Stranger Things

This post was originally supposed to be titled "Called It!", but as the World Series played out, it went from a strange series to even stranger by series end.

For all my readers, it may come as no secret that my favorite player in the game of baseball is Houston starting pitcher Justin Verlander. My favorite hitter in the game happens to be Jose Altuve. It was amazing to watch these two get put together in 2017 on their way to a World Series title.

So it should come as no surprise who I am rooting for to win the World Series in 2019.

I have been very vocal in who I want to win the World Series, and why not? Verlander is my favorite player, and I want the very best for him, and I want to see more of his great pitching in 2019 -- So rooting for him is a no-brainer.

I have been confident all year that they would end up representing the American League with a shot at their 2nd World Title in 3 seasons. I was confident that they would beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, I knew they would win, and I knew once again (like 2017) that it would be a dog fight.

So when they went down 2-0, I was hearing it from casual fans and haters, that the Astros were done, toast! I'm not going to lie, I felt a little sick to my stomach looking at the 0-2 deficit. This is a team that had been hitting poorly in the postseason, slumping, especially with runners in scoring position. So there was plenty of reason for most baseball fans to say that it was over....

but not me...

Here is a picture of my Facebook post, in the early morning hours of the Astros facing an 0-2 deficit...

My facebook post in early hours, just after Houston being in the series hole, 0-2.

... and for awhile, especially after the Astros won all three in Washington, outscoring them 19-3, I momentarily looked like a genius. I have made great predictions in the past, and just had so much faith in this Astros team that they would pull it off. 

This series has been strange on so many levels, I knew Houston could answer back, it was a matter of time, they have been overall lousy at the plate, and even worse with runners in scoring position... but they were bound to wake up. 

Now defeating Washington, 19-3 over three games?! I would never have expected that, and to be fair most of those runs probably came off the bullpen as the games slipped out of reach, because all those games were fairly close early on & even later.

So when the Astros knotted it up, I posted this meme I made (It only took 2 seconds to make, nothing special) ...

That was in response to what I was hearing after Game 2, but then they evened the series up. 

After Game 5, I couldn't believe all of the whining over the strike zone. It went both ways, although you would never have guessed that with all the Nats fans and Astros haters in full force. 

Here is the thing, I personally don't care for the square on my TV screen, let the umpires ump, it is never going to go to electronic home plate umpires -- so keep dreaming. I am with Mark DeRosa, a former hitter I might add, mentioned "You want the game to go faster, expand the strike zone." That's a good point, although I say let's also start the postseason games no later than 6-6:30 pm E.T. -- like the Super Bowl...

Just saying, you wonder why football is winning & why an entire generation not growing up with your sport. That would definitely be a start in the right direction...

but back to the strike zone, people were making a big deal that Gerrit Cole was benefiting more than Joe Ross from the strike zone. In a lot of ways, he was, because that's what the great, experienced veterans do, they adjust, they keep making the right pitch later, even if they don't get it earlier. Cole's nasty stuff will be harder to call, while Ross' stuff is plain in comparison. 

Another example, although he pitched it down main street is Mark Langston. The San Diego Padres' Langston pitched a ball down the middle to Tino Martinez in the 1998 World Series, and it wasn't called a strike (it definitely should have, but it wasn't), Langston still has a chance to make the adjustment, has a chance to make the right pitch, but then Tino clobbered it to right, and the rest is history.

There is winners such as Gerrit Cole, and then there are losers like Mark Langston. The difference between a winner & loser, is making the right pitch, and the timely pitch. Joe Ross put on a good face, knew he wasn't the first choice going out to the mound that day (due to Max Scherzer being scratched from the start), his fans gave him the support he needed....

but he was at a huge mismatch from the start, he was up against Cole. The sad truth is that you could add Joe's brother Tyson to the equation, and you might, might have a decent starting pitcher... I know that's harsh, but just trying to make people understand how much Ross was in over his head, and to be honest I thought he did as great as job as he possibly could.

Cole put Houston up 3-2, but his number would not be called again.

I also want to be on record that balls and strikes have never decided a series. Miscalls at first base (Jorge Orta safe at first, 1985)? Definitely. First basemen physically pulling off baserunners (Kent Hrbek & Ron Gant)? Sure... and managers pulling pitchers (Matt Williams pulling Jordan Zimmermann) too early? Well, of course! Back in the day, I blamed an expanded strike zone for Livan Hernandez as the sole reason for the Braves' demise in 1997... but truth be told, the Braves had other opportunities to finish the Marlins.

Like Ryan Zimmerman mentioned after the game, "Lance (Barksdale) didn't cost us the game", mentioning that Cole defeated them. 

Luckily, for the Nationals & their fans, they didn't dwell on Game 5 and powered forward.

When they won Game 6, I will admit my confidence in the Astros winning it, actually was at a postseason low. I had a feeling that they missed their chance, and Game 7 would play out the same way....

Early runs, then nothing, and late-game heroics. 

It was the same broken record the Astros have been playing all postseason long. It was odd, if Houston was able to play their game, they would be the World Champs today, but many of their hitters were cold. Jose Altuve completely disappeared, Alex Bregman was taking way too many pitches, being too selective & Carlos Correa was feast or famine.

When the Nationals won Game 6, it was the 6th time that the road team won during the series, before that, it never happened before in the major sports leagues. So for me, who was rooting for Houston, thought that the laws of averages certainly had to balance out...

In this series? Nothing has been normal about it.

Game 7 was bizarre in its own right. I think heading into the game, people believed that Max Scherzer will certainly out-pitch Zack Greinke... but Greinke came in dealing, which to be honest, I sensed he was starting to do better as the postseason moved on, he did have a good outing in New York against the Yankees and that Yankees' aura.

