Playoff baseball, 10/12
DMZ · October 12, 2006 at 3:55 pm · Filed Under General baseball
Cards at Mets. Boooooooooooooooooooooring. Also, Fox sucks.
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Fox. What you always feared television would become.
Pardon my in-gorance but what’s boring about Pujols, Delgado, Beltran, Rolen et al duking it out for a trip to the WS? I personally like the Cards and, well, baseball so I’ll be interested.
Say what you will about Jose Reyes’ true value, but he’s one heck of an exciting player to watch.
I hope the Mets win. Me and my friend got 10 bucks on who wins the WS. I say the Mets are going to win and he said the Tigers are going to win.
Say what you will about Jose Reyes’ true value, but he’s one heck of an exciting player to watch.
It looks like this year he was a pretty valuable player. .300/.354/.487 as a SS in Shea is nothing to scoff at. It’d be nice if he walked a little more, but you can say that about almost any player. His SO/BB ratio is decent enough that I suspect he can continue to hit for some average and for some power, just like he is now.
I haven’t seen him play SS much, though, so I’m not sure about his value there.
Let’s go Mets.
Also, Reyes — incredible improvement this season. He doubled his walk rate, going from a terrible to a decent leadoff man. I still think he’d be better off down in the order, even if only one slot, but he’s no longer horribly miscast at the top of the lineup.
One thing about the emergence of Reyes and Wright: no chance that ARod will just change boroughs in a final attempt to prove that “he can make it there, so he can make it anywhere.” Well, unless he wants to switch to 2B.
But this speculation about both him and Lou Piniella ending up with the Cubs seems especially weird.
Oh, and — not that this is really news — with regard to Matsuzaka: “We would like to do everything possible to allow him to fulfill his dream,” Seibu Lions acting owner Hidekau Ota said Thursday, adding that a formal announcement will be made after the conclusion of the Japan Series, which starts on Oct. 21
The Mets rotation ranges from Glavine to Oliver Perez, should be an interesting series now that injuries have evened up the score.
Oh and…
GO CARDINALS!!!
Ooooo…he just called Reyes “The Ignitor”. I guess he never met Boom Boom.
If Reyes is an ignitor, then what did/does that make Rickey Henderson?
#6– now, see, the one I saw had Lou to the Cubs & Alex to the ChiSox…
every time they talk about the stadium, I can’t help but think of the Rutles, and the concert they played at Che Stadium (named after the famed Cuban Guerilla leader, Che Stadium)
I’m sorry, Jeff Weaver does not throw 96 MPH.
Floyd’s out again. He probably shouldn’t have been on the roster in the first place… I would have gone with Milledge, who at least bats right to offset the rest of the outfielders.
Weaver whacker!
Re Floyd:
Damn! I was hoping to get a few cheap doubles before he went kaput. Oh well.
Jose Valentin can play the OF, and in theroy, can hit right-handed. LoDuca has seen sometime out there…
Say what you want about FOX, but that high-def slow motion cam whoops ass.
Fox’ radar guns are rigged. They consistently show a couple mph higher than normal for the playoff ‘Wow’ factor. They want the fans to oogle over these dozen+ pitchers that all miraculously throw 100+ mph come October.
So why did Weaver “suddenly” become a better pitcher in St. Louis? Did he steal some Jeff Suppan pixie dust?
That was one of the first things that I’ve ever seen Albert Pujols do that can be described as “stupid”.
That was just fugly– I can’t recall Pujols looking that bad on the bases.
Did Beltran fake Pujols out, I wonder?
Is anyone else bothered by the in-game visits with the managers? I guess I just think the manager has more important things to worry about than answering stupid questions during the game.
The visits are stupid. I’m not watching now so I guess they don’t bother me at the moment, but they really annoyed me before.
There’s that too — they’re stupid. They also bother me from a “let the guy do his job” standpoint.
It was a great play by Beltran, he just kinda ran and flipped without really setting up to throw.
But again, what was Pujols doing that far off the bag on a shallow fly? There’s no excuse for that.
Is anyone else bothered by the in-game visits with the managers? I guess I just think the manager has more important things to worry about than answering stupid questions during the game.
Leyland always makes me chuckle doing those. He’s so hard nosed and down to business, looks like he doesn’t enjoy doing them at all.
At least they record them in them inbetween innings.
Dirt Cam is stupider.
Wow, McCarver just (unintentionally) sighted Nichols’s Law of Catcher Defense.
There’s that too — they’re stupid. They also bother me from a “let the guy do his job” standpoint.
Same here.
