Giants fate is in their own hands

That's all you can ask for at this time of year.

Lincecum shuts the door after one mistake to Stephen Drew and by moving him back a day, the Giants are now set up well for the Padres series. Thanks to the Cubs stepping up and taking two games from the Padres, the Pads now have to take two of three from the Giants to tie and then possibly beat Lincecum in a tie-breaker, winner take all game.

That assumes that things stay the way they are after tonight's games. If the Giants pick up one game and are up by three games entering the Padres series, it's all but over. The Padres would have to sweep three to tie and then beat Lincecum in SD. Probably not happening.

If the gap stays at two after tonight and the Giants lose two of three at home and then the tie breaker in SD, with their ace on the bump, then they simply don't deserve to win the division.

I like our chances as they stand today.

The Braves have to virtually lose out to not make the playoffs, so their chances are @ 92%.

The Giants chances are posted @ 91% and the Padres are listed @ 17%. They have beaten the Giants ten of fifteen times this year so far, a 2 out of three pace, so they have to have some confidence. If they are forced to win three or four straight, that leaves too little margin of error and the Giants should be able to celebrate a division clincher at home sometime this weekend.

And if you think I sound cranky when the Giants are losing or not doing well, wait until you hear me when they are winning. It's not good.

El Toro gores Padres

Big Z gives a HUGE assist to the Giants playoff hopes with this gem. Giants and Pads now go down the stretch even up in games played and the Pads one back. If the Giants can push the lead to +2 games before the Pads come to town, they will be tough to sweep.

At that point, a one-game playoff scenario comes off the table as well. As it does if the two teams enter the series tied. Playing that extra "playoff game to get into the playoffs" would be a huge setback for the team that advances.



From ESPN.com

Zambrano won his seventh straight decision since rejoining Chicago's rotation, combining with two relievers on a four-hitter, and the Cubs held on to beat San Diego 1-0 on Monday night to knock the Padres out of the NL wild-card lead.

Cain pitches Giants into position to win division

When you take a no-hitter, run support is generally not an issue. HOWEVER, I will admit that as I was driving home the other night, the ESPN radio announcer was documenting Cain's progress into the late innings with a no-hitter and my only thought was "Are we ahead?"

The thought that he could even be pitching a no-hitter and losing the game was certainly in play given the paucity of runs the Giants have scored.

Giants now hold the 1/2 game lead with a game in hand versus the Padres.

The odds of making the playoffs are now:

Giants 83%
Braves 60%
Padres 57%

but these results change nightly. Giants are home for the last six, three versus the D-Backs beginning tomorrow and the season finale versus the Padres, both at home. Padres play the Cubs before meeting the Giants. A wash in terms of competition.

Giants have Lincecum closing against the D-Backs before handing it over to Zito-Cain-Sanchez for the final three. Sanchez may have total control over his guarantee in the finale. Hopefully, a sweep against the D-Backs makes that series one where the Padres have to sweep three to tie. That means the Cubs have to come up with a split against the Pads. Do-able, but we are talking the Cubs, who have long ago mailed in this season. Maybe a lineup of kiddie corps will screw up the scouting report and vitalize the Cubs enough to pull it off.

This one is going to be close. I don't want to be thinking about all the woulda's, coulda's and shoulda's if the Giants don't push this one through the finish line.

Trouble for the NAACP...

Apparently, PJTV's Tea Party Tracking Poll looked at the Tea Party and found some results that perhaps the NAACP should take a look at. Apparently 1/3 of the folks they claim to represent do not seem to see the world through the same set of glasses that they would like them too. This is really good news for the future. Unless you are employed by the NAACP.

FROM WORLDNETDAILY:

SOMETHING IN THE AIR
Surprise! 1/3 of blacks back tea-party movement
'The wheels on the race-card bus are beginning to fall off'

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=207533

A new poll released this week soundly contradicts critics' claims that the tea-party movement is "fringe," "white" and "racist."

PJTV's Tea Party Tracking Poll has monitored nationwide sentiments toward the tea party on a weekly basis since Aug. 2. The poll's most recent reports reveal the following results:

The number of people who identify as "members" of the tea party has more than tripled over the last month alone, up to 21 percent of likely voters;

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed said they support the tea parties based on the movement's positions on the issues;

Among the likely voters who are black, 32 percent said they would vote for a candidate backed by the tea parties.
The last statistic caught the attention of PJTV.

