Ok, this look a lot longer than expected, but we are almost ready to get the ball rolling here at Nyjer again. Hang tight and we’ll back back in no time.

So you know the deal. Same thing as yesterday. Now for the National League.

NL East
Mets 71-53
Phillies 66-58
Braves 66-60

The Mets have the division locked. The Phillies and Braves have nice little teams but they don’t have the firepower to catch the Mets in the division race. The Braves can beat the Mets. But that’s the only team they can beat easily. If the Braves make it as a wild card, then they can beat the Mets. However it won’t happen in the standings. The Mets are building their lead and soon it will be too much for the Braves and Phillies to overcome.
Winner: Mets

NL Central
Cubs 64-60
Brewers 65-61
Cardinals 60-62

The Brewers are horrible on the road and I don’t take them seriously until they win a big series vs. the Cubs or Cardinals on the road. The Cubs are awaiting the return of their best offensive player in Alfonso Soriano. The Cardinals have been on a roll with this year’s feel good story of Rick Ankiel and Albert Pujols catching fire. The three teams are built very differently. The Brewers work with their young offense and try to out-score teams. The Cubs win with good starting pitching of Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, Marshall and Marquis. The Cardinals lock games down with a good bullpen. It’s really anyone’s division but I will take the Cubs. Hopefully we see some October baseball in Wrigley.
Winner: Cubs

NL West
D’Backs 71-56
Padres 66-58
Rockies 64-61
Dodgers 64-61

The Diamondbacks are THE surprise team of the season. I don’t think anyone picked them to make the postseason. I still see them fading in the last month of the season falling to one of the other 4 teams. The Padres have very good pitching but their offense is very bad and I doubt they will make the playoffs. I see the Dodgers getting very hot and starting a winning streak soon. Their team is too good to under-achieve so much and so long.
Winner: Dodgers

NL Wild Card
Phillies 66-58
Padres 66-58
Braves 66-60
Cubs 64-60
Brewers 65-61
Rockies 64-60
Dodgers 64-60

Needless to say, there are alot of teams in the Wild Card race. I think it will be one of the NL East teams. The Braves are an overall better team than the Phillies, so I’ll take them.
Winner: Braves

My playoff teams for the National League are the Mets, Cubs, Dodgers and Braves.

Short edition of the Happenings and Mishappenings

Jon Stewart breaks down NBC’s Football Night in America’s coverage on Mike Vick. “He killed a dog with his bare hands!” - BallHype

Eli Manning finally mans up and tells Tiki Barber to shut his stinking mouth. Not in those words, but still. Tiki Barber talks so much shit and comes off as a little bitch. If only Eli would bitchslap Shockey and PlaxiGlass. - Awful Announcing

Pedro is on his way back… finally. - Babes Love Baseball

Hayden Panettiere aka the hot blond from Heroes just became legal. Take a look at her sports related films and her hotness. - Winning The Turnover

Imus replacement more offensive than Imus? Idiotic move by WFAN. - Mr. Sunshine

A tribute song for Mark Teixeira. Here’s a verse. The Mets are scared cause their lead’s gonna narr-a They’re lookin’ over their shoulder at Mark Teixeira. I kid you not. - Talking Chop

So, I saw SuperBad yesterday and it was phenomenal. It lived up to the hype and is probably the best movie of the Summer. Here’s a clip of McLovin being interrogated by the police.

The road to October baseball is in the works, as we speak.
I’ll take a look at the current standings in the division and wild card race in the American League. And make my predictions which will either be great or horrible.

AL East
Red Sox 75-50
Yankees 70-55

The Yankees were out of first place by 14.5 games at the end of May. 3 months later the lead is at 5 and many members of Red Sox nation are panicking. However, even as a huge Yankee fan, I don’t think the Sox will be caught. There pitching is too good to lose enough games and the Yankees schedule is very tough for the next few weeks. I don’t see the Red Sox collapsing, this year.
Winner: Red Sox (ughhh)

AL Central
Indians 68-55
Tigers 67-57
Twins 62-62

The Indians hold a slim lead over the Tigers at 1.5 games ahead. The Twins are distantly behind at 6.5 games out. I doubt the Indians will hold their lead because of suspect pitching in Paul Byrd, Jake Westbrook and very shaky closer, Joe Borowski. If Joel Zumaya returns and pitches like he did last year, the Tigers are very dangerous. But they are not my choice. Call me crazy but I see the Minnesota Twins making the postseason. They have a history of having great Septembers and shocking the world. With the good pitching of Santana/Garza/Baker/Bonser and the great bullpen of Joe Nathan and Pat Neshek, I predict another division title for the piranhas.
Winner: Twins

AL West
Angels 73-51
Mariners 70-52

Ichiro is leading the Mariners, as the most surprising team in the AL. But the Angels have some of the best depth in baseball. I don’t the Angels losing a lead in September. If the Mariners can somehow grab a lead in the next two weeks, then maybe I will give them a chance. But, as of now, I see the Angels making the playoffs. Not to mention, Seattle has weak pitching. King Felix has not been great and they are trusting guys like Jeff Weaver and Miguel Batista to come through.
Winner: Angels

AL Wild Card
Mariners 70-52
Yankees 70-55

The Yankees have a better team than the Mariners. That’s all I can say. Better hitting. Better starting pitching. Better relief pitching. And on the Yankee relief pitching, I think I may change my name to Joba.
Winners: Yankees

So I have the Red Sox, Twins, Angels and Yankees making the playoffs. Tomorrow, I will give my take on the National League playoff races.

According to a very, very, very prominent sportswriter that I conversed with yesterday, the NBA (yes, the NBA) has a big problem with performance enhancing drugs. It was implied, but not directly stated, that of the three “big sports”, baseball is the one that has the least problem with steroids.Yep, so if you can get off your Barry Bonds-hating high horse for a second, process that for a little while and wonder why you didn’t give a shit when Shawne Merriman was caught juicing. It’s because you’re a self-righteous hypocrite.

Joe Rogan jumps on stage during a Carlos Mencia show and verbally bitch slaps him. His real name is Ned, for those unaware. And he is a big-time joke thief. In summary, you will see that Ned Holness was ‘owned’ by Joe Rogan. I can’t believe I typed the word ‘owned’.

“No one’s jealous of you, you fat fuck.”

You love your football team, how scared are you that your favorite or most important player is going to get hurt in the preseason.  Am I just imagining things, or is this preseason even more potent in taking players out with injuries?

I’m watching the New York Giants vs. Baltimore Ravens, and in a span of 5 minutes, five players, some starting got hurt - four for the Giants, one for the Ravens.  Steve Smith got a concussion on a touchdown pass (looked harmless).  Will Demps, who’s tired of sleeping with many beautiful women at the same time hurt his hand.  Jennings was carted off (that can’t be good), and Samari Rolle went off with an ankle injury.  Also, if you’d like to read about who won’t be playing for your team, here’s the NFL Injury Report.

Whenever you watch your team play this preseason, don’t cringe too much when your key wide receiver gets horse collared.  Just don’t watch the exhibition games at all, it’ll keep you from crying.

Update: Here’s the game recap, if I would have waited for it.  More injures than touchdowns, and almost as many flags.

NFL injury report [ESPN.com]
If only large breasted women could leave athletes alone [Deadspin]
More injuries than touchdowns [ESPN.com]