2014 NLCS: San Francisco Giants vs St. Louis Cardinals

Giants in six.

Neither in zero.

lol

i do understand people not wanting to see the same team, so the brand new car is always a little shinier.

Same feelings about both: a little tired of them, admire (and am envious of) their success--especially the Cardinals. So no real preference. But I'm rooting for the Royals in the AL, and their best match-up is obviously the Cardinals. Brett and Ozzie throw out the first pitch; if not them, Joaquín Andújar and Don Denkinger.

http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/1545321/screw-you-ozzie-2.gif

http://www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-702-56sfhy/the-barry-zito-estate-villa-della-pace-kentfield-ca-94904

About 660 Goodhill Road
Spectacular Mediterranean gated estate, owned by three-time All-Star pitcher Barry Zito, with inspiring panoramic views of Mt Tam and Phoenix Lake. Located on over 2 acres, the over 7,000 square foot home is grand in scale, with a circular entrance and foyer with high ceilings and large formal living, dining and family rooms with French doors opening to stone terraces and gardens, offering gracious indoor/outdoor living with an outdoor fireplace, Bar-B-Q, pool and spa that share the stunning views. Meticulously constructed with the finest finishes and a masterful design. Three en-suite bedrooms, three full and two half baths in the main residence plus one bedroom, one bath guest house, 3 car garage, and truly incomparable views...

Is that from the '87 Cards/Giants series? Don't remember that.

I've been watching some of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqAPmdnzxdE

The Andujar insanity starts around 1:38:30. After the game, there's a phone call from Reagan that's endless--phone gets passed from Howser to Saberhagen to Ewing Kauffman to Brett.

Dislike Giants, hate StL, so I'll go with a SF sweep so it's over as quickly as possible.

um. they have entire baseball games on youtube?!

i don't know anything about pitcher mechanics but andujar has such a terrible delivery

Thermo, they have plenty of them! The whole 2010, 11, 12 and 13 post-seasons also.

I got the Giants in 7, with a miraculous come back from both Zito and Scutaro to save the day (and some rain.)

The broadcast team--Al Michaels, McCarver, and Palmer--was right: Andujar would never recover. His career meltdown was already underway. He was 7th in the Cy Young in '82 (his best year), 4th in '84, and, through July 26 of '85, was 17-4 with a 2.31 ERA. No one was going to mistake him for Dwight Gooden, but at that point, at the age of 32, he was probably one of the 10 best starters in baseball.

He then a) finished the season 4-8/5.46, b) was 0-1/6.97 in the LCS, c) was 0-1/9.00 in the Series, d) had an okay but lesser year with Oakland in '86, and e) retired after two more nothing years.

http://www.sportsgrid.com/mlb/the-hunt-for-red-and-orange-october-cardinals-giants-have-rich-history-of-hostilities/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl2oa6KCX2c
secret skinny weapon

Andujar never topped, say, Jacob deGrom's 2014 in any season but '82 and '84. He also threw 260+ innings in three of his age 29-32 seasons, so he was a great bet to spiral down. I wouldn't factor the WS meltdown in much.

I meant to post Brisbee's evaluation of the NL evilness factor here:

We're probably a couple years away from a Pirates-Cubs NLCS matched up against a Yankees-Red Sox ALCS, so until then, this is as lopsided as an LCS pairing can be. The winner of the ALCS will become baseball's darling. The winner of the NLCS will have a handlebar mustache. It's hard to invent pairings that would make you, and the rest of baseball, feel so different.

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/10/8/6946969/alcs-nlcs-giants-cardinals-royals-orioles

I always root for STL to lose so I'll say Giants in 6

http://www.sbnation.com/2014/10/9/6944445/mlb-2014-nlcs-playoffs-cardinals-bad-writing

^ almost too good

Wainwright's elbow in uncertain shape

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/08/adam-wainwrights-status-for-the-nlcs-could-be-in-doubt-due-to-elbow-problems/

oh, if you get this FS1 thing, there's alternate 'sabermetric' studio coverage on it for Game 1. Saves you from using the mute for a night.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/baseball-joe/blog/the-power-of-jabo-100114

apparently now wainwright is perfectly fine, will start game 1

feels like our expectations are being mathenaged

Dislike Giants, hate StL, so I'll go with a SF sweep so it's over as quickly as possible.

I guess you're not all bad.

Go asteroid!

BP preview calls this series "Freddy vs Jason"

who is who?

does it matter?

AJP added to Cards' roster, so if you didn't hate em before...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

does it matter?

lol, well i think i like Jason more and was trying to relate to it.

*steeples fingers*

Lincecum on the roster.

what about Michael Morse?

if anybody finds a stream of the FS1 sabercast, help a brother out.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

this game is on Fox.

oh nevermind.