"Questions of racism within the tea party have been raised for months now," said PJTV's Polling Director Vik Rubenfeld in a statement. "Our survey found that more than one in three African-Americans support the movement. Moreover, the data revealed that 32 percent are also likely to vote for a congressional candidate whom the tea party supports."

The Revolution of "NO" - Another Santelli Classic - NO MORE MONEY, NO MORE TINKERING

Hat tip to zerohedge.com for this oldy, but goody

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/rick-santelli-goes-nuts-top-3-rant-protesting-what-else-endless-subsidies-and-fed-meddling

Rick gets wound up based on earlier disclosure by Bill Gross that if the government guarantee of the GSEs were removed, he would only participate in the mortgage market if there was 30% down payments by first time homebuyers (oh, and, tee hee, guess who will be present and providing "eye of the monopolist beholder" advice at next Tuesday's panel). As Rick summarizes: "the people holding, the Treasury or institutions, are locked up in this place where the subsidies can't come out; extrication is going to be difficult much less getting out of the way of anything they may do in the future." Yet what sets Rick off is the debate over why the Fed should not let housing crash to its fair value bottom, instead of artificially pushing rates lower and lower, which benefits nobody except those serial refinanciers who hope to lock in a 30 Year at 0.001%. The screamfest begins at 5:40.

And yet, our fearless leaders seem to think the answer is Mo' Money, Mo' Money, Mo' Money and EVER MORE TINKERING...so much to be angry about, so little time.

HERE'S BEN AND HIS HELICOPTER DURING THE FIRST QE FLIGHT - ANOTHER FAILED POLICY (TINKERING)

Maybe before he takes the old Helicopter out for his "QE2 Voyage" Bernake can take a page from Notorius B.I.G. who rapped in Mo Money Mo Problems "I don't know what they want from me, It's like the more money we come across, The more problems we see"

DANG, WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT?

Isn't it clear to all that this government and Federal Reserve tinkering via failed and misguided economic and fiscal policies has given us the equivalent of a "Frankenstein Economy". It looks like it's alive and has all the features and characteristics of a real, functioning economy, but the reality is it's not.

Some of these cats in Washington must have been huge fans of Dr. Frankenstein.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/quotes

Memorable quotes for Frankenstein (1931)

Victor Moritz: You're crazy!
Henry Frankenstein: Crazy, am I? We'll see whether I'm crazy or not.

Henry Frankenstein: Look! It's moving. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's moving, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!
Victor Moritz: Henry - In the name of God!
Henry Frankenstein: Oh, in the name of God! Now I know what it feels like to be God!

Henry Frankenstein: The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!

Dr. Henry Frankenstein: The neck's broken. The brain is useless. We must find another brain.

Dr. Henry Frankenstein: You're quite sure you want to come in?... Very well.
[Locks door and pockets key]
Dr. Henry Frankenstein: Forgive me, but I'm forced to take unusual precautions.

Henry Frankenstein: Dangerous? Poor old Waldman. Have you never wanted to do anything that was dangerous? Where should we be if no one tried to find out what lies beyond? Have your never wanted to look beyond the clouds and the stars, or to know what causes the trees to bud? And what changes the darkness into light? But if you talk like that, people call you crazy. Well, if I could discover just one of these things, what eternity is, for example, I wouldn't care if they did think I was crazy.

Doctor Waldman: You have created a monster, and it will destroy you!

[first lines]
Dr. Henry Frankenstein: Down! Down, you fool!

Baron Frankenstein: [lastlines]
[Raises a glass of wine to offer a toast]
Baron Frankenstein: Well, as I said before, here I say again, Here's... Here's to a son... to the House of Frankenstein.
Maid: Indeed, Sir. You too, Sir.

THE ORIGINAL FRANKENSTEIN (1931)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein_(1931_film)

The film begins with Edward Van Sloan stepping from behind a curtain and delivering a "friendly warning" before the opening credits:

We are about to unfold the story of Frankenstein, a man of science who sought to create a man after his own image without reckoning upon God. It is one of the strangest tales ever told. It deals with the two great mysteries of creation – life and death. I think it will thrill you. It may shock you. It might even – horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now's your chance to – uh, well, we warned you.

