2004 ML Baseball Playoff Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Casey Trowbridg]

Yeah, what's up with that? I couldn't believe he was taking that stance. I wonder if he'll apply that rule to the 500 home run club, when in the next few years seemingly everyone and their brother will be apart of that group.

 

[Kevin Hewell]

Well, I went to the Braves game yesterday and it sucked that we lost, but I had a great time anyway. I also have tickets for today's game so here's hoping we have better luck today.

As far as Atlanta and attendence, I've always wondered if one of the problems is that most of the people who live in Atlanta are from other parts of the country. Most of the people I know here have their loyalties with other/their original home's teams. Add that with the fact we've been in 13 straight postseasons it's become old hat to everyone here.

The Braves do pull great attendence numbers for the season, year in, year out, though.

One great thing, also. The Georgia Bulldogs are undefeated and ranked number three in the nation. The Falcons have started out the season 4-0 and the Braves are again in the playoffs. I don't think I've seen this happen before. It's like the planets have alligned or something.

 

[Bryan Ri]

Great game in Atlanta, huge win for the Braves.

I know you must have loved that one, Casey.

 

[Steve_Tk]

YES!! I was about to write off the entire season, fun game to watch.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

The first 6 innings were nothing but frustrating for me, but the last few...they were pretty good.

I'm just glad we have a series...down 0-2 would've been a deathblow.

 

[Chris]

I loved that the Braves "continued under protest".. they were right to protest (IMHO) the overly long lag in the call to the bullpen was bullocks.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Just got back from the Braves game. It was brutal for those first 6 innings. The Braves could do nothing with Oswalt's curve ball (there's over 20 mph difference between his curve ball and fast ball), and it had the Braves batters off-balance. Plus the lack of hitting discipline by the Braves gave Oswalt some low pitch count innings.

Hampton didn't pitch badly, as the Astros only managed 4 hits, with the bullpen giving up no hits. The Braves squandered plenty of late inning chances to overcome the 2-run lead, but strange calls from the bench blew some scoring opportunities.

JD Drew was missing badly on his swings. What is up with him?

Couldn't believe Smoltz got a hit, that was great.

My save of the game goes to Furcal's lawyer for keeping him out of jail long enough to play in the playoffs.

Official attendance was 40,075. Sad, I know.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

It doesn't look like the Dodgers are going to take game 2 in St. Louis. I think the Dodgers are pretty much done, they could even get swept...assuming they don't make a great comeback to win this game.

I give the Angels a better shot of coming back from 0-2 than i would the Dodgers.

 

[Bryan Ri]

Sign me up for that analysis as well.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

About the only thing that would make me reconsider that statement, is the Cardinals starting pitching...it is definitely not Pedro and Schilling.

But, I think the Angels have more of a balance than do the Dodgers, and are thus probably more likely to take advantages of Boston's weaknesses than L.A. is to take advantages of ST. Louis'.

 

[Bryan Ri]

Based on Pedro's last month of baseball, how good are his chances of having two quality starts in a row against the likes of the Angels?

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Bryan, you are right, but the counter to that assessment would be that Pedro only becomes a factor if the Angels get by Schilling, which is not an easy thing to do. Of course, truth be told, and perhaps this is partially magnified by the fact they're playing St. Louis, but I view the Dodgers as the weakest of the 8 teams in the field. Its not that I think that they don't deserve to be where they are, because they absolutely do, but outside of Gagne and Beltre what do they have? I freely admit that I saw very little of the Dodgers this year and so I could be missing something. I just rank them last of the 8 because anything I see them strong at, I see another team in the field stronger in that same area.

 

[Shane Martin]

Umm Steve Finley? and the best defensive infield in baseball? Shawn Green has been off all year but he finally put together a decent season. He could be alot better though.

Pitching wise, you are correct in saying they are nothing special. But noone can ignore their 50+ comeback victories this year. That requires a team effort.

That said they are overmatched against St Louis' offense. I don't quite know that any other National League team can keep up with them. I do think however that the Red Sox could keep up with them both offensively and pitching. Minnesota could do it as well but they would have to get masterful pitching performances throughout and I don't think they have the Offense to do it. The Angels don't have the pitching IMHO and neither does NY.

I guess its too late to change my "vote" to a Boston/St Louis WS..

 

[Todd Terwilliger]

Nice win for the Braves last night. Unfortunately, I had to work so I couldn't see the game. I hated that they got to Lidge but I still feel good about the split in Atlanta.

 

[Jan H]

Casey, the Dodgers are losing to a better team but you're definitely missing something. They may be the 'weakest' team, as you say, but the Cardinals can make any team look bad. The Dodgers' starters have been shaky, which is the reason why they didn't win the West in a walk (and why they'll almost certainly lose this series). But I'd take their lineup, their defense, and their bullpen any day over the Braves, who play in the crappy Leastern Division. For the record, I like the Red Sox to beat the Cardinals in 7 in the World Series. I think it's finally Beantown's year.

 

[Bryan Ri]

Well put, we'll have to see what happens today.

Not to put down the Cardinals accomplishments in any way, but they benefited tremendously from a very inconsistent NL Central. They were probably the only consistent team in there.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Um... If the Angels get past Schilling, they'll have won the series 3-2. I'm pretty sure that Boston is going with a four-man rotation during the postseason as opposed to three.

That said, I'd really rather not see Wakefield until game 4 of the ALCS; that's just a scare roller-coaster ride. And it goes without saying that I don't want to see Derek Lowe again until next year when the Tigers or Orioles have overpaid for his services and he comes to Fenway to get his ass kicked.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Jan, I freely admitted that one of my reasons for calling L.A. the weakest team in the field, was probably at least magnified if not partially based on the fact that they're playing the Cardinals. As far as the defensive in field goes, they can be hamstrung if not completely nutralized by bad pitching.

Jason, I guess that I didn't know they were going with a 4 man rotation in round 1, although I still think that were they going to use a 3 man rotation the argument would still be quite valid.

 

[Jason Seaver]

I think they would have used Schilling on three day's rest if they had had to use Arroyo out of the pen during the first two games (that the Sox were considering that may mean they trust Derek Lowe about as much as I do); of course, if that were to have happened, there would be more need to move Schilling and Pedro up, because they probably would have lost one of those games. Now, why not go with Arroyo and Wakefield so that you can maximize the use of the big guns in the ALCS?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Jason,

Wakefield has already been named the starter in game 4 if it gets there (not looking too good for the Halos right now).