2012 MLB Playoffs Thread: Giants Win World Series (OD is Mar 31, 2013)

[Crapshoot]

The "human element" strikes again. I prefer games to be decided by players, not umps. Why replay won't get expanded I don't know. Credit to the Tigers for taking full advantage.

[Jas_lov]

It'd be simple to implement, too. Just have a guy in the booth looking at the replay. Is he out or safe? He's out, inning over. That took less than a minute. Instead, they continue to reward incompetence. Jeff Nelson made that horrible call at 2nd. Mr. infield fly, Sam Holbrook, is at 1B. He was so good in that Braves-Cards game that they rewarded him with an ALCS appearance. You can't get rid of these guys, even the bad ones.

[stevew]

That's why i wanted the NFL to hold out and crush the refs union. Some of these other leagues with even shittier and well protected refs might act as well.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah, tennis has it perfect. I don't understand why baseball can't basically do that with a booth umpire.

[Crapshoot]

Nah, I don't think its about the unions - as we saw in the NFL, it was more out owner arrogance and an unwillingness to pay market value - a belief that consumers would take whatever they offered.

[tarcone]

I dont post a lot in the regular season. I am not the die hard baseball fan like I used to be. I do watch the Cards since all their games are on TV. Or I sit on the front patio and listen to them on the radio. Mike Shannon is fun to listen too.

And I posted that last post to generate a response from SI. It seems he is a cross state rival fan. So i wanted a reaction from him.

The Reds are using the Cardinal model. They just lack 2 things that the Cards had with Jockety. They lack an Albert Pujols and a Dave Duncan. If they had those 2 things, they would have a stranglehold on the division. Jockety knows his stuff and can work magic. He was handcuffed by a limited payroll. The Cards couldnt go out and sign the stud like the fans wanted. But what the Cards could do with Duncan is go the reclamation route with pitchers. How many older pitchers came into St Louis with an injury history or a string of bad seasons and turn it around. Too many to count. Then we could afford a great hitter or 2. Add in some role players. and there you go.
Add in the fact that our fans love our players, and the players appreciate that and want to come to St Louis or stay in St louis, and you have a winning recipe.

It will be interesting to see Where our pitching is in 4 seasons.

And playoff baseball is a lot more exciting then a July 23rd afternoon game against Houston. So I do post more now.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Great start to the ALCS by the Tigers, a team that's struggled on the road all year.

The trade for Infante and Sanchez looked like a complete dud early on, but both guys, especially Sanchez, have really come on of late.

Go Tigers!

[Matthean]

20 of 21 innings the Yankees haven't scored against Detroit and now Verlander at home is in play.

[RedKingGold]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I dont post a lot in the regular season. I am not the die hard baseball fan like I used to be. I do watch the Cards since all their games are on TV. Or I sit on the front patio and listen to them on the radio. Mike Shannon is fun to listen too.

And I posted that last post to generate a response from SI. It seems he is a cross state rival fan. So i wanted a reaction from him.

The Reds are using the Cardinal model. They just lack 2 things that the Cards had with Jockety. They lack an Albert Pujols and a Dave Duncan. If they had those 2 things, they would have a stranglehold on the division. Jockety knows his stuff and can work magic. He was handcuffed by a limited payroll. The Cards couldnt go out and sign the stud like the fans wanted. But what the Cards could do with Duncan is go the reclamation route with pitchers. How many older pitchers came into St Louis with an injury history or a string of bad seasons and turn it around. Too many to count. Then we could afford a great hitter or 2. Add in some role players. and there you go.
Add in the fact that our fans love our players, and the players appreciate that and want to come to St Louis or stay in St louis, and you have a winning recipe.

It will be interesting to see Where our pitching is in 4 seasons.

And playoff baseball is a lot more exciting then a July 23rd afternoon game against Houston. So I do post more now.

Thank you for admitting you are a front runner and know jack shit about baseball and baseball management.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Matthean

.

I wanted to add "even in a non-save situation" but thought it would be too wordy. Guess I should have

SI

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I dont post a lot in the regular season. I am not the die hard baseball fan like I used to be. I do watch the Cards since all their games are on TV. Or I sit on the front patio and listen to them on the radio. Mike Shannon is fun to listen too.

And I posted that last post to generate a response from SI. It seems he is a cross state rival fan. So i wanted a reaction from him.

