Hey! It's still Sunday........

It looks like everything in the AL is wrapped up with Oakland and Boston winning today.

The 2 NL Central teams might BOTH make the playoffs if the Marlins and Phillies continue their struggles this week.

Lilly looked VERY good today, no question about it. Apparently the A's have forbidden him to use his curve ball and to shake off the catcher. This seems an absurd thing to do to a major-league pitcher. Has anybody else heard of something like this? Whatever the case, it's worked for Lilly, who's won his last six starts, albeit five of those against poor-hitting teams (the Jays excepted).

I still have zero faith in him in the playoffs. Hudson and Zito? Sure. Lilly and/or Harden? That worries me against the Red Sox. But at least Jeremy Giambi won't be available!

This seems an absurd thing to do to a major-league pitcher. Has anybody else heard of something like this?

No offense intended Gitz but...for an objective writer...you sure seem to hold players you don't like (or evaluate as being bad) to a high standard. I think you need to work on your impartiality.

You tend to sound Griffin-esque when it comes to Lilly (1 hit per inning, good SO/BB ratio, 4.41 Away ERA), Durazo (only an 800 OPS due to a bad August; 370 OBP), Beane, etc.

Don't forget the research, you need to be more objective IMHO.

Well, first of all, I am "paid" to be somewhat impartial, at least when it comes the ESPN fantasy stuff. If I was partial, all I'd do would be to advise my few readers to pick up A's, because if they're A's, they've got to be good. Believe me, I've gotten too much hate mail from A's fans -- "And you call yourself a fan? How dare you be down on Harden!" That's when I know I'm doing my job, when I'm not color-blinded by my favorite team to try to snow-job my readers into thinking people are good who really aren't. That is the number one problem with the correspondents, as far as I'm concerned: too many of them are simply fans. They are too partial to their home teams. Read some of them. This is the absolute truth. I'm not saying I'm better than them, but I do have the courage to question what I'm looking at on the field. Many don't.

I will stand by my claim that Lilly has been disappointing this year, and I will stand by my claim that Durazo has, too. Have they been useful? Sure, especially Durazo, who gets on base a lot, and that helps. But you're kidding yourself if the drooling stat-head community thought Durazo would only have 21 home runs and a .800 OPS with one week left in the season; nearly everyone thought this guy was a lock for 30/100/.900 OPS, and the reason for that, primarily, is because Billy Beane made it seem that he had replaced Jason Giambi with, well, Jason Giambi. As for Lilly ... well, if you're going to let six starts against mainly the Devil Rays and Angels dictate your opinion of him, that's your business. Ted has beaten two teams who had winning records this year. That says something to me, small sample size/random nature of the stat be damned.

Having said that, I was actually speaking in favor of Lilly here. If I was a big-league pitcher and I had my coaches telling me that I could not use my curveball or could NEVER shake off the catcher, I'd be pissed as hell. Should I listen to my catcher and to my pitching coach? Uh-huh. But absolutes are seldom the best answer to anything, even with someone who has a reputation for being hard-headed, as Lilly does. He really did look fantastic today, so I should not complain about the program, but it seems artificial to me. But what do I know?

If I was a big-league pitcher and I had my coaches telling me that I could not use my curveball or could NEVER shake off the catcher, I'd be pissed as hell.

I haven't seen Lilly pitch, but how good is his fastball? Many young pitchers become obsessed with trying to hit the corners with breaking pitches, not realizing that their fastball is good enough to get major league hitters out.

Jim Palmer used to make this point - he would go out and pitch a complete game shutout throwing his fastball 95% of the time. Of course, you need to have a fastball as good as the young Palmer's to get away with that, but that might be what they're trying to show Lilly.

This is my provisional top 10 for AL MVP:

1. Alex Rodriguez
2. Jorge Posada
3. Bret Boone
4. Roy Halladay
5. Carlos Delgado
6. Nomar Garciaparra
7. Vernon Wells
8. Tim Hudson
9. Manny Ramirez
10. Miguel Tejada

Any and all comments would be appreciated.

Let's do that in another thread.

No offense intended Gitz but...for an objective writer...you sure seem to hold players you don't like (or evaluate as being bad) to a high standard. I think you need to work on your impartiality.

Benum, until you've been an ESPN correspondent -- the Toronto gig will be open next year -- you can't imagine some of the letters you receive. Gitz is perfectly capable of "defending" himself, but I would like to offer my two cents anyway.

If you say "dont draft Lilly or Durazo; they will be overvalued" (or words to that effect) in a February column, you'll get a flood of replies in varying degrees of strong language. So in March, you turn up the "volume" on that opinion, answering your critics by saying something like "go ahead and draft them, but you'll regret it."

That just provokes another storm of "fan" mail questioning your IQ. By April, you're actually hoping the guys you've warned against (like Ken Huckaby, rated Toronto's #1 catcher by every other pre-season source) are doing poorly, and the guys you touted (Greg Myers, anyone?) are doing well. Otherwise, your inbox overflows with "I told you so's."

In September, are you completely objective on that particular subject? Perhaps not. Any perceived lack of "impartiality," whether it's John on the A's or me on the Jays, is usually tinged by these season-long arguments with people who run the gamut from informed and reasonable to ignorant and annoying. Gitz doesn't make negative pronouncements often, but anyone who has followed his advice to steer clear of (to name a few) Little G, T-Long, Lilly and Durazo in their fantasy pools should be grateful.

Whoever follows me on the Jays page -- there's a good chance it will be a denizen of Da Box -- consider yourself warned. Anticipating the "how do I apply?" questions, you'll have to wait until January or February and submit a sample column when the "Correspondent Wanted" link appears.

Anyone else completely apalled with Cuzzi?

I don't know about Cuzzi, but that Gizzi has to go.