MLB League Championship Series Thread

[Cartman 0]

Schilling trade made no sense for Arizona...

 

DLowe and Varitek for Slocumb was the best ever though

 

I know Dice-K isn't horrible but he sure as hell hasnt been any good since the first half of the season. He gets rattled way too easily and walks way too many for my tastes. He doesnt have one dominant out pitch so he tries using all of his seventeen different pitches and that's only effective when he's actually throwing them for strikes.

 

There's a reason they swapped he and Schilling for the ALCS. Until Curt is gone from this team Dice-K is a #3 starter at best.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

I know Dice-K isn't horrible but he sure as hell hasnt been any good since the first half of the season. He gets rattled way too easily and walks way too many for my tastes. He doesnt have one dominant out pitch so he tries using all of his seventeen different pitches and that's only effective when he's actually throwing them for strikes.

 

There's a reason they swapped he and Schilling for the ALCS. Until Curt is gone from this team Dice-K is a #3 starter at best.

 

Dice-K's ERA by each month: 4.36, 5.22, 1.59, 3.62, 4.45, 7.62

 

It wasn't really a first half/second half thing. It looks like it took him a month or two to adjust to the league, got into a groove for the summer and then just burned out by the end. I think that was to be expected in year one because of the transition to a longer season and 5-man rotations. I think he'll be better prepared next year.

 

Matsuzaka ened up with the 40th best VORP among pitchers, making him a good #2 starter. They are playing the hot hand with Schilling right now, but there's a reason he's going to leave in free agency this year without much of an offer from Boston and Dice-K is the $100 million man.

[mike546 0]

Please Rockies win this seres. These DBacks fans SUCK.

[Brett Favre 0]

What the hell happened to the lineup? Where is Tulowitzki batting?

[Brett Favre 0]

Eric Byrnes just knows how to win.

[Cartman 0]

I know Dice-K isn't horrible but he sure as hell hasnt been any good since the first half of the season. He gets rattled way too easily and walks way too many for my tastes. He doesnt have one dominant out pitch so he tries using all of his seventeen different pitches and that's only effective when he's actually throwing them for strikes.

 

There's a reason they swapped he and Schilling for the ALCS. Until Curt is gone from this team Dice-K is a #3 starter at best.

 

Dice-K's ERA by each month: 4.36, 5.22, 1.59, 3.62, 4.45, 7.62

 

It wasn't really a first half/second half thing. It looks like it took him a month or two to adjust to the league, got into a groove for the summer and then just burned out by the end. I think that was to be expected in year one because of the transition to a longer season and 5-man rotations. I think he'll be better prepared next year.

 

Matsuzaka ened up with the 40th best VORP among pitchers, making him a good #2 starter. They are playing the hot hand with Schilling right now, but there's a reason he's going to leave in free agency this year without much of an offer from Boston and Dice-K is the $100 million man.

I think there's alot more to it than that. Schilling is still a very good pitcher, not to mention his Playoff success over his career. Dice-K is far less reliable in situations like this. I'm not saying he cannot improve next season I just don't ever feel comfortable with him on the mound in must win games.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

This is a fantastic matchup. The young kids on the Diamondbacks, Dodgers and Rockies are going to rule the division for the next few years, this is a sneak preview.

 

The crew at BTF say Chip Caray is an abysmal announcer. Any impressions?

[CanadianChris 0]

The crew at BTF say Chip Caray is an abysmal announcer. Any impressions?

I wouldn't say abysmal, but I've heard him several times before and he's certainly not one of my favourites.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

An Error-Plagued Game, but From the Broadcast Booth

 

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: October 9, 2007

No announcer is perfect. A mistake now and then is expected. The best ones realize that they’ve made errors and often do their best to fix them quickly.

 

Then there is Chip Caray, TBS’s lead baseball announcer, who has been calling the Yankees-Indians division series and will work deeper into the postseason on the National League Championship Series. His play-by-play of the Yankees’ 8-4 win in Game 3 on Sunday night was packed with errors and silly strategy, enough to give me agita.

 

Caray’s skein of faux pas in Game 3, as well as during Game 2, befogged his announcing like the insects that swarmed Joba Chamberlain on Friday night.

