MLB Playoffs, who ya got

I was concerned how the run defense would hold up with Jerod Mayo out for the season and having a short prep week. Whoops, wrong screen. I'm surprised how many homers the Cards and Royals hit in the post season compared to the regular season. But for the Giants and Isahikawa winning a big game on a walk off is every little kid's dream come true. Talk about a bit player stepping up!

Indeed, Ishikawa is a great story and it warms my heart when I see event like that (he had gone 242 plate appearances without a homer).  It kind of make that long trek worth it.

 

Actually, three great things, not only Ishikawa and Panik but also Michael Morse.  

 

I chuckled at Bochy's comment after the game on his anology of his team being like cockroaches where you take care of of some but there's other's that come in behind and do the job.

 

As a lifelong Giants fan, I'm feeling really good right now.  Who would'a thought the wild card teams would be the one to make it to The Series. 

 

PS:  The Cardinals are a great team and a great organization too. . . very classy manager!

 

Great points.  I don't get to see much of the Giants but all I can say is wow.  They beat a great team and I must say, their fans are unbelievable.  KC and Giants ought to be a great series.

Wainwright was fantastic last night! Bumgarner was good too. Bullpen couldn't hold for the Cards. Congrats to the Giants.

Now that my team is out, I will be rooting for the Giants in the WS.. Go Luck to Belt and Bumgarner & crew.

While I'm a long-suffering Royals fan, there is also something I don't necessarily like in seeing two Wildcard teams that didn't win their division playing for the championship. Just call me old school. I didn't much like it when they added the first wc in '94.

Wish Molina could have played. He brings so much to their team as far as smarts, leadership and clutch hitting. 

Pretty good catcher also. LOL!

 

Should be a great series.

 

Well of course.  And the Giants wish they had Scutaro, Cain, and Pagan. Part of the the game. At least they got Morse back!  It'll be interesting to see if he's healthy enough to play full time in the series, and if so, if Boch puts him back in LF over Ishikawa when they get back to SF.   I'm guessing that Ishikawa plays the field and Morse is DH for the AL games.  

 

As for the World Series...  When the Giants played Pittsburg I thought Bum gave them a good chance on the road against a hotter team. But against both the Nats and the Cards, I didn't expect  the Giants to move on.  Now I'm thinking that I like the matchup against KC,  I like the Giants' luck, momentum, and determination,  and I like the fact that KC is spending a whole week off after being so hot.  So the fact that I'm feeling good about their chances must mean trouble is ahead. 

Oh, and BTW, now that we'll have a new MLB commissioner can we get rid of this incredibly stupid system of determining home field advantage for the World Series?  There is no perfect solution, but a coin flip or Roshambo would be better. 

 

(of course that brings up the issue of AL vs. NL rules, which is even stickier but could lead to an interesting discussion)

I don't want to miss out on the opportunity to point how much we here in the HSBBW baseball community suck at prognosticating (self included).  Across all of the first 1 1/2 pages of this thread, nobody had SF and KC.

 

Yeah, but look what the people who get paid to prognosticate said:

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoff...redicting-postseason

 

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoff...ats-win-world-series.

I'm just so happy for Buster.  I'm sure there are a lot of great guys on both teams, I just don't know them. I had the pleasure of watching Buster grow up. What a GREAT person. As good a player as he is, he is a better person. What you see on TV is real. The only thing he never accomplished in high school or college was a championship. I'm sure he would tell you it was worth the wait. Potentially 3 rings in his short 5 year career. That's just crazy!!

What an exciting time for Giants & Royals fans. I know the old school guys don't like wild card teams getting in, but let's face it, tough road to get to the WS and thy did it.

