MLB Playoffs, 2010

[bassrique]

Philly won the NL East last night and will likely be favored again to play in the World Series. I'm a TB Rays fan, and while they are a shoe-in to make the playoffs, I don't know how far they'll go, as they only have two scary bats [with a team batting average of ~.250]. Their formerly solid pitching staff is performing poorly these days as well. Will great defense and aggressive base running be enough?

What are your thoughts and predictions?

[bassrique]

TB cares not about baseball?

[Nedmundo]

I'm focused on the Phils, who thankfully clinched on Monday, and I predict they'll make it to the World Series again. Their offense will need to perk up a bit relative to the past few games, but with their pitching they should be fine. After all, pitching and defense largely carried them to their Series win in 2008, and the pitching is much better now with Halladay and Oswalt. I give the Phils good chances against any A.L. team this year, certainly a better shot than they had against the Yankees last year.

I don't have strong views on which team will represent the A.L. in the Series, but it won't be Texas. It would be cool to see the Twins make it -- possibly too cool for October baseball in Minnesota! No dome? Yikes.

Go Phils!

[thesteve]

The Padres are struggling right now...after October 3rd I fear I just won't care about pro baseball anymore.

[sloasdaylight]

Rays are going to the playoffs and almost certainly a new stadium after this season. Giving away 22,000 free tickets to try and get people to come to games is bad news.

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

Rays are going to the playoffs and almost certainly a new stadium after this season. Giving away 22,000 free tickets to try and get people to come to games is bad news.

New stadium? In another city?

[Bob Clayton]

Originally Posted by thesteve

New stadium? In another city?

talking about moving tampa.

looking at the phillies rotation, it's hard not to see them not only getting to the WS, but winning it as long as their offense stays consistent.

NLDS

Oct. 6 – Game 1 – Halladay
Oct. 7 – Off
Oct. 8 – Game 2 – Hamels
Oct. 9 – Off
Oct. 10 – Game 3 – Oswalt
Oct. 11 – Game 4 – Halladay (Normal Rest)
Oct. 12 – Off
Oct. 13 – Game 5 – Hamels (Normal Rest)

NLCS

Oct. 16 – Game 1 – Halladay
Oct. 17 – Game 2 – Hamels
Oct. 18 – Off
Oct. 19 – Game 3 – Oswalt
Oct. 20 – Game 4 – Blanton
Oct. 21 – Game 5 – Halladay
Oct. 22 – Off
Oct. 23 – Game 6 – Hamels
Oct. 24 – Game 7 – Oswalt

World Series

Oct. 27 – Game 1 – Halladay
Oct. 28 – Game 2 – Hamels
Oct. 29 – Off
Oct. 30 – Game 3 – Oswalt
Oct. 31 – Game 4 – Blanton
Nov. 1 – Game 5 – Halladay
Nov. 2 – Off
Nov. 3 – Game 6 – Hamels
Nov. 4 – Game 7 – Oswalt

[bassrique]

Originally Posted by sloasdaylight

Rays are going to the playoffs and almost certainly a new stadium after this season. Giving away 22,000 free tickets to try and get people to come to games is bad news.

At first glance, TB attendance seems quite poor [ESPN will not let us forget that], but when we dig a little deeper our perspective may change.

What about looking at the attendance relative to the size of the market? After all, it is logical that a place like New York, despite having two teams, will have more fans. For example, the New York market is approximately 21.2 million people. With two teams, that makes 10.6 million people per team (21.2 divided by 2 teams). Tampa Bay, on the other hand, is an area of only 2.4 million people (about 1/4 the number of potential fans relative to each New York team). So, I decided to look at all teams and calculate the percentage of the market population that attends a game each year. Here is the formula I used:

* % of Mkt Pop Attending = ((Avg. Attendance per Home Game / Total Pop per Team) * 81 Home Games)

This calculation helps to adjust for market size and yielded the following results:

* Tampa Bay ranks #12 for % of Mkt Pop that attends a home game


Other notable cities include Milwaukee at #1, San Francisco at #7, Chicago Cubs at #11, New York Yankees at #27 and Florida Marlins at #30. Tampa Bay is not looking too bad once you normalize for the size of its market.

http://www.9equals8.com/2008/08/unde...-bay-rays.html

Those are 2008 numbers, but it still makes a good point today. If we were to break it down to people the the upper three income quintiles w/in a 30 minute drive, TB Rays attendance looks even less poor. [Sorry, but I don't have that data yet.]

