MLB: Post-season

The Game Room
981

Joe Buck is an idiot. I’m legitimately annoyed by the fact that we’ve got another 30 years at least of him calling huge games. Not so much because he’s bad, but because he’s annoying. He’s smug, and without any justification; the unearned self-satisfaction just oozes out of him. He’s a slightly above average play-by-play guy, that’s it. (That is to say, he’s better than 60% of his peers on major American broadcasts, and that’s not exactly a high bar.) Maybe he’ll beat up a kid or something and Fox will fire him

Oh, and, uh, congratulations to the Giants, wow huh how about Bumgarner, etc.

982

They were 13 games under for the month – they were 22 over on June 1, and 9 over on June 30.

983

If you’d like to add to your legitimate annoyances:
Buck and the others mispronounce many of the names of the Latin players. I don’t expect fluency, only a close approximation available to a native speaker of English, and the obtuse ignorant crew habitually mispronounce the names by stressing the wrong syllable and/or using the wrong vowel sound. If they can’t be bothered to ask their colleagues in FOX Deportes for help, there are still scads of readily-available videos in Spanish. (Japanese, Korean, etc., too, but I’m ignorant there.)

984

They were 13 games under for a month, but it was the period June 9th through July 8th, not the month of June.

I can see both sides of the “underdog” argument, because on the one hand the current Giants are much more well known than they were in 2010. But on the other hand, clearly this team was less likely to win and needed very unusual performances to do so. I would argue the 2010 and 2012 teams were the favorites in every series except against the 2010 Phillies, while the Nationals and Cardinals were both favorites over the 2014 team.

985

Incorrect.

According to MLB.com, they were 38-20 on June 1. That’s 18 games over .500. They were, also according to MLB.com, 47-36 on June 30. That’s 11 over.

986

2-Year-Old Never Thought He Would Live To See Giants Win World Series

987

Well done - that’s awesome! I had a work trip that took my chance at Game 1 or Game 2 away, but my brother went to all 4. What a great week, huh?

988

Perfect!

989

Oh?

Note this article written when the playoffs began so many moons ago:

Long story short, the Giants were given the least chance of advancing in the playoffs out of ten teams. This article is representative of the opinion of the media in general.

Now of course the Royals were given the second least chance, so this World Series was not a David vs. Goliath story. With great difficulty David slew David while the 8 Goliaths were mumbling-up their excuses for having been soundly beaten.

990

While I think both teams were underrated, it is pretty much mathematically necessary to give the lowest chances to the four teams that have to play the Wild Card game.

That said, reading the reviews, they appear to otherwise have arranged the various teams completely at random. And, uh, the numbers do not add up.

Nationals: 25%
Tigers: 20%
Dodgers: 20%
Orioles: 16%
Angels: 14%
Cardinals: 12%
Athletics: 10%
Pirates: 10%
Royals: 8%
Giants: 7%

That adds up to way over 100%. So according to Bleacher Report, there was a possibility more than one team would win the World Series. In fact, ALL the four Wild Card teams, according to this, had a better chance of winning it all than pure random chance would suggest.

Uh, okay… not a lot of math whizzes at Bleacher Report, huh? Lotta thought put into those numbers?

991

Considering the Giants had the least wins of any playoff team over the course of the regular season (alongside the Pirates), that makes perfect sense.

I never said that the Giants were favorite to win it all; i simply suggested that it was silly to paint them as a team of struggling underdogs who pulled off the biggest upset of the century.

Also, that article simply reflects basic odds anyway. Of course the Wild Card playoff teams have the least chance of advancing, because they have to play an extra game just to get to the main rounds of the playoffs. Simple math.

And the logic of the article’s argument is flawed in another way too. It says that the Giants:

That’s just stupid reasoning. For teams that actually make the playoffs, there’s very little correlation between September wins and playoff wins. I know some people love the idea of “momentum,” but as an actual thing between the regular season and the playoffs, it basically doesn’t exist.

The Orioles went 4-6 over their last 10 in the regular season, then proceeded to sweep Detroit, and then get swept by KC. The Nationals and the Dodgers both went 8-2 over their last 10, and we know what happened to them in the playoffs.

Once the playoffs come around, small in-game factors play a huge role in who wins any particular game, and who wins each series. A 110-win team can be beaten by an 86-win team in a five or seven game series, without it being very surprising at all.

Meh. Once SF and KC won their Wild Card play-in games, they had basically as much chance as any of the other six teams to win it all.
Edit:

Just saw RickJay’s post. That’s hilarious. I didn’t bother going through and adding up the odds for each team, but that certainly suggests that the playoffs chances calculated for that article emerged straight from the writer’s rectum, or a tea-leaf reading, or something similar.

992

Note: IT’s possible depending on how you interpret those numbers that their percentages differ from mine. I assumed “4-1” meant “one in four.” But it could mean one in five, e.g. four times not winning to one time winning…

… but no they still don’t add up.

[QUOTE=mhendo]
hat’s just stupid reasoning. For teams that actually make the playoffs, there’s very little correlation between September wins and playoff wins. I know some people love the idea of “momentum,” but as an actual thing between the regular season and the playoffs, it basically doesn’t exist.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve never understood why people put so much stock into “oh, this team did so well in September” when year after year teams that were hot in September are blown out of the playoffs, and teams that back in beat them. Nobody’s ever backed into the playoffs worse than the 2006 Cardinals. They won the World Series.

The article makes it evident the author hasn’t any clue what makes a team likelier to win a World Series. He praises Washington’s depth despite the fact depth, more than anything else, is the thing that most helps you in the REGULAR season but least helps you in the playoffs.

993

I had a work trip to St. Louis in August. I drove to KC to catch the 8/10 Giants game there - the last of a 3-game series where the Royals swept the G-Men. Lincecum had an off day. It was my second visit to The K.

