Sorting Out the 2011 Playoffs
On a day where Yahoo Sports had a red light blinking breaking news flash that said “Tom Brady Cuts his Hair” I gotta say, last night was pretty entertaining in the baseball world. The only team that ho-hummed it was St Louis. With the Cardinals and Rays both getting in on the final day of the season it’s difficult to guess how they’ll do in the playoffs since they were basically all-out to get in. Carpenter and Price both had to pitch yesterday so I’m not sure when they will come up in their respective playoff games.
The Rays have 3 legit stud pitchers they can throw out there to start a game (Price, Shields and Hellickson). St Louis isn’t built like that, they’ve got 4 guys who all have that “Storm Davis” feel to them. Carpenter has been very good the last month but the other 3 are just *guys*. Plus their closer situation is a joke. La Russa might hesitantly tell you that his closer is Salas but the truth is that there isn’t a guy down in that bullpen who La Russa trusts to close out a game. The Rays have Farnsworth closing this year and he’s been reliable but I just don’t like that guy based off what I saw from him earlier in his career. Dead straight fastball is what I remember. Maybe he’s changed his game, I don’t know.
That Rays game was just a wild ride, baby. I didn’t start watching it till someone texted me in the 8th inning. Did Girardi do anything wrong in that game at least in terms of *baseball book* stuff? I don’t think so. He obviously had a game plan of who the first 4 or 5 pitchers would be. They did take a 7-0 lead. His goal was obviously to prepare for Game 1 of the playoffs. Why should he be required to go all-out to win a game he didn’t need to win? I don’t have a problem with him pulling his starters as the game went on. Again, they were up 7-0. Once the Rays came back there was no reason for Girardi to change the game plan he had going into the game. If the team was good enough to build a 7-0 lead it’s obvious he wasn’t trying to lose the game last night. And why should the Yankees be required to keep all their aging players in a game that went extras and could have easily gone longer than 12? They did the minimum amount to compete in the game. That’s all you should be able to expect them to do in a game that was all about staying healthy and resting up for Game 1 vs the Tigers………
The FINAL Flap Fantasy League Standings
(a little gratuitous here, I am only posting the standings to highlight the 4 pt beat down I dropped on the league yesterday. Emphatic win for Team Flavor 🙂 I put the entire standings up so you can see how hard everyone played. “Moves” is the total number of waiver wire adds as well as any trade transactions that they participated in. Blade and G-Head played hard till the end. Fun playing with all you guys this year!)
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I did reach my modest goal y’day of moving up a notch for the final FL standings. But when you said I was plummeting I mocked you. Denial is often impenetrable until it’s too late.
My only goal was not finishing last. I would like to personally thank Irish and Ferret. 12th place. Yessssss…….
Flav’s battle cry (motto on his team page) was “If my dick was made of cheese, you’d all be fine cheddar connoisseurs” and boy, did that turn out to be true. When I was floundering away at 9th place, with 60 something points, I decided to change my team motto to, “My team is made up of fine cheddar connoisseurs until further notice” to reflect his dominance over my team specifically and the league in general. I came back to take 3rd place, but frankly, the beat down is still evident when you look at the total points he beat everyone by. I take solace in winning my other Yahoo baseball league, albeit, this is the one I wanted.
By the by, I would be remiss in not congratulating MacDog/John (crazydiamonds) for an outstanding inaugural start in fantasy league play. Your team was outstanding and was even further back then my team at one point (see the league graph), so props are in order for you too. Great job John! To all the other Flappers – you all competed to the end and let’s do it again next year! 🙂
Lesson learned for me: as in real life, it’s a long season. I didn’t even think you, Blade, would overtake me. This isn’t mere smugness. I’m still not sure why I plunged (or Dennis). Maybe when I traded Neil Walker to you. I always tended to do better by waiver moves rather than trades.
Pawlie, I saw your post from yesterday about Wilkie Collins and “The Woman in White.”
