Board 8 > ~MLB Official Discussion Topic 5: Playoffs!?~

(+) Yeah! (+)

Theres no hugging in baseball
---

That was the greatest play ever.

Just pure, dumb baseball on both fronts from two of the best players in the game.
---

Baez = Bayley confirmed
---

The game needed to end after that.
---

If the rest of the playoffs can manage to be this intense, we have one hell of an October coming up.

I doubt that will happen though.
---

HUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#HugWatch who got traded
---

RaidenGarai posted...

If the rest of the playoffs can manage to be this intense,

HUGGING INTENSIFIES
---

Daniel Murphy does not approve of 2 men hugging
---

ACHEEKSMALLOY posted...

---

Hader will have extra inspiration to win in the NLDS
---

Wonder how many people are gonna blame Hendricks and not our garbage offense
---

I guess I shouldn't have been so hard on the Cubs players for celebrating their walks so much. This is their one playoff game. Let them enjoy it :)
---

guffguy89 posted...

I guess I shouldn't have been so hard on the Cubs players for celebrating their walks so much. This is their one playoff game. Let them enjoy it :)

I am going to murder everything you love in SMFFCC for this btw.
---

They probably enjoyed the World Series win more tbh
---

Anyway these used to sting more, didn't they tazzy? It sucks but... that's baseball for you. We need to fix the hit or miss of our lineup but it is hard to be angry at a 95 win season and 4 straight playoff appearances.
---

I deleted my comment. I'll be nice. I am extremely happy that the Cubs lost. But to the fans here, sorry for your loss.

To the haughty Cubs fans though, please proceed to your nearest diner and order some humble pie.
---

Blech. Truly an embarrassing way to end the season. Our "vaunted" offense put up 1 run in each of the two biggest games of the year. That's just pathetic.

Not all that surprised though, and not disappointed, since I expect I'd just be annoyed for however long they were limping through the postseason. Rooting for an As/Rockies World Series. Don't really care who wins between them.
---

Choking a September lead and watching two teams celebrate on your home turf on back to back days after scoring a grand total of two runs is gonna sting awhile.
---

DoomTheGyarados posted...

Anyway these used to sting more, didn't they tazzy? It sucks but... that's baseball for you. We need to fix the hit or miss of our lineup but it is hard to be angry at a 95 win season and 4 straight playoff appearances.

It stings a little bit but I've been pissed at this team for over a month, so, as I said, not super surprised or disappointed. Doubt we'd have done much had we won the tiebreaker either.
---

We didn't really choke the September lead btw. The Brewers played insane in September. Going 16-12 in a month isn't exactly bad baseball.

We do, like, need to shake up our lineup. Bryant will be fine long term, Rizzo as well. Baez actually took a walk so that's good. We need to mix up the young bats and add more OBP guys.
---

Meow1000 posted...

Choking a September

Yeah, even though I've been harsh on their play, they did not choke it away. Milwaukee was playing at an absurd level in September.
---

Honestly though, were we ever fully healthy this year? We got pretty screwed by injuries.
---

As was St. Louis, up until that final week. I was pretty frustrated down the stretch because Brewers were playing amazing baseball, but still could not close the gap on you guys. We had to win 8 frickin straight games to do it. The Central, without argument, was the strongest division this season in the NL, which seems to be a trend.
---

Central was pretty bad last year, but yeah, most years in recent memory it's been the best in the NL
---

Yeah I have said the Cubs literally earn ten years of no bitching from me for 2016. I meant that! I was afraid for so long I'd never see my beloved Cubs win a world series.

And of course I forgive Hendricks. He outdueled Kershaw in 2016 <3.

So assuming Russel is an abuser and is gone.

Almora's defense + upside I am OK with (and he had 2 hits today, he did OK!)

Almora
Baez
Rizzo
Bryant
Contreras

And then let's find 3 guys who can get on base <_<.
---

Zobrist had a very underappreciated season this year!
---

that was game 1 folks.
we got at LEAST 25 to go
---

Oh, yeah. But he is also old and is on his last year with us likely. But he is good.
---

Can't wait for us to sign Almora's bff Manny Machado and Bryant's bff Bryce Harper this off season.
---

That was one hell of a game, and there will always be next year and the one after that and the one after that for the Cubs, just like the Red Sox and Yankees. They arent some team with a low payroll that rarely makes it, so theyll be there as long as they can continue outbidding other teams for top talent.
---

WiggumFan267 posted...

That's not what Value means. Value means best player.

The first rule of the MVP voting says this.

1. Actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense.

and the other point

"The MVP need not come from a division winner or other playoff qualifier."

Every team's win is worth a win.

Well, point 1 doesn't mention pitching (unless you consider that defense, which I don't think is true because we have offensive and defensive and pitching awards). The rule isn't "pick the best 10 players, regardless of team/position/standing, in the league". I wouldn't say the rule is to pick the best player because that would be the rule.

We're also asking the media to vote, so that's kind of problematic.

If you want to just say "deGrom had the highest flavor-of-the-month-advanced-metric", that's there in ink and will always be there.

I'll say that the general unfairness is that if deGrom was on a better team, he would be in the MVP discussion... yeah. The guidelines certainly state that we shouldn't be parsing out non-contenders.

And hey speaking of rules, if only there was a rule that allowed elite pitchers like deGrom to keep pitching deep into close games instead of being lifted for pinch hitters at opportune times. I wish they came up with a rule to make it so we watch "elite pitcher pitching" instead of "manager waddling out with a lineup card".

