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It's All Mark DeRosa's Fault: MLB Division Series Day 5 Preview, Sunday 10/11
by Al
on Oct 11, 2009 9:00 AM CDT
in Game Threads
33 comments
When you read this, keep in mind it is written with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
The Cardinals got swept out of their Division Series with the Dodgers and looked, in doing so, just about as bad as the Cubs did in a similar sweep a year ago.
Common thread? It has to be Mark DeRosa, the only former Cub on St. Louis' Division Series roster (Todd Wellemeyer wasn't on that roster). DeRosa played in 13 postseason games with the Braves from 2001-2003. His team won eight of them. But since DeRo became a Cub, his team has lost nine straight postseason games (ten, if you include the final game of the 2003 Braves/Cubs NLDS). It's got to be his fault. Even DeRosa himself joked about it:
"It might be me," former Cub Mark DeRosa said afterward as he saw Chicago media headed his way. "It better not be because I'm not retiring for a while."
Then he thought and added with a slight smile:
"This is three years in a row. It is me."
Gee, and the Cubs might think about bringing him back as a free agent?
Of course, DeRosa could more easily have blamed his teammates, because he had more hits in the series (five) than any other Cardinal, including Albert Pujols.
"It is what it is," DeRosa said. "I'll keep grinding."
Taking my "facetious cap" off, obviously, the Cardinals had problems that started at the end of the regular season, losing 8 of their last 10 games. As the link above states, DeRosa had a fine series, hitting .385. In fact, he hit .333 in two division series for the Cubs (7-for-21 with two doubles and a HR) and overall in 58 postseason at-bats, he's hit .358/.414/.566, numbers any team would take over a total of 22 games. And yes, I'd take DeRosa back as a free agent if the price were right.
Speaking of the Cardinals, Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan are free agents. Supposedly, the internal rift between them and Cardinals management has been healed, but Phil Rogers says the Reds might be interested in them; ex-Cardinal GM Walt Jocketty, of course, is now in charge in Cincinnati. Rogers also writes:The Brewers are telling teams they don't plan to trade Prince Fielder. They hope to get pitching back in trades for shortstop J.J. Hardy and possibly third base prospect Mat Gamel, a .302 hitter in five minor league systems who has been made expendable by the emergence of Casey McGehee, claimed on waivers from the Cubs last fall.
J.J. Hardy? Would the Brewers take Sean Marshall and maybe a pitching prospect for Hardy? I'd do that. Hardy had a down year and wound up in Triple-A for a while, but he is only 27 and just one year removed from a fine offensive season.
Complete info on today's playoff tripleheader after the jump.
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Milton Bradley For... Jeremy Bonderman?
Rob Neyer quotes a Detroit-area blogger who proposes such a deal. Bonderman's been pretty bad the last two years, but... maybe. Discuss.
about 15 hours ago
Al
27 comments
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The Case For Replay In Baseball: MLB Division Series Day 4 Preview, Saturday 10/10
by Al
on Oct 10, 2009 11:01 AM CDT
in Game Threads
254 comments
You either saw the fair ball hit by the Twins' Joe Mauer that was called foul by LF umpire Phil Cuzzi last night, or you've heard about it. The reason MLB has outfield umpires in the postseason -- something they don't do all year -- is to get calls like this right. Cuzzi blew it, and it might have cost the Twins the game, since Mauer would have been on second base (the ball bounced into the stands and would have been an automatic double) and the next two hitters singled. True, the Twins also blew a bases-loaded, nobody-out situation by not scoring, but they shouldn't have been in that position in the first place.
Yahoo's Jeff Passan writes about this today and makes what I think is exactly the right suggestion:
Take the cue from football. Use a red replay flag. Each team gets two per game. If the manager throws them too early, or misuses them, and can’t overturn a poor call later, it’s his mess. MLB likes to render decisions on home-run calls now in two or three minutes. One game’s replays, if all played, would consume 10 to 12 minutes – and might save time, too, presuming umpire-manager confrontations over blown calls would dip dramatically.
Back in July, a major league manager said this: "I’ve said all along that I want a red flag."
It was Ron Gardenhire. He manages the Twins. They had lost a brutal game, and he was tired of the lack of accountability. He wouldn’t bite on the replay question Friday. So instead, Gardenhire and the rest of the Twins unloaded on Cuzzi. His lone job as the left-field umpire – a position, along with right-field umpire, used only in the postseason – was to judge fair-foul calls down the line. Nothing more.
