romad1 Posted July 10 Posted July 10 33 minutes ago, casimir said: is that from the movie Avatar? 1 Quote
Sports_Freak Posted July 10 Posted July 10 The talking heads, Jason and Dirks, are making this series much more important than it is. It isn't a do or die series, there will be many, many more important series yet to be played. Losing games to Philly would be a temporary speed bump that we can overcome by beating teams ahead of us in the division or wildcard race. Using Philly as a measuring stick in a July series is understandable but in reality, it's much less important than what's to come in August and September. But....just win...😆😆 2 Quote
chasfh Posted July 10 Posted July 10 1 hour ago, romad1 said: is that from the movie Avatar? Really? OK, now I see it. 1 Quote
Tiger337 Posted July 10 Posted July 10 1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said: The talking heads, Jason and Dirks, are making this series much more important than it is. It isn't a do or die series, there will be many, many more important series yet to be played. Losing games to Philly would be a temporary speed bump that we can overcome by beating teams ahead of us in the division or wildcard race. Using Philly as a measuring stick in a July series is understandable but in reality, it's much less important than what's to come in August and September. But....just win...😆😆 I agree. Every series is important now, not just this one. If winning series is the measuring stick, then they need to win most of them the rest of the way. Quote
Tenacious D Posted July 10 Posted July 10 It’s not make or break, but a good measuring stick this weekend. All wins matter now, and if we want to make and have success in the playoffs, our lineup will need to hit pitchers of Sanchez and Wheeler’s ilk, and similarly, our aces will need to demonstrate that they can contain a lineup with hitters like Schwarber and Harper. Quote
IdahoBert Posted July 10 Posted July 10 In line with my newly acquired credo of “if I can’t say something positive I’ll say nothing“ it’s good that there will not be flooding of biblical proportions tonight, nor will there be a plague of locusts, but instead it will soon be fiery hot, which will be refreshing for me because I live in a low humidity environment. Good luck to all of you! Quote
Sports_Freak Posted July 10 Posted July 10 1 hour ago, Tenacious D said: It’s not make or break, but a good measuring stick this weekend. All wins matter now, and if we want to make and have success in the playoffs, our lineup will need to hit pitchers of Sanchez and Wheeler’s ilk, and similarly, our aces will need to demonstrate that they can contain a lineup with hitters like Schwarber and Harper. But putting too much importance on it isnt a good idea. I mean, yes, it's important. But too many folks are putting too much importance on a series in July. Philly is playing really good right now but so is Detroit. Winning 2 of three or losing 2 of 3 really won't gain or lose much. Jason and Dirks calling it the most important series of the season are dead wrong. It's a good national league team, sure. But beating them won't affect the AL standings at all. We won't directly gain or lose games in the standings. 1 Quote
monkeytargets39 Posted July 10 Posted July 10 Remember the week we all thought Nick Maton was a good addition? Quote
Tenacious D Posted July 10 Posted July 10 34 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said: But putting too much importance on it isnt a good idea. I mean, yes, it's important. But too many folks are putting too much importance on a series in July. Philly is playing really good right now but so is Detroit. Winning 2 of three or losing 2 of 3 really won't gain or lose much. Jason and Dirks calling it the most important series of the season are dead wrong. It's a good national league team, sure. But beating them won't affect the AL standings at all. We won't directly gain or lose games in the standings. What does it matter? It’s just a bunch of fan opinions and won’t affect any outcome. Jason and Andy might hype it to generate interest and viewership. I think every series from this point out is a big deal with how many teams in the AL are in the mix for a playoff spot. When you’re 6 games under .500 at this point in the season, you’re digging out of a hole. Philadelphia looks like a playoff team, so this can serve as a barometer for how we stack up if we’re fortunate enough to get that far. It’s not a make or break series, but I can appreciate it’s significance. Quote
casimir Posted July 10 Author Posted July 10 5 hours ago, Sports_Freak said: The talking heads, Jason and Dirks, are making this series much more important than it is. It isn't a do or die series, there will be many, many more important series yet to be played. Losing games to Philly would be a temporary speed bump that we can overcome by beating teams ahead of us in the division or wildcard race. Using Philly as a measuring stick in a July series is understandable but in reality, it's much less important than what's to come in August and September. But....just win...😆😆 We aspire to win all of the games, sir. Quote
casimir Posted July 10 Author Posted July 10 5 hours ago, romad1 said: is that from the movie Avatar? Schoolboy Rowe. In his varsity jacket. Quote
DTroppens Posted July 10 Posted July 10 Right now I'm just still enjoying the season as "a season" more than thinking about being in a race. If the team continues to produce results through this weekend, my mindset may change to this being a team challenging for a playoff spot. This is kind of how I treated it two seasons ago and it allowed me to just enjoy the process and the great run at the end of the season. It worked then, so I think I'll do it again. And if they lose two out of three this weekend and fall a few games further out, it'll keep me more even keel about stuff. 1 Quote
