Yankees, Looking Powerless, Face Elimination

I just can't believe that the Tigers are going to eliminate the Yanks. Say it ain't so Joe!

posted by texasred at 05:41 AM - reply - flag:

I am sad about my Twins. they had a heck of a season. The imple ran into a team that wanted it more. The Twins and Tigers come for the toughest division this year

posted by daddisamm at 06:10 AM - reply - flag:

I suspect the Yanks will put it back together and come back, but it does my heart some good, at least for the moment, to think of them as the 21st century Atlanta Braves -- they have not won the series since the last year of the 20th century, after all. They have enormous talent, they have and will continue to win a boatload of games, as well as easily winning their division every year, but they lack that essential blue collar ingredient (a Paul O'Neill or Andy Pettitte perhaps?) to win the whole shootin' match. Condolences to Twinkies fans.

posted by psmealey at 07:10 AM - reply - flag:

The Tigers game was incredible. I think that they have to beat the Yankees today; Bonderman outmatches Wright and there is no way they wan't to go back to New York.

posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:14 AM - reply - flag:

If Liriano had been I healthy, I can't help but think the Twins would still be playing. I think the Tigers have the edge in the pitching battle today. Bonderman v Wright? I'd take Bonderman any day of the week. Of course, they aren't pitching to the same lineups. Wright also had a better September. So, we'll see what happens.

posted by apoch at 07:15 AM - reply - flag:

I was actually given 10 cents for each time the announcers said last night, "This isn't the same Kenny Rogers." By the end of the game, I had earned $398.30.

posted by dyams at 07:20 AM - reply - flag:

Thank goodness that I saw that game with the sound turned down then. However, if you had a dime for everytime somebody in the bar laughingly yelled, "WTF was that?!" after every Rogers pitch, you'd have $398.30 right now.

posted by NoMich at 08:19 AM - reply - flag:

The Yanks need more youth and need to play as a team. Steinbrener's allstars are either too old,injured or not motivated enough to perform well. These overpaid fatcats aren't hungry enough to get the job done! Yankee managment needs to change their recipe for sucess.The fish stinks from the head down.

posted by buckner86 at 08:30 AM - reply - flag:

Yankee managment needs to change their recipe for sucess.The fish stinks from the head down. The recipe was good enough for the division title and the first victory in this series. Maybe they just faced a pretty good pitcher on his game.

posted by justgary at 08:44 AM - reply - flag:

Thank the Lord. Yankees potent lineup looked horrible. Loved the look on all their faces. BUT.... you can never count them out. They are capable to turn it around as fast as they lost games 2-3. hopefully, it won't happen. Go Tigers. Detroit in 4....maybe?.....

posted by Ghastly1 at 09:49 AM - reply - flag:

Picture this: your team signs a pitcher with some fairly high expectations. After a pretty mediocre season on a winning team, he is routinely run out to pitch critical, series turning Game 4's and without fail he puts the opposition on a merry-go-round and your team in a big, very critical hole. Then, this same pitcher lands on a team for another post-season, a team for which you have some rooting interest, and he almost single-handedly takes the team out of the playoffs with just dismal performances, including walking in the series losing run. Then this same guy becomes the self-satisfied ace of a team that routinely has no pitching, and has accolades heaped on him for fabulous first-half performances that are long forgotten (like his team) by October. And then he punches a camera man, apparently unprovoked. THEN, the guy gets his cash cow, signs for $8 mil at age 41, goes to the post-season and pitches the game of his life against the same team he nearly buried with his putricity in the post-season 10 years earlier. Picture that this is your team. Forget that maybe you hate the team and $200 million dollars and yadda yadda. Man, I really just don't have anything good to say about Kenny Rogers today. I tip my cap with appreciation for the performance to Verlander, and will to Bonderman if he closes the door today, but Rogers gets nothing but my disgust and ire. His curve ball was awesome last night, and he had Jimmy-Key-like craft. There. I said something nice. That physically hurt. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of the surly jerk who opposed him last night, either. I was hoping they would both be bounced by the third inning and let some likeable players sort it out. Like Zumaya and Proctor. I love those guys. That would give Rogers and Johnson plenty of time to discuss the best way to take down a camera operator.)

posted by BullpenPro at 10:05 AM - reply - flag:

