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MLB 2008 Playoffs Thread - The Amazin' Rays vs. Phillies in the Fall Classic!
Idx86
Long days and pleasant nights.Registered User regular
Long days and pleasant nights.Registered User regular
No one's started this up but I thought in the old MLB thread there were fans of teams in the postseason. Let's get it on!
American League Division Series
Boston Red Sox @ Los Angeles Angels (Sox win 3-1)
Minnesota Twins/Chicago White Sox @ Tampa Bay (Rays win 3-1)
National League Division Series
Milwaukee Brewers @ Philadelphia Phillies (Phillies win 3-1)
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Chicago Cubs (Dodgers win 3-0)
American League Championship Series
Boston Red Sox @ Tampa Bay Rays (Rays win 4-3)
National League Championship Series
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Philadelphia Phillies (Phils win 4-1)
WORLD SERIES
Philadelphia Phillies @ Tampa Bay Rays
American League Division Series
Boston Red Sox @ Los Angeles Angels (Sox win 3-1)
Minnesota Twins/Chicago White Sox @ Tampa Bay (Rays win 3-1)
National League Division Series
Milwaukee Brewers @ Philadelphia Phillies (Phillies win 3-1)
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Chicago Cubs (Dodgers win 3-0)
American League Championship Series
Boston Red Sox @ Tampa Bay Rays (Rays win 4-3)
National League Championship Series
Los Angeles Dodgers @ Philadelphia Phillies (Phils win 4-1)
WORLD SERIES
Philadelphia Phillies @ Tampa Bay Rays
2008, 2012, 2014 D&D "Rare With No Sauce" League Fantasy Football Champion!
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Also, the Blue Jays, the fourth place team in the AL East had more wins than the Dodgers, the NL West champs.
Not the teams. The cities. Just pick up the cities with the giant cranes and move them.
I don't consider it so much a miracle that the Sox made the playoffs, they have alot of wins and would have won 3 of the 6 divisions with their record. I just think the Angels are that much better of a team.
I dare say that it's time for a revised playoff format in the MLB.
Please don't get swept.
PLEASE.
Mostly though. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but I'm only really afraid of the Cubs in the NL, and that's if they play up to their potential. I do think whoever gets to the WS from the NL is going to get blown out by whoever comes out of the AL, but what else is new?
This is beyond stupid. I mean I don't like the Dodgers (although a freeway World Series would be pretty neat and destroy LA), but "this team would be here if they were here" is pointless talk. If the Cubs played in the AL West, they would be second and Boston wouldn't even make it in. To quote Geebs in the SE thread:
Shorten the season by a week or two and let two more teams in from each league. That's what i'd like to see.
2008, 2012, 2014 D&D "Rare With No Sauce" League Fantasy Football Champion!
yea, the nice thing about baseball is that a best of 5 can take 3-5 days, not like other sports like the NHL where you can't play games every single day.
Add in 4-6 more teams and have some best of 5's in the first round, then go to best of 7's.
You'd have to expand it from 8 teams to 16. Which would then be too much like hockey and basketball and really ruin the end of the season.
Hell, there's still old farts that want the 4 team system back, because they're stupid and old.
What would be better for the playoffs, but worse for the regular season in my mind, is to disembowel the divisions and make it a pure league. But that would absolutely brutalize the schedules in such a way I can not fathom.
Sadly, I think the 8 team playoffs is the best option for baseball.
That said, I think that if MLB had better revenue sharing, then more teams could be competitive. As it stands, there isn't that much wealth distribution going on - if your team is shitty, and nobody comes to your games, and nobody wants to watch your games on TV, then you're not going to make any money and you will continue to be shitty. See the Nationals.
Also, I hate the unbalanced schedule where we have to play everybody in our division something like 50 times over the course of the season.
On to the predictions!
ALCS: Tampa Bay vs. Boston
NLCS: Chicago vs. Milwaukee
World Series: Chicago vs. Boston
Champion: Chicago
Sorry, I can't vote against my Red Sox. I really think they can get past the Angels, I'm not sure if they can beat the Rays but I think it can be done. In a rematch of the 1918 World Series the Cubs will prevail this time, winning their first title in 100 years. By the time the World Series comes around the Sox will be wiped out and will only win 2 games.
Again, I fully expect to be wrong on these but this is the way I wish for it to turn out (well, except the Sox would win.)
Cheap ass owners/front offices that are dumb is more like it. Look at the Rays, Marlins, A's, Twins, etc. that spend peanuts but are contenders regularly (with the exception of the Rays, as they've just come into the forefront). Why? They have great front offices. Luckily, the Padres and Brewers have improved a lot on not being retarded with the money they're allotted and have become much better teams. Pirates have wisened up too and are going to be much more competitive over the next few years.
Also to all the people saying the Rays were playing over their heads and would fall on their faces (dots, Kevin Nash etc.): neener neener.
Umm, the Padres lost 99 games this season...
They'll be fine.
I've said it many many times. Baseball needs better revenue sharing and a fucking salary cap for fucks sake.
I'm almost positive A-Rod made more this year than the entire Marlins roster.
Anyways, I'll post my actual predictions.
Angels over the Red Sox. The Angels were the best team in baseball this year and I can see them finally vanquishing the Red Sox on their way to the next round. If Beckett remembers he's the best god damn pitcher in the AL, this series might go 5. But I can see it ending in 3 or 4.
UNDECIDED on the Rays and White Sox. Here's my problem. The White Sox are hot right now. They're running on all cylinders. But they're not the better team. The Rays are the better team. The Rays downfall could be their inexperience. The young guys could go out there and drop loads on the base paths out of fear. I mean shit, the god damn stadium could collapse because it's never had to deal with the weight of a sold out crowd! I can't make a choice until after game 1.