 

A couple of months ago Mrs. PO & I moved to San Francisco. Our condo faces the back side of AT&T, just across from McCovey Cove. We have a full view of the entire park. The last couple of weeks have been really exciting. Each game the fans are getting louder and louder. We've managed to get to a NLDS game and gotten into the free section out in right field under the arches several times. Last nightbwe decided to watch from home and just listen to the buzz at the stadium. There is a 8-10 second delay on TV so we try not to cheat and listen to the fan noise. For those of you that have been to AT&T know about the water canyons going off when a Giants HR Is hit. Hard not look when Morse tied the game. Fast forward to the button of the ninth, I'm watching the tv and wife is looking out the windows, Ishikawa comes the plate and wife screams HR, cannons go off, I look at the tv and there it goes. The fans go crazy, fireworks everywhere and Giants win. 

It was pretty cool. Giant fans are incredible, the orginazation is second to none nd the players are special. Bochy's cockroach Reference was my favorite. JMHO!

 

Go Giants!

 

 

Thanks JCG.  You've given me a little bit of self-respect back.

 

 

Good articles.
I am pretty much a wild card fan.  The best record in baseball at end of season is determined by so many variables that who is hot toward the end should be one consideration.  I do believe in a 3 game playoff though thats tough on pitching.

Bochy's cockroach comment just goes to show how loose he must be at this time of year and that always makes a team more relaxed.

This has been IMO a great season in baseball. Its been nice to see so many teams evenly matched.  But its obvious only a few are built for this time of year.
Proving once again you do not need to spend more than you have to.
So as NL fan...Go Giants.

The teams that don't spend money come and go. The teams that do spend money tend to compete year after year. Even when they have down years they come back quickly.

 

The exception has been the Cardinals. They scout and draft exceptionally well. They also have the benefit of being in a division of inconsistent teams that don't spend. It will be interesting to see how the Cards compete if Theo Epstein is really building something in Chicago and then starts spending a lot of money.

Well, first pitch o' The Series coming up here in a few.  The LA Times baseball writers did their analysis in today's paper, and picked KC in four games.........  I don't see that at all.  I think it will be a heck of a series, hard to pick a team - I think it will go 6 games minimum.  I think some of KC's momentum will be stalled with the layoff. KC had some important home runs in ALDS/ALCS, will that continue?

 

I'm going with Giants in 7, but a tight series of games

i don't see KC either

Giants in 6

All four Fox guys picked KC, did I mention they are all AL guys!

 

Go Giants!

Giants got experience. Will be interesting to see how that works.

The key for the Giants will be how they play in the first six innings. It used to be said Rivera turned baseball games into eight inning games. The KC bullpen has turned them into six inning games.

Might see that bullpen soon!

Wonder if those 4 fox guys changed their minds?

Oh the humanity!  That was brutal as a baseball fan.   At one point, I woke up in my recliner and noticed my wife had fallen asleep reading her book & watching the game, my youngest & oldest sons had fallen asleep on the couch watching the game.  The whole family had crashed watching the World Series.  It an only get better. 

 

Possibly all of America got a good night sleep last night except the Giants and Royals fans?

Giants' fan here.  Fenway, I would agree with you in terms of "drama" or lack thereof, but I would hope most baseball fans would enjoy or at least appreciate what Bumgarner did last night and what he has done this and every prior postseason.  Also, I have a special rooting interest for Hunter Strickland, so it was worth the wait to see how he made Lorenzo Cain (who had, by far, the best ABs against Bumgarner) look silly in the ninth. Even though last night's game was on the road, I consider winning that game was a "holding serve" for the Giants, tonight is big game.  Go Peavy! Go Giants!   

Considering that a game one win negates home field advantage, and  the stat put up last night -- game one winner has one 10 of the last 11 Series -- I think last night's win was more than holding serve. But I get your point - losing last night behind MadBum would have been devastating for the Giants' chances. 

 

Folks will be talking about MadBum's postseason run for a long time, and rightfully so. He is a beast. But I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when Fox interviewed him. The country boy blase attitude was great... but the keeping the lipper and spitting every 5  seconds?   C'mon.  Even Earl Weaver would put the Pall Mall away before he went on camera.  I think if I was the interviewer I'd have to ask, "So Tony Gwynn...  That really sucks, eh?"