Now I am reminded by I wasn’t watching. Not sure who the announcer is but:
“If you see a catcher play every day and hit .216 you know how good he is defensively.”
That’s just false on so many levels it’s absurd.
That must mean Rene Rivera plays defense like… umm… Jesus or someone.
I wonder if advertisers of those little pre-inning “announcements” are “expecting” treatment like:
“Budweiser – expect everything. Expect some rain now.”
You’d think it would detract from their few seconds of fame, but I guess they made up for it by showing some empty bottles. Uh, or is that actually a good thing?
Seriously, who does nationally broadcast games and does them well? ESPN? I think NBC did baseball better but they were hardly perfect and the difference is partly the difference in eras. In the 70’s, announcers respected the game and shut the hell up some of the time. Though, Joe Garagiola’s Raymond Chandler-esque similes were a bit much. Costas was good but he was forced and annoying at times too. I’m not sure where I’m going with this except to wonder if the critics of Fox MLB broadcasts (with whom I agree, btw) are comparing them to something they like(d) or to some platonic ideal of a broadcast. I’m curious.
Costas, eh?
“These aren’t the Nippon HAM FIGHTERS, these are the New York Yankees.”
BELTRAN!
You can put it on the scoreboard…. yes!
ah, I was wondering when they’d realize they were facing Jeff Weaver…
Beltran: The new Mr. October.
#34– say, I understand Trey Hillman is a managerial candidate in Texas after his work leading the Fighters into the Japan Series for the first time in 25 years….
Jose Reyes (See # 4) – “His SO/BB ratio is decent enough that I suspect he can continue to hit for some average and for some power, just like he is now.”
Say that again.
Is anyone else bothered by the in-game visits with the managers?
Yes.
Thompson has the Smallest. Head. Ever.
Why do they sing John Olerud’s song for Jose Reyes?
Letting Wilson hit is a bad idea.
Duncan?
Spiezio?
In-Game Visits with the Manager (See # 27) – Not to mention that a careless manager might divulge strategy, and someone from the other team might pick that up on TV. It’s similar to the camera geting into a last-minute NBA huddle, and picking up the play that is about to be run; or a microphone in the quarterback’s helmet.
BTW, in his ON THE RUN, Maury Wills tells of a post-game interview he heard with Vernon Law, who told the interviewer that on 0-2, he and Bob Friend did not follow the practice of wasting a pitch. They threw a fastball down the middle. Wills says he owned them after that.*
__________
*The Law interview is on pp. 121-122.
Looper sucks. How in God’s name did he get a multi-year deal coming off a season where he had nearly as many walks as strikeouts?
I would love for Spiezio to make the final out in this game.
Weaver only gave up two runs and STL still lost. Shut Out. By Glavine. Ouch.
why on earth is Encarnacion, who this year is right in line with his established career level of indifference, hit in front of Scott Rolen? or did I miss something?
Since I hate the Yankee’s so much does that indicate I should be rooting for the Mets???
Re #48:
Rolen DNP in game 4 vs San Diego because of his shoulder; and hasn’t hit well so far in the playoffs. Encarnacion had an important triple in that game 4.
Re #43:
I am also surprised that Duncan didn’t get an AB in this game. But, J-Rod and Aaron Miles did. Meh.
Wow, I just looked and Encarnacion is strikingly in line with career totals:
2006 .278/.317/.443 – .760 OPS
Career .269/.316/.441 – .757 OPS
BB and K rates are both down from last year. Usefulness on the basepaths now = zilch. 2004-2006: 17 SB, 14 CS. Ouch.
Seriously, who does nationally broadcast games and does them well? ESPN?
I hadn’t seen an ESPN broadcast in a while, but I watched a lot of their playoff games. I thought they were solid. They mostly avoided the temptation to use strange camera angles, had very few extraneous dugout shots, had very few obnoxious pore-exposing face shots, and generally just showed the damn game. After the occaisionally FOX national broadcast, it seemed downright professional. The only really “frill” in their broadcasts is K-Zone, and I happen to like K-Zone, so that’s okay with me.
ESPN also showed their between innings interviews between innings. I don’t like them bothering the managers during the game, but what’s worse for me as the consumer is missing in-game action because FOX is showing me tape of an interview. And so far during the postseason, my favorite in-game analyst has been Joe Morgan. In the games I’ve seen, he’s largely ignored his quest against statistics, and it makes him a pretty reasonable announcer when he does that. Of course, it’s not like McCarver, Sutcliffe, Karros, and Lyons are stiff competition.
