2017 World Series: Astros v Dodgers

I'm fine with either team winning really, but bcz their haters are particularly annoying I'm behind Kershaw and Puig especially. Expect 6 or 7 games, I'd put the Dodgers at 53-54% to take it.

Except for Justin Turner's hair, there's nothing about the Dodgers I don't like--Kershaw and Jensen are the best, Puig is fascinating, and they were a great (and weird) story this year. But I'll be rooting for the Astros; their blow-it-up plan actually worked, and right on--even ahead of--schedule. (On the Toronto call-in station, the same idea was tossed around all year for the Blue Jays. Which is funny, because no one in Toronto would have the patience to endure two or three 100-loss seasons.) And I literally love that Jose Altuve literally loves Justin Verlander.

Jansen...

Meant to link to this: why the Astros winning would make it a "Happy Year."

https://www.billjamesonline.com/the_happy_years/

this piece is interesting:

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21121265/dodgers-dream-season-turn-nightmare-astros

What we can say is that great hitting teams beat great pitching teams, unless they don't. We also can say that so far in this postseason, the Astros' offense has looked beatable at times, while the Dodgers' pitching and defense has more than held up to its regular-season form.

some real bold claims in there

I like Justin Turner's hair and the Houston Astros, I don't really care who wins, I'm just rooting for a Game 7, good luck everyone

voted Dodgers in 5. they're just such a good team front to back. 'Stros lack of middle relief may wind up hurting them.

i like both teams. utley might be the only individual player i actively dislike. probably rooting for the dodgers because fuck texas

i know some good Texans though

otoh fuck Nolan Ryan

dodgers in 5 because i can see Kersh and Hill pitching two amazing games and putting houston in a hole

dodgers in 5 because i can see Kersh and Hill pitching two amazing games and putting houston in a hole

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

1) I abhor minute made's outfield

2) Altuve owns

That's about the extent of my opinions

Oh Puig obv owns as well

Can't recall liking both teams this much. Bonus that either Granderson or Verlander will get a ring.

Astros in 6.

Bonus that either Granderson or Verlander will get a ring.

and beltran

I had forgotten Granderson didn't join the Yankees til 2010.

Top Win-Loss records, regular season, 2010 through 2017:
Dodgers 721-574
Cardinals 720-576
Yankees 718-578

Worst Win-Loss records, regular season, 2010 through 2017:
Marlins 587-708
Twins 586-710
Astros 579-717

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/21130807/why-dominant-dodgers-actually-world-series-underdogs

sam miller strikes again

Lindbergh: bad Game 1 matchup?

https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2017/10/24/16533310/houston-astros-los-angeles-dodgers-dallas-keuchel-kryptonite

grandy is not on the dodgers roster ;_;

I went to the great satan and got an HD antenna for the series and will take it back after.

congratulations on not living in a megalopolitan backwater where such an antenna does nothing

Thank you very much.

With Granderson off LA's roster, only 3 active players in this WS will have appeared in one before (JV, Beltran, Utley). Least since 1906!

— Cliff Corcoran (@CliffCorcoran) October 24, 2017

104 toasty degrees in LA

Going Dodgers in 6 mostly as a function of them having HFA. Im slightly worried these games will be 20+ k snooze fests but its 4000 degrees in LA so the ball will be jumping.

I think Houston in 6

voted astros in 7, just because that's what i want. i'd prefer the astros but i like several individual players on each team and hope that they all get their chance to shine

yeah I'm a savage dodgers homer and I would be ok if houston won.. its just nice to finally have the two best teams actually play each other where HFA was earned and not handed out in a fucking exhibition.

I noticed tickets for game 3 in houston are like $300 cheaper than the games in LA..

well, Friday night lights

Clayton Kershaw, when asked if the depth of his slider has been changing: "I don't know what analytics group you work for, but, no."

— Andy McCullough (@McCulloughTimes) October 23, 2017

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

a comfortable 103 degrees in LA tonight.

kershaw is celebrating this event by wearing his special hat that has literal shit smeared all over the back of it

Puig at clean-up, nice.

Whoa...

this is a seemingly comfortable 1-0 lead...

seemingly as i said

I should never say this--I stopped three or four Jays games cold this year when I did--but god, this is moving fast.

Larry King's visibility behind home sends ratings plunging

If dust doesn't fly, it's a strike tonight

My big beard is gnarlier than your big beard.

Turner certainly overcame that shitty strike 2 call

what is this TAKE17 crap btw? am i missing some secret pun?

And again!

5-second commercials between batters, fuuuuuuuu

Anyone know where you can watch this online, for free?

pulling kershaw might be controversial. i think either decision was fine probably

he has to be

happy for his parents if so

yeah happy for the families of PR's and Venezuela's players on this Astros squad, on top of Hurricane Harvey it must have been a tough year for these guys and to win like they did is pretty remarkable.

Nice interview with Morton--seemed pretty verklempt.

Darvish's starts were the the only games in the series where the Dodgers were never really in it. It almost makes you question the need to add an "ace" starter at the trade deadline, especially when you already have a great bullpen and starter innings are less significant in the playoffs than ever before. Then again, you you have the Astros and Verlander and the fact that they just won the World Series by hoarding starters, so who knows.

MLB should do like the NHL or soccer and give the trophy to the captain like who gives a shit about the owner.

glad they gave morton the win -- he deserved it

lol

cool feedback coming from the rob ford lookalike.

springer always looks like he's got stage fright

been waiting my entire life to see the Astros take the World Series, so happy.

Oh shit Correa just got engaged this post game show is suddenly all worth it.