Lucky Panda.

Grichuk almost playing at being a Royal

i have the Fox feed and KNBR audio

station-to-station rallies, that's what i like to see

This SABR broadcast should be shown MST3K style.

Bases loaded with Madison Bumgarner, are we ready?

who is Jon Miller's color guy? He just said "that's one of the greatest doinks i've ever seen"

Switched back to hear Reynolds say "There is an artform to winning games [as a pitcher]."

This SABR broadcast should be shown MST3K style.

That's part of what they're planning! Do you have it on?

who is Jon Miller's color guy? He just said "that's one of the greatest doinks i've ever seen"

― this horrible, rotten slog to rigor mortis (Dr Morbius), Saturday, October 11, 2014 8:40 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sounds like Kruk

This is definitely preferable to Buck/Harold/whoever.

is Waino at 40 pitches in the inning yet?

Can't believe the Giants' luck so far.

and the SF radio color guy brings the "shutdown inning"! Evil is all around.

Jeez. Cardinals look nervous

Even hunter pence is like hey, relax cardinals

lotta pitches 4 waino

Only problem regarding the JABO broadcast is the split screen -- equal amounts of studio and game. Maybe too many people, too.

also jabo is a terrible name

Awful

i have no problem leaving him in.

haha

Bumgarner has pitched amazing tonight.

thou that was a balk.

I'm enjoying this.

112 pitches is impressive.

That's enough pitches now, we can go to our bullpen.

There you go.

i said something about how good he is and got dumped on, well he is that good. imo.

He is very good for sure but you said second best after Kershaw, something we pretty much all disagree with.

I'm finding this SABR broadcast very interesting but is there like a real feed of this somewhere? It's not on FOX here!

oh. that was a commercial. bingo

I'm glad the Giants aren't playing the Royals.

yet

happy happy

joy joy

I bought two Bumgarner rookie cards earlier this year. Top 7-10?

No offense to Bee, but if the Giants go on to win this thing, they'll have to be the weirdest, least impressive dynasty (or mini-dynasty) ever.

Until the rose tinted glasses of history endlessly write about how great they were, in about 45 years.

Pablo Sandoval will be transformed into Harmon Killebrew.

And featuring Hunter Pence as the Tensor

i said something about how good he is and got dumped on, well he is that good. imo.

― Bee OK, Saturday, October 11, 2014 11:14 PM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you got "dumped on" for saying he's the best pitcher in the world outside clayton kershaw you dork

that is objectively ridiculous

i was talking about his postseason roll, who else would you want out there?

i can't win but said it so i will live with it.

all you said was "madison bumgarner is the second best pitcher in baseball", nothing else

and i would want one of the dozen or so pitchers who are better than him

even if you add in his insane batting numbers this year he doesn't crack the top 10 in fWAR, and he's 16th since 2011

last year.

and i would want one of the dozen or so pitchers who are better than him

i wouldn't and that is my point. he just happens to be the ace for San Francisco in 2014.

they'll have to be the weirdest, least impressive dynasty (or mini-dynasty) ever.

lol I was just thinking that. kinda like if the New York Football Giants win it all this year.

Or Bochy will be seen as a commanding figure who get the best of his players when they play elimination games. Nobody will say Buster Posey and Hunter Pence are the new DiMaggio and Berra, but they are nothing to scoff at either.

In Bumgarner's defense, and as I said last time we discussed this, he is the second best pitcher under 25 and obviously the one with the better post-season experience. So far in the post-season he has been exactly what has been this season, absolutely amazing on the road and a bit iffy at home. I haven't forgot his dumb throw at 3rd vs the Nats.

I don't think you can say these guys are the ten best starting pitchers or the twenty best starting pitchers because they have the best stats. Others could be battling injuries or inconsistent for other reasons. But when they put it together, all of a sudden you're looking at someone who appears to be one of the best, and might well maintain that over the course of the next month or the next year or the next five years.

No but Bumgarner had a series of terrible starts this year + the home game vs the Nats which are enough to tell me: yes he is good, but not exactly the second best. In this case, Andy Pettitte comparisons seems to fit.

Bumgarner is good bit better than Pettite was imo

Bumgarner is kind of a butthole:

We have, and four years and two rings later, it's still instructive. Bumgarner, the then-20-year-old ready to take on the world -- and soon the World Series -- was ejected from a Triple-A game in June 2010 after a series of questionable calls. He was restrained by teammates and pulled off the field, exchanging words with Sacramento River Cats instructor Rickey Henderson on his way to the dugout, according to eyewitnesses. One former Fresno Grizzlies staffer swears there was a frantic search for Bumgarner's truck keys out of fear he was going to drive onto the field.

