ALDS rehash and ALCS assessment

[Maxbialystock]

I was one of the pessimists during the ALDS and so have no great claim to insight.

 

That said, the Sox beat the 100 wins Yankees at their best even though Happ, Severino, and Sabathia weren't at theirs. And they did it with starting pitching, timely hitting, and just enough bullpen. And the better manager, beyond question.

 

ALCS will be 2017 ALDS redux--when the Astros took 3 of 4 with Sale losing twice, Pom once, and the bullpen, mostly Price (of all people), getting the one decisive win. The Sox lost game 5, but it was 5-4, and in that game Sale gave up 2 in relief and Kimbrel 1 in relief.

 

My point is, this year's Sox, despite concerns again about our bullpen, is a lot better than last year's. When your rotation gets three good starts, two of them in NY, against the Yankees, you ain't pushovers.

 

But neither are the Astros, who have the best pitching in MLB. Right now, I would call the ALCS a toss-up.

[OH FOY]

Brewers are almost opposite Red Sox, except for Power. No starters, but underrated BP. Dodgers in for a series. That is a going to be a good one too. WS Sox vs. Brewers.....going to be a good one too.

 

Houston hit .327 in last series against a good Guardians Pitching staff. Sox in for a battle, every pitch counts. Lose your focus, Houston will make you pay.

Edited October 10, 2018 by OH FOY!

[jacksonianmarch]

My re-hash of the ALDS is the sox were better and Boone wasn't ready for the moment. The kids were not there yet and Stanton cowered in the bright lights. If you're gonna win a title, this is your year. We are going to be much better next year

[Bellhorn04]

My re-hash of the ALDS is the sox were better and Boone wasn't ready for the moment. The kids were not there yet and Stanton cowered in the bright lights. If you're gonna win a title, this is your year. We are going to be much better next year

 

Boone-Stanton - as far as next year goes, we can always hope for more f***ups by Cash.

[jacksonianmarch]

f***ups by Cashman? You mean the guy who rebuilt our squad in a 2 month period? I have no issues with Cash. Boone, I have some issues with.

[Thunder]

This season has baffled me since Opening Day. I've never thought that we were fundamentally better than the Yankees, but I keep getting evidence that says we are. At this point, it's becomes more about magic for me.

[jacksonianmarch]

This season has baffled me since Opening Day. I've never thought that we were fundamentally better than the Yankees, but I keep getting evidence that says we are. At this point, it's becomes more about magic for me.

 

You should be fundamentally better. We have rookies and second year players all over our roster. Think about it. Voit, Torres and Andujar are rookies. Judge and Sanchez are second year guys. Sevy is technically a third year player. On your side, the only first or second year players playing significant time are Devers and Beni.

[Thunder]

You should be fundamentally better. We have rookies and second year players all over our roster. Think about it. Voit, Torres and Andujar are rookies. Judge and Sanchez are second year guys. Sevy is technically a third year player. On your side, the only first or second year players playing significant time are Devers and Beni.

 

I guess it might have something to do with the way the media slobbered on the Yankees from the start of the season, expecting them to build on last year, coming one game away from the World Series. Even heading into this series, most experts I found predicted the Yankees to win the series due to their offense

[jung]

I would give a slight (but only slight) edge to the Astros because of their pitching. We have Sale and Mr Dependable Porcello, plus Mr Undependable Price and Erod who has lost even Cora's confidence at this point. So if Alex is not confident in him, I would have a hard time being confident in him. We have Eo.

 

They have Cole and Verlander plus guys that are simply better than Price/Erod/Eo. So Sale matches up to either Verlander or Cole but not both. Porcello is more Keuchel than either a Cole or a Verlander. Price does not match up with either Cole or Verlander. Who matches up with Morton? Erod!!!!! Eo maybe bests out Morton. Eo does not on the surface appear to match up well against the Houston team. Their pen is better. That is a ton of pitching to overcome in a game, baseball, that is designed around pitching.

