World Series Predictions?
 

Let's see if anyone nails it. Or comes close.

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Dodgers in 6. Ohtani continues to rake at a historic mind-boggling level and their pitching is surprisingly good. Can really see them thriving at home. Judge a so-so series, Soto a very good series, but surprisingly Yankees don't hit enough. If Cole craps out tonight, they are in deep quickly.

That's how I see it.

Dodgers in six is exactly what I've been telling people. The way I see it, LA has a slight advantage in pitching and a substantial advantage in hitting. The managers are about equal - both are prone to dumb in-game decisions IMO.

I expect Ohtani to shine on the biggest stage.

Who Cares.

And to think, some people in the country think Philly sports fans are just obnoxious nasty cranks.

Yankees in 6.

The first team to score 50 runs.

The Yankees had a 3.74 ERA in the regular season (110 ERA+); the Dodgers, 3.90 and 99 respectively. Additionally, two of the Dodgers' top starters in the regular season, Stone and Glasnow, are injured. The Dodgers do have better batting, but in my opinion their pitching is substantially inferior.

I'm hoping for Yankees in seven. I think the two teams are essentially even - both had Pythagorean win-losses of 96-66 in the regular season - so we'll just see what happens.

Seven games of incredible baseball would be optimal.

That's one.

Judge is in an untimely slump.

Yankees just fumbled a key win away. They are in trouble.

I don't think they had walked a batter until the 10th. Walks are always the undoing of a team, it seems.

Awesome game.

Somehow I don't think we'll get even one.

:(

Ok, I'll take the bait. What didn't you like about tonight's game?

Zombie runners came into play which tarnishes the whole game. In hockey they still play post season games out to the end. Why can't they do so in baseball as well?

Moreover there was no dramatic play at the plate to decide the game. Home run trots are boring.

:(

There were no zombie runners tonight. That's a regular season rule.

An extra inning walk off home run, after some small(ish) ball to get the tying run across in the eighth? Two intentional walks in high leverage situations. One worked well (Soto for Judge), while the other did not (Betts for Freeman).

I dunno, you must have a very high bar if that wasn't good enough for you!

I dunno, first walk off grand slam in World Series history seems pretty historic to me.

Tell me you didn't watch (or listen) to the game without saying you didn't watch (or listen) to the game.

Try watching the game next time eh?

You sound like a moron when you don't watch and then comment.

Go drink another Molson eh?

Okay. I didn't watch the game. I was out buying shoes since a series between the Yankees-Dodgers leaves me underwhelmed.

I was wrong. I do make mistakes on occasion. But using the word "moron" in a reply to me is nonetheless ill advised.

:(

P.S.: Oh, and I don't drink. I never have. That's not among my failings.

And it was Labatt's at which my father worked until he retired and I worked for four summers.

I was surprised they brought Cortes in in that situation. If I'm a Yankee fan, the two pitchers on this roster that make me the most nervous are him and Rodon. If you get the bad version of them you are toast.

Why would you opine at all about a game that you didn't watch, or listen to, or follow online? Do you have a compulsive need to comment on everything maybe? Not that I'm one to talk given how often I post lol, but even so this seems weird and unprecedented.

We can argue on matters of opinion, preferences and priorities, but not often someone says something so authoritatively that is verifiably 100% wrong.

On a related note, isn't it weird how many people live on this board and profess to actively dislike baseball? I've never understood that. I have zero interest in Professional Bull Riding, Cornhole, Pickle Ball, or Professional Lacrosse. The idea that I would collect stuff associated with those sports, but never care if I ever saw them and sort of hated them, seems kind of mind boggling to me.

I'm surprised Aaron Boone didn't let Gerrit Cole try to finish the game. He had the mojo as far as I could tell.

Not the way it's done any more. Call me old school, but yeah, if your starter has command, leave him in and let those journeymen hang in the pen.

I agree, Cole was on and he wasn't close to even 100 pitches IIRC. Even then, you have other lefty relievers you can go to.

I also think Roberts' decision to sac bunt with Kike Hernandez earlier in the game was questionable, given how hot he has been in the playoffs.

All these managers seem to overmanage in the Postseason.

Look at that genius Steven Vogt in Cleveland.

1st game of the Tigers Series they are up 7-0 and he brings in his closer Clase in the 9th. WHY?????
So next game it's 0-0 in the 9th and in comes Clase and proceeds to give up a 3 run HR. Why use him the day b4 in a 7-0 game????

Proceeds to use him in 4 of the 5 games. Luckily advances, but was he overused because the Yankees then lit him up a couple times.

It will be curious to see if Boone uses Holmes, Kahnle, and Weaver each and every game.......it came back to haunt him in extras yesterday. And Roberts was no better...using Kopech in the 9th was a suicide mission and game almost ended had the ball the fan caught gone about a foot further.

And yes there was a period of rest b4 the Series and there will be between games 2 & 3, but it's not just the rest but it's the opponent seeing the same pitcher 4-5-6-7 straight games. Just seems like a bad idea.