The outburst led to a three-game suspension and fine from the Pacific Coast League, and the Giants tacked on a fine, as well. But they weren't exactly upset with their prospect. The video made the rounds, with most focusing on Bumgarner -- on his way off the field -- angrily throwing the baseball deep into the outfield.

http://www.mercurynews.com/giants/ci_26705010/giants-lefty-madison-bumgarner-keeps-that-fire-burning

http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2014/10/12/6964733/the-st-louis-cardinals-need-to-bench-randal-grichuk

when grichuk hit a first inning HR in the first game of the NLDS it made me groan a little, because i worried about the present situation - grichuk has been terrible in the playoffs, but since he's a Matheny guy he'll probably be the main RF all the way to the end of the WS (if the cardinals made it that far). i love watching him play, actually - forgotten in the disappointment in the ball he dropped last night after hitting the ground was that it was an awesome fucking play to even get into a position to catch it in the first place - but it's been awful watching him strikeout 37% of the time

just got to remember to breath every once in awhile.

I challenge you to a breathing contest. If I won, the cardinals will also win

Well, Grichuk in an important AB.

*passes out*

I was all set to come on here after Grichuk's GIDP to say that Karl Malone just kicked in his TV.

I can't believe the Matheny move somehow resulted in a run. He should not receive positive reinforcement for that shit.

Hey I'm all on board with wiping off that run.

Watching that ball roll up along Jay's wrist was like watching an open bottle of wine hurtling toward the sofa

Better in slow motion

Gregg Zaun has just confirmed that Lance Lynn should have kept throwing fastballs forever: "When you make a mistake with your breaking ball..." (meaning the one Sandoval hit).

Yes--it was on the low-outside corner, Sandoval reached out and flared it opposite-field about a foot inside the foul line. He was all over it.

RIP Yadi

Ugh

Will Carroll thinks it's a back injury.

...

Could have been a big inning, Oscar.

not sure why they had him pitch there.

house money as they say.

i think it is funny how much they telecast wants the Cardinals to win.

oh come on, i know you are watching.

fuck

Strickland has been giving those up this year.

I think that's the fourth HR Strickland's given up in the postseason? Bochy can't keep going to him in the 8th inning after this.

i think it is funny how much they telecast wants the Cardinals to win.

well it's Joe Buck

yeah, that will be the last time. wow but it was almost a must win for them.

xpost

i think where Bochy blew it was not pitch running for Morse. there was a fly ball to the outfield and with any other running you might have challenged.

that was not a strike.

:clap clap clap:

drama

just a normal rosenthal inning

where are the horse tranquilizers

great play

AJ would have had that.

!!!!!!!!

luckiest team ever

i love this team!

even year

Oh, it's the mound.

i love this team!

― Bee OK, Sunday, October 12, 2014 8:35 PM (51 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

me too obv but you know. some nonsense really

Why did Cruz not even try to block the WP? Brainfart?

just got in, i see i didnt miss anything

Until this postseason I hadn't realized that Rosenthal was a heart attack in a bottle each time he tries to save a game. He walked 5.4/9IP this year!

so you leave it up to the Panda.

I liked the replay of the wild pitch where the camera's on Rosenthal: looks down at his shoe, suddenly remembers he has to be somewhere.

wait so is this really not on TV?

well it paid off.

Not terrestrially.

am i misremembering or is this a new thing, where freaking playoff games are on niche channels most people don't have?

I had to deal with that in the first round, but they're all on now.

oh man, Panda swinging at that garbage 2-0 pitch was huge

Well, I was worried about having to switch over mid-game before The Good Wife came on.

boooo, i guess.

i don't get any channels so this cable elitism doest bother me.

also wtf u guys having the audio on

I like listening to drone music, so.

(xposts) Same as when Hosmer swung after 10 straight balls the other night. It's so basic not to assist a pitcher/team that's self-destructing.

Anyway, great game.

panda shoulda been ordered to not take the bat off his shoulder if it went to 2-0

wait so is this really not on TV?

― k3vin k., Sunday, October 12, 2014 8:46 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah not on cable and my directtv doesn't fire back up til the nba season starts. so its on fox sports 1 which i can't get and is blocked on the app that said it would work. so lammmmme. local news was on fox instead of this seriously what a crock.

i guess game six will be on fox if it gets there. but not game 7!!!!

adams bat flip <3

12 minutes of cards-jints is about my limit, good job, me.

game 7 wd be opposite Sunday Night Deathsport, and u can't expect Fox to surrender their smarmy cartoons for this.

