2011 MLB Thread

[Darkness]

Well that is why I hate 5 game series. A far inferior team won because of BABIP shenanigans and a lack of good strikezones until the last game of the series. I just can't wait for the rude awaking that the Cards are going to have in Brewer Town because you can't relay on luck for 13 games straight. Doc deserved better then this BS. I hope he gets the Cy as compensation

I know you're disappointed, but please do try not to be such a bad loser!

The Phillies have been great all season long, but why so little credit to the Cardinals? They've played very well since the beginning of september. This game 5 was an instant classic pitchers duel, and both pitchers were fantastic. Halladay getting out of a bases loaded situation in the 8th with Berkman and Holliday batting was very clutch. But the Phillies bats just didn't produce anything at all. Some great pitches by Carpenter and some really bad swings by Phillies batsmen (Ryan Howard in the 7th inning comes to mind) just doomed the Phillies...

 

[Godwynn]

Well that is why I hate 5 game series. A far inferior team won because of BABIP shenanigans and a lack of good strikezones until the last game of the series. I just can't wait for the rude awaking that the Cards are going to have in Brewer Town because you can't relay on luck for 13 games straight. Doc deserved better then this BS. I hope he gets the Cy as compensation

lol u mad brah?

We won in 2006 as a Wild Card team too.

Against the Tigers.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

lol u mad brah?

We won in 2006 as a Wild Card team too.

Against the Tigers.

Nah. We romped away with NL Central in 2006 by a clear 1.5 games. The Tigers were a Wild Card team, for sure, but the Cards turned in such a dominating 83-78 record that we wouldn't have been close to a Wild Card if we hadn't won the division.

 

[Godwynn]

Nah. We romped away with NL Central in 2006 by a clear 1.5 games. The Tigers were a Wild Card team, for sure, but the Cards turned in such a dominating 83-78 record that we wouldn't have been close to a Wild Card if we hadn't won the division.

I refuse to accept your reality and substitute my own!

My story makes us sound even better than we actually are!

 

[El Justo]

citing BABIP ridiculous. don't blame the strike zone, batting avg on balls in play, the pitching. phils just didn't hit. plain and simple. cards are a VERY GOOD TEAM and can win the whole thing. any phils fans who don't see that are either sore losers or just don't know what a real good (and hot) baseball team looks like. can't win 'em all.

 

[GamezRule]

The Tigers have a bit of a thing for playing the Cardinals in the World Series.

 

[Azale]

Freaking Cardinals, jesus h. christ nothing ever stomps them out for good.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

citing BABIP ridiculous. don't blame the strike zone, batting avg on balls in play, the pitching. phils just didn't hit. plain and simple. cards are a VERY GOOD TEAM and can win the whole thing. any phils fans who don't see that are either sore losers or just don't know what a real good (and hot) baseball team looks like. can't win 'em all.

Spoken like a man. Must be a tough loss, because that is a really good team, and a tremendous rotation - as good as any I can remember. And the Phils looked as though they were destined for greatness. Nonetheless, it didn't happen, and accepting it and moving on is the dignified reaction.

I quite agree about BABIP - over a season, yeah, I accept it's useful. But on an individual game or series level, well, not so much - anything which reckons that Halladay's 2 pitches which lead to the two 1st inning hits are equivalent to foul pop-ups to 3rd base, well, that isn't a useful stat, and it isn't helping you understand what happened in the ball game. Maybe he only made two mistake pitches all game long, but those two were mistakes, and for FIP/BABIP devotees to blame them on luck or fielding because they weren't home runs is to misunderstand what happened.

If they play that game again, maybe the Phils win. Utley was only feet away from a homer. Furcal and Punto maybe don't make those defensive plays. Maybe Carpenter throws the two mistake pitches, not Doc. But that's the beauty of the game. In last season Champions League final in soccer (basically the pinnacle of the game), they could have played 5 times in a row and Barcelona would have won every time. Doesn't happen with baseball, cos it's just that much tighter - a game of inches.

I loved the series - totally enthralling stuff. I hope I'd be man enough to still have loved it if my team lost. Kudos to you, El J.

 

[KMRblue1027]

I know you're disappointed, but please do try not to be such a bad loser!