THE MODERN DAY - ECONOMIC FRANKENSTEIN - THE GOOD DOCTOR HIMSELF

AND HIS MAGNIFICENT CREATION

THE BUBBLE MAN:

The Return of "The Freak" Lincecum shuts down the Rockies

Giants defeat the Rockies 2-1 in a pivotal series. The Rockies may have to run the table from here on out to get to the playoffs, they no longer have any margin of error and it's tough to play that way at this point in the season. Giants set themselves up nicely for the rest of the series and the season.

Not much more you can ask for today. Burrell provides all the offense with a two-run bomb. Typical.

How Giants starter Tim Lincecum beat the Rockies: - 93.0 average fastball velocity (highest in a start since July 7th) - Upped the fastball velocity to a 93.5 average with men in scoring position (highest this season) - Overall, hitters were 1-for-10 against the fastball (.100; .274 entering Friday)

ESPN Stats & Information

This stat is pretty awesome and speaks to how the Giants have been winning games of late.

San Francisco pitchers have gone 18 straight games giving up three or fewer runs. It's the longest streak since the Chicago White Sox set the record with 20 straight in 1917, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

So much for the lack of run support argument. If you only get three runs, hold 'em to two. If you only get two runs, hold 'em to one.

I was trying to think of teams that mirrored the Giants in terms of winning games in this fashion and the best I could come up with was the 1969 and 1973 Mets, who won with rock-ribbed pitching performances on a near-daily basis, combined with an anemic offense.

Maybe more recently, the Marlins teams that won championships, perhaps? I still like the Mets examples better.

Here's hoping for similar results.

Giants offense continues its "Boom or Bust" ways

The Giants wrap up the set in Chicago with thirteens runs tonight after managing one and zero the previous two nights. Another shutout for the pitching staff. Glad to see Joe Torre making my argument on behalf of Buster Posey for ROY as well. A good day for the Gigantes.

According to the Cubs announcers, the wind is blowing out, apparently only when the Giants bat since the Cubbies have managed zero runs so far. I've always found that the wind did blow harder when your pitching sucked. Seems like that would violate some law of nature or physics or something, but that's just my observation.

Trust me, even though I am a die-hard Giant fan, I would turn the Rays-Yankees on in a heartbeat but ESPN isn't carrying that one.

Can you believe it? There's maybe five teams still in it in MLB out of thirty teams and they can't show a potential League Championship preview? Who's in charge of marketing this game? Who makes fans play "Where's Waldo?" with games of this importance? And wonder why fan interest and ratings disappoint.

The exact opposite of the NFL experience coming down the homestretch, where only five of thirty teams would be eliminated with two-three weeks left in the season.

This should be taped to Pablo Sandoval's pillow this off-season (and maybe one or two other Giants?) -- the famous Ted Willams 77-ball strike zone. Know yourself as a hitter, your strengths and weaknesses. Bam-Bam are you listening?

And then have a good hitting approach throughout the count.

The rest should be easy, we know he can hit.

Buster Posey makes case for ROY and comparisons to BASEBALL BUGS

As if on cue, Posey used last night's game against the Cubs to refute Joe Morgan's case for Jason Heyward as ROY and once again drew comparisons to the best individual performance in baseball history, real or imagined -- the Baseball Bugs (1946) episode.

HEY LOOK, IT'S JOE MORGAN AND BASEBALL FOR DUMMIES.

Posey hit a home-run to lead the Giants continually moribund offense to a 1-0 win over the near-equally comatose Cubs offense. Presumably, Posey also had an impact defensively in helping pitcher Matt Cain and three relievers to pitch a combined shutout. That ought to keep Mike Krukow and Brian Sabean quiet for a bit. Then again, Posey is having a game to forget tonight, so far. Once again the Giants are scoreless.

From IMDb - The Internet Movie database
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038333/

CLASSIC!! - BASEBALL BUGS


Vezi mai multe din Cinema, movie trailers pe 220.ro

I still use the term Bugs Bunny Change-up for a real killer change. I always thought he got three strikes on the same batter, it was so good. It turns out that ol' Bugs actually gets nine strikes and three outs on the same change-up, a feat not performed before or since. What other pitcher can say that?

