Talkin' Baseball: Dodgers Pretending To Be Players & Nats Implosion

49er16: How cute are the Dodgers? They think they're major players now even though they owe over 100 million dollars to players over 30-years old. 

The Colonel: I love these new Dodger owners. I like how they think, "You know what we need to do? We need to improve our team by adding over 100 million dollars of contracts to our payroll from a team that has underachieved all year." They're like men who think they'll fine love in a strip club. 

49er16: From a Giants perspective how much does this worry you? 

The Colonel: This year it does worry me. Gonzalez is playing well and Beckett could improve just from the whole change of scenery deal. Crawford doesn't worry me because he's a speed guy who's getting older. In the long run though it will be interesting to see what the Dodgers do in free agency. Where they could hurt the Giants is in International signings. 

49er16: Gonzalez though has a history of playing poorly in the 2nd half of the season and my memory could be off but I don't remember him having a big September when two of his former teams were in the playoff hunt. 

The Colonel: All the Giants can do is continue winning each series they play, beat Los Angeles 4 games out of the 6 they play against each other, and that should be good enough to win the division. The Wild Card could also be had but they better not hold out for that spot. Lock up the division and some sort of home field advantage. 

49er16: I hope Hunter Pence can produce something. He's been a disaster for the Giants so far but thankfully for him there was Melky's suspension and Pagan getting hot to take the attention off of him. 

The Colonel: They're going to need something and they're going to need their pitchers to pitch well along with the bullpen. There's no room for error now and the Giants can't screw up. 

49er16: Moving on, I do like how everyone is sucking off the Rays again while forgetting the A's and Orioles are still right there for the Wild Card spots in the American League. 

The Colonel: BUT JOE MADDON AND THE RAYS ARE THE GREATEST ORGANIZATION THAT NO ONE LITERALLY WATCHES! THEY CAN DO NO WRONG! YEAH SO THEY HAVE GREAT YOUNG PITCHING BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER BECAUSE EVERYONE IN MANAGEMENT WITH THE RAYS ARE GENIUS'. 

49er16: Okay, okay I forgot that everyone with the Rays are smart and everyone else are dumb and incompetent. 

The Colonel: The team that impresses me the most is the A's. You look at them on paper and there really isn't anything that impressive about them. Their pitching is deep, but you look at that lineup and you kinda just throw your hands up. They don't have a Evan Longoria or even a Manny Machado, but are somehow scoring enough runs to win. 

49er16: I would put more faith in the Orioles if their pitching staff was just a little bit better. They're not good enough though in the pitching department. 

The Colonel: That's why I think at the end of the day it will be the A's vs Rays and after this weekend it looks like the A's won't be afraid of the Rays if they have to play in Tampa St. Petersburg. 

49er16: I can't believe there was a second there where everyone was like, "OMG the Mariners might make a late run!" And then they go to Chicago and get smoked in three games. 

The Colonel: Everyone was also like, "This was like that time the 95 Mariners made their run!" Sorry but Griffey, young ARod, Buehner, and Randy Johnson ain't walking through that door. 

49er16: Those Mariners teams sure did have some fun players back in the day. Griffey, young ARod, Buehner, Edgar Martinez, and then Jamie Moyer, Mike Cameron, Ichiro, and Brett Boone. Amazing that they never made it past the ALCS. 

The Colonel: They always seemed to run either into a better team (95 Indians) or a team that was on an emotional run (01 Yankees) and haven't been the same since. Also hitters seem to die horrible deaths at Safeco. Even a roided up Bonds would have died in that ballpark. 

49er16: It is amazing isn't it how hitters just die in that ballpark. There's always been a big deal made about AT&T Park, Petco Park, and Citi Field but you never really hear about Safeco and the Mariners. 

The Colonel: That's because everyone stopped paying attention to Seattle as a whole when Kurt Cobain put a shotgun in his mouth. 

49er16: Gotta love the Nationals implosion right now. Everyone is going crazy because of this whole Strasburg situation. Davey Johnson is yelling at his GM. Bryce Harper finally had a temper tantrum because he was taken out of a game. This is great. 

The Colonel: It would be epic if that team just completely collapsed and missed the playoffs. Can you imagine the blame game if that happened? Johnson would get blamed. The team would get blamed for shutting down Strasburg. Harper would get blame for not playing well. And Bob Carpenter and FP would just cry and cry and cry. 

49er16: I can taste Carpenter's tears right now and I'm pretty sure kt1000 would have an erection. 

The Colonel: I also hope when the Angels don't make the playoffs Mike Scioscia will get fired for I don't ever have to hear about how "great" of a manager he is when he's in fact a terrible manager who costs his team a run once a game with his stupid hit-and-runs. 

49er16: Scioscia is also one of those managers I'll never get why so many people love him. His teams have under performed for the past 10 years. 

The Colonel: Scioscia has always gotten the benefit of the doubt from the press. His players "play the right way" which has always been code for "Scioscia plays some sucky white player who isn't that good but he hustles." Scioscia doesn't have a player like that this year and that's why I hope he gets fired. 

49er16: Anyone who wastes the type of year Mike Trout is having deserves to be fired.