94 replies to this topic

[nmigliore]

I'm a Yankees homer, no doubt, but I will eat my shoe if the Rangers beat the Rays in 4 games, followed by the Yankees in 5. No way . If they beat the rays, it will be in 5 games.

Its 5-0 now, and assuming this result hold up, Texas will be up 2-0 heading back to Arlington.

They're for real.

Edited by nmigliore, 07 October 2010 - 03:15 PM.

[devilsrule33]

I'm with you and took the Rangers in both game 1 and 2. The Rays are just overrated. This isn't the same lineup as 2008. Longoria isn't that good yet. And their staff after Price isn't all that good. Shields was a mess down the stretch.

The Rangers on the other hand have a loaded lineup, a proven big-game playoff pitcher, a very good 2-starter in Wilson and a very good no-name bullpen.

I know it is a little late saying this, but my thoughts on the series have helped me win some coin so far. Rangers definitely have the total package to compete for a title.

[grcenter47]

I'm with you and took the Rangers in both game 1 and 2. The Rays are just overrated. This isn't the same lineup as 2008. Longoria isn't that good yet. And their staff after Price isn't all that good. Shields was a mess down the stretch.

The Rangers on the other hand have a loaded lineup, a proven big-game playoff pitcher, a very good 2-starter in Wilson and a very good no-name bullpen.

I know it is a little late saying this, but my thoughts on the series have helped me win some coin so far. Rangers definitely have the total package to compete for a title.

not only that but the Rays just dont hit. they are more of a take a lot of pitches and walk team. Their team batting average is around .240ish

[nmigliore]

The Rays have 2 legit lineup threats in Crawford and Longoria, after thats its meh. Hitters like Pena, Zobrist, and Bartlett haven't hit as well as they did last year.

[devilsfan26]

I have only seen about two innings so far of the Yankees series, but this play by play guy is beyond brutal. I actually wish it was Joe Buck.

[nmigliore]

I didn't see much of the Giants/Braves game last night, but holy crap, Tim Lincecum was apparently pretty filthy; CG shutout, 2 hits, 1 BB, 14 K. Win Probability Added (WPA) says that was much better than Roy Halladay's no-hitter too; Halladay's WPA was +32.3%; Lincecum's was +71.1%!

Edited by nmigliore, 08 October 2010 - 12:34 PM.

[Hi, I'm VALUE!]

I didn't see much of the Giants/Braves game last night, but holy crap, Tim Lincecum was apparently pretty filthy; CG shutout, 2 hits, 1 BB, 14 K. Win Probability Added (WPA) says that was much better than Roy Halladay's no-hitter too; Halladay's WPA was +32.3%; Lincecum's was +71.1%!

Watched the whole performance. Filthy is the right word to describe. But he shouldn't have gotten the "W" had the ump made the right call on the Posey steal. That call set up the only run for all 9 innings on both sides.

[grcenter47]

I have only seen about two innings so far of the Yankees series, but this play by play guy is beyond brutal. I actually wish it was Joe Buck.

It is horrible. You have Smoltz and Darling who only do NL games and can't really provide any interesting commentary on the American league. Then Ernie Johnson is a joke and I think he has only done basketball.

My dad said back in the day they used to have one announcers from the station that does the event and 2 other announcers each from the represented team. My only concern about that was I cant see someone like Michael Kay or Singleton doing the game if they are under contract by YES. On the other hand, Leiter does YES games and works for the MLB network

Edited by grcenter47, 08 October 2010 - 12:39 PM.

[devilsrule33]

Hey nmigloire. Lay off the advanced stats for a second and just enjoy two of the greatest pitched game in MLB playoff history. The bottom line is both pitchers came with their A game and neither Cinci or the Braves had the slighest chance of winning their games. Not the slightest.

I know Ks rate pitchers higher in all these statistics like game score etc, but Halladay throws strikes and pitches to contact. He pounded the strike zone and the Reds still couldn't touch him. Lincecum's a different pitcher and even nastier in some respects. He's going to try and strikeout every batter.

Joe Posnanski wrote a great article on the two. http://joeposnanski....y-and-lincecum/

Edited by devilsrule33, 08 October 2010 - 12:41 PM.

