Dodgers or Brewers?

[Kimmi]

Perhaps some of the nervousness comes from the possibility that we might have lost to the Yankees. That I could not have lived with. Losing to the Astros would have been disappointing, for sure, but I could live with that. But losing to Jacko's team and having to live with that all winter is an entirely different matter.

 

Being eliminated by the Yankees would be the worst. Once we knocked them out, I could relax. A little. LOL

[bosoxmal]

Unless I've missed something, the Dodger's pitching is heavy in Lefties. I didn't bother checking the Brewes, 1) I can't see them winning, and 2) It couldn't be any more lefty than the Dodgers!

[sk7326]

Bregman's OPS batting lead off for the 12 regular season games he played there was .741. His OPS batting from the 3 hole was 1.008. But you go ahead and live with the fantasy that it was a good idea to move him to lead off. THE MOVE was bringing Correa and probably Gonzalez up in the order behind him and moving Gurriel down, not moving Bregs to lead off. His problem was that the Sox would not pitch to Bregs, not that they needed a lead off hitter. It was a panic move and it didn't work. You only have so many chances in a 7 game series to make something happen.

 

You could say that AJ realized his team was getting thrashed. You could say that he realized that his team was not even executing their standard offensive process. If you want to credit him with that, be my guest. He made the wrong move. It clearly did not help. So it is hard to even make the suggestion that keeping Bregs at 3 and moving Correa and Gonzalez up to protect him was not the better move. But you go ahead. You haven't made your argument yet. You are welcome to keep trying.

 

I live in the real world where 12 games proves nothing one way or the other. The 100+ games of 1.008 OPS shows far more evidence that if you added 100 games to the 12, the OPS would go up. Location in the batting order means almost exactly bubkus.

 

The team that got thrashed was in every game entering the 8th inning. I mean the sweep at Tampa the Red Sox suffered - that was an actual thrashing.

[d-money]

We gotta finish it! I think our players know that. They’re thinking about that.

[Jasonbay44]

Id rather face the Brewers, just due to the fact I like the Brewers more and it would hurt way less if we lost to them. I dislike the Dodgers, especially Machado

[d-money]

Id rather face the Brewers, just due to the fact I like the Brewers more and it would hurt way less if we lost to them. I dislike the Dodgers, especially Machado

 

I would hate to lose to los angeles although i feel we can beat them.

[Jasonbay44]

I would hate to lose to los angeles although i feel we can beat them.

I like Sox chances vs either team, I think Dodgers and Brewers are pretty evenly matched.

[Emp9]

I'm tired of all these TV analysts picking us to lose almost every game. Like what else do we have to prove to you? Rollins and Sheffield were terrible on the TBS show. Glad we had Pedro on that crew as well. Now we get Papi, with A-Rod and Frank Thomas. Won't be much better there I presume, except for Papi

 

It’s funny, you wouldn’t know that from some of the articles I’ve read. Everyone continues to count out the Sox, but when they win, the other half of the media says they weren’t underdogs anyway. And how it’s somehow obnoxious to think we were. I don’t think we were necessarily underdogs, but going against dangerous teams and we all know anything can happen in the post season. It’s all noise, and I’m really trying to tune it out this time around personally.

[jung]

Watching these NL games is just a scream. They could put out lawn chairs with buckets on them for infielders and do as much as these teams have to do. The pitchers don't throw anything that a hitter would hit on the ground and the hitters don't hit anything on the ground. You could go a few games without seeing a DP. Those are as rare as hen's teeth even when there are runners on base. Its mainly on the hitters who would clearly prefer a weak pop up to a hard hit liner or something hard hit on the ground in spite of how silly and useless a weak pop up looks. In fact a weak pop up is as useless as tits on a bull.

 

Cain is the only guy that actually tries to hit the ball on the ground and you can hardy call what he does "hitting". Everybody else, both teams is just trying to crash the fences and the game is a progression of extra base hits, HR's, Fly outs, weak pop ups and K's...mostly weak pop ups and K's. Virtually nothing else happens on the field of play. Even the pitchers try to crash the fences. Even with so many hitters trying to crash the fences there are not many HR's from two of the HR hitting-ist teams in baseball because the pitchers know how to keep them from leaving.

