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1) using profanity or any euphemisms for profanity
2) personally attacking other commenters
3) baiting other commenters
4) arguing for the sake of arguing
5) discussing politics
6) using hyperbole when something less will suffice
7) using sarcasm in a way that can be misinterpreted negatively
8) making the same point over and over again
9) typing "no-hitter" or "perfect game" to describe either in progress
10) being annoyed by the existence of this list
11) commenting under the obvious influence
12) claiming your opinion isn't allowed when it's just being disagreed with
I think this season may be putting a permanent dent in the idea, at least in my head, that you build your team for anything but simply making the playoffs. While the Dodgers have not advanced beyond the first round in 18 years, and while the Cardinals might yet be vanquished in the NLCS, plenty of playoff underdogs have survived and conquered.
I'd rather be a favorite. I'd like to have the best team possible. That's simple enough to think about. But I'm not sure the goal from November through September has to be becoming the top team in baseball. I'm not sure you should feel bad if your team looks like a playoff contender but doesn't feel like a World Series contender. It may only need to be to be one of the final eight still playing. And then you roll the dice.
"General manager Billy Beane of the Oakland A's, innovator of the famously subversive 'moneyball' method of building a roster, lamented that his approach 'doesn't work in the playoffs,' " Will Leitch of Deadspin wrote in a New York Times op-ed today. (And good for Leitch!) "He was right, but not in the way most people understood him. It's not that his approach in particular didn't work; it's that nobody's does. It's almost entirely luck." (Link courtesy of Baseball Musings.)
I've been thinking the same thing. The odds still favor the favorites, but in five- and seven-game serieseses, the favorites can stumble in ways they can't recover from. Heck, you don't even need true aces to win. You just need pitchers who choose a given October not to stink.
This is a pretty big change for me. But combined with how much more satisfied I am that the Dodgers made the 2006 playoffs than if they had missed out (even though the Dodgers didn't win a single 2006 playoff game), combined with the success of wild-card teams in the postseason, the fact that the worst of the recent St. Louis division champions is five victories away from a World Series title has got me plum tumbled.
I'm going through a mind shift. Or down a mine shaft. One of those.
* * *
I like "hornswoggled" myself, but then my great-uncle was from Missouri.
There's at least one high school team with that nickname, I think. I wonder if I can find out easily.
Is that too obscure or am just the oldest cereal lover here.
But it must be something about this season to make the point so clearly. In retrospect, the great achievements in baseball in our era are the Braves' and Yankees' runs of consecutive division championships. That's the true test. The WS victories by teams like the Angels, the Marlins and even, by golly, the Red Sox are just a case of getting hit by a lucky stick. They all faded badly the following season, but the Braves and Yankees came right back.
And I say that as a total non-fan of both teams.
2006-10-18 17:06:2168. das411
Anybody know if the Mets have decided to hold Darren Oliver out of this one just in case they manage to win tonight?
12 - But if you were a fan of those teams, would you rather have one title or many non-titles?
Ha! I went to game one of the NLDS at Shea and saw a guy wearing a Mets Kazmir jersey. It was pretty sad but only a tie for the weirdest jersey I saw that night (there was a guy in a Repko jersey).
NOOOOO...he just went ahead and dealt with them anyway...
Oh, well.
Better players and better strategy win ball games. And by strategy, I mean in-game adjustments. If that means hitting a couple of three run homeruns, great. If it means putting runners in motion and dropping down a bunt from time to time, fine. The only stat that really matters is the final score.
That's fine, but that's not the argument being put forth.
This is what Geo. Steinbrenner has forever been frustrated by. A team like this year's with great hitting and lousy pitching, can over a long season wear out the league, fattening up on bad pitching staffs and mere mortal lineups, but that same team can fail against another team that gets great run of pitching -- like Detroit, the Angels in 05 and 02, the Marlins and D-backs.
I see no dominant team in the NL and if the D's make no moves, how they will shine!
25 - story of my life, my friend. story of my life.
ss-at best the guy combines Furcal and D.
Roberts and thats a stretch.
3rb Wright is great but Andy Laroche
projects almost as well
OK Reyes fields a bit better than Furc.
But this leaves noone to equal Loney,Kemp and Ethier but maybe Milledge.
Catcher-Whats his name is like Martin-but he is old!
Pitching- I don't know a lot about this, except Pedro and El Duque are old and decrepid so they cant be that good.
With half a brain we should be able to equal the other Mercenairies.
I don't think you go any higher than you shoot for, and I would still maintain that you have to build to compete with the elite teams. I think where the philosophy comes to the test is when you're deciding whether to take a risk on a young player who could be excellent or going for a "proven" mediocrity. I suspect that the Braves made it all the way so few times out of so many opportunities because they had a "good enough" philosophy. What they seemed to be doing though was not putting mediocrity ahead of youth, but forgoing veteran stars and trusting in youth to carry them alone. It may have been good business but it didn't win a lot of championships.
But I do agree with you about the Mets.
18. I think that sometimes the NDRO(New Devil Rays Organization, which we use to describe the ownership) gets a bum rap. Every still thinks that we're always trying to get one over on teams. However, if you look at the deals with San Diego...we made bad deals as well. Burroughs was lucky that AWOL(Brazelton) got bombed in both MLB and AAA, or else I'd actually want AWOL back. The Branyan team is a push right now, seeing as Thayer is a 25 y.o. AAA reliever and Meek is going to probably start next year in AA. Some people, those who chose to ignore Mitch Talbot's stats in Montgomery, also think Houston got us in the deal because Zobrist looked overmatched.
Sorry to nitpick. It's a disease.
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