2011 MLB Thread

[Lambert Simnel]

Freese!!

Marcum looked as off form as he has done through-out the post-season. Not the guy you'd want to have your playoff hopes riding on.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

OK. This is a crazy game. 6 HRs and we're still in the top of the 3rd

Edit: If the Cards don't get to the World Series, then it's straightforwardly down to the starting pitching. Regardess of how well you hit, you have got to expect some starting pitching in a 7 game series.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

7 innings from the bullpen - 3 hits, a walk, and two runs. And St Louis are in the World Series

 

[Strider]

The thing that drives me insane with this years Cardinals is HOW they win. Sometimes they pull it off with dominating starting pitching, other times it's an offensive explosion, and finally there is the shut-down and lights out bullpen. That would all be fine if they can manage to do it all in one game (or hopefully 7 games).

Lance Berkman for comeback player of the year anyone?

 

[Lambert Simnel]

Lance Berkman for comeback player of the year anyone?

I think he's already been awarded it for the NL - Ellsbury got the AL one.

 

[Strider]

I think he's already been awarded it for the NL - Ellsbury got the AL one.

Really? When did this happen?

 

[Darkness]

It was reported on october 13th

Cards in the World Series! Awesome.
I have to admit that this is completely unexpected to me, especially with the injury and inconsistency issues that we had from march to late august...

 

[classical_hero]

I doubt that the Cards can win, but if they do, they will be the second wild card team to win the World Series. I will predict a whitewash for Texas to sin their first World Series.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

I doubt that the Cards can win, but if they do, they will be the second wild card team to win the World Series. I will predict a whitewash for Texas to sin their first World Series.

Given the quality of your predictions so far, I almost feel I should thank you for backing the Rangers.

My predictions.
NLDS
Phillies over Cards in 4 games
D-back over Brewers in 5 games

ALDS
Yankees over Tigers in 4 games
Texas over Rays in 5 games

NLCS
Phillies over D-backs in 6 games

ALCS
Yankees over Texas in 6 games

World Series
Phillies over Yankees in 7 games.

 

[Strider]

Given the quality of your predictions so far, I almost feel I should thank you for backing the Rangers.

Everyone has predicted against the Cardinals in every playoff series so far. Based on the 2006 results that seems to work out pretty well for this team. I wonder what position this team would be in if Adam Wainwright didn't go down at the start of the season. Would be hilarious if it was winning the division, but losing in the first round of playoffs.

 

[classical_hero]

Given the quality of your predictions so far, I almost feel I should thank you for backing the Rangers.

Touché.

 

[Strider]

While I'm fairly biased; I'm going with the cardinals to win this one for a couple of different reasons.

1) The Rangers offense is amazing at ranger stadium, but hasn't traveled all to well throughout the regular and post-season. Combine that with the fact that they are going to have to bat the pitcher at Busch and that further diminishes it's away offense. Meanwhile the Cardinals, looking at every team's road games (no home games), had the best road offense in the majors. The batter friendly ranger stadium and the introduction of Allen Craig in the DH will only improve upon that. Craig has 12 homers in 218 at-bats. "The home-field advantage for the Cardinals isn't because they get to play at Busch, it's because Texas has to."

2) The Cardinals are not a pitching staff that is going to straight up challenge hitters (much like they saw in Detroit). They are not going to throw inside fastballs nor are they going to try for strikeouts. This is primarily a ground ball pitching staff (thanks to Dave Duncan) that isn't going to give Texas a lot to hit.

3) Ron Washington is a damn good manager, but Tony La Russa is simply better. In a 162 game regular season the Rangers win, but in a best of 7 the better manager almost always wins. That is La Russa.

4) Yadier Molina. The rangers have a lot of speed ranking 3rd in the majors in stolen bases. It hasn't been a major part of it's offense, but it has been a part of it. Molina simply shuts down any teams running game. Another small blow to the rangers offense.

P.S. Here's a little nugget of trivia for you. By the time baseball got to Arlington the Cardinals had made 12 world series appearances.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

I think you can usually find reasons to believe at this time of year. I'm not saying you're wrong, Strider, just that overall, there are sufficient reasons for the Rangers to be favourites. But the Phillies were stronger favourites, and we managed to slip past them

Game on.

 

[dgfred]

Given the quality of your predictions so far, I almost feel I should thank you for backing the Rangers.

What were your predictions pre-playoffs ?

 

[Darkness]

While I'm fairly biased; I'm going with the cardinals to win this one for a couple of different reasons.

