Playoff Baseball

[jimsumner]

"at least we won't have to play in sub-freezing weather! "

Wait until next year, when the Twins move outdoors.

And this is just the first round of the playoffs. Give it a couple of weeks and a Yankees-Rockies/Phillies series. Almost makes me want to root for the two L.A. teams. Almost.

[Indoor66]

"at least we won't have to play in sub-freezing weather! "

Wait until next year, when the Twins move outdoors.

And this is just the first round of the playoffs. Give it a couple of weeks and a Yankees-Rockies/Phillies series. Almost makes me want to root for the two L.A. teams. Almost.

I am glad you added that second Almost. I was getting scared. I look for a Yankees-Phillies series.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

An A bomb. from ARod!
Hip hip Jorge! Hip hip Jorge!

[YourLandlord]

An A bomb. from ARod!

This is offensive to Hideki Matsui.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

This is offensive to Hideki Matsui.

No, it is not. Yankee radio announcer John Sterling says it every time ARod hits a home run. If it bothered Godzilla, he would have said something to Sterling years ago and Sterling would have changed it.

[ncexnyc]

Irrelevant and wrong. A Twins player was shown demonstrating how far fair the ball was. The umpire was 20 feet away. He's probably being investigated as we speak.

I'm sorry, but the only one who is wrong is you! The player you mention, was Orlando Cabrera, who saw the play in the clubhouse. This fact was pointed out by the broadcasters during the game. Please pay attention.

Again, none of the Twins players or coaches said boo about the play after that call was made.

[ncexnyc]

"at least we won't have to play in sub-freezing weather! "

Wait until next year, when the Twins move outdoors.

And this is just the first round of the playoffs. Give it a couple of weeks and a Yankees-Rockies/Phillies series. Almost makes me want to root for the two L.A. teams. Almost.

This is indeed a sad joke when baseball's championship is decided under such poor weather conditions.

The owners need to realize that the regular season needs to end two weeks earlier at the very least. This is something that can be done by adding more doubleheaders to the schedule and since they won't go back to the old days of two games for the price of one, they can go with the day night doubleheader. In order to keep the union happy they can increase the rosters by either two or three players.

[OZZIE4DUKE]

This is indeed a sad joke when baseball's championship is decided under such poor weather conditions.

The owners need to realize that the regular season needs to end two weeks earlier at the very least. This is something that can be done by adding more doubleheaders to the schedule and since they won't go back to the old days of two games for the price of one, they can go with the day night doubleheader. In order to keep the union happy they can increase the rosters by either two or three players.

As a teenager growing up in NY, I loved the double headers, whether pre-scheduled or as makeup games late in the season. I went to several at Yankee Stadium. I remember early September 1968 when the Yanks ended up with 3 double headers in 4 days - Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Rocky Colavito, HOF (?) outfielder, was brought in to pitch a couple of innings on Saturday, and did very well. The Yanks actually came back and won that game, although Colvito wasn't the winning pitcher. I listened to that game on the radio. Then on Tueday I went to the Stadium and short stop Gene Michael was the starting pitcher for the second game of that double header. He did OK. The Yanks got back to respectability that August/September and finished 5th in the 10 team league (after finishing 10th and 9th in 1966 and 1967).

[Olympic Fan]

So three of the four division series are over in three ... only the Phils-Rockies are still playing. I wonder if that will be a disadvantage for the winner of that series ... or will the longer layoff hurt the Dodgers? In the American League, the Yankees and Angels closed it out within hours of each other.

Just a few observations:

(1) We had another huge blown call in the top of the ninth in the Rockies-Phils game. With one out and a man on second, Chase Utley hits a ball straight down that bounces up, hits him in the leg and rolls fair. He reaches first and the runner goes to third. Replays clearly show that it should have been a foul ball (he was in the batter's box when he was hit). With runners on first and third, Ryan Howard flies to the warning track and what proves to be the winning run scores.

(2) Nice ballcaps with earflaps worn by the Phillies. I sense a new marketing campaign. Jim is right that we might run into some cold nights in Philadelphia or New York the rest of the way, but I doubt we'll see anything like what we saw last night in Denver. Seeing the clouds of vaper coming out of every player's mouth when he breathed reminded me of one of the great inside stories about the movie Bull Durham. It was filmed late at night in midwinter and sometimes the temp got down in the 30s. They had a big problem with players exhaling visible clouds of vapor. To prevent it, the guys on screen all had to suck on ice before their scenes (since its the contrast between warm breath and cold air that causes the vapor clouds).

