How important is it to catch Houston?
- Thread starter Plympton91
- Start date
Yep. Home field advantage is huge, especially for the Red Sox. Also, avoiding Cleveland in ALDS is a big factor, though MFY haven't been an easy win this year either.
Cleveland also has a chance to catch Houston.
All I care about is avoiding the Tribe in the first round.
All I care about is avoiding the Tribe in the first round.
What do we know about their road ball parks vìs-á-vìs left field and right field advantages?
No question, I'd honestly rather play Houston than Cleveland at this point....especially if have to start the series on the road.
If "at this point" means that Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers, Evan Gattis, and Will Harris stay on the DL, I might agree with you. If they're all healthy by October, I don't think you'll be saying this.
In terms of getting home field advantage, sure.
In terms of avoiding particular division series match ups, I don't see any favorable ones other than maybe the Twins. They just haven't played that well against good teams. They are 18-22 (-12 run differential) vs the Yanks, Astros, Angels, Royals, Indians, and Mariners. God bless interleague.
In terms of avoiding particular division series match ups, I don't see any favorable ones other than maybe the Twins. They just haven't played that well against good teams. They are 18-22 (-12 run differential) vs the Yanks, Astros, Angels, Royals, Indians, and Mariners. God bless interleague.
Sorry for lack of clarity. I am trying to say that having an ace like Sale trumps home-field advantage, assuming he can outpitch Kluber or Keuchel in potential series with Cleveland and Houston.
Maybe a better question would be: Who is the best ace among those three? The other two have postseason experience.
The first round is best of 5, so you'd have him for 1 and 5, which is nice.
In a best of 7 he wouldn't pitch 1 and 7 though.
In a best of 7 he wouldn't pitch 1 and 7 though.
I think health and playing well will matter more than home field or exactly who they play. I mean not only the health and how hot the Sox are, but whoever is their opponent. as well.
You are right, Lose. I must have been blanking back to the days when ace pitchers worked on three days' rest in the postseason. When did that last happen?
The last postseason series that was played. Corey Kluber started games 1, 4, and 7 for the Indians in the World Series.
Right, but if he pitched 1 and 5 in the DS, he could pitch 3 and 7 in the CS, which ain't bad
Plus Bauer in Games 2 and 5.
[edit: and I forgot Tomlin in 3 and 6]
Both of which pretty much backfired.
Thanks, Max. If Sox and Indians meet in ALDS, Kluber vs. Sale will be instant classic matchup. So I guess the real meaning of best record is avoiding this Boston-Cleveland matchup right off the bat.
Forgive me if I'm dense. I see that point came up right away, posts 2 and 3.
I knew the Astros had been hit hard by injuries, but I didn't realize it had been this extensive
Correa and McCullers begin rehab stints this week
Harris, Sipp and Feliz (key bullpen pieces all) also begin rehab
McCann coming off DL tomorrow
That's nearly a quarter of the regular 25 who will be rejoining them in a week to 10 days
Correa and McCullers begin rehab stints this week
Harris, Sipp and Feliz (key bullpen pieces all) also begin rehab
McCann coming off DL tomorrow
That's nearly a quarter of the regular 25 who will be rejoining them in a week to 10 days
Didn't watch the game, but on the radio broadcast they mentioned a few times that Sale's slider didn't have much bite, and that's 3 of 5 games this month where he's looked less than sharp. I'm less worried about him in a matchup against Cleveland than I am about him getting worn out and being ineffective against everyone. Could he use a 10 day phantom DL?
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His slider had some serious movement on it. He couldn't locate his fastball, though. Consistently 2-4" off of the plate, per the pitch box on NESN. And when he threw it for strikes it was towards the middle and up and got hit very hard,
As pointed out by others I prefer avoiding the Indians in the LDS. They look to be Sales Daddy.
But you teally cant predict what will happen and what we wish is irrelevant. It always comes down to the hot team and not the best team. Try and be healthy and whatever happens happens. Playoffs are a roll of the dice in baseball.
But you teally cant predict what will happen and what we wish is irrelevant. It always comes down to the hot team and not the best team. Try and be healthy and whatever happens happens. Playoffs are a roll of the dice in baseball.
There's no way to know how healthy each of the playoff teams are going to be once postseason baseball starts, so the team needs to just focus on winning and keeping healthy as much as possible. If they catch or surpass anybody on the way, so much the better, but just getting in should be the only thing they be worried about and hope for good matchups and hot bats in the Boston unis.
