tmwiese55

I think the issue bringing Houston over them is that Sale has been hurt and Price not so good. So all of a sudden Boston's pitching doesn't look like it did while getting those 108 wins. Whereas houston basically had pieces of their offense hurt all year, but now all are back while still having the best starting P of the 3 teams. Of course there's no right answer here, but I guess I could swing back the other way if Sale pitches like himself in his next 3 starts before the WS.

Offensive lineups sure that's probably true. But Hous has clearly the best pitching of those 3 teams. And though I know as you've pointed out the Astros hitters have underperformed this year, come crunch time in the playoffs I still think they're closer to the hitters they've been in recent years than their stats this year. I think Houston is the team I'd least like to see, but yea they're all very good. Assume Cle is out then I'm picking Yanks as my preferred team. Note too on if they play NYY. Yanks still get home field in spite of being the WC. Kind of odd that it applies to WS but not NLCS. As in, the Cubs would not have gotten home field in the NLCS had they beat Col then us.

UW football is at night on Saturday so it's actually convenient to be the day game that day. Plus if you're coming from out of town you get home at a descent how.

Have to remember the Dodgers are lefty pitching heavy though so that leads to Schoop being on the roster. I generally agree that adding one more P seems needed. If you want Broxton's D and Santana's bat then maybe it's Granderson who's out?

I don't see the fuss over letting Jeffress finish. You had to PH and it's not like anyone in the pen is a bad P to kind of waste since the roster limits now. I wouldn't put walk prone Freddy in. Just get it over with. you have 4 days off after this.

The logic would be that Chacin only threw 75ish pitches last game so they might not feel it's like a normal 'short rest' because of that, beyond that I think the largest reason is that if he pitches this game he'll be at full rest for game 5. More reasons would be Miley is ground ball pitcher, so if you're going to give him a start you might as well do it at Coors. Peralta being such a fastball pitcher also logically makes sense to give him his start in Col. So here we are. You can disagree but I think those are a lot of reason that do make sense.

Miley is a terrible matchup for the Rockies' lineup. They have solid long relief options like Guerra and Burnes. It's fine. The only things I'm worried about are keeping two veteran LHP starters as relievers and using Chacin on 3 days rest. I give Chacin the benefit of the doubt and you're kind of stuck there because you want to use him before you go to Coors, but keeping Gio, Miley, and a 14th hitter is a big gamble. While I get that, he is also a very good fit for Coors field due to the ground balls. So kind of combatting info to deal with in the decision process. With Chacin going tomorrow along with them knowing they probably are going to need some 4-5 inning appearances at some point, I'm guessing they're going to go with Miley to start (or be the longest use P even if he's second up) and hope he can get a bunch of grounders. Then guess Peralta as the 'starter' in the other Coors game. This evolution of starting pitching is going to be interesting the next few years. Another thing to note generally in regards to the thoughts of 'this could really blow up in Counsel's face, he's overthinking,' etc type of views and that he'll get crucified if it doesn't work. Well, that's really only the case because it's forward thinking. How would giving up 5 runs in 4 innings with this strategy be any different than if he started a normal starter who did the same thing. The only difference is that's the way it's always been, generally speaking just because something hasn't been done before isn't a reason not to do it. And a manger shouldn't avoid doing something just to eliminate chances of himself being criticized. Think of the Marcum example, wouldn't it have been to think outside the box instead of trotting him out there in the 2011 playoffs when he was done.

Last call had to be Cedeno or Broxton. They just valued that late game D in potential huge outfield in COL along with maybe needing a crucial SB over the lefty specialist. Maybe they'll use Gio/Miley as needed in an inning that has Dahl and Gonzo due up to alleviate it that issue a bit

Note on Chacin too is that he only through like 78 pitches on Monday. so he was a short start before the short rest. And really you're probbably only shooting for 5 innings and 80ish pitches anyway. Another thing we'll have to get used to in this starting pitching evolution.

Gonzalez too. not what he was, but still had an 828 OPS vs righties this year. And he's a drastic split guy where facing a lefty cuts him down drastically

Since Lyles was mentioned, I remembered he had an awesome game of a near no hitter earlier this year and I thought it was vs COL. I looked it up and I was right, 1 hitter in 7 and 1/3. It was his 2nd start of the year. Also, CBS has Woodruff listed as the 'starter' as of now. IDK how accurate that is

