Braves/Dodgers, Pirates/Cards, Rays/Red Sox, Tigers/A's: Who wins it all?

Can I change my prediction? I forgot about the moron Jim Leyland. Idiot Leyland couldn't manage his way out of a paper bag with a box full of razor knives.

To wit:

1. The Tigers altered their roster for the ALCS, adding veteran left-handed reliever Phil Coke and removing rookie right-hander Luke Putkonen. I presume they added Coke because they want him to pitch to left-handed batters in high leverage situations. Like when David Ortiz comes up to bat with the bases loaded. In his career Ortiz is 2 for 18 vs. Coke (.111 BA). Instead Leyland goes to his closer, Joquin Benoit, with two outs in the 8th inning. Ortiz hits a grand slam off Benoit to tie the game. Benoit then strikes out pinch hitter Mike Napoli. Closer Benoit has thrown only 8 pitches. So with the bottom third of the Red Sox lineup due up we will see Benoit in the ninth inning, right. No, we won't, Leyland goes with Rick Porcello. This means that the only reliever left available is Phil Coke. Should the game go into extra innings, he's severely limited his options.

2. With Johnny Gomes, the winning run on 2nd base in the bottom of the ninth, the sensible thing to do is to intentionally walk the next batter to set up a force out at third, second, or first or to set up a double play. But there are no outs so not every manager will do this for fear the runner on second will get to third somehow. Leyland decides not to intentionally walk Saltalamacchia. Porcello uncorks a wild pitch, Gomes advances to third. Surely now the smart move is to intentionally walk Saltalamacchia and the next batter, Drew, to load the bases and set up a force out at any base with the #9 hitter in the batting order coming to bat. Well, that would be the SMART thing to do, but that's not what Leyland does, because he's an idiot. Instead he has Porcello pitch to Saltalamacchia and he slices a single into left field for the game winner.

So, to review. Leyland did not bring a lefty in to pitch to Ortiz, a lefty with proven success against Ortiz. Instead he brought his closer in to pitch to Ortiz in the eighth inning. Then he pulls his closer going in to the ninth inning after only 8 pitches, leaving him with only one pitcher in the bullpen. Then he fails to walk a batter to set up force outs at any base. Then with the winning run on third base he again ignores the strategy of walking batters to set up force outs.

This loss is all on Leyland. This is not the first time he's been a moron.

 

Yeah, I think the Tigers will still prevail. The starting pitching is too strong as well as their lineup. I don't think the manager has a lot to do with the overall success of a team but stupid managers can blow individual games. And all games are magnified in the playoffs. The Tigers will win despite their manager.

 

Look at this pathetic non-apology, non-responsibility statement from Leyland:

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland told reporters Monday he regrets not telling Joaquin Benoit to pitch carefully to Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, whose eighth-inning grand slam Sunday night tied Game 2 at 5-5.

The Red Sox would go on to win in the bottom of the ninth and tie the ALCS at a game apiece.

"I made a mistake that I take full responsibility for," Leyland said. "I should've reminded [Benoit] that we didn't want to Ortiz to beat us."

Yeah, because major league baseball players don't know if David Ortiz is any good, or whether or not he's a dangerous hitter. They need to be reminded. Sheesh!

 

Another reason why I loathe the Red Sox. They play such a slow deliberate game. Batters stepping out of the box, pitchers taking forever to deliver a pitch.

Take a look at this. On Saturday both the ALCS and NLCS games were decided by a 1-0 score.

Running time of the Cards/Dodgers game: 2 hrs. 40 min.
There were six pitching changes in this game, three of them occurred between innings.

Running time of the Red Sox/Tigers game: 3 hrs. 56 min!
There were seven pitching changes in this game but four of them occurred between innings.

How in the world can a 1-0 game take almost FOUR HOURS to play?

 

How do you know this? There is no way there was 1 hour 39 minutes of commercials in a 9 inning game. Even if each commercial break were 3 minutes in length that would be 33 commercial breaks in the game.

IIRC, the MLB rule is up to 2 min. 5 secs. commercial time between innings of a regular season regional games and 2 min. 25 sec. between innings for national/playoff games. So why wouldn't TBS use the maximum time of 2 min. 25 sec.? For the Boston game there would have been 18 between half-inning breaks, and 4 breaks for pitching changes. That's 53 minutes and 10 secs. of known commercial time.

Nope. I think Boston does it.

Fister vs. Boston, lifetime .317 BA, .388 OBA, .490 SLG
Peavy vs. Detroit, lifetime .258 BA, .310 OBA, .446 SLG

BONUS! This just in! Jim Leyland has named Torii Hunter to be batting leadoff tonight. Torii Hunter is hitting .182 in the postseason. Jim, my boy, your idiocy does not disappoint.

 

I can understand your not wanting to talk about something you made up out of thin air:

And BTW, since you claimed this about commercial breaks, I've been timing them and they are 2 min 45 secs. long.

Yes, I remember that both those playoff series. I remember telling co-workers that KC was going to win the World Series, even before the ALCS started, and I remember continuing my stance throughout the playoffs. Man, did I feel vindicated when they came back from 3-1 both times (with a little help from Don Denkinger). I'm sure you also know that the Royals have only been to the post season during Georg Brett's era.

 

As the Twins went into the tank in 2011, Sports Illustrated had a cover story about the up coming Royals in the farm system. I took a look at that and decided if I were from neither Minnesota or Kansas/Missouri and I had to move to either of those states and become a fan of their baseball team, I'd rather move to Kansas City. They just seemed to finally get their act together. I wondered about them trading Wil Myers to the Rays but I guess they needed to show fans that they were trying to win immediately instead of waiting for the nucleus to gel. BONUS--My second fave team is the Rays so I'm OK with the trade. LOL.

 

You mean not everything on the internet is true??!!

Thanks for clearing that up. Peace.

 

Another Leyland Idiocy: Tigers are losing 5-2, top of the ninth, one out, and he has Omar Infante attempt a bunt!

You're down to your last two outs of the season and you give your opponent a freebie?

 

This just in...

Jim Leyland has decided to step down as Detroit Tigers manager, FOX Sports MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal reports.

Leyland informed the team of his decision after the Tigers' ALCS loss to the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, Rosenthal reports, adding that the manager told the team that it was time for someone younger to do the job.


Thankfully the Twins extended Ron Gardenhire's contract or they might have been tempted to go after Leyland.