A September to Forget?

Many national beat writers have been writing obituaries for the 2009 MLB season and a quick look at the standings shows only the Wild Cards to be even remotely interesting standings-wise. Reminder, I picked the Giants and Red Sox a month ago so we'll see. Here are a few things I'm watching and you should be too:

The Pomeranz-Ranulado sweepstakes - Catching phenom Bryce Harper (another Boras client) will go #1 to the Nationals in 2010, but who will get the #2 pick for the chance to take the top pitcher the Royals or Pirates, as of this writing the Royals are "up" 2 games on the Pirates who just celebrated their 17th consecutive losing season in the "curse of Barry Bonds" who's free agency started their streak

Penny's Revenge? - Brad Penny recently signed with the Giants after his old team (Dodgers) and old manager (Rockies) refused to allow their team to sign him instead opting for Garland and Contreras, he faces the Dodgers twice next week but even if he wins his team still faces an uphill climb against the Rockies

Operation Shutdown - Sizemore, Soriano, Latos went down last week which begs the question will hurting players like Braun, Chipper, Hanley be next as their teams fall out of contention which is sure to put a wrench in many fantasy teams head to head playoff races

The Return of Pedro (that we remember) - A guy everybody seems to root for like Manny, he dominated SF last time out against Lincecum and pitches against the Nationals tonight, if he keeps it up the other 29 GM's have to feel dumb about not signing him for mere million dollars for the 2nd half

The Phillies and Cards bullpens - The two front runners for the NL pennant of late have had some trouble in the back of their bullpens of late as Ryan Franklin is off for a few days and Brad Lidge has 10 blown saves so just remember in October that the Dodgers have the best bullpen in baseball and the best closer in the NL

Is MLB an oligopoly? - 7 out of top 9 payrolls (Sorry Mets and Cubs fans) are going to the playoffs and with the NL wild card being the 14th and 15th highest payrolls (SF/COL) no team in the upper echelon of spending will make the playoffs which will lead to alot of talk about revenue sharing and the draft as the current CBA is due to run out in 2011 so this story will only grow next year when negociations begin

Sophomore slumps - Will players in their first truly full MLB season like Geovany Soto, Jay Bruce, Evan Longoria, Jair Jurrjens, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Joba run out of gas as they hit the last month after 6 months of real baseball?

Who's #3? - Every GM is thinking about this as there roster is set for the postseason now but who gets the ball in game 3 of the first round? There will be some tough decisions around baseball in every postseason town such as STL (Pineiro/Smoltz), LA (Kuroda/Kershaw), Philly (Pedro/Blanton), NYY (Burnett/Joba), DET (Jackson/Porcello), and ANA (Santana/Saunders)

The 7th and 8th inning muscle - The setup guys is one of my favorite players on every team, he never gets alot of credit and is always secretly hoping the closer gets hurt I saw Neftali Feliz pitch a few weeks ago and wow is all I can say plus keep an eye on guys like Matt Thornton, Matt Lindstrom, Phil Hughes, George Sherill, and Ryan Madson to continue their recent dominance

September callups - as rosters expand to 40 men in September it's always a good time to take a look at hot prospects like Buster Posey (C-SF), Neil Walker (3B - PIT), Carlos Carrasco (P-CLE), Michael Brantley (OF-CLE), and Tyler Flowers (C-CWS)

The Attendance Battle - Yankees (45,793 after 65 games) vs. Dodgers (45,756 after 72 games) lead their leagues in attendance with a month to go and a quick check shows that the Yankees max out at 47 even when they play the Sox so I'm picking the Dodgers as the favorite here to come out on top with their 56,000 person stadium and a season ending weekend series against the Rockies

The sale of the Rangers - Tom Hicks is selling and apparently 3-6 people are buying, he doesn't have the stadium too (it's leased) so look for this to draw out as he asks for top dollar, whoever buys the team is definitely in an enviable position in the long run with the best farm system in baseball, Josh Hamilton to sell tickets, and a smaller division to compete within