So Ends (Almost) Another Glorious Regular Season

The regular season is over except for the one-game, do-or-die playoff between the Tigers and the Twins at the Metrodome in Minneapolis on Tuesday.  It will be Scott (”The Out-Maker”) Baker going against against 20 year old rookie Ace Rick Porcello.

One has to look at the Twins as the heavy favorite in this game, since they’re playing at home, they’ve played better than the Tigers of late, and rookie pitchers generally have trouble handling the pressure of games this big so early in their careers.  In one game, though, anything can happen.  After losing last game’s do-or-die playoff against the White Sox, the Twins are certainly due to win this one.  It should be a great game on Tuesday.

One final thought on the Tigers-Twins deadlock: the much-maligned Magglio Ordonez went four-for-four today with a HR in the Tigers’ must-win 5-3 victory over the White Sox.  He finished the season with a .309 batting average, good for tenth in the AL, but had only 52 runs scored and 48 RBIs.  A very strange season, indeed, given that as players age, they tend to loose their ability to hit for average much more than their ability to hit for power.

Was it just a fluke season?  Will his batting average drop but some of his power come back next year?  Did he have some undisclosed injury that robbed him of his power?  Will he have one last hurrah in 2010 as he makes the $18 million that recently vested?

If I had to guess, I’d say that Ordonez will hit somewhere between .288 and .299 and with at least sixteen homeruns next year, provided he stays reasonably healthy.

Now that the Giants 2009 campaign is over and done with, I have to say it was a pretty terrific season.  It was a minor disappointment that the Giants didn’t make the post-season, but I certainly hadn’t expected them to, and after four consecutive losing seasons, it’s hard to feel bad about an 88-win season.  The only negative, aside from not making the post-season, I can think of is that the Giants played so well, they’ll only get the 23rd pick in 2010 draft (or lose the 23rd pick, if they sign a Class-A free agent.)

The season had many great stories for the Giants: Randy Johnson winning his 300th game, Jonathan Sanchez throwing the first Giants’ no-hitter since 1976 and the first by a Giant in San Francisco since 1975, Tim Lincecum having a second consective Cy Young-caliber season, Matt Cain having his first great season, and Pablo Sandoval proving himself to be the best young Giants’ hitter since Will Clark.

After an 88-win season, the Giants are only a couple of wise off-season moves from making the play-offs in 2010.  I can’t wait.