Baseball Thread Rated X -- Mature Audiences Only

You provide this as a starting rotation:
Santana game one
Bonser/ Silva game two
Radke game three (save him for a home start)
Garza/Guerrier/ Silva/Bullpen game (deending on how the series stands)
Santana game five

Then you say that the Twins have the bats to win? Outside of Santana, there isn't much there against the Yankees line-up.

At the very least, the Yankees have Mussina and Wang. Both have shown the ability to go deep into games.

And maybe my memory is off, but I remember the Yankees beating Nathan in the playoffs before. If not the Yankees, maybe the Red Sox.

 

Postseason Pitching
Year Round Tm Opp WLser G GS ERA W-L SV CG SHO IP H ER BB SO
+------------------+-----+--+--+------+-----+--+--+---+-----+---+---+---+---+
2004 ALDS MIN NYY L 3 0 3.60 0-1 1 0 0 5.0 2 2 5 6
+------------------+-----+--+--+------+-----+--+--+---+-----+---+---+---+---+


If you want to rate team closers based on one series, knock yourself out. You could judge Rivera by the 2001 World Series or the 2004 ALCS, but that wouldn't tell the whole story, now would it?

 

Look again. They're tied in batting (.285) but the Yankees have a better on-base average (.365 to .346), slugging average (.460 to .426), have scored 109 more runs and have 55 more home runs. The Yankees' offense is quite a bit superior, as is their starting pitching now that Liriano is done.

 

Oz, I think we can both agree that Rivera has a much bigger history, which includes World Series victories, than that of Nathan. As such, I recalled Nathan v. Yankees in the playoffs and did not remember him winning.

 

No, but if I do recall, didn't he pitch two scoreless innings when -- for some reason -- the Twins decided to have him take the mound for a third when he had not pitched three innings in a game all season? For some reason, I think there was some question as to what the manager was thinking with Nathan in that series, which ended with the loss in question.

And if that's the case -- Yankees and Twins fans, need some help here -- I'm certainly not going to hold that one outing against him.

 

Zeke: the Yankees are something like 45-21 in their recent games. Their set-up pitching might not be like when they had Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson during the run of three straight World Series titles, but it hasn't been all that awful in the last month. That might be less of a factor in the playoffs anyway.

And then there is Mariano, and then Sinatra starts singing "New York, New York"

 

I'm in disbelief that anyone is giving Joe Nathan (let's read that again: JOE NATHAN) the edge over Mariano Rivera in a playoff setting. One, a first-ballot hall-of-famer, the other, I don't know what to call him:

WLser G GS ERA W-L SV CG SHO IP H ER BB SO
24 Postseason Ser 17-7 72 0 0.81 8-1 34 0 0 111.7 69 10 15 87 (Rivera)
2 Lg Div Series 0-2 5 0 8.44 0-2 1 0 0 5.3 6 5 6 7 (Nathan)

 

The debate has been about bullpens, not closers in particular, Tommy.

 

Should have quoted this before I made my comment.

 

In reverse order

Tommyp -- Until Rivera pitches again, I'll take Nathan. Which I qualified in the original post. The post itself was adressing bullpens as a whole, where the Twins do have an advantage. I mean, if we're going on guys who might come back, the Twins have Liriano, too, right?

Gold -- Look at the Twins record over the same stretch. Get back to me.

Oz -- Gardy fucked up. Simple as that. I think that was when he'd lost confidence in Romero, who probably should have come in. I'll look it up.

Pastor -- I never said the Twins have the bats to win. They'll have to hit well and do the little things right to win. That said, the middle of their order is nothing to sneeze at, especially with the Yankees starting pitching. Mauer is hitting .350. Morneau has 33 home runs. Torii Hunter has been hitting the ball well.

I love the groupthink that says the Twins have no shot in this series, if it even happens.

Love it. Here's another newsflash -- if the Tigers put their shit together, they can beat the Yankees, too.

Yeah, yeah, I know. The Yankees are too good. Just like last year. And the year before that. And the year before that...

 

Relax, Zeke. Sometimes it's not worth arguing with nySportsJournalists.com

I plan on watching the rest of the season play out before arguing matchups in a series which might not even happen.

 

Perfectly calm, Rosie.

Just enjoy reminding people that baseball exists outside of New York.

Two things I had to look up: Twins record since June 1 = 62-31.

Nathan's blown save = came in the 12th inning of game two of the 2004 divisional series. In his third inning of work.

Some guy named J. Santana shut the Yankees out in the Bronx in game 1, 2-0.

The Twins took an early lead, only to see the Yankees come back.

Minnesota was down 5-3 in the eighth, but some guy named Rivera blew a save and the Twins tied it at five.

Gardy used Nathan for the 10th and 11th innings, and had planned on sending a long-relief guy out for the 12th, until Torii Hunter lost a Tanyon Sturze slider.

He rolled the dice and went with Nathan, and it cost him. Instead of a 2-0 lead heading back to the homer dome, the series was tied, and the Yankees went on to win in four.

Seems someone skipped a step between Rivera and New York, New York.