It is beyond clear that the stat cast guys who don't have a lot of experience announcing were by far better than anyone else at it. Kind of sad really just how knowing baseball and not just spitting out every cliche you ever heard makes the game so much more enjoyable. Funny you mention that, kicking myself for missing that. I saw it on both channels but assumed it was just Spanish until someone pointed it out to me in like the 9th inning and how great it was, by then I had my contacts out so couldn't see the stuff though. I think Perez was announcing though (I think he did our cubs game) and he's horrible. I actually like Vasgersion (probably slight lean to BA over him but kind of a tossup) and have no major complaint on Arod either so I never really went away. For 'national' guys Matty or Costas are the best guys, blows my mind they continue giving the WS to Joe Buck because of his dad. I guess my comment probably should be more directed our Cubs announcers and other national games in general, like whoever it was announcing the Cubs/Cards game on Saturday, both guys were terrible. It was a former Cubs pitcher and the chunky ESPN guy with glasses who's on a lot, I guess I shouldn't call him terrible since he's probably being held down by such a brutal color guy.

For those that sometimes like to pick on Brian Anderson. After having the pleasure of watching full games the last two days with national announcers (assuming most watched Cubs game too), is it not clear that Anderson is better than all of them?

I don't think I've seen it here yet, apologies if I missed it, but Story has crushed the Brewers this year. 7 HRs, 18 RBI and a 1.609 OPS. As I noted in a thread yesterday, I really thought the Cubs were a better on paper matchup for us but still glad to just have them gone as I really have no beef with the Rox and would root for them if they beat us. This should be a heck of a series.

IDK, I'd much rather get nostalgic with the Bill Halls, Prince's, Harts, Weeks, etc type guys if they're going to do stuff like that.

Guys they're not going to start Broxton in a playoff game over one of Cain, Yelich, Braun. If he's on the roster, sure pinch run or late game D replacement but he's not going to start barring injury. It's not like any of the 3 starters are liabilities on D like a Thames would be.

I get your point, confidence is a good thing. Rodgers saying he thinks we can run the table is a bit different than what Baez is saying here. Yea I think after plenty of losses Rodgers has used the phrase best team didn't win, think the Seattle game. He's just one example though, it's a common phrase by lots of athletes and Baez saying it is just like everyone else doing it. It's not rare IMO. Usually it's best just to keep your mouth shut, but he's not the first to say stuff like this.

I agree that giving home field to the team that wins interleague would be better than the old way of using the ASG. However, the AL goes into it with a clear advantage every year since they build their teams planning on a DH. Whereas the NL team will be using a bench guy for that day in most cases. I'd guess the AL has won this more times than the NL. And keep in mind this is an advantage in the WS every year too. It's time to just end the pitchers hitting already.

I have no problem with him thinking that way, heck all guys should think that way really. He shouldn't go home and say 'welp turns out they're better than us'. I just chuckle at the hypocrisy that you're the one running your mouth all the while saying its the other guys running theirs. Pot/kettle, etc. Besides that, generally speaking one shouldn't be tone deaf enough to publicly say this the day after losing but it's not uncommon at all for athletes to say the 'better team didn't win today' and that's basically all he's doing. I think Rodgers says it all the time.

He must be talking about Tagging.

Also, it's just historical tendencies to value RBI so much. First, the HR and RBI go hand in hand so they're a bit redundant. Second, why does the RBI matter so much but Runs scored doesn't and is never talked about. They're both a product of the people around you. Yelich had him on Rs the whole year because he batted higher in the lineup. Really all Baez had on him is playing a position that rarely provides good offense and that he didn't miss 10 games on the DL like Yelich did.

Surprised they did this unless there some butting heads with management going on. Based on the rosters he's had he's done fine. Slight disappointment this year but somewhat not his fault with the starting pitchers they acquired not doing so hot. And it's not like they're all of a sudden going to be contenders so why not give him another year instead of paying two managers. Personally I've been for letting our hitting coach go after this year so he'd be a clear target as a replacement if he's up for it, but I strongly doubt he'd be interested.

Well that's ok. An hour later than we were thinking on Thursday and avoided that noon game Friday. Glad to see some flex from them and not sticking to some NL/AL rules.

Keep in mind that everyone thought it was insane years ago that there was so many off days in playoff baseball in order to cater to TV, leading to AZ being able to play the whole playoffs with 3 starters. This is the tradeoff of massively reducing that issue. At some point you're going to have all the games on the same day and obviously they want to reduce the overlap on TV as much as they can.

Expecting the Cubs, no way Schoop wouldn't make it due to lefty starters. I think keeping Broxton, Grandy, Santana is too many OFs and would give that spot to Guerra. I think you have to plan on 4 starters the way the schedule works out. I don't know which OF they would take out for the extra P but I'd guess Broxton. His D is great but not someone you'd really want to use as a PH. We'll see.