Tag: Major League Baseball Playoffs

For me watching Andy Pettitte is a deal with the Devil.  I really despise him and his buddy Steriod Boy.  Also he’s one of those over paid and over rated mercenaries that attach themselves to the Yankees like leeches so they can get famous and then leave at the first better offer only to come slinking back in the twilight of their career when they’re all washed up and no one else will have them.

Pettitte has spent almost all season on the disabled list and despite his carefully orchestrated come back is really a crap shoot.  Nobody knows how he will play or how long he will last.  His record this year is 5-4 with a 2.87 ERA.

Contrasting with the 40 year old (thanks to Roger’s Jungle Juice) veteran is rookie Wei-Yin Chen (12 – 11, 4.02 ERA).  He hasn’t performed well in his last starts, but he does better with longer rest and it’s been 6 days.  Showalter almost has to pitch him or he’ll get stale.

The Orioles find themselves in the same position as every other team that lost their first game at home (Cardinals, Giants, As).  They are in a “must win” situation or they will face elimination every game they play away.  Of that group only the Cardinals have (as I write) eliminated that advantage, we shall see how the Orioles fare.

Be careful in your deals with the devil.

Whatever Lola wants.  Lola gets.

Get away day.

The same rules apply to the Cardinals as apply to every other team in a playoff situation- it’s a very bad thing to find yourself facing elimination (Sun-Tzu notwithstanding).  Like the Giants last night they really need a win at home.

Thus, the rally squirrel.

Now there are encouraging signs for the Cards.  They only lost by a late game (8th inning) 2 out pinch hit 2 run single and there is no doubt that Gonzales showed considerable frustration early, but age and guile only go so far and by the end the Nationals were looking considerably more “playoff experienced” than they did going in.

Also on the positive side they’ll be facing Jordan Zimmermann.  Don’t let his impressive record (12 – 8, 2.94 ERA) fool you, he’s 0 – 2 lifetime against the Cardinals with a stunning 9.12 ERA.

He’ll be facing Jaime Garcia (7-7, 3.92 ERA) who wasn’t all that impressive in last year’s playoffs, but most of the damage came on the road, he’s much better at Busch Stadium.

And Zimmerman is good on the road, so we shall see shortly how much trouble the Cardinals are in.

It gets better

I certainly hope so.

It’s really hard to overstate how tough it is to win 3 Sudden Death games on the road.  If they happen to split at AT&T park then it’s no harm no foul, but if the Reds only need to win one then the series could be quite short indeed.

Last night’s game was much more disappointing than the score would indicate.  You would have thought having their ace Cueto out after a mere 8 pitches would have disrupted the Reds more, but instead it was the Giants who seemed out of sync.

Still were it even a hundred run shut out there’s only one W a game and tonight we start fresh with Bumgarner (16 – 11, 3.37 ERA) facing the Reds’ Arroyo (12 – 10, 3.74 ERA).

It may be tonight we see the effects of Cueto’s back spasms, Arroyo’s recent record is not exactly confidence inspiring and I’m sure Dusty Baker would rather have gotten the performance from Cueto and still have Latos in the bag for tonight.  Cueto is listed day to day but certainly will not appear before Game 4.  It’s not like he had a day off, he pitched a full warmup and has an injury.

The Giants need to get some offense going against the lesser part of the rotation if they are to advance this season and Bumgarner must pitch well.  Defense can’t help you against the long ball and the 2 Reds Homers produced enough runs to win all by themselves.

So if you root Giants hope they put on a show tonight.  If on the other hand you’re a Reds fan you can take some encouragement from the fact you crushed their Ace on the field and need perform no better than normal at home to get into the League Championship.

C’mon, you remember Lola.

Make up your mind to have no regrets.

The Flaws of a Short Series

Purists contend that even a 5 game series doesn’t really give you a sense of how bad or good a team is.  After all, even the worst ones win 40% of the time which means there’s a 6% chance of a bad team sweeping 3 just out of the pure random cussedness of the universe.

In truth the most telling effect is that you don’t get to re-use your pitching aces as much as you’d like to since there are only 5 days from the first to 4th starts.  I say thank goodness because I think seeing the same faces three times in a series is boring.  I also prefer games with lots of hitting and scoring.