[nmigliore]

It is horrible. You have Smoltz and Darling who only do NL games and can't really provide any interesting commentary on the American league. Then Ernie Johnson is a joke and I think he has only done basketball.

TBS can never get their broadcasts right, at least not the play-by-play guys. I do like Ron Darling, though I'm probably being a homer since hes part of the Mets' broadcast. John Smoltz is alright too. But Ernie Johnson... man. He's just brutal.

Dr33 - You know I admittedly go a bit nuts with the advanced stats, but its always kinda fun to compare the true dominance of 2 pitchers' starts in that light. Its not to take a way from either pitcher's start; like you said, both pitched with their 'A' game and had no chance of being beaten. Its just cool to glance it once in awhile when you have performances like the ones Halladay and Lincecum just had. If you prefer to just say "both pitched amazingly well, and that's that" that's fine, but me being a stat-nut, I always like to check out and compare things like WPA, Game score, etc.

If you see one of my posts from the other day, I did say 1 thing that the advanced stats might not fully agree with me on, and that's Roy Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball.

Edited by nmigliore, 08 October 2010 - 01:03 PM.

[grcenter47]

TBS can never get their broadcasts right, at least not the play-by-play guys. I do like Ron Darling, though I'm probably being a homer since hes part of the Mets' broadcast. John Smoltz is alright too. But Ernie Johnson... man. He's just brutal.

Dr33 - You know I admittedly go a bit nuts with the advanced stats, but its always kinda fun to compare the true dominance of 2 pitchers' starts in that light. Its not to take a way from either pitcher's start; like you said, both pitched with their 'A' game and had no chance of being beaten. Its just cool to glance it once in awhile when you have performances like the ones Halladay and Lincecum just had.

i like ron darling too and his new book. I just dont like NL announcers doing AL games

[nmigliore]

By the way Dr33, as someone just pointed out to me on another website, Lincecum's WPA so much higher partially due to the Giants' lack of offense last night, leading to Lincecum consuming the majority of the WPA, if you will. This is a better indication of how dominant Lincecum was:

A contact rate of 65% is very, very good for a pitcher, and I think all of us who watched that game still have vivid memories of seeing the A's helplessly flail away. Felix even struck out Jason Kendall three times, which is saying something, given that Kendall has been one of the most difficult hitters to strike out in modern baseball history. Felix didn't care. Felix did the job. That afternoon, Felix was as good as Felix has ever been in his life.

65%.

Tim Lincecum's contact rate last night was 44%.

I know the Braves aren't exactly starting a full-strength lineup, but they had Jason Heyward in there. They had Brian McCann in there. Everybody else, aside from the pitcher, has been at least okay. That lineup wasn't out-and-out bad. And Tim Lincecum made them look like middle school hitters in a high school practice.

Lincecum's start was so extraordinarily good in an obvious yet different sort of way that it might be doomed for a lifetime of underappreciation. People will remember Roy Halladay's no-hitter for decades. Roy Halladay didn't allow a hit. That's amazing. But a lot of pitchers have thrown no-hitters. I'm guessing far fewer pitchers have ever generated at least 30 swinging strikes.

Just incredible.

http://www.lookoutla...-in-perspective

I know, I know; Halladay is more of a pitch-to-contact pitcher while Lincecum is a swing-and-miss pitcher, leading to results favoring Lincecum, but he really was insane last night. Like I mentioned in prior posts, I have no shame in admitting Roy Halladay is still the pitcher I rather have in a must-win game, even if my advanced stats don't always fully agree.

Edited by nmigliore, 08 October 2010 - 01:26 PM.

[devilsrule33]

Dr33 - You know I admittedly go a bit nuts with the advanced stats, but its always kinda fun to compare the true dominance of 2 pitchers' starts in that light. Its not to take a way from either pitcher's start; like you said, both pitched with their 'A' game and had no chance of being beaten. Its just cool to glance it once in awhile when you have performances like the ones Halladay and Lincecum just had. If you prefer to just say "both pitched amazingly well, and that's that" that's fine, but me being a stat-nut, I always like to check out and compare things like WPA, Game score, etc.

