Last night proved why it is a discipline to be a real sports fan.
The Yanks were up by 7, Boston was up by 1 and in a rain delay, and the Braves just lost thier lead and tied and went into extra innings. I thought, nah, not going to happen, I"m going to bed. Only to wake up, and catch Quick Pitch to see that the unthinkable became a reality yet again in the world of baseball. What a finish to the season!!!
The dual collapse of the Braves and the Sox will be pretty hard to top.
My guess is, Crawford is cut and Francona resigns.
Is it possible that the playoffs will match the drama leading up to them??
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ALDS: I am not surprised who Girardi selected to be the starter and #2 (CC & Nova) I am though a little surprised that he selected Garcia to be the #3.
I think these playoffs are going to be tough. The Rangers finishing the season 9-1, the Tigers with Verlander and Cabrera - this is an uphill battle for sure.
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Do Stats matter?? The Don Mattingly led Dodgers missed the playoffs and barely finished above .500 despite having the pitcher equivielnet of the triple crown in Clayton Kershaw (21-5, 248 SOs) and having a very close real triple crown winner in Matt Kemp (.324, 38 HRs, and 124 RBIs). Hard to believe.
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Anyway - with milestones being met, the Yanks winning the division, and a historic September of drama - 2011 was a great overall regular season.
. .. now the real season begins!
9 comments:
Epic night in baseball last night. I think the Detroit series will be tough, but if they can work Verlander, which they did in his starts this year, they will win the series and move on to the ALCS.
I went back to March 29th to see what we were predicting for the season, some good ones were there, others not so much:
Mid you said the Reds would not repeat in the Central (good call), you said triple crown would happen in the NL (very close) just not Pujols. And you said Baltimore could be the biggest surprise. I think you had that right too, probably not in the way it was intended though.
While I said this: "Biggest disappointment is a TIE: Phillies and Red Sox. Phillies have too many holes in the lineup without Werth and Utley (out at least June/July, maybe longer). Red Sox pitching isn't good and their offense isn't really that much improved over last year." So I was off on the Phillies a little bit, but the Red Sox was spot on. I also predicted the Brewers winning the Central, but after that I was way off too.
Old Prof you need to turn in your fan membership card as you predicted: if A-Rod goes down the Yankees will finish fourth, Yankees win the wild card but not the series, and Boston takes the East.
Fan card went in the shredder. It is odd how the game turned last night. Girardi gave a lot of individuals the opportunity to get into a meaningless game (at least for NY). Betances showed some real promise (after he slowed down in the first). Too bad they didn't let him go a little further into the game. AJ should have been allowed to audition more than five pitches (my guess he makes the roster and Hughes doesn't - if Hughes does, Colon doesn't).
Garcia deserves the number three slot. He has been the most consistent member of the rotation. Twenty twenty hindsight who would have given him 12 wins this season. He may have earned another contract with the team - if he wins in the post season, he will be back.
Better for the Yankees going against Detroit than Texas. Maybe it is a pipe dream, but I see the team handling the Tigers rotation with the Verlander game being the closest. Yankees in six.
Rays' luck runs out against Texas.
IN the NL don't count out the D-Backs
I think both ALDS are toss ups
On some of my calls from March - I"m going to repeat a few:
1) Baltimore based on the way they started and ended this season will be biggest surprise and be a contender next season
2) and the Nats are going to clean it up next season - Strasburg, Wang, and Zimmerman will be a solid rotation not to mention the Natural will be ready for the bigs.
3)My 2012 biggest bust will be the Sox - this collapse will set the franchise back to a pre-2004 type mentality in my opinion.
Mid, your completely out of your skull with some of the predictions for next season. (a) Baltimore will not be able to attract the needed parts to be competitive. Their starting rotation was a disaster this year. They will also have to replace their DH. There is also talk that Buck will become the GM and leave the managers position this is not necessarily a real good move.
The Nationals do have a good nucleus of players which will include Harper on the Major League 25 man roster next year. But they are still a work in progress. Expect them to finish second in the division and be significantly above 500. No one in the NL East will be able to challenge Philadelphia.
Boston will have a lot of holes to fill for next year. Dice-K is done. Lackey is not worth the contract he has, Bedard will be going back to Seattle where he was comfortable, Papelbon will test free agency, the team is unsettled at catcher and they will have to find a solid rightfielder. Other questions they have to figure out is (a) how will they be able to sign top free agents with the Crawford, Gonzalez and Lackey contracts hangiing over their heads? (This is why I thiink they may have some trouble signing Papelbon and as they found out Baird is not going to be the closer of the future. And the biggest question what happens if Francona is fired?
Francona is the biggest question. He won't be fired, his contract is actually up, there are 2 one year team options that the Red Sox will most likely not pick up. It's an ownership call not a Theo's call. I personally think it is the biggest mistake, knee-jerk reaction the Sox could make. This decision if Francona leaves will hurt the franchise more than a Lackey or Crawford contract ever could. Bad move, bad decision making by Boston if they let Francona go. If Girardi's contract was up I would say bring Francona to NY.
Actually I think the Sox have a press conference scheduled for right about now to discuss Francona. Early reports are if Francona becomes available he's headed to the White Sox.
Several reports have Francona not returning to Sox. I saw SI.com and MSNBC stating that he was fired, saw another saying it was Francona's decision. ESPN is playing safe and not committing one way or the other yet. Boston has 10 days to pickup Francona's option for next year. NY Post is even saying Joe Torre and Bobby Valentine "are being mentioned" as possible replacements. Give me a break...Valentine might, but Torre would never do that.
Kind of disappointing to see that Yankee Stadium has not sold out any of the playoff games yet. Real good seats still available for all ALDS and ALCS. Everything from field level to grandstand seating. Old Prof for $400 each we could be 4 rows off the field tonight.
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