The Phillies have been great all season long, but why so little credit to the Cardinals? They've played very well since the beginning of september. This game 5 was an instant classic pitchers duel, and both pitchers were fantastic. Halladay getting out of a bases loaded situation in the 8th with Berkman and Holliday batting was very clutch. But the Phillies bats just didn't produce anything at all. Some great pitches by Carpenter and some really bad swings by Phillies batsmen (Ryan Howard in the 7th inning comes to mind) just doomed the Phillies...

I will continue to be quite disappointed (and enraged) until the Cards drop the first 3 games to the brewers without a wimpier. The Cards were riding the same exact train SF was last year with the Phils. (Well above average BABIP for their offense, every ball the Phils put in play went right to the opposing 2nd Basemen, ball not carrying well when the Phils hit it deep). The Phils season was doomed after Raul Ibanez hit the ball deep to right and it ended up being a flyout instead of a HR. You could actually see the wind change direction right before the Phitch was thrown like the gods themselves did not want the Phils to take the lead.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

I honestly do understand the disappointment, KMR, but I do think you need to get some perspective on this. It's possible for the Phils to lose without it just being down to bad luck and the whim of the gods.

I'm sorry that you feel this series was stolen from you in some way, but I rather suspect you'd feel that way whenever the Phils lost. I guess they really did look like a team which could win it all, but, unfortunately for them, they were outplayed over these 5 games. It doesn't diminish the quality of the players, nor the great 102 win season they had, but does mean that maybe they just weren't as impervious to defeat as you expected them to be.

 

[KMRblue1027]

I honestly do understand the disappointment, KMR, but I do think you need to get some perspective on this. It's possible for the Phils to lose without it just being down to bad luck and the whim of the gods.

I'm sorry that you feel this series was stolen from you in some way, but I rather suspect you'd feel that way whenever the Phils lost. I guess they really did look like a team which could win it all, but, unfortunately for them, they were outplayed over these 5 games. It doesn't diminish the quality of the players, nor the great 102 win season they had, but does mean that maybe they just weren't as impervious to defeat as you expected them to be.

I want to bold this point more the anything else. This Phils team was and is the greatest this city will ever see. When you've been robbed of the chance to at least represent the NL for the second year in a row it's is heartbreaking (Dealing with a decade of Eagles letdowns doesn't help ether). This really shows the cruelty of having 5 games decide who gets to go on to the NLCS. and eventually the WS (I personally want 9 game series). All I wanted for this team is to get farther then last year and they failed to even do that. The only reason I wanted for them to win it all this year is to get Roy his ring because I am honestly afraid that without a ring, Halladay won't make the HoF, even though he is the greatest pitcher I have ever seen.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Well, the Cardinals may well have beaten you in a 7 game series as well. Maybe not. But it wasn't a gimme for either team.

As to Doc, well... Halladay has won the Cy Young twice - one of only 5 to do so in both leagues. A perfect game. 8 times an all-star. A no-hitter in the post-season. He's a sure thing for the Hall of Fame, man, with or without a series ring.

I can't help you at all about the Eagles though. That's just a decade of hurt.

 

[GamezRule]

You get the bases loaded... and double play!

 

[El Justo]

well put Lambert thanks.

sour grapes is the soup-du-jour in philly i've lived through some real disappointments over the years and this surely ranks up there. but hey, it is what it is. the cards are a good team. i would never dare to compare them to the lightning in a bottle champions from last year. pathetic offense. freakish out of work rodeo clown hitting multiple homers. this cards team can hit.

as for biggest disappointment ever in philly sports? could be. but there are certainly some rivals. '76 and '77 losses,though i was but a toddler at the time, were epic. joe carter's walkoff in '93 was far more painful than last night. eagles losing in the SB in '05 hurt. flyers stanley cup losses over the last two and a half decades stung a lot also. i'll be honest about it; last season for the phils i thought was a rim-job. phils lost to a really good team this year.

