2012 MLB Playoff Thread

[jacksonianmarch]

Good for the Giants. And Buster Posey is showing he is a pretty valuable player even when he doesnt hit. 3 yrs in the league, one ended with injury, the other two will end in the world series

[Station 13]

This is a Series I might watch more than just the 1st and clincher game, since the pitchers going are pretty good.

[Jacoby_Ellsbury]

Cards imploded that inning. Don't you just hate that one reliever who is in and let all the runners on base scored, and then get pulled himself?

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WOLrEkLUxtk/SMWQpwce1GI/AAAAAAAAATE/k7s6-7ayATY/s400/Mike+Timlin.bmp

[Behindenemylines]

Tigers in Six.

[jung]

Doesn't look like we are going to have a separate WS thread. So I guess its post in here.

 

Zito looked like he was not going to escape the 1st inning but he did somehow. Verlander is probably going to be his usual monster self since his last outing was somewhat below his standards.

[jung]

Surprised that Verlander has shown the curve in the very first inning of this game. I would not have been expecting that at all and probably would have pulled a groin just watching the pitch go by me.

[jung]

Wow I would not have expected any of the Giants to catch up to Verlander's rising FB. Sandoval crushes one to CF for the first run of the inning. That has got to be a big boost of confidence for the Giants in this game. They cannot have expected to be up on Verlander in the 1st inning.

 

Although you have got to hand it to the Giants. As much as I expect much more focus from the hitters in the post season, the Giants have been the only team this post season that has met my expectations in that regard. Tigers were second to the Giants in that respect, Cards third...Yankees...pleeeeasssse!

[jung]

So far, lady luck seems to be with the Giants.

[jacksonianmarch]

Scutaro=God

[SCM33]

Scutaro=God

 

Not good enough to play SS in Boston.

 

Mark Aviles/Nick Punto and Jose Iglesias were all much better options.

[jung]

So far Verlander has responded very badly to this ump not giving him his usual 4' wide strike zone. He has been visibly miffed by it and started to really get wayyyyy to much plate with his pitches. I think the Tigers are caught somewhat off guard watching the Giants pound out hits off their ace.

[jung]

Leyland is going to have nightmares about these early endings to ALCS going into WS. Second time that his Tigers have looked a little dreamy while the other guys have clearly been ready to play.

[Station 13]

A week off was a bad timing for the Tigers. Giants been hot since the LCS.

[redsoxrules]

I miss Scutaro

I read an article and it stated that Scutaro has also helped a few if his

Teammates with the bat with hitting tips and they've gotten better.

 

Not sure if I heard this correctly but Scutaro has only swung and missed 14 times since the start of August and just twice in the post season .

[jung]

I could not believe my ears either. Although I think the number was 15. Still amazing whether 15 or 14.

 

Really disappointed in Verlander tonight. Regardless of who we cheer for we want the games stars to comport themselves like stars, to perform like stars. You could see Verlander working himself up into a snit not because the ump was calling strikes balls but because the ump was not calling close balls strikes, something Verlander has grown used to I guess.

 

Instead of bearing down and working harder to hit his spots he basically started to leave meatballs about belt high catching way to much plate. Unfortunately as Sox fans we all know why we have become familiar with this sort of behavior.

 

Clearly Verlander could not get his curve over for strikes either and he could not get the Giants to swing and miss at his curve either.

 

This might be the best thing that can happen to the series. Probably would have been tough to have a tight, exciting series if Verlander took two games off the table leaving the Giants to try to win four of the remaining five. Now the Tigers have to recover from seeing their ace undressed and have to get crackin'. If they do, we will probably relish the ebb and flow. If they don't and just crumble, it will likely leave us dissatisfied.

[Divinity]

Giants in Six.

[jung]

Giants in 6 is becoming a popular pick. I hope we see a tight 7 game series.

 

Posted on another board earlier today that the Tiger pitchers have got to start to gain some command of the plate as the Giant hitters are just excavating the batters box, digging in and are very comfy at the plate. Tiger pitchers have got to start to pitch inside and move the Giant hitters around a little, both to gain the outer edge of the plate and to keep the Giant hitters from digging in and getting so comfortable.

 

MLB Network talking heads just made the same point and used the Zito hit last night as an example of just how comfy the Giant hitters are. Commented that it is rare for a pitcher to settle in the batters box and be able to reach across to the outer edge the way Zito did but Zito hitting without fear just like the rest of the Giant hitters.