Yankees in 6 with the score being 5 to 4 that night. The Yankees are going to be on fire except game 4 when they get blown out and Ohtani shines.

That's two.

Could be a costly second win if Ohtani is seriously hurt.

Why? Ohtani has basically had no impact in the series and precious little in the playoffs. It's his left shoulder and certainly not career threatening or anything crazy

Unless further testing reveals something they haven't seen, he's playing.

Your assumption is he would just continue to have no impact, but players who are cold tend to get hot if they're superstars. You would have to evaluate his loss based on the full season.

Ohtani didn't do much against the Padres but looked pretty good in the Mets series. 1 for 8 so far in the World Series which is a pretty small sample size to just write him off.

"Pretty good in the NLCS" is an understatement, if anything. He got on base 17 times via a .364 average and nine walks, and hit two homers and drove in six runs. Ohtani had a slash-line of .364/.548/.636 for the NLCS and has an overall play-off slash-line of .260/.403/.460. I agree - it's hard to say he's irrelevant.

Unrelated, but it's kind of crazy how Ohtani is 0-2 for stealing this post-season after going 59-63 in the regular season.

He could be oh for the last ten games and it would still be ridiculous IMO to say his loss wouldn't be costly.

You're both missing my point. They apparently don't need him to win.

As long as the injury isn't anything that affects him down the road. Losing him in this series doesn't seem to be that big of a deal.

Would I like him back and healthy this series? Of course, as he may well break out. But even without him, up 2 - 0 the Dodgers would be a prohibitive favorite to close things out. So I don't think it's even remotely a "costly 2nd win" unless it was a career affecting event.

But the same guys who have been hot and carrying the team may well go cold. It's never, IMO, not a big deal to lose your best player.

Maybe you and the Canadian should not watch the games together. Did you miss the bottom of the 8th inning in Game 1 when Ohtani hit that shot over Soto's head, off the top of the wall, for a double, then heads up move makes it to 3rd when the ball gets away on the throw in.

He then scores the tying run on Betts fly out. Freeman makes the 3rd out next AB. He doesn't make it to 3rd, good chance he gets stranded on base. Heads up baseball. I've seen other guys celebrating their double and would have missed the ball getting away.

That ties the game going to the 9th otherwise Yankees probably win.

Not exactly what I'd call "no impact in the WS" as you say.

Obviously the Dodgers are in a great position with a 2-0 lead. But this is BASEBALL. It's a long effing way from over. They're now heading into Yankee Stadium for games on the road against a great team, and by the way with an Aaron Judge who is way overdue. To say that they would be a "prohibitive" favorite without Ohtani, such that if he were lost it would not be "even remotely" costly, IMO does not show a keen understanding of the game. Of course it would be a big deal to lose the best player in baseball for potentially the next five games of a seven game series.

I appreciate that Ohtani is getting better orthopedic care than I did when I dislocated my shoulder back in the day, but I'm surprised that he can play 45 hours after that kind of injury. Even though it is his back shoulder, I'd have to imagine it will impact his timing and his ability to stabilize and control the bat.

1981. Yankees take first two games against Dodgers, then lose four straight. A miserable result but evidence that it happens. Would love to see the Yanks return the favor.

World Series Predictions?
 

I was compelled by my deep rooted need to sneer at both the New York Yankees and a recent rule change that I despise. The annoyance I felt at Rob Manfred getting his wish was also a factor:

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=353949

Everything? No. Only a certain few things. Do the math. It's simple enough.

And on a matter of such earth shaking importance too! Mea culpa.

:rolleyes:

Screw you. All things considered, it'll be a cold day in hell before I get together with either of you two now.

:rolleyes:

Again, I'm responding to the person who posted that the victory may be a costly one. Even if they lost Ohtani, at the level he's been at so far in the entire playoffs, Bad series, good series and bad start to a series, I don't think it would've been a costly loss.

If you could choose to lose game two and have a 100% Ohtani, or Win game two but lose Ohtani for the remainder of the series (but not a career damaging situation) I'm taking the latter in a heartbeat as of the time it happened.

But again, you're assuming with no basis at all that he continues to play badly, or mediocrely. The small sample size of prior games predicts nothing about his next game. The far more accurate predictor is his overall season. By your logic, the Yankees should just bench Judge. He's sucked, so that surely would not be a costly decision, right?

Freddie Freeman has the best lefty swing since David Justice.

Even when Ohtani is not hitting well (and again, 2 games is a small sample size to say that after his series against the Mets), just having him in the lineup changes how pitchers approach facing the Dodgers because there is always the potential for him to have a big game. You're right that it's still better to be up 2-0 and have Ohtani hurt (although he is playing in game 3) than be 1-1 with Ohtani 100%, but I still think if he had to be out of the lineup due to the injury in game 2, it could change the outlook of the series. The Yankees pitchers wouldn't have the stress of pitching to him which can only help their confidence.