But the shocker came when A.J. Hinch took Zack out for Will Harris, who Hinch said prior to the game that Harris was probably looking at a night off, that Harris was beyond tired. Plus not to mention, Cole was available in the pen. Now I hope in the long run, that Houston fans don't blame Harris, he was having an excellent postseason prior to Game 6, and the Astros may not have got past the Yankees if it were not for some solid timely outs by Harris himself. But a long delay in Game 6 over the controversial Trea Turner interference play and over-usage would be his downfall.

Some people might say, well Greinke did give up a home run, to cut the game down from 2-0 to 2-1, but the overall reaction and the gut feeling I had was Greinke made a simple mistake and was very likely going to get out of it. He had 68 pitches or something like that? Had a couple single digit innings in pitch counts?! Who does that? I don't think Cole or Verlander recorded an inning that series with less than 10 pitches (maybe I'm wrong).

Anthony Rendon, a Houston native, who grew up loving the Astros -- not to mention local college hero, leading Rice to a College World Series championship, would be one of the daggers to Houston's chance at declaring themselves a dynasty. The other was Howie Kendrick, when that ball hit the right field pole, I knew at that moment the whole entire game was over... it mind as well have been a walk-off, you could literally hear the heartbreaks of millions of Houston fans. 

Strasburg was solid in Game 6 & series, earning MVP honors.

Stephen Strasburg becomes the 3rd pitcher to win 5 games in a single postseason, while the city of Washington got to celebrate their first world title in 95 years. Montreal Expos' faithful fans get to finally celebrate in their own strange way, but with this series, strange is the new norm, and now for the first time and possibly the only time (or at least in our foreseeable future, because we'll all be dead), a road team has now won all 7 road games.

After this series, I am not sure if stranger things can happen.

Scherzer & Sanchez finally get a ring after falling short in together in Detroit.

Tipping My Cap

Just the beginning: Judge & Sanchez

As you all may know by now, the Houston Astros are now American League Champions, as they got past the relentless Yankees. I'm glad my favorite player, Justin Verlander, will move on to his 3rd World Series (first as an Astro), in which he seeks that World Title that has been eluding him during his amazing career.

I want to also take this moment to tip my cap to the New York Yankees, a team that I was not too thrilled with by eliminating the Cleveland Indians, who I believed was the best team in baseball. As the series went on against the Houston Astros, these Yankees showed plenty of poise beyond their years... Sure Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge showed chinks in the armor, but they (and the team) are only going to get better. The Yankees also proved that they were better than everyone thought, and their amazing bullpen just happened to run out of gas, to be honest. 

I know that the Yankees fan base really don't want to hear it right now, but you have a lot to be proud of from watching these 'Baby Bombers' over-achieve, prematurely... There was many question marks entering the 2017 MLB Season for New York, by season's end, they leaped about two seasons into the future, and should be contenders for years to come.

There are minor question marks now entering next season on three Yankees....

• Masahiro Tanaka - Has the option to opt out for more money, if he does opt out, the Yankees (or any team for that matter) would be smart not to pay a huge, multi-year deal on a very questionable elbow. Tanaka would be smart to sit pretty with what he's got, and see if he can add to great postseason, by having a solid 2018, then the wallets will open up.

• Joe Girardi - All sides would be smart to keep Joe in charge of running the ship for the Yankees, Girardi is still relatively young & with this group of Yankees coming up, he can count on plenty of championship possibilities.

• CC Sabathia - CC will likely sign on for an additional seasonal, he is going to retire as a Yankee, and even though he had his best season in years, he doesn't plan to go elsewhere with his family planted in New York.

The Yankees will only improve with players like Gleyber Torres on the horizon, a new era of Yankee dominance will come to haunt us in the future, for now we'll enjoy the downtime. 

Bad for Baseball

The game ended the way that it was called all night... inside pitches.

Never have I ever witnessed a team get rewarded with inside pitches for strikes like the New York Yankees' pitchers were rewarded with. The last pitch was just icing on this dookie of a cake, not only was it inside, it was up-and-inside, give the guy (Austin Jackson) a chance to battle out the last at-bat... Yes, their backs were up against this wall at this point with little hope, but damn it, let the guy battle it out at least.

A few moments after the game ended, there was plenty of things that I came to realize... I realized we may all have been had. Take in last night's game, add that to the obvious-juiced ball that was present all season long, add that all to the wow factor (all rise) that Aaron Judge does for the sport. It all equals out to a pathway that MLB may have been wanting all along, the New York Yankees with the sports' most marketable player leading the way to ratings, ratings, ratings.

Think about it, it all makes sense.

I fear that Baseball may have surrendered to the same means that the NBA & NFL go about their business, some may argue that this is a good thing. Yes, the MLB needs to get creative in their marketing, which I believe they have done much better since MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has come on board. I fear that they may have sold their souls, to get their biggest market (New York) into the championship picture, sooner than later.

MLB's most marketable superstar - Aaron Judge.

Are we going to witness more bad strike-calling like last night, a game that by the way, which resulted in MLB record of a combined 31 strikeouts, in the same exact way that the NBA refs go about molding the script?

Yes, the Yankees struck out 16 of those 31 times, but they have a few guys who strike themselves out... while the Cleveland Indians are not known to strike out as much, nearly matched them, and there was plenty of low & insides that were down by the shoelaces that CC Sabathia was getting over & over! I'm sorry, I know he bounced back with his best season since 2012, but Sabathia recording 9 K's in only 4.1 innings?