If you see one of my posts from the other day, I did say 1 thing that the advanced stats might not fully agree with me on, and that's Roy Halladay is the best pitcher in baseball.

I was going to allude to your last point. The thing with GS and others is strikeouts are a giant part of it. After all, they say a pitcher can control strikeouts, walks, and home runs. Nothing else. But from watching Doc for so many years, he doesn't want to strike batters out. He wants weak ground outs and to throw the fewest pitches possible. In the last few years, he started getting a lot more strikeouts. It might be just him fooling some batters with his new pitches than getting them out with his cutter.

But back to my point, watching the Reds-Phillies games. Even if the Ks didn't reach 14 or even 10, one thing was for sure. No one could hit him hard. He threw 25 first pitch strikes facing 28 batters. He absolutely pounded the strike zone and the Reds just couldn't hit it. In the 8th and 9th, he threw 17 pitches combined. In the 9th, weak pop up to 2nd followed by weak popup to the 3rd baseman in foul ground, and finally, a very weak tapper to the catcher. That's what it was about. There was one hard hit ball the entire game. And like one writer pointed out, it was to the one player that Halladay couldn't have ever predicted he would face, Travis Wood.

I understand there are chances for errors and when you strike out someone there isn't. But this is the MLB. You got to just trust your guys that they can make routine plays. And in that game, they were all very routine.

Edit: Just want to add. Lincecum definitely has filthier stuff. 30 swinging strikes is downright insane. They are two very different pitchers and are both too fun to watch.

Edited by devilsrule33, 08 October 2010 - 01:36 PM.

[nmigliore]

Didn't watch the Reds/Phillies game last night for obvious reasons (Devils), but after watching a few highlights, talk about really shooting yourself in the foot; 4-0 lead blown by 5 unearned runs. Yikes. The umpiring was supposedly pretty brutal too. Unfortunately for the Reds, Philly looks primed to take that series in a sweep or 4 games. The same can be said for the Yankees and Rangers in their respective series.

At least we have one competitive divisional series that won't have the chance to end in a sweep in Braves/Giants. I only watched bits and pieces of the the Giants/Braves game until the bottom of the 7th inning, and that's pretty much when everything just began; Braves storming back vs Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson in the 8th, Billy Wagner getting hurt in the 10th, the Braves turning what was probably a season-saving double play in that same inning, and Rick Ankiel of all people sending a moonshot into McCovey Cove in the 11th inning to win it for Atlanta.

Edited by nmigliore, 09 October 2010 - 10:58 AM.

[grcenter47]

what does everyone think the MLB will do to prevent further bad calls by umpires next season

[PeteyNice]

So I just got back from the Braves debacle. Wow. Talking about going from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. One hit for 7 innings. Rally to take the lead. ONE STRIKE away from what would have been a thrilling victory and BAM! Lost in an instant. I don't see Conrad can play tomorrow. I don't see how he was in the game in the 9th to begin with. The Braves had 4 hits, Conrad made 3 errors. Just brutal. Right after his error in the 9th they showed video of him hitting a game winning HR on the scoreboard. The whole place booed.

[nmigliore]

Gotta give the Rays credit. They've fought back to win 2 games in Texas forcing a game 5 back in Tampa Bay. I really didn't see that coming after the way Texas rolled through them the first 2 games. I still like Texas to win the series but game 5 should be a pleasure to watch with Price vs Lee as the pitching matchup.

And yeah, that's a killer loss for Atlanta.

Edited by nmigliore, 10 October 2010 - 09:22 PM.

[Devils Dose]

game 5 should be a pleasure to watch with Price vs Lee as the pitching matchup.

That's the problem. The winner's ace will be used up heading into the series against the Yankees.

[Hi, I'm VALUE!]

That's the problem. The winner's ace will be used up heading into the series against the Yankees.

Which is full of win.

[devilsrule33]

Rangers-Rays. Game 5. Awesome pitchers duel. Who does everyone have?

I'll take Cliff Lee in the big game, but wouldn't be shocked if the Rays took this one. Go Texas Rangers (hard to just say go Rangers)

Edited by devilsrule33, 12 October 2010 - 06:32 PM.