cutuphalfdead wrote:I know my Sox in 5 pick is ridiculous, but I'm riding my hunch!
not really though... when you look at how Verlander/Scherzer/Fister pitched (their ERA was like 2.13 combined) with nothing to show for it... or on the flip side, the Cards were 3-1 against Greinke and Kershaw...
you could easily have a sweep series. I think its all gonna come down to the Cards pitching and their insane hitting with runners in scoring position this season... if BOTH hold up... I could see the Cards in 5... if BOTH fail? Sox in 5 isnt so ridiculous... and considering how the Sox shut down the Tigers... its possible that insane batting average with runners in scoring position the Cards have been riding alllllllllllllllllllllll season... could falter.
The Red Sox shut down the Tigers because of a huge discrepancy in relief pitching, which isn't their this series.
*and the tigers best hitter had a torn groin and the 2nd best hitter has no groin.
Fielder was a useless slug in that series. I dont mind a guy having a bad stretch, but at least show me some effort.
Yep. Even a league average effort from him, and we're probably talking about a world series here.
Not really. They had a 5-run lead in Game 2, and blew it on a grand slam to the opposition's best hitter on a first-pitch meatball. They got shut out in Game 3 where no one hit and their best hitter waived horribly at a third strike and 1 out with the tying run on third. They lost Game 5 because they couldn't get timely hitting from anyone, including Fielder. And they lost Game 6 because they played like the 2003 Detroit Tigers.
Fielder is an easy target. And he deserves all the criticism. But the problem is, he's such an easy scapegoat, he overshadows everything else that went wrong for the team and masks a lot of its flaws.
Ortiz was 1-the series... if the Tigers win game 2, or the Series, were all talking about how Ortiz was horrible...
but the Sox win game 2, and the Series, and everyones saying how Big Papi always shows up in the big spots and makes it happen, and Prince failed lol
Chris_H_2 wrote:
Fielder is an easy target. And he deserves all the criticism. But the problem is, he's such an easy scapegoat, he overshadows everything else that went wrong for the team and masks a lot of its flaws.
No question, but 3 of the red sox wins were by 1 run. I know at least 2 of those had Prince come up with significant opportunity to drive in important runs. He succeeds in any of those situations we have a game 7 with Justin Verlander on the mound who in his previous 5 starts has been more dominant than in any point in his career. And it's true of the whole team. Hunter, Ajax, Miggy, Avila, Infante all sucked... but Prince is your clean up, run producing hitter.
And none of that even accounts for his horrific defense, or baserunning mistakes. It was a very close series where one at bat could have changed the outcome.
@SkitchP wrote:And none of that even accounts for his horrific defense, or baserunning mistakes.
You've definitely touched on two aspects on which this team fails miserably -- defense and baserunning. Up the middle, the Tigers are good to be sure. I'd take Jackson, Iglesias, and Avila defensively any day. The problem is that your three big hitters (Cabrera, Fielder, and V-Mart) are all horrible defenders that have no business being on the field other than to bat and run the bases after they get on -- they're all DH's. That's a big deal, particularly to groundball pitchers like Porcello.
I've always said that this team would make a great softball team -- individually, they're all good, but collectively they expose all of the team's holes.
I just started thinking about Ortiz having to play the field in St. Louis and got a tad nervous. He's generally pretty good at first, but do the Sox platoon him with Napoli depending on the starter?
I went to a game in St. Louis earlier this year and it was a blast; the atmosphere for this series is going to be great!
@SkitchP wrote:And none of that even accounts for his horrific defense, or baserunning mistakes.
You've definitely touched on two aspects on which this team fails miserably -- defense and baserunning. Up the middle, the Tigers are good to be sure. I'd take Jackson, Iglesias, and Avila defensively any day. The problem is that your three big hitters (Cabrera, Fielder, and V-Mart) are all horrible defenders that have no business being on the field other than to bat and run the bases after they get on -- they're all DH's. That's a big deal, particularly to groundball pitchers like Porcello.
I've always said that this team would make a great softball team -- individually, they're all good, but collectively they expose all of the team's holes.
I said going into the playoffs as a lot of people were picking the Tigers that I thought they were too top-heavy and slow. The rotation is brilliant but the bullpen is not, and if Cabrera wasn't himself then the Tigers were in trouble. They ended up going about as far as I thought they would. The rest of the team just couldn't pick up the slack.