Speaking of awful swings, what is up with Panda? Those hacks he's putting out there would inspire a "Next time hit him with your purse" crack from bench jockeys at the high school level.
Maybe if Renteria or DeRosa were healthy, Bochy could sit Sandoval. Because he sure isn't getting any better. He's currently hitting .265 or thereabouts and I would just guestimate that he's dropped 20 points off his average from poor conditioning and another 20 from bad plate discipline. Whether the vision problems noted in spring training or his personal troubles are related to one or both categories, IDK. Hopefully, he comes back in better shape all the way around in 2011, because the Giants could use the old Panda's bat.

Tea Party as Third Party or the Torch and Pitchfork Crowd personified?

This will be the long-term future direction of the Tea-Party IMO.

The RINO's will regroup and reclaim their position within the GOP and push out the "Tea Party element" within the GOP.

They will be joined by the Blue Dog Dems -- who also feel out of place withing their own party -- and some Independents.

The D,I,R and TP's will each corral about 25% of the electorate.

The Crist's and Castle's and Murkowski's and Arlen Specter's of the world show a disgusting sense of entitlement and "how dare they toss me aside" attitude that people find disturbing.

The government as a whole has a sense of "how dare you question the methods by which we deliver you government" through this behavior and the continued foot-dragging on issues such as auditing the Fed. Regular folks and businesses cannot turn down an opportunity to be audited by government officials like the IRS or the SEC. But government routinely avoids having the light of day turned to their activities and the people are now suspicious as well as angry.

The government and the Fed is now afraid that if regular folks become embedded in their little country club setting and give the people an inside look at what goes on in Washington that their would be a revolution. Hopefully, it's a peaceful one.

From Gallup:

PRINCETON, NJ — Americans’ desires for a third political party are as high as they have been in seven years. Fifty-eight percent of Americans believe a third major political party is needed because the Republican and Democratic Parties do a poor job of representing the American people. That is a significant increase from 2008 and ties the high Gallup has recorded for this measure since 2003.

We can see the seeds being planted in the following stories from the past week.

Trouble to the right of me.

from publiusforum.com

http://www.publiusforum.com/2010/09/18/country-club-rino-republicans-throwing-temper-tantrums/

Country Club, RINO Republicans Throwing Temper Tantrums

September 18, 2010

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the interesting things of this election cycle has been to see what sore losers RINOS and country club Republicans are becoming. Since the Tea Party Movement has been throwing establishment GOPers out right and left (or maybe that’s let and left) some of them have responded with petulance instead of accepting the will of the voters.

In fact we’ve been seeing quite a few little tantrums thrown by the RINO set as voters have been turning against them.

Recall that “Benedict” Arlen Specter had to jump parties because Republican Pat Toomey was encroaching on the privilege that Specter assumed he’d earned. Once it became clear that Toomey was the GOP choice, Specter petulantly snubbed him and no support was forthcoming from
supposedly life-long Republican Specter.

Are all these temper tantrums really all an effort to support the “most electable candidate,” i.e. the RINO? Or is this a RINO protection racket we are seeing? All I know is that in many cases this year the voters are speaking for the Tea Party-styled candidates, those candidates that stand for real conservative values. Yet the country club set, the RINO faction is standing in the way of the will of the voters.

And trouble to the left of me.

from Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/09/22/blue-dog-democrats-use-health-care-overhaul-campaign-punching-bag/

Blue Dog Democrats Use Health Care Overhaul as Campaign Punching Bag

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi let 30 Blue DogDemocrats break ranks to vote against the controversial health care overhaul in March, she probably didn't expect them to go the extra mile and campaign against it in the fall.

But for several of these fiscal conservatives, the bills they didn't vote for have become far more important to their campaign message than the legislation they supported.

Members of the so-called Blue Dog Coalition are railing against the health care bill, and other Democrat-sponsored spending packages, in a bid to highlight their independence from the Washington establishment. In a year when spending is a top voter concern and incumbency can translate to liability, Democrats in moderate-to-conservative districts are using their ads, websites and public appearances to condemn their party's marquee legislative achievement in the closing weeks of the campaign.