I couldn't agree more. For one thing, this would introduce more strategic decisions into the game, something that would enhance, not take away. Let's say a play like this happens in the second inning of a scoreless game. Does the manager throw one of his red flags then? Or save it for later? Good managers would learn how to manage their two challenges. It would virtually end the screaming matches we see when controversial calls are made, and eliminate the ejections and possible suspensions of players. Don't extend this to ball-and-strike calls, but anything else is fair game. Try it in spring training next year to see what happens. The existing replay system -- letting umpires look at disputed home runs -- has worked well. It could be decided later whether this would come under the "red flag" system or be separate.
But replay works well in the NFL and NHL and doesn't drag games out too long. Especially when the stakes are as high as they are in a postseason series, it's way past time to do it. (And especially when there were several blown calls in the Red Sox/Angels series, too.)
Complete info on today's games after the jump.
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Cardinals Get What They Deserve: MLB Division Series Day 3 Preview, Friday 10/9
by Al
on Oct 9, 2009 11:00 AM CDT
in Game Threads
467 comments
With no afternoon games today, I was going to wait and have today's Division Series preview post in the middle of the afternoon, a couple of hours before the Yankees and Twins take the field in New York at 5 pm CDT.
But then I saw (thanks to Jessica for posting it in last night's game thread) this astonishingly bad piece of "journalism" from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Bernie Miklasz, and I thought I'd get it posted right on the front page for you to see this morning. That's right, friends, it wasn't really Matt Holliday dropping a potentially game-ending fly ball in Dodger Stadium yesterday. No, it was all the Cubs' fault:
This October, the Dodgers have a chance to sweep the Cardinals, who have inexplicably turned into the Cubs, right before your disbelieving eyes. And that was unpredictable.
Do not adjust your HD TV sets at home, and do not throw any hard objects at those television screens: These aren't really the Cubs; they only look like it. They are the Cardinals, striking out and dropping balls and loitering on the bases and blowing saves and going all Leon Durham '84 on us in an epic meltdown.
Click here to see my reaction to this tripe. This is a man who has been paid (presumably) big money to write about sports for the biggest newspaper in St. Louis for 20 years, since 1989. And this is the best he can come up with when his team pulls an epic choke job? Take a swipe at the Cubs? No wonder newspapers and "traditional" journalists are vanishing from the face of the Earth so quickly.
I guess about the best thing you can say about something like that is that he was pandering to his audience. As for me, all I'll say to Cardinals fans is: "Welcome to the club. Now you know how it feels. Enjoy going home after Saturday's game."
Also, though the Angels beat the Red Sox 5-0 last night, the first postseason shutout in Angels history, I wonder how Angels fans feel having the play-by-play man on TBS for that series be the principal play-by-play guy for their opponent. Don Orsillo did his best to be neutral last night -- and he's probably the best of the four PBP guys doing the Division Series -- but he's the main PBP man on NESN for the Red Sox during the season. How did they make that selection?
The NL has the day off today; links for both AL series tonight after the jump.
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Home Teams Triumph On Day 1: MLB Division Series Day 2 Preview
by Al
on Oct 8, 2009 11:00 AM CDT
in Game Threads
504 comments
In case you didn't stay up late last night -- and the game went a ridiculous three hours and fifty-four minutes with the teams combining for thirty men left on base -- the Dodgers beat the Cardinals 5-3, taking a 1-0 lead in their division series matchup. The home teams won all three games yesterday; Cliff Lee's complete game, the first in the postseason since Josh Beckett threw one against the Angels on October 3, 2007, led the Phillies to a 5-1 win over the Rockies, and a tired Twins team couldn't keep up with the Yankees, who rode a big day from Derek Jeter to a 7-2 victory. The Yankees and Twins get the day off -- as the Yankees chose the division series that will have a ridiculous three off days -- and the Angels and Red Sox begin their series tonight.
Bruce Miles, following up on his post about Cubs hitters on Monday, today has a cogent analysis of all the 2009 Cubs pitchers. He's got Esmailin Caridad listed as a contender for next year's bullpen; I also like Justin Berg, who has a good arm and who issued only one walk in his 12 major league innings -- and it was in his ML debut appearance August 13 vs. the Phillies. Oddly enough, the walk went to a player who doesn't walk all that much -- Jimmy Rollins.
Some People Have Too Much Time On Their Hands Dept.: a 12-year-old girl who caught Ryan Howard's 200th career home run in July and gave it to him for some autographed memorabilia sued the team and got it back. The mind boggles.
