2023 Post Season

[Sea Dog 23]

What a game by Nathan.  I think he gave three hits and five walks.  But he was clutch.  And the DBacks just could not string together hits.  You could see it in their faces from the first inning that they knew it was coming to a bad ending for a team that bounced the Dodgers and the Phils.  Baseball is really a brutal sport that will crash your dreams.

[MongoLikeSox]

The home field disadvantage has shown up quite a lot of the past 5 or so years. Maybe I didn't notice it so much until the Cardinals put up a 9-spot in the first inning against the Braves in Atlanta in a deciding game.

This...

Credit to Rangers for spending the$500mil for Simeon and Seager.  That was money well spent.  Of course the Padres and Mets tried that, but all those big contracts came up empty.  Timing is everything.

plus this...

The Rangers are known for their big hitters and big innings from those hits.  And they don't chase pitches. 

= Rangers win the World Series in 5.

I loved the compare or Rangers & Padres. The Rangers had a complete lineup surrounding the two big signings. The Padres have half a lineup, and that's with Soto walking 132 times. The worst Ranger Starter Batting Average was .245. Any given night, the Padres sent up 4 or 5 hitters with batting average much lower than the Rangers' worst starter's BA. The Padres had 6 batters combine for 4 full seasons worth of AB's with a .195 BA. That's so bad that the Padres and their #2 team ERA could not make it to the Playoffs. It's astonishing that there is a supposed mystery surrounding the Padres bad season. 4 studs and 5 Yu Changs ain't gonna cut it.

[longgame]

Kudos to the Rangers who totally dominated this series.  Also, great job by Eovaldi.  Why can’t we get guys like that? They had a good mix on that team with rookies Carter and Jung really showing up.  Just a well balanced team that seemed to get production everywhere.

The best news is these last couple of games were an ode to starting pitching.  After the disastrous bullpen game you get two great starts.  Take notice MLB teams.  If you can’t field 4 starters you’re probably in trouble.

More interesting info about the Padres - they’re going broke.  THey’re really stuck now and may need to make some fire sales already.

[elktonnick]

In hindsight failure to resign Eovaldi is right up there with trading Betts as the two biggest blunders of the  Bloom era.

[SeaBeachFred]

What a game by Nathan.  I think he gave three hits and five walks.  But he was clutch.  And the DBacks just could not string together hits.  You could see it in their faces from the first inning that they knew it was coming to a bad ending for a team that bounced the Dodgers and the Phils.  Baseball is really a brutal sport that will crash your dreams.

Sea Dog, the D'Backs have nobody to blame but themselves for their constant choking at the plate during last night's game.   Time and again they came up with men on base and time and again they simply gagged and choked their way to defeat after their ace pitcher threw a no hitter until the sixth or seventh inning. As for Nathan, another reason we should get a rope for Bloom for refusing to resign him and Wacha, both of whom had solid years for their new teams while Bloom's additions stunk up the joint.  Still I give Arizona credit for dumping the Brewers, Dodgers and Phillies until they apparently ran out of gas.  Now it is time for the Red Sox to get off their asses and start building back up to a contender.  Three last place finishes in the past four years might be fine for those disgusting pink hats who seem to now pollute the stands for us but it is not acceptable for us die hard fans who have pretty much suffered from the time Cora put the team through that candy ass Spring Training din 2019 until the present time. Time to start getting our team back to where they belong......right in the heart of a pennant race.

[SeaBeachFred]

The home field disadvantage has shown up quite a lot of the past 5 or so years. Maybe I didn't notice it so much until the Cardinals put up a 9-spot in the first inning against the Braves in Atlanta in a deciding game.

This...

Credit to Rangers for spending the$500mil for Simeon and Seager.  That was money well spent.  Of course the Padres and Mets tried that, but all those big contracts came up empty.  Timing is everything.

plus this...

The Rangers are known for their big hitters and big innings from those hits.  And they don't chase pitches. 

= Rangers win the World Series in 5.

I loved the compare or Rangers & Padres. The Rangers had a complete lineup surrounding the two big signings. The Padres have half a lineup, and that's with Soto walking 132 times. The worst Ranger Starter Batting Average was .245. Any given night, the Padres sent up 4 or 5 hitters with batting average much lower than the Rangers' worst starter's BA. The Padres had 6 batters combine for 4 full seasons worth of AB's with a .195 BA. That's so bad that the Padres and their #2 team ERA could not make it to the Playoffs. It's astonishing that there is a supposed mystery surrounding the Padres bad season. 4 studs and 5 Yu Changs ain't gonna cut it.

Right on with that Mongo.  The bottom half of the Padres lineup simply stunk to high heaven and if Preller thinks he can get away with having those four stiffs in the lineup he can also plan on a quick fall once again next season.  But that the Padre GM's problem.  We have problems of our own with miserable leadership in our own front office.

[Sea Dog 23]

The Padres have all kinds of problems.  A few weeks ago they requested  a $100mil loan to help pay their millionaire players.  MLB approved about half of that loan to be done.  That's on top of getting a team record 3.1 million tickets sold. Also their owner just had a serious medical procedure.

[longgame]

As predicted the teams in the WS were not a draw. Apparently it had the lowest TV ratings ever for a World Series.  I watched a bit but wasn't glued to the TV either. 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38804549/world-series-was-least-watched-fall-classic-tv-history

[MongoLikeSox]

I'm not sure I had ever heard a broadcast team so verbally work up the WS like this one did. It was OK. Got off to a great start, but a couple bombs later and the Rangers were on the brink. I watched much more Celtics and 'Canes than the World Series when schedules conflicted. Even watched a somewhat traditional Halloween movie instead of the first half of the game on Tuesday.   

I forgot to say it earlier, but another congratulations to Eovaldi for showing once again that he is a complete bass-a$$ stud of a pitcher in the post season.

[elktonnick]

The networks have lost their ability to televise baseball properly.  The announcers were boring.  Smotlz may have been a great pitcher but he is a snooze as an analyst. He never stops talking.  Years ago the networks used to have the teams regular play by play game announcers do the games.  It produced s better broadcast.

[Sea Dog 23]

I watched one of the games with a split screen of the game and three baseball guys doing the analysis - Pujols, Nestor Cortez and Pedro.  Pujols was doing a pretty good job of how the players were batting and fielding.  Then Cortez seemed to get off track and one time, he was talking long stretches about his youth days of playing in Miami.  WTF?   Even Pedro was side tracked at times. 

I guess they got bored with the game themselves and tried to entertain the viewers with their  idle chatter.