The Reds are using the Cardinal model. They just lack 2 things that the Cards had with Jockety. They lack an Albert Pujols and a Dave Duncan. If they had those 2 things, they would have a stranglehold on the division. Jockety knows his stuff and can work magic. He was handcuffed by a limited payroll. The Cards couldnt go out and sign the stud like the fans wanted. But what the Cards could do with Duncan is go the reclamation route with pitchers. How many older pitchers came into St Louis with an injury history or a string of bad seasons and turn it around. Too many to count. Then we could afford a great hitter or 2. Add in some role players. and there you go.
Add in the fact that our fans love our players, and the players appreciate that and want to come to St Louis or stay in St louis, and you have a winning recipe.

It will be interesting to see Where our pitching is in 4 seasons.

And playoff baseball is a lot more exciting then a July 23rd afternoon game against Houston. So I do post more now.

2007 90 mil 11th in MLB
2006 88 mil 11th in MLB
2005 92 mil 5th in MLB
2004 83 mil 9th in MLB
2003 83 mil 8th in MLB
2002 74 mil 13th in MLB
2001 78 mil 9th in MLB
2000 63 mil 11th in MLB
1999 46 mil 15th in MLB
1998 62 mil 5th in MLB
1997 44 mil 10th in MLB
1996 38 mil 9th in MLB
1995 30 mil 16th in MLB

Only in Walt's first year were the Cards not in the top half of payrolls, and most of the time they were in the top eleven. Whatever you want to say about Walt, he wasn't handcuffed by a limited payroll.

[sterlingice]

Also, just saw the call: awful, awful call. Just expand replay already. I'm ready for robot umpires. I don't care about the "human element" in officiating. Just get it right.

SI

[tarcone]

Walt was hand cuffed. You should have heard for the calls to sign bigger names while he was here. But he couldnt. Upper management wouldnt allow it. The Cards were on a budget. It may be more then Pitt or Cinci. but it was still a budget.
But St Louis picked up Chris Carpenter when many thought his career was over. I could name many pitchers that Duncan rebuilt. That allowed for the signing of a Mark McGwire. As did playing a non-hitting defensive catcher (Matheny) who came cheap. And Middle Infielders that could field, but were average hitters. Baseball doesnt pay money for defense.

And, Im not sure what a front runner is. But Im a Cardinal fan and they are always in the front. So that must be me. I accept that compliment. Thanks, RKG.

[tarcone]

And how could I forget about all that home grown goodness.

Thanks for reminding me Freese. CARDS UP 2-0.

[kingfc22]

Can we play all 7 in St. Louis? This Giants team just can't score at home.

[tarcone]

Cardinals not having any problems.

[Bad-example]

Ugh. Bad enough to be trailing the Cards. Just got a call from my Cards-fan cousin, gloating. Gloating about leading game one of a seven game series.

Cards fans can be mighty tough to stomach. At least they aren't as annoying as fans of the Phils, Braves or Yankers.

[kingfc22]

Well my evening just freed up.

[MizzouRah]

Hey I'm not counting anything a W until the 27th out. Six runs means squat to me, but it's a great start.

[tarcone]

This is nothing but exciting baseball. Giants fighting back.

Come on Lynn.

[kingfc22]

So we score 3 while I'm not watching. Guess I should keep doing what works right?

[kingfc22]

Huge play there to keep it 6-4.

Now will the Giants get NLDS Timmy or regular season Timmy?

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by tarcone

Walt was hand cuffed. You should have heard for the calls to sign bigger names while he was here. But he couldnt. Upper management wouldnt allow it. The Cards were on a budget. It may be more then Pitt or Cinci. but it was still a budget.

By that measure the Yankees are handcuffed. You should hear their fans about signings. Every team has a budget. Walt's Cardinal teams had a higher budget than most of MLB. Yes, he made a lot of good finds, but he also spent a lot of money.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by tarcone

To non-fans of those teams, it must be very frustrating. Hoping every year is your once in a decade division title. Or WC appearance. Then when its not, and the teams that figured out how to win are there. Its like someone kicks you in the balls every October.

I feel for you. Really.

All franchises have peaks and valleys. Be thankful you have had your share of good luck. Even the Yankees sucked for quite a few years from the mid 80s until the mid 90s.

