I think the big story today is how bad the Dodgers pen is now..

Baez, Blanton, and Stripling now given up 13 er in the series. Avilan, Dayton, Fields, and Wood done ok so far- but the problem there is 3/4 of those are lefties. It really limits the moves that Roberts can make. Baez and Blanton were the 2 big horses in the Nats series with 8.2 scoreless. Just not so in this series.

(10-21-2016 08:42 AM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(10-20-2016 08:44 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Maeda to me got lucky in his mix of starts in the regular season....

23 starts vs losing teams. 3.18 ERA in that start. 28/138 bb/k ratio.
12 starts now vs winning teams to include playoffs. 4.82 ERA in those starts. 29/53 bb/k ratio

So to get 2/3 of your starts vs bad teams is a huge break. 6 with Arizona, 4 ea with Colorado and San Diego 3 games in Petco.

I'm curious what that would look like for a random pitcher on a good team. Let's go with Kluber in the AL and Hendricks in the NL

Kluber had 20 starts vs winning teams vs 12 against losing teams. 2.13 vs bad teams
3.82 vs good teams

Hendricks- 9 starts vs winning teams vs 21 starts against losing teams.
2.04 vs good teams
2.17 vs bad teams

both of these regular season. So add 2 more starts vs winning teams for both of these.

Where Hendricks is different than Maeda is he's as good against the good teams as the bad teams.

just looking at some others-
Madbum 14 vs good 2.41, 20 vs bad 2.96
Cueto 12 vs good 2.24, 20 vs bad 3.10
Roark 9 vs good 2.07, 24 vs bad 3.14
Sale 22 vs good 2.91, 10 vs bad 4.39

so Maeda is kind of unusual not only in the split of starts, but also that he follows very well pitching better vs bad teams(which you would think would be normal). It's really interesting how a lot of the top guys do better(and by some cases a lot better) vs the better teams.

(10-21-2016 09:43 AM)stever20 Wrote:  just looking at some others-
Madbum 14 vs good 2.41, 20 vs bad 2.96
Cueto 12 vs good 2.24, 20 vs bad 3.10
Roark 9 vs good 2.07, 24 vs bad 3.14
Sale 22 vs good 2.91, 10 vs bad 4.39

so Maeda is kind of unusual not only in the split of starts, but also that he follows very well pitching better vs bad teams(which you would think would be normal). It's really interesting how a lot of the top guys do better(and by some cases a lot better) vs the better teams.

Some of these, especially Hendricks and Cueto, are very interesting. And then there's Sale whose numbers vs bad teams have to be skewed by a couple horrific starts. But I guess he's always had some odd numbers

another one where the pitcher was better vs better teams- Jose Fernandez
18 starts vs winning teams. 2.62
11 starts vs losing teams. 3.26

I would have expected something like what Syndergaard had....
15 starts vs winning teams 2.72
15 starts vs losing teams 2.48

Blanton is the one that really hurts. Baez has always been on the verge of unreliable. Blanton is now the guy who is fine and then loses command with no warning.

Toast

Major League 4?

(10-22-2016 09:57 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Major League 4?

I'm rooting for the Indians all the way

Dodgers gave the Cubs a good series. Put a real scare into them. But hope this is their year for all the way. Have to be impressed with Epstein, except for the abysmal Jason Heyward signing...which the Cubs will really start to regret even more in the coming seasons. For now, hope the Cubs can deal effectively with Miller and the surprising Indians. Go Cubs Go!

Bummed but not upset. Cubs looked like the team to beat before the season began, and they've managed to live up to the hype. Dodgers have/had significant flaws and got as far as they should have, maybe even farther.

I am genuinely curious to see what happens in the offseason, with Turner and Jansen free agents, the young pitchers, and what Friedman does in the hot stove league.

But in the mean time I am genuinely interested in the World Series, and without a rooting interest (for or against). First time that's happened in years.

(10-23-2016 08:16 AM)Brookes Owl Wrote:  But in the mean time I am genuinely interested in the World Series, and without a rooting interest (for or against). First time that's happened in years.

Agree. Cubs last appeared in the World Series in 1945 and last won in 1908. Indians last appeared in 1997 and last won in 1948. A win would be gynormus for either City. If the Cubs win bring back Steve Bartman Chicago!

Also ... ayeeeeeeeeeeeee

I am not a MLB guy but somehow considering the two teams in the World Series I might actually watch some of it.

Should be fun as long as we don't have to listen to the fakers on both bandwagons who will be all over the place claiming they've been suffering with "their" team since they were 3 years old.

a continuation of the regular season in the playoffs:
We can break this World Series down a hundred different ways, but it's likely to come down to dingers. Home runs have accounted for 42 percent of the runs this postseason and the team that hit more home runs won won each of the six playoff series plus both wild-card games.

Rooting for the Cubbies, but won't be disappointed either way. I agree, this should be an entertaining series for even casual fans to watch. Question is, which of these two teams is built to last? Indians seem to be a lot based on Miller. Cubbies have more depth. They may well be back again.

What an inning. With pitchers like this going, that might be all Cleveland needs.

Surprised the Indians drew first blood with a 6-0 shutout.