MLB: 2016 Postseason

[Olympic Fan]

The regular season is over. Time to move on.

I don't have a team left (happy my Yankees finished over .500 in a rebuilding year), so I'm just looking for good baseball. As I see it, the most interesting story lines:

(1) Can the Cubs end 108 years of frustration and win a world title? Can they end 71 years and win the NL pennant?

(2) Can the Giants maintain their every-other-year championship string? They won in 2010, 2012 and 2014 ... they are due to win in 2016, right?

(3) Can the Red Sox go worst to first -- again. Boston has finished last in the division three of the last four previous years -- but they won the World Series in their other year. After finishing last in 2014 and 2015, can they bounce back for another title?

(4) Can Cleveland's season of championships continue? The Cavaliers broke the city's half-century championship drought. Can the Indians win the World Series for the first time since 1948 (Spahn and Sain and pray for rain)?

(5) Do the Mets have another miracle in them? Before the season, they were a strong contender to win in '16, but the injuries to Harvey, deGrom, Matz and Wheeler have decimated the strength of the team. A win now would constitute another miracle.

(6) Can the Washington Nats break their postseason jinx? They are 0-2 in Washington ... 0-3 if you count the 1981 Expos. They have never won a postseason series.

(7) Can the Rangers win a world title for the first time in their history? That goes back to 1961, when they were formed as the expansion Washington Senators. They've reached the World Series twice in recent years, but lost both times.

(8) Can Clayton Kershaw erase the one blemish on his brilliant career record? There is no question that Kewrshaw is the greatest active pitcher ... and there is a decent argument that he's on pace to become the greatest pitcher in the post-deadball era. But there is one flaw on his resume -- a mediocre postseason record. He's pitched in 13 post-season games with a 2-6 record and an embarrassing 4.59 ERA. He's never pitched in the World Series.

I can't wait to see him match up with Max Scherzer - my choice for the NL Cy Young Award -- Friday night in Washington.

We start Tuesday with Baltimore at Toronto (no pitchers named yet).

Wednesday we get Bumgarner and the Giants vs. Syndergaard and the Mets -- can't wait for that one.

Thursday, we get Boston (Porcello) at Cleveland (Bauer), plis the AL Wild Card winner at Texas.

Friday, we get four games -- LA at Washington (that Kershaw-Scherzer matchup) and Boston at Cleveland (Price vs. Kluber); also the two wild card winners at Texas and Chicago.

The full schedule:

http://m.mlb.com/postseason-schedule

[duke74]

The regular season is over. Time to move on.

I don't have a team left (happy my Yankees finished over .500 in a rebuilding year), so I'm just looking for good baseball.

Congrats to the Yanks...haven't had a losing season since, I think, 1992 or so. Sustained performance. While a weeks ago it looked like you might squeak into a WC berth, this still has to be viewed as an "exceed" expectations year, with hope for the future.

[Mal]

The Giants have to revert to the mean here, right? I mean, this every even year World Series thing is a pretty huge fluke. Yes, Bumgarner's a postseason stud, but even he overperforms reasonable expectations, and is probably due for a bad outing or two in a big game situation. Like Wednesday, facing Syndergaard.

In any event, before we all go handing this to the Giants yet again, just a note for the record that they've beaten teams with 88, 89 and 90 wins in those three recent Series. They've vanquished good teams to get there, yes. Still, they're due for a statistical correction here.

Can you tell, as a Cubs quasi-fan (meaning my "real" team has stunk for long enough that I'm kinda on the bandwagon for "local team," to ease the pain), who scares me in these playoffs? Nats and Sawx, too, but one step at a time here.

[Olympic Fan]

Just saw that the starters for Tuesday night's AL wild card have been named:

Duke's Marcus Stroman will start for the Blue Jays ... Chris Tillman will get the start for the Orioles.

[nmduke2001]

Just saw that the starters for Tuesday night's AL wild card have been named:

Duke's Marcus Stroman will start for the Blue Jays ... Chris Tillman will get the start for the Orioles.

I'm a lifelong Orioles fan (though not a huge baseball fan). I was bummed to see Stroman get the start tonight. I never like cheering against a former Blue Devil.

[Troublemaker]

The O's should probably use Britton, even in a non-save situation here.

[nmduke2001]

The O's should probably use Britton, even in a non-save situation here.

Why the heck was Britton sitting on his butt there? Doesn't make sense. If you give up a run, your season is over and one of the best closers in the league doesn't get the ball?