EDIT: Bob Clayton, Yeah, the Phillies look like the favorite.

[bassrique]

What? there's no baseball fans at TB? I love football threads, but baseball has a place here too, no?

Anyway,

Originally Posted by Bob Clayton

Oct. 6 – Game 1 – Halladay

= NO HITTER



And Cliff Lee destroyed the Rays.

[Febs]

Roy Halladay pitches the second no-hitter in MLB playoff history. That was hands-down the most incredible pitching performance I have ever seen.

[SoComSurfing]

Originally Posted by Febs

Roy Halladay pitches the second no-hitter in MLB playoff history. That was hands-down the most incredible pitching performance I have ever seen.

Nasty. While I'm sending up a hope and a prayer that the Braves can send Bobby (and possibly Chipper) out on top, the Phils are just built for the postseason. I'm thinking we'll see Phils/Twins or Phils/Rays.

[bassrique]

Originally Posted by SoComSurfing

Nasty. While I'm sending up a hope and a prayer that the Braves can send Bobby (and possibly Chipper) out on top, the Phils are just built for the postseason. I'm thinking we'll see Phils/Twins or Phils/Rays.

I wouldn't rule out the Yanks or Rangers. The Rays bats seem..... I don't know, the Rays have a team batting average below .250 IIRC, yet the only teams to score more runs are Boston and the NYY. Huh? Are there Sabermetrics to explain this?

[SoComSurfing]

Originally Posted by bassrique

I wouldn't rule out the Yanks or Rangers. The Rays bats seem..... I don't know, the Rays have a team batting average below .250 IIRC, yet the only teams to score more runs are Boston and the NYY. Huh? Are there Sabermetrics to explain this?

I know, I just hate the Yanks with a burning passion and am more familiar with the Rays than the Rangers.

[Febs]

Orlando Cabrera on Halladay's no-hitter: "He and the umpire pitched a no-hitter. He gave him every pitch. Basically, we had no chance."

Classless.

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by Febs

Orlando Cabrera on Halladay's no-hitter: "He and the umpire pitched a no-hitter. He gave him every pitch. Basically, we had no chance."

Classless.

Sheesh. I didn't see the game so I don't know anything about the ump's zone, but as long as Cincy's pitchers got the same zone, it's a punk move to complain.

[Bufalo]

The Reds' pitchers got plenty of called strikes that were off the plate away from Phils' left-handed batters. I don't want to hear any crap about the strike zone. Doc was just operating with precision like nothing else tonight.

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by Bufalo

The Reds' pitchers got plenty of called strikes that were off the plate away from Phils' left-handed batters. I don't want to hear any crap about the strike zone. Doc was just operating with precision like nothing else tonight.

Check out Doc's strike zone vs. the pitches the Reds' pitchers got

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/wp-co...lladayGrab.jpg

Doc might've gotten one or two more strikes called that were outside of the zone than the Reds did...maybe...

[cassanova]

Originally Posted by bassrique

The Rays bats seem..... I don't know, the Rays have a team batting average below .250 IIRC, yet the only teams to score more runs are Boston and the NYY. Huh? Are there Sabermetrics to explain this?

The Ray's looked horrible today, both batting and on the mound. If they don't turn it around they'll be 3 and out.

I wouldn't rule out the Yanks or Rangers.

I'm thinking this is who the ALCS will come down too. Which works for me because I'm a Yankees fan. I'd rather it come down to NY and Tampa though. This way I can splurge on some tickets and cheer on the Yankees!

[jrthebassguy]

I was really hoping this would be the year the Twins finally break past the ALDS, but right now it's not looking so hot for them. Every October, my tiny little suburb of 10,000 or so usually become Yankee fans, as Andy Pettite has been a lifetime resident of this little sleepy suburb outside of Houston. However, I'm tired of seeing the Yankees win.


Even though I'll always be an Astros fan, since they were horrible this year, I'll be supporting my fellow Texas team the Rangers in the postseason in the AL, and hoping Atlanta gives Bobby Cox a nice final ride before he finally retires.

[Wally Malone]

It would be great to see the Giants go back to New York for a World Series!

Wally