Yeah.... I call horseshit

A true baseball fan is upset (like myself) that the best team in all of baseball, the Cleveland Indians got knocked out of the playoffs. The Indians were stacked from top to bottom, had one of the most beautiful endings to a regular season, witnessing their amazing 22-game winning streak along the way. A team that would do this, without some of their star players, while the world is finally getting to know some of their younger studs in Jose Ramirez & Francisco Lindor even more, although they both had horrible series.

Jose Ramirez & Francisco Lindor were quiet in their ALDS.

Overall, I am not trying to take anything away from the Yankees battling back from a 2-0 series deficit, or Brett Gardner's magnificent at-bat that led to the two insurance runs in the top of the ninth. I think Joe Girardi has done an excellent job managing this ball club, and that it's Girardi who is the number one reason that they got this far.

John Smoltz and many baseball analysts echoed the same thoughts last night, at the beginning of the season (or even beginning of series) did we even think that we would be witnessing the New York Yankees even being in this position, that they are now?

The answer was an overwhelming NO.

Entering 2017, I felt it was possible that they could be a wild card team, which they would end up accomplishing that. They had a rough stretch from June 13th - July 14th, going 7-19 in the process, where they did not look like a contending team whatsoever... and have come so far since then. They are definitely better than we thought back in April, and although they matched well in bullpens to Cleveland, they live-and-die with the long ball, they are very one-dimensional with a rag-tag rotation that makes you question... how did they get this far?

Their rotation is CC Sabathia (overweight vet), Masahiro Tanaka (hurt elbow), Luis Severino (overall best Yankee pitcher, who has not been consistent in playoffs) & Sonny Gray, who sported a 3.72 ERA since becoming a Yankee, a guy who usually pitches better than that. Then there is Jordan Montgomery who is inconsistent, but has shown promise... and then there is the joke that Michael Pineda is, who seemed to have his best days when there is mysterious substances on his neck and hands. The staff did have one thing going for it, they overall had pretty solid WHIP (Walks+Hits allowed per Innings pitched), this of course helps with having Joe Girardi at the helm with one of the best bullpens in all of baseball.

I can only imagine the horror that is taking place on the message boards right now, with over-obnoxious Yankees fans running their mouths as if they already won the title. Yes, they have a right to be excited, they knocked out the Cleveland Indians, the rightfully-so favored heavyweight, they were done for 0-2 after the Game 2 meltdown.... but let me tell you this though, they are not great fans though, they'll bury Girardi every chance they get when things go wrong, and they will do the same when they lose their upcoming series against the Houston Astros.

At the same time, I thought the best team would win this series, I am just hoping (and praying) that this is not another 1996 -- which was another Yankee team ahead of schedule, winning a World Series over a better deserved team.

By the way, back to the juiced ball... I fear that it is going to water-down Major League Baseball, much in the same way that the NFL's pass-happy game has done to that sport, or in the same way that the NBA has relied on the three-pointer...Ughhh... boring! I hate it, when a sport loses its strategic edge, I don't want to see pitchers' best ERAs up around 3.75... For crying out loud, quit punishing pitchers already!

I think the obsession over home runs is downright silly, it comes off in the same way as a redneck country bumpkin's love for monster trucks, explosives or a love of shooting things up. I'm fine and dandy, if the player is actually hitting them without help, but the juiced ball has been evident in players such as Logan Morrison (38 HR, previous career high 23 in 2011) who entered the season on the decline arch of his career, along with players Justin Smoak (38 HR, previous career high 20 in 2013) & Mike Moustakas (38 HR, previous career high 22 in 2015). There are cases all around baseball, such as the aging vet Jed Lowrie putting up 14 HR this season, after accumulating only 17 HR in his previous 1,070 at-bats -- to the rookies making quick splashes like the Phillies' Rhys Hoskins (18 HR in 170 at-bats), L.A.'s Cody Bellanger (24 HR in first 232 at-bats/through June) & Oakland's Matt Olson (24 HR in 189 at-bats).

Matt Olson & others are making it look too easy.

It used to be cases, such as the ones above, but they happened once-in-awhile, remember Kevin Maas or Shane Spencer? Once in a huge while.. not all in one year. I think many of my APBA Baseball friends will quickly admit, that they don't recall so many 'monster cards' in one set, and the 2017 APBA Season Card set will have aplenty.

By the way, let it be known that I do think Aaron Judge is a great kid, and if anything good came out of him getting the rookie record (even with the juiced ball) of 52 HR, he took down a record held by a cheater in Mark McGwire... although he was not a cheater yet (for all we know), McGwire set that record in what was also a well-documented juiced ball season.

I don't want to see pitching disappear, it's bad enough starting pitchers don't get to leave their marks in the postseason anymore with such short leashes, but if this juiced ball continues, who's going to watch a game that doesn't have pitching anymore?

There is plenty of things that needs to improve in this game of baseball, so I will stop at this moment, and wrap this post up...

until next time.

Most Wonderful Time of the Year

You know how when Christmas and New Years comes around, there's that one song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year..." and everyone who's in love with that time of year falls into this happy trance of everything Christmas, you know what I'm talking about?

Well, that's how I feel about October...

The reasons why I love October?

1) My wife and I got married October 7th, 2006 -- Best day of my life, and the beginning of many more...

2) I was born in October. I am a Bicentennial baby, born on October 28th, 1976. 

3) The colors of autumn, watching the sun bounce off the changing leaves, the cool breeze -- not too cold, not too hot.... ahhh, perfection! The smell of burning leaves, kids are back to school, the calm after the summer tourist storm, back to normal. That good ol' Country feel.

