[quote]DBCooper wrote:
OH MY GOD I’M CUMMING!!!
THAT’S WHY HE’S THE FUCKING MVP!!![/quote]
Haha, didn’t you give up on your team a couple of days ago when they went down 0-2?
You know the Reds still haven’t won a home playoff game since '95. Pretty sad.
That battle between Romo and Bruce was fucking epic. He had him struck out on a PERFECT 2-2 pitch up and on the inside corner but he didn’t get the call. I had a mild seizure on that one. But he got him to fly out lazily to left and then Rolen just looked overmatched against him.
[quote]strungoutboy21 wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
OH MY GOD I’M CUMMING!!!
THAT’S WHY HE’S THE FUCKING MVP!!![/quote]
Haha, didn’t you give up on your team a couple of days ago when they went down 0-2?
You know the Reds still haven’t won a home playoff game since '95. Pretty sad.[/quote]
I know. I feel so ashamed of myself.
And the luck continues. Fuvking Nate McClouth?!?!
OMFG CARDINALS WITH THE EPIC COMEBACK.
THIS IS INSANE.
Jesus Christ, the Cardinals look scary as fuck again all of a sudden. It looks like they’re getting hitting from everywhere when they need it and their pitching is just good enough to keep them in it until they blow up late. Man, the Giants could really be up against it next week.
Game One’s atmosphere is going to be a fucking zoo. The 49ers play the NY Giants the same day at Candlestick Park and half that crowd is gonna get liquored up out of their fucking gourds and then head up the street to AT&T Park for Game One, which I think starts at 5pm and is just in time to give fans enough time to get sufficiently stoned on the way from Candlestick to China Basin. That crowd is going to be apeshit drunk by first pitch, although I think the median alcohol level will also be so high that things could get very quiet very quickly if they fall behind early.
There’s going to be a ton of media in the area probably, too. I’m sure most of Fox’s #1 crew will be at the Niners game and of course ALL of Fox’s baseball coverage will be devoted to that game since the other one is on TBS.
You know, with the Nationals coming up just ONE game short, it kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if they had Strasburg for one start, let alone the possibility of starting Game 1 and 5 on regular rest.
Hell, they could have used him out of the bullpen to save his arm and he would have played a huge role in at least two of their losses.
I’m glad they fucking blew it. Serves them right for having the ego to think they could shut down Strasburg and still make it the whole way. They were literally only ONE pitcher short this series and maybe even in this particular game if he would have been available. The Baseball Gods have spoken. It is done.
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
You know, with the Nationals coming up just ONE game short, it kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if they had Strasburg for one start, let alone the possibility of starting Game 1 and 5 on regular rest.
Hell, they could have used him out of the bullpen to save his arm and he would have played a huge role in at least two of their losses.
I’m glad they fucking blew it. Serves them right for having the ego to think they could shut down Strasburg and still make it the whole way. They were literally only ONE pitcher short this series and maybe even in this particular game if he would have been available. The Baseball Gods have spoken. It is done.[/quote]
They got to game 5 and Strausburg wouldn’t be pitching tonight anyway. Furthermore, Strausburg’s replacement (his name escapes me) actually pitched pretty well.
I guess you could say they could’ve benefitted from him in the bullpen but even still they blew a SIX run lead. They choked and I doubt Strasburg would’ve changed the outcome.
Strasburg could have easily changed the outcome. There is nothing like your best pitcher on the mound to rally your team and have your team rally behind him.
So are we going to have an avatar bet on the NLCS? 1 month
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]DBCooper wrote:
You know, with the Nationals coming up just ONE game short, it kind of makes you wonder what would have happened if they had Strasburg for one start, let alone the possibility of starting Game 1 and 5 on regular rest.
Hell, they could have used him out of the bullpen to save his arm and he would have played a huge role in at least two of their losses.
I’m glad they fucking blew it. Serves them right for having the ego to think they could shut down Strasburg and still make it the whole way. They were literally only ONE pitcher short this series and maybe even in this particular game if he would have been available. The Baseball Gods have spoken. It is done.[/quote]
They got to game 5 and Strausburg wouldn’t be pitching tonight anyway. Furthermore, Strausburg’s replacement (his name escapes me) actually pitched pretty well.
I guess you could say they could’ve benefitted from him in the bullpen but even still they blew a SIX run lead. They choked and I doubt Strasburg would’ve changed the outcome.[/quote]
Jesus Christ, you really don’t know shit, do you?
Strasburg was one of the best pitchers in baseball and the best pitcher on his team. If they had been blown out in three straight games I might agree with you. But this was a close series and they lost in 5. Having the best pitcher on your team would EASILY have made a difference.
First thing I thought of when Nationals lost – Strasburg.
Washington sports sucks!
And fuck the SF Giants!
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
First thing I thought of when Nationals lost – Strasburg.
Washington sports sucks!
And fuck the SF Giants![/quote]
And fuck you, sir.
Wow. Raul Ibanez has had one helluva postseason already and it’s only Game One of the LCS.
After watching the Giants do so well late in the games in both the regular season and the postseason despite not having a truly-defined closer, I’m starting to have my doubts about the necessity for one. Tonight only confirms if for me.