"The majority of the American people are against it. I believe that our nation can't afford it. And I didn't vote for it," Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., told Fox News in reference to the health care bill.

Taylor last week went further than any of his Democratic colleagues in speaking out against the law. He joined dozens of congressional Republicans in calling for a repeal of the package, the first Democrat to do so.

The good news is that slowly but surely, some on the left are starting to see the light.

EVEN CHRIS MATTHEWS -- WHO USED TO GET A TINGLE UP HIS LEG WHENEVER OBAMA SPOKE -- IS NOW CORRECTING THE ANOINTED ONE.

Important Distinction: Giving People Tax Cuts Is NOT Giving People Money; It's ***THEIR*** Money

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/09/giving-people-tax-cuts-is-not-giving.html




The bad news is some are still woefully ignorant. This statement, from someone who I used to admire and respect, shows we still have a long way to go. This kind of ignorant statement makes Republican Senator Jim Bunning look compassionate.

WARREN BUFFET'S RIGHT-HAND MAN SHOWS CONTEMPT FOR THE "LITTLE" PEOPLE WITH HIS STUNNING "LET THEM EAT CAKE" REMARKS.

"SUCK IT IN AND COPE" - SHOWS THAT ARROGANCE AND GREED DO NOT KNOW PARTY BOUNDARIES.

THESE GUYS OPENLY SUPPORTED, CHEERED AND PROFITED FROM THE BAILOUTS, STIMULUS AND FEDERAL RESERVE TINKERING IN THE ECONOMY.

from MISH'S Global Economic Trend Analysis Blog:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/09/amazing-arrogance-gall-chutzpa-and.html

Amazing Arrogance, Gall, Chutzpa, and Unmitigated Effrontery from Berkshire Hathaway
Posted: 20 Sep 2010 08:07 PM PDT

It's hard to know exactly the precise words to describe the arrogance and unmitigated effrontery of Charles Munger, the billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, who today rattled off an insane barrage of insensitive comments regarding the bailouts.

Charles Munger, the billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., defended the U.S. financial-company rescues of 2008 and told students that people in economic distress should “suck it in and cope.”

Munger's quotes:

Charles Munger, the billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., defended the U.S. financial-company rescues of 2008 and told students that people in economic distress should “suck it in and cope.”

“You should thank God” for bank bailouts, Munger said in a discussion at the University of Michigan on Sept. 14, according to a video posted on the Internet. “Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies.”

“Hit the economy with enough misery and enough disruption, destroy the currency, and God knows what happens,” Munger said. “So I think when you have troubles like that you shouldn’t be bitching about a little bailout. You should have been thinking it should have been bigger.”

Germany was unable to stabilize its financial system in the 1920s, and, Munger said, “We ended up with Adolf Hitler.”

“Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies.”

So we should all thank God that our government is around to steal money from the middle class, the savers, the people who did things right -- in order to to bail out the wealthy, the profligate spenders and gamblers who bet their own money and lost and now want a subsidy from the rest of us so they can keep playing the game? That money was not manna from heaven, it was money begged, borrowed and stolen from the American taxpayer, you braying jackass.

If there's one thing that the Tea Party movement is all about is that people FINALLY are beginning to recognize what is going on and are not just saying NO, they are saying HELL NO!!!

They are tired of these intellectual snobs in Washington -- don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out Larry Summers -- telling regular folks that they know better and the voters are too stupid to understand these complex issues they've screwed up.

They are tired of these people spitting in our faces and then trying to convince us it's raining.

What they don't get is the Tea Party is the torch and pitchfork crowd personified, and they are tired of being ignored, not listened to, lied to and stolen from.

FOR FURTHER READING PLEASURE:

From The Daily Bell

US Fed Gains Power, Loses Credibility?
Saturday, September 04, 2010 – by Staff Report

http://www.thedailybell.com/1346/US-Fed-Gains-Power-Loses-Credibility.html

Libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) recently asked for an audit of the gold in Fort Knox. The mainstream media pooh-poohs such demands as paranoia. Yet the Fed and its enablers have resisted thorough ongoing scrutiny as well. Instead the institution has received significant additional powers. See the pattern? On the one hand, the Fed resists accountability. On the other, Bernanke et al. present an apologetic front and vow they will do better next time.