You have to read Drood from Dan Simmons…fantastic book!
“Drood is a 2009 novel written by Dan Simmons. It is a fictionalized account of the last five years of Charles Dickens’ life told from the view point of Dickens’ friend and fellow author Wilkie Collins. The title comes from Dickens’ unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The novel mixes factual biography from the lives of Dickens, Collins, and other literary and historical figures of the Victorian era with a complex plot, complicated even further by an unreliable narrator.”
Flav, my first comments got lost in the nether world, so I will summarize, congrats on kicking our ass in fantasy. I got to 90 points in late July and then went on vacation and my team started its descent….
I would rather we do a live draft next year and I dont think anyone got close to 1800 innings pitched, we should go back to 1600.
Following up about potential roster picks, I will give you 1-2 odds that JSanchez is gone this off-season. Management comments about being tired of his mental lapses and focus is all you need to hear. They are not going to pay him $5 mill plus and still have Zito to deal with. Zito will be the 5th starter to try and save his face and management’s. Plus, with Zito on the books for two full year’s and a buyout on the third year of $7 mill, plus Timmy getting at least $17.5 mill next couple of years and Cain moving up to $15 mill by 2013, they are not going to pay Sanchez…
And to respond to Twin’s comment on Crisp, I am not saying he is my preferred choice, I just see this team settling on him…it is the Sabean way.
Someone proposed a trade for Bonifacio…would anyone find a J. Sanchez, Peguero and Runzler deal for Bonifacio and Logan Morrison within the realm of possibility? Bonifacio takes care of the lead-off/shortstop issue and Morrison and Marlins may have had enough of each other…Morrison may be a better, younger option than someone like Quentin…
So I am thinking it would look something like this:
1) Bonifacio – SS
2) Franchez – 2B
3) Panda – 3B
4) Cuddyer – LF
5) Posey – C
6) Belt – 1B
7) Morrison – RF
8) Torres – CF
They will be saving $29 mill on Ross, DeRosa, Affeldt, Tejada, JSanchez and Burrell. That gets payroll to about $90 mill, leaving plenty of room for Timmy going to $17.5 mill and I think we need to take care of Panda and buy out some free agent years. Maybe he gets bumped up to $3 mill next year. Add in the $7 mill for Cuddyer that I would offer and Bonifacio maybe bumping up to $2 mill, payroll then will roughly match where it was last year. Javier Lopez is due Affeldt like money though, so that takes things to around $120 mill.
Cheaper options than going after Reyes, Beltran or Rollins…Ross is going to end up with the Braves…
Girardi is under zero obligation to use his closer in a meaningless game…he kinda has bigger fish to fry in the next couple weeks. Wade (from the Dodgers, right?) has had a pretty good season for them. boston has only themselves to blame–just like the rest of the entire month, they heimliched yesterday’s game with poor baserunning, fielding and lack of clutch hitting. And their high priced closer could not get the last out..
Final numbers for Matt Kemp: led the league in runs scored 115, rbis 126, and HRs 39, third in batting .324, second in hits 195, tied for second in steals 40. Gets my vote hands down for MVP.
Half a point behind doomin’ Dennis? Shit, I faded as bad as the Dead Sox. . . .
BLEEP!
That 1/2 pt. might as well be a 100. Heeeeeeeee!
From the Los Angeles Rams, (circa late 80’s?): “they laid down like dogs!”
wait, it was the NY Giants that said that and the niners were playing the rams. sorry. either way, win your games and quit whining. If you have to depend on another team winning you have no one to blame but yourself.
Yes, a great and interesting night of baseball. As for the Yanks, I might’ve managed similarly if I was in Girardi’s shoes, but in fact, that was not a meaningless game, it was really the first post-season game. Winner/loser determines who’s in the playoffs and in fact who NY might end up eventually facing. We’ll never know how it would’ve gone with Boston in it, but it’ll be interesting to see how the Rays affect things this time.
tampa acquitted themselves nicely. But Yanks slapped Price around early and often, on the road, Tex with a couple bombs, and in a real playoff scenario Rays are trying to comeback vs. Rivera. A lot of drama and trauma in the AL… great theater all around.
