MLB 2003 Post-Season (AL/NLDS Version) {R} Match-ups NY Yankees-Minnesota Twins Boston Red Sox-Oakland Athletics Chicago Cubs-Atlanta Braves San Francisco Giants-Florida Marlins. I see a Yankee-Giants World Series, with the Giants winning. Let's get it on!!!!! Tuesday's games (times EDT) : Minn@NY (1:05) Fla@SF (4:05) Chi@Atl (8:15) When was the last time the Yanks had a day game?
3-0 Minnesota Hunter tripled in a run and scored on Soriano's throwing error *shock* Btm 7, Time running out for the Yanks.
Which game? *** MOD NOTE *** To make this thread a bit easier to read, try to use the subject line above by saying what game you are talking about. Thanks.
Nothing would be more pleasing then another first round exit for the Skanks. In Atlanta, Cubbies up on the Braves 4-1 in the top of the 8th. Kerry Wood doing the amazing. Ortiz got out of jam after jam but finally got hit. If the Braves and Yanks both got knocked out in the first round, then I'd be extremely happy.
Since my Dodger's decided to have yet another season of no stick, with the best pitching staff in the game, thus not making the playoffs yet again, I am pulling for the MLB Worst Nightmare Series Twins vs Marlins Screw the Yanks and the Braves (it's getting REALLY old saying that)
Both Schmidt and Woods threw a dream game yesterday, with Kerry coming out on top due to his fantastic hitting (something Schmidt will NEVER do). I hope the Braves can pull something out here, because I feel much better about facing them than the Cubs right now.
Red Sox v Oakland Yep. I've stuck by and defended him until now, but it's just gotten to be too difficult. It's almost 3am now, and I don't think I'll be able to sleep I'm so annoyed. Manny and Ortiz both sucked, in addition to the standard bullpen implosion. You gotta give Oakland credit though. Ballsy move to go with the drag bunt with 2 outs and the bases juiced. And god did he drop it down perfectly. "Major League" was actually on another channel at the time...wonder if someone had it playing in the As dugout. We really need Wake to pitch a gem tomorrow.
Wakefield didn't even do that bad. It was just an ugly 2nd inning that never got made up for. It's all on Lowe's shoulder's now. And then probably Burkett. Wonderful. C'mon, David Ortiz, stop sucking!
Another playoff flop for the Sox....maybe. Things didn't look any better in 99. Now, why the phuck didn't Little just stick with Timlin? Easy for me to say, but Timlin should have been the closer down the stretch. He shuts em down in the 8th with few pitches but no.......
I thought going in that the first game was pivotal. The Sox just match up too horribly against lefties, and Zito's one of the best. (Great, now we have another one on Sat.) Manny, Millar, and Ortiz: combined 3-27, 0 RBIs in the first two games. That's not great production out of your 4,5,6 men. Manny in particular has choked bigtime with all those clutch situations. In any case, this team has been pretty resilient all year, so I wouldn't bet the farm against them somehow coming back and winning this thing. Doubtful to be sure, but certainly possible. Whether they come back or not, I don't see this as a potential World Series winning team. I think everyone has kept assuming that those solid arms in the bullpen that Epstein so cleverly put together would all come around and start pitching the way they are supposed to. Well, it's never happened, and there's no way a team wins the WS with a one man bullpen (Timlin). The good news is that the holes for the offseason are not very numerous. I can't think of a single flaw in the offense. I think the Sox are two players away from a dominant, AL East winning team next year: - Top of the line closer - Solid #2 Starter I think Kim can be very effective as a setup specialist against righties...almost unhittable even. But lefties crush him. Timlin is solid, even Embree and Williamson are above average. I guess we probably need a lefty specialist, as Sauerbeck is crap. For long relief, we drop Mendoza and keep Arroyo/Fossum. Both young and should improve. But the Stopper is the key. I'm thinking a Troy Percival, Billy Wagner type signing. For the rotation, we have to realize that Lowe cannot be a #2 guy. Lowe and Wake are both solid major league pitchers, but not studs to go up against the likes of the Yankees, As, or Cubs rotations in short series. We need a Colon-type #2 guy to back up Pedro and leave Lowe, Wake, and whoever as #3,4,5. Clearly, Burkett is no longer a ML caliber pitcher. That's it: two missing pieces to the puzzle. Gotta give Theo credit. He went out and got the bullpen we needed, and seemingly the best available starter at mid-season. Too bad for him/us that all those guys inexpliably fell on their face. I predict he'll get the job done again this off-season, and then it'll be up to the players again.
Numerous times Timlin looked dominant in his first inning and then collapsed in his second. I don't have the time to dig up these stats right now, but last time I saw them it wasn't pretty.
