OT: MLB Wildcard

[storrsroars]

It's still weird watching a team celebrate like little kids after winning one game.

It gets silly. If a team goes through the WC to win a WS, you get that 5x (clinching postseason berth, WC, LDS, LCS, WS).

 

[Travelman6]

Kind of sucks for the Indians to get 93 wins and still miss the playoffs. Feel a little bad for them. They had more wins than 2 NL playoff teams and as may wins as a 3rd. Probably one of the better teams to miss the playoffs in some time, no? Wsox in 2006 (90 wins), Rsox 2011 (90 wins), TBay in 2016 (89 wins) and 2012 (90 wins), 2004 As (91 wins), 2004 Rangers (89 wins), 2004 Cubs (89 wins), 2004 Giants (91 wins, 2004 was stacked), 2002 Dodgers (92 wins), 2001 Giants (91 wins), 2000 Indians (90 wins) might challenge as best team not to make the playoffs. At least since 2000.

Seattle has been a little snake bit too in recent years, missing out after seasons of 89, 86 and 87 since 2014.

edit: 2005 Indians, 2002 Redsox and 2002/2003 Mariners are the only other teams to finish with 93 wins as well and not make the playoffs. In fact you could take those 4 teams + one from above and you would have very good playoffs.

 

[Chuck]

Kind of sucks for the Indians to get 93 wins and still miss the playoffs, btw. Feel a little bad for them. They had more wins than 2 NL playoff teams and as may wins as a 3rd. Probably one of the better teams to miss the playoffs in some time, no?

I believe that some of that was padded by how horrible some of the American League was this year. It wasn't like the difference between the NBA Eastern and Western divisions, but it probably accounted for a handful of wins for the AL.

 

[the Q]

I'm with you. Gotta go with Chuck. Wish he was still a Pirate, always loved his stuff if not the actual results when he was here - he still hadn't figured out how to get LH hitters out.

Anyone actually ever see the guy pitch back when he was at Joel Barlow?

I was one game from facing him in the state tournament one year.

I was obviously taking him yard...

 

[superjohn]

I believe that some of that was padded by how horrible some of the American League was this year. It wasn't like the difference between the NBA Eastern and Western divisions, but it probably accounted for a handful of wins for the AL.

If you're going to talk about the bottom of the American League you also have to talk about the top of the American League which is way better than the National League.

 

[the Q]

Charlie Morton is that dude. I had the Rays winning tonight because of him, he didn't have his command and just grinded to shut the A's down. One of the best CT. has ever produced.

Might be a bit of a stretch considering this was his second 30 start season.

 

[the Q]

Kind of sucks for the Indians to get 93 wins and still miss the playoffs. Feel a little bad for them. They had more wins than 2 NL playoff teams and as may wins as a 3rd. Probably one of the better teams to miss the playoffs in some time, no? Wsox in 2006 (90 wins), Rsox 2011 (90 wins), TBay in 2016 (89 wins) and 2012 (90 wins), 2004 As (91 wins), 2004 Rangers (89 wins), 2004 Cubs (89 wins) (2004 was stacked), 2004 Giants (91 wins), 2003 Mariners (93 wins) 2001 Giants (91 wins), 2000 Indians (90 wins) might challenge as best team not to make the playoffs. At least since 2000

Seattle has been a little snake bit too in recent years, missing out after seasons of 89, 86 and 87 since 2014.

edit: 2005 Indians, 2002 Redsox and 2002/2003 Mariners, 2002 Dodgers (92 wins) are the only other teams to finish with 92 or more wins since 2000 (all 93 wins as well unless noted) and not make the playoffs. In fact you could take those 5 teams and you would have a very good playoff between them.

The Indians did this to themselves by investing in nothing in the offseason.

They didn’t need big ticket dollars, they needed to find a few cheap guys who add those additional win or two, rather than throwing trash out there.

 

[Travelman6]

The Indians did this to themselves by investing in nothing in the offseason.

They didn’t need big ticket dollars, they needed to find a few cheap guys who add those additional win or two, rather than throwing trash out there.

Ya, I would just be pissed if I were the players to put it all out on the field, reach 93 and miss it because ownership did not want to invest enough to get a few extra players to try and get those few extra wins. If the Rays would have missed it would have really sucked for them too because that is a legit very good team in what is generally the best division (tough competition). Hard to find 93+ wins and be out of the playoffs but I see your point.

6 Best MLB Teams That Didn't Make the Playoffs

The second wild card makes the postseason interesting. However, prior to this situation many of the best MLB teams missed the playoffs.

www.sportscasting.com

2019 Indians in this one:

Best MLB teams to miss the postseason

Sometimes, being a powerhouse isn't enough. Over the century-plus since Major League Baseball's inaugural World Series in 1903, many a strong team has found itself on the outside looking in when the postseason begins, thanks to the even better performance of another club. Below, MLB.com looks...

www.mlb.com

 

[storrsroars]

If you're going to talk about the bottom of the American League you also have to talk about the top of the American League which is way better than the National League.

Here's what I know about the AL this year: The Pirates were 12-8 (.600) in interleague play. That was the same winning % the Yankees had.