I got a nice Alex Gordon bobblehead giveaway out of it.

Munch, please check your PMs.

994

It’s funny to see people try to paint a team that has won 3 WS in the past six years as triumphant underdogs. It’s really boring when the same teams win over and over for everyone except the fans of that team (and even for those fans, I don’t really comprehend feeling the same excitement year after). Your team won. Enjoy it. Don’t expect to make other people enjoy it by describing it in dramatic terms.

995

Other than using up your #1 starter, that is. Other than that, yeah.

996

OK, so you guys are either trying to convince me that the Giants are great, or that the media are a bunch of douchebags. I can’t say I’m skeptical on either point.

997

Munch:

I’ll say. Bummer that our guys lost in the end, but it was close, they didn’t embarrass themselves, and the reason they lost was due to what amounts to a superhuman performance. I can’t get too upset about it, I’m thrilled will how far the Royals got. And the game that I got to see in person was just fantastic. Great game for the Royals, and an amazing experience all around. I love seeing all of Kansas City decked out in Royals blue. The atmosphere, the fellow fans…what a perfect trip, for me, at least.

998

For you Royals fans (I was rooting for them, oh well), it may be of interest to note that the Royals actually had a better postseason winning percentage this year than the Giants did:

Royals 11 wins, 4 losses (all to SF): .733
Giants 12 wins 5 losses (3 to KC, 1 each to Was and STL): .706

Not sure if this has happened before. Kind of a fun statistic, if ultimately meaningless.

999

My wife and I were on the road last week and we just got home last night. We replayed two key parts of Game 7: The Keystone Cops Play in the top of the 9th (appropriate descriptor there, Suburban Plankton), and The Double Play in the top of the 3rd.

One aspect about The Keystone Cops Play, and I don’t recall it being discussed here yet, is that Juan Perez does NOT back up Gregor Blanco. Inexplicably, Perez runs towards Blanco and the ball! While Blanco’s error gives Gordon 2nd base, it is Perez’s stupidity that allows the ball to roll all the way to the wall where he has trouble finding the handle and allows Gordon to take 3rd. AAAARGH!!! :smack:

As a Giants fan watching Game 7 last week, in the top of the 9th there were a couple of times when I thought back to the 2002 World Series against the Angels. Yes, the Giants have three championships since that heartbreaking loss, but that singular pain of 2002 is still worse than the combined joys from 2010, 2012 & 2014. That’s the way it works.

Re-watching that Keystone Cops Play, if the Baseball Gods were truly fair, then the Royals would have won the World Series. Notice also that as soon as Posey realizes Gordon’s ball is a soft fly to left center, he runs to the mound. He’s ready to start celebrating. While thankfully Posey doesn’t have his arms upraised as he’s running to Bumgarner (we’re in Kansas City, after all), on the replay you can clearly see the big smile on his face and that he’s getting ready to bear-hug the MadBum. Fortunately for the Giants, Bumgarner, who has turned to watch the ball, is all business. You see his face on the replay, he’s not ready to celebrate until the third out is actually secured. Thank goodness for that, for he still needed to pitch some more. It is because of Bumgarner’s humility that the Baseball Gods forgive Posey’s lapse of respect for the game. And the Baseball Gods are not known for grace and forgiveness, are they?

And what of Juan Perez? He was running to Gregor Blanco on the play, but, what on earth for? To celebrate with Blanco? What the hell were you thinking Perez??? :smack:

Were there Royals misplays or gaffs of braggadocio that caused the Baseball Gods to hand the championship to the Giants this year? Perhaps Hosmer’s run to 1st on The Double Play? No, that’s not spitting in the faces of the Baseball Gods. Hosmer was hustling hard, and in that frantic split second he decides to dive. The diving Hosmer bounced on the dirt in front of 1st, just before he touched the bag, and this was enough deceleration to cost him the base. This was a brief lapse in good running technique and not a flaunt-it-in-your-face HA!! to the Baseball Gods.

Not like in 2002, when Dusty Baker handed the “game ball” to a just-pulled Russ Ortiz in the 7th inning of Game 6 with the Giants winning 5-0, leading the Series 3 games to 2 and only 8 outs away from the championship. Dusty called out to an Ortiz who was already departing the mound, and Ortiz turned back to a cluelessly flaunting Dusty Baker (they’re in Anaheim, remember) who puts the ball into Ortiz’s glove. If Ortiz had just one second to think about what just occurred he would have dropped that ball like a hot potato. Just leave it there on the field. Walk away. Yes that would have showed up your manager but better that than to disrespect the game.

Dusty Baker’s move - now THAT was spitting into the faces of the Baseball Gods. The Baseball Gods imposed justice on the Giants in 2002. The Giants got what they deserved. This year, on The Keystone Cops Play, the Giants did not get what they deserved.

I wish we had camera angles to show us the “Oh Shit I Fucked Up!!” looks on the faces of two Giants on The Keystone Cops Play:

► on the face of Juan Perez at the very moment he realizes that ball is going to roll to the wall. He sprints to the wall like his career depends on it (for yes his career does depend on it): “Oh shit, I fucked up, there won’t be a celebration right now, I gotta get to that ball – and Holy-Fucking-Shit-Gordon-Just-Might-Score-Here!!!”; and

► on the face of Buster Posey, at the very moment he sees Gordon rounding 2nd and realizes he will get to 3rd: "Oh shit, I fucked up, there won’t be a celebration right now, what am I doing at the mound?? I gotta get back to the plate!!
Were the Baseball Gods unfair to the Royals?

1000

Is there a general consensus that that ball should have been caught? Obviously it should have been played better and the runner should have ended up on first base, but it sure didn’t seem like a routine catch-and-out to me. But then I’m only a casual observer at best.