MLB 2015 Playoffs

[JBDuke]

Figure it's time to shut down the regular season thread and start up a Playoffs thread...

[A-Tex Devil]

Figure it's time to shut down the regular season thread and start up a Playoffs thread...

Astrooooooooos!!

[Devil77]

Astrooooooooos!!

Love the unis!

[Olympic Fan]

Sad to go out with a whimper ... but not surprising. That's the way our bats have been going for the last two weeks.

Now I pull for the Pirates. I just hope Arieta doesn't do to them what Keuchel did to us (he pitched 22 innings vs. the Yankees this year without giving up a run. That's Frank Lary territory).

[gurufrisbee]

Dang impressive pitching job. I know the Yankees bats have been slumping, but only three singles in Yankees stadium from a starter going on three days rest. Guarantee you the Royals are feeling good about DK not starting in their series for a few more days.

[A-Tex Devil]

Celebrating on top of Dallas Keuchel's newly acquired property.

fbb281de63e0f67ba27f703762b765ec.jpg

I usually would say the 'Stros celebration was a little much given the circumstances, but given (1) they lost 111 games two years ago, (2) they are the youngest team in the majors, (3) they have the second lowest salary in the majors, and (4) it's Yankee stadium (well, the new one)).... I'll allow it.

[DukieInKansas]

I still can't get used to the Astros being in the AL. Rooted for them as a National League team.

I prefer the Pirates winning but am okay with the Cubs today.

Let's Go, Royals! (Still hard to cheer for an AL team even though I've lived here for longer than I lived in NL cities. Childhood lessons live on!)

[A-Tex Devil]

I still can't get used to the Astros being in the AL. Rooted for them as a National League team.

I prefer the Pirates winning but am okay with the Cubs today.

Let's Go, Royals! (Still hard to cheer for an AL team even though I've lived here for longer than I lived in NL cities. Childhood lessons live on!)

Ha! My hope is that George Springer hits a Springer Dinger on Volquez, flips his bat, stares him down, taps the hand Volquez broke on an absolute beanball earlier in the year that kept him out 2 months, *THEN* starts his slow run around the bases.

Astros to the AL, coming from a lifelong Astros fan, was a disastrous short term move. Houston has always been a National League town, late games on west coast when Houston has a really bad team, not getting to see familiar teams as often, etc. etc. People lost interest.

But long term, I am comfortable it was a blessing in disguise. A real rivalry is in place with the Rangers, something the Astros never really had. Sure, we thought we had rivals in Cards, Cubs, Braves, etc. but they didn't see it that way (I guess the Astros were the Maryland of the NL). And it looks like given the current team and the farm system, that they are set up for a great run the next 5-7 years. If Kazmir can recover his form and we resign him, and if they can pull in a high OBP bat with pop in the free agent market to balance out all the binary batters they have hitting from 4-9 in the lineup after Altuve/Springer/Correa, they could tear up the league next year.

[duke74]

Celebrating on top of Dallas Keuchel's newly acquired property.

fbb281de63e0f67ba27f703762b765ec.jpg

I usually would say the 'Stros celebration was a little much given the circumstances, but given (1) they lost 111 games two years ago, (2) they are the youngest team in the majors, (3) they have the second lowest salary in the majors, and (4) it's Yankee stadium (well, the new one)).... I'll allow it.

Not a Yankees fan, but the groundskeepers should have turned on the sprinklers. Like the TO jerkdom a few years ago. https://youtu.be/K-nxdzgQH8U

I guess the trick is NOT to lose on your home turf.

[Turk]

https://twitter.com/BBTN/status/6518...566464/photo/1

Both Cubs and Buccos make some lineup tweaks for tonight. Cubs add offense (I'll take ESPN's word for it). The Pirates go for defense, having the offensive mediocrity Sean Rodriguez play first instead of Pedro Alvarez. Maybe "mediocrity" is too polite; as Rodriguez is slotted to bat 8th behind SS Jordy Mercer. Nuff said. Also, I hear Aramis Ramirez might be out with a groin.

So I guess Hurdle is planning for a 0-0 game into the late innings, going for the W with small ball, a deeper bullpen, and better defense. I am still conflicted about this move because how can you take a ballclub seriously when their first baseman hits 8th? On the other hand, the ball always finds the weakest link in the field at the worst possible moment; the baseball gods have always deemed it so. Play ball!

[gurufrisbee]

Maybe they figured they weren't scoring off Arrieta anyways, so save the bats for pinch hitting late.

[Mal]

Sean Rodriguez, man, chill. At least he looks like an actual pirate. That was such a weird plunking/bench clearing/trash talking incident. I don't know if I've heard of a retaliatory pitcher beaning in a playoff game before, but it seems especially dumb in a do or die one game situation. Maybe Watson figured Arrieta hasn't given up 4 runs total in the last two months, this game's over (especially after the bases loaded double play that had just happened), may as well hit him. Then Arrieta stole second without a throw. Bizarre sequence.

Such crummy luck for Pittsburgh, though. They spend decades stinking, and then when they finally get back to respectability (and beyond - I mean, 98 wins is much more than respectable) they get forced into this one game play-in thing three times in a row and get Bumgarner and Arrieta back to back in the last two of them.

That Schwarber homerun was demolished. Wow.

