The Major League Baseball Playoff and Predictions Thread

Cafe Society
321

Amazingly dominating run there at the end of the series-they did something similar in 1986 vs. the Angels. I think this team plays its best when they are back against the wall. Colorado I think is the best team from the NL, but the Sox are a significantly better outfit from a tougher league.

Lord I love these kids-Pedrioa, Ellsbury, Papelbon. And yes they have someone they’re grooming to replace Lugo’s worthless carcass next year, so don’t worry about him after November rolls around (hmm wouldn’t Game 7 be the day after Halloween?).

322

Of course. Teams use different strategies when they trail than when it’s a tie or they lead. They use different pitchers and different personnel and different defenses, etc. There’s simply no way to say what would have happened, which is why it’s disappointing.

In general, I think the balls-and-strikes officiating in this series was extremely inconsistent. The other calls were pretty solid.

323

Here’s hoping they get the same result as in '86.

Surely Gagne is ready to replace Calvin Schiraldi. :smiley:

324

Eh. I call your young guys and raise you with Troy Tulowitski, Manny Corpas, and Ubaldo Jimenez.

Straight fastballs, even at 97 mph, will get crushed by this Colorado lineup. Wakefield will win the only game for the Red Sox in the Series. Rockies 4-1.

325

I’ll take some of that.

326

Hmm…

Well, I’m not a serious baseball fan by any means (and you’re one better than me, fachverwirrt), but just as an observer, this is how I see it.

The Rockies have never been here before. They’re the new kids. Haven’t paid their dues. Raw meat. And they got here by getting unbelievably hot at the absolute bestest-est time imaginable.

The Red Sox have been under a depressing, sickening, soul-crushing cloud of misery for decades. 86 frickin’ years. That’s how long the Curse lasted. Can you imagine any team in any other sport that made it one step away that many times, only to get the exact same miserable result every single time? Heck, the Indians at least got one! Not only that, a lot of these losses were incredibly freakish Twilight Zone-style aberrations, the most famous example being, of course, game 6 of the '86 series, where the Sox got a 3-run lead and then proceeded to see the dice come up snake eyes something like 400 times in a row.

I was far from ecstatic when the upstart Diamondbacks won it all, and they took out probably the most vile franchise in American sports (and crushed the “Nine Eleven New York Team Must Win!” garbage, too). I didn’t like it at all when the Marlins…Fire sale! Wayne Huizenga! The Mike Piazza sham!..won a second WS. Now the Rockies are in a similar situation. As for the Red Sox, let’s be fair. They’ve been down, beaten, crushed, always one tantalizing thousandth of an inch away for 86 years. With that 800,000,000 pound gorilla finally off, wouldn’t you expect their fans to pick up a little cockiness, a little swagger? And at least it hasn’t been going on forever, like, say, Duke University. As for being Yankees Lite, well, they’ve been the Yankees’ doormat for so long, it’s good that at least they’re standing up now.

So I have just the slighters misgivings of the Rockies winning, but none whatsoever for the Red Sox. Take it for what it’s worth.

(Actually, though, I’m just happy if it goes to a sixth game. I mean, sheesh, what was up with the Cardinals in '04?)

327

The Red Sox lost the right for an ysympathy for being star crossed when they won it in '04. And while the Red Sox loss in '86 might be more famous than the Tribe’s in '97, it wasn’t more terrible or weirder, only better hyped.
The Indians haven’t won a Series since '48… that means any Indians fan under the age of 60 doesn’t have a meaningful recollection of that win. Boston fans also had a team that was competitive for most of the century. Indians fans have a team that was considered top notch for about 5 years in the mid 90’s… three years in the late 40’s/ early 50’s, and a decent stretch back when players still smoked on the field and worse their moustachios in greased loops.
Now, compare the Tribe’s woes to the Cubbies, and I’ll shut my mouth.

328

Eh…while I would have liked to have seen Cleveland win, I have to say I wasn’t impressed with the caliber of the Indian defense. Too many times they didn’t put as much “oomphf” into the plays…and that made a difference. Look at the last inning and how much effort the Red Socks put into getting those outs. Then look at how laxadasial some of the Indians players were. I’m thinking specifically about Blake at 3rd. I can think of at least 3 or 4 plays in the post season where he could have made plays that he just sort of made a half-hearted attempt at. Compair that to Crisp last night who ran himself into the wall at full speed to make the catch on the last out.

Also, if Colorado is playing as hot in the WS as they were in the playoffs, I’ll be just as happy to see another team get their heads handed to them.

Hey, I have another baseball related question like before, ok to post here or should I ask in IMHO or GQ?

329

Your post is entirely accurate. But I have a few comments.

First, in last night’s game, the Indians played stupid and they played poorly. There is no way Lofton doesn’t score on that ricochet to Ramirez. Ramirez was even conceding the run. This would have made the game 3-3. The Indians screwed up here, not the umpires. If Lofton scored, THIS would have changed the game completely. Also, the Indians had the same problem as the Red Sox in games 3 and 4. Everyone was trying to hit one out. In the Playoffs, that’s usually a good recipe for losing.

Second, the “blown call.” Though we have the benefit of super slo-mo replay, the umpires don’t. In fact, they’re not supposed to even look at it. In real time, from the umpire’s angle, he did the best he could with it. He could have easily called him safe, just like he easily called him out. Welcome to the human factor in baseball, where phantom tags live, fair balls are called foul (and vice versa), and umpire arrogance is king. Close calls not going your way is something that should be expected.

Finally, balls and strikes. I played Little League Baseball all the way to Division 3 college ball. You know what? It’s NEVER consistent. You professed earlier to watching a tons of Indians games this year, can you honestly say there weren’t a at least 15 "Where was that?"moments in every game? Multiply this by 2 for every playing level you descend.