I couldn't read the article. But I sure am cheering for the tigers. I think this will be decided back in Yankee Stadium though. They won't beat the Yankees three in a row. Congrats to the Athletics. Didn't think they had it in them but they sure did show us otherwise. Also, Rogers had an awsome game last night. He made the highest paid team in the league look like little leaguers.

posted by kidrayter2005 at 10:11 AM - reply - flag:

Before we ascribe too much significance to a few playoff games and series, it's worth going back and noting that the playoffs are, essentially, a crapshoot. Are the Tigers a better team than the Yankees? Probably not. Can they be better over the course of four or five games? Absolutely. Look at the A's -- they win their first postseason series since 1992, something the superior 2000 and 2001 teams couldn't do. Or look at the Cardinals, who almost had the biggest collapse since the 1964 Phillies, but have taken a controlling lead against ther Padres. Is this the "real" Cardinals team finally showing up (as a number of commenters at the primary Cardinals blog I frequent suggest)? I think not -- the mediocre 83-78 team from the regular season is truer to the level of the ability and talent of this team. The difference over the past two games is that the relievers have made their pitches, whereas in the past (the second half generally and certainly the last two weeks of the regular season) they had not. That said, this Cardinals team may go as far or farther than the 100 win Cardinals team last year.

posted by holden at 10:11 AM - reply - flag:

I enjoy Yankee suffering, but can't say anything nice about Rogers, even though he threw a perfect game for my Rangers back in 1994. The two incidents where he physically abused a member of the local media -- knowing the journalist couldn't respond without jeopardizing his job -- were ridiculous.

posted by rcade at 10:14 AM - reply - flag:

Again, its not the team with the best roster but the hungry team. Many experts state that this Yankee team has the greatest lineup in history.However the Yanks seem to be bloated and sluggish.A Rod in particular is showing his true colors,useless in the big game.Because of their heart Detroit may go all the way.

posted by sickleguy at 10:36 AM - reply - flag:

Who said that the series was over? If they win today, they go back to the Bronx. And you can believe that the Yanks will pull out all the stops to win these next two. Anyone remember the Boston N.Y series? Anything can still happen.

posted by Kendall at 10:39 AM - reply - flag:

Detroit better not pop the champagne just yet....

posted by firecop at 12:41 PM - reply - flag:

Bless you boys!

posted by wingnut4life at 02:58 PM - reply - flag:

Who said that the series was over? The haters. Of course, they'll have plenty of whiny reasons why they shouldn't eat even a taste of crow if the Yankees win...

posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:03 PM - reply - flag:

Nothing like a little pre-emptive hater hatin'.

posted by rcade at 03:22 PM - reply - flag:

!st inning, both starters looking tough. This may be won with 1 long ball. I'll take the Yanks in this scenario every day of the week. I may not check back in for a day or so if they lose though, there's going to be more bashing on here than i can handle.

posted by louisville_slugger at 03:45 PM - reply - flag:

Many experts state that this Yankee team has the greatest lineup in history. I'm pretty sure those people aren't "experts". A Rod in particular is showing his true colors,useless in the big game. Or, more likely, useless in games people only seem to want to remember. 2004 ALCS: Games 1-4: .368/.455/.737 If Rivera does his job in Game 4, ARod wins the ALCS MVP and people shut up about it. Of course, no one wanted to blame Jeter and his .200/.333/.233 line during the entire series...

posted by grum@work at 04:06 PM - reply - flag:

Hopefully A-Rod won't make it to the ALCS,or the whole Yankee team as a matter of fact. If in fact they don't make to the World Series,or to the ALCS, Steinbrenner will be on a rampage pulling every hair out of his head. A-Rod can't seem to play on the big stage. Too much pressure. He'll wilt under the heat Man, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in his office,or be in the locker room when,or I should say....IF.... that does happen. I'm hoping the Tigers finish them off today. Nothing could be sweeter than to see the supposedly best team in baseball lose in the first round. Especially me being a Red Sox fan living 30 miles from Boston. Go Tigers,put the Bronx Bombers out of their misery.....Detroit in 4? A-Rod wilts under the pressure of playing on the big stage. They all go to New York figuring it's a shoo in for a World Series Ring. .

posted by Ghastly1 at 04:57 PM - reply - flag:

Especially me being a Red Sox fan living 30 miles from Boston. Oh christ.

posted by jerseygirl at 05:33 PM - reply - flag:

