2012 MLB Playoff Thread

[jung]

Jim Joyce does it again.....how many times has this guy created call controversies in big games, oddly enough at 1st base as often as anywhere else. Espinosa was not even close to being out on that bunt play.

 

Just like the perfect game call he missed at first....also not even close.

 

When an ump misses calls by that much, I begin to think he is assuming the call...He has the guy called out or safe in his head before the call is even ready to be made. You just cannot miss by that much any other way I think.

[kapsis21]

Nats get no offense, well what did they expect its Carpenter for crying out loud..

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

LOL Zito

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

I smell game 5

[redsoxrules]

If Cueto was healthy the Reds would of made the WS , now I'm not so sure.

[Station 13]

Scherzer is hurt but he has 5 inning in 2H and 8K.

 

Let's hope the Tigers wraps this up and have their starters lineup for the ALCS.

[redsoxrules]

Dumb play by Drew to try to stretch the double into a triple . That could cost the game and series right there

[kapsis21]

As walkoff yipeeee.. i hope As can finally get it done this year. beating the Yankees is going to be tough but I have faith in them.

[jacksonianmarch]

If we win tonight, I have a great feeling vs Oakland with Parker burned for the first 2 at home. We need a big game from Hughes and a miracle in Oakland vs Verlander

[VA Sox Fan]

Coco Clutch!!

[jung]

Finally two well played ballgames this afternoon and early evening. Hopefully the next two will also be well played, tight ballgames as opposed to mistake-fests.

[jacksonianmarch]

These playoffs have been awesome from a fan perspective

[jung]

Aesthetically, tonight's A's Tigers game is probably the one to watch at least for baseball excellence. I suspect Verlander is going to go out there and dominate the A's. I don't even think it will be close. Verlander to A's will be Guardians 2,000 against Custer's 200 with about the same results....won't be very dramatic but we might be in for the kind of pitching performance that is rare....something like Kenny Rogers in Detroit a few years ago.

[Taz]

There has been some really exciting finales to these games. Hoping the O's can force a G5 with the Stinkees & the A's going to have their work cut out against Verlander and the Tigers, but would be great if they could do it & progress to the ALCS.

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

Tigers about to end the game and Verlander is a beast

[jung]

No surprise here....A's really did not have a way to beat Verlander unless the restaurant last night gave him food poisoning.

 

Now the Spanks have to use CC tomorrow against the O's which is only fitting. Neither the O's nor Yanks deserve some whacky rotation mis-alignment thing as a means of screwing with Detroit.

 

For obvious reasons I would prefer the O's to move on as they are at least not as pathetic as the Spanks. Have to really credit Cashman for two things.....having rescued the Spanks pitching cause they lived on that and the support signings he has made. The support signings would not be so significant if the Spanks lineup were not so pathetic though.

 

Can't blame Cashman for ARoid though. He tried to be done with ARoid. Jeter's is a manageable contract. He can be rid of GrandyK and SwishSwish the ballerina this year. I suspect the biggest mistakes he could make would be to sign those two pukes.

[jung]

The real shame of it for Oakland is that if they did not have to face Verlander twice in five games, they probably win this series and I think they would cream either the O's or the Yanks just as well as the Tigers would and might even dominate either the O's or the Yanks even more than the Tigers would. I don't see how the Yanks would win one game in Oakland for example. Yet I am sure the A's could steal a game if not more in NY.

 

The two national league games today were the best games of all the divisional series games so far. These two games today were very well played and featured great plays that were memorable instead of memorable blunder after blunder.

 

Easily the best two games of the division series so far.....the Giants/Reds game featured some terrific defense...something we have seen little of in these division games and the Nats/Cards game had just about everything...great clutch hitting, unbelievable pitching especially by Nats in relief and a walk off HR by Wirth in the bottom of the 9th to end it.

 

Finally we had terrific games memorable for great play as opposed to gaffs.

[rjortiz]

I didn't see any discussion about how Dusty Baker cost the Reds the game yesterday. Leaving Latos in to give up 6 runs, and that double steal were beyond awful.

[Thunder]

Can't wait to see Nats-Cards game 5. If I can't see the O's in the WS, I'd love to see the Nationals and the Tigers.

[jung]

I didn't see any discussion about how Dusty Baker cost the Reds the game yesterday. Leaving Latos in to give up 6 runs, and that double steal were beyond awful.