(3) For a team that is supposed to be fundamentally sound, the Twins make an awful lot of baserunning errors. And for a guy who is supposed to be a lousy shortstop, it's amazing how many times Derek Jeter finds himself in the middle of decisive defensive plays in postseason.

(4) Rocky Colavito was a great player for a short time for the Cleveland Indians (before Trader Frank Lane broke his heart by trading him to Detroit -- a swap of the home run champ, Colavito, and the batting champ, Kuenn) ... and he definitely did pitch some relief in his final years with the Yankees. But he wasn't good enough, long enough -- he's not in the Hall of Fame (and doesn't really deserve to be).

[jimsumner]

OF,

Did you stay up for the end of the Rockies-Phillies game? If so, kudos. I stayed up after midnight and it was only the 5th inning or so when I gave up.

Rocky Colavito brings back some memories. He had the most intimidating at-bat routine ever. He would get in the box, stare at the pitcher, and slowly bring his bat to where it was pointing directly at the pitcher. It scared me watching on a black and white TV. I can only imagine how it looked to a pitcher.

Then again, Rocky spent some time flat on his back.

Then again2, he spent some time getting back up and hitting homers.

Shortening the season might help some with the weather but you'd probably have to cut at least two weeks to make any real difference. The barons who run the game aren't going to want to cut back to 154 games, they aren't going to embrace double-headers and deeper rosters, and they sure aren't going to play World Series games on weekday afternoons, as they did when I was a little squirt. I still remember our 5th grade teacher letting us listen to gave seven on the 1960 WS on transistor radios. Bless you, Mrs. Kinlaw, wherever you are.

As for forgiving the Forbes Field groundskeeper, I'm still working on it. These things take time.

[Mal]

(3) For a team that is supposed to be fundamentally sound, the Twins make an awful lot of baserunning errors.

Can we just change the "make" above to "made?" Typically, it's true, they are fundamentally sound and don't make a lot of baserunning errors. Against the Yankees, as I've noted a few times previously, they do not play as themselves. For Punto, one of the savviest ballplayers on the team, to make that mistake, is almost inconceivable. Well, against any other team but the Yankees, it is.

Agreed with whomever upthread that Friday's loss was due to not taking advantage of the 17 guys on base, including 8 in the first 4 innings off Burnett. That said, the blown call on Mauer's double was devastating. Sure, you can't count on all the subsequent things that happened happening, but starting that inning off with a double rather than a single makes it significantly more likely the Twins win that game. That blown call was like a Cubbie Occurrence for the Twins when they're playing the Yankees. It's all the bad luck they need to let their slim margin for error tip against them. That's all the whining I'll do about it, however. Wouldn't have made a difference in the long run. I'm just annoyed at this self-perpetuating hex against the Yankees. No one who didn't watch this team all season got an accurate, or good, impression of them in the postseason. They're not as mediocre as they showed - they scored the fourth most runs in the AL this season. And then they lay an egg like this, scoring first in all three games and predictably frittering each lead away and not scoring any more. It's just so tiring.

Also, Oly, no offense to Jeter as always, but he had no play to first last night. 9 out of 10 high school shortstops make that play. And one more exhibit in the media infatuation with the guy - Chip Caray gushing about how brilliant Jeter is to be covering third when A-Rod catches a ground ball ranging left? Has this guy ever watched a baseball game before? What 12 year-old shortstop doesn't do the same? I suppose he did cover third in a more majestic manner than most, though.

OK, I'll step away and continue licking my considerable wounds in private now.

[Indoor66]

OF,

Did you stay up for the end of the Rockies-Phillies game? If so, kudos. I stayed up after midnight and it was only the 5th inning or so when I gave up.

Rocky Colavito brings back some memories. He had the most intimidating at-bat routine ever. He would get in the box, stare at the pitcher, and slowly bring his bat to where it was pointing directly at the pitcher. It scared me watching on a black and white TV. I can only imagine how it looked to a pitcher.

Then again, Rocky spent some time flat on his back.

Then again2, he spent some time getting back up and hitting homers.

Shortening the season might help some with the weather but you'd probably have to cut at least two weeks to make any real difference. The barons who run the game aren't going to want to cut back to 154 games, they aren't going to embrace double-headers and deeper rosters, and they sure aren't going to play World Series games on weekday afternoons, as they did when I was a little squirt. I still remember our 5th grade teacher letting us listen to gave seven on the 1960 WS on transistor radios. Bless you, Mrs. Kinlaw, wherever you are.

