What did we learn from the past week's wild card round results?

[Frobby]

10 hours ago, rm5678 said:

I was actually more impressed with Bob Costas than I was expecting. I had previously associated Costas mainly with the Olympics, but he seems very knowledgeable about baseball. Costas will be doing the pre- & post-game shows for the NY/Hou series, and the game coverage will be handled by Brian Anderson, Ron Darling & Jeff Francoeur. I've always enjoyed listening to Brian Anderson, so I'm looking forward to the ALCS broadcasts.

Costas was NBC’s lead baseball play-by-play guy for many years.  

[Chelsea_Phil]

5 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Costas was NBC’s lead baseball play-by-play guy for many years.  

He has been good, but gets major demerits for calling the Guardians pitcher ‘Justin Bieber’ a few games ago after saying earlier in that game that he would never make that mistake.  Well, he did!!

[Sports Guy]

I can’t stand Costas

[sportsfan8703]

Just from watching playoff baseball in general this post season…

Pros

-We can play small ball, and steal a bag, with Mullins and Mateo. 
 

-We have a great IF and C defense. OF can be better. 
 

-We have the dominant back end of the bullpen that can get Ks. Especially if Baker steps up. 
 

Cons

-Our lineup as is, can get shut down by really good pitching. 
 

-We have no playoff experience. So maybe a vet bat , SP, and RP, would be nice. 
 

-I worry about our team OBP and if we’re able to work playoff level SPs out of the games. 
 

-Even with GR, we’re still a #1/#2 type away, and the middle of the pen is a weakness right now. 

[Chelsea_Phil]

35 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

I can’t stand Costas

I used to feel that way, and don’t like him on Olympics coverage at all, but I do think he has provided some interesting tidbits during the broadcasts.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Chelsea_Phil said:

I used to feel that way, and don’t like him on Olympics coverage at all, but I do think he has provided some interesting tidbits during the broadcasts.

He has some historical knowledge but he’s terrible. He’s the guy who always believes he knows what is best for baseball. Can’t stand him.  Jim Nantz has always been the better “multi sport” announcer imo.

[eddie83]

Costas annoyed me yesterday. He acted like Cleveland was a rag tag bunch and they were playing a team full of All Stars. Yes, they had a great year and we’re underdogs but it’s not like they were way overmatched. 
 

Seemed like around the 7/8th innings he wouldn’t shut up about it.  

[eddie83]

42 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

He has some historical knowledge but he’s terrible. He’s the guy who always believes he knows what is best for baseball. Can’t stand him.  Jim Nantz has always been the better “multi sport” announcer imo.

Maybe it was always there but in recent years his arrogance or something similar has really stood out. 
 

I always liked him growing up, the NBC game of week in 80’s with Tony Kubek. NBA, NFL, Olympics etc. He is very talented. His personality in recent years has really rubbed me the wrong way. He comes across as someone who thinks very highly of himself. 

[eddie83]

59 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Just from watching playoff baseball in general this post season…

Pros

-We can play small ball, and steal a bag, with Mullins and Mateo. 
 

-We have a great IF and C defense. OF can be better. 
 

-We have the dominant back end of the bullpen that can get Ks. Especially if Baker steps up. 
 

Cons

-Our lineup as is, can get shut down by really good pitching. 
 

-We have no playoff experience. So maybe a vet bat , SP, and RP, would be nice. 
 

-I worry about our team OBP and if we’re able to work playoff level SPs out of the games. 
 

-Even with GR, we’re still a #1/#2 type away, and the middle of the pen is a weakness right now. 

I’m not as worried about playoff experience but in general I agree with a good bit of what you say. 

[Sports Guy]

6 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Maybe it was always there but in recent years his arrogance or something similar has really stood out. 
 

I always liked him growing up, the NBC game of week in 80’s with Tony Kubek. NBA, NFL, Olympics etc. He is very talented. His personality in recent years has really rubbed me the wrong way. He comes across as someone who thinks very highly of himself. 