 

[Gone 3 the Celt]

I want to bold this point more the anything else. This Phils team was and is the greatest this city will ever see. When you've been robbed of the chance to at least represent the NL for the second year in a row it's is heartbreaking (Dealing with a decade of Eagles letdowns doesn't help ether). This really shows the cruelty of having 5 games decide who gets to go on to the NLCS. and eventually the WS (I personally want 9 game series). All I wanted for this team is to get farther then last year and they failed to even do that. The only reason I wanted for them to win it all this year is to get Roy his ring because I am honestly afraid that without a ring, Halladay won't make the HoF, even though he is the greatest pitcher I have ever seen.

I would like to show you the 2002-2003 Oakland A's. They lost in game five of the alds both times, and even won 20 in a row in 2003. A lot of people thought they were a lock for the 2003 WS, but they didn't make it, much like the Phil's this year.

The Cardinals are actually a very good team, but they had some early-mid season struggles. I think that they could have been able to beat the Phillies in a seven game series aswell, but we will never know

Roy Halladay doesn't need a ring for the HoF. A WS ring would just be another trophy on his shelf, along with all of those Cy Youngs (does he have two or three of them?)

I am tempted to feel sorry for you, but with the 2008 win and being a Nat's fan, I think that you should just suck it up and move on. There is always next year. And the year after that, and so on



Here is my prediction for the rest of the playoffs: Card's beat Brewers in seven, with Nyjer Morgan being ejected in at least two games

Tigers beat Rangers in seven, I think that these are two even matched teams that can both win, but I'll go with Tigers

Cards beat Tigers in six, overall, the Cards have a better offense and pitching than the tigers

 

[Strider]

MRI results came back on Howard. Not precise timetable yet, but looks like they are expecting him to miss at least spring training if not the first month or two of next season. That is just rough. It's tough enough to lose like that, but losing your starting first baseman for some of NEXT season at the same moment? I wouldn't wish that luck upon anyone. Okay, well maybe the Yankee's or Red Sox.

This was, in essence, a match-up of the best offense vs the best pitching. Usually in that circumstance pitching always comes out on top, but the Cardinals pitching was able to pull through where as the phillies offense could not. That, more than anything else, ended up deciding the series. The Carpenter-Halladay match-up was the duel of the decade though. We tagged that one run in the first and I was thinking that entire game that wasn't going to be enough. Damn Carpenter; he might not be as consistent as Halladay, but when you need him in a clutch situation he won't let you down.

 

[sophie]

well put Lambert thanks.

sour grapes is the soup-du-jour in philly i've lived through some real disappointments over the years and this surely ranks up there. but hey, it is what it is. the cards are a good team. i would never dare to compare them to the lightning in a bottle champions from last year. pathetic offense. freakish out of work rodeo clown hitting multiple homers. this cards team can hit.

Hey now, there's no need to be uncivil! The Giants just simply outpitched everyone else in the playoffs. Cain, Bumgarner, and Lincecum were just on fire, Sanchez was too when he needed to be, and the bullpen was just lights out. We didn't need much to get wins.

Also I think someone's just a sore loser because Lopes is the anti-Phillies.

As for this year's playoffs, I can rest easy now that the d-backs, phils, and yanks are out of it. I would have liked to see TB win one finally, but I guess it just wasn't in the cards this year. With these playoffs now, I'd be happy with whoever wins it. St. Louis is the greatest baseball town in America, and the Cardinals are one of those ballteams you can't help but love. Brewers are a perennially awful team that you just really want to see go all the way, same with the Rangers. Also it'd be great to see the Rangers win after all that crap with Lee. The Tigers are another old storied franchise that you just love seeing in the series. I'd be happy if any one of these franchises wins it this year. This is the best alternative to the Giants repeating, imo.

 

[GamezRule]

The rain hates Justin Verlander. I blame Rick Perry because he prayed for it.

 

[classical_hero]

I would rather Milwaukee go on the to the World Series than the Cardinals.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

I would rather Milwaukee go on the to the World Series than the Cardinals.

Good to know.

Bad night for Garcia last night. I think I've got to rescind my earlier season opinion of him; he's good, but he's not that good. A bit worrying to see him crack two starts in a row in the play-offs. Still, the game had a few parallels with the 1st game of the NLDS against the Phils, with us getting some runs against a difficult (not as difficult...) pitcher, getting blown away by a bad inning or two, and, despite the loss being the right result, there are a few things in there which give one some hope.