 

There are a tremendous number of passed balls and wild pitches because even the Catchers, usually the bedrock of team defense can't catch.

 

The announce teams seem utterly oblivious to the fact that they are watching about half of what an actual baseball game would be. Either that or they are under instructions to make all of this sound and look wonderful or at least normal.

 

The WS games regardless of whether its Brewers or Dodgers are going to be quite a contrast in type and style of play. Frankly a WS between the Sox and either team has every likelihood of looking like somebody put a soccer team and a rugby team on the same field and decided to derive a championship out of the result. I am not even sure a WS game is going to look like both teams are playing with the same baseballs.

Edited October 20, 2018 by jung

[jung]

I live in the real world where 12 games proves nothing one way or the other. The 100+ games of 1.008 OPS shows far more evidence that if you added 100 games to the 12, the OPS would go up. Location in the batting order means almost exactly bubkus.

 

The team that got thrashed was in every game entering the 8th inning. I mean the sweep at Tampa the Red Sox suffered - that was an actual thrashing.

 

Then I would question whether you know what is a post season thrashing is actually.

 

As for what is in bold in the quote above, I have no idea what form of logic draws that conclusion. You comment also suggests you simply do not know the various responsibilities of each of the components of a batting order.

 

In the first place, the manager that moves his 3 hole hitter to lead off part way through a 7 game post season series knows he is being thrashed. But since you don't appear to know how different the responsibilities of the lead off hitter and a 3 hole hitter I would not expect you to know that.

Edited October 20, 2018 by jung

[illinoisredsox]

Sox did take 3 of 4 and 4 of 5 and 5 straight on the other teams' fields, but I sure didn't see any cakewalk. Kimbrel made sure of that.

 

I do think the Sox should be favored. They have yet to lose a WS in the past 15 years and have won 3 of them, sweeping 2 (Cards and Rockies).

 

But you gotta play the games, and strange things can happen.

 

The Red Sox always do well the first 18 years of a century.

[d-money]

Looks like we will see a game 7 barring a miracle from the dodgers. I wonder who the pitchers will be. Will the dodgers throw rich hill on 3 days rest? Buehler? Idk who the brewers will pitch. Maybe chacin.

[YastrzemskI]

“Buehler?” will be on the mound tomorrow. Hill pitched the 8th, and rather poorly I might add.

 

Roberts managed this game like he couldn’t care less. I suppose he thinks that he will have game seven in the bag because the Brewers used their pen? Burnes was impressive today and the Crew didn’t even have to use Hader. Roberts left Ryu in too long tonight, and it may have cost him the series. Game seven tomorrow.

[jung]

“Buehler?” will be on the mound tomorrow. Hill pitched the 8th, and rather poorly I might add.

 

Roberts managed this game like he couldn’t care less. I suppose he thinks that he will have game seven in the bag because the Brewers used their pen? Burnes was impressive today and the Crew didn’t even have to use Hader. Roberts left Ryu in too long tonight, and it may have cost him the series. Game seven tomorrow.

 

With all the noise about stealing signs and what have you, it really did look like the Brewers had something on Ryu tonight. There is simply no way for a team of hitters to be that prepared for 1st pitch breaking balls. The Brewer hitters were sitting in hammocks hitting Ryu's secondary pitches even when he was throwing them in odd places in the count.

[sk7326]

Then I would question whether you know what is a post season thrashing is actually.

 

As for what is in bold in the quote above, I have no idea what form of logic draws that conclusion. You comment also suggests you simply do not know the various responsibilities of each of the components of a batting order.

 

In the first place, the manager that moves his 3 hole hitter to lead off part way through a 7 game post season series knows he is being thrashed. But since you don't appear to know how different the responsibilities of the lead off hitter and a 3 hole hitter I would not expect you to know that.