Now this year they have a new wrinkle in the rules that gives the team without home field advantage the first 2 games at home.  This reduces the ‘advantage’ of home field advantage because it’s basically unavailable until a final deciding game.  What it does do is eliminate a travel day compared to the old 2-2-1 format with the additional benefit of making it even harder to bore me with another start by one of your 2 Aces.

As you may gather I’m not unalterably opposed to the new scheme other than that I always feel more Baseball is better and were I commissioner you’d have a 5-7-7-7 format.

Damn Yankees

Well they’re not the Senators (now the Rangers and thankfully eliminated) but the Orioles have been huge Yankee killers this season according to members of the Collective (resistance is futile).  In fact they’ve split their 18 games which is  better than the Orioles had any reason to expect and the Hive mind views as a great injustice in their pursuit of 162 game perfection.

The Orioles will have to be every bit as fierce as they’re imagined because on paper they’re over matched and today’s starting pitching is a typical example.  Jason Hammel (8 – 6, 3.43 ERA) went down mid-season with a knee injury and is fresh back from rehab.  CC Sabathia (15 – 6, 3.38 ERA) should be better, but is 0 – 2 at Camden Yard this year.  Before we see Saunders again we will have 2 rookies, Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez, against Pettit and Kuroda.  Saunders will face Hughes (if necessary) in Game 4.

It’s easy to mistake me for a Yankees fan because I’m exposed to so much of them, but the truth is I can take them or leave them.  I think they’re uninteresting between the lines and have no appetite for gossip, but I do admire their ambition and ruthlessness (though in a world devoid of unintentional irony that word would be associated with the Red Sox).

No, no Nanette, that’s how I’ve been able to weather all the financial crises of my life.  My money is invested in triple A gold plated secure vehicles like off, off Broadway shows.

That and sports futures.

Hmm… let’s see if I can explain that Infield Fly Rule to you.

The infield fly rule is a rule in baseball intended to prevent infielders from intentionally dropping pop-ups in order to turn double plays (or triple plays). Without this rule, a defense could easily turn a pop fly into a double play when there are runners at first and second base.

Back in the days when you sharpened your own spikes for a ‘friendly game’ what would happen a lot is the fielder would drop an easily catchable fly so they could get a force play on the lead runner and fire off a throw to the next base for additional outs they wouldn’t get if they had simply caught the ball and put only the hitter out.

From the moment the call is made the hitter is out and runners are free to tag and advance and indeed should the batter be hit by a throw intended to double up a runner returning to tag it’s interference and an additional out can be called.

Now it was always basically impossible for the Braves to win an appeal because the rule is by definition unappealable (“this call can not be reversed on appeal”) but they did so anyway based on the interpretations of easy and routine (the ball was dropped after all, and it was well into the Outfield though still being played by the Infielder) and timeliness (and no, it wasn’t at all timely).

If, however, the call had not been made it still would have been a 4 – 2 game with the bases loaded and 2 out.  In other words the Braves would have been just as likely to lose so this was not a ‘game changing’ call.

But die hard Braves fans are free to root for the Nationals because of the injustice of it all.  The sad fact for the Cardinals is that they hardly need your help.

The Nats were the best team in the regular season this year and are the favorites in any matchup right through to the World Series.  I hate them because they play in the same League and Division as my Mets and they represent a town so shamelessly corrupt and stupid that it makes one long for the days of Lot and divine wrath.

So yeah, I got squirrels in my pants, the Nats can’t go home soon enough to suit me even if they are really the Expos.

Today’s pitching matchup is Adam Wainwright (14 – 13, 3.94) against the Nats Gio Gonzalez (21 – 8, 2.89 ERA).

The Cards have a better hitting lineup by average, but the Nats have more Home Runs.  On the other hand the Cardinals have 5 players with over 20 Homers and tons of Playoff experience for whatever that’s worth.  They will be hurt most by the fact Lohse will only be available once.

First of all, here are the links TheMomCat found for me so you can share the game if you don’t happen to get MLB Network.

• ESPN Radio
• The New York Times Live Scoreboard

The live scoreboard is pretty interesting, we were playing around with it last night.  Among other things it updates almost in real time and lots of interesting information is available when you mouse over the bases.