My wife and I love autumn so much, if we were able to have children, we would have named our second daughter Autumn.

4) John Lennon was born in October, October 9th.

and last but, certainly not least....

5) BASEBALL!!!!!!


Yes... It's that wonderful time of year for us Baseball nuts.

Already, the Chicago Cubs find themselves trailing in a series, 1-0 (they have never came back from a 1-0 deficit in 12 other opportunities).

John Lackey is doing what John Lackey does this time of year, and that's winning post-season games, he has now won a Game 1,2,3,4,5,6 & 7 -- no other pitcher in MLB history has done that.
The Cardinals players are doing what Cardinals players usually do this time of year, every man, even the unusual names jumping to the task -- in which the casual MLB fan would say Tommy who? (Tommy Pham).

The Los Angeles Dodgers are meanwhile doing what the Los Angeles Dodgers like to do, and that's lose when you have your best pitcher in the game on the mound (Clayton Kershaw).

The New York Mets are in the playoffs for the first time since 2006, to put it in perspective that year was the year that my Detroit Tigers returned to the playoffs after a 19-year absence; The Tigers would be in the playoffs from 2011-2014, and there should have been a couple other times as well. Jacob deGrom quickly put himself in Mets' playoff history with a 13-K performance, shutting down the Dodgers.

deGrom posted 13 K's against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

For baseball fans it was nice to see former great franchises like the Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates & Baltimore Orioles return to the post-season in recent years, along with the Mets, Cubs, Houston Astros & Toronto Blue Jays for this season. It's been 22 long seasons until the Blue Jays have finally broke into the post-season, for their fans it may have been more frustrating than that of the Pirates' long drought (which was snapped in 2013), because Pirate fans expected to lose, while the Jays didn't always have terrible teams, just down-right frustrating teams.

I documented in a article once (Over-Under 2007-2012) that documented the Blue Jays from 2007 to 2010, and how their actual record should have been better according to their Pythagorean Records.

The Houston Astros defeat the New York Yankees in the A.L. Wild Card Game.

Also, I'm a believer in uniforms, truly am. The Los Angeles Angels broke into their Cardinal Red uniforms in 2002, went on to win World Series. The Blue Jays a few years ago, finally converted back to the uniform that reflected their winning days. The Houston Astros changed their uniforms recently and their culture changed as well.

I remember in the 1980's when the Atlanta Falcons stunk, they then switched to all black, and suddenly they played well. Uniforms can have a psychological effect on the team itself and its competition -- another example, the Tampa Bay Bucs switched from their pansy Orange Cream-sickle uniforms to the bold red, copper & black (sporting the Jolly Rogers).

It's good to see the Jays back, and I really look forward to the possibility of a great potential ALCS in a Royals-Blue Jays matchup.

Now let's shift the conversation to same-old faces, it's good to not see October being dominated by either Yankees or Boston Red Sox, or both even. In recent years, or at least for the Yankees, October has not been automatic; Although this year's Yankees team was a good story for comeback players such as (hate him or love him) Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira -- most people want to see something fresh like the Astros moving on, especially since the Yankees outperformed their expectations all year... it's a good building block for New York moving forward, I do believe they should take advantage of their youth.

Chirinos and Odor deliver for Texas.

It's also good not to see the San Francisco Giants not in the playoffs (or for this year at least... remember they are the every-other year or even-year champion -- So Giant fans get ready for your championship parade in 2016). The Texas Rangers after a couple years off, have returned to the post-season, but seem to be a familiar face, I don't expect their ride to continue, even though it was impressive to see their smaller names like Robinson Chirinos and Rougned Odor take it to Toronto in Game 1.

I'm still sticking with my mid-season pick of the Kansas City Royals winning the World Series, and would not be surprised to see a all-Missouri World Series like what happened 30 years ago (1985) -- facing the St. Louis Cardinals. Cardinals are probably playing the best baseball of the entire bunch, but sticking with my pick, Royals in 7 (over Cardinals).

Oh, how I love this game!

Time to D-Funk

So... as you may have heard the Detroit Tigers didn't reach the post-season.

Yeah, I know... it sucks. I didn't realize until a couple days after Boston wrapped the series up, that I might be in some sort of funk. The wife and I went shopping at our local Meijer and I got really excited when I found all five of the 1984 World Series on DVD for $19.99! We ate a lot of junk the last week as well, and the temperatures here didn't help as they fell into lows in the 30's & high's in the mid-40's -- producing a wintery-wet mix of rain & snow that wouldn't stick -- So I have been feeling BLAH! (Plus I turn 37 years-old tomorrow & feeling possibly worse than Torii Hunter hitting that wall at Fenway).

Plenty has happened since my post Something Like a Boxing Match (Oct 19th), one thing the Tigers are officially out, Jim Leyland stepped down (which yet it shocked me) while something in the back of my mind told me something was going to happen -- I always felt if we won it this season, he was going to retire on top. Sad to see the skipper go, I enjoyed Leyland very much, he made us a winner from the moment he stepped in the Manager's office, he's old-school & he's a class act. I'm ashamed for the people out there that were asking for his head, no one is ever happy & it's so easy for these "fans" to sit there and blame, or look for excuses.