Only five AL teams had winning interleague records. Four are in the postseason. Only the Angels didn't make it. Rays were best at 14-6.

The NL was 166-134 (.545) in interleague play.

 

[the Q]

Ya, I would just be pissed if I were the players to put it all out on the field, reach 93 and miss it because ownership did not want to invest enough to get a few extra wins. If the Rays would have missed it would have really sucked for them too because that is a legit good team. Hard to find 93+ wins and out of the playoffs but I see your point.

To be fair they win 93 without Kluber for a huge part of the year and their all Star 3b for a decent chunk too.

But they also traded away Yandy for Jake Bauers and didn’t resign Brantley for a reasonable price.

Small improvements on the margins (or the corners in this case) would’ve let them sail into the wc game.

 

[superjohn]

Might be a bit of a stretch considering this was his second 30 start season.

He had an unbelievable amount of injuries his whole career and for some reason it took him going to Houston for them to tell him he can always rear back and throw as hard as possible. The guy has filthy stuff, some of thr best in baseball. Only guy to win three in a winner take all postseason contest, first time in MLB history. Won game 7 of both the ALCS and World Series. Two straight all-star appearances.

 

[the Q]

He had an unbelievable amount of injuries his whole career and for some reason it took him going to Houston for them to tell him he can always rear back and throw as hard as possible. The guy has filthy stuff, some of thr best in baseball. Only guy to win three in a winner take all postseason contest, first time in MLB history. Won game 7 of both the ALCS and World Series. Two straight all-star appearances.

He’s 27th in WAR from guys from CT.

Full disclosure he was born in NJ so I can to just compare his war to the ct guys.

He’s between Matt Harvey and Johnny Moore (rob dibble is right behind Moore).

 

[storrsroars]

Might be a bit of a stretch considering this was his second 30 start season.

Depends on how you want to qualify/quantify this. Since the MLB draft started in 1971, only five CT players drafted out of a Connecticut HS have had careers of 8 bWAR or better:
Morton 8.0 (fWAR 19.9)
Dibble 9.3 (12.9)
Harvey 10.3 (14.4)
Pavano 16.4 (24.2)
Ausmus 16.5 (17.1)

So if using bWAR, Morton is top 5 in past 48 years. If using fWAR, he's 2nd best. And could be best by end of his career.

 

[BlueMAB]

The wild card is a "3" game series but the 1st place wild card team starts the series with a 1-0 lead. So if they win the first game, they move on. If they lose it, they get a second chance. Both games played at home on back-to-back nights.

This is the way it should be. It should never come down to 1 game.

 

[superjohn]

He’s 27th in WAR from guys from CT.

Full disclosure he was born in NJ so I can to just compare his war to the ct guys.

He’s between Matt Harvey and Johnny Moore (rob dibble is right behind Moore).

As we all know and I pointed out his career was a nightmare of injuries until Houston. He always had stuff, now his stuff is filthy and he's one of the best pitchers in baseball in his later years and he's accomplished what few athletes from CT. ever have in those years. Not sure why you're being pedantic on this.

 

[storrsroars]

As we all know and I pointed out his career was a nightmare of injuries until Houston. He always had stuff, now his stuff is filthy and he's one of the best pitchers in baseball in his later years and he's accomplished what few athletes from CT. ever have in those years. Not sure why you're being pedantic on this.

I could go on and on about Chuck and how the Pirates failed him. I distinctly recall Russell Martin saying he'd never caught anyone with the kind of stuff Chuck had. And this was a guy who caught Kershaw. But the Pirates had him consistently throwing 2 seamers low in the zone. Once he got out of Pittsburgh his K rate shot up from 17% to 26% with Phils/Houston and is still rising.

Chuck's biggest bugaboo with the Pirates was not having an out pitch to LH batters. One reason he was consistently among leaders in HBP was a breaking ball that regularly hit LH batters in the back foot, but they hardly ever swung. So he'd have to resort to his 2-seamers, which too often were right in LH batter's power zones.

A simple illustration on pitch mixes provided by Statcast pretty much illustrates the above. The talent was always there, he just needed a different pitching coach than Ray Searage.

 

[superjohn]

I could go on and on about Chuck and how the Pirates failed him. I distinctly recall Russell Martin saying he'd never caught anyone with the kind of stuff Chuck had. And this was a guy who caught Kershaw. But the Pirates had him consistently throwing 2 seamers low in the zone. Once he got out of Pittsburgh his K rate shot up from 17% to 26% with Phils/Houston and is still rising.

Chuck's biggest bugaboo with the Pirates was not having an out pitch to LH batters. One reason he was consistently among leaders in HBP was a breaking ball that regularly hit LH batters in the back foot, but they hardly ever swung. So he'd have to resort to his 2-seamers, which too often were right in LH batter's power zones.

A simple illustration on pitch mixes provided by Statcast pretty much illustrates the above. The talent was always there, he just needed a different pitching coach than Ray Searage.

He'll always be that guy you wonder how good his career would have been had he been in the right place from the start. So glad he found this kind of success later in his career, he deserves it.