While we don’t want to take our eye off of the ball with regard to this …
I think we can take the travel day back to San Francisco to remind everyone of this…
As for the junior circuit, I honestly have no dog in either of those fights, but I will make a few points for the sake of coverage:
1. The Kansas City Royals ended the season at 89-73, a full nine (9) games behind the Anaheim Angels of Anaheim Who Established Moving To Suburbs While Claiming To Be In The Nearby Metropolis Way Back When. Yes, they’re hot and trendy and all of the “oh I love an underdog because of reasons and stuff” people have that bandwagon creaking under a load heavier than the combined weight of every member of the Kansas City Barbeque Society. But they’re also a worse team than the Angels who are getting hit lucky in a short series…
2. The Angels, on the other hand, have systematically become the Yankees West, buying any free agent star who might be able to get through medicals for half of their games while letting Arte Moreno eat the ones that go bad on them. So it’s never bad seeing a little comeuppance there.
3. The Orioles are some sort of cloaking device or something, because I seriously can’t even maintain a thought about them for more than 20 seconds on end. I mean, every time I try to think about the 2014 Orioles all I see is Jeffery Maier, Tony Torasco, and Joey Belle’s hip replacement surgery. I will say that they’re competing pretty strongly for the crown of Oakland-East with their chemical assisted training department; Nelson Cruz, Chris Davis, and Chris Steve Pearce – who has cracked an .800 OPS exactly once, as a 27-year old making 38 plate appearances for the 2010 Pirates. Pearce is hitting 293/373/556 (930) as a 31 year old this year. I’m not saying, I’m just saying. Apparently Miggy Tejada’s supplier still knows a guy that knows a guy in Baltimore’s locker room…
4. That leaves the Tigers. Who are sort of a weird, bland mixture of the worst parts of Anaheim and Baltimore, only with more ruin-porn photo blogs. Mostly, when it comes to Detroit, we’re hoping that they lose another heart breaker where their bullpen implodes on them again, so that we can package Shae Simmons and BJ Upton for, I don’t know, Rajai Davis or something.
Perfect ballgame last night: great pitching, Posey was out, Natspos destroyed.
Based on replay rules, we know Posey would have been ruled out on the infamous steal, but would the infield fly rule have been overturned, and would Kent Hrbeck been sentenced to death? Are those type of plays reviewable?
I wanted to post “#Nattidue #Nats #HAIL_SATAN” after last night’s SF/WAS game on Facebook, but my wife wouldn’t let me be a jerk (her family has a ton of Nats fans).
I appreciate your referring to him as Joey Belle.
@2, pretty sure the IF fly rule would have been unreviewable as a judgement call. same with hrbeck. There was another game i cannot recall the specifics of (possibly due to the healing process) but it involved the playoffs and a strike zone that was very wide. Anyways, I’m not sure replay would have markedly changed the fate of the franchise we love (other than that posey call)
Video review would have kept the Yankees out of the playoffs in ’96 (Jeffery Maier.) The Braves would have beaten the Orioles in that Series. The Braves with back to back titles in 95-96, and the sustained dominance through 2005, would have completely re-wrote the public narrative about the franchise.
absolutely, you could write an mlb version of the N-if-L
Already done…. http://www.amazon.com/The-South-Had-Won-Civil/dp/0312869495
Actually, the counterfactual I’d be interested in is if the Pirates go ahead and trade Bonds to the Braves in ’92 and Atlanta opts to resign him instead of Maddux.
I hate that the Giants had to be the ones to win, but I love that the Nationals were the ones to lose that marathon of a game last night. Couldn’t have happened to a better team. The situation led to what I think it one of my favorite tweets of all time:
@chasehughesCSN: Players are hugging and being consoled by parents and families outside of #Nats clubhouse. This one is hitting them hard.
Clearly, little league players should not be kept up past midnight playing baseball.
Also, I find it rather odd that Tim Hudson started the two longest games in postseason history. I only wish the bad guys had lost the first 18-inning nightmare, too. There were far too many mentions of Kyle Farnsworth and Joey Devine last night for my liking.
Hey, how ’bout those O’s?
#6
That Maier/Jeter HR was in Game 1 of the ’96 ALCS, a series the Yanks won in 5. It’s a bit of a stretch to say replay would’ve kept the Yanks out of the WS. While it may be the worst non-call in MLB post-season history, replay may not have made any difference in that series.
Braves should’ve won that WS anyway. Can’t blow that 6-0 lead in Game 4—that’s really what lost it.
That will do, Alex Gordon. That will do.
For all of our condescending of the Royals and Dayton Moore, they’re in the LCS, a series we haven’t been in since 2001.
Like the NHL, just get to the post-season & roll the dice. You never know…
And now let’s get those Nats out of the equation.
I guess Dayton Moore is officially out of the running for Braves GM, right? I doubt KC will let him go now, especially since they could win the WS. It doesn’t seem that many of the posters here like him, but would he be worse than Wren? If the Braves did go after him, could (would) they offer more money?
Depends on how you feel about sacrifice bunts and eight-year “plans”, I guess.
I think Hart is going to be our GM. They will just wait to make it official.
It was pretty tough this weekend watching Friday’s Carpenter v. Kershaw at bat and yesterday’s Gordon v. Wilson at bat.
Both of those guys stepped up in a big situation, hung with the at bat,*looked for a pitch they could drive*, and then *ACTUALLY DROVE IT*.
Outside of Freddie Freeman’s April escapades, it seems like nothing about the Braves’ year resembled those big moments. It’s like the best we could hope for would be a Heyward groundball single. Maybe the way Andrelton was swinging the bat the last week of the season counts. I know I’m talking nonsense–but damn what happened to our offense this year? How were we this bad?
For those of you that hate the make the playoffs and let the dice roll method of building a team I give you (pause for effect) The Kansas City Royals.
We do not want Dayton Moore. His name is on a contract with a dark lord somewhere.
@19 ‘How were we this bad?’ BJ, CJ, Simmons, a large dose of AFG. I haven’t looked but I am betting that even our ‘good’ guys had rough Septembers. A total collapse that rivals the Iraqi Army.
I am ok with Hart. Seems like good people are willing to work for him.
@mlbbowman: Schuerholz is getting the gang back together. Former scouting director Roy Clark and Dave Trembley are both returning. #Braves
@mlbbowman: Brian Bridges will become the #Braves new scouting director. Minor and Wood are among the players Bridges has landed recently.
New thread up. This one is a ATL Baseball History thread, not my shenanigans…