MLB (Baseball)

[Remi Moses]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Make that another loss to the Yankees. You little beauty the tigers lead the series 2-1 with a Rick Porcello and AJ Burnett match up to come tomorrow. What a game that went right down to the wire with Valverde again leaving 2 runners on. JV was jumped on early but after that he was exceptional, he did lose it for 3 batters there that got them back in it. CC battled all night and would have walked 6 or so i think.
Anyway hopefully Rick can come through with the goods tomorrow so we don't have to go back New York and face Nova again.

Verlander must be frightening! He is unhittable, was it Valverde who said the series won't go back to New York? Not looking good

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Verlander must be frightening! He is unhittable, was it Valverde who said the series won't go back to New York? Not looking good

The series is going back to New York barring a miracle. My money's on Valverde to blow the save in game 5
D'back's look like forcing Game 4. Hopefully the Cards lose their series at home tomorrow.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Verlander must be frightening! He is unhittable, was it Valverde who said the series won't go back to New York? Not looking good

Verlander is great to watch when he's firing an all cylinders. There was batch of about 4 innings where he was unhittable and getting strike out after strike out. He threw plenty of triple digit fastballs but its the 3rd strike curveball that i love.
It was Valverde who said that but it was all tongue in cheek though.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

The series is going back to New York barring a miracle. My money's on Valverde to blow the save in game 5
D'back's look like forcing Game 4. Hopefully the Cards lose their series at home tomorrow.

Tigers couldn't come through today, no thanks to former tiger Granderson who made 2 great plays. Back to NY and another date with Nova.
Valverde will not blow a save, he is 50 from 50 so far this season. He might load the bases though but he'll come through in the end and give us that famous dance of his.

[Jasper]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Tigers couldn't come through today, no thanks to former tiger Granderson who made 2 great plays. Back to NY and another date with Nova.
Valverde will not blow a save, he is 50 from 50 so far this season. He might load the bases though but he'll come through in the end and give us that famous dance of his.

Worth noting Papelbon was something like 84 from 84 this season before Game #162.
You never know.
As Boomer says That's why they play the game..........

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Worth noting Papelbon was something like 84 from 84 this season before Game #162.
You never know.
As Boomer says That's why they play the game..........

Thats not right at all. Valverde is the only closer who hasn't blown a save this year and he leads all of baseball with saves this year. 84 from 84 would be close to the all time record if not more so I'm not sure where you have got your stats from Captain.

Not blowing a save in the regular season means nothing in the post season, the pressure just doesn't even come close.

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Thats not right at all. Valverde is the only closer who hasn't blown a save this year and he leads all of baseball with saves this year. 84 from 84 would be close to the all time record if not more so I'm not sure where you have got your stats from Captain.

Not blowing a save in the regular season means nothing in the post season, the pressure just doesn't even come close.

Just how Valverde didn't blow a save this year is a miracle. The guys stats are middling. He's way overdue. Papelbon is toast though. Guarantee he gets traded to a team with grand designs in the off season and is awful next year.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Just how Valverde didn't blow a save this year is a miracle. The guys stats are middling. He's way overdue. Papelbon is toast though. Guarantee he gets traded to a team with grand designs in the off season and is awful next year.

His stats when its not a save situation is not good at all so thats elevated his ERA a bit but during a save situation he has been outstanding. The closest he has come to blowing a save was getting the 3rd out on the throw at home plate from centre field.
What do you think about his dance after the final out?

[Remi Moses]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Verlander is great to watch when he's firing an all cylinders. There was batch of about 4 innings where he was unhittable and getting strike out after strike out. He threw plenty of triple digit fastballs but its the 3rd strike curveball that i love.
It was Valverde who said that but it was all tongue in cheek though.

The Young closer at the Braves was also(pimble?) untouchable until September.
Notice one of the Geelong Boys had the Beard ( Brian Jones, not Huddo) as his fancy dress.
Impressive

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

The Young closer at the Braves was also(pimble?) untouchable until September.
Notice one of the Geelong Boys had the Beard ( Brian Jones, not Huddo) as his fancy dress.
Impressive

Close, his name is Kimbrel. He had an outstanding year and broke the rookie record for most saves but unfortunately he was the one with the blown save against the Phillies in the last game of the year to hand the play off spot to St. Louis.
He gets a lot of attention now Brian Wilson because of that beard but i have to say i think he is a little over rated.

