caulfield12

Carlos has a better slider when he's 100% on his game. Equally confident bordering on cocky. In the future, maybe you can say he's cooler under pressure, perhaps...physical build/stamina in his favor as well. Chris' offspeed stuff isn't nearly as hard breaking but it can be equally effective. More like a slurve at times. And Sale is in a different zip code in terms of control of his full repertoire.

On one side, the Royals have homefield. They've got the balanced offense to manufacture runs instead of scoring in bunches. Teams like the Cubs or Blue Jays would be even more susceptible to dominant pitching. The Royals make a lot more contact and they have experience From lasy year as well. Basically, it will come down to the Royals' pen vs. the Mets' starters. Obviously the Royals have to start out 2-0 or 1-1 or they be in danger of getting blown out of the series early. Volquez, in particular, hasn't pitched well against the Mets in his career. Cueto's around a 4 ERA in 65 ip. Volquez is closer to 6.

QUOTE (High Mileage @ Oct 24, 2015 -> 04:41 AM) Eeeewwwwwwwwwwww. Well, at least you have one good team to cheer for... You might have to change to Sporting KC or KU basketball from the doomed Chiefs, though.

Haha. I wonder if the White Sox were playing the Mets whether more Royals or Tigers fans would go against their fellow AL team allegiance. I mean, we do generally cheer for the AL team in the All-Star game even when the Sox suck, right? Can't imagine many preferring the Cubs to the Royals...Harrelson would scold those fans, in particular. http://www.nj.com/mets/index.ssf/2015/10/m...anti-gay_b.html Cheering for the Mets and Murphy is like cheering for the Braves and John Rocker...this is getting into an interesting area of psychology where people have become so sensitive we can now retroactively criticize someone from a political correctness standpoint in their fifteen minutes of fame for something they didn't say recently. So all of a sudden cheering for the Mets means tacit support of anti-gay bigotry when Matt Damon said even more controversial things about gays in Hollywood (Rupert Everett) recently and nobody is boycotting The Martian.

Discuss. I'm going to predict a 50/50 split.

I thought High Mileage was a Twins' fan? Maybe confusing him with someone else.

I know Greg will pick the Mets just to show his anti-anti KC bias, haha. Four or five houses lost and counting. It would have been weird to see everyone cheering for KC against the Cubs. Now we'll have a 50/50 split I'd guess. And 20-25% of the thread post counts. Davis collected the save after sitting out more than an hour because of a rain delay in the eighth inning. He helped camouflage a colossal blunder by Yost before the rain came. The eighth inning was a catastrophe wrought by inclement weather and ill-advised bullpen usage. Holding a two-run lead heading into the eighth, Yost chose Ryan Madson to pitch instead of sending in Davis for a six-out save. Yost did so despite a sizable layoff for Davis, who had pitched only once in this series. Yost did so despite Madson’s pitiable history against the Blue Jays, who hit .600 against him in four regular-season games this year. Yost did so even though Davis already recorded one six-out save this postseason, in Game 4 against Houston, and even though a victory allowed for three days off until the World Series. At this point, the rain intervened. The game entered a delay that lasted 45 minutes. The weather may have played a role in Yost’s thought process, as he did not want to lose Davis for the ninth inning due to the weather. Even so, he still chose to expose Madson to the best hitters on Toronto’s lineup, rather than deploying Davis, an All-Star and perhaps the best reliever in the American League. Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansa...l#storylink=cpy Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansa...l#storylink=cpy Imagine the treatment from local beat writers if they'd lost?

They won because of their offensive balance, ten guys on the roster at 87 or higher ops+, including six at 120-130 in Cain, Moustakas, Hosmer, Gordon, Morales and Zobrist. That leaves Escobar (Mvp for the series), Perez and Rios, all three of them former All-Stars. And Escobar in two seasons in the playoffs already has 36 hits in 26 games...not bad for your seventh or eighth best hitter. The last two ALCS mvps in Greinke and Escobar came for Greinke, by the way, along with Odorizzi. That's good scouting. The Odorizzi was packaged with Myers for Shields and Wade Davis. They had just enough starting pitching in key moments, and then Herrera and Davis covering for Holland's absence. Other than that, it's all about speed, defense, execution and persistence in the face of adversity.