[Troublemaker]

The O's should probably use Britton, even in a non-save situation here.

I actually posted this about 3-4 minutes before Encarnacion's bomb. (Not that it took a stroke of genius to see how this would end for the O's.)

Why the heck was Britton sitting on his butt there? Doesn't make sense. If you give up a run, your season is over and one of the best closers in the league doesn't get the ball?

Agreed. They needed to go to Britton for 2 innings there. If they couldn't score against Liriano, they were probably screwed anyway. But you should extend your season by 2 innings before taking your chances with Jimenez.

[burnspbesq]

Since the All-Star break, the Giants not only have a worse record than the Mets, they have a worse record than the Braves.

The Giants have more blown saves in September than the Mets had all season.

Citi may approach Cameron noise levels tomorrow night.

Yes, I like the Mets' chances.

[CDu]

Since the All-Star break, the Giants not only have a worse record than the Mets, they have a worse record than the Braves.

The Giants have more blown saves in September than the Mets had all season.

Citi may approach Cameron noise levels tomorrow night.

Yes, I like the Mets' chances.

Better hope you don't face the October 2014 version of Madison Bumgarner tonight.

[Troublemaker]

Why the heck was Britton sitting on his butt there? Doesn't make sense. If you give up a run, your season is over and one of the best closers in the league doesn't get the ball?

David Simon being self-referential, but still funny:

David Simon ‏@AoDespair 12h12 hours ago
Where's Britton, String? Where's Britton?

Better hope you don't face the October 2014 version of Madison Bumgarner tonight.

True. They would love to face Post-ASB Bumgarner, who has been pretty ordinary with a 3.80 ERA. Still, he's an ace that can randomly throw a gem, like he did on Sep 19th at L.A. -- 7 innings of 1-hit ball: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8590/gamelog/

[Olympic Fan]

True. They would love to face Post-ASB Bumgarner, who has been pretty ordinary with a 3.80 ERA. Still, he's an ace that can randomly throw a gem, like he did on Sep 19th at L.A. -- 7 innings of 1-hit ball: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/8590/gamelog/

Ism't that the "Don't look at me" game?

A game that the Giants lost after his departure ... another bullpen meltdown?

[Troublemaker]

Ism't that the "Don't look at me" game?

A game that the Giants lost after his departure ... another bullpen meltdown?

Indeed it was. Bumgarner got into it with Puig, and then the Giants bullpen blew it.

[Troublemaker]

Great pitching duel that was 0-0 heading into the top of the 9th.

"Thor" actually had better stuff than Bumgarner, I thought, but Bumgarner was more economical with his pitch count and was able to go the full 9. "Thor" left after 7 innings, and the Giants finally scored on the Mets bullpen in the 9th.

[mkirsh]

Even year Giants strike again

[Troublemaker]

Even year Giants strike again

Yep, and it sets up a "something's got to give" NLDS between the best team in baseball and a team that has won 9 straight playoff series (plus two wild-card games). Cubs-Giants might not actually become a competitive series. Maybe the Cubs waste them in 3 games or something. But pre-series, it's an intriguing matchup.

[Olympic Fan]

Yep, and it sets up a "something's got to give" NLDS between the best team in baseball and a team that has won 9 straight playoff series (plus two wild-card games). Cubs-Giants might not actually become a competitive series. Maybe the Cubs waste them in 3 games or something. But pre-series, it's an intriguing matchup.

It's interesting that at the all-star break, the Giants had a BETTER record than the Cubs. That's over a substantial portion of the season.

At that point, they had a series of injuries -- most seriously to Hunter Pence, who has been the heart and soul of their offense in recent years (even though his numbers aren't spectacular). The team definitely floundered for the second half, although they made a nice run the last week of the regular season -- with Pence back at full speed just to get in the wild card game.

I think the Cubs are a better team, but the Giants are a tough out -- with their solid starting pitchers (they go with Cueto and Moore in Chicago; then have Bumgarner ready for game three in SF) and even more importantly, their playoff experience and confidence. We are talking about a matchup between a team that has won three World Series in the last five years vs. one that hasn't won the series in 108 years and hasn't reach the world series in 70 years.

The Cubs are lucky that they don't have to face Bumgarner until Game 3 ... and will he be able to return for Game 5 if necessary? Considering that he did in the 2014 World Series, you've got to think that's possible.

All last night did was to solidify his reputation as one of the great postseason pitchers in history. Interesting that he is 4-0 in the world series and 2-0 in wild card games, but he's just 2-3 in NLDS and NLCS games.