Darvish’s garbage performance in 3+ innings basically cost them 3 games.

springer always looks like he's got stage fright

― qualx, Thursday, November 2, 2017 12:22 AM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he's been fighting with stutter and is active in helping kids with speech disability.

...haha thanks Correa for this moment.

i mean he always looks like that even when he's just chilling in the dugout

he's always moving his eyeballs

yeah and he does weird stuff after catching pop outs or when is just alone in the field, it's worth paying attention too if you are a fan of The Springer's ways.

baseball is over, the darkness surrounds me.

good news

congratulations to the Astros, who are very good and deserving champs. pitchers and catchers report in three days

— Jeff Sullivan (@based_ball) November 2, 2017

in tribute of the astros, i will now post a series of gifs from when they were absolutely god-awful like four years ago

— Jon Bois (@jon_bois) November 2, 2017

this is a great thread

they were so bad

Darvish’s garbage performance in 3+ innings basically cost them 3 games.

In the end, I think it made a lot of other stuff regarding who-pitches-when moot. The Dodgers need at least one decent start from him.

classic

pic.twitter.com/89EDAtHPcr

— Trevor Strunk (@StrunkTrevor) November 2, 2017

posted too soon in the ALCS thread, will probably be seeing this a lot

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/nribztwbrq3jilw5qbmm.jpg

god i wish the o's would do an astros

I mean the O's lost 90 games six years in a row, loaded up with young players, then suddenly become consistent contenders over the 2012-16 span, led by those young stars and canny cheap pickups, so ... they kind of did? And it worked? It just didn't win them a World Series. But that comes down to luck. (And leaving Zach Britton on the bench in a tie game.)

yeah but each one of those 90-loss seasons started with the apparent delusion that they'd randomly turn it around that year. i don't think they actually traded a player when that player had decent value aside from erik bedard? other than that it was just a series of savvy moves from consecutive GMs that turned out as well as they could've, and a committed manager. they never actually started drafting well, they continued to ignore the international market, their minor league development never actually improved. they still signed the hardys of the roster to unreasonable extensions rather than trading them when they had value and getting younger.

the astros very intentionally tanked in order to build a powerful young core. they executed about as well as they could, but they went all in and didn't leave any wiggle room. cubs too.

i think every fan of a non-playoff team is thinking "i wish my team would do that" right now

we'll be saying the same thing about the white sox in 2020

2021: white sox vs phillies in the world series.

posted too soon in the ALCS thread, will probably be seeing this a lot

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/nribztwbrq3jilw5qbmm.jpg

― qualx, Thursday, November 2, 2017 12:44 AM (one hour ago)

the memes on twitter have been good

Yes, I went to sleep in the 7th inning of Game 7, but it worked out; I couldn't get a good stream all night anyway. (Sucks to be old and poor.)

Verlander and Beltran have rings now. That's beautiful.

I suppose so, except I'm not sure I 'like' Verlander, and Beltran was no factor so yay, his teammates got him 'a ring' (you know, pretty randomly in a tournament). I'm sure he'd rather have someone fix Puerto Rico. But yay for Altuve, Correa, Josh Reddick's booty.

otoh: That's the first world series in the history of Texas.

However... I'm happy for Kevin Goldstein, the Astros' director of pro scouting, with whom I once had a nice conversation about Serge Gainsbourg.

^^ That's good stuff.

This was underwhelming, though I probably expected too much given the previous six games. Springer was a no brainer for MVP.

@TonyPaul1984
And there it is: JV hoisting World Series trophy. Let's not forget, he pledged his entire postseason share (as much as $400K) to charity.

hey so this SI cover was pretty prescient

http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/44/67/36/9664389/3/920x920.jpg

However... I'm happy for Kevin Goldstein, the Astros' director of pro scouting

Yeah, I remember Luhnow trying to hire a bunch of BP alumni and other various statheads from anywhere he could when he started in Houston. This really is a huge feather in the cap of the stathead crowd.

https://www.thescore.com/news/1399803

jesus

still hard to feel bad for the dodgers i guess

i'm getting very sick of people handwaving away their beyond-00s-yankees level salary with "well most of the value came from cheaper guys" or w/e. money like that means freedom to fail spectacularly. most other teams would've been DEVASTATED by those AGon/kazmir/ethier contracts, for years.

man, imagine how Darvish feels

kershaw so emo

The Cubs bought 200 pizzas for the Astros. The previous World Series winner traditionally buys for new winner. pic.twitter.com/83Y7CxIz12

— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) November 3, 2017

i had no idea

great, 200 chicago style pizzas, thank you so much, wow

well Kevin Goldstein lives in Dekalb, he can take two

(I tot missed that KG was promoted to special assistant to the GM recently)

fun fact: Mike Fiers pitched the most innings for Houston this year; left off the postseason roster.

...I'm guessing this is the first time a team whose most frequent regular-season starting pitcher had a 5.22 ERA won the World Series.

prob a smart move honestly there was never a moment in the postseason when youd even think of pitching mike fiers but you need to eat innings in the reg

By Game 5 (?) Hinch couldn't even think of pitching Ken Giles.

i mean that is true also

there was a lengthy shot of mike fiers leaning on the dugout railing at some point

(i wonder how many people can recognize mike fiers)

Brewers fans can

"Maybe one of these days we won't fail..."

Says the man that has made 129 million playing baseball with over 100 million more to go on his guaranteed contract.

It will be interesting to see how both the Dodgers and Astros do in the next couple of seasons. Houston has a similar look to Chicago did last year, where you think they 'could' have another step of improvement still to come.

https://deadspin.com/report-yu-darvish-tipped-his-pitches-in-the-world-seri-1821216289