 

He stated that Derek Jeter was playing in his 49th postseason game — “No. 1 of all time.” Truth: it was his 49th division series game, out of 122 postseason games.

 

He likened the “dynamic duo” of Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera to the Rivera-John Wetteland bullpen pairing in “those great early years of Joe Torre,” when they were dominating the World Series. Truth: Rivera and Wetteland were Yankee teammates for two seasons, and Torre managed them only in 1996.

 

He said the “Yankees led the world” in home runs this season with 201. He liked saying it so much he said it again. Truth: The Brewers led the majors with 231, followed by the Phillies with 213 and the Reds at 204. The Yankees and Marlins were tied at 201.

 

He extolled Alex Rodriguez’s “offensive heroics in the first two months of the season” for keeping the Yankees in the race. Truth: A-Rod had a sensational April, but he slumped in May to a .235 batting average with 5 home runs and 11 runs batted in.

 

He introduced Indians reliever Joe Borowski in Game 3 as having played for the Brewers and the Reds. Truth: He never played for Milwaukee, and while he once signed with the Reds, he never made it out of spring training. Caray also noted his hometown, Bayonne, N.J., but pronounced it as if it were part of the Louisiana bayou.

 

The error bug also hit the reporter Craig Sager, who reflected on the absence of Bob Sheppard, the Yankee Stadium public address announcer, and said that his first game in 1951 was between the Giants and the Yankees. Truth: The Red Sox were in town.

 

Caray does not distinguish a go-ahead run from a winning run. In Cleveland on Friday, he said the Indians had the winning run on second base in the bottom of the eighth, and he put the Yankees in the same position in the top of the ninth. Wrong. He also believes that a runner on second will automatically score on a single. Not always.

 

He also has an annoying air of certitude. With the bases loaded Sunday, and the Yankees leading, 5-3, thanks to Johnny Damon’s three-run homer, Caray said, “This is a spot where they have to score another run to win the game.” Does he also read palms?

 

That attitude led him on Sunday, after Rodriguez’s first hit of the series, to say, “And here come the Yankees!” A-Rod went back to the bench on Jorge Posada’s double play.

 

After Damon’s run-scoring single in the third, he said, “And here they come!”

 

No, they didn’t: Jeter promptly grounded into a double play.

 

I’m sure that Caray believed his own words when he said, about the Andy Pettitte-Fausto Carmona Game 2 matchup, that “you can’t get better postseason pitching than we’ve seen tonight.” But there had been better, like that perfect game at Yankee Stadium in 1956 when the 42-year-old Chip’s legendary grandfather, Harry, was only 42.

 

Had the frequently (and ridiculously) loud Caray stayed on mute throughout the series, the analysis of his partners, Tony Gwynn and, to a greater degree, Bob Brenly, would have been worth three or four hours of my time. But a stronger play-by-play voice, like TBS’s other division series announcers, Don Orsillo, Ted Robinson or Dick Stockton, would have made Brenly and Gwynn better. TBS knows how to fix what’s wrong. Yesterday it added SNY’s Ron Darling to its studio program, providing experience that neophytes like Frank Thomas and Cal Ripken lack.

 

Here are some questions to ponder through the rest of Caray’s work this postseason. Why isn’t he better prepared? If his producer, Jeff Gowen, is listening to what he is saying, why isn’t Caray improving? And why should I have to keep rushing to MLB.com to fact-check his facts?

 

Notes

 

Through Sunday’s games, TBS’s division series average viewership of 5.4 million is up impressively from 4.5 million last year on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox. ...The NHL Network, with 50 live games and other programming, announced deals to be carried by Cablevision, Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, DirecTV and Dish. It will most likely be available largely on digital sports tiers.

[Brett Favre 0]

When Mussina came out of the bullpen, he said it was his first time ever out of the bullpen.

 

Um, 2003 ALCS, Game 7?

[Guest huss]

Thanks D-Bags fans, you're everything I expected you to be.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

This just makes me want to see the Rockies stomp the everloving shit out of the Dbacks even more. Idiot fans.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

God damn this is a long half inning. I've been waiting for it to end to go piss.

