Tag: 2008 MLB Playoffs (Page 7 of 10)

      Cubs fans vs. Rays fans – who has it worse?

      October 9, 2008 /

      The State brings up an interesting argument: Which baseball fans have had it worse – Cubs or Rays? The site goes into great detail and suggests that Tampa fans have had it worse.

      Chicago Cubs FansEnough is enough: The poor, beleaguered Rays fan deserves a defense…Cheering for the Cubs is like carrying on with a rotten tooth; cheering for the Rays has, until this year, been like being stabbed in the face repeatedly with a butter knife.

      Consider the plight of the Tampa Bay baseball fan. For pretty much the entire 20th century, he didn’t even have a team. If you don’t count that as suffering, consider that in the 1980s and 1990s, his city was regularly used as a means to extort other baseball-having cities into building new stadiums—the Twins, White Sox, Rangers, Mariners, and Giants all teased Floridian fans with threats to move to Tampa/St. Petersburg, but none of those deals came to pass. When Tampa did finally get a team in 1998, they instantly became the worst franchise in baseball—and perhaps in all of American pro sports.

      Since 1998, the Cubs fan has watched his team play in October four times; the Rays fan has watched his lose 90 games 10 times. While the Cubs fan has taken in games at Wrigley Field, the finest park in the major leagues, the Rays fan has trudged into Tropicana Field, the only park in baseball whose ground rules distinguish between four possible calls that can be made on balls that strike one of several catwalks suspended over the field…Cubs right fielder Sammy Sosa hit 129 home runs in 1998 and 1999; former Rays right fielder Aubrey Huff is the team’s career leader with 128. On a given game night there are probably 8,000 Cubs fans drinking on Clark Street; the Rays could muster only 8,000 fans to a recent rally celebrating their epic ascent to the postseason.

      I guess the question really becomes, is it a great suffering to have your team make the postseason but never win anything? Or never make the postseason at all? Personally, I would much rather have my team make the postseason every couple of years than to know they have no hope and then proceed to watch them lose 90 games. Although I’m never going to be the one to tell a Cubs fan they haven’t suffered.

      MLB

      Brennan misses the point about baseball postseason

      October 9, 2008 /

      Christine Brennan of USA Today writes that the format for the baseball playoffs needs to be redone.

      Angels-Red SoxTo pique fan interest, lure sponsors and maximize TV ratings, MLB has, over time, adopted a three-tiered playoff system — four divisional series leading to two championship series to, finally, the World Series — which by definition diminishes the meaning of the regular season.

      Talk about your mixed messages. On the one hand, the game is at its pastoral best when it is played out over time, when it meanders through the summer like a lazy river, when patience is rewarded, when one game by itself may mean so little.

      Then, once we hit October, baseball becomes manic. The marathon turns into a sprint, especially in the division series, which still are the quirkiest of arrangements, just a quick, best-of-five-games test.
      Of course, every team knows what the rules are. None of this is new to them. And what infuriates purists delights the masses. When teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were only six games above .500 and had the 15th-best record during the regular season, are potentially just four games away from the World Series, that’s the kind of story that brings people running to their TV sets.

      But let’s examine that sentence again. A team with the 15th-best record in baseball is four games away from the World Series. And the teams with the two best records in the game are at least 169 games from the World Series — next year’s World Series.

      Like all other big U.S. professional sports, baseball elongates its season not necessarily to crown the year’s best team, but to meet and perhaps exceed all financial, marketing and entertainment goals.
      But not every last bit of regular-season integrity need be lost. It’s time for MLB to go back to two divisions in each league, with the top two teams in each division making the playoffs. In other words, no more 15th-best teams allowed.

      Brennan makes a great point that in the end, baseball wants to market itself in the best way possibly to make more money. But MLB is a business, so of course it wants to make more money and will continue to think of ways to do so.

      Where she misses the point is that it’s not the league’s fault that every infielder for the Cubs made an error in the same game against the Dodgers, or that the Red Sox continue to own the Angels in the postseason. And only four teams in the postseason? How is this fun for fans? Without a salary cap, more times than not the teams that spend the most will go to the playoffs. (And before anyone says anything, I know that the Rockies and Rays made the playoffs the last two years with small pay rolls. But look at the Rockies – they couldn’t sustain their World Series momentum this year because they don’t spend enough to compete year in and year out.)

      The postseason format is fine. It’s getting a cap in place that should be the league’s top priority. But that will never happen.

      MLB

      Red Sox have eclipsed Yankees as premier team

      October 8, 2008 /

      As Murray Chass on Baseball notes, the Boston Red Sox have supplanted the New York Yankees as the premier team to beat in the AL East.

      Jacoby EllsburyThat conclusion isn’t based strictly on the outcome of this year’s division race, though the season is symptomatic of developments in the lives of the Yankees and the Red Sox. In a more general way, the Red Sox have demonstrated that they are smarter and more adept than the Yankees in judging talent, in trading, in scouting, in player development and in strategic planning.

      The teams have similarities that are useful in judging the quality of their operations.
      The Red Sox went to Japan and signed Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Yankees went to Japan and signed Kei Igawa.

      The Red Sox have a young center fielder, Jacoby Ellsbury, who is instrumental in igniting their offense. The Yankees have a young center fielder, Melky Cabrera, whom they sent to the minor leagues in August.

