Daily Links - The Stop The Ride I Want To Get Off Edition

Oh God, do I really even have to do this? I mean, you don't want to read this, i don't want to write this, right? Let's definitely talk about how the Red Sox are 2-9 this September, a month in which they've got their car keys taken and tossed down the sewer by the likes of the Yankees, Rays, Rangers, and Blue Jays. Oh, and just for fun (Yay!), guess who is left on Boston's schedule? I'll give you a hint: it's the Yankees, Rays, and Blue Jays. OK, the Rangers have been replaced by Baltimore, so that's something, right? Also that wasn't a hint. Oops.

Link time!

I suppose I could be more upbeat about the situation. After all, this is the same franchise that came back from down 0-3, but in my defense I'm not the only one who feels an impending (and pending) sense of doom. WEEI.com has a poll up as a part of their Sunday game recap which asks if fans think the Red Sox will make the playoffs. As of this writing, 62% think they will miss the playoffs. Of course the feeling of the general public is no real indication as to anything beyond the feeling of the general public. So we turn to numbers. But Baseball Prospectus has not updated their post season odds as of this writing, although they'll probably will have done so by the time you read this. Cool Standings has updated their numbers and they give Tampa a 10% chance to win the Wild Card. They give the Red Sox an 88% chance to make the playoffs, 74% of which is winning the Wild Card. Despite the awful September, the odds are still very much in the Red Sox favor. Now what ever you do, don't look at the Red Sox probably starters.

In happier news, Sox Prospects has come out with their list of the Red Sox Top 10 Prospects. It's published at ESPNBoston.com. The write ups on the players are extensive, heavy on scouting information, and interesting. But the best part is they make no mention, zero, of the 2011 Red Sox or anyone in their starting rotation. They've also got their Sox Prospects All Stars out, which is sort of similar but focuses more on the recent play of the prospects and is sorted by goblins position.

Lets talk about one of the many teams who are worse off then the Red Sox: the Orioles. Like many in the media, Jon Heyman seems to think O's GM Andy MacPhail is leaving at the end of the season. MacPhail's departure would open up the GM's chair in Baltimore, but as Heyman puts it, who would want it? The meddling owner and his flavor of the month Buck Showalter are in charge now which leads me to Heyman's first and most interesting possibility. Peter Angelos might just name Showalter the GM. That would be another in a long list of indignities suffered by Orioles fans. It might even top the great hotdog puking of 2005. But maybe not. Anyway, Angelos needs to hire someone smart and then stand the hell out of the way, but we've got about 15 years of evidence saying that ain't going to happen. In lieu of that maybe he could hire someone who can at least cook hot dogs all the way through.

Oh, fine. Here is an article about Red Sox. Paul Swydan of Fan Graphs thinks Jacoby Ellsbury's season has been of MVP caliber, but whats more, he thinks other players have won the award with very similar production in past seasons. He then shows us his truth. Good show, Paul.

Finally, this is possibly the shortest post I've ever seen on a mainstream blog. Steven Goldman: breaking new ground.