This is the kind of crisis control that the power elite practiced in the 20th century; it is today the kind of crisis control being applied to such failed dominant social themes as global warming. But we wonder if it will work in the 21st. In our view, people have already seen too much, know too much and are too upset. When it comes to the law and legislation, Bernanke and Congress may be in the right. But the law can only go so far. Sometimes, such ventures begin to look questionable regardless.

When people know too much, the law itself can begin to seem suspect; and this is how societal upheavals are created. This is in fact an inflection point for the powers-that-be. Creating fear-based promotions in order to generate societal consent for ongoing concentrations of power and wealth – the manufacturing of an authoritarian society in other words – has worked well for the PTB. But when the promotions begin to fail (due to information on the Internet in our view) and the elite continues its programs regardless, then the potential for social tension increases dramatically.

The Mind Conspirators
Saturday, September 04, 2010 – by Nelson Hultberg

http://www.thedailybell.com/1347/Nelson-Hultberg-The-Mind-Conspirators.html

More and more Americans today are coming to understand the terrible truth about our Federal Government -- that it seeks to dominate us as citizens, to mold us into a society of dutiful Stepford Wives totally beholden to the wishes of elite politicians, bureaucrats and bankers. Those who study history, independent of the public school system, understand that this state aggrandizement process has been under way for the past 100 years in America in one form or another, and that it is taking place because too many of our citizens sanction such dictatorial usurpation and actually work diligently for its implementation.

‎"Anyone going to his neighbor's home and taking his money at gunpoint, regardless of all the wonderful, selfless things he promised to do with it, would be promptly arrested as a thief. But for some reason it is considered morally acceptable when government does that very thing." -- Ron Paul, The Revolution: A Manifesto, 2008

Giants hit HR's, they score...if they don't, not so much

Since the August 23-25th series against the Reds at San Francisco, the Giants offense has been almost exclusively dependent on the HR to score runs.

In that series, the scored 11-16-11 R's and slugged 2-4-1 HR's, with the HR's producing 3-6-3 Runs.

Since that time the Giants have played 21 Games.

In 12 of those games, they failed to hit a HR and scored a total of 20 Runs.

An average of 1.82 RPG.

Nine of those were scored in one game. In the other eleven games, eleven runs scored.

So lately, one can conclude the if the Giants do not hit a HR, the will only score 1-2 runs.

Did I mention they have been shut out in four of those games? Seems like a lot.

In the nine games in which they did hit HR's, the Gigantes scored a total of 46 runs

An average of 5.11 RPG.

Embedded within those games are an additional 18 runs produced without the benefit of the HR.

An average of 2.0 RPG produced even on days when they are ON.

Manager Bochy comments after a recent loss:

“I do think we’re trying to do too much, overswinging a little bit,” Bochy said. “We’ve got to calm down a little bit. I know they all want to be the guy.”

The Giants had regained the top spot in the division with a 10-2 rout of the rival Dodgers on Thursday, but have managed only one run in two games since against the non-contending Brewers (69-78).

“We’re a funny team that way,” Bochy said. “We put big runs up or we get shut down.”

Not funny really. Actually quite predictable.

The Giants are a one-dimensional, predictable offense that is over-reliant on the HR to produce runs. An old-fashioned AL offense.

The last 6 games the Giants have not produced a HR, they have scored 1-0-2-0-0-1 Runs.
In the 2 games they produced a HR, they scored 10-6 Runs.

They are overly reliant on the pitcher making a mistake, which they will punish. On days the pitcher minimizes mistakes, NO HR's = Few Runs Scored.

The line on HR's from 9/18 to 8/27 (21 G's) games runs as follows:

0-0-3-0-0-1-0-0-2-1-3-0-1-4-0-0-1-0-0-1-0

So they are not even consistent in their ability to hit HR's, which indicates they will struggle against other teams 1-2 starters (better pitching) and "feast" (comparatively speaking) against the 3-4 starters.

Unfortunately -- even if they make the playoffs at this rate -- you only face 1-2-3 starters in the playoffs. This does not bode well.

The offense is overly dependent on pitchers making mistakes rather on having any capacity at all on the offensive side to force mistakes. The off-season focus should be on bringing in hitters who have some diversity in their games as well as more plate discipline.