I remember a few years ago Pedro Martinez was part of a pilot program where baseball was instituting electronic strike/ball monitoring. If the ball went through the strike zone, the umpire was instructed to call a strike. If not, he called it a ball. It completely took the umpire’s judgement out of it. Because the umpires’ strikezones are so skewed, Martinez ended up walking like 7 batters, because over the years you get to learn specific umpires’ inconsistencies. In short, the strikezones you see on the little Fox graphic mean nothing, and everyone umpire’s is different. In fact, some umpires change their zones in the middle of a game. It happens all the time and it’s very annoying.

330

So what? What the hell does “haven’t paid their dues” mean? They’re a major league baseball team. They have already “paid their dues” by simple virtue of being in the league. And they’ve been in the league since 1993. Exactly how long should they wait before they live up to your standards as being worthy of winning the title?

OK, let’s make this very clear:

THERE WAS NO CURSE

Didn’t exist.

Never happened.

No such thing.

Complete illusion.

Total fairy story.

Yeah, 'cause that’s all it was: the dice coming up snake eyes. The Mets had nothing to do with. The fact that the Red Sox couldn’t come back and win game 7 had nothing to do with it. The actual hitting and pitching performances of the players on the field was completely irrelevant. Never mind all that; it was the dice.

What?

WHAT?

What the hell are you talking about? What do “Fire sale” and “Wayne Huizenga” and “the Mike Piazza sham” have to do with the Rockies? They are the eighth-youngest team in baseball, and have the seventh-lowest payroll in the major leagues. They haven’t exactly gone out and spent big to buy a championship. As for the whole “fire sale” thing, i guess it’s possible. A lot of the Rockies are on single-year contracts, and i suppose that the club might go out and sell off Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday, Brad Hawpe, etc. as soon as the season is over, but (a) i doubt it, and (b) so what?

Sure, i would expect that from their fans, i guess.

What i wouldn’t expect, and what i’ve seen on a few occasions, is for that new swagger to be accompanied—as it is right here in your own post—by the same old whining about how unlucky and cursed the Red Sox are. Get over it.

They are perennially among the teams with the highest payroll; they won a World Series three years ago; they are going back this year after another come-from-behind series victory. The time for playing the “always the bridesmaid” card is well and truly over.

Yep, it was the defense that lost the game. No doubt about it.

The five doubles and two home runs that the Red Sox hit had nothing to do with it—chalk it up to Casey Blake’s half-heartedness (and regarding Blake, i think we must have been watching different games; he did make the Indians’ only error, but he also made a cople of strong plays at third).

331

Yep. You know, if they had only played hard they would have won. Damn that Casey Blake!

332

Glad to see that knee jerk reaction to “fans” is still alive and kicking.

I’ll see if I can search for some YouTube clips or something so that I can give you exact plays where I thought they played lazily. I’m glad that in your opinion they did as well as they could, and well, that’s just the way it goes. In my opinion they didn’t sacrifice to make plays. The Cleveland SS played very well, making several plays that were more difficult than just “take two or three steps and hold my glove out”. I’m saying that Blake in particular seemed to take the stance of “well I can’t just grab it, so I’m not going to even try”.

I’ll see if I can find video of some of the post games online and give plays for examples.

333

Actually, the Rockies have most of there core guys signed for a couple of years. Kazuo Matsui is the only regular starter who is a free agent after the season, plus one pitcher (Josh Fogg?) Matt Holliday is signed through next year, and his agent is Scott Boras, so there is some concern about being able to resign him. About three years from now, if this team keeps performing at a high level, there’s going to be a bunch of guys looking to sign fat contracts, but things are OK until then.

334

And three years is forever in baseball, so why worry about it now? Enjoy the trip to the Series, try to ride the streak as far as it will take you, and lose in 6 to the Sox. :smiley:

The Indians were just plain outplayed and outhit the last three games.

335

Thanks for the info. I was relying on a blog entry that said that Tulowitzki, Holliday, and Hawpe were all currently on one-year deals.

336

Tulo is a rookie. It’ll be some time before he can go free agent. You may want to reconsider the usefullness of that blog. :stuck_out_tongue:

What I find mildly amusing is that Helton was this >||< close to being traded to the Red Sox.

337

But it didn’t say he was a free agent. It said that his current contract was for one year. Unless i’m mistaken, those are two different things.

The fact that a player will not be a free agent does not necessarily mean that his contract for the following year has been determined. And, even if a player may not leave of his own accord, the club can still trade him.

338

yabbut, why sell off a player with no real market value? Even if he wins Rookie of the Year, he’s played one year and who knows what he’ll do next year. Plus he’ll be cheap to pay; dirt cheap till he gets to arbitration and reasonably cheap after that. If that blog is seriously tendering the idea that Tulowitzki would be part of a fire sale, I’m not impressed.

339

One bad thing about the two days layoff before the Series begins, is that Tim McCarver gets extra time to think up really dumb things to talk about on the TV broadcast.

Plus, Fox has issued a new directive to the Series producer: from now on, each pivotal moment in the game must feature a minimum of 40 crowd reaction shots, a majority of which must be middle-aged women with hands folded in prayer (the old requirement was 35 reaction shots). The tricky part is that at least 3 of these cutaways must occur after the ball has left the pitcher’s hand and before it reaches the plate.

There was a newspaper story over the weekend quoting a Fox representative as saying that all the crowd reaction shots were an attempt to recreate the actual game experience, as fans don’t just watch the game, they’re always looking around at other things. Yep, that’s what I always do when the bases are loaded and a key hit will win the game - I start glancing around to see how many praying women are sitting near me. :rolleyes:

340

Tulowitzki is Rockies property for two more years under the current collective bargaining agreement.

The likelihood that he will be traded is about one in a zillion.