Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Picks You Should Ignore

Based on my picks for this baseball season so far, you should resolutely ignore everything that follows.

I've been wrong—and consistently wrong—from the start.  In spring training, I had the Yanks missing the playoffs and finishing with only 84 wins, while the Cubs bested the Red Sox in the World Series.

NOT EVEN CLOSE!

And ever since then, I have regularly predicted the demise of your New York Yankees.

But learning nothing from history, I am willing to stick my neck out again in boldly (some might say foolhardily) predicting the playoffs.

Here goes:

NL:

Washington over Milwaukee.  The Nats just have too many weapons for the gutsy but beat-up Brewers.

Atlanta over St. Louis, 3-2.  Two pretty anonymous teams, at least for us back here on the oblivious East Coast.  The Cards are a perennial contender, the Braves have more young talent.

Los Angeles over Washington, 3-2.  The Nats are the one NL team with the starting pitching needed to oust the Dodgers.  But Washington's inadequate bullpen, headed by Sean "Talk to the Animals" Doolittle let the team to repeated meltdowns against the Mets.  When you're losing bullpen battles to the Mets, you ain't gonna take the Bums.

Los Angeles over Atlanta, 4-2.  Braves will give it a good fight.  But the Dodgers will become the first NL team to win at least 3 straight pennants in 75 years.


AL:

Tampa Bay over Oakland.  Should be a fun game, but I think Charlie Morton—yet another pitcher Coops might have picked up for us—should be able to carry TB through.  The Lungers have identical, 48-33 records at home and away.

Minnesota over your New York Yankees, 3-0.  As explained at length yesterday, the Yanks just don't have most of the team that brung 'em, and Ma and Coops will refuse to play those they should.  The Twins play very well on the road, and will be well ahead by the time Five Times Pettitte retires for the season with his Carl Pavano Memorial Buttocks Injury after an inning or so in Game 1.

A betting interest in this dismal ALDS?  The over-under on strikeouts for our boys.  I'm putting it at 45 for the three games—and going with the over.

Houston over Tampa Bay, 3-0.

Houston over Minnesota, 4-1.  The battling Twins will bang one out at home against Miley Cyrus, Houston's slumping fourth starter.  Other than that, this won't be close.


World Series:

Houston over Los Angeles, 4-1.  Again, the Dodgers will win the Miley Cyrus game at home.  But they will follow their historic 3 pennants in a row by becoming the first team since the 1907-09 Detroit Tigers to lose 3 World Series in a row.

Houston, on the other hand, is just getting started.  Now that Boston seems to be signaling that it will take a HAL-like rest on its laurels and lapse into semi-competitive mode for some years, MLB is Houston's for the taking.

This is the dynasty that will emerge, instead of the Yankees hegemony that should have been.  The Astros have the youth, the pitching, and above all the front office to keep going for some time.

Sure, in our brave new world where one-third of the teams make the playoffs, they will get upset sometimes in October.  But overall, we can probably count on a good five-years' worth of continued dominance from them, which in today's baseball is practically an age.










24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well as long as we're predicting, and like you I am wrong a lot.

Washington over Milwaukee - No reason. No thought behind it. Had to pick one.

A's over Tampa Bay - The A's play amazingly well at home and even though Tampa is used to playing in a shitty stadium the A's have the advantage because it's THEIR shitty stadium that depresses and demoralizes opponents. Sort of a 10th man, if the tenth man was a locker room with plumbing issues.


A's over Houston 3-2 - They've handled them all year. Houston hates playing in Oakland (Join the club) Plus hubris!

Yankees 3-2 over Minn. Just can't see losing to them.

Atlanta 3-1 over St. Louis. Maddux beats Gibson 1-0 in the opener and the Cards never recover.

LA over Washington 3-0 Easy LA's going to the series. Again.

A's over Yankees. 4-2 They are better. Yankees HATE playing in Oakland.

LA over Atlanta 4-2 It's Buffalo Bills time!

A's over LA 4-2. Seriously, you flush the toilet and it runs all over your new World Series Edition Cleats. No one can win with soggy, urine soaked cleats.

Doug K.

13bit said...

"above all, the front office"

Amen, Hoss, amen. And we don't have the front office because Hal doesn't care. Brian is "good enough" for him.

