Frayed Knot

MLB gets at least three game-fives in the first round. Let's hope they get a fourth.

Berman screws up another call. Had no idea the outfielder the ball was hit to. The only name he could come up with was the Bengals safety but he wasn't sure if that was right so he held off blurting anything out. bmfc1 wrote: What's pathetic is that ESPN replaced Gary Cohen with Berman. The bottom line is that Berman is ESPN's 800 pound gorilla (almost literally - in both senses) meaning that he gets to choose what he wants to do and all other peons must get out of the way. Broadcasting skill and knowledge of baseball don't enter into the equation. Plus he's a SF Giants fan so naturally he chooses that one. AND ... Berman's partner in their 12 hour weekly football-hype/pre-game show Tom Jackson just happened to show up to the broadcast booth during one of the games in Cincy. What are the odds?!? So ESPN got to use an ESPN broadcast property to promote another ESPN upcoming event. How convenient is that?!?

HahnSolo wrote: And the tying runs are on for the third consecutive inning... But a sliding catch by Angel Pagan on a sinking liner saves the Giants

And Ludwick bounces back to the pitcher. The bigger crime on the bunt play was Hanigan not swinging at a borderline 3-2 pitch when he knew the runners were going. Dusty had started the runners on the previous pitch (pitch fouled off) so it's not like the play came as a surprise to him. Supposedly Hanigan is a contact-type guy [looking it up ... yup, 37 Ks in 300+ ABs] so, if you're going to send the runners he wasn't a bad guy to have up there. Bottom line: I don't love the call as a Reds fan, but I hate the (lack of) execution more

HahnSolo wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I like 4-game days! So do I but, from a TV standpoint, I don't believe the league does. Plus I hate the extra off-days that the 2-2-1 brings into play. But they haven't been using a 2nd off day between games 4 and 5, even in the 2-2-1 format, I don't think. Maybe not for all of them but they did for most of them and for the ones involving coast-to-coast travel you really have to. Plus, since you never know until game 4 is over whether 5 is going to be necessary, some planned off days get built even if they're never used. Then they even built in extra off-days a couple years ago in the 2nd round LCSs [something like 2 - travel/off - 2 - no travel but off anyway - 1 - travel/off - 2] so as to reduce the number of AL & NL games that occurred on the same day - again for TV purposes. 2009 was the year they used that to the highest degree and it was a large part of what allowed the Yanx to win the WS using like three pitchers the whole post-season.

Wow, that's some pretty strong stuff being tossed by rival GMs ... and I gotta say I'm surprised. Not that one can't disagree with the decision, but it is one they/Rizzo made at the beginning of the season and stuck to all along. Personally, I kind of admire Rizzo for bearing the heat that way. Maybe the rival GMs think this is all Boras-dictated and hate it for that reason? And, yeah, the 'we'll be back' statements can be seen as a bit arrogant but everyone on top thinks that way and with the age/control of their roster the Nats have at least as much reason to think that as anyone. Sure nothing's guaranteed, but that doesn't mean you treat each day as if it'll be your last either. It's an arguable position, I'm just shocked it's receiving the kind of vitriol shown in that piece.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I like 4-game days! So do I but, from a TV standpoint, I don't believe the league does. Plus I hate the extra off-days that the 2-2-1 brings into play.

HahnSolo wrote: Not to go all Chris Russo on start times and TV ratings and whatnot, but how can they have a decisive game 5 (featuring a west coast team, mind you) first pitch at 1 PM Eastern? And I know the real answer, that the almighty tv dollar insists the MFYs get the primetime slot. But got that sucks if you are a Giant fan in SF. At the very least, couldn't they have swapped the NL start times, so the Cardinals and Nats would start at 1 instead? Yeah, the first part is definitely the Yanx ruling prime-time forever and ever. The part about the swapped NL starts (exactly the opposite of yesterday while the AL stays the same) I suspect is because MLB knew going into yesterday that there'd be a Nats/Cards game while a Reds/Giants game #5 was still up in the air. So if they're going to "lose" a game they'd prefer it to be the 1PM slot and so giving StL/Wash the 4PM slot means no last-minute time changes no matter what happened to Cin/SF Yeah it sucks for some teams but whatyagonnado? And this is the real reason that they want to go back to the 2-2-1 format next year. Not because of the supposed home-field advantage reason (even though I'm sure that will be often cited) but because it builds in more off days and doesn't saddle them with as many 4-game days.