Lesson #1- Stay away from Verlander

Bay area teams got bit yesterday but fans should not despair.  One of the reasons critics don’t like the 5 game short series is that there’s not enough time to do a full pitching rotation.  Now me?  I disagree because it means more thought goes into managing and pitcher’s duels are boring unless you’re following pitch by pitch which requires a lot of concentration.

In any event you’ll only see Verlander once more.

And that’s if the As hang in there.  It’s hard to call a Game 2 critically important, but if they don’t split at Comerica Park they’ll be put in the position of having to win out at the Coliseum.

The Tigers on the other hand can take it easy if they want to, but what they should really do is put the screws on and give themselves 3 chances for victory.  They won’t play again at home unless they’re in the League Championship.  Today’s starting pitchers are Doug Fister (10 – 10, 3.45 ERA) who was much better after the All-Star break and As rookie Tommy Milone (13 – 10, 3.74 ERA).

Meta

Big sports day today with 4 games running from noon to around midnight which is 12+ hours of tracking the pitches and writing the diaries.  Games start at roughly noon, 3 pm, 6 pm, and 9 pm.  In addition to that there were 2 hours of Suzuka this morning and will be 90 minutes of special America’s Cup yacht racing coverage from TheMomCat at around 4 pm (NBC).

I’ll attempt to stay as alert as possible because America needs more Lerts.

Thank goodness for Monday.  Only 2 games tomorrow.

It is technically possible we shall have a Bay Bridge Series this year though I don’t think it’s entirely likely.

The Giants are part of my borough re-alignment package.  As we all know it makes absolutely no sense to keep jobs anywhere in particular except as dictated by economic efficiency.  My careful 30 second analysis designed to make my point without relying on facts or reality or icky research indicates that New York is the only Baseball city you ever need.

While rents are high and salaries inflated, the convenient and inexpensive transportation system will make every series a “Subway Series” with all the attendant marketing opportunities.  Proximity to Network broadcasting facilities will lower their overhead costs covering the games.  Leagues will be reduced to 8 teams each to allow maximum post season hype and exposure while minimizing labor units.

By dividing teams evenly, 3 per borough, we create exciting new ‘intra-borough’ rivalries to generate fan interest and special schedules for their play in addition the successful current inter-League program.

But ek you say, what do you do with the 16th team?  You’ll be sorry you asked.

By my calculations locating a 4th team on Staten Island will cover it entirely with Stadiums and their parking lots, thus eliminating the need to provide municipal services like snow removal, at least during the off season.

It’s a win, win, win scenario and I hope you bring it to Bloomberg’s attention before he locks me up.

The Giants would move back to the Polo Grounds.  The Dodgers would go to Brooklyn where they belong.

What happens to a team like the Reds from a rustbelt industrial town that happens to play great Baseball which nobody notices?

Well, I’m not sure there’s a place in a flat globalized new world neo-liberal order for them.  Perhaps they should invest in learning another skill set, like Hockey.

I understand there are openings for scabs.

Well, what do we know about the As and the Tigers?

The first thing I know is that tomorrow’s Game 2 @ noon Sunday will only be carried on MLB Network which is kind of a drag if you don’t get it.  Unfortunately I do (no rest for the wicked) so I’ll be covering the game which I hope Richard appreciates because I’m not the Tigers fan he is.

And there’s another thing you may not know- Emily, though born and raised in the heart of Tigers territory, is a member of the Borg Yankee collective (resistance is futile) and has hardly any interest in the Striped Ones but can tell you what CC Sabathia had for breakfast (seldom Frosted Flakes) and how he pitches after eating it.

Richard is from God’s Brewer’s Country, however since he started slumming under the bridge he has picked up an inexplicable taste for sugar coated corn.

I know less than that about the As except that their remarkable comeback (along with a ’69 Cubs-like fold) sent the Rangers to their doom last night against the Orioles.  Still, what’s not to like about a team that does the Bernie Lean?

Well, there is that whole police riot crackdown on Occupy, but let’s see if it gets that far.

If you have not yet acquired a rooting interest I recommend this short and funny piece in The New Yorker by Ian Crouch.

Meta

Well, the big news was the MLBN discovery.  Perhaps I shall find a video or audio feed to include so you’re not entirely reliant on my commentary.  Today in addition to the usual sports overload I have family obligations that may make me scarce during the first few innings.