=)
---

That was a fun game to watch, but I couldn't get through the whole thing. I went to bad when the 11th inning ended and assumed the Cubs would win it. Glad I was wrong.
---

Man what a sad end to a good (but very frustrating) season.

I expected it to happen but I'm still really disappointed. In the end I think the Cubs were just worn out from the last month and a half of having to suit up for a game almost literally every day.

Still love the Cubs and the recent teams. Hope next year they can perform again and be a bit more consistent on offense/have less injuries to pitchers.
---

This is probably considered blasphemy but I'll be cheering for the Brewers for the post season. Those fans deserve a really good year and that team has just been on fire lately.
---

All fair neon. It doesn't say pick the 10 best players. Maybe because "best" makes it sound too objective. I go back to no matter what you think the rules are or whatever , that it would just make more sense for the most prestigious award to be "best player". And yeah, it's all media anyway, its all opinion and thats fine. Theres never going to be a single metric that says "hey this is the best player", and its fun to have those debates to decide who you think IS better. I think the way the award currently works dilutes that a little (and that in general giving an award to the best player just feels more right).

And hey I mean, yeah he has a lot of the advanced metric leading stuff (he's the WAR leader- so was Kershaw when he won, but not enough to justify winning MVP), but he's also done very plain great stuff too. ERA is no advanced metric, I think most people would agree it's one of the easiest and effective ways to evaluate pitchers effectiveness. Obviously other stuff matters too, but standalone it tells you the most important thing about a pitcher- how good he is at preventing runs from scoring. deGrom posted a 1.70 ERA, which is Top 10 all-time since the 60s or so (and also basically since dead-ball). And I already mentioned the 29 consecutive starts of 3 runs or fewer, and 24 consecutive quality starts (I might've messed the numbers up before, I was generalizing, I checked to make sure I got the actual #s this time, lol) both of which are literally all-time MLB records. Those aren't just flavor of the month advanced metric type stuff. It's super impressive things that have literally never been done - and easy to see on paper (even if a "quality start" is a little tenuous... I'm not sure I agree 6IP 3ER should be "quality" but its not bad... 2 of deGrom's starts were 6IP 3ER. The rest of the QS were all legit "quality", but just going by what the stat is).

Like obviously that doesn't slam dunk make him MVP but when you have a top 10 season all-time in like, arguably the most important pitching stat, and set MLB records for pitching CONSISTENT pitching dominance.... that really lays the groundwork for an MVP case imo. deGrom's 3 ER or less stat on any other team makes him a 20 game winner pretty easily (for whoever that matters to) and obviously it does matter to one who thinks MVP needs, or generally needs to be on a winning team.

I wonder how much better he'd do if the Mets *were* a playoff team, deGrom won 20 games, and his only barrier to winning was the fact that he's a pitcher. And I'm more ok if you want to vote against him because of that as opposed the fact he was on a loser.
---

Anyway. Great fun game. I hope every game is like that, let's get fuckin' exhausted up in here
---

Buck Showalter will not be returning with the Orioles in any capacity.

This season was so miserable and this was obvious, but it still hurts a little to see him go, even if I've been going on three years now of being heavily critical of him. 2010-2014 were a lot of fun, especially compared with the horrid decade prior to then. I ultimately blame Angelos (again) for never having a firm grasp on who he wanted in charge of anything. Dan Duquette, Brady Anderson, Showalter and, of course, Angelos himself were all essentially operating as co-GMs starting at the end of 2014. The consequence was that Showalter gradually lost a team with pieces he could use to compete to compound the fact that he couldn't really adapt.

This didn't change until the trade deadline this year when I think Duquette was finally allowed to assert himself as the true GM again. It'll be a while before I can say how well any of that went, or how any of this will go in the future.
---

Nerves already for the Yankees tonight.

I won't be able to watch the game, either.
---

Game time
---

I'll be watching in the background as I catch up on homework assignments from last night.
---

I love Aaron Judge so much
---

Yankees looking like last year's crew right now

Boone's gamble paid off. Hopefully Happ continues his tradition of destroying the Red Sox on Friday.
---

Cool. ALDS should be fun.
---

The Red Sox are a huge favorite, sure, but not a team we should be all that scared of.
---

Our top 3 starters are 0-11 in postseason starts with some ghastly ERA. And Sale should have been shut down 6 weeks ago so he would have a shot at being ready next season. All pressure is on Boston and its a pitching staff that sucks under pressure. Sox have to hope their offense is firing on all cylinders after being off for a week.
---

I think they managed Sale well for this though. The guy's too good of a pitcher to not have any success in the postseason. Although I suppose you could say the same about Kershaw. I expect him to dominate the Yankees in Game 1. But you're right about the rest of the staff. Fortunately the Red Sox have a hell of an offense.
---

From a statistical perspective, I don't think there's a ton of merit to looking at postseason numbers vs regular season. In general on a big scale, everything is going to be a little lower because you're facing better teams with better hitting/pitching/defense. On an individual basis, maybe there is something to performing in big moments, but as I kind of alluded to before I don't think athletes are as sensitive to pressure as we all think. It's just small sample size goodness.
---

Hendricks lost the NL WC game
Hendriks lost the AL WC game
---

so the reward for being the best team in baseball is playing the second-best team in baseball in round 1?

seems legit
---

SeabassDebeste posted...

so the reward for being the best team in baseball is playing the second-best team in baseball in round 1?

seems legit

You mean third best.
---