MLB League Championship Series Thread

[Cartman 0]

Thanks Gagne...Thanks.

[strummer 0]

and Trot Nixon hurts his old team

[randomguy 0]

Was there some problem handling the relay? It looked like the ball made it to the relay man in plenty of time to beat the runner at home, but the throw to home seemed to take a couple of more seconds. I couldn't see what happened on the replay, a botched glove to hand exchange?

 

Edit: At a Pizza place near me in Mass they have a sticker on the wall that says "Gagne is a Yankee spy."

[MFer 0]

Well, Borowski's gonna come in for Cleveland so Boston has a good shot to get those runs back.

 

EDIT: Not that many runs though.

[Cartman 0]

...Not with the part of the order that's coming up to bat they don't.

 

Fuck you Gagne, Lopez too.

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

WHY THE FUCK DO THEY KEEP PUTTING GAGNE IN FOR FUCKS SAKE

[tpww7 0]

Can we release Eric Gagne now so we dont even think about putting him back in?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Thanks Gagne.

[strummer 0]

Anyone notice the glee in McCarver's voice with the Indians scoring all these runs? I've always had the impression he couldn't stand the Red Sox and their style of play.

 

And this is coming from a non-Sox fan

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Fuck it. I'm done.

[randomguy 0]

They keep putting in Gagne because Terry Francona is very loyal to the guys he likes. It has worked out well with Pedroia, who looked overmatched last season and the start of this one, but blossomed wonderfully. It has worked in past years with Kevil Millar, Bill Mueller, etc. However Francona has to realize that this is the playoffs and waiting around for a guy to blossom is not something you can do when every game counts for so much.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Like I said last night, Gagne is obviously hurt. Just DL him and put Tavarez on the roster. No one cares at this point that you traded three prospects to get him. Just keep him out of high leverage situations.

[randomguy 0]

How is he obviously hurt? He's pitched poorly since he joined the Red Sox, and I would say that he didn't pitch very well before he joined them either, although his ERA didn't reflect it as much.

 

This is the real Eric Gagne.

[v.2 0]

When did you guys all become Yankee-esque fans.

[Vampiro69 0]

Thank you Gagne for performing like crap.

 

Also, isn't it great to see Cool Papa Lofton once again in the playoffs?

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

How is he obviously hurt? He's pitched poorly since he joined the Red Sox, and I would say that he didn't pitch very well before he joined them either, although his ERA didn't reflect it as much.

 

This is the real Eric Gagne.

 

 

You don't think that he's hurt? Have you not seen him pitch since he joined the Red Sox? He can't keep anything in the zone, he tugs at his arm after every pitch and often swings his shoulder in large circular motions between throws. He never did any of that stuff with the Dodgers or Rangers. I think he has something wrong with that arm and he's just trying to get through the season to sign a big deal in the offseason. It wouldn't be the first time that he pitched through a nagging injury.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Gagne from July 21st on

 

He entered a July 21st against Cleveland with 1.23 ERA in 29 appearances. From then on he had a 7.15 ERA.

[randomguy 0]

Ok if you mean he's been injured from that point then I might agree, I thought you meant he was injured just recently in the playoffs.

 

The guy has been having a lot of arm problems for years, no reason to think he isn't having more.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

The Tommy John surgery Gagne had about 2 years ago led to his downfall.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

The Tommy John surgery Gagne had about 2 years ago led to his downfall.

More accurately, the injury that led to the Tommy John surgery.

 

On the subject of Gagne, first off the two pitchers after him were even less effective. But beyond that, I really hope you guys learn to separate Gagne the performer from Gagne the person. He's not trying to lose games out there. If you want to dispute Francona's usage of him, that's fine.

 

And again, I couldn't stay up for this. ANOTHER game that ends after 1am on the East Coast. This is absolutely ridiculous. And game four of the NLCS starts at 10pm on a weeknight.

[JHawk 0]

Would it kill FOX to only have the normal two minute commercial breaks? At one point I flipped to HBO, watched the entire 12th round of Pacqiao-Barrera, and still flipped back to watch three commercials.

[CanadianChris 0]

When this year's World Series is once again the lowest-rated in history, I hope people will look past the fact that Colorado or Arizona was in it and instead look at the fact that a lot of people don't want to start watching a game they almost certainly won't finish watching.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

When this year's World Series is once again the lowest-rated in history, I hope people will look past the fact that Colorado or Arizona was in it and instead look at the fact that a lot of people don't want to start watching a game they almost certainly won't finish watching.

Agreed. It's a nuisance when MLB and Fox try to position their games to ensnare "casual viewers." With dvds, DVRs and hundreds of channels on cable and satellite, fans aren't going to tune into a game because there's nothing else on. Position your game in a good spot and market it with the message that fans have to watch, because this is an EVENT. The Super Bowl starts at 6:30pm ET, that doesn't seem to hurt viewership.

 

There is no reason for a weekend game to start past 8pm. ESPECIALLY when that game takes place within the Eastern time zone in Boston or Cleveland. Fall weather isn't bad but it gets really f'n chilly later at night.

[JHawk 0]

Oh, they'll blame it on Cleveland should they make it. They always do.

[Slayer 0]

"I don't get it... we moved the start to Wednesday, that was supposed to solve everything!"

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Oh, they'll blame it on Cleveland should they make it. They always do.

Seriously, read the prologue of "Fair Ball" and tell me you don't want to slug Bob Costas.

[Hawk 34 0]

I don't need to read anything to want to slug Costas. Fucking dwarf asshole.

[cabbageboy 0]

I think some of it is that there are just too many rounds of playoffs. I hear all the time about how the wild card makes the last month of the regular season so thrilling, but it makes for the actual postseason to be incredibly long winded and boring.

 

Ratings are down because of fan fatigue over all these various rounds of playoffs and the sheer length of these games. Add to it over the past decade that the best teams simply don't make it to the World Series. Baseball had much better World Series when they just took the two best teams and went with it.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I think some of it is that there are just too many rounds of playoffs. I hear all the time about how the wild card makes the last month of the regular season so thrilling, but it makes for the actual postseason to be incredibly long winded and boring.

 

Ratings are down because of fan fatigue over all these various rounds of playoffs and the sheer length of these games. Add to it over the past decade that the best teams simply don't make it to the World Series. Baseball had much better World Series when they just took the two best teams and went with it.

I don't think it's fan fatigue except as far as the time of game is concerned. I do agree with the best teams not making the World Series. These days the World Series is just a pairing of two random teams rather than the culmination of months (and sometimes years) of development.

 

Let me point out one big problem at work. Before the wild card era, the postseason format always pitted west vs. east in the LCS. Over the years we got good matches and rivalries out of that. Yankees/Royals, Dodgers/Phillies, Reds/Pirates, etc. Fans and the media cared about the west coast teams because you were going to see two of them on the big stage. Now we have Boston/Cleveland (east coast only) and Arizona/Colorado (west coast only). It doesn't bode well for national attention. In the old format, you'd see at least one familiar team.

 

Had we had the divisional format, the Indians and Red Sox would have played a one-game playoff for the division title. The Phillies would have won the division title on the last day, as would have the Diamondbacks. That's plenty of late season drama without a single mention of the wild card.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Why would baseball's playoffs wear out fans, where as the NHL and NBA's playoffs last for about two months?