I felt in my bones & soul that this was going to be the year, the year that the Tigers restored the roar. I believe all of Detroit & the state of Michigan was feeling the exact same thing, I believe there has been a universal state of depression this last week here, you can feel it in the air. This one is going to sting for awhile.
What hurts the most is that the state and the wonderful people of this great state have been through so much with the economic strife that has plagued the state, it's still one of the biggest states hit with the economic crisis that the fans really needed an escape. There is not one fan base, or state that needed a World Championship more than the people of Michigan (maybe Pittsburgh); we are talking about a fan base that came to Comerica Park in droves (over 3 million fans -- packed Comerica once again in 2013). There is not a doubt in my mind, and Leyland also made note at his press conference that we let this one get away from us, we were supposed to be the 2013 World Champions of Major League Baseball, I do not believe that Game 2 of the ALCS ever played a factor in this series -- to say we would have went on to a 3-0 series lead on Boston (because we had Verlander on the mound for Game 3) would have been totally insulting a really good Boston Red Sox team.

My point is this, the Game 2 collapse didn't play a factor, what played a factor and was playing a factor since the beginning of September was Miguel Cabrera's oblique injury. It affected everything, he only had two extra-base hits that entire month, and to say that it didn't affect the lineup is downright ridiculous, and since the lineup slumped, it also mean't that our starting pitchers got worked more, got yanked earlier, and our weak bullpen got exposed. The bullpen worked effective actually for a really good stretch during the season, mid-year, wasn't doing too bad in the midst of Summer, but when everything starting hitting the wall in September -- everything was exposed. Looking at his numbers up to September, it's safe to say that Cabrera would have won back-to-back triple crowns. I'm also going to make an early prediction for the 2014 MLB Season, Justin Verlander will have his best season in 2014 to date -- bigger than 2011 even.

SCHERZER TO ST. LOUIS?!
Tigers fans have heard rumors circulating as early as the late LDS with the chances of Scherzer being a Tiger beyond the 2013 season. Scherzer is due to be a free agent after the 2014 MLB Season, and will be certainly getting a pay-raise. The problem is the Tigers have strapped themselves to the huge Prince Fielder deal, the current Verlander deal & a good amount to Anibal Sanchez. Rumor has it, he will be traded before the 2014 to get the best market value in return as possible -- most likely the deal will be done by December. The only way Scherzer stays a Tiger beyond 2014 is if the Tigers somehow can unload Prince Fielder, who Tiger fans are making out to be the scapegoat for the last two post-seasons; Tigers would have to eat $60-$80 million of Fielder's contract to even unload him, and not too many teams with big market money would be in the hunt, the two other biggest markets (Angels & Yankees) both don't need a 1B, unless they want to make him a DH.

The Cardinals name has popped up for Scherzer recently, because rival scouts of the Cards can see such a deal developing. For one thing, Scherzer is from Missouri, plus the Cards have the prospects to trade for the probable 2013 A.L. Cy Young winner. One thing is for sure, Michael Wacha (unfortunately for Tigers fans) won't be part of that package, most likely Joe Kelly, a reliever (or two) in Carlos Martinez, a up-end prospect or maybe someone like Jaime Garcia. Some Cardinals fans may say "We got plenty of pitching, we don't need to trade & acquire Scherzer" -- but on the other hand, their rotation could look like this...

1. Adam Wainwright
2. Max Scherzer
3. Chris Carpenter
4. Michael Wacha
5. Shelby Miller

That 1-4, would become the best 1-4 since, well... the 2013 Detroit Tigers -- plus not to mention the possibility of the Cards coming off a World Championship, with an addition of a Cy Young Winner. The Pirates & Reds would end up kicking themselves, because if this move goes down, the Cards have a legit shot at being a mega-force for years to come. Personally, I don't want to see Scherzer go, I say see what we can do with Fielder, because having a 1-2 pitching duo in Verlander & Scherzer is much more potent & important than that of Cabrera & Fielder (Tigers have other protection options) -- but if we do trade Scherzer, let it be St. Louis, because I think they have the best potential in trade bait.

Leyland: Cooperstown-bound?
Ummm... yeah, does a Bear sh#@ in the woods? Personally, it's a no-brainer. Let's get the one matter out of the way first, yes.. his career winning percentage is not amazing, but then again... was Connie Mack's winning percentage (.486) anything to marvel at? Here are some numbers to ponder...

• Joined only two other managers (Tony La Russa & Whitey Herzog) in leading two different franchises to three consecutive division titles. Those two managers: Herzog is a current Hall-of-Famer, while La Russa (Leyland's mentor) certainly will be.
• Led his teams to a total of eight League Championship appearances, winning two of them with the 1997 Marlins & 2012 Detroit Tigers (two World Series appearances).
• His 1997 World Championship with the Florida Marlins, was the fastest expansion team to win the World Title in it's fifth year of existence (Arizona would later break that, by doing it within 4 years).
• Three-time Manager of the Year Award winner.
• Became the 7th Manager ever to win pennants in each of the Major Leagues.
• Passed Tommy LaSorda on the all-time wins list with win #1,600 (LaSorda is a HOF'er).
• 3rd all-time among the Detroit Tigers' all-time victories for a manager (behind Sparky Anderson & Hughie Jennings) with 700 wins.
• 1,769-1,728 career record (.506) -- The Pirates were horrible when he took them over, made them into a power by 1990, had the "fire-sale" season of 1998 for the Marlins & a lousy season in Colorado -- take those out of the equation, and you definitely got a winner.
• His 1,769 victories are the second-most in MLB history among managers who had no MLB playing experience. 

Something like a Boxing Match

It's a match-up between the two best teams in the American League, there is no argument there. If you watched baseball all season long, you can see these two teams on their way towards a collision course named the 2013 American League Championship Series. Both teams ranked 1 & 2 in pretty much every offensive category, and pitching categories. In the pitching department, let's don't beat around the bush, the Tigers definitely have the better rotation, but the Red Sox have the toughest bullpen. The Red Sox hitters are probably more consistent 1-9, every player grinds out at-bats -- Shane Victorino's addition to this team was a brilliant move, he's always been a great on-base player dating back to the Phillies' glory years, especially during the 2007-2009 period -- adding him to a team that is well known for stretching at-bats in studs like Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz has paid dividends.

