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Yeah, I Know It's Hard to Believe, But An Actual Baseball Post at the Juice Blog

2007-10-03 10:45

by Scott Long

I know if's been covered ad nauseum, but I do have a couple points that I haven't heard discussed about the Rockies/Padres play at the plate.

Some has been made of why did Umpire Tim McClelland take so long to make the call. Have you ever seen him call just ball and strikes. Nothing is split-second in Timmy's world. I think when President Dubya waited so long to make a decision after finding about the planes hitting the Twin Towers, he was using the McClelland decision-making model. On the home plate call, McClelland had enough time before signalling that he could have read the participants a few pages of My Pet Goat.

I know Matt Holliday hit the ground hard, but I think the reason he didn't try to go back to home and slap the plate was he feared that Michael Barrett would slug him in the the mouth for doing a Pierzynski.

I'm an American League guy, who lives in the Eastern Time Zone, so I rarely get a chance to see NL West games. My experience watching Trevor Hoffman has been mainly in all-star and playoff games. From these experiences, I have never understood how he has achieved his hall of fame level of success. Maybe Keith Foulke should make a comeback to the National League.

Just when I didn't think the National League could drop any lower, we get the 2007 Playoff class. Sure the Cardinals won the Series last year, but can anyone make an argument that the Top 4 teams in baseball aren't the 4 battling it out in the American League? Usually I make my predictions here, but I'm going to pass on 2007, as I have no idea who will win any of the playoff series. At the start of the season, I thought the 2 best teams in baseball were the Red Sox and the Angels. I still believe the champion will come out of this series. I suspect they will play the Yankees, as the Borowski bullpen of Cleveland is no way to close games. I guess I would lean towards the Phillies winning the NL, but it has more to do with me being big fans of guys like Utley, Rowand, and Rollins. I also like their bullpen better than their NL competition. I lean towards them beating the Cubs, as the North Siders falling just short of another World Series is a adolescent pleasure that I can't rid myself of.

Ok, I guess I do have a pick. Angels over Phillies in 6.

Comments

2007-10-04 09:56:10

1. chris in illinois

RE: Hoffman

As an NL guy, I can offer this up: He used to throw pretty hard (94-95 mph) combined with a 78 mph change he was pretty devastating. That he can rack up saves with his much diminished arsenal just proves closing isn't some mystical occupation---I mean, I'd be a lousy closer, but haven't we seen enough Borowskis and Shaws by now to get us past the Myth of the Magic Closer??

As far as the AL teams all being better....hmmm....well, the Angels line-up isn't particularly scary (Vlad and the eight dwarves?). I don't think any of these teams in either league are as good as some of the Braves teams of the late nineties early 2000's or any number of Yankees or A's teams of the last decade. The 07 Sawks are probably the closest to being a great team.

We'll see.

2007-10-04 18:22:57

2. jeffpico

Your pics are off to a tough start with the Phillies already down 2-0 and the Angels getting blanked by the Red Sox.

Its not over yet!

The Rockies just have a 'pick of destiny' feel to them to me now.

2007-10-04 20:35:06

3. Scott Long

I'm really whiffing on the baseball picks. I should have stuck to my original concept of skipping making picks this year.

2007-10-08 13:12:22

4. George Y

Scott, please tell me you're picking the Yankees to come back against Cleveland.

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