Well, the playoff picture is finally set. I’m sad the Orioles couldn’t catch the Yanks, but the A’s surprised me by sweeping the Rangers to take the AL West. Meanwhile, the best team in the NL is … Washington? Don’t think anyone predicted that before the season started.
Just for fun, here are my postseason predictions, NCAA-bracket style.
AL Wild Card: Texas beats Baltimore
ALDS: New York beats Texas, Oakland beats Detroit
ALCS: New York beats Oakland
NL Wild Card: St. Louis beats Atlanta
NLDS: Washington beats St. Louis, Cincinnati beats San Francisco
NLCS: Washington beats Cincinnati
World Series: New York beats Washington
This is not what I want to happen, of course. Ideally, Baltimore would beat the Rangers and the Yanks and play the A’s in the ALCS. I’ve never had a favorite team, so I tend to root for the underdog. This year I’m pulling for the A’s, the O’s, the Nats, and whoever’s playing the Yankees.
I really would like to see the A’s advance past the first round this time (ALDS)…
but i guess Taiwanese are hoping that Washington would select Wang and in the end there would be a Baltimore v.s. Washington world series. Though the TV ratings would probably only be high in Taiwan…
Well, I’m 1 for 2 so far. :bravo: Looks like you might get your wish, Dr. McCoy! Shame about that late infield fly rule call, though. I think the Cards would have won anyway, but we’ll never know for sure. It almost seems like adding the extra umps for the postseason leads to more bad calls, not fewer!
Just want to say CONGRATULATIONS to Chen Wei-Yin for beating Andy Pettitte and the Yankees today! I only got to watch about an inning of the game, but I did see Chris Davis’s two-RBI single in the third. Waiting for the end of that inning made me slightly late for tutoring, but it was SO worth it. Go O’s!
A real nice mix of teams in the playoffs this year. I could find myself cheering for 5 (or even 7) of the teams which is much better than previous seasons when the Phils/Yanks/RSox/WSox have usually been in the playoffs. I honestly find myself cheering for a different team each day because most of them have an appealing storyline.
Nice to be able to cheer for a player from Taiwan against the Yankees. Thinking back to the Wang era, when ESPN Taiwan became "Your ‘all Yankees all the time’ " station
My worst baseball nightmare is close to being a reality…St. Louis beating Washington and San Francisco beating Cincy. Not that I have any love for either Washington or Cincy but I detest San Francisco as a matter of principal and have mixed feeling re: St. Louis as they outed the 102-win Phillies last year (The Cards were my favorite team growing up).
St. Louis threw their best yesterday so I am hoping the National’s bats come alive and they can come back to take the series.
San Francisco has Cain today…Doesn’t look good for the Reds. I see SF ending the series.
American League is much easier for me as I can live with any of the teams still left. Very surprised that Oakland was able to catch the Rangers and that the Rangers were then unable to handle Baltimore. Baltimore and Oakland - great stories. Young, energenic, and “new” to the playoffs. Yankees and Detroit - both good teams. Hard to root against either one.
Incredible win for NY last night. Ibanez - a PROFESSIONAL hitter. His talents may have diminshed but his approach to the game has to be admired. Tough call on today’s game - Baltimore is very resilent but I think in the end NY will likely prevail.
Tough loss for Detriot. Got to love the way Oakland battles. But Verlander is a huge mountain in their way. I think he will be on top of his game today and will shut the A’s down.
NL: SF and Washington. Washington wins.
AL: NY and Detriot. Yankees.
WS: Washington and NY. NY takes another WS title.
[quote=“Timabee”]Sorry I missed getting in on this earlier.
My worst baseball nightmare is close to being a reality…St. Louis beating Washington and San Francisco beating Cincy. Not that I have any love for either Washington or Cincy but I detest San Francisco as a matter of principal and have mixed feeling re: St. Louis as they outed the 102-win Phillies last year (The Cards were my favorite team growing up).
St. Louis threw their best yesterday so I am hoping the National’s bats come alive and they can come back to take the series.
San Francisco has Cain today…Doesn’t look good for the Reds. I see SF ending the series.