"Everybody knew their role and they performed in those situations." -- Harold Reynolds

I do think the 2-0 pitch was a strike, or at least close enough that it would have been called a strike, but umpires do miss pitches. Besides, even if you take a strike, he's still going to have to basically groove one on 2-1.

Gregg Zaun has just confirmed that Sergio Romo threw the wrong pitch to Kolten Wong.

overall good game but i don't understand Fox not having this on tonight either.

i guess i should feel bad about this but i just cannot bring myself to watch a minute of this series

I complained to my local station. Didn't know it was a national thing.

Screw cable, stream that shit, it was a great game. (although still annoying if you are paying for cable and can't get the game)

strikeout.co yall

I don't think you'll ever hear Joe Buck as excited as he gets over a Cardinal walkoff win

He was probably most excited about being able to punch out.

Let's Go Giants!

Thanks for that, didn't know where you stood on this important issue.

grichuk is starting again.

sigh.

HOT HAND

I think Keith Law tweeted the other night that Wong was buried by Matheny in April the way Taveras is now.

anthem sung by giants coach tim flannery + bob weir + phil lesh

yep. wong was only able to win back the starting job by the combination of:
A) mark ellis sucking during a lost season
B) daniel descalso being a terrible baseball player
C) hitting a bunch of home runs and XBHs for 5 games in a row, thus qualifying as a matheny "hot hand"

grichuked

did he field it poorly? listening to the radio feed from work and it was hard to tell.

lol at AJ getting booed by SF fans in memory of 2014. i mean he probably deserves it, but lol at what an asshole he is

goodness gracious

grichuk pulled up to play the carom, but the ball hit at the base of the wall. so theoretically he could have caught it, but it was a shot and it's quite windy -- not an easy thing to judge

lackey, of course, was demonstrative in his unhappiness on the mound

lackey can go straight to hell because the first thing anyone thought when he was announced as the game 3 starter was 3 to 6 ER, less than 6 innings pitched.

don't like him. why? he has the doofus look. when he stares in at the catcher with his mouth wide open and squinting eyes, panting heavily, i just want to slap him

This Kolten fellow is pretty good, isn't he?

yeah, i like him a lot. i wish he'd run the bases a little bit more because he has great instincts (only 20 SB with 4 CS this year, and 23 SB/1CS in 2013, split between minors and MLB). he's a pretty streaky player, and obviously he's not as good as he's playing right now. but he also has room to grow - his OBP was below .300 this year while his walk rate was about half of what it was in the minors, and his BABIP was only .275 even though he's plenty fast.

THUDSon amirite?

grichuked

Did Matheny and Bochy swap brains?

cards are tuff man lackeys a baller

lackey such an all-time turd

Someone just whooped in the office, wha happened.

Good.

lol second win on a error of the post-season! Vive les Géants!

Ah, Yahoo slow to update.

TORTURE etc.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l8HHPrQuj08/UFHoFiGMxWI/AAAAAAAAC4U/CZP4l20VFx0/s1600/john-lackey.gif

came home to witness that last half inning. my first thought was "why is randy choate throwing to a RHB when carlos martinez is in the bullpen?", then "why is randy choate playing in a baseball game after giving up a walk and a hit when carlos martinez is in the bullpen?", and then "why is randy choate throwing a baseball toward 1B like i would throw toward 1B?" then "MATHENY! jesus!"

That is the full spectrum of human experience, I envy you, Karl.

(Not really.)

terrible #mathenaging. 2 K rate pitchers left sitting while a guy who shouldn't be on roster single handedly gives away game.

28 of 60 RHB reached based against Choate this year (20 hits, 5 walks, 1 IBB and 2 HBP).

Small sample size.

@based_ball
National League fundamentals are one team needing four attempts to get a bunt down and the other team throwing the one playable bunt away

the thing is, his initial move - leaving Choate in to face Perez, who would probably be bunting Crawford over (that's what Matheny would do, of course) - is at least somewhat defensible because the next two hitters were lefties. but then it was clear that perez wasn't bunting. and matheny left him in and he predictably got rocked. then he left him in after THAT.

choate's career xFIP against righties is 5.31

happy happy

joy joy

that was way too stressful, next time there is a day game i have to take off of work. i couldn't do anything those later innings.

Bee, work hard on a new line

i'm just trying to have a little fun, geez.

Goldman on the cost of Mathenaging:

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/10/14/6979489/nlcs-game-3-cardinals-giants-mike-matheny-randy-choate-randal-grichuk

two completely unsubstantiated explorations of matheny's subconscious desires and weaknesses:

1) matheny spent a good chunk of his later playing days under tony larussa. it can be assumed that he took an interest in how larussa managed the club, and agreed with some things and disagreed with others. i don't have much more on this but the gist is that larussa scarred matheny for life and now he's so invested in his own ideas of improving on larussa tactics that he can't see any alternative. he's all in.

