Braves/Dodgers, Pirates/Cards, Rays/Red Sox, Tigers/A's: Who wins it all?

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

UPDATE: Verlander took a no-hitter into the seventh before giving up a single to Yoenis Cespedes with two out in the inning. Verlander wound up with ten strikeouts and gave up another hit before turning the game over to closer Juan Benoit (Behn-wah') who made it interesting but nonetheless preserved the win for Detroit to put them into the ALCS against Boston starting Saturday.

Cards host LA in the NLCS starting tonight.

So far, I'm looking brilliant.

<-- horse laugh, for the unintiated :laugh:

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

UPDATE: Cards take the lead in NLCS on Carlos Beltran's 13th-inning walk-off single. So far, so good.

Next up: Detroit at Boston, tonight at 7:37 CDT. Detroit gets the upper hand in this, giving them the edge they'll use to upset Boston in the ALCS.

 

[InTheLight]

Can I change my prediction? I forgot about the moron Jim Leyland. Idiot Leyland couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag with a box full of razor knives.

To wit:

1. The Tigers altered their roster for the ALCS, adding veteran left-handed reliever Phil Coke and removing rookie right-hander Luke Putkonen. I presume they added Coke because they want him to pitch to left-handed batters in high leverage situations. Like when David Ortiz comes up to bat with the bases loaded. In his career Ortiz is 2 for 18 vs. Coke (.111 BA). Instead Leyland goes to his closer, Joquin Benoit, with two outs in the 8th inning. Ortiz hits a grand slam off Benoit to tie the game. Benoit then strikes out pinch hitter Mike Napoli. Closer Benoit has thrown only 8 pitches. So with the bottom third of the Red Sox lineup due up we will see Benoit in the ninth inning, right. No, we won't, Leyland goes with Rick Porcello. This means that the only reliever left available is Phil Coke. Should the game go into extra innings, he's severely limited his options.

2. With Johnny Gomes, the winning run on 2nd base in the bottom of the ninth, the sensible thing to do is to intentionally walk the next batter to set up a force out at third, second, or first or to set up a double play. But there are no outs so not every manager will do this for fear the runner on second will get to third somehow. Leyland decides not to intentionally walk Saltalamacchia. Porcello uncorks a wild pitch, Gomes advances to third. Surely now the smart move is to intentionally walk Saltalamacchia and the next batter, Drew, to load the bases and set up a force out at any base with the #9 hitter in the batting order coming to bat. Well, that would be the SMART thing to do, but that's not what Leyland does, because he's an idiot. Instead he has Porcello pitch to Saltalamacchia and he slices a single into left field for the game winner.

So, to review. Leyland did not bring a lefty in to pitch to Ortiz, a lefty with proven success against Ortiz. Instead he brought his closer in to pitch to Ortiz in the eighth inning. Then he pulls his closer going in to the ninth inning after only 8 pitches, leaving him with only one pitcher in the bullpen. Then he fails to walk a batter to set up force outs at any base. Then with the winning run on third base he again ignores the strategy of walking batters to set up force outs.

This loss is all on Leyland. This is not the first time he's been a moron.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I agree, Leyland made a dumb mistake yet again bringing in Benoit. He surrendered the collective no-hitter the night before on a hanging curve that I could have hit (and I couldn't hit a good curveball when I was playing college ball!) and put his save chance in jeopardy against Oakland two nights before that before getting the third out. Then again, he had Alburquerque come in ahead of Benoit, and he didn't fare any better, giving up the hit that loaded the bases for Ortiz.

Still, despite Boston's miraculous comeback -- and given the mistakes both Leyland and his players made, it wasn't all that miraculous -- I don't think Detroit loses this series. They have the advantage the next three games, playing at home. Verlander is Verlander, and Boston hasn't stacked up against him very well this year, hitting only .194, and striking out as a lineup 42 times in 144 at-bats, and drawing only 17 walks.

They will face Doug Fister Wednesday, who is not nearly as intimidating to Boston, but then they face Anibal Sanchez again, followed by another dose of Scherzer and Verlander, if necessary.

I'm sticking with Detroit here.

 

[InTheLight]

Yeah, I think the Tigers will still prevail. The starting pitching is too strong as well as their lineup. I don't think the manager has a lot to do with the overall success of a team but stupid managers can blow individual games. And all games are magnified in the playoffs. The Tigers will win despite their manager.

 

[InTheLight]

Look at this pathetic non-apology, non-responsibility statement from Leyland:

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland told reporters Monday he regrets not telling Joaquin Benoit to pitch carefully to Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, whose eighth-inning grand slam Sunday night tied Game 2 at 5-5.

