John McG:
We're in the league playoffs with Boston vs. Cleveland in the AL and Colorado vs. Arizona in the NL.
Caught the Boston/Cleveland game the other night, and that was as devastating a beating as a team can take. Not only did the Sox win, but they KO'd the Tribe's ace pitcher, and made them empty their bullpen.
Only thing that could have made it worse would have been if the Sox scored a bunch or runs against Borowski in the eighth to gain a psychological edge.
Kevin Fournier:
Indians get the split Saturday night (actually Sunday morning), and take away home-field advantage. Eric Gagne might need police protection if he ever returns to Boston. The page on Foxsports currently gives his post-season WHIP as 20.00. Not his ERA, mind you, but his WHIP. Even if it's a misprint, it still thrills me. Probably his best bet is to find a safehouse in Cleveland and lay low until he can be smuggled back into Canada and claim refugee status. Also: how great is it that Trot Nixon dinged in the winning run against his former team? At its best, a great baseball series unfolds more like a soap opera than any other sport, I think that's one of the main reasons I love it.
Before we go much further, we should probably lay our biases on the table. After all, we're just fans, and what kind of fans would we be if we weren't compounded of loyalties, irrational enthusiasms and violent antipathies? I'm Canadian, which means I root for the Blue Jays, which means -- of course -- that I wish unending ill on both the Yankees and the Red Sox. I have no loyalties in the NL, but like a lot of people, I've been cheering on the Rockies ever since that insanely enjoyable one-game playoff against the Phillies.
You guys?
Timm Frink:
My biases are well known: transplanted New Englander and die hard Sox fan. Baseball is the only sport I follow with more than a passing interest. Since I now reside a hair outside DC, I suppose my NL loyalties, such as they are, lie with the Nats. Not that such loyalty does a lick of good in the postseason. I've been rooting for the Rockies too. I think they have crazier fans, coupled with the fact they dare to wear purple.
A few of my ground rules for discussion. Puns, such as "Rockies Roll" or "Snakes between Rockies and a Hard Place" are right out. I tend to trust stats more than sportscaster hoodoo in analyzing players. Comparisions between Dustin Pedroia and David Eckstien will be met with as much violence as is possible in cyberspace (see today's entry on http://www.firejoemorgan.com/ for reasons why). Meaningless comments such "they know how to play the game" or "they know how to win" will result in a beating with the obvious stick. Lastly, remember that good/bad in discussion of player performance is relative, since anyone who makes it to the big leagues (hell, anyone who makes it to A ball) is roughly a 1000 times better at baseball than the average fan.
That out of the way, I've not caught more than the highlights of the NLCS. Enough to see the Rockies take the first 2 from the D-backs, before getting to Denver. This tends to be a good sign, but we all know anything and everything can happen in the LCS.
On the AL side, last night was a tough loss. However, we have, arguably, the two best teams in the AL playing. Not only did Boston and Cleveland tie for the best record in all of MLB, they are first and third, respectively, in team ERA; second and fourth in team OPS. Two very good, well balanced teams. Boston beat up on Cleveland in the first game. Cleveland returned the favor last night. This one may vary well go to seven, and as pissed as I'll be if the Sox don't advance, they will at least have fallen to a worthy foe.
Take away points from last night's game: both of Cleveland's top of the rotation guys are certainly beatable. Schilling still wavers between showing his age and showing what he used to be. Both bullpens are very good, but while Boston has the superior closer, Cleveland may be better as a whole. Francona was not anticipating the game to go past 10 innings, which is why he threw Papelbon out for the 9th and 10th, whereas Wedge was planning on outlasting Paps. Frankly, I don't blame Francona: tie game and you have Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell coming up...you have to be thinking you can push that last run across. Also, Francona does not trust Gagne at all. Not sure if pulling him was the right move, but that's what happens when you don't insipre faith in your abilities. The rest of the series is going to be fun and tense as hell.
Kevin Fournier:
Lopsided series have been the story this year, and really the last few years -- so yeah, I'm praying hard for a knock-down, drag-out seven game Tribe-Sox battle royale -- with hopefully game 7 going 7 hours and 17 innings.
Your no-pun rule is harsh but fair. (You forgot "Indian Givers" which has the additional appeal of being highly offensive, not unlike Cleveland's logo.) And on the subject of meaningless cliches, let me just say how glad I am that having an Arizona-Colorado NLCS completely gives the lie to the idiotic "You need veteran experience in the playoffs" cliche -- my second-most hated sportswriter truism-that-isn't-true, right after "they wanted it more".
Timm Frink:
Yes, that is a good, good thing. The Sox-Indians matchup has been giving lie to the myth of momentum, as well.
So far, the best meaningless cliché I've heard has been in reference to the Rockies: "They know how to play the game. They pitch, they catch." Yes, because other teams just toss a pitching machine out there, right?
John McG:
My biases -- grew up in South Jersey, now live in St. Louis, so I no longer have a dog in this fight. Other than some mild fatigue with the Red Sox and their fans and the sabermetric triumphalisim that went along with their 2004 World Series win, I don't have terribly strong feelings about any of the remaining teams.
I will say it's a good thing the Tribe managed to pull last night's game out, because this was shaping up to be a dud of a postseason for anyone not from New England or Denver. After beating Sabbathia, the Red Sox seemed to be head and shoulders above the remaining teams, and the cachet was gone from them winning for the few people remaining who don't claim to be Sox Fans.
They found the one weakness of the Red Sox -- a shallow bullpen. Can't fault Francona for going with Paps -- you don't want to lose a game like that not having used your best pitcher. Ironically, the Indians were saved from that fate because their closer is not their best relief pitcher. Borowski got to "save" the 7 run lead his offens gave him.
I'm becoming convinced that putting together a bullpen is little more than a black art. It seems strange that a team with the resources the Sox have available to them would come into the postseason with a total of three reliable relief pitchers. But they do. And the Yankees never seem to have more than one or two guys like Rivera. The Tigers last year seemed to have an endless supply of fireballers coming out of the 'pen, and this year the bullpen was the Achilles heel of the team.
Performance of relief pitchers other than elite closers is so volatile that I don't know how I would go about bulding a bullpen. Maybe the Tigers' approach was best -- get a bunch of young arms and see what sticks.
In any case, I'm glad to see the Sox-Tribe series will be competitive, and it won't just be a cakewalk for the Sox.
Kevin Fournier:
I agree with you completely, John, about the "black art" of bullpens. I'd even go further and say putting together the whole pitching staff is a black art.
Again, look at the Yankees: if a gazillion dollar payroll can't buy them more than one and a half good starters... or look at how incredible the White Sox's starters were, one through four, in 2005 -- then the next year, they just dropped off a cliff. The Red Sox thought they had it solved this year, but then their bullpen started to fall apart, Dice-K hit a wall in the second half, Wakefield's been injured and hasn't pitched in weeks. Something about [cliche alert] catching lightning in a bottle.
On the subject of pitching depth, of course the longer schedule this year, with more days off, threatens to skew it, and give a bail-out to those thinner bullpens. Seems un-American to me. How do you guys feel about the longer schedule?
See Round II
Kevin Fournier is a Winnipeg-based writer. His first novel, Sandbag Shuffle, is published by Thistledown Press. He also blogs at Who Put Back the Clock?
John McG. is a father and software engineer living in St. Louis, MO. He blogs at Man Bites Blog.
Timmothy Frink is a software developer and transplanted New Englander living in the DC Metro area. He blogs at This Page Intentionally Left Blank.