 

Correa and Gurriel are still somewhat underperforming to their post season potential and I actually don't like what I have been seeing even from Altuve lately. So I actually think in spit of the usual complaints about our hitting depth, we may just be better there than the Astros.

 

Defense maybe close enough to be a wash. I just hate to give Houston the edge there though they might deserve it. If Devers is not on the field, Houston is not better defensively than we are. If Devers is not at 3rd and Holt is not at 2nd I am not even sure they are at all better than us in the field.

 

But no matter how I try to slice it, the Astros pitching is better than ours. If their starters take the mound and are confident in their abilities to execute their plans on that given day and our starters are confident in executing their plans on a given day theirs are just better as a staff. We just saw what happens when one team's starters are just better than the other team's in the post season. That great big Yankee pen never got off the ground. The Yankees just did not have the lead enough times to matter over those 4 games. The dif between the WS Astros and this year's team is that their pen is better and they have Cole (SON OF VERLANDER). Maybe the extra home game for us will make a difference in the overall outcome. I would like to think the teams are that close.

 

At least we will have a great series and it will be a dog fight. This Astros team would run over the Yankees like they were not even there.

Edited October 10, 2018 by jung

[Thunder]

I just hope for a good series. In a perfect world, we win in 7 (or less, but that'll be hard to do). All I ask is that Springer has a good series. Us winning the series, and Springer doing well is the ideal scenario for me.

[Slasher9]

If you're gonna win a title, this is your year. We are going to be much better next year

 

hahashahaha. yes. i love it. "wait til next year"!!!!!!!

yankees fans are pre 2004 red sox fans. lolz.

[SoxnCycles]

hahashahaha. yes. i love it. "wait til next year"!!!!!!!

yankees fans are pre 2004 red sox fans. lolz.

 

That's all he had to say, rather than rambling on.

[Maxbialystock]

You should be fundamentally better. We have rookies and second year players all over our roster. Think about it. Voit, Torres and Andujar are rookies. Judge and Sanchez are second year guys. Sevy is technically a third year player. On your side, the only first or second year players playing significant time are Devers and Beni.

 

See Thunder's comment. You are probably right, but the media without exception slobbered over your Yankees all season long.

[Bellhorn04]

f***ups by Cashman? You mean the guy who rebuilt our squad in a 2 month period? I have no issues with Cash. Boone, I have some issues with.

 

Cash hired Boone - that was my point.

[OH FOY]

Glad we open up at home against the Astros. That team is almost fully healthy now, except for Correa (still having back problems). They lost a Month of Altuve in 2nd half, and almost a Month from Springer, in 2nd half too. And still won more games then last year. Going to be a battle.

My initial thought, stop Altuve, and Bregman, to start.

Glad Mr. Cora is here, knows their tendencies, and what Hinch might do.

Edited October 10, 2018 by OH FOY!

[jacksonianmarch]

hahashahaha. yes. i love it. "wait til next year"!!!!!!!

yankees fans are pre 2004 red sox fans. lolz.

 

No, you guys would say that in August. We are saying it after being eliminated in the playoffs

[jacksonianmarch]

See Thunder's comment. You are probably right, but the media without exception slobbered over your Yankees all season long.

 

The media slobbered all over the Yankees because they showed moxie against a superior team last year and nearly knocked out the eventual world series champs. You have to remember, we replaced 3 veterans on that team with rookies come this post season. Bird, Headley and Castro were not on the playoff roster or the team anymore

[OH FOY]

Yanks are a good team, and we beat them in their building, that's never easy to do. Good Opponent, to lead into the Astros. It will help, when we go to Houston. Good series glad we won.

