Playoff Game Thread

[Chavez Ravine]

The Dodgers are already down 2 in the first. Their starting pitching gets soft after Kershaw and Bobby Miller. Lol.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Chavez Ravine

[Chavez Ravine]

Roberts goes matchup and pulls Bobby Miller with two on two outs in the 2nd. Interesting.

[Chavez Ravine]

Gallen looks like my high school shop teacher.

[Chavez Ravine]

Arizona is an enigma to me. I don’t understand their mojo.

[Chavez Ravine]

Phillips threw a nasty pitch to K Walker in the 9th. 

[Chavez Ravine]

The Dodgers find themselves in the same position as the Orioles. Let’s hope that the O’s don’t follow the usual Dodger trajectory.

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Chavez Ravine said:

The Dodgers find themselves in the same position as the Orioles. Let’s hope that the O’s don’t follow the usual Dodger trajectory.

What would you say is their usual trajectory?  They’ve been to the playoffs 10 consecutive years prior to this one.  They’ve won the World Series once, lost in the Series twice, lost in the NLCS three times, lost in the NLDS four times.  That’s almost a perfect statistical distribution if you assume each team has a 50/50 chance in each series.   

[Just Regular]

Bryce with what I think was a throat slash gesture celebration after a 3-run homer for a 4-1 3rd inning lead.

The Phillies reddit indicates its a routine thing.

He just homered again for 7-1 in the 5th inning as the announcers were relating that Orlando Arcia unwisely talked smack after the Game 2 baserunning blunder.    Story was Arcia gave an "Atta boy, Bryce" quote.

This I believe is the same Orlando Arcia projected to be such a zero heading into the year that after Dansby left for the Cubs, some of us here thought the Braves might be a team that could use Jorge Mateo.     Arcia had a very nice year in a Ryan O'Hearn kind of way but maybe shouldn't be stirring those kind of pots.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Just Regular

[Just Regular]

Is Zack Wheeler the best pitcher in the world right now?

We aren't yet, and may never be, to a time Grayson Rodriguez enters that conversation, but today's king of the hill is an interesting puzzle.    The easy times of Clayton Kershaw or Justin Verlander are over.

One-year fWAR leaders for '23:  Wheeler, Strider, Gausman, S. Gray, Gerrit, Gallen 5

Two year guys for '22-23: Gausman 11, Nola/Wheeler 10, Gallen/Verlander/Webb 9

Five year guys for '19-'23: Wheeler 23, Gerrit 22, Scherzer/Nola 20, Gausman 19, deGrom 18

Ten year guys for '14-'23: Scherzer 51, Kershaw 45, deGrom 42, Gerrit 41, Verlander 38

Ten year ERA- (1000 IP minimum): Kershaw 60, deGrom 65, Scherzer 69, Sale/Verlander 73, Gerrit 78

Tomorrow looks like it is shaping up as a crucial proving ground opportunity for the lab's best in class Spencer Strider.

Hopefully the baseball gods bring Roki Sasaki to the world's best league sooner rather than later.

[Just Regular]

Christian Walker 3rd home run of inning for Arizona off Lance Lynn to give Diamondbacks a 3-0 lead looking for the sweep.

Are Dodgers exercising Lynn $18mm option?    They have almost no one to pitch length, and I wonder whether Friedman might want to pump Kyle Gibson for info what all the Orioles were telling their 2023 pitchers.

[Chavez Ravine]

On 10/10/2023 at 12:26 AM, Frobby said:

What would you say is their usual trajectory?  They’ve been to the playoffs 10 consecutive years prior to this one.  They’ve won the World Series once, lost in the Series twice, lost in the NLCS three times, lost in the NLDS four times.  That’s almost a perfect statistical distribution if you assume each team has a 50/50 chance in each series.   

Yes, you are correct. It’s an embarrassment of riches. But given how insanely good they have looked during the regular season, it seems reasonable to think the expectation would skew a bit more than a coin flip.

[Chavez Ravine]

Verlander fascinates me. I have been writing him off as over the pitching hill for the last five years or so. 

[Chavez Ravine]

I have less than zero interest in these two teams, but I am still intoxicated by October baseball. I might need rehab. 

[Chavez Ravine]

One of the tropes that annoys me the most is the manager who “knows how to manage in the post season” If there is a strategy it seems to be: I am forced into pinch hitting/pitching  this rando dude that somehow makes me look like a genius.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Chavez Ravine

[justD]

30 minutes ago, Chavez Ravine said:

One of the tropes that annoys me the most is the manager who “knows how to manage in the post season” If there is a strategy it seems to be: I am forced into pinch hitting/pitching  this rando dude that somehow makes me look like a genius.

I saw it very differently in that series against the Rangers.  In particular, Bochy seemed to know exactly what to do to keep the crowd out of it and to use what he could to slow things down when momentum had shifted in our favor. Both situations seem heightened in their importance during the postseason.

As for just having someone make him look good, hearing Baker talk about who he doesn’t know well (i.e., Evan Carter) and the difficulty that causes might also be key in roster construction Bochy has an advantage in and takes advantage of.

It felt to me like Bochy had tricks up his sleeve and like Hyde was still trying to win a regular season series.