2) he watched star wars wars too much. he admires the part where luke turns off the targeting system on his x-wing and instead rely on his instinct too much. subconsciously he has decided to turn off his "targeting system" while managing a major league baseball team.

taveras and bourjos out of the starting lineup again tonight.

LOL at all these managers/former Giants stacking the deck in SF's favor.

Here there's a game today.

Enough with the pitching and defense, I'm ready for a sloppy 10-9 game.

Pierzynski would have been safe if he'd slid into the bag rather than Crawford's legs. What a dick.

sigh. i'm just listening to the radio feed because the streams i can find (including strikeout.co) are like slide shows. this whole blackout-for-selected-NLCS-games thing is idiotic. on the plus side listening to the everdrunk mike shannon is 10000x better than buck/reynolds.

AJP, hitting hero, just when you thought this month couldn't get any "better"

yeah strikeout.co freezes a lot on me too, it depends what stream you pick

if only i would have shelled out $100+ at the beginning of the year so that i could watch baseball games that everyone else is watching for free. oh wait, i did do that! damn you mlb.tv!

i'm on stream 4 and it's not bad. they sometimes improve after 20-30 mins.

why did they score this Jeetz Gatorade spot with a classless boor like Sinatra?

What was up with AJP whining on the ground?

Dammit Barry looks like you got your wish.

Pierzynski took a dive to draw the interference call like he was trying out for the Italian national soccer team, my god I hate this guy.

xpost - thanks, stream 4 is much better than the others i had tried (with my typical luck, 1, 2, 3, and 7)

Apparently the first time in postseason history (1000+ games) that the leadoff man reached base in each of the first five half-innings). 47 pitches already for Vogelsong.

l o s b e i s b o l DOT m o o n f r u i t DOT com

That's two sweet looking double plays turned by the Giants, both times on Peralta.

Jeezis, I called that homer: "Now that the bases are cleared, it's the perfect time for Vogelsong to serve up a potato."

Wong is dialed in.

Might as well drill AJ at this point just because.

yeah, he really is! wow

also i support drilling AJ

But then again, AJ is an out machine, so.

I wonder if I'm related to Kolten.

Runner on! Have to remember to breathe. Wanna try, Karl?

YOU'RE ON

*holds*

it's hard to be a fan

why is Wacha even on the roster?

he's this year's shelby miller, always gotta have one

I totally understand Brandon Crawford's teen idol status, but I think he'd actually look worse without the douchey Stamos Wet Look.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zBx-4M2W308/Teo8yGtTkZI/AAAAAAAAD4o/9fBqc7p7lYw/s1600/IMG_3000.JPG

WHY IS RANDY CHOATE IN THE GAME RIGHT NOW

to retire lefty joe panik obvs

to snare comebackers

not bad actually xxp

and we've come halfway... in 2 hrs 3 mins

I have to get up before 6 a.m.

Matt Adams, tub of goo

lol

Cards have another lefty named Sam Freeman who has only been used once so far in the postseason.

The San Francisco Happy Happy Joy Joy now lead 6 to 4!

I know some of you dislike the Giants a lot abd I understand, but surely love for Posey must be universal, yes?

I do love Buster, esp as he grew out of looking like Napoleon Dynamite

lol i like when one guy loses a game

Hoe did this Cards team beat the f'in Dodgers

never happens

you're 0-for-∞

xp

ha i was 100% that post wld incite yr pedantry tho

Now the tub of goo gets a chance to congeal. I mean, redeem himself.

I'm a little late here - but christ Adams is a lousy first baseman

He's actually been surprisingly good this season! He was definitely terrible last year - I remember many times when he would somehow fail to cover first as he charged in for a bunt or dived to try to catch a ball hit squarely at the second baseman - but he was noticeably better this year.

until now

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/matt-adams-and-beating-the-eye-test

2nd consecutive year Matheny puts players on the playoff roster he has no intention of playing.

Yeah. I had forgotten about Freeman entirely.

Cardinals have 6 useless players right now - freeman, wacha, yadi, and wainwright (I hope I look like a fool tomorrow), taveras, and Bourjos.

And peralta, who is playing and isn't injured but is still useless.

giants start to look a lot better next to the cards. i'm rooting for them.

Matheny got good production out of CF this year by mixing Jay and Bourjos. Postseason? Abandons it completely.

2 outs, no one on? Perfect time to get Oscar taveras one of his 2 PAs for the NLCS.

freeman not on roster, we brought a pile of choate instead

CHOATE THE GOATE

do they call him that now

That's a terrible pitch to take to end the game.