Nothing could be sweeter than to see the supposedly best team in baseball lose in the first round. Especially me being a Red Sox fan living 30 miles from Boston. Except maybe the red sox being in the playoffs? I mean, don't get me wrong, I want the yankees to lose, but it doesn't change the sox season. I don't get fans who seem to enjoy another teams failure more than their own success.

posted by justgary at 05:46 PM - reply - flag:

I mean, don't get me wrong, I want the yankees to lose, but it doesn't change the sox season. I don't get fans who seem to enjoy another teams failure more than their own success. Hey now! No thinking like that when discussing the Yankees and/or Red Sox! You are supposed to be illogical and irrational, to make broad sweeping statements about the opposing team and their fans! Polite discourse about this subject is just not allowed!

posted by grum@work at 06:02 PM - reply - flag:

Bonderman with a perfect game into the sixth is amazing against that lineup! He has not been the greatest for the last month.

posted by jojomfd1 at 06:25 PM - reply - flag:

it's over, let the bashing begin.....see yall in a few days

posted by louisville_slugger at 06:26 PM - reply - flag:

Look at those fans, look at that joy. That's great stuff. Go Tigers. Do it. Go all the way.

posted by jerseygirl at 06:32 PM - reply - flag:

You stay classy, Tigers Fans.

posted by The_Black_Hand at 06:42 PM - reply - flag:

If Liriano had been I healthy, I can't help but think the Twins would still be playing. And I'm sure the Mets would like to have Pedro and El Duque pitching as well. You have to battle through the injuries (and have a manager who can manage a pitching staff like Willie Randolph) Congrats Tiger Fan!

posted by cjets at 06:46 PM - reply - flag:

Don't get me wrong,grum@work it would be sweeter if it were the Red Sox, Buts whats wrong rooting for the next best thing? That being the Tigers. Yea Detroit. Congratulations to the better team in this series. That being the Detroit Tigers.

posted by Ghastly1 at 06:47 PM - reply - flag:

Hmmm. Surprisingly, I've found that the most effective way to remove your foot from your mouth is with a really, really big smile. Somehow, the September Tigers are gone and the April Tigers are here. All I can say is, "Welcome back, Boys!"

posted by ctal1999 at 07:04 PM - reply - flag:

Listen, I told you guys this wasn't going back to NY. Good pitching will beat...(you all can finish it). Look, before the series started, I was ticked we lost the division on the last day and now look where the Twins are...at home. To the guys celebrating with the fans--they deserved it, players included... That was sweet! That goes to show you all the compassion and spirit these guys have for each other. I beleive there will be more of this to come. Go Tigers!!

posted by sydney2006 at 07:12 PM - reply - flag:

$200 million or so just doesn't buy what it used to, George! Just a coincidence I'm sure, but the last time the Yankees won the World Series was also the last year that they had a team payroll of less than $100 million.

posted by graymatters at 07:26 PM - reply - flag:

Have a nice winter Yankees!

posted by ledzep77 at 07:57 PM - reply - flag:

$200 million just doesn't buy what it used to Man,how I agree with you. Big boy George goes out and buys his players,where teams like Detroit and others go out and get players ,and take a few years and build a team. How many more years is it going to take before ole George finally sees this? But George is to greedy and expects to win World Series every year. Not that every team doesn't want to win it all but George doesn't seem to get it. I don't really know what the Yankees have left in their farm system. But there comes a time when you've got to start building around a nucleas of younger players and a few crafty veterans. How much money is he going to spend next year on players that know George has lots of it and is willing to shell it out. Just keep doing what your doing George,and keep wondering why you have not won a World Series since the 90s. Or better yet, don't wake up. It'll just make it easier for all the other teams in the A.L. By the way,anyone out there know what the Tigers payroll was this year?....Just curious.

posted by Ghastly1 at 08:03 PM - reply - flag:

Wow. Heroic pitching performances from the Tigers. That's gotta be tough. Bonderman made that lineup look clueless.