It has been no secret what the Tigers' arms can do, but their lineup has hit some cold spells due primarily to the Miguel Cabrera's oblique injury that dramatically got worse since the very end of August -- It also doesn't help that Austin Jackson has struggled by striking out over a dozen times in the playoffs as well, something you don't want to see out of your table-setter.

In Game 1, Anibal Sanchez pitched excellent and did what was asked of him, he stayed out of trouble & racked up 12 K's in 6 innings -- pitching a no-no through all six innings, but his pitch count would lead to the unpredictable bullpen to keep it going, they stepped up to the task that night, not allowing their first hit until one out in the bottom of the ninth. Sanchez racked up his 12 K's, by confusing the Red Sox hitters, who have not seen Sanchez before -- despite the fan base's cries over umpire Joe West's strike-zone, look at the replays, the check-swings went around, and most of the calls were right on; they were simply over-matched. Jon Lester pitched a great game, trying to give his team an opportunity to win.

Game 2 will go down as a oddity for us Tiger fans, never have I ever seen a team in all of my time loving baseball, a team dominate another team, only to watch the bottom fall out. I unfortunately had to work that night, when I was gathering my last few things before heading off to work. I watched Miguel send one over the Green Monster, and watched my boys put up a 5-0 lead. The Fenway faithful were stunned & quiet, the 5-0 lead, looked more like a 10-0 lead. On my way to work in the car, I listened as Boston finally scored -- but I was not worried; there are many times in baseball where you sense the vibe that this one is in the bag. The game in many ways, was in the bag.

I got to work, place the radio at the backroom break-table, put it on a lower volume than I would for a close game, and went about my business like a normal work night. I was mopping the lobby, thinking of how great it's going to be, to be up 2-0 in the series with the dominating Verlander on the mound in Detroit -- how crazy is that?! Who knew? You see, before the series I felt this series would go the distance, just like I knew Oakland would push it to five games again -- to think otherwise, is to disrespect the Boston Red Sox, who still have a few of those guys from the 2007 World Championship team. They know how to win, and you know it's going to be even tougher than Oakland. So you can understand the sudden excitement of jumping up a possible 3-0, worse comes to worse, we are up 2-0, and they get one back, no big deal, we still have an edge. I go back briefly, and I listen to the radio announcers mention the game is entering the bottom of the eighth and that Boston still trails 5-1 -- so I went back to my business, I can almost taste the victory, I felt like a Tiger literally licking it's chops. At this point, I think I looked at the clock and it was 11:40, maybe 11:45 pm. I go back to work and about 20 minutes later, I ran some garbages out with a coworker, and knowing that it should be near the end of the game, I decide to go check on the game.

While I rounded the corner, I started hearing all this commotion from my radio, and I could hear the Fenway faithful suddenly loud, and then I heard the Tigers' radio announcers Dan Dickerson (play-by-play) and former Tiger catcher Jim Price announce "What a comeback victory for the Boston Red Sox...". At first, I wasn't sure if I was hearing some flashback clip of Red Sox lore in 2004 or 2007, and they continued to say something on the lines of "They even the series up a game apiece with Detroit", and then that's when the shocking revelation hit -- it was strange, I felt like I was literally teleported into some weird alternate reality, but no it really happened. The truck guy showed up with all the food for the store, and he was beaming "So, did we win?!" -- apparently, he wasn't listening to the radio, and I had to catch him up -- "No Way?!? We had that one", my brother called sometime after that.

Through all that, I was still optimistic, and this is the way I was looking at it --as long as our rotation stays dead-on, keeps doing what they have been doing, we can win with some timely & clutch hitting. I was also looking at the fact that our starting pitching held the Red Sox to 2 hits through 16 full innings, and that it took some ridiculous miracle for Boston to just pull-even. We have J.V. on the mound in Game 3 at home, sure this one will sting a bit, we win Game 3 & Game 2 will be just a thought.

The problem is our bats never showed up in Game 3, and Justin Verlander's one mistake, a solo-blast by Mike Napoli proved to be the difference-maker. Our hitters looked lousy, and we lost to John Lackey, who at times threw good pitches, was throwing a lot of junk outside that our hitters couldn't stop swinging at. Ask a Red Sox fan, you would have thought they watched Jack Morris in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series or something. We lost that game, we had our opportunities and once again gave Verlander no run-support, which has become commonplace since the beginning of September.

Entering Game 4, Jim Leyland did something drastic that raised a few eye-brows, switching up the lineup in which Austin Jackson was moved to the bottom of the lineup (understandable), and moving Miguel Cabrera up to the second-slot, with Torii Hunter leading off (Say What?!) -- The end result, a butt-whooping on Jake Peavy, who simply didn't have it. Austin Jackson played well, the Tigers all seemed to be clicking -- the series is tied 2-2, and Leyland looks like a genius.

Throughout the series, I had to listen to Boston fans getting annoyed by Fox announcers Joe Buck & Tim McCarver (Sure, I agree they can be annoying... Joe Buck has gone downhill since people or Budweiser declared him a legend). Apparently, they are sick & tired of hearing about Tigers pitching this, and Tigers pitching that; Well, this is the deal... it's their job to mention the records that are being set at a ridiculous rate, what we are seeing here is something that will be talked about for ages, and it's time to sit back and realize you are watching an historic rotation, the best rotation (without a doubt, in my mind) since the days of the 90's Atlanta Braves. For these Boston fans, maybe they really didn't know much about our rotation, Detroit is not known to be a "media market" in the ways of Boston or New York, but we have been a dominating rotation since acquiring Doug Fister from Seattle in mid-2011, added Sanchez in 2012, Porcello even got better in the fifth spot. I will say this, great pitching is more impressive than showing the world that you can grow facial hair -- even worse, naming the beards.

