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devilsrule33

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How big was Atlanta's lead on the wild card?

Also it figures that now Proctor is finding a way to pitch scoreless innings. At some point his arm is going to fall off...just give up a damn run and get back to NY already!!!

I think this stat (via Twitter) sums it up well:

"On August 25, the Braves had 99.2% playoff odds and led the Giants by 9½ games and the Cardinals by 10½ games in the Wild Card."

I think they mentioned it on the broadcast too... I think 8 or 8.5 game lead in early September.

Brutal, brutal collapse. There are no words to describe as a fan; I've been through it. It's just an awkward feeling of shock and disbelief.

Edited by nmigliore
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I have seen a lot in sports but tonight might be as crazy if not the craziest thing I have ever seen. That was fvcking ridiculous. The Rays really were the team of destiny. The Sox pitching was a joke down the stretch. And of course leave it to the biggest bust Crawford missing a very catchable ball and then floating a ball wide at the plate. He was an awful fielder all year.

Loved the Orioles celebrating like they won the whole damn thing. Just an insane night.

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Did anyone else last night watch the ESPN documentary on the Steve Bartman incident? It was EXCELLENT!

After last night's wild finish, I was scrolling through this thread and came across this comment. Glad that doc was good as I had tickets to see that during the Tribeca Film Festival but couldn't go due to a scheduling conflict. Really crazy story and Gibney is an excellent documentary director, probably one of my favorites. Definately check out his other work if you enoyed Catching Hell.

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After last night's wild finish, I was scrolling through this thread and came across this comment. Glad that doc was good as I had tickets to see that during the Tribeca Film Festival but couldn't go due to a scheduling conflict. Really crazy story and Gibney is an excellent documentary director, probably one of my favorites. Definately check out his other work if you enoyed Catching Hell.

I guess I might have to check out Gibney's other films because this one was superb. He did a heckuva job going over the craziness that went down at Wrigley Field that night.

I have no idea why ESPN chose this week to show it. With all of the big MLB games going on, it got lost in the mix.

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I was a little disappointed in the documentary actually. There was fantastic stuff in there. All the camera angles, home footage, and audio they got from the game was special. But like many have said they dropped the ball talking about game 7. Everyone has forgot about game 7. I had totally forgot about game 7, and when they showed the Marlins up 3-0, I just assumed it was a blowout. But then to see Kerry Wood tie the game with a 3-run homer, and then the Cubs take the lead...wow. Just like people forgot (or never knew) the Sox were up 3-0 in game 7 in 1986, and I don't think that was mentioned

But Gibney glossed over it like every Cubs fan, die hard fan of baseball or casual sports fan has in the last 8 years. It should have been up to him to point out how good and feared the Prior-Wood combo was. He should have talked about how late Prior was kept in for. Big mistake.

I also wished he talked to more players on the Cubs team besides Karros, who didn't really say much at all. Shame Baker, Gonzalez, Prior or Woods wouldn't speak.

I didn't get the syncing up the audio that Bartman heard and the action on the field. What was the point? It had nothing to do with confusion. Like most people, Bartman saw a ball come his way and like 98% of people in the situation, forgot about the score and the importance and went for the ball. Listening to the game had nothing to do with anything.

Overall, I enjoyed it for all the extra stuff on Bartman, the fans around him, the security guard etc. I liked the Buckner stuff. It showed that winning does change a lot for the fans and the goat. And as a non-Red Sox fan, I never really knew about how big of a collapse that was before the error. Like Bartman, Buckner took the hit, even though there was so much more to it, a lot that Gibney didn't even discuss. But again, Gibney missed the opportunity to talk about how much more there was. People might leave the doc feeling bad for Bartman for everything he has been through and taking the heat, but won't totally understand how ridiculous it was for him to take the heat in the first place.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry I didn't notice this earlier. As someone who loves the draft, that's a pretty incredible study, thanks for posting that. While I figured there was at least SOME kind of gap between, say, 17 and 18 year old hitters, I would have never imagined it to be that big.

Edited by nmigliore
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I was looking at some of Keith Law's AFL blog posts and he mentioned Anthony Gose, the centerfielder the Jays acquired for Brett Wallace.

I searched the boards because I was curious of what I thought of the move at the time and this was my reaction (and apparently Keith Law's as well):

..And Houston just flipped Gose to Toronto for Brett Wallace. I guess Toronto opted to shoot for more upside by taking the guy with the higher ceiling [Gose]. Wallace has the much higher floor though. Wallace has some questions about him (he hasn't walked much in AAA, his power and position are question marks), but I'd still personally take him over Gose.

Heh I just read Keith Law's perspective of the trades... he basically feels the Oswalt trade was a 'no-brainer' for Philly and the Gose-for-Wallace swap makes no sense from Toronto's perspective.

http://njdevs.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=60490&st=80&p=914245&hl=gose&fromsearch=1entry914245

That's pretty funny. Especially Keith Law's take of it making zero sense for the Jays. Well... since the deal, Wallace has posted a .248/.323/.354 batting line in 538 career ML plate appearances and looks more and more like a bust by the day. Gose, meanwhile? He's coming off of a breakout year as a 20 year old in AA, hitting a very solid .253/.349/.415 with 16 HR and 70 stolen bases (!), and according to Law, is flashing star potential:

Toronto Blue Jays centerfielder Anthony Gose took a major step forward this year with his performance in AA at age 20, showing patience and a little more pop, with a strong .254/.358/.444 line against right-handed pitchers. He does need to improve against southpaws, and his line was boosted by a good home park (especially for left-handed hitters), but given his athleticism and other tools, the hitting line and the improvements in his swing that caused it are really promising.

