Okay, so I blew it and got a series prediction flat-out wrong. Serves me right for writing what I wanted to happen (sensible usage of Octavio Dotel, for example) to predict an Astros win instead of simply picking the Braves to conquer the Astros’ battered pitching staff. That kvetching aside, the NLCS should be a…
The Astros exited the National League playoffs over the weekend, about as quickly as they came in. This franchise has never won a postseason series, and over the past five years, is 2-12 in 14 Division Series games. A disproportionate amount of blame has fallen on the shoulders of the team’s two best players in…
ALDS "Warming up, I kind of heard guys yelling at me, calling me cuss words and all that. But I was just in a mode where I wasn’t even thinking about it. It’s not like I was going to turn around and say, ‘Oh, really?’ anyway. And every now and then, sitting in the dugout,…
Short attention span today, folks… Is this a fun game or what? Bartolo Colon, a stocky, 26-year-old right-hander, throws eight shutout innings Tuesday by riding a fastball in the high 90s. Two days later, Jamie Moyer, a thin, 38-year-old left-hander, throws six shutout innings without breaking 90 mph more than a handful of times, if…
Just finished watching Jason Isringhausen raise my already morbidly high blood pressure. Some empty thoughts: Does anyone else get the impression that Fox is horrified by the idea of actually showing either the batter or pitcher prepare for the next pitch? After every pitch, the director seemed to try to get as many camera shots…
Two things stand out for me from yesterday’s events: In Arizona, Bob Brenly made one of the more bizarre decisions I’ve seen in a while, having Tony Womack bunt two runners over with no one out in the eighth inning of a 3-0 game. The move essentially killed a rally, as Danny Bautista and Luis…
Yesterday, the Braves, Indians, and Diamondbacks took an important first step towards advancing by winning the opening game of their respective series. How big a step? In the 24 Division Series played to date, the winner of the first game has gone on to win 16 times. That’s two-thirds of the time, 66.7%. The biggest…
About a month into the season, the Oakland A’s were 8-18, and the New York Yankees were primarily worried about the Boston Red Sox. As late as June, speculation was that the A’s would ship first baseman Jason Giambi to the Yankees at the deadline, as they were hopelessly behind the Emerald City Juggernaut. Well,…
One criticism levied against the A’s this year is that they are somehow too dependent on home runs. There are two reasons to scorn this pointless argument. One is that it’s essentially a last-gasp defense of batting average: The A’s have a poor team batting average, and we all know that’s bad, like pollution and…
My opinions about the Indians/Mariners series can be found here. As far as the other three Division Series are concerned: Braves/Astros There’s no question in my mind that when everyone is healthy, the Astros have a superior team to the Braves. Their pitching isn’t that far behind Atlanta’s, and their lineup is probably the best…
[Ed. note. Clay Davenport isn’t a doctor, nor does he play one on TV. He does, however, have some interesting observations on the greatness of Barry Bonds’s 2001 season. Rany Jazayerli yields the floor to him this week.] I’m having trouble deciding which of Barry Bonds‘s new records is the most astounding. I’m pretty sure…
Has a dynasty started to crumble? The Braves couldn’t win 90 games this year, although their Pythagorean projections and their 19-24 record in one-run games pretty much say that they should have. Even so, the Braves did win their seventh straight division title. The Astros made a full rebound from last year’s collapse, but the…
The Baseball Prospectus staff discussed this week’s playoffs. Mariners/Indians Joe Sheehan: Indians in five. Derek Zumsteg: Okay, I’ll bite–you’re mad. The Mariners have a slightly better offense, a bullpen an order of magnitude better (with Cleveland’s stats including their pre-John Rocker goodness), and a better rotation. The Indians are talking about using a three-man rotation,…
The general consensus is that this is a mismatch, with the greatest regular-season team in AL history taking on a fading dynasty on its last legs. The thing to remember is this: in a short series, anything can happen. Anything. Lineups (AVG/OBP/SLG/Equivalent Average) Seattle Mariners RF Ichiro Suzuki (.350/.381/.457/.311) SS Mark McLemore (.286/.384/.406/.306) DH Edgar…
My ballot for the Internet Baseball Awards, sponsored by Baseball Prospectus and coming to a browser near you this week. I’ve written about most of these at length elsewhere, so commentary will be brief. American League MVP 1. Jason Giambi, Athletics 2. Alex Rodriguez, Rangers 3. Bret Boone, Mariners 4. Roberto Alomar, Indians 5. Jim…
Two months ago, the Cardinals were thought to have given up the 2001 season, having made just one minor deal–giving away the established player–at the trade deadline. They made a mad run at the NL Central title, and ended up as the league’s wild card. They’ll face the Diamondbacks, who had three of the league’s…