Frayed Knot

It seems like only yesterday that we were cursing out the Phillies for not giving the Braves more of a challenge during those last two ATL/PHI reg season series. What you thought might burn the Braves all year, their relatively low OBA, finally got to them today: 3 HRs but all solo and only 4 hits total. Their 9th inning box score reads: K - K - K, and that was from 2-3-4 in their order.

So the Braves are down to their last three outs and down by five runs. Things not looking very good for a repeat championship.

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=111332 time=1665863565 user_id=68]... The NBA comparison doesn't work. It's apples and oranges because in the NBA playoffs, a seven game series is a pretty reliable way to determine the better team. NBA playoofs, with all of its many participants is more tedious than flawed because when its down to the last four teams, those four teams are generally the best four teams. Huge upsets and surprises are fine in sports playoffs so long as they don't happen all too often.

=roger_that post_id=111333 time=1665864747 user_id=128] I had the idea a while back of making things like a BYE an option for the teams getting one--that is, instead of the Dodgers and Yankees earning three games off, they earn the option of playing those games (and risking elimination, of course) OR getting to take the short series off. Do you really suppose any team that earned that option would take it? I can't imagine that, which tells you something I think about the value of the BYE. It's valuable, even if this year so far it appears not to be.

So after bludgeoning the Braves early in this Game 4, the Phils are now paper-cutting them to death with tack-on runs in the 6th. Atlanta with three tries to save their season, down 7 - 2 while getting out-hit 11 - 3 Poor starts and barely hitting while losing to a sub-90 win team! Who do they think they are, the Mets?!? Of course ss I'm typing all this Td'A leads off the 7th w/a HR.

=bmfc1 post_id=111300 time=1665793901 user_id=73] Maybe the Braves, the brilliant team that makes every move correctly and is so much smarter than every other team, shouldn't have started a pitcher who hadn't pitched in a month.

Frayed Knot wrote: Problem is that HF advantage matters little in baseball and the whole 'rested pitching staff' edge isn't exactly working out as planned. If you're right--and I don't believe you are--then we must question some longstanding principles of baseball ... Or you could accept the much more likely possibility that THIS YEAR, in a small sample size, HF field advantage isn't yielding its usual result so far. Well, HF advantage in baseball IS measurably smaller than in any of the other sports we typically consume typically hovering around 53-54%, roughly the equivalent of home teams going 8-7 over a 15-game span vs 7-8 for the roadies. Not a non-existent edge, but not a big one either. And the extended rest thing (5 games pretty much qualifies as extended in baseball) is new for this season so, yes, it is so far an ongoing sample size of one. As I type, home teams are 10-9 this post-season and the rested vs non-rested teams are deadlocked at 5-5 Also, do keep in mind that the rested teams and the ones with the majority of the home games are, by definition over a six month span, the better team, sometimes by more than 20 games in the standings, and are still basically breaking even. And, again, my point is that if leagues and fans are going to stick with the 'more is better' theory of post-season tourneys then they also need to accept that the marquee events -- the LCSx2 and the WS -- stand a decent chance of not having some or even all of the top teams involved. Some, I'm sure, are going to be OK with that, others I don't believe think it through. I think I can already hear a network executive saying; 'Whattaya mean we're not getting a Dodgers/Yankees matchup'!!

I don't understand the logic behind awarding the pennant to the team with the best record if you're then going to have a playoff format anyway and have the winner of that scrum, however it's structured, go on to the World Series. If the final squad standing ins't the best regular season team then the whole pennant thing is a meaningless title and if it is them then the pennant award was merely a premature title. A league champion based on the regular season vs a playoff system seems to me is an either/or situation. Wanting to have both is a kind of contradiction in terms. My main point here was that leagues (chasing money of course) and many fans (wanting their second tier teams to 'still be in it' as long as possible) often advocate for more and more teams to be included in the post-season tourney action but don't always think through what those set-ups create. Is the novelty of having a couple of 'Giant Killers' play in the biggest games while a trio of 100+ win teams sit on the sidelines really the better alternative to a more restrictive playoff system? Arguments for more teams often come paired with various forms of handicaps on the non-winners as if to say: 'yeah we'll let them in but we don't really want them to win'. Problem is that HF advantage matters little in baseball and the whole 'rested pitching staff' edge isn't exactly working out as planned.

So the 101-win Mets have now been sitting for nearly a week (as have the 93-win Cardinals) while today's games will feature the 101-win Braves and the 111-win Dodgers on the brink of elimination. This leaves a strong possibility of the NL crown being decided between the 89-win Padres and the 87-win Phils, the league's fifth and sixth best teams. Expanded playoff fever: Catch It!

Braves opted for rookie Spenser Strider in place of vet Charlie Morton. Strider was perfect thru two. He didn't survive the 3rd. 6 - 0 Phillies, middle of 3

Edgy MD wrote: Although, looking at it now, he didn't have any good seasons after 31. His third act was was with the Braves, falling off in his efficiency from year to year but still pitching a whole bunch of innings. His rather short-ish prime tended to keep me on the 'No' side of the HoF fence for him. Those in favor tended to credit him for inventing a whole new pitch as the deciding factor in his favor but, to me, it was more just a case of a new variation of an already existing pitch. btw, Sutter b. Lancaster, PA [Donegal HS, Mount Joy, PA] and was drafted by the Washington Senators

So Sutter actually did throw that pitch by using his thumb to pop the ball out from his grip? Not sure if "pop it out" is the most accurate description but the thumb was involved somehow, probably adding some crazy-ass spin to the mix, and his empty post-pitch hand would always wind up with the thumb protruding between the index and middle digits.

Locastro - FO Donaldson - BB So the tying run is at the plate in the form of rookie Osvaldo Cabrera ... and he K's Two down with Kiner-Falaffel batting... and a GO ends the game!!!!

4 - 2 heading to bottom 10 (and, remember, no clown car rules!) although Cleveland had three shots w/RiSP but failed to plate a 5th run. Tim Locastro, who earlier pinch ran for Giancarlo, leads it off.

Guardians have started the 10th: soft bloop (plus tack-on error) followed by another soft bloop to take a 3 - 2 lead. Still no outs. oe: and now a ringing Dubble plates run #4

No, the thumb thing was Sutter. So that, even when the splitter became more common, his version of it, owing in part to his extraordinarily long fingers, remained unique to him.

There was the line about the decidedly non-basball-shaped L.A. Coliseum, where the Dodgers played for their first few years on the west coast; that it had room for 100,000 spectators but only two outfielders.

Already postponed.

And the series is tied at a game a piece. 3 - 0 Braves

Syndergaard on for 8th innng work down by 3 That wasn't the role he seemed destined for a year or two ago.

Wheeler was near-perfect thru 5 but then got touched up for 3 in the 6th after two out and none on [HBP, BB, 1B (should have been E3) IF 1B, 1B) Both starters now out. 3-0 Braves going to bottom 7

[media=youtube]bDRbF80NKDU[/media] Scheduled for a 4:40 start, Game #2 PHI/ATL is delayed until at least 7 PM and maybe longer.

Mike Clevinger doesn't last 3 IPs as LAD leads 4 - 0 in the 4th

4 ER on 8 hits in 4-1/3 IP for Max Fried

4 - 1 is your final. Off day tomorrow for the AL series.