[Thunder]

The media slobbered all over the Yankees because they showed moxie against a superior team last year and nearly knocked out the eventual world series champs. You have to remember, we replaced 3 veterans on that team with rookies come this post season. Bird, Headley and Castro were not on the playoff roster or the team anymore

 

You could argue that Headley and Castro were sort of the weak links

[mvp 78]

hahashahaha. yes. i love it. "wait til next year"!!!!!!!

yankees fans are pre 2004 red sox fans. lolz.

 

Little brother syndrome.

[jacksonianmarch]

You could argue that Headley and Castro were sort of the weak links

 

Castro wasn't a weak link offensively until the playoffs. Headley was awful until the Astros series and he ended up being our best hitter.

[Emp9]

My re-hash of the ALDS is the sox were better and Boone wasn't ready for the moment. The kids were not there yet and Stanton cowered in the bright lights. If you're gonna win a title, this is your year. We are going to be much better next year

 

Kinda what I’ve been saying all year including the off-season. Yanks are good, but their young guys aren’t quite there yet (except Judge), compared to Boston’s young core. You can have a lot of young talented up and comers but they need to play as a team, with chemistry, communication and take enough hard knocks on the way. Sox core has been more battle tested by comparison. I have every reason to think the Yanks will be better next season with more experience and who knows what pieces you’ll add over the winter. There’s good reason for all the recent Yankee hype, it’s just a bit premature, that’s all. You had a great season JM and I’m sure I’ll be hating the s*** out of you and your Yanks for seasons to come.

[moonslav59]

Castro wasn't a weak link offensively until the playoffs. Headley was awful until the Astros series and he ended up being our best hitter.

 

Adding Stanton was supposed to make up for losing some marginal vet starters.

 

Come on, there's no way you'd have done any better with Headley, castro and Bird still starting over the kids you replaced them with.

[jacksonianmarch]

Adding Stanton was supposed to make up for losing some marginal vet starters.

 

Come on, there's no way you'd have done any better with Headley, castro and Bird still starting over the kids you replaced them with.

 

I am not making that argument at all! I am just saying we lost some veteran leadership and our kids crapped their pants in the big moments

[d-money]

I feel we can beat the astros. They have to hit their pitching. I feel game 1 is huge for this team.

[greenwell]

I am not making that argument at all! I am just saying we lost some veteran leadership and our kids crapped their pants in the big moments

 

My kids you mean Lance Lynn, JA Happ and CC Sabathia?

[Slasher9]

My kids you mean Lance Lynn, JA Happ and CC Sabathia?

 

and Stanton. and Gardner.

[SoxnCycles]

and Stanton. and Gardner.

 

They'll improve with age.

[Maxbialystock]

Fascinating discussion about the Yankees lineup, which I think was pretty good.

 

The best insight I've read was in the today's NY Times, who said the problem was the team batting average of .249. They went on to say that batting average is passe and usually disregarded but nevertheless underscores a fundamental weakness in the Yankees offense. They then said the Sox pitchers stayed focused on keeping the Yankees lineup "inside the park," which worked beautifully in every game but game 2.

 

The problem now for the Sox is that the Astros offense beat the Guardians pitching like a drum. In 3 games, 8 dingers, 21 runs, Avg .327, and OPS 1.037--way, way better than the Yankees' 6 dingers in 5 games (including Oakland), .219 Avg, and .669 OPS. Plus they have better pitching and are the defending WS champs.

 

About the Sox home field advantage. Maybe it isn't. The Astros were great on the road this year, 57-24 vs. our 51-30--and they took 2 of 3 at Fenway Park a month ago. They also took 2 of 3 in Houston.

[jacksonianmarch]

I read the article and they are right. We need to be less boom and bust. We need to add players capable of making contact and hitting for a higher average. We have two budding guys like that in Torres and Andujar. For his part, Judge still hits for a good average. But Sanchez, Stanton, Hicks and to an extent Didi all were very streaky and homer reliant. I'd rather see some more hits than a record setting homerun pace. It is hard to hit homeruns off of elite pitching, which is inevitable to face in the playoffs. Need guys who can battle