DTroppens Posted July 10 Posted July 10 It just seems like teams "come from nowhere" to earn playoff spots now and others "fall from crazy heights" to lose playoff spots in this era more than I recall in past eras. Maybe I'm making too much of it, and maybe it's just my mind picking what I choose to remember, but maybe not. But I wonder this is the case and maybe it has to do with just the watering down of how many teams do make the playoffs now. Maybe a team that is five games below .500 but struck down with serious injuries have more wiggle-room to go on a 16-4 run and be in a race because playing .520 ball "is enough" to do that. And when you are trying now battling to get to 85 wins to get those playoff spots, the teams in that pod are generally going to play at that level and are more likely to maybe lose four straight because they are "just a .520 ball team." Let's use the AL in the 1980s as an example. Certainly there were probably teams that were 58-66 that maybe went on a 12-3 run to get above .500. And at the time if the Tigers played that squad we'd say stuff like "well this isn't the time to play these guys" or say "they are hot" but no one would be thinking of them as a playoff contender (unless they were in the AL West :)). Getting to 70-69 is nice, but it's likely not putting you back into any division title race, again with a few exceptions. And since you are fighting for just one playoff spot among seven teams, you had to finish in first. So, let's say a team does get to 70-69 and are eight games out with 23 left and in fourth place. Not only are you going to have to probably go something like 18-5 down the stretch to get to a legit win total, that 88 wins most likely make you look like you were a competitor when we look at the standings 10 years later, but chances are you were probably still eliminated with about a week to go in the season. It's very unlikely the three teams ahead of you (and probably at least two being at least six games ahead of you are both going to collapse and one of them isn't going to get to 90 wins without blitzing the world on fire to do it. Today, that same 58-66 team can probably go 10-5 over their next 15, improve to 68-71 and still be only be five games out of a playoff spot. And the teams they may need to leapfrog are teams that have played pretty much .500 ball as well. So if this team now goes even 16-7, at 84-78 they could earn a playoff spot. The level at which the teams competing for these final spots matter a lot. Maybe one team will go crazy hot, but there probably will be a few that just muddle around playing about .500 ball, leaving chances for other teams to go hot. If a team below does, they will pass them. In 1988 that was much tougher to do. The team you are trying to pass (and two others) are on pace to win 88 games at least. Too much there, I know. Quote
diaspora04 Posted July 10 Posted July 10 In ChiTown and just watched a replay of the dirtbag Southsiders loss yesterday. Good times. Quote
IdahoBert Posted July 10 Posted July 10 McGonigle SS Keith 3B Greene, R LF Torkelson 1B Carpenter RF Valencia DH McKinstry 2B Outman CF Rogers C Quote
Tenacious D Posted July 10 Posted July 10 16 minutes ago, IdahoBert said: Valencia is the designated hitter. Nice. Probably wanted to get him a start, and I don’t think he’d be in the lineup vs Sanchez tomorrow. Quote
Sports_Freak Posted July 10 Posted July 10 55 minutes ago, IdahoBert said: Valencia is the designated hitter. Nice. The guy hit the ball where Miggy and JD Martinez used to hit them. Impressive. Quote
roarintiger1 Posted July 10 Posted July 10 8 hours ago, Sports_Freak said: The talking heads, Jason and Dirks, are making this series much more important than it is. It isn't a do or die series, there will be many, many more important series yet to be played. Losing games to Philly would be a temporary speed bump that we can overcome by beating teams ahead of us in the division or wildcard race. Using Philly as a measuring stick in a July series is understandable but in reality, it's much less important than what's to come in August and September. But....just win...😆😆 I believe that they were putting importance on this series due to the impending trade deadline and what decisions the management makes as far as if the team is buying or selling at the deadline. Quote
Tiger337 Posted July 10 Posted July 10 (edited) 2 hours ago, DTroppens said: It just seems like teams "come from nowhere" to earn playoff spots now and others "fall from crazy heights" to lose playoff spots in this era more than I recall in past eras. Maybe I'm making too much of it, and maybe it's just my mind picking what I choose to remember, but maybe not. But I wonder this is the case and maybe it has to do with just the watering down of how many teams do make the playoffs now. Maybe a team that is five games below .500 but struck down with serious injuries have more wiggle-room to go on a 16-4 run and be in a race because playing .520 ball "is enough" to do that. And when you are trying now battling to get to 85 wins to get those playoff spots, the teams in that pod are generally going to play at that level and are more likely to maybe lose four straight because they are "just a .520 ball team." This is one of the reasons. The other reason could be the increase in injuries. IL placements are up about 40% and days lost to injury are up 30%. When teams lose all those players to injury, they can fall fast as we saw with the Tigers in May. On the other hand, a team that stays healthy for a long period can pick up ground. Edited July 10 by Tiger337 2 Quote
IdahoBert Posted July 10 Posted July 10 Are they grooming Alex Avilla to come home and be a part of the broadcast crew or, I wonder, if he’s more of a national broadcast guy? Quote
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