No need for down and out glooming here. Consider the respective fates of the Red Sox and the Braves, each of whom won about three more games than SF and both of whom lost it on the last day of the season with closer breakdowns and general ineptitude. Rays and Rangers could be an interesting matchup in the Divisionals. Cardinals vs Phillies looks like no contest. Detroit is just about certain to win one against the Evil Empire with Verlander. Snakes and Brewers are pretty closely matched in staff ERA and other pitching metrics. I think the Brew Crew may have an edge at the plate.
Had Sabean & Co. bitten the bullet about three weeks earlier with Rowand and TeNada, it is possible that those embarrassing losses to the Astros and Cubs, which sealed the doom of the team, might have swung the other way. Lottsa ifs, might have beens etc throughout the season; but five more wins would have taken this injury-riddled team into the playoffs.
Will the new ownership assemblage see the wisdom of continuing to put a highly competitive team out there on the field and take the measures needed to retain all the core players and fill in a couple of the blanks? That record-breaking attendance, plus all the concessions sales and whatnot means that the money is there. There is a winning and profitable formula in place. Keep a quality “product” on the field and the organization rakes in the bucks. No more springing big cash for tired vets on their last legs as viable MLers. One exception to that rule might by Mike DeRosa primarily as that one professional bat who can supply a key single with ducks on the pond. Good thing is he will come cheap. Another must will be to keep at least one of Affeldt and Lopez. Gotta have that reliable loogie. Two is a bit of a luxury, though at times vitally important.
Shit, Carl Crawford’s performance in Boston was pretty pathetic. It all came down to that line drive he couldn’t catch, and the throw he couldn’t make.
I don’t think the Yanks get too far in the playoffs anyway. Texas goes again. Don’t like Atl or StL. LaRussa and the Chop. Fuck ’em both. StL goes down meekly to the Phillies anyway. Would love to see the Brew Crew make the WS . . .
Yeah BLEEP both! Go Beer!
zzzzzzzzzzzz
Last night i found myself trying to figure out who i wanted to win and it came back to I hate the cards (see earlier rants) and while i don’t mind the braves as a club, I HATE the fans! unwatchable. My wife and sons are yankee fans so i’ll be seeing lots of them until they’re out. Don’t like the brew crew so may just root for the backs. hmmmm.
GH– regarding your trade of Dirrrrrrty, Peguero, Runzler, for Bonifacio and Morrison: I don’t think I’d do that. I’d throw Crawford in instead of Peguero but I don’t think they’d go for that since they have Hanley at SS. Having said that, Peguero is probably going to be trade bait since Brown is ahead of him as our future CF. And I’m actually more interested in Morrison than Bonifacio. So from that standpoint, I think I’d keep Dirrrrrty since we need him next year and trade Peguero and Runzler for Morrison. The Marlins might do that.
Morrison isn’t being traded to anyone. I think I’ve covered the 6 year deal with good young players many many times. Maybe if Morrison got busted for exposing himself, it could happen. And after Dirty and Surkamp, we have exactly zero possible MLB starters after the big 4 in the system except- Zitfuck.
Trading Sanchez in the OS makes no sense. Maye next July if he performs but they need him on the staff.
GH, thanks for that very interesting literary tidbit that I did not know.
Note to GH . . . I came within 15 innings of the 1800 (trying to catch up with the leaders and moreover, hold off Dennis in SO and Orb of Wisdom in wins). However, I agree with you – having the 1600 innings ensures more strategy in the Flap league.
I need to evaluate the playoff teams, but right now, the biggest impression for me are the Phils in National League and Texas in American League, with the Phils winning the entire enchilada.