I'm really disappointed in Manny. His postseason stats are horrible. He's now 43/196 in the playoffs, a .219 BA. I'd add getting a new second basemen to the list. Despite the clutch homers, Todd Walker really is a terrible player. 2b is a CRUCIAL fielding position. We can't afford a horrible fielder even if he's a mediocre (not good, really) hitter. Walker's range is awful and now (this year) he's making tons of errors. One of the reasons why the Red Sox pitchers struggle is lousy defense. He's been fairly effective as a starter. I'd rather get 200+ innings of around a 3.5 ERA (3.38 so far as a starter) than a shaky reliever. Actually, Kim isn't much worse against lefties. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlbpa/players/6237/splits Sauerbeck is definitely crap. I was surprised that he was still on the roster while Suppan was left off. As crappy as Suppan is, he can at least go a lot of innings if necessary and have a reasonable chance of doing well. I really believe that a good second basemen would go a long way to making Lowe a successful pitcher. He's a groudball pitcher who depends on good fielding. After watching/listening to 162 games, it really hurts to have everything fall apart in less than 24 hours. Ugh. I guess there's still some hope left.
That might be a really good idea assuming Kim gets nervous closing the big games. Otherwise, it makes no difference since blowing a game in the 8th, 9th, or 2nd (as yesterday) is just as bad. I've gotten over my hostility to Kim. He wants to be a starter. He could very well be respectable #2 or #3 starter so let's put him there. I'd go so far as to consider it for game 4.
Ok, as frustrating as the first two games were, I'm still confident that the Sox will win both at home. They have hit quite a few balls that while they were outs in Oakland, would have been extra bases in Fenway, especially Ortiz. I don't feel so good about game 5 back in Oakland, which is why game 1 hurts so much.
You do realize that it's likely to be John "Batting Practice" Burkett pitching game 4, right? We have to hope they throw their own #4 guy out there (who is that, btw?), because if it's Hudson on short rest, we're screwed. That's assuming Lowe even gets us to game 4, and the Sox bats wake up tomorrow.
I realize who we have going, still feel good about their chances in Fenway though. The A's are planning on Hudson starting game 4 on three days rest, and Zito for game 5 also on three days, if it comes to that. Their number four starter is Rich Harden I believe.
True enough, but I wouldn't call it a priority. And I'd rather the extra cash be spent on a Javier Vazquez or Billy Wagner than on a stud 2baseman. Also true about Kim as a potential starter. But I guess my point about getting a solid #2 guy is that so many teams now have 2-3 true Aces (LA, Oak, ChiC, NYY, ChW, Hou, Ari, just off the top of my head). Lowe and Wake are just a LONG way below any of those teams #2 and 3 guys, so we end up relying so much on Pedro that it's ridiculous. Re: Lowe, my problem with him is mostly that I think he's a headcase. He's got very good stuff, and he did have a great year last year, but I think he gets rattled way too easily. Early on this year, he was already comparing it to 2001, when he lost his Closer job and got booed all the time. He even implied that "maybe I just suck every other year" or something. Didn't seem like a guy who believes in himself. A weak 2baseman does not explain his ERA ballooning a full 2 pts this year from last. This last stat brings me to another thought I had yesterday: maybe the biggest missing piece in the Sox this year is a decent Pitching Coach. Remember a couple years ago when we had Kerrigan, and he got so much out of that fat guy (blanking on his name now), Urbina, Lowe, Wake, etc. coming out of the pen. It was like the best in the majors, and Kerrigan was a huge reason. Now this year, we lost our regular guy to cancer, and Wallace has filled in as a temp. But maybe he just really really sucks. It sure looks like everybody who he takes under his wing suddenly turns to shiit. Go down the roster and compare every pitcher's stats to last year: Lowe: '02 = 2.58 '03 = 4.47 Wakefield '02 = 2.81 '03 = 4.09 Fossum '02 = 3.46 '03 = 5.47 Burkett '02 = 4.53 '03 = 5.15 Williamson '02 = 2.92 '03 (pre-Red Sox) = 3.19 '03 (w/Sox) = 6.20 Sauerbeck '02 = 2.02 '03 (pre Sox) = 4.05 '03 (w/Sox) = 6.48 Embree '02 = 2.97 '03 = 4.25 Mendoza '02 = 3.44 '03 = 6.75 Only Timlin and Pedro were relatively unaffected by Wallace, it seems, and not a single person actually improved, from what I can see. Terrible.
Looks like Todd Jones, Burkett, and Kapler are among the salaries we most need to cut...fine with me. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/teams/salaries?team=bos Of the free agent-to-be starters, I think the Sox need to get either Millwood or Colon.