Dodgers and Giants Could Rekindle Rivalry in Playoffs – A Bleacher Report Article

The Dodgers and the Giants have one of the great rivalries in baseball. And with both teams tied for first place, they may be adding another chapter to their struggles this year.

But, as I wrote in Bleacher Report, as cool as a regular season showdown would be, baseball really needs these two teams to square off in the NLCS.

Remember how the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry reached its climax in 2003 and 2004?
Something similar could happen with these two and without people complaining about East Coast Bias.

You can read the entire article HERE.

 

Manny Machado shows he can hit Triple A pitching

20 year old phenom Manny Machado was called up to the Orioles this week. The third overall pick was at Double-A Bowie when he got the call to the parent club.

The Orioles seemed to time to promotion well. Instead of exposing him to big league pitching, they Machado play the Royals and essentially a Triple-A staff.

He responded with a triple, 2 homers, a .500 average and a 2.000 OPS over his first two games.

I say one more weekend against Triple-A pitchers and then have him face big league pitching when they play the Red Sox next.

Even then, it is a good strategy. The Red Sox are not much better than Kansas City. The Orioles seem to be building him against lousy pitching teams.

A week from today he will be facing Justin Verlander and the Tigers. He should have a week of lousy big league pitching on his resume by then. THAT should be a descent challenge.

If he is still batting .500 with a 2.000 OPS, then that would be impressive.