[Guest Smues]

This just makes me want to see the Rockies stomp the everloving shit out of the Dbacks even more. Idiot fans.

I just got the game on, what'd I miss from the fans.

[MFer 0]

I haven't been paying attention all game long, but it sounds like D-backs fans are booing for no apparent reason.

[Guest huss]

I just got the game on, what'd I miss from the fans.

 

Obvious interference call, fans started throwing garbage onto the field.

[Guest Smues]

Well that was a pretty weak ending. One down, three to go. Hopefully the Rockies can sweep so they can win the series at home in front of a crowd that gives a shit.

[Guest Smues]

I just got the game on, what'd I miss from the fans.

 

Obvious interference call, fans started throwing garbage onto the field.

 

Oh goody. This series can't move to Colorado fast enough.

[randomguy 0]

Oversliding the bag with two outs in the 9th for the final out, down by 4? The hell?

 

It really doesn't matter what base you end up on, you're down by 4 with 2 outs...single, double, triple, homer, doesn't make a difference.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah, while the D'Backs might take game 2 I don't really see this series heading back to AZ. The D'Backs had their best shot tonight with Webb on the mound and didn't do shit.

[Fuzzy Dunlop 0]

Had the frequently (and ridiculously) loud Caray stayed on mute throughout the series, the analysis of his partners, Tony Gwynn and, to a greater degree, Bob Brenly, would have been worth three or four hours of my time. But a stronger play-by-play voice, like TBS’s other division series announcers, Don Orsillo, Ted Robinson or Dick Stockton, would have made Brenly and Gwynn better. TBS knows how to fix what’s wrong. Yesterday it added SNY’s Ron Darling to its studio program, providing experience that neophytes like Frank Thomas and Cal Ripken lack.

 

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

So people complain about Arizona fans not giving a shit then they see Arizona fans caring enough to throw bottles on the field and they complain. Make up your minds, people!

[Golgo 13 0]

I don't know if I can last the whole series with these three in the booth.

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

Had the frequently (and ridiculously) loud Caray stayed on mute throughout the series, the analysis of his partners, Tony Gwynn and, to a greater degree, Bob Brenly, would have been worth three or four hours of my time. But a stronger play-by-play voice, like TBS’s other division series announcers, Don Orsillo, Ted Robinson or Dick Stockton, would have made Brenly and Gwynn better. TBS knows how to fix what’s wrong. Yesterday it added SNY’s Ron Darling to its studio program, providing experience that neophytes like Frank Thomas and Cal Ripken lack.

What's your favorite bad Dick Stockton call?

A) 1 and 1 on Angel Pecan

B) 3-run home run for Adolfo Soriano!

C) Here's Derrek Lee, Lee spent last year with Milwaukee and Texas

D) Wuertz . . . second behind Bob Howry on the Cowboys for relief appearances

[Failed Bridge 0]

Stockton is a massive walking brain tumor

[Guest Gym Class Fallout]

Wait, I thought busting up a double play was not only legal, but part of "doing all the little things right." Grinding and grit and so forth.

 

The gripe with the Dbags "fans" throwing garbage is that there's a rare time and place for that, and it wasn't in the National League Championship Series (nor was it at any point in the 2007 Cubs season, for that matter). I missed the part where the season was at an all-time low and thousands of loyal fans had become exasperated with their expensive bad excuse-making team. This was poor form from poor fans.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Wait, I thought busting up a double play was not only legal, but part of "doing all the little things right." Grinding and grit and so forth.

 

Depends on the form. You can slide into the bad hard and make it difficult for the opposing player to make the play. When you make the slide in such a way that it's counter-productive to proper form, it's obvious your sole intention is to interfere with the play. The umpires almost certainly have gotten a directive from MLB recently as I've seen more more this season than I can remember previously.

[Brett Favre 0]

Now this looks like playoff ball. Everyone is freezing their asses off, long sleeves, and dumbass commentary by Tim McCarver. Looking good.

[CanadianChris 0]

Geez, Papi hit .714 against the Angels? Even for three games, that's insane.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

What happened to Sabathia's control?