Ferrum Aeternum Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Why didn't Shelby Miller pitch in the division series? He was pretty steady all year. I think with as fragile as Lynn has been in the 2nd half that Matheny will hold him for long relief or emergency starts going forward. I guess I'll root for the Cardinals now since most of my friends are fans of theirs. That's a double edged sword once the post-win gloating starts, of course. Cards are now 8-1 in their last 9 elimination games in the post season. As the resident Braves fan I'm often reminded of those sort of numbers... :blushing: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tyrion Lannister Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 I guess Oakland isn't going w/ Colon after all. It looks like they've named Sonny Gray the starter. Interesting. He sure looked good in game 2. St. Louis has not named their starter for game 1 yet. I think I'd like to go w/ Shelby Miller who didn't start in the opening round despite being a 15 game winner (ten of which were at home). Lance Lynn, the game 2 starter, makes me more nervous. They've now announced it as Kelly-Wacha-Wainwright in the first three, which is the way I assumed they'd go. Wacha vs. Kershaw is the matchup for Game 2; that could be a great one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myshkin Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 I used to go to both Giants and A's games as a kid back when the Coliseum was considered the nice park. When was the Coliseum ever considered a nice park? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferrum Aeternum Posted October 10, 2013 Share Posted October 10, 2013 Lynn is hard to figure out. He's got great "stuff" as they say, but he seems to get rocked fairly often. Lynn's biggest problem is between the ears. He tends to get flustered easily if things don't go his way and sometimes it escalates. I've noticed that if he can work through one troublesome inning early on he's usually fine the rest of the game. As far as his stuff goes - while his fastball is unhittable at times, his secondary pitches are average at best, so he has to work a lot of deep counts to get outs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark Revenge Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 When was the Coliseum ever considered a nice park? I was wondering the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweet-N-SourRobin Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 When was the Coliseum ever considered a nice park? Before the Raiders moved back and the monstrosity sarcastically known as "Mt. Davis" erased the center field ice plant, view of the Oakland Hills, and the original placement of the championship banners. You can actually see what the Coliseum used to look like if you closely watch the "Angels in the Outfield" remake they made in the mid 90s. EDIT: also bear in mind this was nice, relative to Candlestick's baseball configuration :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark Revenge Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Miggy. Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark Revenge Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Ok apparently no one else cares about this game, even though Verlander is throwing a no-no thru 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark Revenge Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 They're not going quietly that for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stark Revenge Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 It'll be Tigers vs Red Sox starting Saturday!!!! Go Red Sox!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manhole Eunuchsbane Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Eh, just lost all interest in the A.L. side of things with the A's going down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manhole Eunuchsbane Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 I think Detroit really bores people for reasons I can't totally explain. They have probably the best hitter in the game. They have one of the best pitchers in both Scherzer and Verlander. They have the very good son of a very good famous father in Fielder. Is it their uniforms? I kind of get a Yankees vibe from them. A collection of high priced, underachieving free agents moreso than a scrappy, fun loving bunch. I like Leyland and Verlander, and that's about it. Not a ton of personality there, I guess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLU-RAY Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Trisk, I think that's actually a problem that can be generalized to most of baseball. Simmons (of all people) was talking about this with Bob Costas earlier this week, actually: the big difference between baseball and football is that nobody is really interested in baseball in general - they're interested primarily in their team, and maybe in the local team if they live away from "their" team. How often do you find yourself wanting to watch a random Cubs-Braves game or whatever? This, in turn, leads to people who have very little connection with those other teams once playoff time rolls around. I'm aware of the Tigers, but I couldn't tell you the last regular season Tigers game I watched (I'm not a great example, as I don't watch a ton of baseball, but anyone else in this thread - how many regular-season Tigers games did you see the last two years that didn't involve the team you root for?). The Cardinals are similar. The Dodgers (although I'm rooting against them) have more pull, as they're in a big market and more importantly, they have some stars (IE Kershaw is generally considered *the best* and Puig was the biggest story in baseball this year). The Red Sox are the Red Sox, and between recieving a larger share of coverage than most teams and having a recent history of postseason success involving some of the players still on the team, they're recognizable as well. People (that's people in general, not you, Angry Boarder Who is Angry About Being Generalized) don't care that Cabrera's the best hitter in the game or that Scherzer's going to win the Cy Young - they care if they're recognizable. I grew up in Yankees country hating the Yankees, but I have to admit that a playoffs without the Yanks in it doesn't really feel "valid" - because they were always involved and because they were a team I grew up with. Excluding them (because my team hasn't been back to the playoffs in longer than I care to discuss), I tend to be interested in: teams my friends root for and teams that have neat stories (read: Pittsburgh). