MLB 2014 season thread

They play the game the right way, you know.

 

Best fans in baseball. :/

 

The amount of Oakland love - and it's not just here - surprises me.

Guys, they can't hit. They do not hit.

 

Jonah Keri and the FiveThirtyEight guys have studied what happens when a team backs into the postseason- there is no discernible drop-off in performance.
Oakland was still the best team in baseball two months ago.

 

True enough, but that team had a different cleanup hitter. Sort of a disruptive change there. It is my belief both the sabermetricians and eyes-first baseball guys overrate the importance of starting pitching in the playoffs. Oh, yeah it's very important, but not all important. If it was as important as Keri seemed to say last night, the Braves would've won seven World Series in the '90s.

 

Still not sure which is worse, those Braves winning just once or the Bills losing 4 SBs in a row.

 

The Bills got some bad luck. I view the Braves similar to the Colts in that they couldn't win the big one, until they ended up in the title game against someone even less equipped to win the big one (Indians, Bears). The Bills never got that.

 

Gee-
I'm not high on Oakland's chances.
But I don't think LAA is as bulletproof as folks seem to think, and Oakland still has plenty of weapons.
The A's can't hit left-handed pitching and that is going to be interesting to see if they advance.
The Royals- eh. Nice story, but let's be honest, this is not a good team.

 

Beyond the early 90s, the Braves also tended to do the exact opposite of backing into the playoffs -- they coasted in, usually having spent most of September playing basically meaningless games.

 

The Orioles are a good team, not excellent, but solid. They have the power hitters to beat top starters with a couple of homers in a game.

 

Baltimore is stocked with good hitters who can field their positions, no black holes in their lineup, a fantastic bullpen and a great manager. I like them to go to the Series.

 

O's are error prone at 3B lately.

And they have three positions batting in the low .200 range (2B, C, 3B).

Would love to see them make the series. Have had to overcome a lot of adversity.