For a guy who highly prefers a masterful pitching performance over an inartistic slugfest – and who has a pair of Tim Lincecum jerseys in his closet – the first two days of the baseball playoffs were truly a treat.
Roy Halladay
Sifting through the nonsense: Quick Division Series thoughts
I don’t write about baseball very often here, which I admit is strange, since my day job requires me to watch what I estimate to be about 250-300 games a year. I figure, leave the analysis up to experts like Tom Tango, who have the time and energy to invent new statistics and stuff. Plus, I prefer other sports, such as high school basketball, boxing and Jay-Z.
Besides, I can’t stand the amount of nonsense analysis that goes into something like the baseball playoffs. You get stories that go position-by-position and determine who has an edge, as if it matters somehow that Alex Rodriguez is better than Danny Valencia in particular. You want a page devoted entirely to Ross Gload’s October exploits? Well, here you go.
Baseball, more than other sports, seems to lend itself to throwing loads of information out there indiscriminately. Why take the time to decide what’s actually important when you can lump it in with a bunch of other junk? I have no idea who’s reading all this stuff, but if you checked out the Gload page before I linked it here, you need to get out even more than I do. You’re officially invited to join me at a St. Patrick-St. Benedict’s game at Kean College.
One relevant statistic I saw out there, by the way, came from Tom Verducci, who points out that the winner of Game 1 in the Division Series is 12-0 in the last three postseasons, and 21-3 since 2004. Which, well, does make sense in a five-game series.
Regardless, here are some quick – emphasis on quick – thoughts on the division series:
It’s the pitching, stupid: Nathan’s injury reiterates no hurler is safe
There’s always this stunned feeling when you hear about a solid performer like Joe Nathan going down with a terrible injury, but it’s just one more reminder that there is no pitcher not constantly at risk of injury.
Sealing the deal: Mariners stay winning; Phils score with Roy, lose with Lee
I don’t actually know how to successfully pronounce his name, but Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik is well on his way to cementing himself as one of the best general managers in the game because of his prescience and boldness. The Mariners ended up yesterday with one of the best pitchers in baseball, who’ll make just 9 million dollars this year, and all they gave up were prospects that aren’t among the top players in their system.
But while the Phillies finally landed Roy Halladay, losing Cliff Lee seemingly unnecessarily cast a pallor over their end of the deal.