However, if you, like me, want a new manager at the helm, you don't really want them catching anybody. A first round loss should all but guarantee a sea-change in the coaching ranks. Going into the LCS or beyond probably extends his stay by at least two more seasons (they need to talk extension this off-season or risk the lame duck status and questions heading into ST).
However, if you, like me, want a new manager at the helm, you don't really want them catching anybody. A first round loss should all but guarantee a sea-change in the coaching ranks. Going into the LCS or beyond probably extends his stay by at least two more seasons (they need to talk extension this off-season or risk the lame duck status and questions heading into ST).
It's worth noting that he's already thrown 178 innings, and trails only Archer in pitches thrown.
I don't think that yesterday's brutal performance had as much to do with the Indians as it did with arm-weariness. Unfortunately, Farrell was asked about resting him, and said that the team can't afford it. For a while now, many of his fastballs are 92. He looked flat and won't be a major weapon in October.
This is perverse. You hate Farrell presumably because you believe he worsens their chances of winning. So you hope they lose so you can get rid of him? Have you stopped and thought how stupid that is?
Recommend watching this: for a little perspective.
Recommend watching this: for a little perspective.
That's an awfully definitive statement. Seems to me we're not in a position to really say that much. Maybe.
As to the overall question of the thread, it's relatively important, but not as important as a) making the playoffs at all, b) winning the division, and c) being as healthy as possible. The hand-wringing over the Tribe is hilarious in light of last year and everyone wanting the banged-up Indians SO MUCH over the BJ's. Shoe's on the other foot. Like I said last year, I think you win as many games as you can (to get as many home games in October as possible), balancing that against pushing people through injury and getting regulars rest if you can. You might have to risk hurting someone if the division is still close in the last couple weeks, of course. When I said this last year, a couple people basically said, "Oh, that's true, but we should really face the Indians if we can." Nonsense: more home games is pretty much always better. Though the Astros' success on the road does give one pause...
This post is silly.
Sale varies the speed of his FB from 92 to 98 often within the same at bat. I didn't see yesterday's game which obviously wasn't good but I saw him against NY and he was still bringing it then. I just checked his avg FB velo for yesterday's game and it was 94.4 mph which is 0.1 mph faster than his season average.
He's been crushed twice this month against Cleveland which is certainly a concern but let's not get crazy.
It certainly is possible that he is worn down and won't be a major weapon in October but I highly doubt it and it absolutely can't be said with certainty that it will be the case.
It's posts like this that makes LJ sorry he ever invented this place.
Maybe they could lose even more games and we could always get high draft picks too.
So you are rooting for them to lose as much as possible down the stretch? Are you not an embedded Yankee fan? I could never root for any of my teams to lose not even the 2012 Bobby V Red Sox.. If you root for your team to lose you are not a true fan.
No, not at all. I hate that they've pissed away wins and that they aren't as far ahead in the standings as they could be. I want them to win it all. I just wish it wouldn't ensure the guy in the dugout gets to stay on. To me, that means wanting them to win while acknowledging I wouldn't be devastated if they didn't and it meant he left. It's a complicated, conflicting set of emotions. What I meant by not really wanting them to catch anybody is that there's that little voice in the back of my mind that, even as I'm listening to the radio or following on Game Day, says, "Yeah, but what if...." But if they pull it off, I'll be far happier about that than irked about Farrell sticking around, especially if he himself has a good postseason. But I never root for them to lose either, not even in 2012. I agree 100% about that.
Or, at worst, as the Wild Card the Sox could beat Houston and let the NYY take care of Cleveland. And then . . .
You never know how these things go. Even if they could get to Houston, those games won't take place there. The team is extremely talented, that part of the equation doesn't change. Depending on the makeup of the players I can easily see this as being a rallying point for the team as well as much of Texas. Teams talk about winning for their fans, but rarely for this sort of reason. Baseball is the last thing on many of these folks minds right now, but by the same token they all will need some sort of escape in their lives. Some pleasant distraction from the devastation that I'm sure the Astros would be all to happy to supply to them. As for how important is is that the Sox catch Houston...Given the past week, It's more important that the Yankees don't catch the Sox.
A similar situation that came to mind was the Indians 2007 home opening series which was snowed out. Of course, the overwhelming difference is that the Cleveland snow didn't cause a disaster anything like what Houston is experiencing. It just put off the opening homestand from a Friday until the following Tuesday. It also didn't cause any Indians tailspin (can you have a tailspin in the first week or two of a season anyway)? The Sizemores, Sabathias, Garkos, Hernandezes (or Carmonas, whatever) got off to a decent start to the season.
The Red Sox can't catch a cold right now, much less Houston. That could change. Baseball seasons have many ups and downs.