...

Gose is a 70 runner with a 70 arm (although the one game throw I saw was more of a 60, if you want to nit-pick) who should have plenty of range for centerfield, so the offensive baseline for him to be an average everyday player in the majors is pretty low. He still has a lot of improvements ahead of him to become a star but I am very optimistic about him reaching that. When the Jays traded Brett Wallace to Houston for Gose two summers ago, I didn't understand the deal, as Wallace was a polished, disciplined hitter while Gose was all tools but didn't have great performances or advanced mechanics. Wallace, it turns out, had a fatal flaw that was exposed in AAA and now in the majors -- he cannot turn on inside pitches, so he tries to go to the opposite field instead; with minimal defensive value and no apparent way to fix that flaw, he was expendable for the Jays. Gose, meanwhile, is no longer a tools goof but the kind of high-upside prospect Toronto GM Alex Anthopoulos has said all along that he wants in the organization. Gose still needs work in some areas, including developing a viable two-strike approach, but the risk the Blue Jays took in acquiring him appears to be paying off in a huge way.

Amazing how such a trade can work. More than a year ago when it was consummated, it really wasn't that significant, and most figured Toronto was on the low-end of the deal, if anything. But now, 15 months later, the Jays have an exciting CF prospect on their hands while the Astros have... well, Brett Wallace. I think it really speaks to how valuable good scouting can be; when that trade was made, Gose was one of those bag-full-of-tools prospects that you had to see with your own eyes to actually want him; there was pretty much nothing in the numbers to suggest there was anything there. The Jays' scouts must have really liked him, because they also supposedly coveted him in the Halladay deal, and now the Jays organization as a whole looks pretty smart for pulling the trigger on a prospect-for-prospect swap that once didn't seem like much.

Also what's funny is how the Halladay kind of set it all up. They acquired outfield prospect Michael Taylor along with Kyle Drabek and Travis D'Arnaud. They then shipped Taylor to Oakland for Wallace immediately afterward. Wallace was then used to acquire Gose from Houston when they acquired him from Philadelphia in the Oswalt deal at the 2010 trade deadline.

Edited by nmigliore
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The Gold Gloves are always a joke. I think the fact they were announced around 11pm shows just how many people actually care.

If there were a Yankee being robbed for the acknowledgment of his defense though, it has to be Brett Gardner. Dude is an ELITE defensive player and is certainly one of the most under-appreciated players in the league. It's very hard to ever consider a player a +15 or greater true talent level at a position (talking defensive metrics here), but based on what Gardner has done in his career in LF, he seems to be just that, probably greater.

Speaking of awards, these would be my picks for the major ones:

AL MVP: Jacoby Ellsbury. Very hard, actually. Jose Bautista would be a very, very close 2nd for me, and I feel a little guilty giving Ellsbury the edge based on a difference of defensive runs... but defense does matter, and Ellsbury, if not the best hitter, was just the better all-around player. Can't go around with picking either though; I wouldn't argue against Bautista being the choice.

NL MVP: Matt Kemp. Again, very hard. Ryan Braun was the better hitter and Kemp only really wins out because he's a centerfielder. Position, like defense, matters though, so edge to Kemp. Like Ellsbury/Bautista, there is nothing wrong with choosing one or the other here.

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander. Pretty much was equal to Sabathia in value, believe it or not, but loses out in actual results, which I'll go with as a tiebreaker (fairly or unfairly).

NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay. Easy choice for me though traditional stat folk will argue Clayton Kershaw is just as deserving.

AL Rookie of the Year: Michael Pineda. I just think he was the most valuable rookie, plain and simple. Brett Lawrie and Dustin Ackley aren't bad choices; neither is Jeremy Hellickson if you like traditional stats (I don't).

NL Rookie of the Year: Craig Kimbrel. Unbelievable season for a reliever, forget the fact he was a rookie. The Braves have a very special arm on their hands.

Edited by nmigliore
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These are supposedly the new, leaked jerseys for the Florida Miami Marlins:

rainbow_bright_miami_marlins_new_uniforms_maybe_leak.jpg

rainbow_bright_miami_marlins_new_uniforms_maybe_leak.jpg

I think that's the worst uniform I've ever seen, especially the road greys with the blue (turquoise?) and black hat; wtf?

I think the black looks okay but it reminds me too much of the Orioles' black alternates they wear. Doesn't help that their logos are kind of crappy too.

Edited by nmigliore
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  • 2 weeks later...

Justin Verlander won the AL Cy Young. No surprises here.

On the topic though, it's kind of ridiculous Jose Valverde and his beautiful 1 win above replacement came in 5th. Poor voters.

And from previous days: Craig Kimbrel took home the NL RoY and Jeremy Hellickson won it for the AL (bleh).

Edited by nmigliore
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Cant stand the Phillies and cant stand Papelbon...

and I definitely cant stand the contract the two just reached

Committing $50M to a reliever is horrible. Committing more than 3 years to relievers is also generally a horrible idea. The Phillies don't care though; they've been pretty adamant (based on all of their moves) that they could give a crap about what they'll look like in a few years. Not that I mind... I enjoy seeing them dump their farm and tie themselves into contracts to aging players.

Edited by nmigliore
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