2011 playoffs

First topic message reminder :

thought i would start a thread for discussion on the playoffs

great win for tampa bay in game 1, matt moore was outsatnding in his first playoff start and only the second start of his career

rain delay in new york atm, hope it doesn't spoil what was potentially a big matchup between cc and verlander

Agreed rich,
Damon and Matsui probably both needed to go as they saw their career as starters still.
But Melky would have been perfectly happy to have been 4th or 5th outfielder.
Hate to speak ill of a great Yankee, but we were at a disadvantage all season by Posada at DH. Sure he hit well in the ALDS, sure he woke up after getting benched. But he grounded into double plays, redefined station-to-station base "running", and you could never have any confidence in his judgement at the plate.
But he'll be gone now.

Opinion of ARod not improved though, but he DID play an impeccable 3rd base. Not helped perhaps by the Cano / Tex switch. Nor was anyone else.

yeah i made a post awhile back that i thought we had seen the last of posada on that night in boston , when i heard there was a press conference the next day i thought he was going to retire

swisher might end up a casualty , i like him and hes a decent player but its an obvious spot for an upgrade

what happens at catcher is going to be the most interesting tho. i thought martin had a good season, he did tail off a bit with the bat tho after a great start but defensively hes good. montero impressed when he came up with the bat but his defence is meant to be a bit shaky, whereas romine is not as good with the bat but a much better catcher. and waiting in the wings is a guy who is meant to be a better prospect than either in gary sanchez.

i wouldn't be surprised to see the yankees stick with martin and cervelli, offer montero and romine as bait for a trade and hope sanchez is the real deal in a couple of years time.

we'll find out soon if CC is going to do an arod and opt out of his contract early to see if he can get another long term deal this year. in theory we have 4/5 of a starting lineup for next year with CC, AJ , hughes and nova. cant see us getting any takers to offload AJ to.

first blown save of this years playoffs from axford , why couldn't we have seen that from valverde last night

brewers go on to win in the 10th , only the second time in their history have they won a postseason series

I think they'll hang on to Montero; if they retain Russell Martin, they can use Montero as an emergency catcher and part-time DH. Too good a bat to give up on.

All very well Poopie Burnett, but he pitched well the other day, went something like 11-11 and has fantastic "stuff" (so they say). If Rothschild can get into his head and fix his release position he could be OK.

Agree Swish will probably go; hope they hang on to Chavez and look forward to seeing Nunez develop; he can also be a spare outfielder. Defence improved and so did his hitting as the season went on.
Pena, Golson, Dickinson and probably Andruw Jones will likely have to take a hike.

Not much confidence in Boone Logan and maybe Feliciano will be back next season. And Joba. And hopefully Betances will develop.

All in all, the future's so bright . . . .

As for the Brewers, GOOD! But I still preferred Stormin' Gorman and Harvey's Wallbangers.

Dear Santa: One big bat right fielder, one top notch starter. Thank you.

just thinking aloud really about montero , i dont know how far sanchez is away from a possible call up but hes meant to be the best long term prospect

again dont know what the free agent situation is going to be for pitchers so if we have to trade for a top starter montero might have to be sacrificed to get one

cardinals win after a cracking pitching duel against the phillies , a 3 hit complete game shutout by chris carpenter

definitely a season of the underdog for mlb now with the redsox missing out on the playoffs and the yanks and phillies losing in the division series

A mockery made of the "regular season".

Yankees out. Thousands mourn.....

League championship series starts today. Who are you guys backing for the world series? I'm backing the Tigers to go all the way.
Detroit v Brewers WS?

i genuinely think any of the four teams can win it from here

tigers possibly slight favourites but cant rule out the cardinals with the experience they have on that team

Yankees out. Millions mourn . . . .

Pitching will win out:
Carpenter vs Verlander in the WS, Detroit to win, but they will lose at least one big bat in St.Louis, Victor Martinez and/or Ordonez.