American League is much easier for me as I can live with any of the teams still left. Very surprised that Oakland was able to catch the Rangers and that the Rangers were then unable to handle Baltimore. Baltimore and Oakland - great stories. Young, energenic, and “new” to the playoffs. Yankees and Detroit - both good teams. Hard to root against either one.
Incredible win for NY last night. Ibanez - a PROFESSIONAL hitter. His talents may have diminshed but his approach to the game has to be admired. Tough call on today’s game - Baltimore is very resilent but I think in the end NY will likely prevail.
Tough loss for Detriot. Got to love the way Oakland battles. But Verlander is a huge mountain in their way. I think he will be on top of his game today and will shut the A’s down.
NL: SF and Washington. Washington wins.
AL: NY and Detriot. Yankees.
WS: Washington and NY. NY takes another WS title.[/quote]
Very well predicted so far, sir. I’m really looking forward to the Game 5’s tomorrow, although I probably won’t be able to watch.
I don’t remember the last time the first round of the playoffs was this exciting! I mean, we’ve got all four series going to five games, with walkoff wins, ninth-inning comebacks, amazing pitching performances (a la Justin Verlander today), extra innings, you name it. SF came from 2-0 down in their series, and the A’s almost managed to do the same. Gotta love October.
Re: the SF-Reds game 5 yesterday, Matt Cain had far less influence on the game than Dusty Baker. Reds pitcher Mat Latos has a huge inflection point at pitch count 45. Opponents hit 0.175 against Latos over the first 45 pitches, and 0.295 after that. In yesterday’s game Latos’ 47th pitch resulted in a single for Blancos; the 50th was a triple by Crawford. His 79th pitch yielded Posey’s grand slam. He didn’t throw an 80th as Baker finally relieved him. SF scored no no more runs.
I think Baker lost the game more than the Giants won it.
Can’t dispute the stats on Latos; however, the error in top of the fifth was huge. Yes, it would only have been the second out but the impact on pitching strategy in a 1 situation versus a 2 out situation cannot be missed. Obviously, we will never know - which is what makes baseball such a great game. Also, the Reds were were 2-13 (?) with runners in scoring position. I think they had runners on base every inning the lasy few but could not poke a hit through. Same story in game 4 - they had hits in nearly every inning but could not put anything of substance together. The strike-out/throw out in yesterday game was also a killer (and definitely must be laid at Baker’s doorstep). A mind-bogglingly bad decision on his part as Buster Posey is one of the best in the game right now. Reds played right into SF hands on that one.
I must grudgingly give credit to the Giants, they hang tough with surperb pitching and clutch hitting. I hate it…but must also acknowledge it.
Incredible win by the Nationals! You could see that home run by Werth coming as he worked that at bat. One pitch in particular - he took a desperation swing and barely managed to nip it foul and stay alive. In last night’s battle of will and nerve - Werth got a win. Tonight? Can the Nationals feed off last night’s energy? Unlikely. Did I predict the Nationals to win this series? Having some doubts but will stick with the original prediction.
Baltimore - NY. Stayed up late to watch last night. Neither team has any kind of hitting stroke going. Is the pitching really that good? Anyway, I thnk Jeter is going to do something tonight and Yanks will win.
As a fan who remembers the game prior to free-agency (the personalities, the fan investment emotion-wise, the hustle, the bunts, a REAL running game, innovative cheating, ie, the life-blood of a vital, healthy MLB), and as a fan who has never forgiven the New York Yankees for perfecting the kind of corporate modularization of talent that killed the soul of MLB while it killed small market teams like my KC Royals (pro ball ‘entertainment’ is just not comparable to pro ball prior to free-agency IMO), I’d like to take this opportunity to say that I relish the FUCK out of the Yankees’ lay-down-like-a-lamb-in-the-presence-of-a-sharp-butcher-knife whimpering so far this ALCS.
It’s just so sweet.
Christ, I couldn’t tear myself away from the sound of pins dropping in Yankee Stadium Saturday night, couldn’t get out to hear any real music. Who needed it? Sweet sweet turn of events this post-season, and music to this old fan’s ears, gotta say.
And I like Jeter and Ichiro, btw. And Pettitte and Russell Martin, too.
Verlander is just the best. I had a chance to pick him for my fantasy team. You know who I chose instead? Ellsbury. Effing Ellsbury. No wonder my team sucked to bad.
