2014 World Series thread

My mother-in-law begs to differ.

 

If the Giants lose tonight, Royals might be in line for a sweep. Peavy, Huddson and Vogelsong are all gritty pitchers, but they are not going to blow people away. The Royals have a knack of being pesky gnats and could scrape together a few runs and shorten the game with their bull pen.

The Giants only defense against this is to beat up the starters early (which can be done) and hope they only have to burn Petit once this series.

Best bet for the Giants is to win in 5. If San Fran is going to win it again, they need to split in KC and get the ball back to Bumgarner for Game 5. If this goes back to Missouri, this might turn into 2002 all over again.

 

Serve it up, Knock it down.

 

I like both of these teams, either one winning would be fun.

The Giants to me represent baseball competence. I remember Sabean getting absolutely torched in some circles about 8 years ago for not tearing down the team and undergoing a long rebuilding. They don't game the success cycle like some teams (something I've always hated, making Epstein's Cubs a special sort of hell for me), they just go out there every year and put together the best baseball team they can.

The Royals are fun. And man did they ever get butt-raped by those same circles for the Shields trade. Prospect fetishism, future fetishism at it's finest. Sometimes people forget that the goal is to win baseball games.

 

Ah yes. Sabean's "lunatic fringe." I believe the catalyst was his failure to go after Vlad.

"I am not an idiot" was better, though, after he trade Matt Williams for Jeff Kent and a few others.

He and Bochy both get beat up quite a bit.

 

Yup. In that clip of the ninth inning of Game 6 in 1985, when Sundberg is trying to bunt, Al Michaels talks about Worrell's 92-93 mph fastball like it's a freak of nature.

 

The only gripes any Giants fan has against Sabean (the only real gripes, not the normal pissing any team has) are the Zito deal (but even that paid off in 2012) and the Joe Nathan trade. We probably kept Bonds for too long, but that allowed the Giants to draft Posey and the like.

 

Apparently a lot of the Royals were addicted to a video game at midseason, and had to quit and regain their focus on baseball:

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article3188872.html

 

While we're waiting for the first pitch ...



@Dodgers 2m Congrats @ClaytonKersh22, Baseball America's Player of the Year! Read more on @DodgerInsider: http://atmlb.com/1DxxPLw

 

The issues with Sabean were his propensity to go after vets during the later Bonds years to try and build instant winners; to the detriment of the farm system. He famously intentionally signed Reggie Sanders as a FA BEFORE the arb/tender deadline so the Giants would purposely LOSE their 1st rounder. The Giants kept restocking with marginal guys like Edgardo Alfonzo, Sanders, Ellis Burks, Matheny, Kenny Lofton trying to get the magic. Never was sure if that was Sabean or ownership.

Sabean was knocked for a great period of time for not developing one major league hitter (only pitchers Lincecum, Cain); now look at their roster and they have almost all home grown players.

I am looking forward to this but I've got to believe that having an ace like Bumgardner in Gm 1 vs a so-so Shields is a big advantage. Also, Royals have never played at ATT and the quirky outfield (see Gm. 4 NLCS) so that could be a factor.

Giants in 5.

 

Right. What savvy coaches to notice that and save the season. I mean you lose to Jon Lester and Chris Sale,so it must be the video game. How could it be anything else?

 

Rany Jazayerli pointed out that Aoki has played at AT&T and that right field, where he plays, is the weirdest part of the park. I'm not sure if that inspires confidence for me or not.