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

His stats when its not a save situation is not good at all so thats elevated his ERA a bit but during a save situation he has been outstanding. The closest he has come to blowing a save was getting the 3rd out on the throw at home plate from centre field.
What do you think about his dance after the final out?

For what it's worth I don't place much stock in saves anyway. I don't think Valverde is that good. The Jackson throw to save the game is a classic example of being lucky and having good defense to make you look better. If Jackson isn't playing that ball shallow enough to throw the man at home out then the run is in.
As for the dance, I'm pretty ambivalent. Good on him but not really my style.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

For what it's worth I don't place much stock in saves anyway. I don't think Valverde is that good. The Jackson throw to save the game is a classic example of being lucky and having good defense to make you look better. If Jackson isn't playing that ball shallow enough to throw the man at home out then the run is in.
As for the dance, I'm pretty ambivalent. Good on him but not really my style.

Before we had Valverde closing we had Fernando Rodney who was terrible in that role and if he didn't blow the save he did a very good job in trying to blow it. I guess thats why I love Valverde so much. He does have some luck but Detroit is definately not known for their defense.
It seems that the older baseball fan thinks along the same lines as you and don't have much time for closers. I do hear the 'its only 3 outs no big deal' line a bit but I have only been a baseball nut for about 5 years so i don't know the game without the closers.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Great to see Arizona square up the series at 2 and maybe we might see a St. Louis vs Arizona NLCS.

Big game tomorrow with game 5 in the Bronx. Hopefully Fister can outpitch Nova this time and we can advance to ALCS and a date with Texas. Please can we get a damn hit from Jackson and Avila, just one would be nice.
Go Tigers.

[The Underdog]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Before we had Valverde closing we had Fernando Rodney who was terrible in that role and if he didn't blow the save he did a very good job in trying to blow it. I guess thats why I love Valverde so much. He does have some luck but Detroit is definately not known for their defense.
It seems that the older baseball fan thinks along the same lines as you and don't have much time for closers. I do hear the 'its only 3 outs no big deal' line a bit but I have only been a baseball nut for about 5 years so i don't know the game without the closers.

Valverde has had a good season particularly the 2nd half, although his September was his best month and the competition was poor. I think the whole no blown saves thing made his season look better. The closer thing is more about the way manager's use guys only in certain situations and the lack of flexibility this leads to from my perspective, plus the saves stat is a poor and arbitrary one.

Great to see Arizona square up the series at 2 and maybe we might see a St. Louis vs Arizona NLCS.

Big game tomorrow with game 5 in the Bronx. Hopefully Fister can outpitch Nova this time and we can advance to ALCS and a date with Texas. Please can we get a damn hit from Jackson and Avila, just one would be nice.
Go Tigers.

Good start with 2 runs in the first. How about Delmon Young with a 1.020 OPS and 2 HR's in the series so far? Nobody saw that coming. Anyway hope the Tigers win. Same with the
Phils and the Brewers. As a Cubs fan I hope Halladay throws a perfect game against the Cards tomorrow.

[anfo27]

Re: MLB (Baseball)

Valverde has had a good season particularly the 2nd half, although his September was his best month and the competition was poor. I think the whole no blown saves thing made his season look better. The closer thing is more about the way manager's use guys only in certain situations and the lack of flexibility this leads to from my perspective, plus the saves stat is a poor and arbitrary one.


Good start with 2 runs in the first. How about Delmon Young with a 1.020 OPS and 2 HR's in the series so far? Nobody saw that coming. Anyway hope the Tigers win. Same with the
Phils and the Brewers. As a Cubs fan I hope Halladay throws a perfect game against the Cards tomorrow.

Today makes it 3 home runs. WOW Don Kelly hitting a home run is huge surprise, only got the start cause Betemit has been rubbish so far. Keep it going Tigers.