The other red flag to me with the Tigers was their seeming lack of killer instinct. They just never seemed to have a killer instinct to me. Granted, I watched from afar as I'm an NL guy and generally only watch NL teams but there seemed to me no way in which the Tigers should have only won 93 games in that division.
What the Tigers need is a manager who will bust their collective balls on fundamentals. I'm not saying Leyland didn't do that (I love the guy, actually) but they need somebody like a La Russa, though hopefully not the man himself.
Monkey_Driven wrote:I have a feeling the Cards are going to take this thing in 7. They always find a way to win these.
A Game 7 for the Cards will involve some combination of Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and basically every other pitcher on the staff save Michael Wacha. If that happens, be prepared for a 5 hour game.
Monkey_Driven wrote:I have a feeling the Cards are going to take this thing in 7. They always find a way to win these.
A Game 7 for the Cards will involve some combination of Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and basically every other pitcher on the staff save Michael Wacha. If that happens, be prepared for a 5 hour game.
After a 4hr 1-0 game in the ALCS, should I be expecting 6-7 hrs?
Monkey_Driven wrote:I have a feeling the Cards are going to take this thing in 7. They always find a way to win these.
A Game 7 for the Cards will involve some combination of Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and basically every other pitcher on the staff save Michael Wacha. If that happens, be prepared for a 5 hour game.
After a 4hr 1-0 game in the ALCS, should I be expecting 6-7 hrs?
Yes. Just be thankful Tony La Russa no longer manages the Cardinals.
Its funny listening to all the comments (not just on here, but in the papers / talk shows) about the Tigers failure...
Torii Hunter missed catching David Ortiz's ONLY hit in the series, by literally 2 inches? maybe?
that entire series changed on that play... the Sox were looking at going down 0-2 heading to Detroit
sure the Tigers offense slumped, the base running was bad, the fielding worse... but if Hunter is a couple years younger... or couple inches taller...
but yes we should all expect 4 hour games... you know Fox will want every commercial break it can get, and every annoying crowd shot of the current pitchers family in the stands in.
Last edited by MadTIGERmaN on Tue October 22, 2013 6:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
@SkitchP wrote:And none of that even accounts for his horrific defense, or baserunning mistakes.
You've definitely touched on two aspects on which this team fails miserably -- defense and baserunning. Up the middle, the Tigers are good to be sure. I'd take Jackson, Iglesias, and Avila defensively any day. The problem is that your three big hitters (Cabrera, Fielder, and V-Mart) are all horrible defenders that have no business being on the field other than to bat and run the bases after they get on -- they're all DH's. That's a big deal, particularly to groundball pitchers like Porcello.
I've always said that this team would make a great softball team -- individually, they're all good, but collectively they expose all of the team's holes.
Clearly. But in this series it was Prince who made no effort and glaring errors out of pure laziness. And Vmart actually looked really good in his starts at 1B. Of course defense and baserunning are, across the board, team problems. But in this series, specifically, they were very apparent from Prince. I stand by the statement that if Prince was even league average offensively in this series, they win.
Monkey_Driven wrote:I have a feeling the Cards are going to take this thing in 7. They always find a way to win these.
A Game 7 for the Cards will involve some combination of Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and basically every other pitcher on the staff save Michael Wacha. If that happens, be prepared for a 5 hour game.
I was at a bar for the entirety of the Cards/Rangers Game 6 from two years ago. It seemed like I was there for an eternity.
Monkey_Driven wrote:I have a feeling the Cards are going to take this thing in 7. They always find a way to win these.
A Game 7 for the Cards will involve some combination of Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and basically every other pitcher on the staff save Michael Wacha. If that happens, be prepared for a 5 hour game.
I was at a bar for the entirety of the Cards/Rangers Game 6 from two years ago. It seemed like I was there for an eternity.
It was worth it. The last three innings of that game was one of the greatest hours of my entire life.
Monkey_Driven wrote:I have a feeling the Cards are going to take this thing in 7. They always find a way to win these.
A Game 7 for the Cards will involve some combination of Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and basically every other pitcher on the staff save Michael Wacha. If that happens, be prepared for a 5 hour game.