TMC is likewise engaged, but as we frequently point out it’s up to you to make your own fun.

Tonight’s second game is Reds @ Giants at 9:30 pm on TBS.  Also tonight is Formula One Suzuka where you’ll want to tune in at 1:30 am to make sure I got all the grid penalties right.

Tomorrow in addition to the As/Tigers match up at noon we will have Nats @ Cardinals at 3 pm, Yankees @ Orioles at 6 pm, and Reds @ Giants at 9:30 pm.  They’re all on TBS so I suppose that if we have delays or extra innings they’ll swap over the new game to TNT as they did at the end of the Cards/Braves, beginning of the Orioles/Rangers games last night.

Oddly enough, both were won by the visitors.

Goody.  So much to hate on I hardly know where to start.

First the Designated Hitter Rule.  The reasoning goes, since your Pitcher sucks at hitting anyway, why not use up a roster spot that could go to some young, deserving, and cheap rookie on an expensive has been/never was who’s too old and slow even to play First Base anymore?

Because then I don’t get to rough up your pitcher if he beans one of mine you cowards.  That’s all right, I’ll just call the bench clearing brawl.

The Orioles are simply the luckiest team in Baseball and have no business near the playoffs.  That said they’ve been Yankee killers this season which may influence your estimation.  Me?  I have no problem with the Yankees except that they’re boring and I’d be just as happy to see them win it all.

The Rangers are better on paper but have spent September sucking and that’s a hard thing to turn off.  If you need additional reasons to despise them, just remember they are W and ‘Doper’ Clemens team.  I say steroid boy and the poster child against inbreeding better get their tickets punched tonight because they’re not going anywhere.

Sad to say I think the Orioles will be lucky again and advance against the Yankees.  Showalter gets his revenge.  But if you’re looking for bright spots (and you certainly should if you’re a Pinstripe fan) Saunder’s 9.38 ERA in Arlington simply does not match up against Yu Darvish.

It’s ‘Sudden Death’!  Anything could happen.

Meta

Tomorrow’s games are As @ Tigers at 6 pm, Reds @ Giants at 9:30 pm.

Then Formula One Suzuka @ 1 am on Speed.  If you wish to join me for Qualifying tonight, that will be posted at 1 am also.

The NHL New York Rangers google better than the Arlington variety, even in a strike shortened season.

First of all let me just say I thoroughly approve of any sporting competition that includes the words ‘Sudden Death’ and I am a long standing advocate of allowing players to keep their bats on the base paths and eliminating the ‘Hit By Pitch’ rule.  I am convinced these innovations will return the Metropolitans to their rightful place as the premier team in New York, the only Baseball city you’ll ever need.

Perhaps next time I will share my game changing borough re-alignment plan.

This year marks the introduction of a new level of playoff competition- the Wild Card round, a single game elimination between the two teams in each league with the best record that did not win their Divisions.

Today at 8:30 pm the Junior League attention hogs will play a sport loosely associated with baseball in a pathetic attempt to induce support for an inferior product, this afternoon we have a chance to see the real thing (without my masterful improvements alas).

Remember this?

Yes, it’s the Rally Squirrel.

You know, the Cardinals are only the defending champions and their 88 – 74 record conceals a lot of hard luck games they probably should have won.  By contrast the Braves look tired and old and unless they pull one out for the retiring Chipper Jones I can’t help but feel that they are the most vincible team in the expanded playoffs with the exception of the Orioles.

The Cardinals are also starting Lohse, their ace, while the Braves will counter with Kris Medlen who started the season in middle relief and spent 3 rotations in the minors.  He wasn’t promoted to starter until after the All-Star break but piled up an impressive number of scoreless innings.  Another positive for Braves fans is that they’re better rested and less injured than usual.

The winner advances to face the Nationals.

Meta

We’ll be attempting to cover every game of the Major League Baseball Playoffs.  Normally my rooting interests are fairly transparent, but should you happen to favor another team it’s really ok to participate.  My team is the Mets who are expectedly absent once again, anything else is a temporary attachment.

All the Wild Card and Division Series games (except for maybe Sunday’s As/Tigers Game 2) will be on TBS, your Braves broadcaster.  Tonight’s second game will be Orioles at Rangers.