 

Responsibility #1 - don't make an out

Responsibility #2 - see responsibility #1

[jung]

Responsibility #1 - don't make an out

Responsibility #2 - see responsibility #1

 

Brilliant...just proved my point. Thanks for playing.

[YastrzemskI]

You’re not wrong. Ryu has been dealing for a few months. I expected a grind ‘em out game tonight but they got to him early and often. Whether he is tipping his pitches or not is another story.

[jung]

You’re not wrong. Ryu has been dealing for a few months. I expected a grind ‘em out game tonight but they got to him early and often. Whether he is tipping his pitches or not is another story.

 

The Brewers were not even fouling any of them off and it wasn't the second time through the order or anything like that. They were totally ignoring the possibility that a FB might be coming in their first AB's even in FB counts and had Ryu's breaking stuff entirely timed up right from jump street, batter after batter. The hitters were beyond comfortable. That is just not possible without having some sort of help. Ryu's location was not optimal but I am discounting that. I don't think it would have mattered where in the strike zone he threw them. the Brewer hitters had him so timed up and were so certain they were going to see the breaking ball even where a hitter would normally expect a FB.

Edited October 20, 2018 by jung

[d-money]

The brewers are a tough out. Now the dodgers will put their hopes on a young pitcher. Is chacin going for the brewers?

[Beaneater]

Here's a random thought re: possibly facing the Brewers in the WS. The Brewers are very shift-happy – the shiftiest team in the NL. The Red Sox hit it everywhere. Just look at our big inning in ALCS Game 5 for one example: Moreland oppo 2B, Kinsler oppo 1B, Devers oppo HR. It's been obvious from day 1 that you can't shift JD, but really at this point you can hardly shift anyone in our lineup. Mookie will beat you the other way, as will Bogie, JBJ, Moreland, Devers...

 

So if we face the Brewers, we're either going to see them continue to play shifts even though we'll probably make them pay for it, or they'll have to (partially/mostly) abandon one of their commonest defensive strategies. I like both of those options!

[Kimmi]

The Red Sox always do well the first 18 years of a century.

 

Ha. Well played.

[Kimmi]

Here's a random thought re: possibly facing the Brewers in the WS. The Brewers are very shift-happy – the shiftiest team in the NL. The Red Sox hit it everywhere. Just look at our big inning in ALCS Game 5 for one example: Moreland oppo 2B, Kinsler oppo 1B, Devers oppo HR. It's been obvious from day 1 that you can't shift JD, but really at this point you can hardly shift anyone in our lineup. Mookie will beat you the other way, as will Bogie, JBJ, Moreland, Devers...

 

So if we face the Brewers, we're either going to see them continue to play shifts even though we'll probably make them pay for it, or they'll have to (partially/mostly) abandon one of their commonest defensive strategies. I like both of those options!

 

Cora has our team ready. He is so baseball smart that I don't really think it matters what the other team's strategy is. And our players are good enough to usually adapt or adjust to whatever the other team is throwing out there.

 

The Series is by no means in the bag, but I'm feeling good about our chances.

[jung]

Honestly, the brand of baseball they are playing in the NL is so utterly awful and so suggestive of teams that are fathoming the depths of the tragically misguided that I don't think either will stand up to facing a real, actual baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.

 

The Dodgers probably represent the greater challenge just because they have pitchers that act like pitchers, a manager that uses them like you use pitchers. The Brewers have this claptrap of young, strong arms that someday might represent a pitching staff but don't today and a manager just willing to try anything to get them through a game. By comparison, the only oddity in the way Cora has used his pitching staff is in using Starters that actually have assigned Starts later in the very post season series they are playing in as relief pitchers in high leverage innings. That is it and Cora has clearly been driven to that because he has nobody else to give those innings.