The Cleveland Indians are narrowing down their list of potential managers. Bob Brenly is mentioned, but only in this sentence: "Former managers such as Bobby Valentine, Buck Showalter or Bob Brenly would likely demand more lucrative contracts than inexperienced candidates."
Speaking of Brenly, here's an existential question: did Brenly's presence on the telecast with Dick Stockton make Stockton better? Or did Stockton make Brenly worse? (I think I know the answer.)
Complete game listings for today's games after the jump.
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What Does MLB Do To Top Yesterday? Division Series Day 1 Preview
by Al
on Oct 7, 2009 11:15 AM CDT
in Game Threads
410 comments
If the postseason is half as exciting as yesterday's dramatic 12-inning Twins win over the Tigers in game 163 for both of them, we are in for quite an October.
Doesn't always work out that way, of course, but we can dream, can't we? Three of the four series begin today; the Red Sox and Angels will start their series tomorrow. It will be the fourth time in the last six seasons that those two will meet in the playoffs' first round; the Red Sox have won the three previous encounters, sweeping two of them and giving the Angels a single consolation game last year. The Angels posted a better regular season record than the Red Sox, but as we Cubs fans know, you can throw those records out the window once the postseason begins.
Meanwhile, the Twins would appear to be huge underdogs against the Yankees, who won 16 more regular season games than they did and who swept the Twins in their season series (7-0). But CC Sabathia has been bad in his last four postseason starts, posting a 9.47 ERA for Cleveland and Milwaukee the last two years, and if the Twins can steal one game in Yankee Stadium, they will return to a huge home-field advantage in the Metrodome. Don't count the Twins out.
In the National League, the two series seem more evenly matched; the four teams had 95 (Dodgers), 93 (Phillies), 92 (Rockies) and 91 (Cardinals) victories in the regular season. The Dodgers and Cardinals both had outstanding pitching this year; will all those games be decided by 1-0 scores? And any time you play games at Coors Field, anything can happen. By the time that series gets to Denver this weekend, it might be snowing there.
After the jump you'll find all the info you need to follow today's three games.
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Let's Pretend The Cubs Are In The Postseason! - Tigers vs. Twins Preview, Tuesday 10/6, 4:07 CT
by Al
on Oct 6, 2009 1:00 PM CDT
in Game Threads
452 comments
So what are we going to do around here for 181 days until the next Cubs regular season game? I figure many of you -- I know I am -- are interested in the postseason, and it begins today with the AL Central tiebreaker game between the Tigers and Twins in Minnesota. So I figured I'd post a game thread in the same format that I use for Cubs games. Below the fold you'll find the usual pitcher box, preview and links. Throughout the postseason I'll post game threads for those of you who want to discuss the playoffs -- though probably not with as much detail as this post.
The baseball punditocracy talks about today's game:
Rob Neyer @ ESPN: Twins all the way.
Tim Brown @ Yahoo: the Metrodome refuses to die.
Jon Paul Morosi @ FoxSports, who grew up in Michigan: history favors the Twins.
Chris DeLuca of the Chicago Sun-Times downplays the teams involved and instead whines that the White Sox should have been in it. Ugh.
From Detroit: Rick Porcello's brother talks about him.
From Minneapolis: Scott Baker is a big-game pitcher.
And finally, just to wrench this back somewhat on topic, here is Bruce Miles' analysis of the 2009 Cubs position players. Enjoy the game. My pick: the Twins; they're hot (16-4 in their last 20 games and 9-1 in their last 10 home games) and they always seem to know how to win the big ones -- notwithstanding their 1-0 loss in last year's tiebreaker with the White Sox.
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Soto To Work Out With Dempster
This is good news. Geo knows he needs to get in shape and he's going to come to Chicago in January to work out with one of his teammates with the best workout routines -- Ryan Dempster.
5 days ago
Al
49 comments
0 recs
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
St. Louis
|
91 | 71 | .561 | 0 | Lost 6 |
|
Chicago
|
83 | 78 | .515 | 7.5 | Lost 1 |
|
Milwaukee
|
80 | 82 | .493 | 11 | Won 3 |
|
Cincinnati
|
78 | 84 | .481 | 13 | Won 2 |
|
Houston
|
74 | 88 | .456 | 17 | Lost 3 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
62 | 99 | .385 | 28.5 | Lost 2 |
(updated 10.11.2009 at 10:10 AM CDT)
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