 

Good point rortiz.....actually on a comparative basis I thought that was a "decently" played game which is why I did not lump that one in with the other games in that series. But you are not wrong at least not IMO. Some of the others have been so awful as to be almost unwatchable. Game 4, Cards/Nats was a good game. I thought Game 5, Giants/Reds was the best played of all 5 in that series with the other games being pretty terrible, dominated by mental and physical mistakes as opposed to memorable good play.

 

The AL games have been in the main as poorly played as anything I have ever seen in the post season...mental and physical errors being made all over the field all the time. However Tiger/A's was far better played than O's/Spanks. O's/Spanks was an embarrassment for baseball.

 

What really bothers me though is that these post season games are to me an extension of the regular season we just saw. The hitting is horrible. Nobody goes to the plate with a plan any longer and they just end up being puppets at the end of the pitcher's string. It is no wonder that some of the older ball players are excelling. They seem to be the last guys that know how baseball should be played. What the hell happened?

 

There is one thing I can offer as a possible rational for what is going on, at least in part. The new metal bats that react like wood, that will not allow you to sting the ball by just slapping at it have just really come into wide use. I am wondering if the pro ball we are seeing now is in part a result of the number of guys that are now in MLB that came up using the old metal bats...the ones that absolutely rewarded poor technique in every aspect of hitting. Maybe it is a combination of the old metal bats with a higher percentage of MLB players taking the college route to the pro game.

 

Those crummy metal bats were used extensively in college ball. The new metal bats have totally changed batting averages and every aspect of college baseball hitting. Technique in college ball is now getting back to what we used to see in pro baseball hitting. However, maybe it will be awhile before we have ballplayers that came up never having cut their teeth on the older style crummy metal bat.

 

These guys are just clueless as hitters and we saw it all regular season and the hitting has been remarkably bad so far in the post season even in the face of pitching that has not been that great in many instances.

 

I have posted here the total AL league batting average from 2012 back to 2003 for the regular season. From 2006 till today we are down .020 points in BA with a decline occurring each year.....that is a ton over a very short period of time.

2012 = .255

2011 = .258

2010=.260

2009=.267

2008=.268

2007=.271

2006=.275

2005=.268

2004=.270

2003=.267

 

I suppose we could blame a PED free environment for the decline but the more we see, the more it becomes obvious that baseball is not a PED free environment. Plus the biggest difference I see in hitting is the lack of any distinguishable hitting or plate appearance technique on the part of hitters generally and poor swing dynamics. While hitting is only one aspect of the poor baseball we have seen this post season, it is big aspect of it I think.

[rjortiz]

Nationals pouring it on in the 3rd. Harper with a 3B and HR. 4-0 Nats.

[jacksonianmarch]

The Nationals are destroying Wainwright. Looks like both defending league champs will be bounced prior to the LCS

[rjortiz]

A laser off Morse's bat adds two more. 6-0 Nats.

 

I hope the Sox go after him to play 1B.

[jung]

I hope the Nats get to the NLCS. Think they are a more exciting team than the Cards. Kind of a shame that the Reds did not get there. Nats/Reds would probably have been the better of Nats/Giants. Not a single home game won in that Giants/Reds series.

[Station 13]

Go Nats

[jung]

Morse is a BIGGGGG kid. A FA in 2014.....I think

[jung]

Broken bats...regular and post season are just off the charts.

 

Couple very dangerous broken bat plays....Joba with the bat that came right back to the mound and then the bat that broke and I think the big part ended up grazing Suzuki on its way past. That one really did look like it could have stuck him in the side very easily. The one that came at Joba looked like it could have stuck him as well if it was just turned a little differently. Obvious that the amount of force especially behind that big end of the bat is pretty nasty.

 

So many WP/PB runs this post season also.

[jung]

I don't understand why there is nobody up in the Nats pen either. Considering how long it takes to get a guy warm, the Nats could be tied or behind before they could get somebody else in.

 

Somebody finally up for the Nats.

 

Usually tough for pitchers to go from wind up to pitching from the stretch but this post season, pitchers have in some cases imploded as soon as they have had to go to the stretch.

 

Molina bailed Gonzalez out of that mess. Catcher sympathy for opposing pitcher??

 

If I were Molina I would have narrowed my focus to something really tight and only swung if I got a super pitch forcing Gonzalez to prove he could find the plate again. Even the pitch Molina swung at might have been yet another ball. At that point I had no confidence that Gonzalez would have avoided walking in yet another run.

[RedSoxfanforlife305]

Nationals come on now

[Station 13]

Gio is losing it. Pull him.