2) Darren O'Day

Corvelli Crisp is certainly having an interesting series: leadoff HRs, stolen HRs, dropped balls, game-winning hits

I haven't heard of a number of these.

MFS62 wrote: Who are those guys? My first thoughts too - in fact, go back and read my first sentence of this thread Reddick I remember from his time as a BoSox Kottaras is part-time catcher who kicked around with several teams including Milwaukee You should remember Seth Smith from his days with Colorado [back when the Rox featured a line-up that contained both Peyton Manning's college backup (Todd Helton) and Eli's college backup (Smith)] Donaldson is a 26 y/o rookie while Pennington has been toiling mostly in anonymity out in Oakland for a couple years now

Didn't stay up for the end of Game 4 of this one -- 3 hours+ on top of a 9:37 start ... too pissed off at the result of the previous game, etc. -- but the A's live another day and now play a do-or-die game tonight (same bat time, same bat channel). Tigers led the entire game and heading into the 9th up by 2 they naturally call on closer Jose 'Papa Grande' Valverde ... but not much merriment ensued for Detroit-ites JJ Reddick - single Josh Donaldson - double [2nd & 3rd] Seth Smith - double 2 RBI -- Tie game George Kottaras (ph-ing for Norris) - foul out [crossout:8aeikgj6]Chad[/crossout:8aeikgj6] Cliff Pennington - K and so just when it looked like they were about to get out of it and at least survive to extra innings, Coco Crisp lined an RBI single although it looked like there would have been a play at home except that RF Garcia over-ran the ball charging it. Of course this all means they have to win it against Verlander but that's better than not having a chance to win at all. Jarrod Parker for the A's as the pitchers from Game 1 match up again. Parker (Game 1): 6-1/3, 3 runs, 2 earned, 7 hits Verlander: 7 innings, 1 earned, 3 hits, 11 Ks

Fman99 wrote: How insufferable is my Facebook feed these days. I wish I knew less Yankee fans. You could always just kill them all.

seawolf17 wrote: Stunned. I wish I could say I was.

The way Angel Hernandez went looking into the stands there, it was pretty clear that if Swisher had gotten his hands on the ball underneath everything out there that he was going to get the call even though it clearly went off some fan's hands four rows deep.

The opponents got 49 HRs this season out of Ibanez, Andruw, and Chavez this year in less than 900 ABs combined And those are their freakin' part-time guys who are a combined 109 years old!

Fuck man! Give away one out with a bunt and then another one getting caught off 2nd. Not sure there's much the runner Andino was going to do about that one but still, Soriano got out of that inning by essentially retiring one batter.

And now we're going to see Boone Logan for the lefty-hitting Thome ... and then someone else after that (Lowe?) for Reynolds.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Doing my best not to watch Opponent hit, so wouldn't know where he was at re: pitch count. 99 -- 69 for strikes

Well, Buck the mad scientist is looking good so far. O'Day has a quick, uneventful 8th inning.

OK, so this Miguel Gonzalez guy has shut down the Yanx the whole game except for the "dramatic" long fly that should have been caught. The announcers just got through talking about the fact that there haven't even been any loud outs. He hasn't walked a single batter and has just struck out four of the last five hitters he's faced. So Buck is taking him out ... why?

Ashie62 wrote: Jeter does have his moments and that was one Misjudged fly-balls? Yeah, he gets some of those.

Graeme Lloyd in 1996 The Yanx got him in a trade late in the year from Milwaukee and he pitched so poorly [11 runs on 12 hits + 5 walks over 5.2 IPs] that Steinbrenner complained to the Commissioner's office that he had been tricked, that Lloyd was damaged goods and he wanted the trade un-done. That attempt naturally failed and the Yanx were forced to use Lloyd in the post-season. Once there Lloyd pitched 5-1/3 innings over the three rounds giving up just 1 single They actually had a few back of the pen guys with similar stories (lousy going into the playoffs, then unhittable) that year, Lloyd was only the most extreme example.

Y'see, now you're getting me started. GlenAllen Hill in 2000. A power hitter at one point but also a 35 y/o .270 career hitter who suddenly hits .333 as a Yank with 16 HRs in 132 ABs (after hitting .262 w/11 HRs in more ABs with the Cubs in the first half of the season). The following season (w/Anaheim) he hit .116 with ONE HR and was released at the end of May never to play in the majors again.