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 08:19 PM - reply - flag:

Congratulations cc and Tigers fans everywhere! I will be waiting till next year with all of the other Red Sox fans but I am thoroughly enjoying this year.

posted by kyrilmitch_76 at 08:26 PM - reply - flag:

The Yankees can buy the AL East every year for the next twenty years, but they can't buy a crapshoot like the playoffs; lady luck can't be bribed. About the best the Yankees can do is tilt her just a bit. If the Royals can win three from the Tigers, the Tigers can sure as hell win 3 from the Yankees.

posted by spira at 08:35 PM - reply - flag:

Big boy George goes out and buys his players, where teams like Detroit and others go out and get players and take a few years and build a team. Free Agent signings by the Tigers (2006 salaries): Magglio Ordonez: $16,200,000 (highest on team) Ivan Rodriguez: $10,600,000 (second highest on team) Kenny Rodgers: $8,000,000 (third highest on team) Detroit players that made the 2006 All-Star team: Magglio Ordonez Ivan Rodriguez Kenny Rodgers So let's not say they just "built" the team. They used big money free agents as well. By the way,anyone out there know what the Tigers payroll was this year?....Just curious. Around $82,000,000, or 6th in the American League, and about $20,000,000 more than their next opponents, the Oakland A's.

posted by grum@work at 09:06 PM - reply - flag:

I'm hoping the Tigers finish them off today. Nothing could be sweeter than to see the supposedly best team in baseball lose in the first round. Especially me being a Red Sox fan living 30 miles from Boston. Yea, but you forget to mention that Boston didn't even get a sniff of the playoffs. You can't win every year. It just shows that money dosen't buy you a championship. It buys great players, but it cannot buy team chemistry. If it were up to me, Melky would have been playing instead of Matsui or Sheff, since it didn't appear they were ready for action. Hopefully in the offseason, the Yankees will drop Johnson, pick up Zito, and get some bench help and pitching. Some people don't realize that you cannot win every year- especially Yankees fans. Every dog has its day, and today wasn't the Yankees day- or week for that matter. The "Big Unit" pitched lousy, and the offensive unit was even worse. Oh well, Boston still lost the playoffs, so until next year... GO METS!!

posted by Kendall at 09:34 PM - reply - flag:

It buys great players, but it cannot buy team chemistry. Team chemistry is based entirely on whether the team is winning or losing. If your team is winning, you'll hear many stories about how good the "chemistry" is, and how the players are "loose" and there are "mavericks" that "get in teammates' faces when needed". When the team is losing, you'll hear many stories about how bad the "clubhouse" is, and how the players are "unfocused" and there are "cancers" that "piss off their teammates".

posted by grum@work at 09:50 PM - reply - flag:

I think this will be decided back in Yankee Stadium though. They won't beat the Yankees three in a row. Who was the idiot that said that? Oh yeah, me.

posted by kidrayter2005 at 10:03 PM - reply - flag:

Not entirely Grum- some teams can win, and not have the players get along. Last year, the Yankees were winning, and when Cano came in chemistry suddenly got much better, and wins resulted. I personally believe that wins are a result of team chemistry, not the other way around. Either way, im about to leave this thread for good, thinking about the Yankees is starting to piss me off.

posted by Kendall at 10:15 PM - reply - flag:

I don't really know what the Yankees have left in their farm system. Learn from past mistakes. We've uttered that in way before you joined, and were proved wrong with the likes of Cano, Melky, even Wang for that matter. Many a summer's night I've muttered, "Where the hell do they keep getting these kids?" as fill-in players for injured starters. Even the "stocked" farm systems aren't guaranteed to produce the next Ryan Howard or Liriano. You don't know until you know. Also? Ghastly? What others have been trying to say is, we're trying not to be "rub it in your face" sort of fans around here. I'm sure you, as a fellow Red Sox fan, understand what humble pie tastes like and embarassment feels like, especially when Boston, (my team, too), did their best impression of the 2003 Detroit Tigers for the last quarter of the season. It's totally cool to take joy in the Tigers progressing, but moderate your anti-Yankee hate a bit. Short of that, at least you could shut the laptop lid and be respectful by giggling quietly in the comfort of your home.

posted by jerseygirl at 10:28 PM - reply - flag:

Hey Grum, every team has players who make that kind of money you metioned that Mags, Pudge and the Gambler make...they are the veterans, they earned it. What you failed to mention is that there are 20 other guys on that team that came up from the farm or were aquisitions made by sound baseball minds. Let us not forget it takes a crafty gm to put the puzzle pieces together to develop a complete TEAM. I've watched this team all my life from the '84 wire to wire team, through the 119 lose debacle in '03, to today(surfing 'tween the baseball game and Michigan v MSU). It is ok to be burned that your team lost, but don't cry to the rest of us...cry to georgie about it..tell him to get an imagination and build a team the old fashioned way...without the check book.

posted by sydney2006 at 10:45 PM - reply - flag:

