LAA - NYY 2005 ALDS Thread

Tell me about it ... just about every starter the Yankees can throw out is a mismatch against the Angels ... Angels have a better bullpen ... Game 5 will be in Anaheim ... but I'm still picking Yanks in 5. It just feels right (that's right as in "correct", not right as in "just").

The Angels bullpen is still pretty good, but not as good as last year or 2002. LA of A has better starting pitching than last year or 2002. The question is which John Lackey and Bartolo Colon show up, as they both can be inconsistent. Sheilds and KRod were used often over this season and both were not as good in the second half of the season as the first.

The Angels hitting is not anywhere near as good as either last year or as 2002. Outside of Vlad, there is not another scary power hitter in the LA of A lineup. Chone Figgins is going to have to get on base and they are going to have to make NY pay for pitching around Vlad.

The question for NY is when will Small and Chacon turn back into pumpkins. Mussina got rocked three of his last four starts down the stretch. I figure the Unit will be OK, but one or two of the other starters are going to have to step up.

I can't see LA of A outslugging the Yanks in this series or having their pitchers shut them down. I thought the Angels had a good shot at winning it all last year, I don't see it happening this season at all.

You see, I am the type of kid who trades for all the good players in a video game because he hates losing so much, so I'll be a Yankee booster.

Wait a sec, K-Rod is "garbage"? Is this NY slang for "awesome"?

2.67 ERA (in the AL), 1.14 WHIP, 12.16 K/9, .184 BAA?

As it stands, even if they were optimized to win hitting-wise, Scoscia would probably run them out of innings w/ his shitwit smallballery. With their most common lineup configuration, their millstones will gladly kill rallies that Scoscia's baserunning tactics don't already kill. The team's SB success says anything about ANAHEIM's proclivity to make outs running all over the damn place.

That said, where the Angels lack in the hitting dept., they TROUNCE pitching-wise. A starting 3 of Colon, Lackey, & Byrd trounces the Yankee triumverate of RJ, Mussina, and Insert Outlier Here. And the Angel bullpen pwns the Yankee pen by a sick margin, esp. w/ Kelvim Escobar providing great middle relief, in tandem w/ Pine Tar Boy & the Shields / K-God combo. (Tracer's golden shower on Rodriguez is inexplicable.)

So: IF the Angels learn how to take a pitch, they could turn this series into a slugfest that they might very well win, even if the Angel starters don't show up (& given Colon's starts against NYY this year, that's a possibility). Scoscia better not screw this shit up.

It's a fact because I say so: Colon / Mussina is a slugfest where the Angels end up on top, RJ wins Game 3, but the pitching advantage proves to be the difference, Chacon gets his comeuppance, Bengie Molina gets the Jeter throughout the series, and Mr. Clutch gets credit for hitting a meaningless .250 in the series because he dives a lot. Angels in 4.

Yanks angry at Showalter for pulling stars vs. Angels

This is coming from the same Yankees who

-- didn't even win their division outright but were awarded the pennant because of some stupid-ass rule. If MLB wanted home-field advantage + winning the pennant to mean something, then there would have been a playoff.
-- threw in the towel after Cleveland lost

Ya wanna play at home? WIN THE DAMN GAMES IN THE REGULAR SEASON AND EARN THAT SHIT.

I know talking about wins and losses is a generally a no no, but the thing about Shields and K-Rod that catches my eye is the losses. Combined they put up W-12 L-16 SV-52. If you add those together you get 80 times they either got the decision or a save, but .20 percent of those times they got credit for a loss. 4 out of 5 is pretty good success rate for a reliever, but it is not mind blowing.

Please trade him to Padres thx bye.

I predict the Yankees, anyway, in 5. And I can vouch for Tracer's trustworthiness on the issue of Yankee hatin'.

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=4503

"A big difference between the lineups is in their basepath behavior. Fronted by Figgins in the leadoff slot, the Angels led the majors in stolen bases (159, 22 more than the more highly touted Go-Go White Sox) while nabbing them at a nifty 74% clip, good for the ninth-best success rate for a team. The Yankees haven't been all that passive on the bases this year, even with Tony Womack riding pine: Jeter and A-Rod have combined for 35 steals in 46 attempts, but they're the only baserunners Torre takes risks with, and the Angels do an exceptional job controlling the running game. So if there's going to be a basepath commando in the series, odds are, it's going to be an Angel. If Figgins plays as well against the Yankees now as he did during the season (.487/.535/.590), the Angels will be able to create opportunities for themselves and get into that middle relief staff the Yankees almost wish wasn't there at all."

