Yanx - Angels ALCS IST

[Guest Edgy DC]

Hey, Scott. Your time is now.

[bmfc1]

As tweeted by Bill Simmons, from today's game

[Guest Edgy DC]

http://twitpic.com/m74j7

[A Boy Named Seo]

See Mariano cheat with your own eyes before it disappears from the interwebs forever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KihPKUZni8Y

[Frayed Knot]

I like how all the moves basically backfired on Girardi last night. All of his choices - except the last one IMO - can be justified by themselves, but none of them gave them the advantage they hoped for and several wound up putting them in a worse spot in the long run.

- he pinch-runs for Matsui but that runner (Gardner) gets caught on a pitch out so the added speed never comes into play and the runner is erased as Posada HRs one batter later
- he then pulls Damon because of his weak arm in favor of the guy (Hairston) who replaced Matsui in the DH slot, but they get out of the inning without a ball hit out of the infield. Damon's spot is then due up in the next inning and they've lost the DH
- he then needs to PH for Rivera on account of the above DH thing, holding him to just 1 inning and leaving the game in the hands of Robertson, Aceves, and, if necessary, Chad Gaudin
- he then gets two quick outs out of Robertson but inexplicably chooses to replace him w/2 outs and none on based on nothing more than Kendrick's supposed fastball hitting ability

and even for good measure there was the conference at the mound just before Vlad's game-tying HR.



on edit: and Damon's defensive replacement didn't exactly do a great job in tracking down that game-winning hit either

Edited October 20, 2009 by Guest

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yesterday wasn't Girardi's day.

Hard to believe that spit actually landed on the ball, but I'm curious to see if anything will be made of that video.

[A Boy Named Seo]

Hard to believe that spit actually landed on the ball, but I'm curious to see if anything will be made of that video.[/quote:5sf6p927]

Nope, nothing.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/hardball/mlb_no_evidence_rivera_threw_spitter_KUYl75fHTsuAqmMedUNsSP

[Frayed Knot]

btw, Mike Vaccaro's Sunday column (NY Post) about how the Yanx are winning these days via some sort of small-ball opportunism isn't looking too good right about now after yesterday's 4 runs/4 HRs output. Not that it ever really was all that true to begin with, it's just that when a game like that comes up the very next day it makes it look extra silly.

For some reason a certain segment of fans & scribes consider it sexier to claim to have won through little ball and are loath to admit to being a power-laden lineup. I mean, jeez, the Yanx just set [u:173j0eu7]an all-time club record[/u:173j0eu7] for HRs in a season and scored (along with Philly) the largest pct of their runs via the HR in the league this year. So how exactly does that make them NOT a power team?
But in an effort to somehow shoe-horn them into an under-dog status, Vaccaro cites that they're scoring runs in late innings via opponents' errors (although not as many as they've scored via HRs) as if it's some quality of theirs that's making those miscues occur instead of just having runs handed to them on a silver platter that any team could & would take advantage of.

And, oh yeah, they suck hitting w/RiSP so far in October - so this opportunism seems to be a very selective trait.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Everyone wants to be the aggrieved, nobody-respected-us underdog. It's always more fun to be the aggrieved, nobody-respected-us underdog.

Still in the afterglow of the championship, most Philly fans STILL hold on to this perspective-- you should hear some of the bitching I've heard from Philly-native friends during the last few days ("Shoeless Joe" Utley, this bullpen is killing me, the strike zone is killing me).

[Guest Kong76]

I'm pretty much stayed off the infoair ... this game isn't gonna like start
at 8:20 and this is going to be a 50 minute Fox commercial is it?

[Frayed Knot]

Kazmir sucks, glad we got rid of him.















OK I'm not really, but he's a pain to watch sometimes and isn't consistent enough to make the step up from good to great, or even to real good.
And we're already on pace for another 4+ hour game.

[Guest Kong76]

Really, I mean what the fuck was that?

[Frayed Knot]

And the umps are having a worse night than anyone.

[metirish]

Three blown calls by the umps....the first blown call at third might have been a make up for the blown call at second and then the blown call again at third might have been another make up call.....just weird calls.