MadBum 2morrow, series all but over?

Hey guys love exciting royals baseball?? Well too fucking bad because the Giants are going to smoke them with infield singles and runs error'd in by pitchers.

Silver lining: I bet we'll get to hear many exciting stats related to how historically rare it is for a team to come back from a 3-1 deficit

Yeah if the 2012 NLCS is any example, the Cards are from being done yet.

except this time, they are. they are cooked. wainwright's useless, yadi's out, peralta can't hit, bourjos isn't being played, taveras isn't being played, wacha is locked up in a hidden dungeon, lackey is an idiot, and mike matheny listens to contemporary christian music

So it's all up to Grichuk

basically

Don't forget Kolten!

I sure as hell can't.

Ethan (Austin)
Do you remember when you said Kolten Wong was a one tool player and was not a top 50 prospect and had limited upside? Yeah, me too.

Klaw (1:05 PM)
Remember when he had a 90 wRC+ this year? Yeah, me too.

Try putting numbers on the size of Kolten's heart, NERD.

To clarify...

Bob (Springfield, MO)
So, seriously, what do you think of Wong going forward? Everyday player with a mediocre OBP, good speed, and occasional pop?

Klaw (1:15 PM)
That's fair. Will be curious to see where his defense goes. He's not a great athlete, but neither is Pedroia and he became plus with hard work and instruction.

Would love to see a ranking of active players by willingness to accept coaching.

i'd agree with that. his defense already seems above average to me. i think the biggest thing for him will be whether or not he can improve his discipline at the plate. if he could take more walks and boost his OBP, his speed would be much more of a weapon.

Not agreeing or disagreeing, but relevant to some discussion here:

Hey Bill! The Cardinals last year kept Shelby Miller on their postseason roster, and he pitched one inning in 17 games. This year they've kept Wacha on their postseason roster and he has yet to warm up through eight or nine games. It seems that they kept these guys on the roster in spite of having no intention of using them. I don't have a handle on how other teams use their superfluous fifth starter during the postseason, but it makes no sense to carry them and not use them.
Asked by: mikeclaw

Answered: 10/16/2014
Well, but of course you don't know in advance how things will play out. You may find yourself in an 18-inning game where that Shelby Miller or Michael Wacha Wacha has to pitch 7 innings. You prepare a roster for an array of contingencies, some of which never materialize.

No Lincecum sightings, either.

If they make it to the Series, I really hope Lincecum gets in there. I feel kind of sorry for him...multi-millionaire aside. And his postseason numbers are stellar.

boy if tonight's game goes 18 innings Matheny finna be flexin

last night's 9-inning game took 3 hours and 53 minutes to complete.

isn't Lincecum fairly effective as a reliever?

A couple of years ago, he had two or three excellent long-relief appearances; the one game he started in the LCS (against Wainwright), he wasn't effective at all.

5.40 ERA with 4.3 K/9 in 5(!) appearances since he went to the pen -- but a 1.08 WHIP. From my vantage point, Bochy seems to have no confidence in him right now.

That's regular season only.

Carpenter 3B
Jay CF
Holliday LF
Peralta SS
Adams 1B
Grichuk RF
Wong 2B
Cruz C
Wainwright RHP

Blanco CF
Panik 2B
Posey C
Sandoval 3B
Pence RF
Belt 1B
Ishikawa LF
Crawford SS
Bumgarner LHP

Wong should be leading off and hitting cleanup.

possibly pitching.

If they make it to the Series, I really hope Lincecum gets in there. I feel kind of sorry for him...multi-millionaire aside. And his postseason numbers are stellar.

― clemenza, Thursday, October 16, 2014 8:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Timmeh got to be the relief hero in 2012 because his starter spot was taken by a red hot Barry Zito.

this is why I fucking hate the giants and their recent success.

Because we are a meritocratic paradise?

Im just bitter because the nlcs is being contested by the two franchises I hate the most as a contemptible dodgers fan

tom verducci sez that matheny sez that if wainwright needs to come out early wacha is "the first guy out of the pen"

and again, i am confused by matheny. so if wainwright is shitty, during a potential season-ending elimination game, you're going to bring in wacha, who hasn't pitched in about 6 years and entrust him with the season? shit matheny, quit doing the extreme thing and just use him for an inning here or there so you actually have an idea of how well he might perform. oh wait, too late

i have a pup! her name is Bird. she's 4 months old.

http://i.imgur.com/V91Liye.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/dYdcic4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Fl2hyfp.jpg

she's my first ever puppy, and i have questions. is there a How to Pup thread?

