Baseball

A couple of big trade deals over the last 24 hours. The Oakland A's have strengthen their already mighty rotation by acquiring Jon Lester from the struggling Boston Red Sox, and also Jonny Gomes, in exchange for Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes. Lester will be a free agent at the end of the season though so this could prove to be a very costly 'rental' for Oakland. And just an hour ago it was confirmed that Detroit have one-upped Oakland by securing the Tampa Bay ace David Price in a three team deal. Tampa have received Drew Smyly from Detroit, and Nick Franklin from Seattle. For their part in the deal, Seattle get Tigers outfielder Austin Jackson. Two huge moves for Detroit and Oakland then. Both sides going for the 'Win Now' philosophy. As a Tigers fan I'm chuffed to bits to get David Price. In Price, Max Scherzer, and Justin Verlander, we now have the last three American League CY Young Award winners.

Has been good week for Dodgers, we finally won a series against the Giants sweeping it 3-0 with Kershaw, Greinke and Ryu all winning their starts against Giants in San Francisco

is there now 2 playoff places in both leagues now? When did that start?

First started 2 years ago. 2 wild card teams now have a 1-game playoff. I personally hate this concept. I miss the old days where you only advanced if you won your division.

Well done Clayton Kershaw who despite a below par performance chalked up his 20th win of the season to help LA Dodgers secure post season play

Yankee's Derek Jeter's last at bat of his career at Yankee Stadium http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp...mode=video

This whole 'Farewell Jeter Tour' has been nauseating. Every team the Yankees faced this year have awarded Jeter some kind of gift set. Why ? Is he the greatest player of all time ? No ! The greatest Yankee of all time ? Of course not ! He's mearly someone that has been very fortunate given his, generally, limited array of skills, and is now retiring. A good captain- yes, but he's not a great batter, not a great fielder, and not a great base stealer. A few athletic dives and throws have deceived people into thinking he's a field general. He's been a media man for two decades so he's an inevitable first ballot Hall of Famer. But this level of adulation perplexes me.

Well, Baseball's regular season has now finished. Twenty teams can now rest up and plan for 2015. For the ten remaining teams, the playoffs beckon. By Wednesday night two teams will be eliminated.

The two, one-off wild card games will be between (American league): Oakland A's @ Kansas City Royals. And (National league): San Francisco Giants @ Pittsburgh Pirates.

The winner of the Oakland/Kansas game will move on to face the LA Angels. The Giants/Pirates winner will face Washington Nationals.

The other two playoff games will be (A.L): Detroit Tigers @ Baltimore Orioles. And (N.L): St Louis Cardinals @ LA Dodgers.

Personally, I think Kansas will overcome Oakland. The A's should win, with their superior pitching staff, but Kansas have a better offense. The Giants/Pirates is harder to pick. Pittsburgh may just sneak it, but SF have the recent playoff experience and success.

The Angels are overwhelming favourites to win the American League pennant, but I (may be biased) have a sneaky hunch for my own Tigers. As for the National League, I'm tipping Washington to reach the World Series. Their consistency, plus great pitching rotation, should be too strong for everyone else.

Should be fun to watch it all map out over the next month.

Hoping Dodgers can get revenge on St Louis for last years NLCS loss. If Ryu can get his consistency going then we will have 3 pitchers capable to taking us to World Series glory

So, the two Wild Card games are done and dusted. Kansas City produced a fantastic comeback, and eventually won the game in 12 innings against Oakland. And last night/this morning, San Francisco creamed Pittsburgh to ease into, was is, in effect, the semi finals of the National League. Tonight Detroit travel to Baltimore for game one of their series. And after that game is done the American League Wild Card winners Kansas travel to Anaheim to face the Angels. Looks like I'll be busy from half ten tonight- lucky for me the babe channels are so shite these days I don't foresee I'll miss anything remotely sexy. C'mon the Tigers !