It’s over… well almost. The 2009 MLB Regular season came to an end for 28 of the 30 teams on October 4th. The missing two? The Tigers and Twins. The Twins have been playing the best baseball of their season in September and they have forced there to be a one game playoff despite Morneau being out for the season. The game will take place in Minnesota on Tuesday, October 6th. This is actually the third consecutive year in a row that there will be a one game playoff in the MLB. In 2007, the Rockies beat the Padres and in 2008, the White Sox beat the Twins.
That was just one of the major story-lines of the last week of the MLB. As I wrote last week, the other race to watch was the Braves Rockies for the NL Wild Card. Well, the race didn’t last long as the Braves lost 2 of 3 to the Marlins and then got swept by the Nationals. The Rockies on the other hand, put themselves in a situation to possibly win the NL West, which is quite remarkable considering how dominate the Dodgers were in the beginning of the season and how poorly the Rockies played. The Rockies needed to sweep the Dodgers to win the division, they lost 2 of 3 and thus will settle on the Wild Card.
Mark Reynolds really hurt his MVP bid down the stretch, his average dropped over 25 points in his huge September slump (not to mention he hurt my fantasy team). He was the only player in baseball with 40+ HRs, 100+ RBIs and 20+ SBs.
Chris Coghlan of the Florida Marlins continued his impressive campaign last week going 12 for 26. He looks like the front runner for NL Rookie of the year, as I can not even think of someone that has played better than him.
The New York Yankees ended on a very positive note, A.J. Burnett pitched well and the bats were alive in the 10-2 romp of the Rays. Alex Rodriguez had 2HRs and 7RBIs in one inning… yes one inning. He hit a 3-run home run and a Grand Slam in the 6th inning. The Yankees are looking for a World Series win, after finishing the regular season as the only team to win more than 1oo games.
That will do it for the final MLB Weekly Review for the 2009 season. It certainly was a good season and I can’t wait for the playoffs to begin. Be sure to check back next April for more Weekly Reviews, and check back often for various postseason comments and updates- including my full postseason prediction.
P.S.- For those of you that have been following my MLB Weekly Reviews, I normally mention a Fantasy Baseball update for my teams in my two leagues. Well, as I mentioned last week, if it was a one week championship I would have two more championship trophies, but my teams both had slumping second weeks, combined with amazing weeks for my opponents = two unfortunate 2nd place finishes.
