Great game, great win, but he missed the plate. The hesitation says it all. Way to cough up a fur ball Hoffman.
Worst Umpired big game I have ever seen I think. I think the result ended up being right, but man that was not a good showcase for MLB.
The Rockies are a fun team to watch... can't wait to see how many runs will be scored when they play the Phillies. By the way, Colorado went 17-5 in the final three weeks to make this incredible run to the postseason. Bonus points to the first poster who identifies the primary change to their lineup in that time. (I'll give a hint... it involved swapping a one-dimensional, slap-hitting, no-power CF for an overall good hitter with an OPS of .850.)
taveras out/someone else in. is tbs in HD somewhere i don't know about? their coverage is good but i'd rather watch playoff baseball in HD.
did anyone just hear tim kurkjians argument for not having instant replay in baseball? freaking moron
since blowing one save is obviously indicative of how he's pitched for his entire career. that being said, hoffman sucked balls tonight.
Yeah, Spilborghs (.850 OPS) starting in CF instead of Taveras. Well done. Speed is a nice component to have, but it's not a necessity and a lot of fans overrate its importance. I'd love a fast leadoff man, but it's not worth dropping a really good bat from the lineup like a Ryan Spilborghs. (or a Luke Scott, for example, had Taveras stayed in Houston)
That's interesting and all, except that they also made this change in the 2nd half of August with no impact on their record (0.500 baseball over 2+ weeks) and after the change again in September, they promptly went 1-5. It actually had to do with the simple fact that Helton, Holliday, and Atkins had absurd OPSes over 1.200, 1.100, and 1.000 in September. Nice try, though. This bizarre attempt to validate a terrible trade is a little silly.
So we can attribute the wins to the OPS upgrades by those three players, but we can't attribute them in the least to replacing a .711 post-ASB OPS in center with a .850 player? That's pretty significant. I also think it's cute that you're essentially calling my argument "bizarre" based on the small sample size reasoning, yet you had little problem throwing out two years of poor play from Taveras to focus on 1/2 of one season. I guess you use it only where it suits you, eh? Believe me, I know the data I'm using is from far too small of a sample size to make a definitive judgment. But the principle is no different from the one I listened to for three months, so I'm having a little fun with it now that the shoe is on the other foot.
Sure, it might have had an impact - except that they made the same exact change for 3 weeks in August and early September and had a combined below 0.500 record. That's correct - I have no problem suggesting that a 24-yr old player who skipped AAA will continue to improve in his 3rd year in the majors, as most players historically do. And as it turns out, he did. I would have a problem suggesting that adding 0.100 OPS to one player in the lineup would turn a ~0.500 team into a team that wins 14 out of 15 games and trying to attribute that to that one change. Actually, it's completely different. You're trying to correlate a team's success to a particular change in the lineup, despite the evidence suggesting that making that change previously had either zero or negative impact on the record. You're simultaneously ignoring that 3 of their 4 best offensive players had phenomenal a month in order to try to attribute it to the change you'd like to argue for. You can make the argument that the Rockies are better in the long-run with Spilboroughs than Willy - that's debatable but certainly justifiable. But to suggest it was the reason for the success of a team that had all sorts of other parts come together is just pure nonsense. It certainly was probably a small part of it, though.
That was a fantastic game last night. I would normally pull for the Phillies w/o the Astros in (I was born in Philly and my dad is still a fan), but it's hard to pull against the Rockies. I'll just go for whomever comes out on top in that side of the NLDS. I just can't pull for the Cubs and I have no feelings for or against the D'Backs. Overall, I think I'm pulling for a Rockies or Philles vs. Angels or Indians world series. Anything but the Cubs, Yanks, and Sox.
