Alcs & Nlcs

In hindsight, it shouldn't be entirely unexpected that the Dodgers bounced the Cubs. The biggest reason I think they were overlooked is because we didn't see that particular team play for much of the season. Furcal was out for 2/3 of the season and they only had Manny for the last 2 months. When they had Furcal and Manny, the Dodgers had the best record in baseball over the last month or so. The media will say what they want about how Manny Ramirez has been so good for the Dodgers, but where's the love for Rafael Furcal?

I'll go further than the honorable Bro. Curtis and say that the Dodgers sweep (sorry DebbyinPhilly).

I'm not a big fan of teams like the Rays that come out of nowhere to win, but it's hard to pick against them. Outside of Beckett and Lester, I don't like Boston's starting pitching, but I love Kazmir, Shields, Garza and Sonnanstine. So, I'm picking Tampa in 6.

The umpire clearly made the wrong call on the rundown. Any time the runner is tagged and the ball is dropped, the runner is safe. Terrible call.

Say what you want about the Cubs choking, but at least they didn't say something stupid like they were the better team (looking at you John Lackey).

 

I think the most comparable situation is on a play at the plate when the runner bowls over the catcher. The umpire doesn't make his call until he knows that the catcher has the ball. The same rule should have applied in this case.

 

Last night's game 1 win by the Phillies highlighted the problems the Cubs had against the Dodgers, one of them being that they had no left handed bats. The Phillies have a better balance of left handed and right handed batters, especially lefties like Chase Utley, who hit the game-tying HR. The other problem was that the Cubs had nobody who could get on base in that series like Rafael Furcal.

Here are 3 things I think Jim Hendry should do.

#1) Trade for Brian Roberts

The Cubs would do well to reopen talks with the Orioles about trading for their switch-hitting 2B with the .355 career OBP and putting him at the leadoff spot rather than the left-fielder with the .329 career OBP.


#2) Take Fukudome out of the lineup so he's not getting at-bats.

Fukudome was a colossal waste of money. Derosa's a pretty good hitter and can play RF.


#3) Convince Soriano and his ego that his power would be better served hitting in the #3 spot.

You just can't have a guy with a .329 career OBP hitting leadoff.

 

The Phillies win last night was a thing of beauty.

My favorite part was Charlie Manual going out to talk to his pitcher prior to Ramirez's last at-bat. I suspect they talked about the weather. Whatever, it got inside Manny's head and he flied out.

Go Phillies!!!

 

Last night's NCLS game was not for the faint of heart, no matter what team you favored.
You're right about messin' with Manny's head - it worked.
Five more wins to go!!!!!!!:applause: :applause: :applause:

 

In his head? On 1 at bat? Not so sure about that.

Manny's stat line in this series is incredible, .500/.656/1.000/1.656(!), on 11/22 hitting with 3 HRs and 9 RBIs. The stat line doesn't seem to backup your wishful thinking. :wavey:

The problem for the Dodgers boils down to their inability to consistently shutdown the Phillies offense. With that said, it's a 3-1 series. I wouldn't be dancing in the streets just yet in celebration of your World Series appearance.

If I was a Red Sox fan, I would have no confidence that my team will win tonight with Wakefield going. Which means, of course, that the Sox are going to crush them in game 4.

 

The Phillies have been full of surprises in this series with the surprise homerun on Monday night and Brett Myers attack of hitting two nights before. Great teams rise to the occasion and the Phillies have. With three shots left to beat the one-weapon Dodgers once, I think we'll make the series.

 

Breaking news....Crawford just got another hit.

Geez...can you say Boston Massacre? Yeah, so can everyone else.

At the same time, as everyone has pointed out, these guys have been here before. But if Tampa keeps hitting like this, they're on a crash course with the WS

 

When the NLCS started, I had no confidence in Brett "Boom Outta Here" Myers, or any other starter not named Cole Hamels. But, Hamels was the ace we knew he was and the Phils got enough timely hitting to win.

While I understand the decision to go with Kazmir instead of Shields at Fenway, you can't count on Kazmir at Fenway, because he's been terrific at times at Fenway and downright awful at other times, including his last start there when he gave up 9 runs in 3 innings. Despite destroying Boston pitching over the last 3 games, I think the Rays will come out flat tonight and wind up losing. This series isn't over just yet.

 

ManRam should've been NLCS MVP even though his team got rolled. Unreal numbers he put up. Just unreal.

 

I disagree, Tom. For the incredible numbers he put up, the Dodgers still lost the series in 5 games, while Cole Hamels shut the Dodgers down in both games he pitched. I'm not a huge fan of awarding pitchers a Most Valuable Player award in the regular season, but I think it makes a ton of sense to give a pitcher the MVP in a playoff series.

Last night, we were driving home at the time the Rays were going up on the Sox 7-0. When the Red Sox scratched out a run, Joe Morgan couldn't make up his mind about whether the game was over, or whether Yogi's famous saying was actually true or not. What an incredible comeback. I think Maddon made one of his few mistakes in not pitching the lefty against Ortiz. After that HR, Morgan said that a manager is supposed to manage to the worst possible outcome and that Joe Maddon didn't, since the better option was to bring in a lefty like Howell to pitch to Ortiz there. For all the talk about how the Red Sox miss Mike Lowell, Game 5 is where the Rays really, really missed Troy Percival.

Regardless of his Game 1 performance, I'm not sure I like Shields in Game 6. His careera ERA against Boston is 5.23 and even though his home ERA is 2.59, I fully subscribe to the idea of players reverting to the mean. What Tampa has going for them is Josh Beckett is not the same pitcher he was last year, but he's still the guy who went into Yankee Stadium and shut the Yanks down in 2003. And if I'm going to bring up stats, Beckett's career ERA against Tampa Bay is 3.11 and his road ERA is 2.85. Revert to the mean and I think Beckett wins.

Ultimately, you usually only get 1 golden opportunity to close a team out, which makes me lean towards picking Boston in Game 6. However, the 2005 Houston Astros were a team who defied convention, suffering a bad loss in a clinching game and coming back to win the next game. Most of us (and I'm one of them) have been doubting Tampa all season. Enough with the doubting. Tampa wins Game 6.

 

Well, FTR, I wasn't totally serious. If you're voting MOP (Most Outstanding Player), no question it was ManRam. Most Valuable Player? No. How coud he be valuable? His team got spanked.

I disagree a tad on Hamels. Despite his performance, the Dodgers offense didn't really show up much at all as I recall (don't quote me on the numbers). There were constants in the four wins while Hamels can only get credit(?) for two. The Phils got timely hitting, whether base knocks or homers. That said, I don't quibble with Ps being MVPs in playoffs as much as Reg Season, but the principle still applies generally.

Morgan talking out of both sides of his mouth in the same sentence? NO...get out!

 

If the Red Sox come back and win this ALCS, it will be one of the worst things to happen next to Obama being elected. The Rays are the better team this year. I smell a fix of some kind. The Red Sox are the new Yankees.

 

Ok, just ignore that irrational post above. Justice has been done; the Rays won.

Question: Has this ever happened where a team was down 3-1, won the next two games to make it 3-3 and then lose game 7? I can't remember anything recent happening like this (in baseball - I think it has happened some in b-ball and hockey).

 

I think Tampa was the better team, but they sure did cut it close on whether they would win or not. It came down to having your rookie pitcher strike out JD Drew with the bases loaded. Boston fans ought not be cursing JD Drew's name over it either, because his grand slam in Game 6 last year led Boston to winning that one, and his HR in Game 5 helped them comeback as well. As rational as Boston fans are, I'm sure this won't be an issue.