 

The Dodgers will suddenly become at least 25% more dangerous the instant they stop using Grandal behind the plate. He is not even a AAA grade defensive catcher. Awful does not even begin to describe this guy. They would probably trade Machado straight up for Swihart in a NY minute just to get through the 1 game plus a series they have left to play. if they win the Saturday 7th game they would be desperate to avoid the two dozen WP's and PB's and blown assists Grandal is likely to provide in 5 or 6 more games.

 

Finally after last night's game the talking heads of baseball while not acknowledge the full ramifications of the train wreck of an NLCS series we are watching at least said the words I have been saying for days if not weeks. Every single NL hitter is fence crashing or trying to and that is all there is to see here. No infield play. No hard hit liners. No oppo field hitting. No moving runners or manufacturing runs. Panels of baseball experts were offering that if either of these two teams can actually push a run across the plate, that team will win game 7 and thus the series. The entire series has become a Bataan Death March through weak pop ups and K's that unfortunately reflects the best of what the NL currently has to offer. Good pitchers simply know how to keep you from fence crashing if they know that is all the hitter is going to try to do every AB.

 

Steadfastly continuing to insist that assigning the Pitcher a spot in the batting order creates a more pure version of the game has had the exact opposite effect on it given MLB rules changes and the advanced shift. Arguing that the Double Switch is worth this mess of a game is now being exposed for its laughable absurdity.

 

While one game away from a full 7 game series this series has already created more K's than any post season series in history, something like 140 K's so far. Virtually half the outs have been K's. I would wager that half the remaining outs to this point are weak pop ups. If there is ever the rare chance at a DP, the infielders blow it up somewhere along the way as it now appears impossible for infielders on the two best teams in the NL to transfer the baseball between three of them without screwing up. The advanced shift in a very few years has created beer keg infielders that can barely bend over let alone make a play, infielders that have grown catatonic through inning after inning of inactivity. Who did not see THAT coming! I would offer that the only thing that has saved a reasonable amount of the AL from a similar fate has been the DH.

 

I would want any AL team to crush like a bug whichever one of these NL teams comes out of this mess. The AL suffered a similar fate for its unwarranted slow footedness in adopting an integrated league many years ago. Its high time this NL crap gets exposed for what it is. We should all here as Boston Red Sox fans and fans of baseball thank God for the Boston Red Sox and for the Houston Astros for that matter and the Cleveland Guardians and for all AL teams with a few AL exceptions that I will not mention in this post. We should thank God for the DH which is in large part responsible for saving the AL game from the full depths of incoherently ugly we are seeing from the NL.

 

Commissioner Manfred better get his s*** together after this season is completely done. If not, MLB will one day very soon deserve to be wearing those hideous Player's Weekend Series unis that make them look like beer league softball teams because that is what they will be.

Edited October 20, 2018 by jung

[OH FOY]

Thought the Owners in NL vote if they want DH or not. Commissioner has nothing to do with it.

[moonslav59]

Honestly, the brand of baseball they are playing in the NL is so utterly awful and so suggestive of teams that are fathoming the depths of the tragically misguided that I don't think either will stand up to facing a real, actual baseball team, the Boston Red Sox.

 

The Dodgers probably represent the greater challenge just because they have pitchers that act like pitchers, a manager that uses them like you use pitchers. The Brewers have this claptrap of young, strong arms that someday might represent a pitching staff but don't today and a manager just willing to try anything to get them through a game. By comparison, the only oddity in the way Cora has used his pitching staff is in using Starters that actually have assigned Starts later in the very post season series they are playing in as relief pitchers in high leverage innings. That is it and Cora has clearly been driven to that because he has nobody else to give those innings.

 

The Dodgers will suddenly become at least 25% more dangerous the instant they stop using Grandal behind the plate. He is not even a AAA grade defensive catcher. Awful does not even begin to describe this guy. They would probably trade Machado straight up for Swihart in a NY minute just to get through the 1 game plus a series they have left to play. if they win the Saturday 7th game they would be desperate to avoid the two dozen WP's and PB's and blown assists Grandal is likely to provide in 5 or 6 more games.

