THERE'S ONLY ONE POSTSEASON (thread for 2019)

lol i forget what those numbers mean

The way Kershaw handles himself after these devastating losses is everything you could hope for from an athlete. I would never question the guy's character. And I think, one of these years, what happened with David Price last year will happen with him.

But again, I just can't see soft-pedaling how disappointing his pitching has been in the postseason. (Why would you split up his postseason numbers rather than just look at them in the aggregate?) Basketball's a very different sport, with more of a team dynamic, but if you had a guy who was thought of as one of the best players of his generation, a 25-PPG guy, and after almost a full season's worth of postseason games (60-70) he was playing at about 60% of his normal production--15 PPG--I don't think there'd be the rationalizing and parsing you get with Kershaw--for whatever mysterious reasons, he'd be considered a postseason washout. I'm sure the hypothetical basketball player also would have mixed in a few 35 point games along the way.

lol i forget what those numbers mean

+240 means bet $100 to win $240
-280 means bet $280 to win $100

it's definitely something...158.1 IP, 78 earned runs. To get his ERA to match his career regular season numbers, he'd have to give up only 43 earned runs. 24 homers in the postseason, and only once in an entire regular season has he given up more home runs (this past season, 28 HR in 178.1 IP).

he's been masterful sometimes obv but....

I think high-scoring hoops stars have more control over the team's fate than even an ace pitcher? (and CK is sub-ace now)

also i saw this:

As a reminder, about 75 MLB games would be needed to ensure the chance the better team wins matches what occurs in an NBA 7-game series https://t.co/b8M0ICZpcp pic.twitter.com/xHIT0KvR7w

— Michael Lopez (@StatsbyLopez) October 10, 2019

i think a better comparison would be to a hockey goalie who falls apart in the playoffs (e.g. mark-andre fleury 2011-2015 or so, but not previously or since). there are too many other ways for a basketball player to contribute. (end pedantry)

but yes

xxp you don't often get to beat up on the Padres in the postseason though

and yeah basketball is a particularly low variance game - you get about 105 possessions per game and your star player has some affect on all but 10-15 (even if he's not touching the ball he's still drawing defenders). also your offense & defense consist of the same players so a freak athletic player like Giannis is gonna be great on both ends. I don't think baseball generally has that correlation.

Kershaw's rep is mostly a result of his performances in elimination games (if you just consider his 'non-elimination' game stats, they'd probably be in line with what you'd expect) which as VHS points out is sort of a function of his teammates as well. If Will Smith's flyout was hit just a couple of feet further the whole Kershaw thing would just be a side note

4.29 ERA in non-elimination games (for Dodgers or other team).

In 17 starts

We're just going to have to disagree on this. If you took Kershaw's postseason line and stuck it in his career box as one season, I think you wouldn't have any trouble reaching the obvious conclusion: he had a bad season, the worst of his career. You could chop up the season into three two-month blocks and say they're all small sample sizes, but you wouldn't do that. You'd say he had a bad season.

It doesn't make him less of a person or less of a great pitcher. And I have no idea what the explanation is. I'll go with what I said last night, that he had those two or three meltdowns earlier in his career, they got into his head, and he presses.

I can't believe I can't watch the game tonight. Not one of the three basic TSN stations is carrying it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/comments/dg5dwo/game_thread_rays_at_astros_707_pm_et

Thanks...guess I'm not doing it right; all I got was some kind of game server.

I'll follow along on mlb.com.

ugh

a Superteam is thriving tonight (so far)

sorry Hadrian, I know you wanted the easier path to a trophy

You'd say he had a bad season

But it's a 'season' that has lasted 12 years (so far) and he literally is not the same kind of pitcher now as he was at the beginning. So, not a season.

don't print those tickets (anachronism) yet

(xpost) True...but his most infamous meltdowns were early, when he was at the top of his game. If they'd all been later, I'd take your point as valid.

If Gerrit Cole can't hold a four-run lead against a WC team, I say they just suspend the postseason for the rest of time and start drawing straws to determine the WS winner every year.

"That's why you play the games"

xxp

that's pretty strict... ALL of the meltdowns have to come later? My specific point was not him being a worse pitcher now btw.... last year's WS was pretty "infamous."

As for the "pressing" theory, when he threw 8 scoreless against ATL last year in the DS last year, why didn't he press that night?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kershcl01.shtml#all_pitching_postseason

I will now suspend CK choker talk in deference to the game at hand. Resume on Kershaw thread afterward perhaps.

i only want to make the point that i DO think less of clayton kershaw as a person because of his postseason performance

the dejuiced ball again?

Karl, wait til you read about Kershaw's lunch with Giuliani

Girardi has generally been fine this week, aside from a slide or two into "age of analytics" snorting

God knows better than a Smoltz

wow Correa

Pierzynski has been OK when he talks nuts & bolts with Girardi, but then he comes out with stuff like "The Rays have gotta do something."

“They’ve got to score three runs at least.”

Cole goes one more?

yeah really hoping Pierzynski doesn’t get either LCS

Does FS1 have those games?

NL is TBS, AL shared by Fox network and FS1 (eg on Sunday)

More Rays pitchers tonight than Braves pitchers last night.

so Cole wd next go Game 3 Tuesday in the Bronx

Finally can watch, so I saw Cole's 8th.

I'll be very unfashionably old-school here: give him one baserunner in the 9th (or one really long AB). He's thrown 107 pitches, but he sure didn't look like he was throwing tired.

No need to now...and I guess they weren't anyway.

Left Pagan in too long.

calstars' fave Astro!

Is there an Esteban Yan in the house?

Imagine a Houston-Washington World Series where Dubya sees all the games and the DC pols attending get to use him as "a bipartisan cuddle toy" (stole that off Twitter).

visiting team was outscored 29-8?

didn't know Cole's voice was this high

God would be indifferent to your career if she existed

congrats to all those who picked the Astros

He was tipping his pitches based on his glove height. When Glasnow brought the ball to his mitt, he positioned his hands at the height of his collar bone before delivering a fastball, and he lowered it a couple of inches before a curveball.

for sure, but remember too their camera shenaningans from playoffs last year. That's a mighty impressive record you have at home there!

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/texas-sports-nation/astros/article/Astros-insider-How-Rays-starter-Tyler-Glasnow-14513434.php

definitely feels like either of the AL teams could beat either of the NL teams pretty handily

Astros vs Nationals would be a good one, Yanks vs Cards would be a no-win situation.

They'd have to stretch Scherzer and Strasburg to the breaking point (if that's even possible), but I wouldn't be shocked if the Nationals go on to win it all. They strike me as made-to-order for one of those postseason miracle teams.

Dick Nixon helps the Angels celebrate their first division title, 1979

pic.twitter.com/nj9oBGL4j2

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) October 11, 2019