This is the time of year that sucks...Five days with no home baseball and the fact that after a great season you can run into a buzz saw and find yourself setting up T-times after losing your first short series.
Sometimes your team is the buzz saw, sometimes it's the board.
This is the time of year that sucks...Five days with no home baseball and the fact that after a great season you can run into a buzz saw and find yourself setting up T-times after losing your first short series.
Braves did not attempt to lay down a single sacrifice bunt this season until last night, game 161. It's not the game I remember but hard to argue with 101 wins (so far). Byproduct of the DH.
It's a byproduct of analytics. The numbers showed that the out was more valuable than the base. The numbers also suggested that pitchers change their approach. It's similar to the shift discussion. There was a thought that a lot of guys would be bunting to beat the shift. Nope. Pitchers work the inside when the shift is on, making it really hard to bunt "the other way".
Bunting increases in extra innings now, because of the runner at second with no outs.
The other issue is that players aren't as good at bunting as they used to be.
Braves did not attempt to lay down a single sacrifice bunt this season until last night, game 161. It's not the game I remember but hard to argue with 101 wins (so far). Byproduct of the DH.
I came across an article that mentioned that six teams were going to have to pay the luxury tax this year...the Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Padres, Phillies, and Red Sox. Five of those six teams all made the playoffs, which got me wondering...how correlated is payroll to overall wins? So, I pulled the data and ranked the teams to see who pays the most per win, to basically see how close the teams are to each other. What's interesting is that, while the five teams mentioned above did make it to the playoffs, they ranked near the bottom in how much each win cost their team, with Philly being the worst of the bunch. Cleveland, Tampa Bay, and Seattle, on the other hand, were all in the top ten overall in getting the most bang for their buck, so to speak, with the other playoff teams all just above the league average. Of course, it's not all money...it also depends on the division each team is in, injuries, etc. Still, it makes one wonder what these teams would do with a more level playing field.
Bonds McGwire and Sosa who hit more than 62 HRs all did it in '98 '99 and '01. The height of steroids. And they all consumed them. A 3 year period. Everyone else: Judge Maris and Ruth were '22, '61 and '27 . All decades apart.
A truly great season. And he hit .311 walked over 110 times in a year which was one (or the?) of the worst batting average year's of all time, with no pitchers hitting in either league . When the steroid players hit their HRs, it was a league that was hitting so well that they challenged old-time major league hitting records.
Maris wore 9, 61 homers 61 years ago, Judge # 99, and yankees record going into last night was 99-61. Funny #s.
Not a Yankees fan in the least, but Judge has had an amazing year. To be honest, though, I'm just glad they'll stop cutting over to his ABs during the sports I'm normally trying to watch. LOL
... in a year which was one (or the?) of the worst batting average year's of all time, with no pitchers hitting in either league . .
Moneyball told us that AVG wasn't a great metric, so here we are. Mike Yaz (last night) who came up to bat and the Giants' Mike Krukow was saying "... only hitting .212 so they're â HOLY COW HE'S GOT 17 HOMERS?"
Bonds McGwire and Sosa who hit more than 62 HRs all did it in '98 '99 and '01. The height of steroids. And they all consumed them. A 3 year period. Everyone else: Judge Maris and Ruth were '22, '61 and '27 . All decades apart.
A truly great season. And he hit .311 walked over 110 times in a year which was one (or the?) of the worst batting average year's of all time, with no pitchers hitting in either league . When the steroid players hit their HRs, it was a league that was hitting so well that they challenged old-time major league hitting records.
Maris wore 9, 61 homers 61 years ago, Judge # 99, and yankees record going into last night was 99-61. Funny #s.
Congrats to Judge. I don't think he'll be able to get the Triple Crown unfortunately - just 3 points behind the AL leader for batting average. Still, a fantastic season.
So MLB is doing something I don't ever remember seeing before: the first round of the playoffs is entirely in the higher-seeded team's home ballpark.
No travel in between. Seattle (@ Toronto), Tampa (@ Cleveland), San Diego (@ the Mets), and Philly (@ St. Louis) have to win 2 out of 3 on the road to advance.
So I got to wondering... how many visitors win the first round? I wouldn't be surprised if 3 of the 4 visitors win.