This isn’t a sabermetrics thing but more of an emotional thing I suppose. When a team has a closer who is basically “The Guy” in the 9th, it seems like managers are much, much more reluctant to take him out if he’s struggling. It’s like they literally sink or swim with the guy without realizing they could at least jump into the water with a lifejacket on. Now, some closers really are The Guy and you can’t blame a manager with sticking with them. But there aren’t many of them, maybe Kimbrel and Rivera when he was healthy and MAYBE Joe Nathan or Brian Wilson (when he was healthy) or Aroldis Chapman. But really, there’s virtually no closer in the game who’s currently healthy who is so dominant and has the track record to instill that sort of confidence.
I think what teams are better off doing is what Bochy has done. This is going to be hard to explain but I’ll try. Basically, if you’re a manager and you know you’re going with just your closer in the 9th, you can define everyone else’s role a little more definitively. Basically, the manager is more apt to blow through all of his good arms before he gets to the closer so that when the closer struggles at all, he’s fucked.
The manager basically goes with one guy for the 8th and a combo of lefty/righty for the 7th, with the best lefty occasionally throwing in the 8th if the RH setup man isn’t that tough on lefties. It’s a little more fluid than that obviously, but only a little. And what happens then is that when you aren’t planning on saving any of your good pitchers other than the closer for the 9th, if a guy gets shelled in the 8th all of a sudden now you’re really only down to the closer to relieve him and now he has to throw more than an inning.
The way Bochy has been forced to handle it is such that he usually tries to have a righty and a lefty for the 9th inning. As a result, he has to stretch guys a little more before the 9th, but often times this just means facing one more batter than they normally would. How many times have we seen a manager take a pitcher out after just one batter strictly for matchup reasons even though the pitcher looked unhittable at the time? We don’t see that very often at all with Bochy.
What he ends up with are more quality options for the 9th inning if anyone struggles and it doesn’t trample on any egos when guys get moved in and out of that 9th inning role since they aren’t The Guy anyways. Romo is the main RH for the 9th, but Casilla has been the guy at times as well and both Lopez and Affeldt have thrown in the 9th against lefties a lot.
This approach is also cheaper because a top-notch closer can come at a pretty steep price sometimes. Quality setup men can usually be had for much less. It’s a way to get a lot more depth in the bullpen, which is always huge in the postseason. There’s just too much riding on each game to just stick with anyone other than maybe the top 2 or 3 closers in the game no matter what in the 9th. It would be better to have several slightly less quality pitchers in the hopes that any one or two of them could be throwing lights out at any given time, let alone ALL of them throwing well at the same time.
Everyone who is saying strasburg would’ve changed the outcome is just giving these general answers as to why.
The guy who replaced Strasburg pitched 6 innings gave up 1 run and they WON that game.
Are they really going to throw out strasburg on short rest to pitch in game 5? Doubtful.
I’m not sure how he could’ve changed the outcome? Do you guys believe the morale boost of having him on the bench would’ve made the bullpen pitch better and not blow a huge lead?
My idea of a closer is a little simpler. Throw out your best reliever when the heart if the order is due up whether it be the 7th, 8th or 9th. Don’t restrict your closer to the 9th.
I can’t believe they kept valverde in, he continually threw up centre cut pitches the whole inning.
While Ibanez has been I almost it’d more of a reflection of how bad the rest of the Yankee hitters have been. Cano is not even batting .100, granderson has struck more than half the time, and A-rod can’t hit fastballs anymore. Ibanez has been able to square up mistakes (like MLB hitters should) the rest of the team had just been hitting like little leaguers.
Losing jeter obviously a much bigger loss than losing the game. I can’t imagine them making it to the WS without him. His ankle had to be pretty banged up to begin with to break it fielding a freakin grounder.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
Everyone who is saying strasburg would’ve changed the outcome is just giving these general answers as to why.
The guy who replaced Strasburg pitched 6 innings gave up 1 run and they WON that game.
Are they really going to throw out strasburg on short rest to pitch in game 5? Doubtful.
I’m not sure how he could’ve changed the outcome? Do you guys believe the morale boost of having him on the bench would’ve made the bullpen pitch better and not blow a huge lead?
[/quote]
It’s easy to compare the replacement’s performance directly to what strasburg would have done, but it doesn’t take other things into account. Say they have Strasburg pitch game one and five, maybe strasburg doesn’t give up three runs in the middle innings like gio did. If he shuts the Cards down through six in that last game they would have had a 7-0 lead and would have won 7-6 after all the runs given up by the bullpen. On the other hand, he could have pitched like he did vs the Marlins in his last start. It’s impossible to know how much a difference he would have made.
I agree though, bottom line Nats blew it.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
Say they have Strasburg pitch game one and five, maybe strasburg doesn’t give up three runs in the middle innings like gio did. If he shuts the Cards down through six in that last game they would have had a 7-0 lead and would have won 7-6 after all the runs given up by the bullpen. On the other hand, he could have pitched like he did vs the Marlins in his last start. It’s impossible to know how much a difference he would have made.
[/quote]
You’re speaking with the benefit of hindsight. Even if they decided to not shutdown Strasburg they would’ve started Gio in game 1.
While Strasburg had a better season, Gio also had a Cy Young calibre season. There was no indication beforehand the manager had any intention of flip flopping their spots in the rotation.
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
Losing jeter obviously a much bigger loss than losing the game. I can’t imagine them making it to the WS without him. His ankle had to be pretty banged up to begin with to break it fielding a freakin grounder. [/quote]
Yep.
He’s terrible defensively fully healthy too. I remember one lineup they threw out there consisted of Jeter at SS and Nunez at DH. Made no sense.