 

Finally after last night's game the talking heads of baseball while not acknowledge the full ramifications of the train wreck of an NLCS series we are watching at least said the words I have been saying for days if not weeks. Every single NL hitter is fence crashing or trying to and that is all there is to see here. No infield play. No hard hit liners. No oppo field hitting. No moving runners or manufacturing runs. Panels of baseball experts were offering that if either of these two teams can actually push a run across the plate, that team will win game 7 and thus the series. The entire series has become a Bataan Death March through weak pop ups and K's that unfortunately reflects the best of what the NL currently has to offer. Good pitchers simply know how to keep you from fence crashing if they know that is all the hitter is going to try to do every AB.

 

Steadfastly continuing to insist that assigning the Pitcher a spot in the batting order creates a more pure version of the game has had the exact opposite effect on it given MLB rules changes and the advanced shift. Arguing that the Double Switch is worth this mess of a game is now being exposed for its laughable absurdity.

 

While one game away from a full 7 game series this series has already created more K's than any post season series in history, something like 140 K's so far. Virtually half the outs have been K's. I would wager that half the remaining outs to this point are weak pop ups. If there is ever the rare chance at a DP, the infielders blow it up somewhere along the way as it now appears impossible for infielders on the two best teams in the NL to transfer the baseball between three of them without screwing up. The advanced shift in a very few years has created beer keg infielders that can barely bend over let alone make a play, infielders that have grown catatonic through inning after inning of inactivity. Who did not see THAT coming! I would offer that the only thing that has saved a reasonable amount of the AL from a similar fate has been the DH.

 

I would want any AL team to crush like a bug whichever one of these NL teams comes out of this mess. The AL suffered a similar fate for its unwarranted slow footedness in adopting an integrated league many years ago. Its high time this NL crap gets exposed for what it is. We should all here as Boston Red Sox fans and fans of baseball thank God for the Boston Red Sox and for the Houston Astros for that matter and the Cleveland Guardians and for all AL teams with a few AL exceptions that I will not mention in this post. We should thank God for the DH which is in large part responsible for saving the AL game from the full depths of incoherently ugly we are seeing from the NL.

 

Commissioner Manfred better get his s*** together after this season is completely done. If not, MLB will one day very soon deserve to be wearing those hideous Player's Weekend Series unis that make them look like beer league softball teams because that is what they will be.

 

Fantastic post. The commissioner does need to do all he can to try and fix these problems, but the owners are the ones who make the final decisions.

 

I'm not sure why any NL owner clings to their anti-DH stance.

[notin]

Fantastic post. The commissioner does need to do all he can to try and fix these problems, but the owners are the ones who make the final decisions.

 

I'm not sure why any NL owner clings to their anti-DH stance.

 

MLB is historically slow and cautious when it comes to embracing smart changes. But at least they have no problem barreling ahead full bore with stupid ones...

[OH FOY]

Wasn't Cepeda our 1st DH? Was in Centerfield he hit 2 HRs, straight away right in front of me. Had a good year too. DH's back then got paid squat, considered Part Time Players. I still do. Edited October 20, 2018 by OH FOY!

[OH FOY]

Pretty easy to Manage in the AL. If you like that. A few Minor moves, and Pitching changes. Score means nothing, to your Starter. You could Pitch him 9 and lose. Maybe a couple of Match-up changes. Nothing hard. Count to 100, and your Starter is gone. That's a toughie. That's done in both Leagues, so sabermetrics took that out. 120 Pitches today you better be Pitching a No-Hitter. Game has changed. Less feel for it, more Computer. Edited October 20, 2018 by OH FOY!

[moonslav59]

Miley has been amazing.

 

Go Brew Crew!

[Bellhorn04]

Pretty easy to Manage in the AL. If you like that. A few Minor moves, and Pitching changes. Score means nothing, to your Starter. You could Pitch him 9 and lose. Maybe a couple of Match-up changes. Nothing hard. Count to 100, and your Starter is gone. That's a toughie.

 

It's actually not that easy. Just ask Aaron Boone.