I thought last night's game was the perfect illustration of the factors we debated for the Cy Young debate a few weeks ago. Both Madbum and Thor pitched great -- both had a 0.00 ERA. Syndergaard had a much better strikeout rate and a slightly better WHIP.

But the deciding factor was that that Bumgarner went nine innings vs. seven innings for Thor. ERA matters, but so does innings pitched. Strikeouts can impact a pitcher's ERA, but aren't in themselves valuable (low strikeouts and low ERA are much better than high strikeouts and higher ERA; plus high strikeouts inflate the pitch count, making it tougher for for high strikeout pitchers to go more innings).

I'm not too pumped up about tonight's AL doubleheader. I guess I'm pulling for the Indians ... in the other series, the interesting thing to watch is whether the Rangers are as good as their record. In the history of baseball, they have the worst run-differential of any of almost 250 teams with 95-plus wins ... and it's not even close (the Rangers outscored their opponents by a measly eight runs all season -- which normally translates to a .500 team)

[luvdahops]

It's interesting that at the all-star break, the Giants had a BETTER record than the Cubs. That's over a substantial portion of the season.

At that point, they had a series of injuries -- most seriously to Hunter Pence, who has been the heart and soul of their offense in recent years (even though his numbers aren't spectacular). The team definitely floundered for the second half, although they made a nice run the last week of the regular season -- with Pence back at full speed just to get in the wild card game.

I think the Cubs are a better team, but the Giants are a tough out -- with their solid starting pitchers (they go with Cueto and Moore in Chicago; then have Bumgarner ready for game three in SF) and even more importantly, their playoff experience and confidence. We are talking about a matchup between a team that has won three World Series in the last five years vs. one that hasn't won the series in 108 years and hasn't reach the world series in 70 years.

The Cubs are lucky that they don't have to face Bumgarner until Game 3 ... and will he be able to return for Game 5 if necessary? Considering that he did in the 2014 World Series, you've got to think that's possible.

All last night did was to solidify his reputation as one of the great postseason pitchers in history. Interesting that he is 4-0 in the world series and 2-0 in wild card games, but he's just 2-3 in NLDS and NLCS games.

I thought last night's game was the perfect illustration of the factors we debated for the Cy Young debate a few weeks ago. Both Madbum and Thor pitched great -- both had a 0.00 ERA. Syndergaard had a much better strikeout rate and a slightly better WHIP.

But the deciding factor was that that Bumgarner went nine innings vs. seven innings for Thor. ERA matters, but so does innings pitched. Strikeouts can impact a pitcher's ERA, but aren't in themselves valuable (low strikeouts and low ERA are much better than high strikeouts and higher ERA; plus high strikeouts inflate the pitch count, making it tougher for for high strikeout pitchers to go more innings).

I'm not too pumped up about tonight's AL doubleheader. I guess I'm pulling for the Indians ... in the other series, the interesting thing to watch is whether the Rangers are as good as their record. In the history of baseball, they have the worst run-differential of any of almost 250 teams with 95-plus wins ... and it's not even close (the Rangers outscored their opponents by a measly eight runs all season -- which normally translates to a .500 team)

This Cubs fan definitely would have preferred a Mets win last night, for all the reasons you note above. FWIW, if the Cubs win Game 1, I would not be shocked to see Madbum start Game 2 on 3 days rest.

[Olympic Fan]

This Cubs fan definitely would have preferred a Mets win last night, for all the reasons you note above. FWIW, if the Cubs win Game 1, I would not be shocked to see Madbum start Game 2 on 3 days rest.

Isn't Game Two Saturday?

That's two days rest ... maybe if it were game seven of the World Series, but I very much doubt that the Giants use Bumgarner on two days this early in the NLDS. Maybe if there is a rainout and he can pitch Sunday on three days rest.

As it now stands, I think there is a safe bet he pitches Monday in Game Three on four days rest ... then if necessary, you can try the two-days rest thing for Game Five on Thursday. More likely, they start Moore in a game five and have Madbum ready to pitch long relief (as he did in Game 7 of the 2014 world series).

[Duke79UNLV77]

Having just watched Pedro Martinez's excellent interview of Bib Papi and observing the feel-good farewell tour, I have to think that Ortiz is going to break the known steroid user barrier in the HOF. At that point, how do you continue to keep other players out? Not saying it's right or wrong, but I think it will happen.