All-Star Breakdown

Back when I lived at The Castle, we had very specific rules about very specific things. So if you were chicks who happened to show up during the All-Star Game unannounced, you were screamed off the porch and told, in no uncertain terms, that your behavior was intolerable. It's the goddamn All-Star Game.

Of course, the All-Star Game sucks and those chicks were annoying under the best of circumstances (I later cracked one over the head with a fairly hard object). I mean the Mid-Summer Classic sucks now...I used to love it. But I never get home to see any of the early innings, and the A's always get screwed out of numbers because of their low Q Rating nationally.

The Break also signals three straight days without ACTUAL baseball, which is particularly bad timing this year since the Streakin' A's are on another of their ridiculously hot--and patented--runs. I'd say they have about a 10-15% chance of making the post-season, but those are much better odds than from six weeks ago. After their awful start and the injuries and the continued lack of significant brain activity from skipper Ken Macha, I'd have not wagered a nickel that I could find any enjoyment from them all season long.

Another fine read by me.

I thought I'd revisit my Pre-Season Predictions to see how well I handicapped the races. About as well as my fantasy teams are doing (read: not well). Have I ever mentioned The Fantasy Pitching Curse? Every year, my fantasy pitching staff vastly under-performs it's career averages. Sometimes, the entire staff goes on the DL. I curently have four such pitchers out injured. It's such a reliable phenomenon that the guys in my league start trading me pitchers from teams the A's are chasing in the playoff race, at which point said pitchers immediately start to gag. Check out John Lackey's numbers since June 12th when I got him. I'm not joking. So it's kinda good my fantasy teams always suck. That way, I can help the A's win another division title by stocking my club with Angels and Rangers pitchers, though the latter definitely don't need my help.

Anyway, predicions in regular text, actual standings in bold:

AL EAST

NYY BOS
BOS BAL
BAL NYY
TOR TOR
TB TB

AL CENTRAL

MIN CWS
CLE MIN
CWS CLE
DET DET
KC KC

AL WEST

LAA LAA
OAK TEX
TEX OAK
SEA SEA

NL EAST

FLA WAS
ATL ATL
PHI FLA
NYM PHI
WAS NYM

NL CENTRAL

STL STL
CHC HOU
HOU CHC
CIN MIL
MIL PIT
PIT CIN

NL WEST

LAD SDG
SDG ARZ
ARZ LAD
SFO SFO
COL COL