Originally Posted by smithandrew051:
Is there any athlete in any major team sport whose career performance has a greater disparity between the regular and postseason than Kershaw?
It’s almost unbelievable.
I dont even blame him for last night. That was all Roberts. Should have counted his blessings that he got out of the 7th and then went to his bullpen but he chose to stick with Kershaw and put him in a position to fail against 2 guys he doesnt fool, many dont, and he did. Go figure. [Reply]
Originally Posted by jd1020:
I dont even blame him for last night. That was all Roberts. Should have counted his blessings that he got out of the 7th and then went to his bullpen but he chose to stick with Kershaw and put him in a position to fail against 2 guys he doesnt fool, many dont, and he did. Go figure.
Originally Posted by mr. tegu:
At some point they are going to stop winning so many regular season games and all these failed chances to win it all will hurt that much worst.
Probably not.
The Dodgers aren't built around the Kershaw window anymore. They're built around Bellinger, Seager, Buehler and Verdugo(ish).
And they still have obscene amounts of money to use when they really need it.
I mean if by 'at some point' you mean 8-10 years from now, you're probably right. But the Dodgers will have a stranglehold on that division for the foreseeable future. The Giants need a complete overhaul, the Rox play in an amusement park and can't be built correctly because of it, the D-Backs aren't serious about competing as much as they are appearing to want to compete and the Padres...well they always seem to screw it up, even when they shouldn't.
SD has a stellar farm system and yet I can't take them seriously until they actually manage a winning season. Until then, the Dodgers are pretty much running unopposed most years in the NLW, at least now that the Giants have bottomed out. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
Jenson comes in and blows it, thats fine. At least you had your obviously best option and player on the mound.
Jansen has been a mess for 6-8 weeks. He isn't anything resembling the pitcher he was 2 years ago; maybe not even last season. I said in the Cards thread that he'd cost the Dodgers at least a game or 2 in the post-season because in my eyes he was almost unusable. 91 mph cutters with spotty command and a breaking pitch that exists primarly for effect only simply doesn't get many quality hitters out.
The real problem was Kershaw over Maeda. Maeda gets them into the 9th with a 3-1 lead and then you have Kelly shut them down. Kelly's REALLY good when he has his stuff and can just fire darts for short stints - well he came out on fire last night and would've mowed through anyone.
The game was lost when he went to Kershaw instead of his actual best reliever in Maeda. By the 10th it was gonna be white-knuckle all the way anyway. Jansen is more name than ability at this point. [Reply]
Seeing some buzz on Twitter this morning about the baseballs. I think this might become a pretty big story. A lot of people are beginning to think after the hype of the last two record home run seasons they've unjuiced the baseball. Baseball Prospectus actually did an article about it today, but I don't have access to it. But it sounds like even though it's early in the playoffs, it's pretty clear using pitch tracking that balls aren't flying as far, and there's considerably more air resistance on hit baseballs. [Reply]
Originally Posted by smithandrew051:
Is there any athlete in any major team sport whose career performance has a greater disparity between the regular and postseason than Kershaw?
It’s almost unbelievable.
Do Marty Schottenheimer and Andy Reid count? [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
Seeing some buzz on Twitter this morning about the baseballs. I think this might become a pretty big story. A lot of people are beginning to think after the hype of the last two record home run seasons they've unjuiced the baseball. Baseball Prospectus actually did an article about it today, but I don't have access to it. But it sounds like even though it's early in the playoffs, it's pretty clear using pitch tracking that balls aren't flying as far, and there's considerably more air resistance on hit baseballs.
How in the world can you suddenly -- and secretly -- do that for a postseason? [Reply]
Originally Posted by tk13:
Seeing some buzz on Twitter this morning about the baseballs. I think this might become a pretty big story. A lot of people are beginning to think after the hype of the last two record home run seasons they've unjuiced the baseball. Baseball Prospectus actually did an article about it today, but I don't have access to it. But it sounds like even though it's early in the playoffs, it's pretty clear using pitch tracking that balls aren't flying as far, and there's considerably more air resistance on hit baseballs.
Did they take into account that its October and not July? [Reply]
Supposedly yes it accounts for weather, especially since it's been mostly warm weather and indoor games so far. I can't read the article because it's behind a paywall but you can find people talking about it on Twitter.
There's a guy on Twitter named Rob Arthur talking about this and he keeps having to shoot down the weather question. It's some really good stuff. [Reply]
I would honestly have a hard time believing any kind of theory after just 1 round of playoffs. The sample size has shrunk quite a bit compared to the regular season. You would also probably have a hard time telling Verlander, one of the biggest cry babies about the HRs as he has quite possibly his best season ever, the ball wasn't juiced still after game 4. [Reply]
Juiced baseballs are total BS. Come on people, the “evidence” goes into the public spaces. Foul balls, home runs, players toss them to fans etc....They sell game used baseballs in the gift shop. There have been multiple studies done on those baseballs confirmed that were put in play during a game. Current baseballs and confirmed baseballs of old were measured. It’s the same baseball. [Reply]
A vintage Royals like inning by the Astros. Just putting the ball in play over and over. We've talked over on the Royals thread about how the Astros used to be one of the highest strikeout teams, but it's pretty clear they changed their philosophy a few years ago and now they are the best contact team in the league. They had the fewest K's in 2017 and they did again this year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigRedChief:
Juiced baseballs are total BS. Come on people, the “evidence” goes into the public spaces. Foul balls, home runs, players toss them to fans etc....They sell game used baseballs in the gift shop. There have been multiple studies done on those baseballs confirmed that were put in play during a game. Current baseballs and confirmed baseballs of old were measured. It’s the same baseball.
This is 100% not true. Studies have shown that compared to the start of 2015, the current balls have less "drag" on them, to the point that the HR rate this year was so absurd Manfred finally had to admit the current balls have less drag.
There's easy evidence of this at AAA, which might have pushed a lot of people over the line on this.
There were 3,652 home runs in AAA baseball combined in 2018. In the offseason, those leagues switched to the same ball MLB uses for this year. In 2019 there were 5,749 home runs in AAA. There isn't a reasonable person on earth that believes suddenly the entire group AAA players got so much better that they hit 2,000 more homers. [Reply]
