MLB: The Playoffs

The Game Room
1

I don’t know how it could get any more awesome than Wednesday, but who knows?

AL:
Tampa Bay Rays (91-71) vs. Texas Rangers (96-66)
Begins Sept 30, 5 PM EST, Texas

A rematch of last year’s ALDS, the only series in MLB history in which the home team never won. Tampa comes in obviously super hot but historically, a team’s trend at the end of the season doesn’t mean a lot in terms of their playoff success.

Tampa Bay had the best pitching staff in the AL but a below-average offense; Texas has an excellent offense. Overall I think the Rangers are a better team, bu Tampa’s shutdown starting rotation can make this a hell of a series.

New York Yankees (97-65) vs. Detroit Tigers (95-67)
Begins Sept 30, 8 PM EST, New York

The Yankees have easily the best offense of any playoff team (there’s one non-playoff team staffed with chokers that scored a few more runs) but have a rotation of Sabathia, Nova and Oh Shit, It’s A.J. The Tigers are much the same, with the mightly Justin Verlander, the timely-arrived Doug Fister, and a bunch of clowns. Both teams will have to stretch their bullpens (which are excellent) but there is no denying that the Yankees have a wayyyy better offense that can wear anyone down.

National League

Philadelphia Philles (102-60) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (90-72)
Begins Oct 1, 5 PM EST, Philadelphia

Boy, here’s a reversal of the way things used to be; the Cardinals had the highest-scoring offense in the National League, and ana verage pitching staff at best. The Phillies have one of the best pitching staffs ever assembled - their TEAM ERA, the whole team, was 3.02 - but a just-about-average offense. This might actually be the best overall Phillies team in the history of the franchise and you have to think they’re a favourite against anyone, but the Cardinals have a few guys who can hit anyone.

Milwaukee Brewers (96-66) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (94-68)
Begins Oct 1, 8 PM EST, Milwaukee

I quite honestly would have though the BREWERS were the highest scoring team in the NL, but for all their power they’re limited by having some guys in the lineup every day who cannot get on base. It remains a scary lineup though, and they boast four solid starters. The rebuilt D-Backs have to hope the Aaron Hill they got from Toronto is the one who hit well in Arizona, and I think Ian Kennedy needs to win two games in this series.

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Yankees have a wayyy better offense than the Tigers? Based on what? I thought you knew something about baseball. Now I am not so sure.
The Yanks have a homerun generating park. The Tigers do not , yet the stats are nearly identical after homeruns.

3

The Yankees scored 867 runs this year. The Tigers scored 787. That’s a difference of half a run a game. The difference between the Yanks’ offense and the Tigers’ is identical to the difference between the Tigers & the Rays’. (Which in turn is roughly the difference between the Rays and the Houston Astros).

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The number of runs they scored, which is the way you measure how good a team’s offense is.

Yes, Yankee Stadium is a better hitter’s park, but it’s not THAT much better. It isn’t Coors Field.

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Tigers in 5. For the Yankees to win, they need to get past Verlander in the opener, wade through the mystery matchup of two playoff rookies in game 2, have Freddy Garcia outpitch Max Scherzer, go through the favorable matchup of Sabathia versus Porcello, and then possibly win the matchup of Nova versus Verlander. The pitching matchups alone don’t bear well for the Yankees. Where the Yankees might make one of those fall in their favor, they need multiple things to work in their favor. Also, there’s a 50% chance of rain for tonight’s game. It might be a short outing by Verlander, making Girardi’s short rotation that much more thin. Leyland might have already outmanaged Girardi based on this alone(this isn’t even bringing up Girardi’s decision to have Posada as his DH).

Also, the Tigers have the best pitcher, the best positional player, the better rotation, and (a bit of heresy) the better closer. Up and down the lineup, offensively, the Tigers are simply better. The Tigers do have some holes on defense, however. Delmon Young has been pretty bad recently, third base is going to be an enigma, and second base, with Ryan Raburn, will be a roller coaster.

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Pertinent article. He echos a lot of what I said, attempts to refute others, and ends up at the same conclusion.

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Two-run homer by Damon, three-run homer by Shoppach, and Tampa leads 6-0 in the third inning. So far it’s looking good for the road team yet again.

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Not to mention Matt Moore holding the Rangers to two hits, at their home field, in his second major league start, through the first four innings at least. He’s struck out four and walked one so far.

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Maybe not as bad as it seems. Posada will only batting against righties and this season he was .269/.348/.466 with 14 homeruns. He’s also 6 for 20 against Verlander, so not a terrible choice. Hopefully Montero will get some at-bats against lefty relievers.

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Pretty close. Good grief a numbers freak decides runs scored is all you need to know to determine a teams offense. How simple baseball has suddenly become.

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This rule sucks. They played one whole fucking inning, and they’re going to “resume” it.

Today’s inning shouldn’t count at all.

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I’m glad you Tigers fans have confidence. It’s kind of cute.

Originally posted by** LOUNE**:

I’ll give you Verlander, this year, but CC has the playoff experience. The rest of your paragraph is silly.

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Since it’s tied it doesn’t matter that much, but in general I agree. Bad luck all around.

14

Isn’t scoring runs the purpose of a baseball team’s offense?

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The closer thing is obviously deranged, but which position player on the Yankees do you view as so obviously better than Miguel Cabrera as to make the statement “silly?”

16

A season with 20 runs scored in a game against some hapless teams is a lousy way to gauge a team. Sorry, but it might be more meaningful if it was showing runs against better competition. The teams in the playoffs are supposedly the best. A slaughter of KC does not tell anyone how they will do against the Tigers. But it is amusing that you have the game so simplified.

17

Remind me again which team played the Royals more often?

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A random example or typographical error I’m sure. Pretend he said the Orioles. :wink:

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Starting a team, I’d take Cano over Cabrera. I’m not saying Cabrera isn’t great, but I’ll take the Gold Glove 2B.

20

The thing that was really wrong was starting the game at all, given the weather forecast. Didn’t Torre ever even hear of Doppler radar? That was a Selig-type decision, but I would’t expect it of Joe.

And now the aces for each team are out of it for a few days, after being wasted last night, and damn near injured, too. What a farce.

Did you mean that sarcastically? It’s not clear. If you didn’t, then hell yes, the team that scores more runs wins. Winning is what matters, still, unless something else has changed recently. It has always been that simple.