The Red Sox would go on to win in the bottom of the ninth and tie the ALCS at a game apiece.

"I made a mistake that I take full responsibility for," Leyland said. "I should've reminded [Benoit] that we didn't want to Ortiz to beat us."

Yeah, because major league baseball players don't know if David Ortiz is any good, or whether or not he's a dangerous hitter. They need to be reminded. Sheesh!

 

[InTheLight]

Another reason why I loathe the Red Sox. They play such a slow deliberate game. Batters stepping out of the box, pitchers taking forever to deliver a pitch.

Take a look at this. On Saturday both the ALCS and NLCS games were decided by a 1-0 score.

Running time of the Cards/Dodgers game: 2 hrs. 40 min.
There were six pitching changes in this game, three of them occurred between innings.

Running time of the Red Sox/Tigers game: 3 hrs. 56 min!
There were seven pitching changes in this game but four of them occurred between innings.

How in the world can a 1-0 game take almost FOUR HOURS to play?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

How in the world can a 1-0 game take almost FOUR HOURS to play?

Commercials. In these two games, TBS ran commercials, PSAs and promos totaling 1:04:15. The same day in the ALCS, Fox ran commercials, PSAs and promos totaling 1:39:40. That's almost half the difference in game times right there. The reason for the differences in commerical allotments in the two league championship series is that Fox can attract more viewers than TBS, so they sell more commercial time.

More to the point of the thread, the Cardinals will wrap up the NLCS this afternoon, which Detroit will tie the ALCS at two apiece tonight.

 

[InTheLight]

Commercials. In these two games, TBS ran commercials, PSAs and promos totaling 1:04:15. The same day in the ALCS, Fox ran commercials, PSAs and promos totaling 1:39:40. That's almost half the difference in game times right there.

How do you know this? There is no way there was 1 hour 39 minutes of commercials in a 9 inning game. Even if each commercial break were 3 minutes in length that would be 33 commercial breaks in the game.

The reason for the differences in commerical allotments in the two league championship series is that Fox can attract more viewers than TBS, so they sell more commercial time.

IIRC, the MLB rule is up to 2 min. 5 secs. commercial time between innings of a regular season regional games and 2 min. 25 sec. between innings for national/playoff games. So why wouldn't TBS use the maximum time of 2 min. 25 sec.? For the Boston game there would have been 18 between half-inning breaks, and 4 breaks for pitching changes. That's 53 minutes and 10 secs. of known commercial time.

More to the point of the thread, the Cardinals will wrap up the NLCS this afternoon, which Detroit will tie the ALCS at two apiece tonight.

Nope. I think Boston does it.

Fister vs. Boston, lifetime .317 BA, .388 OBA, .490 SLG
Peavy vs. Detroit, lifetime .258 BA, .310 OBA, .446 SLG

BONUS! This just in! Jim Leyland has named Torii Hunter to be batting leadoff tonight. Torii Hunter is hitting .182 in the postseason. Jim, my boy, your idiocy does not disappoint.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I won't argue the irrelevant points of commercial breaks. After I posted this yesterday, I timed ten randomly selected breaks in the Sox-Tigers game. One was four minutes long! I know the MLB rules governing those breaks, but they manage to violate them regularly.

Nope. I think Boston does it.

After last night's game, I think you might be right. And I think my original prediction about St. Louis will hold. Ironically, my Royals started them on a skid when having a 3-1 series lead in 1985. KC came back and won three straight in the World Series. Since then St. Louis has held 3-1 leads twice more, and not won a game. However, they've never had games 6 and 7 in those situations in their own ballpark, and this time, they do.

Bit of trivia. Until Kansas City did that, only one team had ever come back from being down 3-1 in any major sport to win a championship. That team? Kansas City, the week before, against Toronto in the ALCS. And games 6 and 7 were in Toronto.

 

[InTheLight]

I won't argue the irrelevant points of commercial breaks. After I posted this yesterday, I timed ten randomly selected breaks in the Sox-Tigers game. One was four minutes long! I know the MLB rules governing those breaks, but they manage to violate them regularly.

I can understand your not wanting to talk about something you made up out of thin air:

TBS ran commercials, PSAs and promos totaling 1:04:15. The same day in the ALCS, Fox ran commercials, PSAs and promos totaling 1:39:40

And BTW, since you claimed this about commercial breaks, I've been timing them and they are 2 min 45 secs. long.

Bit of trivia. Until Kansas City did that, only one team had ever come back from being down 3-1 in any major sport to win a championship. That team? Kansas City, the week before, against Toronto in the ALCS. And games 6 and 7 were in Toronto.

