Thank You for Not MFYing: Threading the ALCS

[Zvon]

[Zvon]

Ha, Victorino looked like he was moving in keystone cops fast motion on that last single. Tigers are trying to get back in it. ROAR!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

BIIIIIIIIIG CHANCE!

Squandered!

[Zvon]

Bo-Sox up 2-1 ! Verlanders performance wasted! Lacky cuts no slacky!

[metirish]

The post-season of the pitcher?

[MFS62]

metirish wrote: The post-season of the pitcher?

A few more games like this and the networks will be yearning for the good old days of hitters using steroids.


Later

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Get 'em tomorrow, Sox!

[Zvon]

Tiggers tie the series, 2-2.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

metirish wrote: The post-season of the pitcher?

Jake Peavy didn't get the memo.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

If I were backing the Bosox I'd be awfully concerned about the offense. Boy does Victorino suck.

[MFS62]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Boy does Victorino suck.

That's the kindest thing we've said about him on this board in a long time.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

If someone were to show you then & now pictures of Mike Napoli, like they did the other night only just still shots, from back when he hit his 1st ML HR off Justin Verlander in 2006 and then when he hit the one which won the 1-0 game; and you were to compare the clean-shaven, relatively clean-cut, non-tatted look of the younger one to the shaved-headed, gnarly-bearded, inked-up version of today, which thought would pop into your head first:
- Man, the last twenty years have not been kind to that dude!
- I wonder which third-world country he had been held captive in over the last seven years?

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: If someone were to show you then & now pictures of Mike Napoli, like they did the other night only just still shots, from back when he hit his 1st ML HR off Justin Verlander in 2006 and then when he hit the one which won the 1-0 game; and you were to compare the clean-shaven, relatively clean-cut, non-tatted look of the younger one to the shaved-headed, gnarly-bearded, inked-up version of today, which thought would pop into your head first: - Man, the last twenty years have not been kind to that dude! - I wonder which third-world country he had been held captive in over the last seven years?

Neither. After viewing both pictures, the thought that would pop into my head would have a stereotypical Brooklyn accent and would say, "What is he? Fuckin' stoopid?"

Later

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

If someone were to show you then & now pictures of Mike Napoli, like they did the other night only just still shots, from back when he hit his 1st ML HR off Justin Verlander in 2006 and then when he hit the one which won the 1-0 game; and you were to compare the clean-shaven, relatively clean-cut, non-tatted look of the younger one to the shaved-headed, gnarly-bearded, inked-up version of today, which thought would pop into your head first: - Man, the last twenty years have not been kind to that dude! - I wonder which third-world country he had been held captive in over the last seven years?

Hey, 3-for-3-with-a-HR notwithstanding, not every girl is crazy for a sharp-dressed man.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Triple short of the cycle tonght.

Underrated hero of the 2013 Sox: Koji Uehara. I recall him getting smacked around when with the O's.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Victorino is killing the Sox.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

TOTALLY TRUE FACT: "Koji Uehara" is modern Japanese for "Goose."

The Sox are getting all the breaks a team needs to eke out four of these.

[bmfc1]

Prince Fielder getting booed by the fans and slammed by this columnist:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131018/SPORTS0104/310180051/1004/
I thought that the first comment was worth reading.

[metirish]

From the article linked above

First came the rain, then came the boos, raining down on Prince Fielder. From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131018/SPORTS0104/310180051#ixzz2i4nCqPh4

Hey he stole Klaps line....

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

[Tsking as hard as they can]
[Then smiling politely, because that's just the way they are]

[Frayed Knot]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Underrated hero of the 2013 Sox: Koji Uehara. I recall him getting smacked around when with the O's.

That was something I was going to mention in the 'Closerland' thread -- that about 1/3 of the guys who led their team in saves this season either didn't start or didn't finish the year in that job. In some of the cases it was injuries (Parnell) but in others a lack of getting the job done forced a change somewhere between opening day and closing.

In fact, all four remaining teams are using a guy who wasn't in that role on opening day.
- In the case of Uehara and Boston he was like their 4th choice after making some big trades over the last two years -- Andrew Bailey (from Oakland) Joel Hanrahan (Pirates) -- trying to fill that spot. Uehara's first save didn't come until late June.
- Tigers were still revisiting the Jose Valverde angle early in the year (he had 9 saves for them) and were trying to groom youngster Bruce Rondon (1) for the job if Valverde should revert to late-2012 form (he did). When neither worked out they turned to Benoit but that wasn't until mid-June.
- Cards were using Edward Mujica (their third guy in three years) who was cruising along with 35 saves and a sub-2.00 ERA until blowing up in September [11.05 ERA; .514 BAA] which forced the late-season switch to Rosenthal.
- Dodgers signed Brandon League to a big deal (3 yrs/$22.5) last winter with the intention of handing him the closers job. After 4 blown saves and a 6.00 ERA in mid-June he got the boot and, while still on the roster, barely gets used these days. Jansen started closing in late June.

[Lefty Specialist]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: [Tsking as hard as they can] [Then smiling politely, because that's just the way they are]

The correct spelling of that is 'Capital', not 'Capitol'. But what can you expect from Cardinal fans?

[Frayed Knot]

Underrated hero of the 2013 Sox: Koji Uehara. I recall him getting smacked around when with the O's.

Funny thing about him; except for his first year in MLB (Orioles - 2009) he's had sub-1.00 WHiP numbers each year [career = .829] and has a career 322-to-38 K/BB ratio, and yet this is now his 3rd team in 5 years.
Now granted one of those switches was in the deal that brought Chris Davis to Baltimore so I doubt the O's are crying in their crab cakes (although Chris Davis wasn't CHRIS DAVIS then) but the Rangers then released him at the end of last season and I don't recall too much off-season clamoring over the guy prior to him signing a one-year $5mil deal with the Sawx (about the same as what he had been making). And of course had the Sox known what they were getting they probably would have turned to him sooner for the closer's spot rather than deal away four players for Joel Hanrahan the very next week.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Victorino is killing the Sox.

Do you think if the Tigers pitchers rolled the ball on the ground to home plate that Victorino would still swing at it?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: The Sox are getting all the breaks a team needs to eke out four of these.

The Tigers performance - or lack thereof - on the basepaths has been a blessing to the Red Sox. Miggy's stumbling into an out at home plate last night is an obvious example, but there have also been a number of times when their slow runners were only able to advance from 2nd to 3rd on well-placed hits and then ended up stranded there.

[bmfc1]

Is it possible that bandana guy was insulting Rick Moranis?

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Or maybe he's not a big Chachi fan?

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

4:07 start, can watch the whole game with my son, perhaps even see the Red Sox clinch.

Nope, start time moved to 8:07. Freakin' Cardinals ruin everything.

[Frayed Knot]

Amazing that the networks are so hard up for prime-time starts (and MLB so hard up for the cash that the networks will pay for said time-slots) that the game time for this Game 6/ALCS is contingent on NL game and therefore not decided until nearly midnight on the day before.
That's gotta suck for the players as well as the ticket holders.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Approximately an hour for two innings ... can we move
things along here fellas??