Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

Damn straight.

Didn't roll over . . . integrity of the game, and all that.

Boston shat all over themselves, and Buck's supposed to let them win?

 

LongTimeListener was very angry at the way Caro portrayed LBJ.

 

LOL. Great line, dude.

 

Ha!

 

Hey, man, they're the "Sawx." Everyone should just roll over for them.

 

Hoffman wasn't exactly Rivera-esque in big games. See the 1998 World Series, the 2007 Wild Card playoff, the 2006(?) All Star Game in Pittsburgh where he blew home field for the NL, etc.

I agree with your overall point that the Braves lacked a lockdown closer during that run. But I disagree that that was the reason they only won the 1 title - it wasn't like they blew a ton of postseason games in the 8th or 9th inning during that time.

I think it was more that, while they had the three great pitchers (and a fourth, Steve Avery, who hinted at greatness), only John Smoltz was the hard-throwing type of pitcher who could consistently make hitters swing and miss. Maddux and Glavine were softer-throwing junk pitchers who found bats more often - the types of pitchers who usually struggle in October against postseason-caliber hitters. Just look at the postseason records of the three pitchers.

 

I should point out that there has been a growing minority sentiment for the last week among fans in these parts that the 2011 Sox deserved what they eventually got, and that making the playoffs would have done them no credit.
I've said this before, but I was (still am) a Phillies fan in 1964, and this collapse is far more horrible and disgraceful. The Phils were a team that had no business being as good as they were most of the season, and simply reverted to the mean in sickening but understandable fashion. The 2011 Sox were supposed to be a division winner AT WORST. They were talking about 100 wins in March. And they couldn't even play .333 baseball in September.
Compute that, Theo.

 

To those who know the Red Sox better than I do: Is this September collapse in any way an indictment of sabermetrics? Were there foreseeable human elements that Epstein did not account for but should have? For example, Lackey's personal life.

Or was this just bad luck?