MLB 2011 Postseason

[All_That_Chaz]

This thread will contain all discussion of the Major League Baseball postseason of 2011.

I had an absolute ball watching my Phillies end the Braves' season and watching Boston's season slowly collapse like a flan in a cupboard. So now we have an exciting postseason with two hot wildcard teams.

NLDS

We have two exciting matchups. The prohibitive favorites to win the pennant, the Philadelphia Phillies, face the hot bats of the St. Louis Cardinals. Can the Phils' vaunted rotation keep the best offense in the national league at bay?

The other matchup features the champions of the Central and West divisions, the Brewers and the Diamondbacks. The D'Backs are a great worst-to-first story with new manager Kirk Gibson. The Brewers have a pair of MVP candidates in Braun and Fielder. These two teams are fairly evenly matched and don't count either of them out until the series is over.


ALDS

Two great matchups here too. The top dog of the AL, the New York Yankees, play the Detroit Tigers riding the back of their shoe-in Cy Young candidate, Justin Verlander. The Yankees have arguably the weakest starting pitching in the postseason, but an offense that doesn't quit. Many people like the Tigers in a short series because they can pitch Verlander twice and, assuming he wins both times, ask the rest of their staff to pick up one win against mediocre pitching.

In the other matchup the West-winning Rangers take on the white-hot wildcard Rays. The Rays overcame a ridiculous 9 game deficit in order to claim the wildcard. Can the maintain their momentum against a solid Rangers team with a potent offense and stellar pitching? Or will they run out of gas as so many hot wildcard teams do?


Chaz's predictions are as follows:

NL:
Phils over Cards in 4
Brewers over D'Backs in 5
Phils over Brewers in 5

AL:
Yanks over Tigers in 5
Rangers over Rays in 4
Yanks over Rangers in 7

WS:
Phils over Yanks in 7 and the city of Philadelphia explodes.


I realize I'm posting this after a couple games are over, but I had the same predictions when I posted on ESPN a couple days ago. Don't know why I didn't post until now.

[Ksl33zy24]

Let's go Yankees! Although, I'm really not feeling too confident right now... Winning the whole thing that is (:

[All_That_Chaz]

Update for games up to this point.

9/30/11

Rays 9, Rangers 0
Wow. I did not expect this. Even if the Rays found a way to ride their momentum and beat CJ Wilson, I didn't think they'd rough him up and I didn't think Matt Moore could do anything against the Rangers offense.

Yankees 1, Tigers 1, game to be resumed 10/1/11
I honestly hate this. It changes the entire complexion of the series and gives the Yankees a HUGE advantage because now they have pretty much escaped Verlander. Of course, now the Yankees can't pitch Sabathia as often, but still.

10/1/11

Brewers 4, Diamondbacks 1
The Diamondbacks had no answer for Yovanni Gallardo. He held the Arizona hitters in check all day and struck out a ton of them. Meanwhile Braun and Fiedler had good days and scored enough runs to win. A lot was riding on the performance of Ian Kennedy today for the Diamondbacks, and I don't think they can win the series now that he's dropped game one.

Phillies 11, Cardinals 6
Oh, baby. The Phillies are back. They cooled off a bit after clinching the division, but they turned it on in the last few games of the season and they kept it on tonight. Roy Halladay appeared to have forgotten he was pitching in the postseason and gave up his second home run in 15 starts, both to Lance Berkman. He staked them a 3-0 lead in the first inning and basically shut them down the rest of the game. Meanwhile the Phillies offense waited a few innings before exploding all over poor Kyle Lohse's face. It was 11-3 by the time they were done. Mercifully, Charlie Manuel took his horse off the mound and allowed Michael Stutes to pitch the 9th. After giving up a run, loading the bases, and appearing to be unable to get the final two outs, Ryan Madson came in and locked in the win.

[Snowcrafta]

NL: Phillys

AL: Rays

WS: Rays

It's Tampa Bay's turn. They've been picking up some serious momentum, especially after that last 9-0 game

[All_That_Chaz]

They're definitely the hottest team in the playoffs, but they don't have a winning record against any of the other teams in the AL this postseason. They have solid pitching but I think their offense will run out of gas. The win yesterday gave them a good shot to go to the ALCS, but I think both the Yankees and Tigers are superior teams to Tampa.

Plus I don't want another Philly/Tampa series. Hell there were empty seats in Tampa. It was disgraceful.

[All_That_Chaz]

Apparently not many people care about baseball. I was too busy setting the world on fire after the Phils' Game 2 loss to update.

Texas eliminated the Rays in 4 games. Texas cooled off the hottest team in the AL. They'll be tough to beat in the ALCS.

Detroit plays tonight at home with the chance to eliminate the Yankees. Justin Verlander was inhuman in Game 3. The Yankees are trotting out AJ Burnett tonight. He's been the weak link in the Yankees rotation all year. Will he be able to tie the series? I'm guessing no. Looks like a Rangers/Tigers AL Championship Series.

