118. Tuesday Roundup

Here's a brief roundup of stuff -

An article on SportsIllustrated.com by Kansas City's Joe Posnanski about the Cardinals' Albert Pujols. He makes a solid case for Pujols for MVP, though, I think St. Louis' absence from the playoffs will hurt his chances.

He says: "Perhaps there were once genuine grounds for debate about Pujols' talent. Not anymore. He is, in my mind, the best player in baseball, and I don't think that anyone approaches him."

And he says: "He (Pujols) has the best on-base percentage the last five years. He has the highest slugging percentage the last five years. He has the most total bases, the most extra base hits, the most times on base. And this year, despite missing a few games, he probably had his greatest offensive season. With offense down all around baseball, the guy hit .357, walked 104 times (while striking out 54), banged 44 doubles and 37 homers, scored 100 and drove in 116."

Albert Pujols - The Best Player In Baseball.

More on the job former Seahawk Jim Zorn in doing in Washington with the Redskins. Keep in mind that this was written before the 'Skins defeated the Eagles Sunday.

From the article: "But as turnarounds go, it's hard to match the one the Redskins and Zorn have pulled off in Washington, because we're not even talking about last year to this year. How about the strides the Redskins have made from the beginning of September until the end? Anybody who watched Washington's Week 1 disaster against the Giants on that opening Thursday night at the Meadowlands wouldn't recognize the team that fairly well dominated Dallas on Sunday."

Washington's next three games are St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit and a 7-1 start is very possible. You gotta feel good for Jim Zorn.

Finally, if my research is correct, this is the first time in Major League Baseball postseason that two cities had two teams involved: the LA Angels and LA Dodgers and Chicago's White Sox and The Team That Shall Not Be Named.

But there will be no intra-city World Series as only the Dodgers advanced of the four.

Incidentally, I only found four instances of one city having two teams in MLB postseason prior to this season and not surprisingly, they all have come after the addition of two more playoff teams in each league. Both New York teams in '99, 2000 and '06 and the two LA teams in '04. In 2000 we had the all-New York World Series, won by the Yankees.