Whether Girardi had an obligation is not the issue MLB has an obligation to insure that teams that have clinched the PS field a representative team when their opponent is still in contention for postseason. The situation as it is now could have a travesty where, as an example, Yankee manager Rondo Hatton plays his scrubs while ( pretend for a moment that Boston’s opponent has clinched) the manager of Boston’s opponent does as Manual did, and plays his best..without any guidelines, the potential for flat out scandal is there. As to Rivera, not using him was criminal. The fucking guy has closed over 600 games- meaningful and meaningless for years and years. There was ZERO reason not to at least show enough integrity for the contest to close the gam,e with his fucking closer. Anyway, as said, Rondo had no obligation, but MLB does. It was wrong. IMO.
I understand the opposing position and as far as the manager’s responsibility, it is correct- he doesn’t have an obligation. Francona has even said he didn’t have a problem with it ( what else could he say). It’s MLB that has the responsibity to insure a level playing field. If Charlie had played his scrubs, Atlanta could very well be in the post season. It’s simply not fair that the manager of a team already in the postseason has the ability to jigger his LU to influence who else gets in. It would not be easy to craft a rule but I think it should be looked at.
I get your point, but how would you require that? How would it be defined, or implemented? Anyway, I have to say, in Girardi’s defense that his team DID manage a 7-0 lead with “scrubs.” And can you blame him for managing for the playoffs? doesn’t matter, the Yanks will lose — and, yeah, Charlie Manuel looks like the bigger man.
No. Rivera had no business appearing last night, and after accomplishing the record he did after 161 games, Girardi has the right not to play him. Do you really think bochy would have used Wilson in a case like that, with 3 rounds of playoffs coming up where he might want to use him til his arm fell off?
The last thing mlb needs is more regulation from bud. You cannot force a mgr. with expanded rosters late in the year to only play his everyday guys because of what matters to another team—ridiculous argument. He didn’t have his RF pitching or his SS catching.
Interestting Flap FL numbers. blade and GH made more moves than a U-Haul rental
At least in basketball and football the coach is widely acknowledged to be a lowllife scumbag if he does what Girardi did. Only in baseball is laying down considered good strategy.
Bill Walsh did it in 1988 (Phil Simms: “They lay down like dogs.”) His reputation didn’t seem to take a hit.
Giants lost to the Jets earlier that day with the NFC East title on the line. Simms probably shouldn’t have said that, but he was one of the few Giants who played that game like the playoffs were at stake.
Which reminds me, the following year I went to the Niners-Giants MNF game at the ‘Stick, and it was funny to hear the Niner fans making “Woof Woof” noises at Simms all game.
Congrats to Flav, and thanks for the kind words Blade, who somewhere along the way predicted that BF would overtake us all. Indeed he did, and there was little we could do to stop that train. When a guy picks up Pavano for the final day and gets rewarded with a 5-hit shutout, well, that’s D-Backs-like destiny going on there.
I can’t believe I’m about to defend the Yanks, but their #1 — and only — priority is to prepare for Game 1 of the playoffs. They made it known that Mariano was unavailable for last night’s game since he came in to pitch the 8th inning of a game they were losing the night before. And the Yanks were still one out — one strike — away from winning last night; no one would be going off on the Yanks if Wade got Johnson out. Also, in the 14-inning loss to Boston on Sunday night, Girardi did not use Jeter or A-Rod as a pinch-hitter, and there were plenty of opportunities to do so. In the end, all of this wouldn’t have been possible without an epic collapse by the Red Sox. They have no one to blame but themselves.
As I said, lacking any guidelines, the managers can do whatever they want. That doesn’t make it right. I suspect the sentiment would be quite different if it was the Rays who were out under the same circumstances.And the fact remains that, as it is, a manager has the ability to wrongfully yet legally influence the make up of the postseason. Rivera was unable because he pitched Tuesday? Gimmee a fucking break.He threw 11 pitches.