So maybe it's a surprise to them, I don't know -- I do know this, to keep your viewer glued you got to spill out the incredible stats -- Do you think me or every baseball fan really wants to sit through another David Ortiz time-frame of memories for the 10,000th time? Probably not, but what he has accomplished is impressive, and with that, the stats and timelines are repeated -- Anytime they show the greatest World Series moments ever, you can count on seeing three moments for sure. Those three moments are the Carlton Fisk (1975 WS) home run, Kirk Gibson's 1988 HR off Eckersley & the ball bouncing between poor Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series. The difference in media markets is funny, you would think that most Detroit teams or any teams in general outside of New York & Boston play in a dark cave somewhere, or in Alaska?! LOL! Seriously, the 2004 NBA Finals comes to mind when the world seemed to wake-up and go, "wow this Detroit team has a great defense"; we only set an NBA record of like 6 straight games holding an opponent under 70 points -- YET! It can't be that Detroit is winning the finals, there must be something wrong with the L.A. Lakers; newsflash, those Lakers had problems all year long, and it just happened to be exposed on the national spotlight, if it wasn't for a Derek Fisher miracle shot, we would have been playing San Antonio most likely (which we would in 2005). I have gone on the defense for my Detroit teams, because I feel whenever our teams do accomplish something... it must be a fluke. If Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker & Jack Morris wore pinstripes, they would be in the Hall of Fame or getting in very soon because of that. Another example of the differences in media markets, we still hear about the New York Jets -- last time I checked they have not won anything since the days of Joe Nammath, so why do I have to hear about the stinkin' Jets every single time I turn on ESPN or sports radio! The Lions suck (I'm a Cowboys fan, if anyone was wondering, don't ask) but we don't constantly hear about them, unless they are going 0-16!

Anyways...

The Red Sox would go on an win Game 5. The play of the game in my eyes was when third base coach / former 84' Tiger Tom Brookens (for some odd reason) sent hobbling Miguel Cabrera from second (around third) to score, and he was a dead-out by a good ten feet -- play of the game. It sucked the air & electricity out of Comerica Park, Boston came back up the next half-inning & Mike Napoli (boy, does this guy have power?!) crushes a 445-foot HR to dead-center!

Now you heard me go on a bit about the Red Sox fan base, to show I'm fair my own Tiger fan base on numerous occasions have got be irked. First I'll start with Game 3 of the ALDS at home against Oakland, sure... we lost 1-0 in that instant classic game between Sonny Gray and Verlander. Judging from what I saw on TV, the crowd of Comerica Park appeared to be sitting on their hands, c'mon get off your asses, you're acting as if we are down 3-1! I was pretty disappointed in the fans' efforts that day, maybe even more than our team that day.

During Game 5 of the ALCS, I witnessed some of my facebook Tiger friends, making remarks such as "ANIBAL SANCHEZ SUCKS" in all caps -- I jumped all over him, with a calm head of course, but I remarked sarcastically "Yeah, you're right... he only won the A.L. ERA title, but he must suck", sure Sanchez wasn't sharp, but he was hardly the reason for our problems. This guy also use to make statements looking at the paper in the break-area at my old job, "Oh, Verlander's not pitching tonight? We're screwed" -- Gee, good to have the rest of the team's back there buddy! By the way Verlander pitched the night before in that 2011 ALCS against the Rangers, he can't pitch every night!

The Tigers tried to climb back into Game 5, but failed (like i mentioned above). On my way home, sports radio was taking calls, and a Boston fan called and cried up a storm, in fact he cut off Dana Jacobson, and started losing his cool. He was upset about there was no mention of Lackey's "great" game, and that McCarver & Buck were rooting for the Tigers since they only interviewed the Tiger pitchers between the innings (Dana called him out, and said the teams both get equal shots of the choice to get talked to or not) -- Tierney stepped in and mentioned Yankee fans used to say the same thing about McCarver & Buck, so don't give us that. He finally put the guy in his place, "dude, you are one game away from going to the World Series, and you are complaining buddy, when you should be enjoying this moment." Exactly, listening to that got me fired up, our pitching has been dominate & yet were down 3-2, and this guy is on the radio crying like a 'B'. I guess some people want it all

Now off this fan stuff, let's get down to Game 6 & possible Game 7.

For the Red Sox to advance to the World Series, they will have to get through Max Scherzer, and if they don't succeed there they will have to face Justin Verlander in Game 7. The Tigers have the same thing the 2001 World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks have going for them, their best two pitchers left for the series, and possibly the best 1-2 punch since that of Curt Schilling & Randy Johnson.

Justin Verlander has been on fire during the entire playoffs, in his three starts (his two starts in Oakland, plus one start vs Boston) he has a 1-1 record & 0.39 ERA (his one run, the Napoli HR in Game 3 of the ALCS), with 31 K's & 3 BB's in 23 innings! Max Scherzer is 2-0 in the playoffs with 26 K's.

I still feel we are destined to do the unthinkable, I felt we had to win two of the last three regardless. I felt if we won Game 5, Boston would have got Game 6 back, and then it would come down to Verlander for Game 7. We just did everything out of order, I'm not going to bend now.