[Guest Kong76]

At least this time it has no bearing on the game, for now, but it's
just mind boggling how poor the umpiring is this post season
(especially in Yankee games) and how many stupid mistakes their
opponents commit.

It's just funny to me at this point, no reason to get feel any other
way regardless of it's the Skanks or not.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'm listening and not watching, but it seems to me that when a guy is clearly off base and he's tagged, there's little room for ambiguity. Unless time is called or something.

[Guest Kong76]

He tagged two guys. Never seen anything like it that I
can remember. Not that I remember much well.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm not usually too quick to get on the 'umpiring is worse every year' bandwagon. First of all it makes no sense that it would degrade as time goes on and if it were the case by now we'd have the equivalent of 6 year-olds with ADD out there.
But man it really has sucked so far this post-season and this series most of all.

- McClellan at 3rd (who I think is the senior ump in all MLB) has blown two all by hisself. Not only was he not looking at Swisher tagging up but he was too close to him to do so and see the catch. Sometimes a little distance gives you a better view. Same with the two runners on call - he just looked too lazy to notice that Cano wasn't on the base.

- Then the pickoff at 2nd was blown, plus a bunch of ball/strike calls - like more than usual.


Between these and the blatant missed call on the Mauer double by the ump whose only job it is to call fair/foul calls on the line and these guys should be embarrassed.

[Frayed Knot]

I'm listening and not watching, but it seems to me that when a guy is clearly off base and he's tagged, there's little room for ambiguity. Unless time is called or something.[/quote:1684r22f]

Both Posada (running back to 3rd from the direction of home) and Cano (running to 3rd from 2nd) seemed to assume that the other guy had the right to the base, so Cano stopped two or three feet short of the base as Posada ran over it and a few feet into short LF. Whoever had the ball (Aybar?) alertly tagged first Cano and then Posada. McClellen emphatically made an out call but was ambiguous as to who or how many. It seemed to me that he just assumed Cano's foot was touching and so he called out Posada.
There were a bunch of bodies out there which probably blocked his view but he also made no effort to look around all the legs to see where RC's feet really were.

[G-Fafif]

Just watched MLBN airing of the '86 WS highlight film. Saw the Red Sox nail neither Hernandez nor Carter at third. Saw it called accurately. Then I switched over to the series I've been mostly avoiding. Yes, umpiring has gotten worse, at least where two men on/not on third is concerned.

[Guest Kong76]

FK: There were a bunch of bodies out there which probably blocked his view <<<

You are being very kind. It's like he's intentionally had his head up his ass.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Tori Kelly beseeching God's blessing o'er the land this evening.

[Guest Kong76]

Is she married to, or going out with, a guy on the Angels?

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think she's a baby.

Checking her Facebook page... she's 17. That's too young to be going with a ballplayer.

Well, not Roger Clemens, but other ballplayers.

[Guest Kong76]

Just wondering on the ALCS relevance. Thought maybe there
was something besides beseeching God's blessing o'er that pole
she's holding or what not.

I think I'll turn in.

[Frayed Knot]

FK: There were a bunch of bodies out there which probably blocked his view <<<

You are being very kind. It's like he's intentionally had his head up his ass.

[Guest Edgy DC]

His angle looks fine. Though he might have been too lazy to drop his eyes down toward the players feet.

Worst call of all time, says big-shot blogger.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Umpire-Tim-McClelland-makes-the-worst-call-of-al?urn=mlb,197210

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

To be fair, the third-base call was just the topper. Both Swisher baserunning calls-- safe on the return to second and leaving early at third-- were also off.*

Also, Maclelland's a BIG delayed-call guy when behind the plate.

*EDIT: As he admitted post-game, apparently.

http://www.asapsports.com/show_interview.php?id=59897

[Guest Edgy DC]

And raise your hand if you pictured Darren Oliver being awarded high-leverage post-season innings.

If you even told me he'd be included on a 2009 post-season roster, well, I'd have called you a damned liar and slapped your lying face.

[metirish]

I would have guessed he had retired. I knew he had played for the Angels but I thought he was done.