I was at a bar for the entirety of the Cards/Rangers Game 6 from two years ago. It seemed like I was there for an eternity.
It was worth it. The last three innings of that game was one of the greatest hours of my entire life.
That was one of the greatest baseball games I've ever watched.
Monkey_Driven wrote:I have a feeling the Cards are going to take this thing in 7. They always find a way to win these.
A Game 7 for the Cards will involve some combination of Joe Kelly, Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn and basically every other pitcher on the staff save Michael Wacha. If that happens, be prepared for a 5 hour game.
I was at a bar for the entirety of the Cards/Rangers Game 6 from two years ago. It seemed like I was there for an eternity.
It was worth it. The last three innings of that game was one of the greatest hours of my entire life.
That was one of the greatest baseball games I've ever watched.
It was pretty good, no doubt. Long as hell though.
@SkitchP wrote:And none of that even accounts for his horrific defense, or baserunning mistakes.
You've definitely touched on two aspects on which this team fails miserably -- defense and baserunning. Up the middle, the Tigers are good to be sure. I'd take Jackson, Iglesias, and Avila defensively any day. The problem is that your three big hitters (Cabrera, Fielder, and V-Mart) are all horrible defenders that have no business being on the field other than to bat and run the bases after they get on -- they're all DH's. That's a big deal, particularly to groundball pitchers like Porcello.
I've always said that this team would make a great softball team -- individually, they're all good, but collectively they expose all of the team's holes.
Clearly. But in this series it was Prince who made no effort and glaring errors out of pure laziness. And Vmart actually looked really good in his starts at 1B. Of course defense and baserunning are, across the board, team problems. But in this series, specifically, they were very apparent from Prince. I stand by the statement that if Prince was even league average offensively in this series, they win.
Simply put, they didn't lose this series because of Prince Fielder alone.
Maybe Don Kelly should have picked up the slack . . .
@SkitchP wrote:And none of that even accounts for his horrific defense, or baserunning mistakes.
You've definitely touched on two aspects on which this team fails miserably -- defense and baserunning. Up the middle, the Tigers are good to be sure. I'd take Jackson, Iglesias, and Avila defensively any day. The problem is that your three big hitters (Cabrera, Fielder, and V-Mart) are all horrible defenders that have no business being on the field other than to bat and run the bases after they get on -- they're all DH's. That's a big deal, particularly to groundball pitchers like Porcello.
I've always said that this team would make a great softball team -- individually, they're all good, but collectively they expose all of the team's holes.
Clearly. But in this series it was Prince who made no effort and glaring errors out of pure laziness. And Vmart actually looked really good in his starts at 1B. Of course defense and baserunning are, across the board, team problems. But in this series, specifically, they were very apparent from Prince. I stand by the statement that if Prince was even league average offensively in this series, they win.
Simply put, they didn't lose this series because of Prince Fielder alone.
Maybe Don Kelly should have picked up the slack . . .
I agree. I just think Prince was the biggest individual problem.
However, i do think Prince will bounce back next regular season.
@SkitchP wrote:And none of that even accounts for his horrific defense, or baserunning mistakes.
You've definitely touched on two aspects on which this team fails miserably -- defense and baserunning. Up the middle, the Tigers are good to be sure. I'd take Jackson, Iglesias, and Avila defensively any day. The problem is that your three big hitters (Cabrera, Fielder, and V-Mart) are all horrible defenders that have no business being on the field other than to bat and run the bases after they get on -- they're all DH's. That's a big deal, particularly to groundball pitchers like Porcello.
I've always said that this team would make a great softball team -- individually, they're all good, but collectively they expose all of the team's holes.
Clearly. But in this series it was Prince who made no effort and glaring errors out of pure laziness. And Vmart actually looked really good in his starts at 1B. Of course defense and baserunning are, across the board, team problems. But in this series, specifically, they were very apparent from Prince. I stand by the statement that if Prince was even league average offensively in this series, they win.
Simply put, they didn't lose this series because of Prince Fielder alone.
Maybe Don Kelly should have picked up the slack . . .
I agree. I just think Prince was the biggest individual problem.
However, i do think Prince will bounce back next regular season.
Wasn't he going through a bad divorce this year (not that that's an excuse)?