Anonymous said...

GOD, I HATE THE PLAYOFFS.

SO MUCH TENSION.

SOMEHOW ALL THE PRESSURE IS ON US, AND WE ARE NOT REALLY THE FAVORITES.

I'M EVEN SCARED OF THE TWINS.

OAKLAND.

HOUSTON.

BWAHHHAARRFFF!

SORRY, I PUKED AGAIN.

HoraceClarke66 said...

No pressure this year, ALL-CAPS. We haven't got a chance!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

I'll go with Doug K's predictions up to the Yankees losing. Then I predict them to win the last two series and the championship.

Average score 17-14. Several overtime games determined by kickers.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Forgot to add, I am also wrong a log. Just ask my wife.

ranger_lp said...

Who on this board wanted the Yanks to obtain Scherzer?

Rufus T. Firefly said...

I never thought there was a chance they'd make him available.

13bit said...

I'm so tired...

Rufus T. Firefly said...

For the record, I would have been happy if the Yankees got him, provided they didn't give up a starting player. I would have been ok with providing any of the prospects for him, despite his performance today.

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

Why the fuck is the game blacked-out by MLB.TV IN AUSTRIA? I have tried redirecting my IP using my VPN to Brazil and Hong Kong and it is still blocked. Does this mean that ALL post season games are blacked-out worldwide? I can watch on 720pstream.me, but they are running at least five minutes behind real time and the quality is fuzzy.

Suggestions?

Rufus T. Firefly said...

AoBF,

Looks like they're all blocked for me.

I found this, but can't vouch for whether it works, if they'll spam you, or worse plant a virus.

https://thesportsdaily.com/2019/09/30/postseason-mlb-streams-reddit-mlb-live-streamingreddit-discordonline/

Platoni said...

reddit mlb streams, AoBF. There are several listed at all times on the thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/MLBStreams/

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

Platoni and Rufus - thanks for the suggestions. I actually got the 720pstream.me address from Reddit at Platoni's suggestion when there was en ESPN-blocked game a few weeks (months?) ago. It's working fine now. I can deal with it being behind by half an inning and the quality has gotten better. Rufus, maybe you want to try it if you're afraid of spam and viruses.

I had forgotten how much I hate the Wild Card game - it's like "Sophie's Choice." An ugly experience for all involved. The announcer said he's never seen Scherzer work so hard during the season, and the highly-acclaimed Muppet-look-alike pitching for the Brewers in the 8th was just all over the place. The stress must be almost unendurable.

I say either go back to the old way, or else give them a three game series, which offers a chance for redemption, small that it may be, but better than this highly emotional nail-biting.

And Rufus - I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Max in pinstripes, too, although my first choice is Mad Bum.

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

Just a thought…

Max Scherzer turned 35 in July; salary is US$ 15 million

Madison Bumgarner turned 30 in August; salary is US$ 12 million

HoraceClarke66 said...

I cannot honestly say if I was for getting Max Scherzer when he became a free agent back in 2014.

But I do remember that I was in favor of signing pitchers. To pitch for us.

If Coops had said back that we will pass on or quickly dispatch for nothing—

Scherzer
Sale
Verlander
Cole
Gray
Corbin
Keuchel
Morton

—and obtain Gluteus Maximus Sap and Crapp, I would've said...no. We need to have pitchers. To pitch.

13bit said...

Gluteus, Sap and Crapp
Got together and created a flap.
Then, with Sasha Gray, they floated away
And now I’m in need of a nap.

13bit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
13bit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
13bit said...


Scherzer, Verlander and Sale
Were happy and hearty and hale.
Each went his way and proceeded to play
While Los Yanquis continued to flail.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Brilliant, 13bit! Like Yeats! Or Keats! Or one of those "eats" ("ates"?).

Celerino Sanchez said...

You know why we didn't sign or trade for any of these guys? The answer Jacoby Ellsbury, the greatest signing of HOF Brian Cashman's career. Not only that we let Jake Cave and Ben Gamel go because JE has to stay on the 40 man roster. This team will never take the next step with Cashman.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Ellsbury doesn't count on 40 man since he is on the the 60 day EL.

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