Believe me, Twin, I’m not crazy about it either. In 2009, the Jets made the playoffs in large part by rallying in the second half to beat the undefeated Colts in the second-to-last game, all because Manning sat out the second half. Unfortunately, when there’s a wild-card system in place in which teams that don’t finish first can still make the playoffs, these things are going to happen. I don’t recall anything like this happening in baseball before 1995.
Well, I expected to be savaged for my opinion. Not so bad, so far..
I don’t know how much this played into it, but the Phils have an extra day off before their first playoff game and the Yanks don’t. Maybe if the Yanks were starting on Saturday we would have seen Mariano last night. But hey, I’m all for Girardi bashing, and if there’s any justice, the Yanks get knocked out by Tampa in the ALCS.
Anything worthwhile out of the Sabean-Bochy presser?
Check out Baggarly’s Twitter- lots of VERY interesting stuff.
http://tinyurl.com/2alod2t
BLEEP the Playoffs…….I’m into FOOTBALL!
Huff put on notice, they want Beltran back, Kepp probably not, expect Affeldt back, Nate to be RFer, considering keeping Ross, say Hector was overmatched, Zits will report to camp but not in running for starting , Dirty considered to be 5 starter, Surkamp not ready..
In world full of danger and intriguing acronyms, one man stands among the others, capable of being our Reliever When We Have A Really Huge Lead. Barry Zito … is … RWWHAHL!
Coming soon to a ballpark near you.
Did you throw up in your mouth at the end there bbbbill?
That is one efficient, succinct summary. I admire journalistic simplicity without static.
thanks
Bryan Stow in the sun with his boy..
“Stow was moved to a cardiac chair on Friday and wheeled onto a secluded patio. His family watched as he sat in the sun with his eyes closed, then asked him how it felt to be outside. “It’s magical,” he said.”
Sweet.
What a great photo…In tears looking at that while listenting to this:
Schulman: “Sabean discusses his priorities for 2012”
http://blog.sfgate.com/giants/2011/09/29/sabean-discusses-his-priorities-for-2012-hint-you-wont-be-seeing-him-holding-up-a-prince-fielder-or-albert-pujols-jersey-at-a-press-conference/
Just a side note: The HRs by Johnson and Longoria were as cheap as they come and wow, a bloop infield single wins it for Phillie. What a night…
And let’s see, it’s OK what Girardi did but it’s criminal what Reyes did to try to protect his average?
Reyes after the game “They have to understand, too, what’s going on. They have to feel happy about it if I win the batting title”
I mean, Bobby Thomson’s was an out in may other parks, too, but so what. I don’t care what Reyes did EXCEPT it sounded as if he demanded it, whereas Beltran did it graciously for Beltran (to finish at .300). But I’ve not heard that Terry Collins opposed it. There’s a long history of stuff like that on the last day. Mets extended Collins, BTW.
Q. Will Francona go? My bro in Boston sees him going to Chisox.
Apropos of nothing, did anyone see this?
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/Perfect-Dodgers-8217-Eugenio-Velez-sets-recor?urn=mlb-wp21402
Poor Gino. Saw him at 2 fan appreciation days. Respelndent with his best hit-man mac-daddy shades . . .
Donnie Two-Trips gave him 7 ABs in September. I’m sure I’m in the minority again, but I think it totally sucks to not give the guy more of a shot to break his oh-fer..
Writer sounds like a complete asshole and mean spirited. Giants and Dodgers both saw something in him, whereby he was promoted through the minors to the MLB . . . This columnist should go after players with undeserved Superstar reps who fail to perform versus someone who is trying to hang onto his big league dream. Maybe it’s just me – but it seems gratuitous to kick someone when they are already down.
