2019 MLB Postseason: NLDS & ALDS Series

[folly412]

I wouldn't mind being in the Braves situation either. All that talent under 25 and the farm is still loaded.

[BruisedCrew]

It really irks me to hear so many commentators just declaring Bellinger to be the MVP. It’s like they gave him the award at the All Star break and then stopped watching.

 

You could make a very strong case that Yelich deserves the award and shouldn’t be punished for getting hurt. If nothing else, Yelich should get the Hank Aaron Award, since Bellinger’s superior defense shouldn’t be a factor there. I would seriously think about Rendon or Acuna over Bellinger for MVP.

[BruisedCrew]

The Nats bullpen woes may be their undoing. Using two of their big starters might work for a game or two, but not every day.

[owbc]

The Nats bullpen woes may be their undoing. Using two of their big starters might work for a game or two, but not every day.

 

Yep, it was inevitable that the Nats would need their bullpen and the result is about as expected.

[Outlander]

I pretty much dislike everybody in the NL. It is more wanting to see the other team lose than rooting for a team to win. It was kind of hilarious to see the Nationals pitching implode but then the cameras cut away to the few Braves fans there doing their tomahawk chop thing that is so cringe. Same with the Dodgers/Cards, it was entertaining to see Martinez blow it with two outs in the ninth in front of their crowd but who roots for the Dodgers.

[Underachiever]

I pretty much dislike everybody in the NL. It is more wanting to see the other team lose than rooting for a team to win. It was kind of hilarious to see the Nationals pitching implode but then the cameras cut away to the few Braves fans there doing their tomahawk chop thing that is so cringe. Same with the Dodgers/Cards, it was entertaining to see Martinez blow it with two outs in the ninth in front of their crowd but who roots for the Dodgers.

My BHI (Baseball Hatred Index):

1. Cardinals

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.

.

.

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Everyone else.

Go Dodgers for at least one more game! Other than that, I'm with you.

[bill hAll Star]

To be fair to the Nats, their bullpen implosion in the losses has been Patrick Corbin in game 3 and in game 1 they weren't winning anyways.

 

They are being creative to only use their 3-4 good/great starters and the very top end of their bullpen unless they are punting the game. The Dodgers are just that good.

[owbc]

Wow, those #bestfansinbaseball can't even sell out a playoff game. Not even close actually. Sad.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Wow, those #bestfansinbaseball can't even sell out a playoff game. Not even close actually. Sad.

 

As a Cardinal hater, this makes me quite the opposite of sad

[trwi7]

Wish Brian Anderson would just shut up and go away.

[owbc]

I thought Busch Stadium was bad but the Nats have about 5,000 empty seats tonight. Yikes.

[BruisedCrew]

To be fair to the Nats, their bullpen implosion in the losses has been Patrick Corbin in game 3 and in game 1 they weren't winning anyways.

 

They are being creative to only use their 3-4 good/great starters and the very top end of their bullpen unless they are punting the game. The Dodgers are just that good.

 

That was my point. Because they don’t trust their bullpen they had to use starters in unfamiliar roles and it wasn’t working. Now their starters might be out of whack, though Scherzer fought through for 7 innings to tie up the series.

[owbc]

After the win today the Nats might have the upper hand in the series with Strasburg slated for game 5.

 

Lots of really entertaining baseball so far this postseason. Except the Twins...yikes. Has to be all mental at this point. Reminds me of the pre-206 Cubs.

[trwi7]

After the win today the Nats might have the upper hand in the series with Strasburg slated for game 5.

 

Lots of really entertaining baseball so far this postseason. Except the Twins...yikes. Has to be all mental at this point. Reminds me of the pre-206 Cubs.

 

They were a team that got to play teams that lost 89 or more games in 53% of their games and they went 40 over .500 against them. It's not mental, they just aren't a particularly good team when they have to play other teams that actually have talent.

[sveumrules]

After the win today the Nats might have the upper hand in the series with Strasburg slated for game 5.

 

Lots of really entertaining baseball so far this postseason. Except the Twins...yikes. Has to be all mental at this point. Reminds me of the pre-206 Cubs.

 

They were a team that got to play teams that lost 89 or more games in 53% of their games and they went 40 over .500 against them. It's not mental, they just aren't a particularly good team when they have to play other teams that actually have talent.

 

Yup. I'd argue the Twins & Brewers had similar true talent levels entering the season.

 

Minnesota got to play the easiest schedule in baseball & had a lot of things break in their favor this year so they won 101 games fairly easily.

 

Meanwhile we had a much more evenly balanced schedule & had a plethora of things break badly so we had to fight to get 89 wins.

 

Pretty much baseball in a nuthsell.

[owbc]

They undoubtedly benefited from the SOS but that alone doesn’t explain a dominating sweep.

[SomewhereInTime]

After the win today the Nats might have the upper hand in the series with Strasburg slated for game 5.

