The Braves' magic number for clinching a playoff spot is one, so they can punch their postseason ticket with either a win tonight over the Marlins, or if the Dodgers and Brewers both lose their respective games this evening. Atlanta sits five games behind Washington for first place in the NL East, so barring a major collapse from the Nationals, the Braves will have to settle for a wild card, though they're on pace to earn homefield advantage in the wild card game.
Here's the latest from around the division…
- Nationals GM Mike Rizzo wants Davey Johnson to return as the club's manager next season and said the two sides have had "initial discussions" about the subject, reports MLB.com's Bill Ladson. "We both feel comfortable where we are at in that process," Rizzo said. "I said it before, Davey is part of the furniture as long as Mike Rizzo is general manager of the team. I definitely want him back for '13." Johnson is under contract only as a team consultant for 2013 and the veteran skipper recently said that he was satisfied with current talks and would address his position after the season.
- Marlins reliever Heath Bell spoke to reporters (including Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post) about his recent comments about manager Ozzie Guillen, saying his remarks were "totally taken out of context." Bell said he had to "earn the respect back of my teammates [and] my coaching staff" and that he wanted to keep pitching in Miami.
- Guillen, meanwhile, told reporters (as per Capozzi's Twitter account) that several Marlins players called and texted their support for him in the aftermath of Bell's comments.
- Though Domonic Brown and John Mayberry have played well for the Phillies down the stretch, there's no guarantee either will have a starting role in 2013, Sam Donnellon of the Philadelphia Daily News.
rube had already said that brown has a spot in next years outfield. no one is expecting mayberry to start, that ship has sailed. he is only doing it now because we traded vic. nothing to see here.
Agreed. Mayberry’s numbers look mediocre all in all, but he goes through TERRIBLE stretches of weeks at a time where he looks completely useless. He balances that out with a very hot week, thus the over all pedestrian numbers. Defensively he is an adventure each and every time the ball is hit is way. I think you tolerate that from a guy like Brown who just turned 25 two weeks ago. But Mayberry will be 29 on opening day, I would say its time to make, or get off the pot, but Mayberry has been sitting for parts of four years now, and the pot is still empty.
I’d assume they’d platoon Mayberry/Brown next year and pursue upgrades in Center Field and Left Field, with one of the positions being dedicated to some RH power (Cody Ross? BJ Upton?)
Brown is not going to platoon. Most likely the Phililed get Bourn or Upton, guys who can cover crazy ground in CF, Brown in RF and some kind of combination of Ruf/Mayberry/Schierholtz platoon in LF.
Is Davey part of the furniture or the future?
I thought I was the only one who caught that.
Johnson is the ideal manager for that team and continues to get the best out his young up and coming players and the handful of veterans he has. Granted he has talented players, he seems to handle everything well. I’m a Sox fan, but I’m admitting for the rest of this season I’m rooting for and hopping on the Nats bandwagon! Sox are still my one and only, but the Nationals are too good a story IMO.
Domonic Brown is a starting corner OF for Phillies next year. It is his spot to lose and he has done nothing to lose that spot. He has shown some power recently again on top of his fantastic plate discipline. He is the only OF Phillies have right now that should be guarenteed a spot.
I think the Phillies will also give Ruff a chance (Maybe Platooning with Pierre if he’s back next year). Also, Phillies will get a CF this offseason. I see them going after BJ Upton as their first priority being he has some pop, plays good defense, can run, and his right handed. I also like Pagan, Melky, or Ross on small deals. (Ironically they were all Giants in the last two years).
Ruf hit his first bomb tonight dude has power. I’d give ruf left field and platoon Mayberry and brown. As for center, bj upton is the best choice. Melky won’t repeat, Bourne will be expensive and is built on speed which will disappear, and pagan is not the answer.