Definitely a 5 game series though.

Will McCarver actually have an orgasm the first time his husband makes a throw from the hole?

Jeter somehow finished 2d among AL SSs in Range Factor this year to Julio Lugo.

I remember that play, and waited for the criticism from Buckcarver ... and they DID say something to the effect that it was a gloveable ball that Jeter felt he should have had. It was more than I was expecting from them, but it wasn't totally ignored as you seem to be implying.

Anyway. Yeah MIR is right, the Mets weren't a BAD team last year so it's not exactly a bold claim. I hope they do it, I always like it when those little Mets pull something out of their ass and become big winnas, it makes me grin! The Yankees need to do something that doesn't involve purchasing 90-year-old future hall of famers at ridiculous rates to keep them for two seasons. I mean, if they want to stay tops in the league. They might not. I mean good on them, either way, you go little buckaroos etc.

Derek Jeter hit a home run Friday with the Yankees down four runs. He hit one last night with the team down three. The one last night was pointed to, by the game broadcasters as well as the ones on "SportsCenter," as evidence of his "clutchness."

Not for nothing, but why is it if Alex Rodriguez hits a solo homer with the Yankees down by a bunch, it's evidence that he's a stat-padding loser, but when Jeter does it, it's clutch?

It's just another example of the double standard in place for the two players. Neither covered themsleves in glory in the series--the statistical difference between the two is those two Jeter home runs, whose value seems to be entirely in who hit them--yet Jeter comes out as Captain Intangible while Rodriguez, whose back is still a bit sore from carrying the team in the '04 Division Series, for which he got no credit, is the choke artist.

It ain't right.

Anyone else notice the venom dripping from Buck's voice as he called A-Rod's DP and noted his failure in the ALDS?

You got it, Ally! Just like the "millimeters" fair or foul decided the Houston-Atlanta game. (Please only use that unit of measure in Toronto games, however.)

No.

"The Yankees had a chance in the top of the ninth, down two against Frankie Rodriguez. Derek Jeter -- the anti-A-Rod -- led off with a fierce single to left, and up came A-Rod as the tying run. And as he strolled to the plate, I know I'm not the only one who had this crazy thought: Make him bunt. Ridiculous, maybe, but there was absolutely no reason to think he could get the job done. He hit into a double play, effectively ending the Yankees' season.

Jeter had three hits in front of him Sunday night. Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield each had three hits behind him. A-Rod had two hits in five games, both in the Yankees' 11-7 loss in Game 3.

It's a fascinating case study. During the regular season, the man is as consistently spectacular as any player of his generation. But when everybody's watching, A-Rod plays with a self-consciousness that's rare in a great athlete."

The issue is not whether the rules are the rules, it's just whether those rules are always so zealously enforced, and whether it's perhaps a bit odd that a rarely-invoked rule was invoked at a crucial time in a crucial game, cf. the notorious 'pine tar' game.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the Yankees still woulda lost, I mean I'm not sure what the hell Rodriguez, Sheffield and Matsui were even there for. All I'm saying is that Yancey et al have points about Joe West seeming to have a huge hard on for the Yankees. I think sitting there and pretending that there isn't any questioning his decisions last night is kind of disreputable to your own argument, which, I would assume, should circle around the fact that even if those calls were played differently, Angels more than likely still would've won because their pitching and defense was significantly better than the Yankees were last night.

I was just reading that ESPN piece three minutes ago!

Correct team + # of games = 10 pts
Correct team, off by one game = 6 pts
correct team, off by two games = 4.5 pts
correct # of games = 3 pts
all other combos = 0 pts

(that 4.5 is only if you've guessed the right # of games if the series went to 5 games which seems unfair in retrospect).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/blauchhead.jpg

Also, Fryman should have been out but Knoblauch was indeed a blauchead.

Here's a pretty satisfying rebuttal:

http://firejoemorgan.blogspot.com/2005/10/tim-keown-head-case.html

Wait WTF, it'll take a lot of convincing after this year's Twins season that the Dome is a hitter's park. Jacque Jones hit under .250 there. Morneau hit .201 for fuck's sake!

Back on-topic-ish: I suppose A-Rod can gain solace in the fact that he made off with the Pepsi before Vlad could get it.

Hahahahahahaha ok classique.

A-Rod's been giving himself some kind of self-beating in the press the past coupla days, to the point where I feel like going up to him and saying "C'mon lil' guy, it'll be ok" and I'm not exactly his biggest fan. The bloggy makes a good point vis a vis Matsui and Sheffield being just as big of "head cases."