AZMike

Build me up Buttercup that song is a curse. The lyrics describe the team perfectly.

We really should stop signing moles from the Rangers organization... Matthews, Wilson, Hamilton and even, to a lesser extent, Lowe

I'm just glad Cleveland won out. Hopefully the Rays will take care of the Rangers.

^ I've been using this after frieri pitches way too often...

Yep. Angels are much better off paying the trio of Wells, Hamilton and Pujols the GDP of a small country

finding a stranger in the Alps

Scioscia should have been "asked to resign" after the 2008 playoffs, not given a 10 year extension

Hat trick Trumbo

In a three-way tie the schedule would be: Cleveland (WC1) Winner of tiebreaker Texas @ Tampa Bay (WC2)

Josh Hamitlon will drop a lazy flyball enabling them to get into the playoffs.

If our goal is seeing Texas not make the playoffs our best bet is to root for Cleveland and TB to win out (including the tiebreaker)

Mike Trout has turned into a younger cheaper version of Chris Iannetta -- all he does is walk

The unbalanced schedule really sucks for teams like TB and Cleveland. They don't get the luxury of 38 games against the Angels and the Astros.

At worst they'll end up in a tiebreaker to get into a wild card spot.

looks like Cleveland will have to win out if they want to see the playoffs

This game is a complete clown show. Looks like I"m rooting for Cleveland of the AL teams in the playoffs. I hope they get in ahead of Texas and do well.

Yep. Alternatively there's a pretty decent chance the Rangers end up in a tie with Cleveland and would need to win a one game playoff just to get in to the one game wild card.

Trout 2-4, 2B

It's quite possible we might see an Indians - Rangers tiebreaker game just to get into the wild card game against Tampa. For example the Halos might only take 1 of 4 and Cleveland might split. If the second wild card team ended up finally winning, going into the real playoffs with two pitchers already spent could be pretty crippling.

I'm afraid we will need Cleveland to keep winning for this to happen

It would have been genius for the Mets had Madoff continued to pay them 10% a year every year without exception...

Trout's Agent is worried he's going to be fired and replaced by some other Agent before he gets commission on Trout's big money contracts. As was mentioned by some others, luxury tax is based on the average annual value of contracts of players on the team. Cash compensation paid in trades also counts against the luuxry tax. That means 2/3rds of Vernon Wells' salary coutns against the Angels for luxury tax purposes. The Angels are actually *just* under the tax cutoff. Since there are serious penalties for going over multiple consecutive years, what will likely happen is they will sign Trout to a long contract after the 2014 season. That's when Vernon Wells money goes off the books. And in that case, they'd actually be better off signing him to a very long term (like 15 years) deal, with a huge lump sum paid in year one. Average annual value would be low but a huge payoff up front (like $40m or more ) would be hard to refuse compared to arbitration.

This team's lineup without Trout in is unbeliably sad: Shuck Kendrick Hamilton Trumbo Calhoun Navarro Conger/Iannetta Romine Field