Hey Jersey, just so you know, I own a hat with a "B" on it. Thank you for sharing in our joyous celebration here in the motor city. I truly enjoyed the desimation a few years ago, and still consider that series one of the best I have ever seen.

posted by sydney2006 at 10:49 PM - reply - flag:

I can't enjoy the Yankees' early exit, as stunned as I am by this result. They haven't won a World Series in a century, people. I'm beginning to think they're a more sympathetic high-payroll team than Boston.

posted by rcade at 11:02 PM - reply - flag:

The best thing that happened to the Tigers was when they negotiated a salary cap for the NHL. That freed up Illitch's wallet to spend his money on baseball players instead of hockey players. Actually, that is just my personal opinion, not fact. But if you think about it, there are no such things as coincidences. Bring on the A's!

posted by wingnut4life at 11:11 PM - reply - flag:

To grum@work Thank you for pointing that out to me their free agents did cost them 82,000,000 million to sign. I did know that Ivan Rodriquez, and Rogers wasn't cheap. But I had no idea Ordonez cost them that much money. But you got to admit, their payroll is a little cheaper than that of the Yankees. . My point was look who is going to the ALCS, and who's not. Now it doesn't matter to me who wins it. But I am still leaning towards the Tigers. And who ever said a new manager really doesn't matter. You can't compare Leland and Alan Trammel Quite a turn around from a 41 win season a few years back to where they have gotten this year The Red Sox could of had him but passed and got Francona. Still no comparison Leyland is the better of the 2 Evev though we(Red Sox) went on to beat the Yankees 4 straight.and eventually sweep the Cards to win it all. I like Detroit against Oakland, but I think Oakland will give them a harder time than the over priced, overrated Yanks did. Detroit in 6 anyone?

posted by Ghastly1 at 11:13 PM - reply - flag:

To jersey girl My apologies out to you I'm not trying to rub anything in any ones face. I never came out and said I was a Yankee hater. I was just trying to point out the blunders that ole George I think has made in the past. Even though,to be honest with you.I do dislike the Yankees very much . But if you have read everything that I have posted, I have given the Yankees respect as 26 Championships is nothing to sneeze at. And I did write to not count the Yankees out of this last series,even when they were down 2 to 1, I stated that their lineup is potent, and don't count them out yet. So I don't think you read every thing that I post The last thing I want to do is to stir up a bunch of shit around here

posted by Ghastly1 at 11:44 PM - reply - flag:

it's worth going back and noting that the playoffs are, essentially, a crapshoot. The Yankees can buy the AL East every year for the next twenty years, but they can't buy a crapshoot like the playoffs Yes, baseball is more random than other sports, and the best raw talent doesn't always win, but some of you act as though we might as well roll dice instead of playing the games. You can build a team for the playoffs. You can build a team for a short series. Pitching becomes even more important, and the team that executes the best wins. That's not a crap shoot.

posted by justgary at 11:55 PM - reply - flag:

Give the Tigers credit: They played very well when it mattered most, and the old adage about pitching being more important in the post-season was proven true. I think we are in for a well played ALCS... Re: The Gambler, cameras can distort the truth.

posted by mjkredliner at 12:45 AM - reply - flag:

Hey Grum, every team has players who make that kind of money you metioned that Mags, Pudge and the Gambler make...they are the veterans, they earned it. The following 2006 playoff teams had every single player on their roster earn less than Magglio Ordonez in 2006: Oakland A's Minnesota Twins San Diego Padres New York Mets Los Angeles Dodgers St. Louis Cardinals It is ok to be burned that your team lost, but don't cry to the rest of us...cry to georgie about it..tell him to get an imagination and build a team the old fashioned way...without the check book. I'm not a Yankee fan, I'm a Blue Jays fan. My favourite team spent less money than your "big-budget" Tigers, so I'm not that upset. I just didn't like the idea of the Tigers being touted as some "small-market" draft-and-play-only team.

posted by grum@work at 12:52 AM - reply - flag:

By the way, The Curse of Donnie Baseball continues! 1977 - Yankees win World Series. 1978 - Yankees win World Series. June 5, 1979 - Yankees draft Don Mattingly. 1979 to 1995 - Yankees do not win a World Series, their longest drought in franchise history since winning their first World Series in 1923. October 2, 1995 - Don Mattingly plays his last game for the New York Yankees. 1996 to 2000 - Yankees win World Series in 4 of the 5 years. 2001 - Yankees hire Don Mattingly as a hitting instructor/coach. 2001 to present - Yankees do not win another World Series title despite making the playoffs every year.