Yes, I remember that both those playoff series. I remember telling co-workers that KC was going to win the World Series, even before the ALCS started, and I remember continuing my stance throughout the playoffs. Man, did I feel vindicated when they came back from 3-1 both times (with a little help from Don Denkinger). I'm sure you also know that the Royals have only been to the post season during Georg Brett's era.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I'm sure you also know that the Royals have only been to the post season during Georg Brett's era.

Yep, but that'll change next season. :thumbsup:

 

[InTheLight]

Yep, but that'll change next season. :thumbsup:

As the Twins went into the tank in 2011, Sports Illustrated had a cover story about the up coming Royals in the farm system. I took a look at that and decided if I were from neither Minnesota or Kansas/Missouri and I had to move to either of those states and become a fan of their baseball team, I'd rather move to Kansas City. They just seemed to finally get their act together. I wondered about them trading Wil Myers to the Rays but I guess they needed to show fans that they were trying to win immediately instead of waiting for the nucleus to gel. BONUS--My second fave team is the Rays so I'm OK with the trade. LOL.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

As the Twins went into the tank in 2011, Sports Illustrated had a cover story about the up coming Royals in the farm system. I took a look at that and decided if I were from neither Minnesota or Kansas/Missouri and I had to move to either of those states and become a fan of their baseball team, I'd rather move to Kansas City. They just seemed to finally get their act together. I wondered about them trading Wil Myers to the Rays but I guess they needed to show fans that they were trying to win immediately instead of waiting for the nucleus to gel. BONUS--My second fave team is the Rays so I'm OK with the trade. LOL.

He didn't help much in the Wild Card. LOL. Then again, what he did do didn't get supported by the rest of the Rays, either.

And, to ITL and anyone else who read this thread:

The other day I posted about the length of the two 1-0 games in both league championship series games, crediting it to commercials Fox was able to run because of being a more widely viewed network than TBS. I have to apologize to you, because I used faulty information. The times were in an espn.go.com blog, and that blog has now been taken down. Apparently the "facts" were less than stellar in origin. In other words, lies, and I listed them thinking the guy had actually done his homework.

Please forgive me. I'm usually a stickler for making certain any stats/facts I post are linked and verified, and this time I didn't. I'm sorry about that.

 

[InTheLight]

And, to ITL and anyone else who read this thread:

The other day I posted about the length of the two 1-0 games in both league championship series games, crediting it to commercials Fox was able to run because of being a more widely viewed network than TBS. I have to apologize to you, because I used faulty information. The times were in an espn.go.com blog, and that blog has now been taken down. Apparently the "facts" were less than stellar in origin. In other words, lies, and I listed them thinking the guy had actually done his homework.

You mean not everything on the internet is true??!!

Thanks for clearing that up. Peace.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

You mean not everything on the internet is true??!!

Shocking a revelation as that is to some, unfortunately, no.

Thanks for clearing that up. Peace.

Yer welcome. Back atcha.

 

[InTheLight]

Another Leyland Idiocy: Tigers are losing 5-2, top of the ninth, one out, and he has Omar Infante attempt a bunt!

You're down to your last two outs of the season and you give your opponent a freebie?

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I've always had a lot of respect for Jim Leyland, but his management in the ACLS was strange at best, and irresponsible at worst. But no one says a word to him about looking for a new job, either.

Oh, well. They won't have to worry about it next year. Kansas City will win the division.

 

[InTheLight]

I've always had a lot of respect for Jim Leyland, but his management in the ACLS was strange at best, and irresponsible at worst. But no one says a word to him about looking for a new job, either.

Oh, well. They won't have to worry about it next year. Kansas City will win the division.

This just in...

Jim Leyland has decided to step down as Detroit Tigers manager, FOX Sports MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal reports.

Leyland informed the team of his decision after the Tigers' ALCS loss to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, Rosenthal reports, adding that the manager told the team that it was time for someone younger to do the job.


Thankfully the Twins extended Ron Gardenhire's contract or they might have been tempted to go after Leyland.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

I stand corrected. Leyland's got a lot of class. I still respect him, especially now that he has indirectly acknowledged the ALCS loss was his fault.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on...eyland-stepping-down-as-manager-of-the-tigers​

Leyland, 68, reportedly told his players it was time for someone younger to step in and do the job at the end of the ALCS.

My biggest concern is that Ned Yost is a lot like Jim Leyland. Both let their teams play the game with little interference. When Yost finds himself in the position of having to manage an AL Central or American league pennant winner, will he "over-manage" like Leyland did? Guess we'll have to see.