Why couldn't the Phillies have done that in 2009??

an extremely interesting stat during the texas-detroit game

4 of the top 5 averages with risp in all of mlb come from these two teams, 2 each

maybe gives a clue as to why they are where they are

texas wins a rain affected game 1 of the ALCS , kinda disappointing when theres a couple of rain delays which impact the starters like this

interesting sub-plot to the NLCS in an article on mlb.com that i was reading earlier. with fielder and pujols both being free agents in the off-season how much will winning this series and potentially the world series determine the chances of them re-signing or not

Ordonez out of the remaining games (today's Game 2 postponed to Monday) in the ALCS, must be doubtful for any WS appearance.

Howard with a ruptured Achilles on the final play of the NLDS. Out for 6 months. Woof!

big loss for detroit with delmon young already missing

Wow, Didn't realise Ordonez had fractured the ankle he broke last year.

Too big losses; hopefully Young will be back for the WS.

young has been re-activated for this series to replace ordonez , wonder how much of a risk they are taking with the injury he had tho , last thing they would want is for him to make it worse

thats what you call a "great escape" from detroit in the bottom of the ninth , game tied 3-3 , bases loaded with no-one out and valverde gets out of the innings without giving up what would have been the winning run

tigers cant get away with it twice

cruz hits a grand slam in the bottom of the 11th to win game 2 , rangers go 2 games up in the series

Tigers turned the tables on the Rangers in Game 3.

Emerging tales in the Boston press of rampant indidscipline in the Red Sox "clubhouse" this past season, addiction to painkillers by Francona and lack of on-the-field leadership by all except Pedroia and Papelbon. And now it looks as if Epstein's jumping ship as well. Turmoil in Red Sox Nation - what does this portend for Fenway's stewardship of Liverpool FC?

And that certainly doesn't make it any the more palatable that the Sox had such a dominant record over the Yankees this season, final series excepted.

Turmoil, then, in Red Sox Nation - what does this portend for Fenway's stewardship of Liverpool FC?

not really sure it has any relevance to liverpool

the people on the ground doing the hands-on management are different regardless of who the owners are

Except, rich, that they surely signed the cheques for ill-advised acquisitions and sat by while things unravelled without doing anything.

Something's not quite right here, lunatics running the asylum by the sounds of things.

the team mangement is still being done by different people and by and large the majority of the liverpool management are guys that were part of the setup before henry and co bought the club

people like dalglish are liverpool men through and through regardless of who the owners are

i dont know how much you know about dalglish's history with liverpool but he is not a yes man who will do whatever the owners want if its not in the best interests of the club

you seem to have some issues with the redsox owners but drawing any parallels with liverpool is unfounded based on the ownership alone imo

rich,
Just having a bit of fun at the Red Sox expense. My interest in Liverpool as an institution goes back to BS (before Shankly), and respect them as much as any club in the World, certainly more than my beloved PFC.

I'm just not sure that Henry and Werner's success with the Red Sox doesn't owe more to smoke and mirrors with a healthy dose of serendipity, and the British press seems anxious to swallow it all hook, line and sinker.

I also met George Gillett in his box at the Bell Centre on the day, coincidentally, he and that idiot Hicks bought Liverpool. I had a long conversation with George, and his son Foster who toured us all through the living, breathing museum of all things Canadiens, then the locker rooms after they had been cleaned up after the players. Finally the ice and benches.
George was interested in Liverpool for all the same reasons the Fenway people cite, but his ambitions were dwarfed by Hicks's ego and they were both characterised as hapless berks. Wrongly in Gillett's case, I would say given my somewhat familiarity with other of his enterprises, and he was very anxious to honour and treasure the LFC heritage and history as his ownership had done Les Habs.

I hope LFC and Everton both prosper and thrive, just hope that LFC's benefactors are not too good to be true.

Detroit 3-7 Texas, in 11 innings. Rangers lead ALCS, 3-1.

St. Louis 4-3 Milwaukee. Cards lead NLCS, 2-1.

It's Texas v. St. Louis. But we knew that already.