[quote=“flike”]As a fan who remembers the game prior to free-agency (the personalities, the fan investment emotion-wise, the hustle, the bunts, a REAL running game, innovative cheating, ie, the life-blood of a vital, healthy MLB), and as a fan who has never forgiven the New York Yankees for perfecting the kind of corporate modularization of talent that killed the soul of MLB while it killed small market teams like my KC Royals (pro ball ‘entertainment’ is just not comparable to pro ball prior to free-agency IMO), I’d like to take this opportunity to say that I relish the FUCK out of the Yankees’ lay-down-like-a-lamb-in-the-presence-of-a-sharp-butcher-knife whimpering so far this ALCS.
It’s just so sweet.
Christ, I couldn’t tear myself away from the sound of pins dropping in Yankee Stadium Saturday night, couldn’t get out to hear any real music. Who needed it? Sweet sweet turn of events this post-season, and music to this old fan’s ears, gotta say.
And I like Jeter and Ichiro, btw. And Pettitte and Russell Martin, too.[/quote]
Hmmm…I detect a bit of Yankee hate (or is it envy?) Not such a bad thing. I’ve never been a big fan of the Yankees but the current crop (Jeter, Ichiro, Ibanez, Petititte) are “professionals”. Got to say though that I really enjoyed the disaster that was the Red Sox this year. The whole “Red Sox Nation” thing really started to grate on my nerves. Really like they way they quit on their manager last year and this year.
[quote=“Timabee”][quote=“flike”]As a fan who remembers the game prior to free-agency (the personalities, the fan investment emotion-wise, the hustle, the bunts, a REAL running game, innovative cheating, ie, the life-blood of a vital, healthy MLB), and as a fan who has never forgiven the New York Yankees for perfecting the kind of corporate modularization of talent that killed the soul of MLB while it killed small market teams like my KC Royals (pro ball ‘entertainment’ is just not comparable to pro ball prior to free-agency IMO), I’d like to take this opportunity to say that I relish the FUCK out of the Yankees’ lay-down-like-a-lamb-in-the-presence-of-a-sharp-butcher-knife whimpering so far this ALCS.
It’s just so sweet.
Christ, I couldn’t tear myself away from the sound of pins dropping in Yankee Stadium Saturday night, couldn’t get out to hear any real music. Who needed it? Sweet sweet turn of events this post-season, and music to this old fan’s ears, gotta say.
And I like Jeter and Ichiro, btw. And Pettitte and Russell Martin, too.[/quote]
Hmmm…I detect a bit of Yankee hate (or is it envy?) Not such a bad thing. I’ve never been a big fan of the Yankees but the current crop (Jeter, Ichiro, Ibanez, Petititte) are “professionals”. Got to say though that I really enjoyed the disaster that was the Red Sox this year. The whole “Red Sox Nation” thing really started to grate on my nerves. Really like they way they quit on their manager last year and this year.[/quote]
It’s sadness over the passing of what MLB was and could be, largely at the hands of G Steinbrenner and the gushing revenues of YES. Hank Steinbrenner, the son of G and the managing owner who signed the Alex Rodriguez contract a few years ago, is helping me feel a little better.
Hey, I admitted that I’m an old Royals fan, what do you expect?
I think I was either too young or I am now too old to remember baseball pre-free agency.
Anyway, your right that the Yankees, later the Red Sox and more recently I think even the Angles and Phillies have attempted to tilt the odds in their favor with giant piles of money. Fun thing is…even a team with unlimited resources (read Yankees) can still end up on the outside looking in if their baseball decisions are bad. The Yankees are towing A-Rod like an anchor right now. And look at the Red Sox, Angels and Phillies - they all joined the big market club but look at thier performance vesrsus St. Louis, SF, Oakland, Texas, Baltimore (Baltimore!! Back from the dead!!). There is still hope for KC!! In the end they still have to evaluate the talent.
Well, now that the Yankees are out, I have no chance of getting any more predictions right because all the teams I picked to win have lost. And that’s why I love baseball!
Welcome to the club. The Nat’s 9th inning implosion doomed me and the Tank-ees hitters never showed up. I guess all that’s left for me to do is sit back and just enjoy the games. Detriot.