 

Lots of really entertaining baseball so far this postseason. Except the Twins...yikes. Has to be all mental at this point. Reminds me of the pre-206 Cubs.

 

They were a team that got to play teams that lost 89 or more games in 53% of their games and they went 40 over .500 against them. It's not mental, they just aren't a particularly good team when they have to play other teams that actually have talent.

 

Yup. I'd argue the Twins & Brewers had similar true talent levels entering the season.

 

Minnesota got to play the easiest schedule in baseball & had a lot of things break in their favor this year so they won 101 games fairly easily.

 

Meanwhile we had a much more evenly balanced schedule & had a plethora of things break badly so we had to fight to get 89 wins.

 

Pretty much baseball in a nuthsell.

 

Kind of why in most sports you have playoffs/post-season (and why there is rarely a legitimate champion in D1 FBS football). In no sport that I follow, at any level, do teams play a balanced schedule. This was certainly a year of a lot of inflated records due to a few truly awful teams at the bottom of those divisions.

[SomewhereInTime]

This is a pretty amazing stretch of ineptitude for Minnesota. By my count, that's a 2-19 record in their last 21 post season games, their last 10 games have all been against the Yankees and they've lost all of them.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

What a snooze this is going to be. A real strong chance the LCS is New York, Houston, LA and St. Louis. Haven't watched any of it, wake me up when it's over.

[pacopete4]

What a snooze this is going to be. A real strong chance the LCS is New York, Houston, LA and St. Louis. Haven't watched any of it, wake me up when it's over.

 

Right there with you. Tuned in last night to my first playoff game other than the Brewers and saw the Twins strand the bases loaded with no outs. While it was impressive, I have seen that too many times this season already. Watched one more inning. Saw Gardner chop one by Sano and turned it off. That'll do for the 2019 season for me.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

They undoubtedly benefited from the SOS but that alone doesn’t explain a dominating sweep.

 

Yeah, I think they reminded me of the 2018 Brewers offensively. Lots of HRs but struggled to score if it disappeared, as it did against the Yanks. That series had to be brutal for Twins fans, though in a totally different way than our tough losses. It just never really looked like they were in it after about the 4th inning of Game 1. And the streak of ineptitude in the playoffs continues. Amazing that in the past 15 years or so, the Twins have won a good number of division titles and only won 1 playoff game. They've now lost 16 straight in the postseason, 13 to the Yankees.

 

Baseball can be cruel. Hope the Rays can force a Game 5 today just for excitement's sake. Pretty fun to have two elimination games tomorrow, even if one of them involves the Cards.

[bill hAll Star]

They undoubtedly benefited from the SOS but that alone doesn’t explain a dominating sweep.

 

It does to me.

 

The Brewers had pieces to assemble a dominant bullpen. The Twins had Rogers. That's it. Romo is a guy that will get lit up in these situations.

 

After the Pineda suspension and given that Berrios' velocity had been ticking down all year, they were going to have to expect to bullpen 75% of the innings...except Woodruff, 2018 Burnes, Hader, Knebel, and [eh] Jeffress were not walking through that door.

 

The weirdest thing to me is they correctly chose to bullpen game 2 and then didn't use their 2-3 best guys.

 

So you've got a terrible pitching staff at this point of the year and an offense that mostly thrives on popping homers against Hector Santiago and Buck Farmer. You're facing actual prolific power hitters and a dominant bullpen with decent enough starters. Not going to end well.

[bill hAll Star]

To be fair to the Nats, their bullpen implosion in the losses has been Patrick Corbin in game 3 and in game 1 they weren't winning anyways.

 

They are being creative to only use their 3-4 good/great starters and the very top end of their bullpen unless they are punting the game. The Dodgers are just that good.

 

That was my point. Because they don’t trust their bullpen they had to use starters in unfamiliar roles and it wasn’t working. Now their starters might be out of whack, though Scherzer fought through for 7 innings to tie up the series.

 

I think it's worked out as well as it can with their starters.

 

Similar to the Brewers getting to the 8th inning over the heavily favored Scherzer/Strasburg combo, the Nats, a very good team, have cobbled together their starters as well as they can to creatively get to Strasburg in an elimination game against the favored Dodgers.

[owbc]

If the Nats make the NLCS they are going to test whether the 2001 Diamondbacks model can be replicated.

 

RE: the Twins. I'm not arguing that they are far less-talented than the Yankees, but if you watched the games you could see them clearly start pressing with RISP, missing very hittable pitches, plus the visible frustration on their faces. You don't want to be the underdog in the series AND feel the most pressure.

 

Strongly disagree about the postseason not being interesting...the divisional round is really good this year. So many different strategies being employed to various degrees of success.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

The baseball may be interesting but I have very little rooting interest once the Brewers, A's and Twins are knocked off. At this point I'm pulling for Atlanta. If they lose it's all varying degrees of who cares. Dare I say I'd probably slightly pull for the Yanks at that point just for the sake of tradition and them coming into town next year.