MLB 2014 season thread

Steve Perry standing in the crowd, wearing a Giants jacket and lip-synching to his own songs just seems weird to me.

 

Just caught up on DVR. What are you guys bitching about, he started and they won!

It's tough to give up one run or less every time out in the postseason. That's why Ryan Vogelsong is the only pitcher who ever did it in his first five starts.

Bigger point though is Petit. I would say again that his ability to jump in there in high-leverage long relief and be almost perfect is something that no other team can match, but then I'd get oop on my ass too.

 

It seems like a sustainable approach.

 

You can say it, because if you had stated it that way the first time around, you would have had a good point. What you originally said was they had depth that nobody could match, and that isn't true. The Nationals have starting pitching depth that is as good if not better. Once you refined your point, it makes sense. Petit is more comfortable in that role than somebody like Roark, who is a better starting pitcher overall.

 

Sample size got a tiny bit bigger and it's all starting to come into focus.

I remember when Fernando had a career 0.22 ERA in his first 80 innings. We were all sure he was going to be the best pitcher ever in the Milky Way. Now, we're let down again.

a) he doesn't complete games. His 5 starts equaled only 30 innings and he never pitched more than 7 innings. Unlike Koufax, Mathewson, Gibson et al who basically pitched CG all the time.

b) through a giant chunk of history, unearned runs were very common. Waite Hoyt for example threw 3 complete games in his first World Series, with zero earned runs, but only had 1 shutout. Koufax gave up 4 unearned runs, 3 famously in 1966. I guess Vogey is "clutch" because he didn't make 3 errors in center field.

c) through the first 3 decades of baseball there was no postseason. During the next 7 decades, the only teams in the post season were the best teams from each league. Vogelsong has never faced the best team from the AL.

d) how many pitchers have actually started 5 games since 1969 while also never facing the best team of the other league? That's tiny fraction of all the pitchers in history.


So this is fairly misleading.

For comps though since 1969, Blue Moon Odom, started 4 games, pitched 9 more innings than Vogelsong, had a career OPS+ of 89, a post season ERA of 1.13 and he faced the best team from the NL once. And had Koufax been pulled each game after 7 innings he would have had 8 games with 1 earned run or less, which is to say, every start. And he, that is Koufax, only faced the best team when he pitched.

 

I know there are many people who think the Royals' run is some luckfest that they've happened upon. Yes, they've had some bounces go their way, but the last two games is how they've won all year. The defense has been this good all season. Yost has made the asinine sac bunt in the first or second inning all damn year. They've taken advantage of opponents' defensive mistakes to win ballgames all year.

This is who they are. Yes, they've gotten hot and the extra inning home runs are out of character. But Hosmer and Moustakas showed power in the minor leagues and for stretches in their big league careers. They are 24 and 26, respectively. It's not a stretch to expect that occasionally, and perhaps more often as they mature.

To me, the two 2-1 games to close out the ALCS were this team doing what it does. They put the ball in play, make the opposing defense need to be nearly perfect, then back it up with the best defense we've seen collectively in quite some time. On the mound they don't walk guys to take advantage of that defense, and the power trio at the end takes care of business. But it's not like Holland wasn't this good last year. And Davis was pretty damn good in relief for the Rays. And Herrera has always had the best stuff of the three and is simply naturally maturing as many 24-year-olds with electric stuff tend to do.

The Royals aren't smoke and mirrors. I didn't like them against Lester in a winner-take-all game earlier this postseason, and they needed a flukey stretch to stay alive. But since then they've been playing similar to that stretch from July 22-Aug. 23 when they won 24 of 30. They are built for the postseason where forcing the other team to beat you and not beating yourself is usually enough. Keeping runs off the board is just as important as putting them up.

 

What makes this different from the regular season? I'm not trying to be a dick, but this sentence doesn't really say anything. It's baseball pap.

 

Rangers to hire Pirates bench coach Jeff Banister as manager, per Rosenthal:

https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/522771960242397185

 

Nah, there's a big difference with runs at a premium and the best bullpen combo fully rested and lined up for every game. A misplay on a groundball at first base in the first inning of a July 27 game doesn't even cause a ripple -- shoot, there's no misplay even, because the defense is back and conceding a run to get an out.

 

I don't disagree with this, necessarily, but it's not what he wrote. That was my objection - not to the general point that the Royals may be built for the postseason.

I'd like to see a long-term study on whether team ERA improves once the postseason starts, due to going down to four starts and shortening the bullpen, although I guess you'd have to adjust it based upon the lineups that a team is facing, which would also in most cases be better than a regular-season lineup.

 

Yup. It's a different game in October. Infield is almost always in when there's a runner on third and less than two outs. Starting pitchers are pulled after 4 innings when they're not getting it done.

Also, having two off days scheduled in every seven-game series means two huge things for your pitching staff: never needing five starters and sometimes not even needing a fourth; and all the parts of your back end of the bullpen are available for every game.

Playoff baseball and regular-season baseball are miles apart in some very key ways.

 

I don't disagree that roster management is different in the postseason.

I simply do not know what the following actually means: "(In the postseason, as opposed to the regular season,)forcing the other team to beat you and not beating yourself is usually enough."