ALDS rehash and ALCS assessment

[sk7326]

This season has resembled 2013 from my recollection. There was a new manager. The Red Sox were the league's best team from start to finish. However, it was hard to fully embrace it - if nothing else, due to the nature of Red Sox fans generally. You watched the Tampa series, and them pulling out close games and beating a division rival we respected the hell out of. You watched the Detroit series, against a team with a filthy starting rotation - you wondered how they could match up. And then they beat them - complete with an extremely unlikely on paper defeat of Verlander by our #2 starter.

[iortiz]

The above is by no means dead on with respect to specifics--not all of those predictions held true.

 

But what is absolutely stunning about it is that it first appeared on page 4 of this thread when the conversation had already devolved into talking about Kimbrel's future and other arcane matters.

 

And iortiz was absolutely the only real optimist about the ALCS. Everyone else, including me, thought the Astros were formidable. Certainly no one thought winning 3 in Houston was possible. The best anyone other than iortiz could say was that it would be a tough series. And that's actually true. However, iortiz and iortiz alone claimed that Price could be great in this series, and he was dead right. Last night Price clearly outpitched the greatest postseason righthander starter in MLB history--well, at least in Verlander's mind he is the greatest.

 

Thanks Max, I appreciate your comments.

 

On paper, the WS should be ours.

[oldtimer]

Pollyannas? This team won 108 games in the regular season and are going to the World Series. Anyone who defended every move by DD and Cora seem to have faired better with their arguments than terminal naysayers.

 

Pat yourself on the back a few more times.

[Maxbialystock]

During the season, many fans that contribute to the discussion offered constructive criticisms aimed to improve the team. Polllyanna's rushed to bash anything that might be considered criticism, maybe to stroke their own ego's. The truth is we have a very good team that certainly could get better, but is under constraints that limit what could have been done this year and what can be done moving forward.

 

What is often lost in the discussion is that while we have areas which clearly could be improved, all of our opponents do as well. The Yankees weak defense in the infield and at catcher. Their dependence on the homerun, their problems with starting pitching.

 

The Astros are a more complete team than the Yankees, but their pitching was not as good as touted and they were held down in runs by what some in baseball considered our weakish starting and Relief pitching. Clearly, while we have some faults that could use adjustents going forward, we are still better than the two powerhouse teams we faced to date.

 

We may well be favored in the WS as some in the media are realizing that the Sox are a really good team.

 

What the heck is your message here? Are you honestly saying that folks who thought Cora especially but also DD did a good job are pollyannas who failed abysmally to fix this team?

 

I'm sorry, but to me it's beyond question that DD made two fantastic moves to ensure success in 2018 and nothing else matters. He dumped Farrell--who wasn't all that bad--to get Cora, who has been terrific. And he brought in JDM, the reincarnation of David Ortiz who has had the same effect on the lineup that Ortiz did. And together his new manager and he agreed it was high time to designate HanRam for assignment, which meant paying him not to play for the Sox. Great move!

 

I would love to claim I'm a pollyanna because the actual character had a positive effect on everyone around her. But I'm not. I'm more like Cassandra. I can recite from memory all the things I see wrong with anyone on the team. But I'd have to be blind not to see the effect Cora and DD have had on this team which I entirely agree is less than perfect individually, but an absolute powerhouse collectively.

[jung]

Funny how both of JBJ's big home runs were hit to right field. Beni also doubled high off the right center field wall last night.

 

Its not funny at all. I would contend that if JBJ ever stops thinking oppo, he will again start to pull his head off, his shoulders will fly open, he will even likely start over-rotating again and he will dig himself another of his legendary massive holes. The only way he continues this recent recovery will be to continue to think opposite field because its the only thing that keeps his head quiet and his shoulders from flying open and THAT is what allows him to take a pitch up and in and do something with it to RC field. A RC field shot is not a pull shot and trying to pull the ball is what generally leads to JBJ's downfall. That said, he still to this day has a massive hole in his swing right where most LH hitters want the ball...low and inside.

 

Beni has a similar problem. When he thinks pull, his swing gets too big, his hands get outside the baseball and nothing happens other than this big gust of wind from home plate.

 

The dif between the two players is that Beni is much younger than JBJ who is now 28 years old! Beni is a maturing ballplayer. JBJ is a mature ballplayer. For him to still be going through these massive slumps at 28 is unacceptable. He either once and for all sticks with the only approach that works for him or he does not.

 

One thing I thought was refreshing was that right in the middle of JBJ's 2018 disaster, he did start over-rotating again. Cora just came out and said it "He is over-rotating for one thing". Farrell would never do that. He would stand there in the face of what you could see with your own two eyes and blather some nonsense. I thought Cora was refreshing in that regard.

Edited October 19, 2018 by jung

[Dojji]

Looking at the Dodgers and the Brewers, I can't shake the feeling that this team has already beaten the best opponents it's going to face this postseason.

 

Doesn't mean we can't lose this Series, but it does mean that whichever team comes out of the NLCS is going to be the underdog. I would have counted on either us or the Astros to beat either of those two franchises.

[mvp 78]

Pat yourself on the back a few more times.

 

Only if you shove that polyanna s*** up your old wrinkled ass.

[Kimmi]

The Sox won this series with almost nothing offensively from MVP candidate Betts, no pitching contribution from Cy Young candidate Sale, and a lot of shakiness from their closer Kimbrel...

 

Go figure.

 

What a crazy game this game of baseball is.

 

Also, let me add again that momentum means nothing in baseball in terms of predicting future games.

[Kimmi]

Thanks, Jacko!

 

We love Jacko. We owe our season to him.

[Kimmi]

Dombrowski and Cora both deserve a lot of credit for this year. I am a huge Cora fan. Dombrowski, not so much, though I am a fan of his midseason moves. That said, regardless of how good this team is and how well prepared they are, it still takes luck (or a minimal number of bad breaks) to win a championship. Things have gone really, really well for us so far.

 

The World Series should be ours for the taking. I really like our chances, obviously even more so than I did at the beginning of the postseason and at the beginning of the ALCS.

 

If by some chance the Sox fall short, I think it would be hard pressed for anyone to fault either Cora or Dombrowski.