TBS's announcing team is really uninspiring. Johnson's a studio guy, and should probably stay a studio guy. I understand Mets fans generally worship their announcing team, but Darling is terrible in national broadcasts. Maybe he's better with Hernandez to play off, but Ripken, as much as I loved him as a player, doesn't add much at all. It's a common issue when you take the announcer from a specific team and put him in a national broadcast, but Darling gives off a vibe of having just spent the last two hours cramming as much info as he can about the rest of the league into his head. It's even worse when they're calling an AL game.

[JasonEvans]

Sean Rodriguez, man, chill. At least he looks like an actual pirate.

Sadly, this is probably what we will always remember of the Pirates 2015 season.

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CQw2SC5U8AAZHpX.mp4

[Olympic Fan]

Interesting pitching decision going into today's ALDS opener between Toronto and Texas.

Toronto is, of course, going with its ace, David Price. But Texas is starting its third-best starter -- Gallardo. I know that their ace -- Cole Hamels has been dynamite since coming from Philly -- had to pitch Sunday (a game Texas needed to lock up the playoffs without a playoff game). So they decided not to pitch him on three days rest ... okay, I get that.

But Colby Lewis, their No. 2 starter, pitched last Saturday, so he could start tonight on regular rest. Why Gallardo?

Is facing Price so daunting that they want to save their two best pitchers to go the two games after Price? Did I miss something and was Lewis hurt in his last start (he didn't throw well)? I saw an interview with him where he said he will "probably" start Game 3 or Game 4, but might pitch in emergency situations earlier. Why the uncertainty over the team's second-best starter?

Anyway, the projected order means that Hamels will start Friday against Duke's Marcus Stroman in game two of the series.

[Blue in the Face]

I like how at one point he took a mini step back, as if he wanted to give himself room to maneuver in case a counter punch was coming. Savvy.

[CDu]

I think the beaning of Arrieta was an attempt to get him so fired up that he got ejected. That was the only way the Pirates were going to win the game at that point. Notice that Rodriguez and Cole (two guys who were already out of the game) were the ones doing the instigating once the benches cleared. They hit Arrieta in hopes that something crazy would happen and enough key Cubs would lose it and get tossed that they could make a comeback. Didn't work, obviously. Reports are that the beaning was ordered by the manager, not a vigilante play by the pitcher.

I loved the stolen base afterward. An "F you" to the Pirates. Would have loved it even more if Fowler had gotten a hit to score a run that otherwise wouldn't have happened had the Pirates not done the beaning.

The ridiculous part is that neither of the beaned Pirates were intentional. And they were so obviously unintentional. With a 3-run lead and having allowed only one hit, the last thing you want to do is put runners on base for free. You don't want to allow one swing of the bat to make it a 1-run game when you've been cruising. And the second HBP came on a breaking ball while ahead in the count with a runner on and the Pirates' best hitter on deck. No way you risk letting one swing of the bat make it a 1-run game when you have a 4-run lead at that point.

So it almost had to be a "let's hit the pitcher and see if we can get him tossed" situation by the Pirates. A last-ditch effort at saving their season.

[Mal]

Sadly, this is probably what we will always remember of the Pirates 2015 season.

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/CQw2SC5U8AAZHpX.mp4

That actually felt like their postseason, already. I think the actual season ended riiiiight abooooouuut...now:



CDu's theory sounds about right - it's actually not a terrible strategy.

Looking forward to both NL matchups. Both the divisionals and any conceivable NLCS matchup have to be really close to 50/50 propositions. Makes perfect sense, but somehow still seems odd that Cubs/Cards has never happened in the postseason.

Surprised that, as a fan of an AL team, I'm having a hard time caring about the divisional rounds there. Probably because I feel like if KC and Toronto don't meet up it'll be a shame so I'm kind of looking toward the ALCS.

[CDu]

My one complaint about the playoff setup is this: the teams with the two best teams in all of MLB are playing in the first round. That's dumb. That's just as dumb as the previous rule that said the first-round matchups couldn't be between division rivals. It seems like the MLB realized that rule was stupid (because it often prevented the best team from getting to face the weakest team by virtue of them being in the same division), but then overcompensated by having the best team ALWAYS play the wild card team. Now we have the other end of the spectrum, where the NL Central had the three teams with the best records in all of baseball. And so the Cardinals (best record in baseball) are now stuck playing the Cubs (third-best record and second-best among remaining teams) in the first round because the MLB overcorrected their original mistake.

Oh well. As a lifelong Cubs fan, I'm hoping that they continue their recent torrid play (including taking 4 of 6 against the Cards) and beat the Cardinals. Either way, it's been a great season for the Cubs, and they seem to be building a team that should contend for a while (lots of young players under team control for several more years).

[Olympic Fan]

And another win for the road team ... as the Rangers win the opener in Toronto.

David Price has now started six postseason games in his career ... and lost all six. He's got to home for a chance to come back in Game 4 or Game 5, but with Cole Hamels starting for Texas tomorrow against Marcus Stroman, the Blue Jays could find themselves in a big hole.

The Price record reminds me that the big hole in Clayton Kershaw's resume as the greatest pitcher of this generation is his lousy (1-5, 5.12 ERA) postseason record. It will be interesting to see if he can improve that postseason record this postseason.

[Olympic Fan]

Visiting teams now 4-0 in this year's playoff after Texas' win in Kansas City Thursday night.

So much for homefield advantage.

With four games today, we'll see whether that changes.