OMG PUPPEH BEST POST ON THIS THREAD.

lol oops, meant this for the PUPPY! thread

but hey if you all have tips

Shower her with love.

i will...but only if the cardinals beat the giants.

better let panda know not to do that kind of shit

'[adam wainwright] is looking for outs, and not to give up runs'

PANDA, STOP SWINGING. PUPPY IN THE BALANCE.

OOOOH uhhhh good take.

how is grichuk supposed to succeed when matheny has him batting eighth then second then sixth? his head's probably spinning

Any time I see a batter without batting gloves, I assume they pee on their hands.

SORRY PUPPY.

Adams' new walkup song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZwdG7Str6Y

whoa fuck yeah adam wainwright

he hasn't looked that intense in forever

My posting of a photo of elderly Willie Mays carrying a dog in an elevator drew NO comments.

btw you can blame the Steinbrenners for this "GBA" shit imho

BP podcast guys have been speculating for weeks that Waino is on the verge of a 2nd Tommy John

Matheny and Bill James still saving stale Wacha for the 12th

Morse is pretty pumped.

CLUTCH STEROID TITS

Brandon Crawford glove work is one of the reason the Giants are good in the post-season.

wau, that Wet Look glove

Brandon Crawford glove work is one of the reason the Giants are good in the post-season.

― Van Horn Street, Thursday, October 16, 2014 10:52 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ Edgy analytical work.

BP, you can hire me now.

Don't fail us now Santiago.

we want The Freak

Lincecum is probably my favorite player and his struggles is something that makes him a real human being that I can identify with instead of a handsome success robot a la Clayton Kershaw and I love him dearly but no, not Lincecum, not now.

It's gonna be Lincecum vs Wacha in the 15th inning in the battle of missing persons.

Ah well speaking of which.

Did I fall asleep and miss six innings??

Taveras is in, it's a Missing Persons night

Methany at the mound, told Wacha in his ear: it'd be really shitty if you missed the only inning we gave ya.

wow

former pirate

even year

holy ...

Wow

so Karl Malone was OTM on that "contingency" for using Wacha. Sorry dude.

It took this week to figure out that Matheny is the dumbest tactician in the playoffs. 20-DAY LAYOFF?

rip puppy ;_;

hahaha

Well, nobody will mention Ishikawa's Little League error ever again.

It's almost like not pitching Wacha for weeks and then letting him out of his cage with the season on the line was a bad idea!

lol he really hadn't pitched since the 26th?

And he looked the same then. Only throwing his fastball. No change ups.

Nope. xp

Losing team in all four series thus far has won 0 or 1 game. How can that be "the best postseason"?

Now 1986, THAT was a postseason.

Matheny burned bullpen in Lackey start. He's an idiot but Giants were the better team.

Willie Mays still has a post with the Giants, I bet his elevator dog will be well fed.

Was Matheny talking to Yost on the bullpen phone?

Losing team in all four series thus far has won 0 or 1 game. How can that be "the best postseason"?

That was about the best 4-1 LCS you're going to see though.

Boy I wish Matt Cain was still on the roster, what a shitty injury.

that michael morse HR trot and delirious celebration seriously made me do a gut laugh, first time in forever. i almost fell over

Hah he was so over the top overjoyed

@BenLindbergh
For those of you not taking in the postgame festivities, Brian Sabean just called his players "a bunch of cockroaches"

Jeff Sullivan @based_ball
smart of the Cardinals to get Wacha some mop-up work to shake off the rust, he should be good to go over the weekend

Will this be the first WS between two sub-90-win teams? (since the sked went to 162, i mean)

Yup first time, closest we've been was 1926 (Cards had 89 wins and Yankees 91). Obviously, 1981 does not count.

yep. it looks like the two next closest weakest WS matches were in 1997 (the 92-game winning Marlins vs. the 86-game win winning Indians) and 2010 (The 92-game winning Giants vs the 90-game winning Rangers).

yeah, but they only played 154 games in 1926. since the 162-game schedule started, it's 1997 and 2010

oh my bad. not surprised for 2010.

@miklasz
Matheny, when asked about not using Rosenthal in 9th: "We can't bring him in, in tie-game situation. We're on the road.”

mike matheny is not the kind of guy who would do anything but use Rosenthal for the all-important Save. i was more confused that he didn't bring in martinez or maness, especially when shit got real on wacha and they needed a fucking strikeout and/or double-play.

that's the thing with matheny. it's not like he has some other strategy or line of reasoning for the dumb shit that he does. it's that he has NOTHING, no rationale, just total emptiness

https://i.imgflip.com/b3dgu.gif

lol at a comment on another forum:

In this picture, Mike Matheny is mario
and Yoshi is Wacha
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/O_GoNmpZDMSkATML107-wa-hFnx2AmsQtrBLuIUy4xUk=s192-p-no