With that speed, he should be able to get at least a few bunt hits. But, that wouldn’t be exciting…
I have two favorite baseball teams. The Giants and whoever is playing the Dodgers. My dislike for the Phils and their fans has increased the last couple of years, that now, they are also in that Dodger category..
I have never been a fan of LaRussa, but Go Cards.
Brutal take on Velez . . . I hadn’t read the whole thing.
Bozo, that’s my reasoning for wanting the Brew Crew. I hate StL and LaRussa. The Phillies? Please. They’ve won 2 titles in ther 118 year history, and feel it’s their God-given right to win all the time.
Any AL team blows, but I’d like to see Detroit get there. Although I think it’ll be Texas again. Detroit got jobbed by StL a few years ago. LaRussa bunted their way to the WS win . . .
What about ARF?
I remember when Velez was hiit by the foul ball.Just due to the ferocity of the drive, the hushed tones of the announcers, the very brief shot that showed him going down as if he’d been shot in the head- I really feared the worst for him- that he’d been killed. Then I thought of what a delightful, if totally unschooled and undisciplined player he had been. If there was a fifteen minutes of fame for Gino, it was when he was recalled in 2009 and for about three weeks was as dynamic a player as we’ve seen in years…
yup, that’s the time we saw him at my first AT&T gm and he signed an autograph afterward in the driveway for my daughter; sweet guy
and was ANYONE more exuberant to win in the postseason? dude was always the first one galloping out there
Or don’t use my pic . . .
Nvrmnd. Got yer email, Mike . . .
For me I want to piss off the television people and make it the Rays/DBacks world series. two small market teams!! PaulinAsia, I guessing the Typhoon that hit the Philipines didn’t affect you?? just wondering. Have some online friends that I have not heard from in a few days that live there.
The Dbacks have a world series title so if the Rays win it all that would be cool
I went to Mr. Bill2square’s link and decided to not only read the Splash report on Sabean and Bochy news conference, but the comments . . . OH OH. It’s been at least a year since I’ve ventured over there (and 2 years since I have commented). The clueless comments still amaze. For example . . .
“bobmc7
12:29 PM on September 29, 2011
If we have to choose between keeping Cain and Lincecum, I think Cain is the better choice. He doesn’t have the same speed, but Timmy is the bigger long-term injury risk because of his unusual mechanics.
Cain could end up being the next Kirk Reuter – a non-flashy but reliable starter who wins tons of games over a long career (Reuter never made a lot of highlight shows but he ended up with one of the best career W/L ratios in Giants history).
I’m worried that Tim could end up flaming out over injuries just like Shawn Estes and Jason Schmidt did.”
My comments – Besides the stupid comment about which pitcher has a better fastball, his imbecilic comment about Cain being the next Kirk Reuter left me dumbfounded. Does he even know what type of pitcher Kirk was? Absolutely two different pitchers who got hitters out in their own distinct way. His last comment about Schmidt flaming out over injuries is stupid too. Jason had a very long career for a pitcher and I am fairly certain that Timmy would love to pitch 14 years like Jason did (1995-2009). Estes pitched 13 years . . . not too shabby either.
Splash is still a desert . . . Thank God for the Oasis (Flap Blog).
Yeah, even Mike has given up over there. I posted a coulpe days ago about Schulman’s rip-piece about not wanting Bonds as a batting coach, taking the pro Bonds side, and it was promptly deleted within 5 minutes. My 1st post in about 4 months.
There are fools over there that kill anything fairly positive.
Chuck, this was only one comment . . . Others were just as stupid.
Question – They are allowed to delete innocuous comments such as recommending Bonds as a batting coach? Who is deleting it, e.g., a blog monitor that works for the Chronicle or one of the bloggers?
I treid it once a while ago, and it worked. I picked the most innocuous post I could find and click ‘report abuse’.
In about 10 minutes the post was gone. I told whoever it was that I was just testing the system.