Honestly, I don’t mind his Olympics coverage.  Baseball is where he bothers me and always has.

[Just Regular]

Szymborski stepped through the "my stuff doesn't work in the playoffs" classic, but did publish this one bit where probably future Orioles will have an edge on all but maybe Cleveland or Tampa.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/yes-the-playoffs-are-still-a-crapshoot/

Surprisingly, what was (barely) useful enough to make it as a variable was team age, but this was an advantage on the side of young players; young teams, and consequently, teams with less playoff experience very slightly overperformed over the last 28 postseasons.

In the end, I looked at about 60 team-related variables, and they all did almost nothing to explain better which teams won playoff games.

 

[PeregrineT]

What we learned from this past week playoffs was......get there.

Once you are there, anyone can get hot and play well, so get there and get your name in the hat.

[spiritof66]

4 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Just from watching playoff baseball in general this post season…

Pros

-We can play small ball, and steal a bag, with Mullins and Mateo. 
 

-We have a great IF and C defense. OF can be better. 
 

-We have the dominant back end of the bullpen that can get Ks. Especially if Baker steps up. 
 

Cons

-Our lineup as is, can get shut down by really good pitching. 
 

-We have no playoff experience. So maybe a vet bat , SP, and RP, would be nice. 
 

-I worry about our team OBP and if we’re able to work playoff level SPs out of the games. 
 

-Even with GR, we’re still a #1/#2 type away, and the middle of the pen is a weakness right now. 

I think a major weakness of the Orioles, one that's not discussed as much as it should be, is the absence of a bona fide slugger in the middle of the lineup, one whose presence will strike some fear in opponents and significantly impact their pitching strategy, a guy like Judge, Trout, Betts, Goldschmidt, Manny, Alvarez, Ohtani or Harper.

As a quick way to look at this, I went through the top MLB slugging percentages for 2022. Santander led the 2022 Orioles with a .455 SLG, which was 43rd among qualifying MLB batters. (There are a few more players who did outslug or would have outslugged Santander but didn't qualify, or didn't play at all,  due to injuries, guys like Tatis and Trout.)

Of the twelve teams that made the post-season this year, eleven had a hitter finish among the top nineteen in slugging. Only the Rays did not; Arozarena led them in SLG with .445. Nineteen MLB teams had a qualifier whose SLG was higher than Santander's. The nine teams other than the Rays without a qualifier who outslugged Santander either had one or more regulars who slugged above .455 but didn't qualify (the White Sox, Twins, Nats, Giants, Royals and Cubs), were really bad (the Marlins, Reds and A's), or both.

Of the top 24 SLGs, 20 (83 percent) were recorded by hitters on the six playoff teams. The four non-postseason players in the top 20 were Devers, Ohtani, Nathaniel Lowe and Hunter Renfroe. Christian Walker was 25th with a .477 SLG.

There are obvious limitations to this quick survey, among them reliance on slugging average alone and the absence of park adjustments. But for me it confirms, in a general way, an accurate message about something that most contending teams have and the Orioles lack. My clear impression is that Elias believes one or more guys already on the team or in the organization will fill this role in the next year or two. If so, I hope he's right.

[rm5678]

7 hours ago, Chelsea_Phil said:

He has been good, but gets major demerits for calling the Guardians pitcher ‘Justin Bieber’ a few games ago after saying earlier in that game that he would never make that mistake.  Well, he did!!

He did do a decent job of laughing at himself for making that mistake.

Edited October 19, 2022 by rm5678

[spiritof66]

6 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

He has some historical knowledge but he’s terrible. He’s the guy who always believes he knows what is best for baseball. Can’t stand him.  Jim Nantz has always been the better “multi sport” announcer imo.

When Costas is announcing baseball, I feel like what I'm watching is 60 percent about baseball and 40 percent about Costas. He's just so full of himself, and it often seems that his broadcast partner(s) are in awe of him and suck him to him.