Cardinals by the way, wrapped it up against the Dodgers last night, now we need to join them and host Game 1 at Comerica Park. Sure, I could be wrong and we might be going home early tonight -- or we tie it up, and force a Game 7. If I am wrong than hats off to Boston.

I could be wrong, but I've been right all post-season long.

GO TIGERS!

The Path of the Tigers

    For those that know me, I'm a huge Detroit Tigers fan -- and being a huge baseball fan, I'm going to talk about the things that I am passionate about, so I will apologize ahead of time -- but you'll hear a lot about my Detroit Tigers.

    From the beginning of the season, opening day, I said that the Detroit Tigers will win the World Series, for the following reasons, we made it there last year, and we want redemption. We added free agent Torii Hunter, who is not only a great defender & hitter, but he's a wonderful clubhouse presence -- add that to the return of Victor Martinez (who missed all of 2012) & a full season of Anibal Sanchez as part of the rotation, with an contract extension of Justin Verlander... I felt like we were golden. I had the Tigers over the Nationals, but as we know the Nats would under-achieve and not live up to their expectations.

     By mid-season we would no longer have the headache of Jose Valverde, Joaquin Benoit would settle in as the closer, and we also added Jose Iglesias (which made our defense so much-better) and Jose Veras to the bullpen. So despite the fact that our lineup cooling off, basically due to the injury that has been affecting Miguel Cabrera & the fact that we got no-hit by the lowly Marlins on the last game of the season -- I still loved our chances.

     Our first round opponent was once again the Oakland Athletics, I really wanted to pick this team to win the A.L. West, but at the last second I changed my mind (should have kept with my gut instinct). They proved they were no fluke, and proved they can deal with the ups & downs of a baseball season -- to be in the hunt all season, after coming out of nowhere the season before is a tough task, and just shows why Oakland was no joke having to deal with division contender Texas once again. So if last season went all five games, I knew this one would indeed go five (and it did) -- I feel this team is better than last year's edition as well.

     My brother Jared and I walked around Wal-Mart one day while shopping and talked about the up-coming series, he brought up (Oakland Manager) Bob Melvin's decision to pick Sonny Gray to start in Game 2. I told Jared I felt it was actually a good move, here you got a struggling Tigers offense, and you have to face a young pitcher you never have seen before, many cases this actually favors the rookie, and there has been plenty of cases where a rookie was placed in a high-pressure situation -- one that comes to mind is when the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals started rookie Anthony Reyes against my Tigers in the World Series. Speaking of Bob Melvin, the D-Backs & Mariners must be sick to their stomachs to let him go, I personally think he's an excellent manager and if Oakland is smart, they keep him there as long as possible.

     The stinker of the series was the fact that both me and my brother both had to work that night, and it drove us nuts that Major League Baseball won't learn from the NFL and start their baseball games earlier, 9:30 for Game 1 & 9:30 for Game 2 -- the first game I could actually watch in full was Game 3 and that was on Becky & I's seventh wedding anniversary. So I took the radio to work, the first game we won 3-0, got all three runs in the first. The next game was Game 2, or otherwise the game the world or Baseball got to meet Sonny Gray, like I said before I felt it was a good move by Melvin, seeing the numbers in his brief appearances this season, but no one knew he was going to be off-the-charts that night. Justin Verlander also had his A-game on (has been rolling since beginning of September), checking on the game at the break-table (at work) became excruciating with a 0-0 game, and the more it dragged on without us scoring, I knew it favored the home team very much. Eventually Stephen Vogt smacked a single through for the walk-off win in the bottom of the 9th off of Rick Porcello. After I watched the highlights the next morning, I knew and predicted that Justin Verlander will be saved for Game 5.

     Game 3 was a nightmare on the most part, I tried to watch it at home before the wife and I go celebrate our marriage, but the cable service was being a pain in the ass, so we decided to go to a bar downtown where we had drinks for our first date. The Tigers would lose 6-3, Anibal Sanchez allowed three home runs.

    The next day was Game 4, and I happened to have that day off too. It was not looking good through four innings, as we trailed 3-0 entering the bottom of the 5th; the wife started giving me the "Oh.. I'm sorry honey, there's always next year speech". Our team at this point has not scored a run for 21 innings, and then Jhonny Peralta came up, smacking a three-run HR to tie the ballgame. Jim Leyland would later bring Max Scherzer in for relief, in which I felt was a clever move, stupid media was questioning why he did start Scherzer, because we have an excellent pitcher for Game #4 in Doug Fister. This is the thing with the Tiger, you can try to match up with us the best you can, but when you have a pitcher as legit as Fister who can be an ace on the majority of the ballclubs in the MLB, you know you got it made. Once they wrapped Game 4 up, there was plenty of reason for Tigers fan to sigh in relief, because we knew we had the series with Verlander going to the mound in Game 5.

Verlander almost pitched a no-no, having it broke up in the late 7th Inning, he was on like he was in Game 2, and was setting historic marks. He set a major league record of 30 scoreless innings (dating back to last season's playoffs) against a single-opponent, breaking a mark that was held by Christy Mathewson (of 28 innings) against the Philadelphia Athletics. Verlander also became the second pitcher (the first right-hander) in MLB history with 10 or more strikeouts & zero runs allowed in back-to-back starts, joining Sandy Koufax; Koufax accomplished this in his Game 5 & Game 7 starts against the 1965 Minnesota Twins.

Next is Boston, as Boston took care of the Tampa Bay Rays, 3 games-to-1. The final four teams in the MLB playoffs are the Red Sox, Tigers, Cardinals & Dodgers; which is all fitting, because I believe many baseball fans will agree these four teams were mean't to finish as the final four -- since they were the four teams that stood out, especially in the second-half.