tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post2021331508936297989..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: Friday Baseball PostJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-27517439480079073942013-10-20T20:58:47.395-05:002013-10-20T20:58:47.395-05:00Yep, this year they lost 4 of last year's 5 st...Yep, this year they lost 4 of last year's 5 staring pitchers and one rookie replacement, Gast. They lost last year's closer, Motte, then last year's 8th inning guy, Boggs, who once again couldn't handle closing and was traded. Last year's 7th inning guy, Mujica, was worn down by closing until he couldn't pitch effectively any more. Yet next year they'll start camp with 8-10 pitchers who deserve to be starters. It's ridiculous.Pragmatic Idealisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06375225814206930812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-2706283986782034152013-10-20T00:47:31.861-05:002013-10-20T00:47:31.861-05:00As a Cubs fan, I've been waiting for the botto...As a Cubs fan, I've been waiting for the bottom to fall out of the Cardinals pitching staff for years, and it never seems to happen (Sidney Ponson, for crying out loud). Luck is always involved, but I have to admit they are shockingly good at evaluating and developing pitchers.Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12456796465979923295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-40155434008203301982013-10-19T22:23:05.409-05:002013-10-19T22:23:05.409-05:00I agree, Joe is technically good, but compared to ...I agree, Joe is technically good, but compared to his father Joe's announcing is soulless.Pragmatic Idealisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06375225814206930812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-27525332018668328062013-10-19T22:11:27.898-05:002013-10-19T22:11:27.898-05:00I'll take partial issue with your "lucky&...I'll take partial issue with your "lucky" comment. I was born in 1955, the year our neighbor, Ken Boyer, became the Cardinals third baseman. Some luck is required no doubt, but these young pitchers (6 rookies on the playoff staff) are the product of a system of selection and training that works. The rookie closer, Rosenthal, for instance was a college shortstop with a total of less than 5 innings of pitching experience when he was drafted. It is a common practice for the Cardinals to draft non-pitchers and train them to be pitchers.Pragmatic Idealisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06375225814206930812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-87202047400566497492013-10-19T22:09:28.122-05:002013-10-19T22:09:28.122-05:00I was thinking about your last Friday baseball pos...I was thinking about your last Friday baseball post, the part about sabermetrically-challenged announcers, watching the Tigers-Sawx tonight. Joe Buck is pretty well-regarded, it seems, and if he's not especially sharp, he's certainly young and hipster enough to carry the semblance of sabermetric cred.<br /><br />Tonight Buck was laying out the challenge facing the Tigers. In that Joe*Buck*is*gonna* BLOW*YOUR*MIND tone, he awe-inspiredly noted that 18 teams in LCS history have gone on the road down 3-2, and only 4 emerged victorious!<br /><br />Course, as the stats guys surely know, if you hold an LCS with a fair quarter in your change jar, and heads takes a 3-2 lead, there's a 25% chance that tails will come back to 'win' 4-3. Repeat that 18 times and tails will come back, oh, something like 4-5 times.<br /><br />I do enjoy listening to Joe Buck. I think it helps if you try not to think too much about what he's saying.CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-58500345135570187532013-10-19T19:43:50.292-05:002013-10-19T19:43:50.292-05:00The Cardinals benefit from experience in the post-...The Cardinals benefit from experience in the post-season but most of all they've been lucky with their very young pitchers, specifically Wacha. He stopped the Pirates when they had the momentum though by the end of the game they were just one big swing from winning it all, and he shut down the Dodgers twice. It's a truism but it's true: the team that peaks in post-season for whatever reasons is hard to beat. We saw that in the last two Giants world championships.Captain Futurehttp://dreamingup.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-5373336886314827952013-10-19T10:13:12.705-05:002013-10-19T10:13:12.705-05:00Isn't the real difference that, from 1962-1989...Isn't the real difference that, from 1962-1989, the Giants only made the NLCS once, while the Dodgers have been in the NLCS three times since their last WS appearance? That is what really makes the Cubs' drought so bad -- not only haven't they been in the WS for eons, but they have very rarely come close. And, of course, there are many teams with longer droughts than the Dodgers. <br /><br />PS: You realize, don't you, that the only people who care about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry are Giants fans; Dodgers fans don't really care.Gordon Danningnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-59473417588231142132013-10-18T23:10:07.112-05:002013-10-18T23:10:07.112-05:00Funny, reflecting on a quarter-century of Giants h...Funny, reflecting on a quarter-century of Giants history, it occurs to me there should be a place for the '93 team. Sure, they didn't win anything (and as it happened, neither did the Braves - at least not anything important), but man, was there ever a more beautiful group of losers than the '93 Giants?CSHnoreply@blogger.com