 

Will be interesting to see if the Tiger pitchers are more aggressive tonight.

[redsoxrules]

Fielder was out , not sure what he's complaining about , Posey got the tag on his fat ass before he touched the plate

[jung]

Tigers are playing such stupid baseball. Lamont never should have sent Fielder. What is he doing...playing for one run? You want to rally with base runners on and no outs, not risk an out and a baserunner to score one!

 

Fact is as we reported here many times, the AL teams played such poor fundamental baseball in their post season series while the NL teams settled down and played much better fundamental baseball in theirs. I hate to think this is turning out to be a factor but this AL team is just playing lousy baseball so far in this WS. Lousy baseball got the Tigers past the lousy competition put up by their AL rivals...not going to cut it here.

[redsoxrules]

Giants have been lucky this game. A lot of hard hit balls by the Tigers

[jung]

Ya' but you are going to hit some shots at guys...that is just part of the game...that is also why you can't just squander your opportunities foolishly. Just don't get them all night long....another nice play on the base paths by the Tigers.....

[jung]

Well Tigers have done one thing right tonight. Fister has pitched inside and has not allowed the Giant hitters to just settle in and have their way with him.

[jung]

How stupid does this feel Tigers. Have not had a sniff at a run scoring opportunity since you dunce capped your way out of the 2nd inning and now it is late innings and the Giants have last bats and a guy on with nobody out right now. Tigers may win this game but they are so far being outplayed by a wide margin by the Giants.

[Station 13]

This series gonna end quick if the Tigers don't stop shooting themselves in the foot.

[Divinity]

Tigers about to be down 2-0 in this series.

[jung]

Nobody on these AL boards wants to hear this and it pains me to say it but the Tigers are playing what has unfortunately become typical sloppy AL baseball. The AL DS and LS games looked like the Saturday Afternoon Beer League compared to the NL games. The O's/Yanks series was an outright embarrassment. This might not even get to Verlander for game 5.

[kapsis21]

Nobody on these AL boards wants to hear this and it pains me to say it but the Tigers are playing what has unfortunately become typical sloppy AL baseball. The AL DS and LS games looked like the Saturday Afternoon Beer League compared to the NL games. The O's/Yanks series was an outright embarrassment. This might not even get to Verlander for game 5.

 

to an extent i concur. but Detroit has faired well against RH pitching lets see how that matchup works in Detroit.

[jung]

Right you are kaps....the Tigers have the unfortunate problem of a couple of their RH hitters actually fairing worse against LHP (at least with regard to BA splits)! That really tips the scales when there is a LHP on the mound cause you are really stuck regarding LH/RH match ups. Does not take more than a couple of those anomalies to make it really tough.

 

If they keep playing like this though they are going to have to pound out wins to overcome their rather obvious lapses in fundamental baseball and how typical is that of an AL team.

 

Even the player demeanor is somewhat disconcerting to me and frankly typical. Although that might be because I watch to damned much AL baseball. Varlander gets into a bit of a snit in game 1 cause the home plate ump has the audacity to call a ball a ball and not a strike just because he is pitching...oh the injustice of it all. He starts throwing meatballs up there as opposed to working harder to hit his spots....that really disappointed me as it is so reminiscent of Mr Aceves when he gets snitty on the mound. Then Smiley comes in last night, could not find that plate with two hands and a hunting dog and starts asking "where was that pitch".....what do you expect Smiley...to be rewarded for being only a few inches off the plate as opposed to the foot off the plate, where most of your pitches were going?

 

How often have we seen that kind of behavior particularly in the AL this season?

 

When you see how good the Giant pitchers are as hitters, not good but not terrible either and look at what is now only a 2 point dif in BA between the two leagues (.255 for AL and .253 for NL) you really have got to wonder if the advantage of the DH in "excitement" is really nothing more than a perceived advantage now that BA and hitting is down generally and pitching seems once again to be headed to where it was in the 1960's. Is this really more of a burden to the AL than it can bear? The pitchers become more isolated from the rest of the team because they don't bat. The teams end up seemingly to dependent on bashing and for what?....2 points of batting average????

[Behindenemylines]

It seems that the Tigers beating the $pankees is their World Series victory. As far as I am concerned they did their job.

[jung]

This is becoming progressively more embarrassing for the AL. Tigers need to really start mashing cause it looks like the only thing they can do to win a game.