As for forgiving the Forbes Field groundskeeper, I'm still working on it. These things take time.

My favorite days watching Colovito was in the mid-fifties when he played in the very expansive Reading (Pa) Municipal park for the AAA Reading Indians. He hit some extremely memorable shots out of that park - in the 450'+ range. He could really tatoo a ball.

[weezie]

Did we or did we not do a thread on "Batting Stance Guy" on youtube? I can't remember. Well, even if we did, here's the Yankees-Twins series that just mercifully ended.

http://www.battingstanceguy.com/2009...s-2009-edition

[OZZIE4DUKE]

Did we or did we not do a thread on "Batting Stance Guy" on youtube? I can't remember. Well, even if we did, here's the Yankees-Twins series that just mercifully ended.

http://www.battingstanceguy.com/2009...s-2009-edition

Priceless. Thanks! I especially love the last two batters from years gone by

[jimsumner]

An emerging theme in this year's postseason is the failure of elite closers. Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, and Huston Street all blew two-run leads in the ninth inning of games their teams absolutely had to have. And that doesn't even include Holiday's error and the Cards collapse.

[YourLandlord]

An emerging theme in this year's postseason is the failure of elite closers. Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, and Huston Street all blew two-run leads in the ninth inning of games their teams absolutely had to have. And that doesn't even include Holiday's error and the Cards collapse.

Here's a stat for you Jim:

Rivera, Nathan, Papelbon, Fuentes, Lidge, Street, Broxton, Franklin: 0-4, 5.66 ERA, 4 blown saves in Division Series.

[jimsumner]

There have some compelling storylines so far, the Angels getting the BoSox monkey off their backs, no-name Dodgers starters outdueling Carpenter and Wainwright, ARod breaking out in the postseason, some memorable comebacks.

But, the lasting image seems to be failure. Blown saves, missed calls, a key dropped fly ball (how often do good major league outfielders simply drop fly balls?), hideous base-running errors.

Add in the numbing cold in Denver and the fact that the first round produced three sweeps and a four-gamer, and the baseball moguls cannot be happy.

The baseball gods are capricious. Maybe they're setting us up for something great down the line. But the early returns are not encouraging.

[hurleyfor3]

Add in the numbing cold in Denver and the fact that the first round produced three sweeps and a four-gamer, and the baseball moguls cannot be happy.

Yeah, but it's TBS. It takes me 10 minutes just to find TBS. Or worse, I have to figure out it's on TNT and find that instead.

Nobody in the media can complain about the markets that are still in play, tho.

[SoCalDukeFan]

If I could I would reduce the schedule and shorten the schedule. However that is very unlikely to happen.

My solution would be to start the season in early March and play the first month of games in warm weather parks or domes. Add a few more double headers. Play the World Series in mid October.

You can't dictate the teams in the teams in the playoffs or World Series. Imagine Rockies/Twins next year. But you can dictate the home teams in March and early April.

SoCal

[Olympic Fan]

Are there any other Yankee fans upset by the apparent decision by Girardi to go with a three-man rotation in the ALCS?

I realize that nothing is written in stone at this point, still I think it's a bad, BAD idea. Sabathia has little experience pitching on three-day's rest and when he did try it late last year, he was relatively ineffective.

I understand that they would like to have Sabathia pitch games 1-4-7 (and with the weird schedule, there is a second extra day between 4-and-7). I also realize that they want to keep Chamberlain in the bullpen as a setup guy.

Fair enough.

Still, I'd much prefer to go Sabathia-Burnett-Pettite to start ... then use Chad Gaudin (2-0, 3.42 ERA) in Game 4 and hope he can get you 3-4-5 solid innings, then go to Chamberlain and hope he can get to Hughes/Rivera. Then come back with your big three. That would still give you Pettite, your most experienced postseason pitcher, working in a Game 7.

The danger of wearing Sabathia out now is that even if the Yankees win, they still have to face LA/Philly in the World Series. I like my odds a lot better with a fresh Sabathia than a tired one.

I realize there's talk of a long-range weather report that suggests that rain could delay a game (although if one or two are delayed, wouldn't they simple eat up the Sunday travel day?). Still, if that happens you can adjust when it happens. In addition, you can change your game four starter based on the outcome of the first three games ... maybe if you're down 0-3 or even 1-2, you gamble on Sabathia. But with a 2-1 lead or especially a 3-0 edge, don't do it.