Joe Morgan always amazes me. How he can have been SUCH a phenomenal ball player, and yet as an announcer maintain such studied ignorance of what it takes to be a good ballplayers is a continual, irritating, baffling enigma.
And where does Tony La Russa get the rep for being smart? Contrary yes, almost certainly a good manager all told, but scholarly?
#53. He not only went to college, he got his law degree. He must be a scholar.
#49: Not at all!
You guys think FOX is bad? You try the MLB International feed that gets beamed over here twice a week during the playoffs. During game 2 on A’s Vs Tiger’s t’other day, the bases were loaded with the Big Hurt coming to the plate … and the feed was lost due to weather interference. When it came back, it was just pictures of the stands emptying.
Rick Sutcliffe is a moron. I have only been watching baseball for six years, but even I don’t say dumb things such as ‘A two run blast with two out and no one on!’ Direct quote from game 2. Idiot.
I like Morgan and Miller on SNB. Morgan says some dumb things, but he also had a unique perspective on the game that one must respect due to his excellent career. Besides, Miller keeps him in check … most of the time.
Joe Morgan’s stupidity is matched only by Sweet Lou’s occasional addition to the Fox broadcast. Say what you will, but Joe Buck is terrific. We all know how badly McCarver sucks, but that is something I’m willing to put up with.
I’d rather hear Orel than any other of the in-game “analysts”
I wonder what kind of ratings the game would get with no commentators and better microphone coverage for a “game experience.” I would be in to that.
Does anyone remeber a few years back (i think 2003) when FSN experimented with the broadcast by making minor tweaks during the game? Things like staying with one camera angle, or removing the score/count on the top of the screen for a half inning. Most of them were pointless or frustrating but the one i appreciated the most was when they turned up the field mics and turned off Rizzs. Made it difficult to follow if you weren’t paying 100% attention, but overall was a better experience.
So i guess i would say, no play by play is better than bad play by play.
I enjoy “Soup” Dave Campbell on radio. He is not the Dizzy Dean of my childhood, but I could picture him having an intelligent and entertaining conversation with Diz. It’s the tone of voice as much as the content of his comments.
Of course, I doubt if Diz would have been hep to the stat geek phenomenon, but could we agree to forgive him based on his HOF, 30-game winner, baseball is actually FUN attitude?
Soup’s not bad. He’s significantly better than FireJoeMorgan and Tim “let me continue beating this dead horse” McCarver.
I’d rather hear Orel than any other of the in-game “analysts”
Al Leiter. In fact, a Bob Costas/Al Leiter tandem would be great.
Or, we could just get back the old Expos broadcast crew of Dan Schulman and Ken Singleton. That was a wonderful pairing.
I’d rather hear Orel than any other of the in-game “analysts”
I’d forgotten about his work in the Cards/Padres series. He was solid and probably the best color commentator I’ve heard these playoffs.
I forget whether or not I liked Leiter much when he was in the booth for a bit. I do remember that he didn’t make me want to turn the sound off, so that’s better than most of the choices out there.
I dunno what trash heap they pulled Luis Gonzalez out of to do such a big series with no prior experience.
I dunno what trash heap they pulled Luis Gonzalez out of to do such a big series with no prior experience.
I think they call that particular trash heap the Arizona Diamondbacks.
I personally cut Gonzo some slack. I don’t see him so much as a color commentator, but as a recent participant in the game. In fact, his obvious deficiencies are refreshing – broadcast acumen/slickness, wit/egotism – I am offering two sides of a couple of coins so you catch my drift.
It’s pretty neat to hear from a guy who has actually faced either the crafty Glavine or the strangely resurgent Jeff Weaver. It’s like one of the programs on the [Learn Nothing From] History Channel when they look into an “engineering marvel.” They will ask an engineer – and you guys are out there, you know what that means in terms of pozazz – but who can give you the best, most relevant information? Leave the sex appeal and god-voice, and maybe even the stat-smarts to the broadcasters.
#65– and FWIW, Gonzo has prior experience– this is the 4th year he’s done post-season baseball for ESPN …
That’s why Fox calls one of its other tributaries FSN-short for Fox Sucks Network. As soon as I figure out which team has the best former Mariners on it I’ll forecast who will win the Series. And what is this about no wild card team (even with the best record) having home field advantage until the Series? That stinks, but then this whole whoever wins the All Star game gets WS homefield advantage stinks too, but that figures since it was Selig who came up with it. And now he has come up with this pea-brained idea about making it harder on the wild card teams throughout the playoffs by giving them fewer (!) home games–who elected him anyway?