MLB 2014 season thread

Beckham was all over the place a few years back.

 

Yeah. Not to speak for Xan, but he probably meant non-native English-speaking athletes.

I mean, how does David Ortiz not have a national spot for Subway or Gatorade or something at this point?

 

Usain Bolt sells crap.

 

He was in some Verizon commercials, or Sprint or something, awhile back. I remember because they noted Green Bay as his hometown. (He met the missus there while playing in the minors.)

 

Yeah, now I'm remember this. I usually glaze over it when it's on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtimevsOL5o

 

Yet there was at his disposal a host of pitchers who had been in that situation all season. OK, Rosenthal was rocked in his first outing and Choate's defense was an adventure, but you have to put them back on the horse sometime. It's like in Game 2 of the NLDS, when Williams stayed with his starter a little too long and, 18 innings later, the Nats are in a big hole. Different set of rules in the postseason.

 

Say what? The problem in Game 2 was that Williams didn't stay with his starter long enough -- for one more out.

Regarding the Cardinals, I'm not so sure Matheny had "at his disposal a host of pitchers who had been in that situation all season." Those guys were pretty worn out, and none of them were throwing well.

Wacha wasn't the best option and shouldn't have been out there, but I don't know if Matheny had any good options.

 

The Cardinals also made a decision to go with 11 pitchers while the Giants went with 12. (Lincecum didn't pitch, but he was there just in case.) But looking at those pitchers shows a little bit about what Matheny was up against. There was a stat written about here this week that Bochy has never had a reliever rank in the top 10 in the league in appearances, and that kind of season-long smart use has a huge effect now.

The guys in each team's bullpen for the series, with their games and innings (* is a guy who also started some games, throwing the IP off):

CARDINALS
Seth Maness 73/80.1
Trevor Rosenthal 72/70.1
Pat Neshek 71/67.1
Randy Choate 61/36.0
Carlos Martinez 57/89.1
*Michael Wacha 19/107.0
*Marco Gonzales 10/34.2

GIANTS
Jean Machi 71/66.1
Javier Lopez 65/37.2
Sergio Romo 64/58.0
Jeremy Affeldt 62/55.1
Santiago Casilla 54/58.1
*Yusmeiro Petit 39/117.0
*Tim Lincecum 33/155.2
Hunter Strickland 9/7.0

Petit is a freak of nature and just a personnel advantage. But beyond that, the Giants had more rested arms. So the third day in a row and the fifth in six days, after a long season, has a huge effect. Machi ranked 16th in games among relievers this season; three Cardinals were higher. And even he looks like toast and pitched very little (and very ineffectively) in this series. The rest of the guys are 20 or 30 innings below their Cardinals counterparts.

 

My point was that MLB is lost without big markets. Check the ratings.

 

I hope they don't go bankrupt before spring training.

 

National TV money is the parsley on MLB's money plate. Regional cable deals and live gate are the steak and potatoes. It's actually better for baseball's financial health when a team like the Royals gets to parlay a pennant or World Series into next year's season ticket sales and its regional cable ratings.

 

Nice use of the word retard.

The rest of that post is just as bad. I guess nothing is as good as it was back in your day. What was it like to see Ruth pitch?

I hope baseball survives this disaster, they've never been more profitable but I'm sure this world series will change that.