posted by grum@work at 01:22 AM - reply - flag:

Wake up George! Detroit only spent 82,612,866.00 to kick your butts.Heads should roll.Well done Detroit!

posted by buckner86 at 07:10 AM - reply - flag:

Lets face it the Yanks got beat. I would would rather have seen the Oakland A's or the Twins take them down. I was fully believing that the New York Yankees were going to gt beat in the playoff s

posted by daddisamm at 07:33 AM - reply - flag:

I don't really know what the Yankees have left in their farm system. Arguably the best pitching prospect in baseball. You can build a team for the playoffs. You can build a team for a short series. Pitching becomes even more important, and the team that executes the best wins. That's not a crap shoot. That's true -- there are some things that correlate strongly with playoff success. I believe that Nate Silver over at Baseball Prospectus studied this and found that the three strongest factors for a team's playoff success are 1) power pitching, 2) an elite closer, and 3) good defense. You can certainly build a team around those traits. My point in saying that the playoffs are, essentially, a crapshoot is that the series are short enough that superior talent or even superior ability based on the three metrics above will not always win out in a short (5 or 7 game) series. (It turns out that the Tigers had a better aggregate score on those three factors than the Yankees, but Minnesota was much better than Oakland -- and it may be small consolation to those Toronto fans to know that their team had the best aggregate score on those metrics). And to win it all, a team has to win three such series. Of course that's not saying don't play the games. It's just saying let's not jump to conclusions about how some team can't get it done in the playoffs, or doesn't have the chemistry to win, or something like that (a fair bit of which seems to be going on in this thread) based on its performance over the course of a five or seven game series. There's a high degree of variability, randomness and luck involved.

posted by holden at 07:46 AM - reply - flag:

I never came out and said I was a Yankee hater. You really didn't have to.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:22 AM - reply - flag:

I just didn't like the idea of the Tigers being touted as some "small-market" draft-and-play-only team. Agreed - however, next to the NY juggernaut, everyone's payroll is small. The Tigers can't recover from putting $62 million on the DL for three months. Also - Yankee fans should expect the Yankee hate. It's a small price to pay for 26 championships. Also - what do you expect?

posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 10:34 AM - reply - flag:

Is there a list out there yet of free agents this winter? The Yanks will be targeting any young, hard-throwing pitcher...

posted by ajaffe at 11:44 AM - reply - flag:

There's a high degree of variability, randomness and luck involved. It gets less and less random when it happens year after year, though.

posted by dfleming at 12:01 PM - reply - flag:

Yes, baseball is more random than other sports, and the best raw talent doesn't always win, but some of you act as though we might as well roll dice instead of playing the games. No, because watching the games are a lot more fun and satisfying. And not giving the players a chance to play in the playoffs themselves would be unfair. But in determing who the best team is - even the best team built for the postseason, which is a bit different than the best team built for the long season - the playoffs will do that successfully about 15% of the time, while dice would do it successfully about 12.5 % of the time. If the Tigers and Yankees played their series 200 times, one team would probably win 101 times and the other 99 teams. Baseball teams which reach the playoffs are all very similar in quality. Which is why the playoffs are fun. You have no idea who is going to win ahead of time. You have to play the games to determine the winner. How good a team is in theory doesn't really matter much. What counts is how the games turn out on the field. And thus most teams - more than 3/4 of the teams - have a chance to win it all when they come to spring training. No other sport is really like that.

posted by spira at 02:56 PM - reply - flag:

posted by justgary at 06:37 PM - reply - flag:

Grum, you spelled favorite wrong...wait I almost forgot, you said you were a 'Jays fan. Listen man, I'm not trying to stir things up with you, all I'm saying is that there are the Yankees and then there are 29 other teams. Sometimes an owner has to do something like over pay for a certain player to erase 13 losing seasons and if he didn't do it I'm quite sure someone else, such as your beloved Bluejays owner, would have. It is what it is... a business, and owners of said business will do what it takes to at least stay close to the Yankees. I'm not sure what the farm system is like where you are, but ours is just starting to produce some players who may someday may be Yankees and that is the sad truth. Our teams draft and develop the players and then many leave for the big show on the island. Ultimately, the Yankees are there year in and year out and sometimes they get beat by a team that wasn't supposed to beat them. Sometimes it is those few times, like now, that we can sit back and enjoy it. Cheers, fellas, to our heros of the moment, the Detroit Tigers.

