2022 MLB Postseason Results (Spoilers!) & MLB.tv

[Déjà Bru]

All eyes here, if you please. Whether you love or hate the contestants, for now, it's the only game in town! (Tomorrow night at 7 EST on TBS)

[Antonin]

I hate for my Guardians to have to go back to New York. But on the bright side, at least Cole will (probably) not be pitching!

Still, we have seen some nice baseball this postseason in The Land. In our home we mute the TV broadcast and listen to the local radio broadcast, even though the radio is several seconds behind.

The national broadcasters do their research and try their best, but there are so many nuances they simply don't get, because they have not been watching the Guardians every single day, as we have.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Antonin

In our home we mute the TV broadcast and listen to the local radio broadcast, even though the radio is several seconds behind.

I do the same in New York for regular season games only because I am one of the handful of people who actually like listening to John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

[WestCoastGuy]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I do the same in New York for regular season games only because I am one of the handful of people who actually like listening to John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

I don't follow Yankees games very often, but when I do I do enjoy listening to their radio broadcasts.

[Westheim]

How many more rainouts are necessary to turn Game 5 over to OOTP for simming it?

[Westheim]

Game fiiiiiiive...!

[Westheim]

Aaaand it's over and I can go to bed...

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Aaaand it's over and I can go to bed...

Only if Nestor can keep pitching the way he is doing now. He's one guy who flies in the face of "Yankee big spending" detractors. Not entirely homegrown, bouncing around a bit, but hitting his stride this season in his second tour with the club and now is darned close to being the ace of the pitching staff. He's making, I think, $545,000 this year.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Only if Nestor can keep pitching the way he is doing now. He's one guy who flies in the face of "Yankee big spending" detractors. Not entirely homegrown, bouncing around a bit, but hitting his stride this season in his second tour with the club and now is darned close to being the ace of the pitching staff. He's making, I think, $545,000 this year.

I swear, my antipathy to this overly-analytical style of baseball management is starting to gel around Aaron Boone. The weenie goes by the book instead of his own judgment, takes Cortes out after only 60 pitches, and the next guy on the mound, quite predictably, is in trouble already. I wouldn't mind seeing Boone leaving town for good.

[Amazin69]

Meanwhile, in the nightcap, Zack Wheeler is pulled after 7 innings of one-hit ball, because he's thrown a colossal 83 pitches.

Not only will I not miss modern "baseball" next season, my only regret is that I'm still subjecting myself to this lunacy.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Meanwhile, in the nightcap, Zack Wheeler is pulled after 7 innings of one-hit ball, because he's thrown a colossal 83 pitches.

Absurd. Not only was he pitching exceptionally well, but on multiple occasions this season he threw over 90 pitches (and 7 times over 100 pitches). If ever there was a time to not roll the dice on a reliever - who may or may not "have it" that night - and stick with what's working, this was it. Worked out for the Phils, but still...

[Reed]

I went to ESPN this morning to to see the results of the Phillies/Padres game and the main story is (if you are thinking Yankees/Guardians you are wrong) ——- a regular season basketball game. That should be a big indication of how far MLB has fallen over the years.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Reed

a regular season basketball game.

And one of those 2 teams was 16 games under .500 last year! Again, 16 games under, in an 82 game season, not baseball's 162. Ridiculous.

Basketball is my second favourite sport, but that's just not right. It should be all about baseball right now.

[Déjà Bru]

Well, it seemed inevitable in hindsight. Here we are again with the Yankees against their bête noire, the Astros.

The Astros, who are making their sixth straight A.L.C.S. appearance, are a familiar and troublesome October foe for the Yankees. The previous two times the Yankees reached the A.L.C.S. — in 2017 and in 2019 — they were eliminated by the Astros.

Plus the Astros beat the Yankees in a 2015 wild card game.

Notice that I did not call them the "Astr*s" for the first time in a long time — perhaps a tip of the hat for continuing to win after the scandal, perhaps the beginning of the healing process (Altuve excepted, always).

Well, y'all know whom I root for, but this time I want to make it about baseball, not animosity.

May the best team win.

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Meanwhile, in the nightcap, Zack Wheeler is pulled after 7 innings of one-hit ball, because he's thrown a colossal 83 pitches.

Originally Posted by thehef

Absurd. Not only was he pitching exceptionally well, but on multiple occasions this season he threw over 90 pitches (and 7 times over 100 pitches). If ever there was a time to not roll the dice on a reliever - who may or may not "have it" that night - and stick with what's working, this was it. Worked out for the Phils, but still...

And this reminded me that only a few day ago Dave Roberts made a similar decision that bit him hard enough to send him to the offseason: In a potential elimination game, LA starter Tyler Anderson was very sharp, tossing a shutout thru 5 innings. Then the dreaded "3rd time thru the order" panic kicked in. Granted, the first reliever, Chris Martin, made it thru a shaky but scoreless sixth. But after that - KABLOOEY! Season over.

