Comments on: Three exciting days left in the regular season

By: thekcubrats

thekcubrats — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:39:40 +0000

Hmmm. Do the Angels contend without Trout? Nope. They were worse than the Feesh before he arrived and made fierce by his arrival. Do the Tigers still woefully underperform without MCab? Yep. Just because the Fat Cats play in such a carp-y division and the Angels play in the best division in baseball… Huh.

By: raysfan1

raysfan1 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 02:23:20 +0000

Rays win. The dream’s alive! At least until the A’s game is done.

By: raysfan1

raysfan1 — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 02:20:58 +0000

Not so fast. Would the Angels still be alive with only 3 games left in the season without Trout? Nope. Are the Angels actually better than the Tigers? Yep. Case still open, I think.

Both are worthy.

By: The Rabbit

The Rabbit — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:07:54 +0000

We agree entirely. Most valuable…not the best.
You reminded me of an anecdote in the book “Kiner’s Korner”.
IIRC, Kiner had led the league in HR’s and had a great year for the Pirates. He went for a raise and was told by Rickey, “We finished last with you. We can finish last without you.”

By: randomdigits

randomdigits — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:09:34 +0000

There have ties for awards before, it could happen.

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:45:25 +0000

James Wagner of The Washington Post notes how this series represents a reversal of furtunes for both teams.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/nationals-journal/wp/2012/10/01/nationals-watched-the-phillies-celebrate-in-the-past-now-get-their-chance/

I was there for the 2010 clincher, one of a handful of Nats fans who endured the entire game. As I recall, Roy Halladay pitched the shutout, gave up a couple of hits. The drunken, obnoxious types congregated around the visitors’ dugout. (Aactually, that tends to be true of every visiting team’s fans. It’s just that Phillies fans tend to be more numerous and louder.). The Phillies fans in the second-level, where I was, were OK.

I, and others, have said the same thing since last season — the way to reduce the Phillies infestation at Nats Park is for the Nats to win. It has happened. It will be fascinating to see how many show up for this series.

As for John Lannan going, ahem, old school, nah. Davey is pretty old school, but he’s not into throwing at batters. Seems to me, Cholly isn’t, either. The whole Cole Hamels thing was just an isolated incident. .

By: thomas655

thomas655 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:27:16 +0000

bacards, you are correct. Yadi is 5th in the NL in batting average, is hitting for a lot more power than ever before, and is the absolute finest defensive catcher that I have ever seen. Where would the Cards be without Yadi? I hate to think about it.

By: Old Gator

Old Gator — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:21:18 +0000

This isn't the Best Player Award. I give Cabrera the Most Valuable Player award in a heartbeat. Do the Angels finish out of the running without Trout anyway? Yep. Do the Tiggers take the Central without Cabrera? Nope. Case closed.

By: delawarephilliesfan

delawarephilliesfan — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:51:53 +0000

Ahhhh, not much left to fight about, is there?

Until some South Philly wah-hoo runs on the field tonight, and a huge debate ensure tommroow about just who are the true Phillies fans. Or Lannan decides to go “Old School”, heh-heh

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:26:15 +0000

The link I meant to post here, to the playoff schedule. Note that all of the times are TBA.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/ps.jsp?y=12

There is no “usual” start time. MLB and the relevant networks will get together and decide on who will play on what day at what time.

TBS has times blocked out on its daily schedule for playoff games. Of course, it doesn’t know who will play when. http://www.tbs.com/schedule/

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:15:01 +0000

oops, put this in the wrong place.

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:14:24 +0000

FYI, MLB’s tiebreaking procedures (since there are so many possible ties):
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120907&content_id=38029316&vkey=news_mlb_nd&c_id=mlb

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:00:48 +0000

another

Don’t get carried away with a Phillies fan getting two from a Nats fan in one day.

By: chuckleberry1974

chuckleberry1974 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:54:26 +0000

Support your statement. You have bad habits, paperlions. Right or wrong, you need to support a statement like the one you just made.

By: atworkident

atworkident — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:19:47 +0000

The Orioles don’t even have a rotation. Buck wins hands down.

By: Jeremy T

Jeremy T — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:14:27 +0000

A difference of 0.5 WAR is small enough to be almost meaningless, though. This is actually the most Cabrera-friendly WAR argument (or WARgument) that I’ve seen.

By: ob1canobie

ob1canobie — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:55:07 +0000

I love it! The Red Sox are back in the roll I loved them for all those years before 2004… the spoiler. Nothing would make me feel better than to beat them to hand the O’s the division!!

By: husky2score

husky2score — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:54:17 +0000

Does anybody know when the ALDS series times usually are?

By: blacksables

blacksables — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:18:40 +0000

So what happens if the Tigers/White Sox tie for the divison crown, and the Cards/Dodgers tie for the last wild card spot.

I’m an hardcore agnostic, but please God, let it happen.

I’ll sacrifice a body part for this to happen.

Hey, Santa? Remember that train set I didn’t get when I was 7. You owe me one.

If there is truly justice in the world, this will happen.

By: delawarephilliesfan

delawarephilliesfan — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:05:56 +0000

No Strasburg?

By: foreverchipper10

foreverchipper10 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:04:38 +0000

Great…..can’t believe Chippers potential last game ever falls when I will be out celebrating the last birthday of my 20′s. On the flipside it could be a good birthday present with a victory.

By: scatterbrian

scatterbrian — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:40:35 +0000

@sknut

agreed…it’s just a comment on how the narrative and thinking will probably go.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:29:22 +0000

….and been making throws like this: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=22645727&c_id=mlb

Every defensive players makes a nice play once in a while, that doesn’t make them great. By any evaluation, Cabrera is a below average 3B.

By: umrguy42

umrguy42 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:25:11 +0000

hmm, looking at it – the Cards are 86-73, Dodgers are 84-75. If the Cards win at least one, and the Dodgers lose one, yeah, the Cards have it (87+-??) vs (<=86-??). Go Giants! :p

By: icanspeel

icanspeel — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:23:58 +0000

Correct, because at that point there will be 2 games left and Dodgers would be 3 back.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:23:50 +0000

I think Molina is getting short-changed (or Posey is being over-stated) as Posey has only played a lot of 1B. Molina is the far superior defensive catcher and has caught nearly 200 more innings than Posey…nearly 20% of Posey’s time has been at 1B.

That said, Posey has a substantial offensive advantage over Molina (mostly due to 32 pt higher OBP). Molina’s defense probably makes up for the offensive difference, but because defensive measurement is rather coarse….Posey will probably get far more support based on offense alone.

Both have had great years…as have Braun and McCutcheon…..there are solid arguments for all 4….and probably for Chase Headly too.

By: kiwicricket

kiwicricket — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:20:48 +0000

FP is AWFUL. He should be more honest about his awfulness.

By: stlouis1baseball

stlouis1baseball — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:11:24 +0000

That would still be (1) game wouldn’t 42?

By: stlouis1baseball

stlouis1baseball — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:09:30 +0000

AL around 5:00 P.M. (ET) and the NL around 8:00 P.M. (ET).

By: natstowngreg

natstowngreg — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 16:59:29 +0000

From the noises Davey has made, one fan’s guess at the Nats’ roster:

SP — Gio, Zimmermann, E-Jax, Detwiler.
RP — Gorzelanny, Stammen, M. Gonzalez, Garcia, Mattheus, Burnett, Clippard, Storen.
Lineup — Suzuki, LaRoche, Espinosa, Desmond, Zimmerman, Morse, Harper, Werth.
Bench — Flores, Tracy, Moore, Lombardozzi, Bernadina.

Lannan and DeRosa would be the odd men out.