The Red Sox went damn near 100 years without a WS championship. You act like the Cardinals win the World Series every single year. They barely even snuck into the playoffs the past 2 seasons.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

So we score 3 while I'm not watching. Guess I should keep doing what works right?

We have a superstition at games that scoring will happen if one of us gets up. It's a baseball superstition so it's one of those things that happened once and happens enough that we make note of it when it happens and don't when it doesn't. Anyways, so when at a game, you have to get up when the team you want to win is up. They might not always score. But if you get up when the opposing team is once, they "always" score (even if they don't always).

SI

[molson]

Originally Posted by Young Drachma

Yeah, tennis has it perfect.

Maybe, but I still have a hunch 80% of tennis message boards is still posts complaining about officiating.

[MizzouRah]

Giants are back in the game.

Descalso with a heck of a play to keep it a 2 run lead.

[kingfc22]

One of these days Pence will get a clutch hit. Until then, I'll keep waiting.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by molson

Maybe, but I still have a hunch 80% of tennis message boards is still posts complaining about officiating.

Not that I've ever seen or heard from my circles or my occasional visits to tennis warehouse. Only Grand Slams and a few random tournies have Hawkeye anyway.

Cricket also uses it, for what it's worth.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

All franchises have peaks and valleys. Be thankful you have had your share of good luck. Even the Yankees sucked for quite a few years from the mid 80s until the mid 90s.

The Red Sox went damn near 100 years without a WS championship. You act like the Cardinals win the World Series every single year. They barely even snuck into the playoffs the past 2 seasons.

I know. I was being a butt here. The Cards were not that good in the 90s. LaRussa turned them around.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

Descalso with a heck of a play to keep it a 2 run lead.

Play of the game by far.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Nah, I don't think its about the unions - as we saw in the NFL, it was more out owner arrogance and an unwillingness to pay market value - a belief that consumers would take whatever they offered.

No it wasn't, in the NFL it was about gaining enough control to let them replace officials when needed, and they got those concessions. The refs could have got their money much sooner if they had caved earlier on the full-time crews and the farm system.

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Also, just saw the call: awful, awful call. Just expand replay already. I'm ready for robot umpires. I don't care about the "human element" in officiating. Just get it right.

SI

I understand why he blew the call. He's looking to see if Infante is tagged before he reaches for the bag. He wasn't but it turns out that he didn't reach far enough to, you know, actually TOUCH the bag. Blown call but I'm glad it didn't really change the outcome.

[sterlingice]

I don't so much fault the umps as they're going to miss calls. Again, we're all only human. But I think the "impartial" judging should be impartial not at the whims of chance.

EDIT: This is unless they are intentional (i.e. giving a better strike zone consistently to one pitcher not a Jim Joyce missed bang-bang call)

SI

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Again, I don't so much fault the umps as they're going to miss calls. Again, we're all only human. But I think the "impartial" judging should be impartial not at the whims of chance.

SI

Agreed. We've got the capability to get this right. Why aren't we?

[kingfc22]

What a fuckin dirty slide. Hope he gets earholed next at bat.

[kingfc22]

I have no problem with going in hard, but Holliday leapt into a slide that had him landing on the far side of 2nd base.

[Fonzie]

That was indeed a bullshit slide. Holliday is known for being a hard slider, but he also should know better than to mess with a guy's knee like that.

[Fonzie]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

I have no problem with going in hard, but Holliday leapt into a slide that had him landing on the far side of 2nd base.

Yeah, and he had just barely begun to slide when he crossed the bag. Not cool.

[tarcone]

That was an awesome camera shot

[kingfc22]

Thank you Holliday for pissing off the Giants and waking up the bats.

#asshole

[Crapshoot]

Fuck you, Matt Holliday. Douchebag.

[kingfc22]

If nothing else, the Giants have forced Carpenter to throw a lot of pitches.

[tarcone]

I love that our pitchers can hit

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by tarcone

I love that our pitchers can hit

Sadly, the Giants have the worst Opp. AVG vs. opposing pitchers.

[kingfc22]

That bunt looked like it was going foul...

[kingfc22]

SCUTARO!!!!!!!!!

[kingfc22]

Not to mention the brilliant fielding in left by Holliday on that play.

The baseball gods have spoken.

[Crapshoot]

Seriously, fuck you again Holliday.

But, damn nice play by Kozma there to save a run.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

But, damn nice play by Kozma there to save a run.

That was one hell of a catch.