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manhole Eunuchsbane Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Trisk, I think that's actually a problem that can be generalized to most of baseball. Simmons (of all people) was talking about this with Bob Costas earlier this week, actually: the big difference between baseball and football is that nobody is really interested in baseball in general - they're interested primarily in their team, and maybe in the local team if they live away from "their" team. How often do you find yourself wanting to watch a random Cubs-Braves game or whatever? This, in turn, leads to people who have very little connection with those other teams once playoff time rolls around. I'm aware of the Tigers, but I couldn't tell you the last regular season Tigers game I watched (I'm not a great example, as I don't watch a ton of baseball, but anyone else in this thread - how many regular-season Tigers games did you see the last two years that didn't involve the team you root for?). Very good point. Once my team (the Giants) and the other local team (the A's) drop out, my interest drops considerably. I'll still watch most of it, but rooting interest is vital in terms of truly being into it. Now I'm more or less left with rooting against the Dodgers. Baseball is a lot less interesting when I don't have some sort of stake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Lord Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 As much as I love baseball, I actually agree quite a bit with this. I am not a big fan of watching baseball on TV, even though I am a rabid fan when I attend games. I'll scream, chant, sing, dance, heckle anyone I can find in earshot, etc. But regular season games aren't a big pull for me, especially if it doesn't involve my team. I love reading about baseball history. But I care very little about the playoffs now, other than a vague hope that Ryu tosses a good game and gets some widespread recognition and love. I do want to watch playoff baseball on TV, no matter the team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 Well, there's also hella baseball games in one season, like 10 times more than NFL games for your local team. So for the same time investment, you can either be a fan of 1 baseball team or 10 football teams. :dunno: I'm not really a football fan, so I will take any random MLB game over a non-Niners football game, but I mainly follow the NL, and mainly follow NL West teams because of anti-East Coast bias (or rather, the games are more likely to be on). I like watching the playoffs and I like following other teams who have interesting players. I'll watch Detroit because I like watching Verlander pitch. There are other pitchers I watch because they're interesting in some way-- I didn't even mind going to a Giants game earlier in the year in which they got one-hit by Dickey because Dickey is awesome, even though I had to drag my sprained ankle on crutches to the upper deck to see it. I have MLB.tv so I can watch random games. (Also because they auto-billed me before I realized it this year even though I haven't had a lot of time for watching sports.) I just kind of like watching baseball and its relaxing applications of physics, but that still doesn't mean I'm going to be exceedingly excited about a postseason in which I don't even have casual rooting interests in any of the teams in the championship series. What's keeping me going right now is spite. Beat LA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 Actually according to my phone I am a big enough "fan" of 8 different teams that At Bat was giving me some sort of notification for games. Huh. I love the regular season, actually, the same way I love travelogues in fantasy books that go on for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightning Lord Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 I just realized that the four teams remaining are all in the Top Ten for total payroll. That's depressing :( ETA:: Different article has St. Louis listed as 11th by season's end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLU-RAY Posted October 11, 2013 Share Posted October 11, 2013 Yeah - look at the point I made about nobody just watching random Tigers games; in comparison, we had an entire goddamn threadful of people watching a fucking Bills-Browns game last week, even though only a psychotic masochist with a rust fetish would actually root for either of those teams. Kat- you are the Angry Boarder Who is Angry About Being Generalized, congratulations :P I would also say that your point of view is probably held by a lot of folks who are fans of one sport only. But people who follow multiple sports will generally find themselves willing to watch any football game, but only baseball games they have a stake in. Much of this is due to how well football is structured to allow this - all games happen simultaneously and in an ordered fashion (with stuff like Red Zone to bind them together), except for a few exceptions that are nationally broadcast. But I think there's something else to it, also, because I think it extends beyond baseball/football. I wonder if it isn't that people percieve regular season baseball, subconciously (because really, nobody is absurd enough to have actual thoughts like this), as sort of just an iterative projection of probabilities; to draw an analogy to poker, it isn't particularly interesting to watch every hand of a cash game for hours and hours and hours, which is why tournament poker (like playoff baseball) is much easier to televise. However, while poker televises probably 80% tournaments (IE games that have a finite goal/end and in which people can be eliminated) and 20% cash games (games that keep going until the participants decide to leave for want of food/sleep/positivity) - and the cash games are almost entirely populated by stars created during the tournament format. Baseball does it in reverse, with the issue being that out of 10 playoff teams, only 2-3 will have any serious national penetration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kat Posted October 11, 2013 Author Share Posted October 11, 2013 I'm not angry. Except about the Dodgers, because fuck those guys, that's what's important. ;) Also, I'm pretty sure someone on Fangraphs has probably already written about baseball as an iterative projection of probabilities. But seriously; I think it's the fact that baseball has a bazillion games per year, especially if you include spring training. You don't need to be a fan of other teams if yours is playing on literally half the games in a calendar year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.