Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - October 24, 2012

Something new for Sully Baseball fans.

Every day I am going to talk baseball for 20 minutes and share it with you all.
Today is the very first Sully Baseball Daily podcast.

I discuss the LCS, preview the World Series and figure out why Fox should be excited by the Tigers and Giants match up.

Enjoy the Daily Podcast.



Sully Baseball Daily Podcast - October 24, 2012

I feel a little badly for Javier Lopez

Let me explain.

I have a mild obsession with pitchers getting the last out of a playoff series. It was my great fantasy as a kid to be like Tug McGraw, arms up in the air, celebrating a last out.

And I like it when unlikely people get to have that honor. Usually it is the bullpen closer who does it. Last year Jason Motte was the closer for the Cardinals and threw the clinching pitch of the NLCS and World Series.

The year before Brian Wilson of the Giants was the closer and he did the honors in all three rounds of the post season. Mariano Rivera did so the year before. Brad Lidge the year before that.

If not a closer, then the other most common scenario has a starting pitcher throwing a complete game. We saw that with Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia in this year's Division Series. Jose Contreras closed out the 2005 ALCS for the White Sox. Josh Beckett went all nine to finish the 2003 World Series for the Marlins.

But every once in a while you get an unlikely guy to toss the final pitch. Usually it either happens in an extra inning game where the closer was already used (like Toronto's Mike Timlin clinching the 1992 World Series) or a middle reliever was very effective in a situation (like Ramiro Mendoza in the 1999 ALCS for the Yankees) or the closer is just gassed and they needed someone else (like Alan Embree giving Keith Foulke a break for the 2004 Red Sox in the ALCS.)

They are not common occurrences, but I love it when they happen.

So in the ninth inning during a monsoon, Javier Lopez was on the mound. He is usually a one batter relief specialist. He appeared in 70 games in 2012 and threw 36 innings. He rarely throws an entire inning and finished only 19 games with seven saves.

He usually does not get the glory. He has a thankless job of coming into the game, getting one batter out, and leaving.

So here was his chance to be on the mound when the Giants clinched. It would be an image of Lopez jumping in the air when they clinched. The team would run out and mob Lopez.

Like Timlin, Embree and Mendoza before him, this was going to be the signature moment of his career.

And he got two outs in the ninth inning, but walked Carlos Beltran.

Bochy came out and brought in his closer, Sergio Romo, who clinched the Division Series against the Reds.

I thought "Oh come on Bochy. Let Lopez face Matt Holliday. The worst thing that could happen is he hits a home run to make it 9-3. Give Lopez this moment to shine."

He took him out. Romo got the last out and the cool clip of dancing on the mound.

The Giants mobbed Romo and the celebration was on.

I do not know where Lopez was in that celebration. No doubt he was hugging and high fiving his teammates.

But if he got that last out, I would know exactly where he was, and so would the rest of the baseball world.

I called my dad last night and told him about my sympathy for Mr. Lopez.

"I wouldn't worry about him" my dad said. "If you came up to him, he'd show you his two World Series rings and say it was OK."

Maybe so. But he would have had a cool clip to go along with those rings.

  

I love how Marco Scutaro reenacted Tim Robbins in the rain at the end of The Shawshank Redemption.

Giants have already reached a unique level of come backs

Soon the Giants will be playing Game 7 of the NLCS.
And if you thought that was going to happen a few days ago, you are a liar.

Hell, if you thought that when the Giants and Reds were tied going into extra innings of Game 3 of the Division Series, I would demand evidence.

The Giants have played five games where if they lost, they would be eliminated.

And because they are still playing, they are clearly 5-0 in those games.

They surpassed the 1981 Dodgers, 2003 and 2004 Red Sox and last year's Cardinals who all won four do or die games.

(2003 was not a typo. The 2003 Red Sox won three elimination games against the A's and Game 6 of the ALCS against the Yankees. Had Grady Little managed Game 7 a little differently, they would have had five.)

Only one team ever won six elimination games in the same post season: The 1985 Kansas City Royals wiped out 3-1 leads against the Blue Jays in the ALCS and against the Cardinals in the World Series (with a little help from Don Denkinger.)