      The Red Sox have a young second baseman, Dustin Pedroia, whose .326 batting average fell two hits short of winning the A.L. batting title and who led the league in runs scored, multi-hit games and doubles, tied for the lead in hits and was fourth in total bases. The Yankees have a young second baseman, Robinson Cano, who needed eight hits in the last three games to get his on-base percentage over .300.

      The Red Sox needed a starting pitcher and in mid-August traded for veteran Paul Byrd, who compiled a 4-2 record in eight starts. The Yankees needed a starting pitcher and in June yanked Joba Chamberlain out of the bullpen and put him in the starting rotation, where he suffered a shoulder ailment that cost him a month.

      The Red Sox needed to trade their best hitter, Manny Ramirez, and in a three-team deal that included Pittsburgh got Jason Bay, who batted .293 with a series of key hits that fueled critical Boston victories.

      The Yankees needed a hitter and, five days before the Bay trade, turned to the same team, the Pirates, and got Xavier Nady, whose batting average for the Yankees was 25 points less than Bay’s was for Boston and whose on-base percentage was 50 points and slugging percentage 53 points less.

      This is what people continue to miss about the Yankees and their spending. Just because they can spend more, doesn’t mean that they’re better off. Yes, there should be a cap in place so that all of the spending is even. But the Yankees continue to shoot themselves in the foot with all of their freewheeling contracts and trading, because they’re not developing young, marquee talent anymore like they once did with Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bearnie Williams. They thought players like Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano and Phillip Hughes would develop like the aforementioned names, but those three haven’t panned out yet, at least not how the club thought they would.

      The article is right – the Red Sox have been better at judging talent and making trades over the past couple years and it’s exactly why they’re playing in October right now while the Yankees are at home plodding ways to get CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Manny Ramirez.

      MLB

      Jon Lester new Josh Beckett of postseason for Red Sox?

      October 7, 2008 /

      In the 2007 MLB Playoffs, there wasn’t more dominant pitcher than Boston’s Josh Beckett. The Red Sox essentially rode his postseason performances to another World Series title and are doing the same thing again this year, only with a new face: 24-year old Jon Lester.

      Boston set up an ALCS showdown with the Tampa Bay Rays by beating the L.A. Angels 3-2 in Game 4 of the ALDS Monday night. And as Adam Kilgore of The Boston Globe writes, Lester was superb.

      Jon LesterFor the second time in a week, the Red Sox placed the hopes of their season on the broad, 24-year-old shoulders of Jon Lester. He had already replaced Josh Beckett, spitting at the pressure of the Game 1 assignment as easily as he dispatched the Los Angeles Angels. Lester did even more last night, taking a leap toward becoming every bit the October legend Beckett is.

      Lester’s feats so far this postseason challenge belief, defy expectation. He has twice faced the lineup that won more games than any other major league team and for 14 innings has not allowed an earned run.

      Lester hurled blinding fastballs and devastating curveballs for seven innings last night, giving up four hits and zero runs in the Red Sox’ 3-2, ALDS-clinching victory.

      Lester has grabbed these playoffs by the throat and made them his personal showcase. He has now thrown 22 2/3 consecutive innings in the postseason without allowing an earned run.

      Do you want to know why the Yankees and their billion-dollar lineup have continued to fail to reach the World Series lately? Because of pitching. It’s that simple. They don’t have the pitching that Boston continues to produce. Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jonathan Papelbon – the BoSox win in the postseason because of their pitching. And we’re witnessing let another great performance by a Boston pitcher this year.

      MLB

      Rays prove they’re more than just a nice story

      October 6, 2008 /

      With their 6-2 win over the Chicago White Sox Monday in Game 4 of the ALDS, the Tampa Bay Rays are moving on to the ALCS for the first time in franchise history. And as Tommy Rancel of MVN.com puts it so perfectly, the Rays no longer should just be considered a “nice story”, “pleasant surprise” or a “Cinderella tale.” They’re legitimate World Series contenders, no matter who they play in the next round.

      Tampa Bay RaysThe Rays were supposed to contend for .500 at season’s beginning. In June, they were just a nice story, but they were destine to fail. Before the All Star break, they crashed to reality and lost first place and were supposed to never get it back. In August, they were peaking too early and would collapse in September. In September, the pressure would get to them and the Red Sox were supposed catch them and win the East. Once the Rays won the East and clinched a spot in the ALDS their experience was going catch up to them come October.

      They would open the ALDS against the more experienced White Sox, who won three straight elimination games to get there. The Sox would have much of their 2005 World Series team in tact and Mark Buehrle, one of the tough lefties that was supposed shut the Rays down, said he wanted to face the Rays because he thought they were the easier matchup. Oops, somebody forgot to tell the Rays all that. The Rays brushed the dirt off their shoulders all season long and now are just four wins away from going to the World Series.

      Well now what are they going to say? My bet is nothing. When push comes to shove the Rays have passed every test put in front of them.

      Well said. It’s easy for the media to follow trends. The White Sox had the experience and had won recently at this level. But as I wrote after the Rays’ win in Game 2, experience isn’t everything. Congrats to the Rays.

      Not to take anything away from Tampa, but it must be noted how depleted Chicago was coming into the playoffs. Not having bats like Carlos Quentin (36 HRs, 100 RBI, 96 runs) and Joe Crede (17 HRs) in the lineup certainly hurt. And the Sox run production in this series is a clear indication of that.

      MLB

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