MLB general postseason 2020 thread

Even factoring in the cheating, I think the Astros are a much better team than their record would indicate.

yeah -- they won 100+ games the last three years, and even with verlander out and cole gone they're still pretty decent

This year's Astros team is more or less the same Astros team of the last few years

I don't think the Astros are as bad as their record but losing Verlander and Cole is huge

stunned that treinen didn't give up a game-tying homer there

losing Verlander and Cole is huge

I was just thinking of Cole (so more the regular-season 2020 team); you're right, they're without Verlander right now, and that is decidedly not as strong a team.

If you hate the Astros and you're bigger on karma than probability, I would think that losing tonight, after coming all the way back--as opposed to getting swept and shrugging "Not our year"--would be the best possible way to see them exit. (Unless you're a big Rays fan, where the sweep would have obviously been better.)

What in the wide, wide world of sports is going on here?

Game 7 bitch

https://i.imgur.com/1uGHkJo.jpg

ok, rays vs astros, who are we rooting for here?

guess i'm going rays, since they have no money, they do have arozarena, and also fuck the astros

the amazing raaaaaaaaaaaandy

7 HRs this postseason - that's your Mazda Rookie Record - driving matters

I really hate the rays but the Astros pulling a 2004 red sox might be too jokerfied even for me

Why would anyone hate the Rays

you don't have to appreciate their deranged cheapness just because they make it work or because the front office displays unprecedented ingenuity. they lack a concrete team identity because the FO refuses to hold onto 90% of their players when they start to cost money. they're a team of part-time journeymen and it's not because they have to be, it's because the FO is smart enough to make their cheapness work. when i root for a team to win i'm rooting for players, not executives and a probably also underpaid analytics department

moneyball's nothing but an excuse these days

fuck em i like the cheaters more

Kinda lame to put the onus of bad ownership on these players.

Part-time journeymen is a bit much, too.

agreed it's no fun when the Rays are good but baseball is fundamentally set up to reward that sort of teambuilding

can't root for them if i can't remember who any of them are!

it's fine, in 2 or 3 years they'll all be on completely different teams, including ones i might actually like. i'll root for them then.

Well if we are going to dislike teams for having bad owners on top of disliking teams that have too much financial power there won't be a lot of baseball left to enjoy.

i'm not talking about their owner, i'm talking about how their owner affects the entire structure of the organization, which is unique

Well if you can't enjoy or remember players that went 136 and 86 over the last two regular seasons because of that you might be knocking on the wrong door.

it's not a problem i have with any other team! well except the diamondbacks, but that's mostly because of their branding

why are you so invested in my distaste for 1 out of 30 mlb teams?

do they read ilx

i'm sorry blake snell i always pick you in fantasy

Sorry, I don’t mean to be that way. I’m just tired of seeing negative vibes everywhere I look there’s always someone hating on something or someone.

i didn't mean for that to come off confrontational, i'm genuinely interested in why people on the internet tend to get so defensive over the A's and the rays. most of the hate people have for opposing teams has nothing to do with the actual players on the teams. i don't see why it's any less valid to hate a team for an extremely shrewd FO than it is for an extremely spending one, other than... the past 20 years of internet sabermetrics fandom imposing a weird morality on analytic ingenuity. i've been reading fangraphs for fifty years, that doesn't mean i have to like teams for giving them a lot of content.

xp no worries VHS i'm being a crank

to be fair to myself i've been super positive about the astros, go astros

I’m bandwagonning hard on the Dodgers, so it’s not like I care that much, I do enjoy watching these Rays play that being said.

It’s just, I’m not going to let sleazy owners and nerdy FOs alter my appreciation of Ji-Man Choi or Ronald Acuna.

it all gets mixed in

Holding out to see if it’s somehow possible that all four of these teams lose.

i feel u

i totally get why some people feel the way x does about the Rays; but one of the main things i love about them – i don't care if it's the players doing it or the FO or analytics departments – is how they've transformed the game. the opener, for example, they took some heat for it at first – but now there's a lot of teams doing it (possibly the majority). love the line-up/bench of moving parts. i don't have a hard time liking their players either, even if they are role players or journey men (not that i would call many of their guys the later).

There’s something about Fairbanks expressions that I love. Like he’s half terrified or something.

Like watching Richie Cunningham pitch.

brilliant analysis

https://i.imgur.com/Xw9vEeM.jpg

charlie morton got two more outs and exited having thrown 66 pitches

you hate to see it

Stoked for the Rays. In case you haven't been paying attention, they dominated the league this year (.667) and have been almost as good in the playoffs (.643) to date.

The other time Tampa was in the series, that was the crazy ending to the regular season, right, where all those games were decided almost simultaneously?

Rays play some nice defense. Good defense up the middle like that saves a lot of runs over time.

Just need the damn Braves to finish the deal and get rid of the Dodgers tomorrow.

I think it would be fun to see them up against the dodgers.

I have the Jethro Tull reference for tomorrow: "Bubble in the Jungle."

Sorry, that's the best I can do.

thank you for your effort

I can never root for the Braves.

I'm rooting for the Braves tonight. Lots of players I like on the Dodgers--Kershaw, Jansen, Betts (who doesn't really feel like a Dodger yet)--but either I'm tired of them, or the teenage Reds fan from the '70s is still there.

That crazy season's-end I was trying to remember was 2011; it involved the Rays, but it wasn't the year they went to the Series (2008).

Rooting for Ronald, Ozzie, Freddie, Dansby, et al.

That was the year there was like 2 teams that were down to their last out and managed to rally back, correct?

Amazing finish.

https://www.mlb.com/news/remembering-dramatic-final-day-of-2011-season

Lot of guys to root for in Atlanta, Acuna is one of my favorite players, but the logo, the name, the chop, I have to draw a line.

Plus, I really don’t want Kershaw to join the list of greats who never won a World Series.

2011, the night of Robert Andino!

at least, despite the silly playoffs, we're going to get world series teams that belong there