I don’t know if it has gotten harder to delete stuff, but there are apparently a few people with multiple handles that vote stuff down and get it deleted if it happens to be too different from whatever their opinions are. Stick around too long, and you get banned. As Mike and a few other voices of normality have been already.
When posts are selected as abusive, they go to a moderating firm (apparently in Canada) that then decides their fate. I think they just say ‘kill ’em all.
“When posts are selected as abusive, they go to a moderating firm (apparently in Canada) that then decides their fate. I think they just say ‘kill ‘em all.”
Chuck, this struck me as too funny, i.e., a moderating firm located in Canada understands something besides Hockey? I guess on second glance, yeah, they do have the Toronto Blue Jays. Or, the Gate could have hired a moderating company in Tobago or Fiji. Ha.
I’ve talked to Vlae Kershner about that. The moderators are a firm that is independently contracted. He says that SFGate is unhappy with them, but they’re under contract. Yeah, even I’m sick of dealing with troll after troll. I post in spurts, doesn’t take long to tire of it again. Panda is still mercilessly ripped over there, it’s a fucking joke.
Get Crabby!
If only the panda-bashing was limited to blog-land, Mike. half (more?) the callers to KNBR relentlessly call him out as a fat clown and a joke. Notwithstanding he led the team in all offensive categories and missed 40 games. His numbers this yer would have been around 35/110 given a full season.
Laughable that people don’t understand what they are seeing right in front of them.
HA HA
I just listened to Pawlie’s CD of various players and managers comments . . . I never knew that there were that many creative ways of saying the “Fuck” word.
😉
Makes this place sound like Vatican City in comparison.
Our Father who art in heaven……..
Remember that George Carlin routine about substituting the word “kill” with “fuck”? Madfucker’s still on the loose. Stop me before I fuck again. Fuck the ump, fuck the ump, fuck the ump, fuck the ump, fuck the ump. Easy on the clutch Bill, you’ll fuck that engine again.
“To fuck a mockingbird”
First sheep, now THIS!
Chuck in action!
Link to the right for playoff picks. I’ll do a prize if anyone aces it.( not a PC, but somthing cool )
On the morning of Aug. 26, the Braves were up 9 ½ games in the National League wild card race and 10 ½ games on the Cardinals, who were a game behind the Giants at the time. Former Baseball Prospectus statistician Clay Davenport calculated Atlanta’s odds of making the playoffs at that point by simulating the remainder of the season a million times and gave them a 98.99 percent chance, or barely more than a one-percent chance of failing to make the playoffs.
On the morning of Sept. 4, the Red Sox had a nine-game lead in the American League wild card race with 24 games left to play. Davenport calculated their chance of making the playoffs at 99.78 percent, giving them less than a quarter of a one percent chance of missing out on October play.
This is why you never write off a team until the math says so . . .
We get this list of the 11 greatest choke jobs in regular season history:
Year Team Peak Odds Peak Date
1995 Angels 99.99 Aug. 20
2007 Mets 99.80 Sept. 12
2011 Red Sox 99.78 Sept. 4
2011 Braves 98.99 Aug. 26
1969 Cubs 97.90 Aug. 19
2010 Padres 96.71 Aug. 26
2005 Indians 96.50 Sept. 24
1983 Braves 96.39 Aug. 10
1964 Phillies 96.15 Sept. 17
2009 Tigers 96.04 Sept. 30
1921 Pirates 94.57 Aug. 22
Interesting stuff from Sabes…zero mention of Kepp as a SS, might not even be back to play 2b unless FS still doubtful. So there’s hole number one.
Andres appears to be option of last resort…CF and by extension lead off, would be hole number two.
Expresses interest in re-signing Beltran, but acknowledges he might get better offers. sounds like “big bat in the middle of the LU” would be hole number three.
Sabes can lock up all the pitching he wants, but I’m curious how he fills the holes he admits are there. His pitching was here all this year, and SF couldn’t handle crunch time, with beltran and sando in the LU. See how this plays out.