Bonds McGwire and Sosa who hit more than 62 HRs all did it in '98 '99 and '01. The height of steroids. And they all consumed them. A 3 year period. Everyone else: Judge Maris and Ruth were '22, '61 and '27 . All decades apart.
A truly great season. And he hit .311 walked over 110 times in a year which was one (or the?) of the worst batting average year's of all time, with no pitchers hitting in either league . When the steroid players hit their HRs, it was a league that was hitting so well that they challenged old-time major league hitting records.
Maris wore 9, 61 homers 61 years ago, Judge # 99, and yankees record going into last night was 99-61. Funny #s.
Huh, so it's not a given? I'm new to this whole baseball post season thing. Thought it was like the pizza party after a little league game. Sprinkles are for winners!
Well they've got to survive the new Wild Card Round Robin that I don't claim to have even tried to understand, get through the "playoffs," and to the World Series, which, since it starts on October 28, if they get to the Series then you're right, there will be no golf in October.
Braves secure the division title & a first round bye with a day to spare. I think they were in first place less than 10 days of the entire season, but they will be in first on the most important day. I'm ready to fasten my velcro pocket flaps.
Gotta admit I was nervous about last night's game with Odorizzi starting for Atlanta, but he proved me wrong. Glad they wrapped it up yesterday, because had it come down to a must-win situation tonight, I don't know if I could take the stress!
Huh, so it's not a given? I'm new to this whole baseball post season thing. Thought it was like the pizza party after a little league game. Sprinkles are for winners!
Braves secure the division title & a first round bye with a day to spare. I think they were in first place less than 10 days of the entire season, but they will be in first on the most important day. I'm ready to fasten my velcro pocket flaps.
I remember 1993 like it was yesterday. Ok, maybe like it was last month, but I think both the Braves & Giants won 100 games & the Braves clinched on the last day of the season. I guess you could call me a lifelong Braves fan.
I remember that well. I actually went to my first-ever MLB game that year, the second-to-last game of the season in Atlanta. Both teams were tied at that point...the Braves beat the Rockies that day, and SF beat the Dodgers. Then, the following day, the Braves won again against Colorado, and then LA absolutely spanked the Giants, if I remember correctly. And that was pre-wild card, so the Giants missed the playoffs all-together because of that last day. As a Braves fan since being a kid watching Dale Murphy on TBS, I was over the moon.
As a life-long NJ resident and Phillies fan, it's hard to decide if I'm enjoying the Phillies crawling into the playoffs (after going under 500 in September), or the fact that Mets fans are losing their minds even before the playoffs start. With good reason. The Mets had a 10.5 game lead at one point in the season. They have the highest payroll in the game, and they had people injured when they were leading the Braves by so many games. That lead slowly shrank...until the teams met this weekend in Atlanta. The Mets entered the weekend with a 79% chance of winning the division...which now stands at 2%
Mets
Braves
Entering series
79%
21%
After 1st game
64%
36%
After 2nd game
39%
61%
Now
2%
98%
Now, Philly has to finish behind San Diego, so we play St. Louis (gotta love when division winners have the higher seed even when they lost 10 more games that the first wild-card) then Atlanta instead of the Mets and the Dodgers. Amazing...It's October, and in Philly our football team is undefeated and we're still talking baseball. We'll see how where we are in a week.
There's a pretty large New Jersey contingent here at RP...Many of them have gone silent unfortunately.
As a life-long NJ resident and Phillies fan, it's hard to decide if I'm enjoying the Phillies crawling into the playoffs (after going under 500 in September), or the fact that Mets fans are losing their minds even before the playoffs start. With good reason.
The Mets had a 10.5 game lead at one point in the season. They have the highest payroll in the game, and they had people injured when they were leading the Braves by so many games. That lead slowly shrank...until the teams met this weekend in Atlanta. The Mets entered the weekend with a 79% chance of winning the division...which now stands at 2%
Mets
Braves
Entering series
79%
21%
After 1st game
64%
36%
After 2nd game
39%
61%
Now
2%
98%
Now, Philly has to finish behind San Diego, so we play St. Louis (gotta love when division winners have the higher seed even when they lost 10 more games that the first wild-card) then Atlanta instead of the Mets and the Dodgers.
Amazing...It's October, and in Philly our football team is undefeated and we're still talking baseball. We'll see how where we are in a week.