Last year it was luck. This year the umpiring. Next year will be...? Price didn't pitch poorly at all, but he was one fat Madson pitch to Bautista from being 0-8 in all 8 of his post-season starts. He has a tendency to be very streaky within a start...no way I'd give that dude $200 million.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 10:28 PM) What about on Navarro? Whatever I hope the Mets steamroll them. f*** THE ROYALS KC has the advantage in every area but starting pitching. NY maybe more classic home run hitters but KC also has nine guys in a row that are offensive threats if you include Alex Rios.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 10:21 PM) Who? Josh Donaldson. Of course, he figured into last year's wild card game as well with the A's. Pretty sure he made the final out in that game and Perez's huge go ahead hit went past him. Escobar already has 36 post season hits in 26 games. Second all-time for KC to Brett's 56.

Now the Royals can start Cueto at home Tuesday and either Volquez or Ventura Wednesday. Probably Ventura. Don't have to worry about Cueto on the road until Game 4/5. Another approach would be hold Cueto for Game 2 and then potential Game 6. That would mean Volquez, Cueto, Ventura, C. Young, Volquez, Cueto and Ventura. Lots of different permutations. Assuming Chris Young would get a second post-season start. Yost might want to get Cueto back out on the mound as quickly as possible. Coast to coast from Game 1 onwards this year.

Wow. Shades of El Duque against the Red Sox extricating himself from that situation after sitting nearly an hour in the dugout.

Osuna was down 3-0 against Moustakas and recovered to keep from getting blown out of the inning completely. The Royals with the best pen in the game will have to blow two saves in one game in order not to get to the World Series.

Bautista had a brain cramp...threw to second instead of Goins down the line. Jirschele was going to hold up the runner, Cain.

Resilient. They always find a way to fight back, seemingly.

The excuse was that Yost was warned of the impending rain and wanted to get through the 8th and not burn Davis, holding him for the 9th after the anticipated delay. Obviously that didn't work out as planned. 45 min delay.

Yeah, Sanchez is going to be out of there, too. Basically, that only leaves Osuna. Six out versus three, Royals still have the slight advantage. Knowing Davis, he'll try to convince Yost to leave him in, especially if the Royals manage to score in the bottom of the 8th. Cain, Hosmer, Morales....heart of KC order due up.

The Little Prince was also excellent...

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Oct 23, 2015 -> 08:40 PM) Gibbons made a mistake taking out Price too early. He was at 99 pitches and Rios had a good at-bat earlier in the game against Price and two career homers in 33 abs against him.

Would love to see what the Royals could do with a brilliant tactical manager. Moving Davis to closer with the Holland injury opened up this possibility. Of course, an injured Holland wasn't going to be effective, either. 1.01 era for Davis in 27 post season innings. 3 earned runs total. Madson already got rocked once this series, but the Royals rallied to win. Not the time to give Madson his "feel good" comeback from being injured 3-4 years moment. Inexcusable.

Between the Revere play and bring in Madson instead of Davis, that inning just might have decided the series. And it's not like Yost hasn't used Davis a few times in full two-inning saves before. Just knew that Madson wasn't going to make it through the teeth of the line-up. Not to mention Davis hasn't pitched since the first two games in the series. Even Ventura would have gone with his best pitcher there. I'm sure the excuse will be the extra insurance run made him confident to try Madson.

Ventura getting more movement with two seam and cutters and throwing out of the stretch to increase control. Blue Jays not picking up his curve...two Ks on balls way out of the strike zone. Bautista homers on a fb count and it's now 2-1.

Hard to provide clear and convincing evidence it wasn't going out. The railing isn't that close to the wall actually. 24-36 inches behind to prevent that from happening. The glove came down and hit the wall in the follow through. Optical illusion looking straight out.

Impressive for Moustakas to take a lefty of Price's quality deep. Wouldn't have happened last season. Morales almost homered the previous at-bat. Fan interference?