 

And yeah, tonight is big, especially for KC. The series is over if they lose. If they win, the Giants could easily get poor starts from Hudson and Voglesong, and they we'd be back to square one. 

Really fenwaysouth,

 

I respect your opinion, and love reading your posts....but sleeping?

What MadBum did last night and the last 36 postseason innings is special, and let's not forget he's 25 years old and is working on his chance at a third ring. I get it, I'm a Giants fan so I'll continue to watch. But years from now, people are going to look back and say, wait, he did what in the postseason at age 25 (3-1, 38.2IP, 33K's, 1.40ERA, & 0.72WHIP). Just saying!

Hopeully, you didn't miss the Mo'ne Davis ad. NCAA said they won't punish for the commercial. Finally, the NCAA did something right! 

 

Its all good! Go Giants!

Sorry PO.  I absolutely respect MadBum's effort and results.  It is historical, and I don't mean to take anything way from his efforts or the Giants, but they made that contest so one-sided I think I lost interest in Game one.  Typically, I like pitching duels but this one was over quickly. 

 

Plus Joe Buck has a verbal droning effect on my auditory system that slowly was putting me to sleep.  I wasn't his only victim in my family.  Possibly this "Buck weapon" could be harnessed and used in the global war on terror, North Korea or China.  But I digress......   I did much better last night as I forced my eyeballs to stay open way past my bedtime.

 

 

 

Two nights, two games not worth bothering to watch until the end. This series already has the lowest ratings for a World Series. I can't imagine it will get better after these two games. It's too bad after all the great finishes there have been up to this point.

I think that half the excitement is getting there.

I also think that most of these players are running on fumes.

The season is WAY too long.  

If they want more excitement and better ratings for the October Classic, shorten the season.

JMO

Wow RJM! Have you been paying attention. Great starting pitchers, incredible pens and guys throwing 95-100 mph.

I do agree that the season is to long. WS should be ending at the beginning of October. 

Two nights, two games not worth bothering to watch until the end.

 

Wow RJM! Have you been paying attention.

 

Have I been paying attention? 7-1 and 7-2 games decided by the 6th inning are not exciting baseball. Take off your rose colored San Francisco Giants glasses.

Hahaha! I can see clearly now, darn glasses!  

Last night was much better. I came home and tuned in just in time to see Herrera and Pence duel in the 7th inning. The last three innings was much better than the 41-7 high school football game I attended.

TV viewing is down, but it has nothing to do with being boring. Baseball is baseball, you got games that are sleepers and some that are nail biters.  

 

It also, IMO because most people tune in to watch the stars, and one team playing has no stars for the casual fan.  If you love baseball, then you are watching, but if you prefer other stuff like football and zombies you are not.

 

 

TPM, you have a good point about the season being to long, I agree. I have always thought going back to 154 games makes a lot of sense. You can slash 1 to

2 weeks off regular season. And with the 2 wild card teams you do not really lose much, after all their are playoffs and not just a pennant winner as when 154 was the number.

Why are we celebrating a LLer at the World Series?

They need to put Pence's sox in the HOF.

RJM,

 

Because she a girl that throws 70 mph. 

 

By the way, I pulled out my Giants rose colored glasses and I'm going to game 5 today. I sure hope that Bumgardner dominates and it a boring game!

At first I thought that Bochy made a mistake not throwing MB, turns out he went with the right decision.  The lack of experience from the Royals in this type of situation certainly took its toll.  

I think it is a wonderful honor to be able to pitch in the CWS and the WS all in one year, but the long and the short of it,  the pitcher lacked the experience that it takes others years to gain and even then it can be a battle (Vogelsong) this time of year.  It will be interesting to see how the player does next season.  

The game was far from boring, but after awhile I couldnt watch anymore, I always have a soft spot in my heart for struggling pitchers.

Fennigan is truly a great pitcher and up until that point he has been lights out. I just think that the Giants backs were up against a wall and they had to get it done. That is the experience factor. I too have a soft spot for struggling pitchers. If you have a son that pitches, you know that they will all have bad days. Always hard to watch! Go Giants!