Phillies over the Brewers. CC will win game 3, no doubt, but Sheets has been average and after those two...it's pretty much down hill. Ryan Howard is still on a monster tear (should be NL MVP) and I can see this series ending in 4.
Cubs should beat the Dodgers, but like Chi, the Dodgers are playing hot, the Cubs have been taking it easy. Zambrano has looked terrible since the No Hitter. Ted fucking Lilly is going to have to step it up, as is the entire Cubs team. This series will go 5.
2008, 2012, 2014 D&D "Rare With No Sauce" League Fantasy Football Champion!
Thanks for Ortiz and KG! and indirectly Randy Moss!
When are you sending us Adrian Peterson gift wrapped?
Baseball doesn't need a salary cap. Money isn't the issue of winning or not winning in this era of GMs that are proven to be dumb but inexplicably keep their jobs. There is plenty of parity in baseball, and teams on the cheap can still be extremely competitive. I mean, you cite A-Rod making more than the entire Marlins team. The Marlins were 84-77 this year. $21.8m payroll. The Yankees won two more games with a $209m mark. Remind me again why a salary cap is needed? As far as revenue sharing, I don't know. I guess.
One thing that could be argued for is the compensatory draft picks for letting players go into free agency -- maybe they could institute something where teams with larger payrolls wouldn't be eligible, or would receive lower quality picks at least. That would help improve the competitiveness of smaller market teams without something intrusive like a salary cap.
As for the Pads, they shit the bed because their bullpen laid an egg. Doesn't mean they're going to fall on their faces for the next 5-10 years. They'll be fine.
MLB still needs a salary cap though.
Eh, I really enjoy watching the Yankees pay zillions of dollars to players who never pan out or just plain suck. Carl Pavano anyone? Giambi? I guess a salary cap seems far down on the list of things that will help, especially considering teams seem to be doing fine without it. The other guys are right, cheap-ass owners are to blame for a lot of it. But every sport has those owners who are content to let the money flow in without making the team better.
It sucks that teams in the AL East have been stuck in a logjam behind the Yankees and Red Sox for the past few years, yeah, but if the Rays can beat out both of them and win the division, there's no reason the Orioles or Jays can't make a few moves and get past them as well.
1. The last thing we need is more teams in the playoffs. We have had to live with team each year making the playoffs with close to a .500 record and we don't need more of those teams. I would like to see two 15 team leagues with no division setup and a balanced schedule. Top 4 teams in each league get to the playoffs. Then Baltimore/Toronto/Tampa do not have to play 19 games each year against Boston/New York and the Central and West teams will have a tougher schedule. I would like to think that the top 4 teams in each league would have solid records.
2. I don't think there should be a salary cap at the major league level. I would like to see an entry level system similar to the NBA for the draft and for a worldwide draft to be implemented. One of the problems with the draft in the last few years is that some of the best players in the draft (usually Boras clients) are being selected in the late 20's by the big spenders since the smaller markets don't want to blow $6 - 10 million on a draft pick. This happened with Rick Porcello who everyone said was the second best pitcher and he went something like 30th to the Tigers. I know Kansas City and Pittsburgh are starting to ante up but I still think there should be a more reasonable scale.
As for this year's playoffs I hope both Sox teams lose in the first round and that the Brewers get to the World Series. I'm one of the few people who hope the Cubs don't win because the Indians are next in line for longest World Series drought (1948).
I've got to admit, I don't quite understand why the Brewers are pitching CC tomorrow. You're going to have to use another pitcher at some point (looks like Jeff Suppan next, shudder) and I know you don't want to go home down two, but the guy's been pitching on 3 days rest for a while; why not take your chances in Philly and pitch CC in your first playoff game at home in years when he's rested and will have the home crowd going nuts?
Sometimes hits.
He's certainly gotten hot at the right time. Can't knock a .280 BA and a 18 game hit streak.
What you can knock is the three guys behind him all hitting weak ground ball outs.
This is ridiculous. You think it was top 5 draft picks that got the Rays to where they are? The only ones on the roster are Longoria, Upton and Baldelli (who is a shade of his former self). The Orioles have had consistently high draft picks as well, but their FO has squandered the money on dead wood most of the time. Plus they have nothing resembling a rotation.
Uh, why? I'm not hearing any reasons.
The Rays are successful this season due to a combination of patience (young players) leadership (Joe Maddon) and luck (FA retreads panning out).
Neither Toronto nor Baltimore have displayed either patience or leadership, and "luck" WRT free agents is usually a result of shrewed financial management and a willingness to tell an agent to go fuck himself. Tampa has earned every win they have this season the hard way.
Toronto and Baltimore just suck, and even if there were a stronger correlation between payroll and team success, the O's and J's have both attempted to buy wins and have gotten nowhere with it.
Toronto has the more prospects they drafted in the majors than any other team. It doesn't really have anything to do with patience, most draft picks really just don't pan out the way teams think. Toronto doesn't really suck, either. Once their offense got some holes filled in the second half they got pretty hot.
Now, I don't see why "FA retreads" panning out has anything to do with luck. Good front offices can find the freely available talent. Carlos Pena just needed a shot -- and he got one. Now he's a star. Eric Hinske was undervalued and they knew it, he turned out to be a decent player this year for peanuts. It's not by accident these players succeed. They're good players and were targeted because of their low market value.
Anyway, the Rays are successful this year because of pitching and defense. Leadership and clubhouse chemistry are important factors in their own ways too. Our offense was decent enough to get by.