:41
Great ending to the regular season. Hope the M's will be in that position soon.

On a side note, aren't we glad that we were unable to sign John Lackey a couple of years ago. If I remember correctly, it came down to the M's and Boston. Thanksfully, Boston won out.

5. By: Edman on 09-30-2011 11:21:38
Yes, though I thought that Lackey's performance in his contract year was not as dominating as his numbers indicated.

But, he's Boston's problem now. The luckiest pitcher in the AL last year, in regard to winning percentage. Boston gave him enormous run support.

6. By: maqman on 09-30-2011 13:01:52
It was nice to be reminded that it is still possible to go from worst to first.

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