1) The Rangers offense is amazing at ranger stadium, but hasn't traveled all to well throughout the regular and post-season. Combine that with the fact that they are going to have to bat the pitcher at Busch and that further diminishes it's away offense. Meanwhile the Cardinals, looking at every team's road games (no home games), had the best road offense in the majors. The batter friendly ranger stadium and the introduction of Allen Craig in the DH will only improve upon that. Craig has 12 homers in 218 at-bats. "The home-field advantage for the Cardinals isn't because they get to play at Busch, it's because Texas has to."

2) The Cardinals are not a pitching staff that is going to straight up challenge hitters (much like they saw in Detroit). They are not going to throw inside fastballs nor are they going to try for strikeouts. This is primarily a ground ball pitching staff (thanks to Dave Duncan) that isn't going to give Texas a lot to hit.

3) Ron Washington is a damn good manager, but Tony La Russa is simply better. In a 162 game regular season the Rangers win, but in a best of 7 the better manager almost always wins. That is La Russa.

4) Yadier Molina. The rangers have a lot of speed ranking 3rd in the majors in stolen bases. It hasn't been a major part of it's offense, but it has been a part of it. Molina simply shuts down any teams running game. Another small blow to the rangers offense.

P.S. Here's a little nugget of trivia for you. By the time baseball got to Arlington the Cardinals had made 12 world series appearances.

You make some excellent points, but I really doubt LaRussa will let Allen Craig DH. IMHO it is far more likely that Craig will play RF in Arlington while Lance Berkman plays DH. Which is even better 'cause Berkman is barely adequate in RF and Craig has more range there...

 

[Zack]

While I'm fairly biased; I'm going with the cardinals to win this one for a couple of different reasons.

1) The Rangers offense is amazing at ranger stadium, but hasn't traveled all to well throughout the regular and post-season. Combine that with the fact that they are going to have to bat the pitcher at Busch and that further diminishes it's away offense. Meanwhile the Cardinals, looking at every team's road games (no home games), had the best road offense in the majors. The batter friendly ranger stadium and the introduction of Allen Craig in the DH will only improve upon that. Craig has 12 homers in 218 at-bats. "The home-field advantage for the Cardinals isn't because they get to play at Busch, it's because Texas has to."

2) The Cardinals are not a pitching staff that is going to straight up challenge hitters (much like they saw in Detroit). They are not going to throw inside fastballs nor are they going to try for strikeouts. This is primarily a ground ball pitching staff (thanks to Dave Duncan) that isn't going to give Texas a lot to hit.

3) Ron Washington is a damn good manager, but Tony La Russa is simply better. In a 162 game regular season the Rangers win, but in a best of 7 the better manager almost always wins. That is La Russa.

4) Yadier Molina. The rangers have a lot of speed ranking 3rd in the majors in stolen bases. It hasn't been a major part of it's offense, but it has been a part of it. Molina simply shuts down any teams running game. Another small blow to the rangers offense.

P.S. Here's a little nugget of trivia for you. By the time baseball got to Arlington the Cardinals had made 12 world series appearances.

Or you could just go with these four simple points.

1. The Rangers have better hitting.

2. Pitching is basically a wash.

3. The Rangers have better defense.

4. The Rangers are better baserunners.

 

[Lambert Simnel]

1. The Rangers have better hitting.

Not sure it's that clear cut. A season long of 0.800 team OPS for the Rangers, vs 0.766 for the Cardinals. Given we're comparing AL vs NL, I'm not sure that's significant. When you add in the ballpark, I think there's a reasonable argument that St Louis are a better hitting team. (If you look at something like http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/parkfactor/_/year/2008 which compares runs both scored and given up at home to those scored and given on the road, Rangers Ballpark is a very hitter-friendly ballpark (yeah, telling us something we don't know), while the new Busch stadium is consistently in the bottom half of the table.)

Anyway, enough stats - we find out for real starting tonight.

 

[Zack]

The Cardinals might have a better 1-2-3 punch in the middle of their lineup, but the Rangers have a deeper lineup.

 

[Strider]

The Cardinals might have a better 1-2-3 punch in the middle of their lineup, but the Rangers have a deeper lineup.

The cardinals batted .293 on the road. The rangers batted .264 on the road. Even worst? There is a 143 run difference at home than on the road for the rangers. That is a significant amount. This is a team that has been hitting very well in a hitter friendly park. This is not even looking at the fact they are going to be batting a pitcher on the road as well.

Also there was one attempt by the rangers to steal a base tonight. Molina caught him. Also related to my predictions above:

“They pitched me totally different, and I was expecting that,” Cruz said. “Away and the breaking pitches. I didn’t see anything inside.”

 

[Darkness]

Some nice chess moves by LaRussa in game 1...