To the Cards: Better luck next year, especially since it'll be an odd year.

his contract runs through 2017. shit. i didn't even realize. i pay attention to who is managing, obviously, but i never pay attention to the contracts they receive. is there any manager guaranteed for more years than matheny? maybe it doesn't matter because managers seem to just get canned sometimes?

i tuned back in just in time to say to the gf (as if she would know), "why isn't Rosenthal pitching?!" and then shortly thereafter, watch a ball leave the park.

so, my question is: are there *any* managers in baseball with a brain?

i feel like a normal reliever would have been pulled after the four-pitch walk (or at 2-0 on ishikawa), but then matheny would have had to answer further questions about why wacha was on the roster at all if he was trusted so little

recall some discussion about leyland vs ausmus, and how for all the odd decisions he made, leyland had the confidence to admit a mistake and try something different, which ausmus lacked in his first year. even after three successful seasons, matheny seems awfully inflexible

or maybe jesus makes his bullpen decisions

I'm amazed that the 1926 win totals came so close. Are we sure Bud wasn't commish then btw.

(the Red Sox lost 107)

can you pull a reliever in the middle of the at bat if he's not hurt? I imagine you could, but I've never seen LaRussa do it, so maybe not?

it's a little rough on the guy you bring in, but yeah

(and embarrassing for the guy being yanked)

Weird vs. weirder. KC winning would be weird, but I could get my head around it, for reasons we've discussed: great defense, speed, bullpen, getting hot at just the right time. I don't think I'd be able to get my head around the Giants winning three World Series in five years.

@msimonespn
The walk-off HR was Travis Ishikawa's 1st extra-base hit against a pitch thrown 96+ MPH since July 23, 2010 (double vs Dbacks)!!

btw did morse actually touch first base here?

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/11493214/v36821563/must-c-clutch-morses-solo-shot-ties-it-in-the-8th

The BP podcast guys spent most of an hour coming up w/ legit reasons for MM's bullpen choices, then at the 50-minute mark they saw his "can't use my closer in a road tie" quote, and committed verbal seppuku.

it's hilarious how his actual quote was "We can't bring him in, in a tie-game situation. We're on the road.”, but in the mlb.com recap it got cleaned up to "We can't bring him in in a tie-game situation when we're on the road."

ok i guess that's not the best example but if you regularly listen to matheny speak it quickly becomes apparent that he just chooses a few key words that might be relevant and then attempts to connect them together into a sentence using random words

saw that earlier and honestly thought it was someone making the obvious joke

it was, unconsciously

https://twitter.com/BestFansStLouis
https://twitter.com/BestFansStLouis
https://twitter.com/BestFansStLouis
https://twitter.com/BestFansStLouis

WS is going to be the immovable object vs. the irresistible force.

Jeff Sullivan @based_ball
under standard conditions, Joe Panik's home run would have left zero major league ballparks http://hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=92014_48&type=hitter

what were the nonstandard conditions?

wind iirc

But if you put on the AT&T Park overlay, it's still a homer, because down the RF line is just over 300 feet.

lol:

http://cardinalsfarm.com/2014/10/20/mike-matheny-to-release-book-on-managing-in-february/

Now, according to Amazon, the Cardinals manager that so many in St. Louis love to kill with scorn is releasing a “Manifesto” on his managing style and personal life titled, “The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life.”

The title above is linked to the Amazon page for the future release, which was co-written by Matheny and Jerry Jenkins. The book will be available for purchase in February of 2015, just prior to the opening of spring training and the start of Matheny’s fourth season as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Christmas is TOO SOON i guess.

i hope it's written in the style of his post-game interviews.

you have a team, job to keep the goal in mind. tough trip ahead but just stay positive, one day at a time. can't worry about next week. guys have a lot of heart, can't count them out.

wake up with alarm, have some breakfast. stay focused and half of success is just showing up, so that's a priority. turn on jars of clay at a decent volume and stare at the scripture i had engraved on the wall in my office. go with a hot hand, pay attention to the stats but can't forget intuition. you have nine innings to score more runs than the other team, and you score a run when you go all the way around the bases and then touch home plate again. before there are 3 outs. there are other rules but at the end of the day you say your goodbyes and go home and prepare for that next day. mental long grind dinner empty dreams, sun alarm breakfast and it starts again.

you should do the Audiobook.

i've already busy recording the audiobook for my favorite book of all -

Intentional Walk: An Inside Look at the Faith That Drives the St. Louis Cardinals

Looks like you have a new followup project to your Conference Call and Meditation pages.

heh, i actually do have something in mind (bought the domain today and was thinking of starting a thread on it soon), but thankfully it's non-matheny related.