I agree. He's clearly off tonight, but he still did his job -- drew a leadoff walk and scored a run. I suppose if the Yankees determine that he's a big bluff, then the Dodgers will have to sit him. I still can't believe someone can even pretend to play after dislocating his shoulder less than 48 hours ago.

They pop it back in, shoot you up, and you're good to go lol. Modern science.

But I'm NOT assuming that. I'm saying they are winning WHILE he's doing that, so whether or not he is playing at all, or playing well or poorly, I don't think the series hinges on him. Therefore in my opinion it would NOT have been a "costly" loss

Let's put it this way. Aren't you assuming he WILL turn it around to say it would be a costly loss?

Nope. I am just calculating, ex ante, his expected value for the rest of the series. And again, ex ante, if other guys have been carrying the team, it's reasonable to expect THEY might cool off. So to me, his value is unchanged. Would you have said before the Series that he wasn't that important to the Dodgers chances? If not, then you can't say it after two games.

PS Judge is COLD.

But I wasn't being asked before the series started. I was being asked after they won two games without much of a contribution from him.

The portion of the sentence starting "without much" is irrelevant. I don't understand how you do not see that.

If you're a struggling Aaron Judge, do you really want to see Derek F**king Jeter throwing out the first pitch? The clutch Captain with 5 rings? Why would the Yankees do that?

Man, since 2020 Judge is hitting about .150 post-season. Career .199 with .740 OPS.

The Yankees had some mojo until Giancarlo got thrown out at home. I had forgotten how slow he can be:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tmGN3oUFsfY?app=desktop

Obviously, he's a monster bat, but man. Talk about having the wrong guy on the basepaths. I mean, he made Teoscar Hernandez look like Ichiro out there in left.

Because you seem to think I'm saying that he wouldn't possibly contribute going forward, which isn't even remotely my argument, and is actually irrelevant to what I'm saying. He could have gone 5 for 5 with three home runs every game after game two and THAT wouldn't have altered my argument unless they needed all of those runs produced to win.

My point is his contribution may well be irrelevant to the outcome, hence it's not a costly injury. You can't ever win more than one game at a time no matter how many runs a dominant Shohei might have added. If he had gone 5 for 5 last night the result would've been the same. Considering they're now 3 - 0 and he's 1 for 11 maybe strengthens my argument, but it was never about how good or bad Ohtani would or would not play. It was about the Dodgers not needing his contribution. I only used his performance to that point to as evidence that the Dodgers don't appear to need him to win this series.

You seem to be revising your argument, which initially was keyed entirely to Ohtani's performance.

"Ohtani has basically had no impact in the series and precious little in the playoffs."

Yes I said that, and yet the Dodgers are where they are, so they are not reliant on a good performance by Ohtani to win. I feel like I keep saying the same thing pretty consistently.

I saw on one of the other sites that Aaron Judge is hitting .140 this postseason. Lou Gehrig hit .143 in 1939 when he had ALS.

I have a feeling that Judge is due. I think he goes 3 for 5 with two home runs tonight.

It's a straw man. No team is THAT dependent on one player, no team at a high level anyway, that they couldn't win without him. So by that definition, there is nobody who would ever be a costly loss. But that's not how most people would define a costly loss.

Aaron Judge is my favorite player and so I'd love to believe that, but I can't see it. He's not just not hitting - he's flailing; missing fastballs and expanding the zone piteously on breaking stuff. His batting average this postseason isn't due to bad batted ball luck or something - it's about his 20K in 43 at-bats.

He might be due. Having a baby later today would explain a few thing.

WS predictions
 

I predict the Dodgers make it a clean sweep.

Aquarian/Scott- I see you've been force fed the PeterSpaeth cocktail:

1) 1 part unwanted advice

2) 3 parts making everything about him AND twisting the topic

3) 1 part false amazement that you could ever doubt his "perfect" logic

Pull the rip cord! Trent King

You're pathetic. Scott and I were just having a friendly discussion about how to assess what the loss of Ohtani would have meant, and he hardly needs your advice. Uh, maybe you can stop trolling and spewing out your hateful ad hominem drivel? I know that would omit most of your posts, but still...

After watching the top of the first I’m predicting nine Yankees pitchers .

Well without Freddie Freeman this series they might have been lost lol. :D

There we can agree lol. So much for whatever injury he had.

ankle sprain

DNP Game 6 vs Mets

The sprain came in the last game of the regular season and the initial prognosis was out several weeks. Either it wasn't as bad as originally diagnosed or Freeman is a BAAAAAD man.

The Dodgers have so many ways to beat you. It's been a different set of guys each series in the playoffs.

Interesting choice for starting pitcher in a WS game for sure.

Yeah that was a pretty weak choice. Dodgers lucky to get out of those 2 innings as they did.

Dodgers acting like they aren't too concerned with winning this game.

The first base umpire sure is trying to extend this series. Two Dodgers out calls in two innings reversed. He would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling video replays.

LOL! Did you guys see what those two Yankees fans did to Mookie in the 1st inning?