It would be great if the two Cy Young winners were named Carsten and Ubaldo. I'm guessing that would be a first.

can we even call this a race? Neither team is going to take winning the division seriously when they have the WC in their back pocket.

Oh, I wasn't aware that anyone still cared about the AL East now that the Red Sox are out of it.

<ducks>

Brad Hawpe, 0-for-4 with 4 K's in his Tampa debut. The NL East needs to stop picking up Rockies castoffs. When they're cooked here, they're *really* cooked. BTW, does anyone still want to trade for Todd Helton?

I just found out that Rocco Baldelli is back in the major leagues, as a Ray, as of yesterday. I thought he was coaching this year, I didn't know he was giving playing another go.

Puck, I assume you mean AL East (Atkins, Orioles), but it certainly goes for the NL East too. Just thinking about Vinny Castilla playing 3rd for the Braves makes me vomit with rage. And I didn't even fully realize how atrocious he was in 2002 at the time.

ADDENDUM: But how could I forget, Andres Galarraga was...AWESOME!

can we even call this a race? Neither team is going to take winning the division seriously when they have the WC in their back pocket.

I kind of get the idea that the Yanks would much rather have that last game at home, where they're 46 and 22. And while the Rays are nearly as good on the road as they are at home, that's largely due to their early season road record, which has come back to Earth over the past few months.

Sure, they'd rather. But do they want this enough to push Hughes' innings cap? Stretch Mo for two innings in a game?

The fun of a pennant race, in my opinion, involves good teams doing whatever it takes to win games in September. But thanks to the consolation prize in the AL East, the games through the rest of the month are almost completely meaningless.

No team that has ever been in this position has given the division title any meaningful consideration. I doubt the Yankees or Rays will be the first.

Avoiding the Rangers and Cliff Lee seems less urgent than it did three weeks ago.

Avoiding the Rangers and Cliff Lee seems less urgent than it did three weeks ago.

Not to mention that it's looking like it will be the wild card team that avoids the Rangers.

Losing the ALDS to the Twins with 2 shutouts by Carl F***ing Pavano is my worst possible ending to the season as a Yankees fan. That would just be brutal.

No team that has ever been in this position has given the division title any meaningful consideration. I doubt the Yankees or Rays will be the first.

Well, if the Yankees looked back on 2005, they might. They clinched the division on Saturday but then tanked the finale on Sunday. As a result, instead of getting HFA against the Angels in the first round, they had to travel to Anaheim for game 5. It was one of Torre's dumber moves.

And this year the Yanks' home-road split is big enough that they'd be absolutely crazy not to want to get it for the first two rounds, especially for a game 7 against the Rays or the Rangers.

Losing the ALDS to the Twins with 2 shutouts by Carl F***ing Pavano is my worst possible ending to the season as a Yankees fan. That would just be brutal.

As a Yankee-hater, that scenario is as close to porn as baseball is capable of. It would make a great Penthouse letter for Yankee-haters... "and then Carl F****** Pavano licked his moustached lips and struck out the ass-worth-grabbing Derek Jeter with the bases fully, fully loaded with hot steaming Yankees, to keep his second, series climaxing, shutout rigidly intact, etc. etc."

Losing the ALDS to the Twins with 2 shutouts by Carl F***ing Pavano is my worst possible ending to the season as a Yankees fan. That would just be brutal.

Twins with such a great record in the playoffs, against the Yankees and all...

All that history just builds the drama, Phil!

Losing the ALDS to the Twins with 2 shutouts by Carl F***ing Pavano is my worst possible ending to the season as a Yankees fan. That would just be brutal.

Well, remember that Pavano pitched a fabulous game 3 against the Yanks last year, until the Clutch Gods did him in.

Anyhoo, last time I rooted for a first-round matchup was in 2007 against the Tigers. And before that, it was 2002 and the Angels.

You know what? I think the Yankees would beat whomever if they play well, and lose to whomever if they don't. All playoff teams are good enough to beat my team if they can't play well.

Twins with such a great record in the playoffs, against the Yankees and all...

Not even just the playoffs. I believe the Twins have something like a .250 record against NY over the last decade or so altogether.