AL East

It wasn’t exactly the b-squad starting for the Yankees, but they did rest a few of their regulars as Javier Vazquez got bombed by the Blue Jays en route to a 8-4 loss the day after they clinched a playoff spot.

Here are some highlights:

Say what you want about the problems with MLB's current playoff system. You can bemoan the addition of the Wild Card, or whine about how home field advantage for the World Series is determined by the All-Star Game, or complain that a best-of-five series is a poor way to determine which of two good teams is superior.

But when the first round kicks off on Wednesday, don't pretend that you won't be watching.

After clinching a playoff berth on Tuesday, Yankees' manager Joe Girardi did a little rearranging in his pitching rotation. The Yankees pushed scheduled starter Andy Pettitte back until Friday, likely lining him up better for the postseason.

Manager of the year in baseball, like many leagues, is often given to a manager able to lead his team to the playoffs. However, what if in 2011 the AL Manager of the Year was given to a manager who's team has a 62-95 record entering Sept. 29.

Bring in Buck Showalter. Although Showalter has little chance of winning the AL Manager of the Year Award for the third time, the question I ask, that the 1989 Orioles coined, "Why Not?"

Remember that movie Thinner?

It was based on a novel by Stephen King, in which an obese family man commits a hit-and-run, only the victim is the daughter of a witch, or a wizard, or a gypsy. Listen, 1996 was a long time ago.

Anyway, the witch/wizard/gypsy casts a hex on the fatty—"You keeel my daughter, and I curse you, thinnnnnnnner"—and the obese family man wastes away to nothing and (I think) eventually dies.

These past two seasons have seen the Orioles graduate more top prospects than nearly any other franchise. 

According to Baseball America's 2009 top prospects list, four members of the Orioles top 10 graduated to the Majors, and eight of the top 29.

This season, the team has seen five of the top 10 players move on to the greener pasture that is Camden Yards, including prospects number one (Brian Matusz), two (Josh Bell), and four (Jake Arrieta).

National pundits are piling on the Tampa Bay Rays after two of its star players, Evan Longoria and David Price, expressed displeasure at the team attracting only 12,446 fans to their Monday night game against the Baltimore Orioles, a possible playoff-clincher.

That's pretty much the typical Baltimore Orioles game on a school-year Monday night at home. If the Rays were still a bad team, they'd be lucky to draw 9,000 on that day against that team.

The Yankees beat the Blue Jays 6-1 in Toronto last night behind a strong performance from their ace CC Sabathia to clinch at least a wild-card spot in the American League.

Here are some highlights:

Even as the defending champion Yankees finish a season that will see them win well over 90 games and possibly a division title, this team is hardly invincible and cannot even be considered on the same level as last year's juggernaut.

The first and most glaring difference between this team and last is a serious lack of depth in the rotation.

While CC Sabathia has had a Cy Young-quality season, he has been without any support in the rotation for months with no real signs of a turnaround out there.