I don't doubt that "3rd time thru the order" is real, but a) I think there's real doubt that, historically, it ever existed among the top pitchers, and b) I wonder to what degree it exists - if at all - to a pitcher who's having a really good game. IOW, if a guy has gone 4 or 5 so-so innings, "3rd time thru" surely applies; whereas if a guy is tossing a gem thru 6 or 7, does it apply? And if so, he might only regress - 3rd time thru - to "really good" instead of "unhittable."

[Amazin69]

Originally Posted by thehef

Absurd. Not only was he pitching exceptionally well, but on multiple occasions this season he threw over 90 pitches (and 7 times over 100 pitches). If ever there was a time to not roll the dice on a reliever - who may or may not "have it" that night - and stick with what's working, this was it. Worked out for the Phils, but still...

And he'd just retired the middle of the order; it was 6-7-8 due up.

Yes, Dominguez and Alvarado finished up successfully. But if either of them struggles tonight (or is "unavailable" because they're worn out from yesterday's "exertions"), I'm going to so hard at how unnecessary it all was.

[Westheim]

But the nerd with the thick glasses said ...

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by thehef

And this reminded me that only a few day ago Dave Roberts made a similar decision that bit him hard enough to send him to the offseason: In a potential elimination game, LA starter Tyler Anderson was very sharp, tossing a shutout thru 5 innings. Then the dreaded "3rd time thru the order" panic kicked in. Granted, the first reliever, Chris Martin, made it thru a shaky but scoreless sixth. But after that - KABLOOEY! Season over.

I don't doubt that "3rd time thru the order" is real, but a) I think there's real doubt that, historically, it ever existed among the top pitchers, and b) I wonder to what degree it exists - if at all - to a pitcher who's having a really good game. IOW, if a guy has gone 4 or 5 so-so innings, "3rd time thru" surely applies; whereas if a guy is tossing a gem thru 6 or 7, does it apply? And if so, he might only regress - 3rd time thru - to "really good" instead of "unhittable."

Sometimes I would be right and sometimes the goat (lower case letters) but surer than heck, I would trust my eyes, judgment, intuition, and guts to do the right thing in order to win a ballgame rather than cover my rear end in the latest faddish theory or analysis.

To wit: If a pitcher is dominating, let him stay in the game until he tires. Immediately, I gain an advantage of an apparently known versus a relatively unknown. This guy is dominating NOW. The next guy is good, but will he BE good or have one of his off-days?

[thehef]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Sometimes I would be right and sometimes the goat (lower case letters) but surer than heck, I would trust my eyes, judgment, intuition, and guts to do the right thing in order to win a ballgame rather than cover my rear end in the latest faddish theory or analysis.

To wit: If a pitcher is dominating, let him stay in the game until he tires. Immediately, I gain an advantage of an apparently known versus a relatively unknown. This guy is dominating NOW. The next guy is good, but will he BE good or have one of his off-days?

EXACTLY.

In the Dodgers' example, Anderson was at 86 pitches. Only twice during the regular season did the Dodgers let him break 100 pitches (one time was 123 pitches when he was pitching a no-no). He had finished the bottom of the 5th inning by facing Kim - the Pads' leadoff hitter - for the 3rd time. Due up in the 6th was Soto (a lefty-lefty matchup for Anderson), Machado (nightmare for anyone), Drury, and if anyone got on, Cronenworthy (another lefty-lefty).

Based upon pitch count, it's unlikely Anderson goes more than 6 innings, but not out of the question to let him start the 7th if the eyeball test were to have shown him to blow thru the heart of the Padres order in the 6th and still be under 100 pitches.

So given the above, this should have been Roberts' script:

a) Leave Anderson in to start the 6th. If Soto were to reach base, bring in his best reliever, Evan Phillips, who had mostly been used down the stretch and earlier in the series as the reliever for these types of key situations (regardless of inning), to face Machado, etc.

b) Assuming Anderson gets through the 6th inning (not a given, admittedly) I then bring in Martin (who Roberts brought in for the 6th inning) for the 7th to face the lower part of SD's order.

c) For the 8th inning it really depends where we are in the order. Theoretically - if 1-2-3 sixth & seventh innings - then we're looking at the 8, 9 and 1 hitters, and in that case I bring in one of the Dodgers' relievers who is not Phillips. And in any case, when the time comes - regardless of 8th inning or 9th inning - I'm having Phillips face Soto, Machado, Drury/Bell, and Cronenworthy.

Obviously, nothing is foolproof and no guarantees. What we do know, however, is that Roberts' ultra-cautious, rely-on-the-machine approach did not work...

In fairness to Roberts, his only chance in that series was to flawlessly manage the pitching staff, as it was the hitting that let the team down. In fact, the league's most potent regular season offense managed just 7 runs over the final three games/losses, whereas the team's pitching staff for the series posted a pretty solid 3.70 ERA.

So unlike a few previous postseason flameouts, this year Dave Roberts' managing is not at the top of the reasons why list...

[monkeyman576]

I think the upsets have more to do with correctly applying analytic analysis rather than just trying to buy a $250M team.