A win tonight would have the Giants match the Royals.
If the Giants go on to the World Series and fall behind the Tigers, 3-1, how could any Giants fan be nervous?




 

Nobody expected this game from Barry Zito

 

Show of hands.

Who thought that Barry Zito would throw shutout ball for 7 2/3 innings, look like the ace the Giants signed after the 2006 ALCS and possibly save the season.

Everyone who raised their hand is a damn liar.

I thought five innings and three runs would be a best case scenario.

Instead the man with the most notorious contract on the team was worth every penny, shut down the Cardinals, kept the bullpen fresh for Game 6 and bunted home a run for good measure.

The Giants still have an uphill battle to climb against the defending champs, but beating the Cardinals in San Francisco with Ryan Vogelsong and Matt Cain on the hill suddenly doesn't seem so outlandish.

We are living in a world where Tim Lincecum struggles and Barry Zito dominates.

Well, anyway you can do it, Giants.

Nobody saw this coming.

Maybe it was the yoga.

Tim Lincecum can redeem his season with one start - A Bleacher Report Article

Tim Lincecum had the worst season of his career. And yet he could wipe out all of the bad stats with one good start tonight.

As I wrote in Bleacher Report, Lincecum could join a celebrated list of post season heroes whose October glory erased a subpar regular season.

You can read the whole story HERE.




 

We have ourselves an NLCS

After the Division Series got off to such a rousing start, the prospects of an LCS to match it seemed remote.

Sure the Tigers and Yankees played a thrilling Game 1 extra inning affair, but it has been overshadowed by Jeter's injury and the Yankees inept hitting and the fact that Verlander will probably put the Yankees in an 0-3 hole.

And the Cardinals put the Giants in an 0-1 hole with Chris Carpenter on the mound.

Well the Marco Scutaro show began.

First of all, I do not think Matt Holliday's slide was dirty. I think it may have been overly aggressive but not dirty. And this is the NLCS. Things are going to get rough.

The problem for Holliday was that it came back to bite him when he let Scutaro's hit roll between his legs to let a fifth run score. And when Scutaro had to leave, Ryan Theriot contributed with a two run single of his own.

But the hero was Ryan Vogelsong. If he stubbed his toe on the mound, then this series would be as good as done.

Now the Giants are heading to St. Louis with Matt Cain on the hill and evidently (and brilliantly) Tim Lincecum on the bump for Game 4.

I am clearly rooting for the Giants so I want them to win in five. But if they can make sure they at least come back to San Francisco up 3-2, then they are in great shape.

Either way, the clash of the last two World Series champs should be more interesting than the rise of the Tigers and the collapse of the Yankee dynasty.

On to St. Louis. Let's make this fun.

Fly balls to Matt Holliday in the post season are always interesting

Things get really exciting in a Cardinals post season game when someone hits a fly ball to left field. Matt Holliday has become the most unpredictable trouble magnet in left since Manny Ramirez played with the Red Sox.

In last night's 7-1 blow out by the Giants, the game was blown open when Marco Scutaro hit a two out bases loaded single to left field. (Earlier Holliday slid hard into Scutaro and eventually causing him to leave. Karma would strike Holliday.)

Two runs were going to score to make it 4-1. But the ball rolled through Holliday's legs and another run came in.

And his strange day did not end there. In the 8th, Aubrey Huff hit a fly ball that hung in the air about about a week and a half. The infielder ran all the way out to left field while Holliday stood there. It dropped in.

Now Sam Holbrook would have called that an infield fly, but it was another adventure in left.

In last year's World Series Game 6, he had a "I got it! I got it! YOU got it!" moment that dropped in between Holliday and Rafael Furcal.

Only the great Cardinals comeback put that into the background and made it an obscure footnote.

And of course there was the mother of left field miscues.

Game 2 of the 2009 Division Series. 2 outs and nobody on with St. Louis holding to a one run lead. With 2 strikes on the Dodgers' James Loney, he hit a pop up to left field to end the game.