posted by sydney2006 at 08:25 PM - reply - flag:

If Liriano had been I healthy, I can't help but think the Twins would still be playing. Someone else would still have had to win a game. It seemed as if the Twins used all their magic to catch the Tigers and had none left for the post-season. But this is coming from a Dodger fan whose favorite team is 1-14 in the playoffs since we last won the title.

posted by LA-4-Life at 08:58 PM - reply - flag:

I'm still in shock that the Twins were swept. Santana loses, Torii makes a series ending(more or less) gaffe. It was just surreal. Please don't let that blown line drive be the last thing I remember about Torii in a twins uniform.

posted by tron7 at 10:59 AM - reply - flag:

The Twins just Didnt have what it took to win the series. Everybody was worried about the pitching and it really wasnt the pitching that let them down. Johan did his job that day and So did Boof. Radke could have had a win if only had the offence broken through, The Twins are going to go far with the group they half. Too much has been made of Torii's missed line drive. Its how he plays the game. This team wont have too many change next year I am really looking forward.

posted by daddisamm at 01:15 PM - reply - flag:

Too much has been made of Torii's missed line drive. Its how he plays the game. He still missed it and It was the biggest play of the series. I still love Torii and I don't want to change the way he plays but he just blew it. It sucks but I'll get over it if they bring him back next year.

posted by tron7 at 03:52 PM - reply - flag:

he just blew it. From the replays I saw, it was a pretty wicked "knuckler" off the end of the bat diving hard away from his dive. A tough chance at best, but if anyone can make that grab, it's Hunter. Sure wasn't in the Buckner category of "blowing it." Your Twinks displayed a lot of grit this year, you all.

posted by mjkredliner at 04:19 PM - reply - flag:

I'm not trying to be overly critical of Hunter it's just disapointing and bizarre to have the series hinge(IMO) on a misplayed ball from your perennial-gold-glove-winning- ridiculous-catch-making-center fielder. Also, imagine if this play happenned to Torii and he was a Yankee. A-rod might actually get a reprieve.

posted by tron7 at 06:23 PM - reply - flag:

But in determing who the best team is - even the best team built for the postseason, which is a bit different than the best team built for the long season - the playoffs will do that successfully about 15% of the time 15 percent? Do you have anything to back up that stat or did you just make it up? Uh, no, I didn't make it up. If each team in the playoffs had an equal chance to win the World Series, each team would have a 12.5% chance. Since some teams are better than others, teams that are better have a greater chance than 12.5%. There was an article detailing how random the playoffs are by Bill James in the 1989 Baseball Abstract (that book was not a James book, but he wrote the article). Obviously, with only 4 teams in the playoffs at that time, the odds were better - twice as high - for each team at each time. The team that is best built for the post season has the best chance to win the post season. Don't disagree. The best team in the postseason probably has about a 50% better chance to win the World Series than the worst team. Thus if the best team has a 15% chance, the worst team has a 10%. Predicting the result is very difficult in baseball, but looking at the result it's not hard to understand why team A beats team B. Well, of course it's easy to explain something after it happens, because by then you know what happened. If the Yankees had beaten the Tigers by scoring tons of runs, we would have been able to explain why that happened too. We can even explain why the Royals, the worst team in the majors, swept the Tigers the last weekend of the season to knock the Tigers out of first place. But that doesn't mean the results tell us anything about the merits of the two teams; the sample size of 3 or 5 or 7 games is simply too small for the difference in the teams' quality to play a significant role in who wins the series. Even the results of 162 games season have a lot of randomness in them; you'd have to play 1000 games to really determine the best team with a strong amount of accuracy. You can do the math itself; if you have one team that's of .600 quality, and another team that's of .570 quality, the .600 team will win a game between the two teams 53% of the time, a 3 game series 55% of the time, a 5 game series 56% of the time, and a 7 game series 57% of the time. When you get to really long, long series, the .600 team wil eventually win 99.9% of the time. (Obviously, this does not take into advantage outside factors such as home field advantage, the day's weather, etc. Note that I am not basing this on the team's season winning percentages, but on what the teams' winning percentages would be in an infinitely long season. ) See this article for a more mathematical explanation with some real numbers.

posted by spira at 02:07 PM - reply - flag:

Saturday, October 07, 2006

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