Milwaukee took both games at home and travel to Arizona needing only one more win to head to the NLCS. They look like they're on a different level than the Diamondbacks. And I doubt Arizona has the pitching depth to win Games 3 and 4. Even if they win Game 3, they may end up pitching Ian Kennedy on 3 days rest trying to avoid elimination. And even if he pulls it out, they must face Gallardo in Game 5 at Milwaukee. I think the Brew Crew has this one in the bag.

And phinally, my Phils won a tough one tonight against the Cards. The offense fell asleep at some point during the second inning in Game 2 and still hasn't woken up. A 3-run pinch-hit home-run from Ben Francisco won the game for the Phils. Game 4 features Edwin Jackson for the Cards vs. Roy Oswalt for the Phils. The Cards are hoping they can pull that one out and pitch Carpenter vs. Halladay in Game 5. The Phils should have won this series already, but it's hard to put away the hottest team in the NL. Cole Hamels did an amazing job today but the Phils' staff in general just can't get Pujols or Ryan Theriot out. Theriot is somehow this year's Cody Ross, inexplicably killing the Phils despite being a marginal player at best. He's 6 for 9 in the series right now. Thankfully, Madson got him to ground out to end Game 3. Go Phils!

[T-Force]

Nice call picking the Rangers in 4.

[All_That_Chaz]

I felt that the Rangers were a vastly superior team but with the Rays being so hot there was no way they'd go down without winning at least one.

[foilman8805]

R.I.P. Chaz and Phillies

[Teddy_scfa]

Carpender :-O lazer phillies

[All_That_Chaz]

Oh well, another lost year. The best team doesn't always win. The cardinals are the hot team and the hot team is always dangerous. That and the Phils offense decided it was done about midway through game 2. The worst pitching in the NL held the Phils regulars to two RBI from the 3rd inning in game 2 through game 5. That's not a credit to the st. louis staff. That's a sign that this offense was finished. Maybe they're too old. Maybe they just don't care. I don't know.

@foil, how's that bankruptcy scandal going?

@teddy, trolling works better when you spell the player's name right.

[GuidoHunter]

St. Louis is ripping the Brewers to shreds, especially former Ranger pitcher Kameron Loe. I don't pay attention to the National League, so who's the favorite in this series?

As for the ALCS:

TV Announcer: "And the Rangers are trying to get their fourth straight one-run victory."
Guido: "Pfft. We're winning this one by four."
Next pitch: Walk-off grand slam.

It's gonna be tough to win in Detroit, but man did it feel good to win against Verlander. He was my biggest fear when waiting for our ALCS opponent.

--Guido

[foilman8805]

Brewers are favs in that particular match up, but the Cardinals have the "hot bat", so to speak.

Rangers are looking really good and truthfully, I would love for them to win the WS after they got snubbed by the lucky-ass Giants last year.

[Emo_Saur_]

Pujols you gotta say is such a talented player. I'm actually glad to see Texas beat Detroit again. Detroit just kept on savin' themselves gettin' out of innings, that double was pretty cool. The Walk Off Grandslam trumps that double though.

[Ksl33zy24]

I'm glad the star player on STL shines as opposed to a certain someone on the Yanks, heh.

[Emo_Saur_]

It's about time the Yanks aren't the greatest team ever, they've had a good run. I just can't stand the team.

[All_That_Chaz]

The Cardinals batted like .500 against the Phillies aces, and .900 against their bullpen. They're disgustingly hot. I haven't watched baseball since but I know that the Brewers are favored.

Yeah if the Rangers beat Verlander I think you can put that series in the bag. Not that nobody else on that squad can pitch but I think they needed Verlander to get 2 wins in order to advance.

As far as the world series, it depends on whether st. louis ever cools off. As evidenced in the Philly series, nobody can beat this team when they're this hot. The Phils were the best team in the league, and the best built for postseason ball, but they lost to what the Cardinals brought which is a good offense and the worst pitching in the league.

[foilman8805]

Phils were built for the 7 game match ups. Anything can happen in a 5 game series.

[GuidoHunter]

God bless Nelson Cruz.

Also, Brewers, stop sucking.

--Guido

[All_That_Chaz]

It doesn't matter anyway. Howard blew his achilles. The Phils are going to be paying a hobbled underachiever for the next 5 years. They're old and the management won't be able to keep this team together much longer, if at all. Besides Howard, Polanco's career is basically over due to repeated back and elbow injuries, Rollins will get an offer better than anything the Phils can offer from San Francisco or Los Angeles, Utley hasn't been the same since his injury, and Ibanez is a billion years old and his career should be over. All they have left is Victorino, Pence, and the pitching. They're done.

It's times like these I wish I was wrong about everything like I usually am. When I watched the Phils lose the World Series in 2009, I figured the Phils were on the decline. I made the following predictions:
2010: Lose in NLCS while heavily favored
2011: Lose in NLDS while heavily favored
2012: Miss the playoffs after leading the division all season