Except of course it didn't.

Holliday dropped the ball and the Dodgers went on to rally for two runs and win the game.

The way the Cardinals were so invincible in 2006 and 2011 despite not having home field advantage, I can't help but wonder if the 2009 team would have done the same if they went back to St. Louis 1-1 rather than 0-2.

We will never know.

Something else we will never know is what will happen when a fly ball is hit to Matt Holliday.

It makes the post season a little more exciting.

His fielding highlights should be edited to Yackety Sax, the Benny Hill theme

Giants fans... THIS is why I was rooting for the Nationals

Before Game 5 of the Division Series between the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Cardinals, I called up my dad, who is a rabid San Francisco Giants fan.

I told him I was rooting for the Nationals in the game because I thought they were a better match up with the Giants.

My dad wanted the Giants to play the Cardinals. They would have home field advantage and the Giants had a better record against the Cardinals. "We can beat them."

I said "That's what everyone said in 2006 and last year as well."

The Cardinals are an unstoppable force. They are unbeatable. And in the last two seasons, they had every reason to be completely shut out before the World Series was even near.

Last year they were lumbering behind the Braves for the Wild Card and played out the string. That was until the Braves collapsed and the Cardinals backed in.

Then the Phillies were the invincible team getting ready to steamroll through to the World Series. But they lost 1-0 in the deciding game.

Then the Division Champion Brewers sighed a relief that they didn't have to face the mighty Phillies. But the Cardinals outslugged them and as they did in 1982, broke Milwaukee's heart.

Then the Rangers had the Cardinals down to the last strike twice and couldn't close out the World Series.

This year the Dodgers couldn't get their act together even after trading for Hanley Ramirez, Shane Victorino, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett and lost the Wild Card in the last week.

Then the Braves got hosed on an infield fly rule. Then the Nationals had the second biggest meltdown of a game where Davey Johnson was one of the managers in history.

Every one of those teams thought the Cardinals were easy pickings.
Same with the 2006 Padres, Mets and Tigers.

Now look where we are.

Subpar Cardinals teams had World Championship Parades in 2006 and 2011 while the fan bases in San Diego, New York, Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Texas, Los Angeles and Washington spent an off season wondering "How the hell did they beat us?"

And in San Francisco, the Giants fell 6-4 and gave up home field advantage to the defending World Champions.

And they will be facing Chris Carpenter, one of the best big game pitchers of the past decade.

This would NOT have happened with a young Washington team not throwing all of their best pitchers.

The Giants would have picked the Nationals apart for lunch.
Now I am about to lose my lunch at the thought of another OK but not great Cardinals team being crowned champions.

Get your act together, Giants.
My dad is rooting for you.

So is every other team that the Cardinals have clotheslined in the past six seasons.


 

How did the Giants allow Madison Bumgarner to jump from space today?

Seriously. I thought players had clauses in their contracts preventing them from skiing and playing basketball and things that can risk serious injury.

But today, San Francisco Giants starter Madison Bumgarner put all those daredevils to shame with his amazing leap. From a capsule in space, the All Star left hander jumped 128,000 feet, roughly 24 miles from the atmosphere to the ground.

As impressive as the jump was, the fact that he did it on a day where he had a start in the NLCS is mindboggling.

That puts to shame Deion Sanders playing an NFL game and being in uniform for the 1992 NLCS on the same day.

I wonder if Tim McCarver will have harsh words for Bumgarner and his start.

So it was impressive, but a tip from your pal Sully. Next time you jump from space, do it on an off day.

Nationals vs. Giants Could Be an NLCS Preview. That's a Good Thing for TV - A Bleacher Report Article

The Giants and the Nationals are about to start a series in San Francisco tonight. Fox Sports should be watching closely.

As I wrote in Bleacher Report, these two teams are young, exciting and play with both style and substance.

In terms of marketing a new brand of stars, remember Melky Cabrera, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Zimmerman, Ian Desmond, Bryce Harper, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, Tyler Clippard and Stephen Strasburg are all 28 years old or younger.

You can read the entire article HERE.