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MLB Playoffs 2020

alkeiper

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Let's set up the brackets for posterity's sake.

Format this year. First round is a best-of-three with ALL games at the home team site. Second round (Divisional) is best-of-five and third round (League Championship Series) is best-of-seven at neutral sites. The World Series is best-of-seven at a neutral site. A major difference this year, no off days in middle of series (until the World Series).

(8)Toronto @ (1)Tampa Bay
(5)NY Yankees @ (4)Cleveland
(6)Houston @ (3)Minnesota
(7)Chi. White Sox @ (2)Oakland

(8)Milwaukee @ (1)LA Dodgers
(5)St. Louis @ (4)San Diego
(6)Miami @ (3)Chi. Cubs
(7)Cincinnati @ (2)Atlanta
 

treble

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The Jays waiting until game 2 to start Ryu is a bit interesting. I can see the logic in it, but it seems like they might be outsmarting themselves a bit.

The amount of handwringing that the Toronto media did about it is embarassing, though.
 

treble

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The Jays are interesting to watch. Its pretty clear that Charlie Montoyo is not the one making most of the in-game decisions, at least as far the pitching goes, just going by holding Ryu back to game 2 and pulling Shoemaker after 3 innings when he was dealing. Its not the reason they lost, Snell shut them down, but its going to be a big talking point this off-season if they lose tomorrow.
 

alkeiper

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I guess the logic is if they have one reliable starter, set him up so it splits up the bullpen days? It shouldn't make much of a difference, each pitcher only starts once either way.
 

treble

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I get the logic on Ryu. I think its just people are used to teams using their #1 starters in game 1 of a playoff series if they're available. The difference being that you want to use them as early as possible so they can be available for later in the series, which doesn't really apply in a 3 game series with no off-days. There were some reporters who thought it wasn't fair to Taijuan Walker to not guarantee him a playoff start when he's been pretty good since they acquired him and Shoemaker had only pitched a few innings in the previous month, but Walker's numbers against lefthanders aren't great.

A lot of the complaints I saw yesterday about pulling Shoemaker was that they replaced him with Robbie Ray, who is inconsistent. He didn't pitch as well as Shoemaker had, but they got through 6 innings between the 2 of them only giving up 1 run, its just the hitters couldn't get anything going.
 

snuffbox

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Milwaukee lost their best starter, Corbin Burnes, late in the regular season. Today they announced their best reliever, Devin Williams, will miss the first round. Between that and the GM putting together a historically bad lineup, this series vs the Dodgers will be a complete waste of time.
 

Hawk 34

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Pain. I didn’t think it could hit a new low but well, I always underestimate what the sport gods can do to you.

They didn’t deserve to win but god damn it, they wasted so much especially an epic Bauer start.
 

tekcop

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I was feeling so good going into the postseason, too.
 

treble

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The Jays shit the bed today, but Nate Pearson looked amazing.
 

alkeiper

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So far this format hasn't done much to rouse my interest. The Indians and Yankees destroyed any goodwill by taking nearly five hours to play a nine inning game. The Reds and Braves played a thirteen inning game but I'm not sure offensive ineptitude makes a good watching experience.

Last night I said no, I'd rather get caught up on Schitt's Creek. What is wrong with me?
 

Hawk 34

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Would the world implode if the Twins and Reds ever played a post season series?
 

claydude14

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The A’s won an elimination game, so there’s that.

Fun year of White Sox baseball, looking forward to many more playoff trips with this core. Fire Ricky!
 

alkeiper

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The Minnesota Twins have scored 48 runs and allowed 107 in their eighteen consecutive postseason losses. That's a Pythagorean record of .167, they should've won three based on that output. Really I think the unbalanced schedules are just getting them to the playoffs against superior teams.
 

Slayer

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Even then if you want to blame the heavy intra-divisional play, consider that during the same time period of the Twins' futility, the other teams from the AL Central:
White Sox - One WS win
Royals - back-to-back AL pennants, one WS win
Tigers - Two AL pennants, as well as three series wins against the Yankees
Indians - One AL pennant

I've often said I'm not an analytical guy at all so I dunno if there was something about Gardy and Rocco's management styles that made them great in the regular season but shit in the playoffs compared to the likes of a Yost, Leyland or Francona from those above teams. Looking back though yeah they did run into the worst possible matchups with New York, both considering the Yankees themselves (early 00s still having the core of their WS dynasty team, 2009 eventually winning the WS and 2010 looking to repeat). In all those years the Yankees smacked Minnesota around during the regular season as well, with 04 and 09 being complete sweeps. Admittedly I still dunno WTF happened with last years' team though

The only real unforgivable sweeps to me were 2006 (Sep comeback to win division, dual threat CYA and MVP and won season series against Oakland, only to let Frank Thomas deflate the dome as well as the Twins' spirit) and this year (a Dusty Baker led sub-500 team with losing records both on the road and against winning-record teams)
 

Slayer

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If not for the Padres' banged up rotation there would be a high chance of all four division series being intra-division matchups now, with the two AL matchups having had bench-clearing brawls earlier this season!
 

Slayer

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Well color me pleasantly surprised at the Padres pulling that off

The division series will be represented entirely by coastal cities
 

treble

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The Marlins finally lost a playoff series.

It seems impossible that its been almost 20 years since the Braves were in the NLCS.
 

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Fourth straight ALCS for the Astros.

If the Yankees win tonight it will be Yankees/Astros in the ALCS for the 3rd time in 4 years.

The Astros have eliminated the Yankees in the playoffs in 2015, 2017 and 2019
 

alkeiper

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Five years ago today



The bat flip got the replays. But I'm hard pressed to find a crowd instantaneously lose their shit in the last 10-15 years. Insane.
 

treble

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I'll load that up on YouTube every once in a while when I need a little pick-me-up.

I also like looking for people who filmed it from the crowd.

The sound the crowd makes when he first makes contact is my favourite thing about it. 45,000 people going "ahhh!" at the exact same time.
 

alkeiper

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I think this is really interesting.

Average Kershaw season: 179 IP, 135 H, 14 HR, 45 BBs, 194 Ks, 2.43 ERA, 1.003 WHIP, .581 OPS against

Postseason Kershaw: 177 IP, 146 H, 27 HR, 47 BBs, 193 Ks, 4.31 ERA, 1.088 WHIP, .663 OPS against

So what's going on? A .663 OPS is good. Kershaw gave up a .664 OPS in 2019 and got Cy Young votes. The WHIP, 1.088 is good. 35 pitchers in 2019 had 100+ IP and a WHIP of 1.2 or better. 34 of them had a lower ERA than 4.31.

The home run rate jumps out. But the weird thing is Kershaw had that HR rate in 2019. His ERA wasn't as bad. 21 of the 27 postseason HRs allowed by Kershaw occurred with the bases empty. His OPS with runners in scoring position is only .695. He doesn't seem to pitch bad overall. He's getting really, really unlucky.
 

strummer

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This is quite the choke job by the Rays. Although it would fit in with Dusty Baker's snake bitten managerial career to be down 0-3, win 3 in a row and then lose a game 7 anyway
 
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